The vampires were starting to stand now. Whatever effects my magic had, that pinned them to the floor, was wearing off.
I took a second to glance behind me. There was a window, a beautiful window with stained glass.
“Dad, break the window and get them out,” I told him.
He gave me a quick nod, and without even protesting he walked over to the window and kicked it until it shattered. A little girl started to weep, clinging to her mother, and I gripped the stake in my hand, wishing I had another, or Marmal’s shotgun. I vowed in that moment to never leave the house without two stakes on me at all times from now on.
The vampires popped up to their feet one by one and I rushed forward, slamming the stake into the chest of the one nearest me. The network of veins in his face immediately turned black, and I was just about to pull the stake out and kill another one when I felt two hands wrap around my throat from behind, then another set wrapped around my upper arms. Two very strong blood suckers pinned me to the spot as I bucked in their arms and struggled to breathe.
“Demi!” My mom’s bloodcurdling scream ripped through the sounds of fighting.
‘Why is your mom screaming? I can’t see you.’Sawyer’s panicked voice broke through my muddled mind as I thrashed in the vampires’ arms like a fish out of water.
‘Nothing. I’m fine,’I lied. I didn’t want him worrying about me when I knew he had his own issues to focus on.
Okay, being choked out by two vampires. Don’t panic, just think…
Air.
I need fucking air! The only thing I could think of was just to go limp and play dead. I went fully relaxed in their grip, letting go as my legs and everything went weak so that they had to hold me up. It worked. The pressure on my neck eased.
“The queen wants her alive,” one of the vampires hissed.
That’s when I exploded. Whipping my head back, I cracked my skull into the vampire behind me and internally shrieked in joy at the sound of breaking bones. Gulping deep lungfuls of air, I spun out of the other dude’s grip just in time to see Sage holding a manmade torch made from a ripped curtain and a bottle of liquor. My wolf was at her side.
Thank God.
We all burst into action. My wolf leapt to rip out one of the vamp’s throats, while Sage threw the bottle of liquor at the nearest vampire’s chest with a battle cry.
It exploded, sending liquid and bits of glass raining down around him.
“Torch him!” I yelled. This was war, you didn’t stop, you didn’t think, you just reacted.
She tipped the flaming curtain torch forward and he tried to back up, but I was behind him, and lifting my bejeweled sneaker into the middle of his back, I kicked him forward and into the flames.
His body ignited and started smoking a black thick inky plume as he fell to the ground. I pointed to the right side of the room. “Burn that table. The ceiling sprinklers will kick on before the entire building goes up, but we can chuck blood suckers in the flames and even the score.”
Sage grinned. “I like how you think.”
We had no weapons, this was a freaking engagement party, not a war zone; we’d been ill equipped for such an attack. Sage pulled a small bottle of liquor from her belt and grinned at me. “Cheers.”
She chucked the bottle at the most beautiful table décor I’d ever seen and then tossed the torch.
The table burst into flames four feet high, and just in time.
“Demi!” my dad yelled.
I spun to the window to see he was trying to get Mrs. Hudson outside. She looked like she’d fainted and had completely lost consciousness. She was in her human form, naked and limp in my father’s arms. I followed his gaze to see that a vampire had shown up and backed my mom into a corner. She was in wolf form, hunched over the alpha’s dead body, hackles raised.
I’d never seen my mom’s wolf in person. Only in pictures. She was stunning, strong and absolutely feral in this moment. I knew she would protect Curt’s remains so that he could have a proper burial. And she would probably die for it.
My dad looked like he was about to drop Mrs. Hudson halfway out the window and run to my mom.
“Got it!” I yelled to him and burst forward. One second I was standing with Sage near the flaming table and the next I was on the vampire’s back, squeezing the blood sucker around the middle until I heard his ribs snap.
I didn’t know what came over me, but I was strong, really strong. I heaved him up into the air as he kicked and hissed like a toddler having a fit.
“Mom, go!” I growled at her, unsure how long I could hold him.
