The man moved with the grace of a vampire, and Jack would have recognized one of his kind anywhere, but something about his assailant wasn’t quite right. Though little light filtered into the pit, Jack saw his attacker was about four inches shorter than his six-foot height and slender.
The agile man spun the knife so he held it sideways before he swung it at Jack with the speed of lightning. Jack barely had enough time to lean back to avoid having his throat sliced open, but the steel kissed his neck as it whizzed past.
Before he could completely recover, his attacker swung at him again, and he jumped back to avoid evisceration. Jack couldn’t see anything beneath the hood shadowing his attacker’s face as the vampire came at him again.
This time when the knife swung at him, Jack jumped back and brought his hand down to shove the knife away. The force of his countermove twisted the man to the side, and before he could recover, Jack grabbed his shoulders and spun the man around. The vamp grunted when Jack’s arm locked around his throat.
Before Jack could get a firm hold on him, his attacker threw his head back and slammed it off Jack’s chin. At the same time, he threw an elbow into Jack’s broken rib and drove his heel into Jack’s knee. Jack’s breath exploded out of him when his knee bent backward. He almost went down but managed to stay on his feet; if he fell, this asshole would gut him.
Jack seized the wrist of his attacker when he attempted to leap from his arms. The whistle of air parting alerted him to the knife swinging upward. Jack jerked back, but the knife nearly sliced his nose as it went past him. If his attacker had been successful, the blade would have plunged under his chin.
The man didn’t hesitate before coming at him again. This time, he swung the knife so fast it became a blur. Tired of dealing with this guy, Jack didn’t try to dodge the blade again but threw his arm up on the next downward arc.
Their forearms smashed against each other and jarred Jack’s arm as it bruised his bone. His attacker issued a muffled grunt but didn’t release the knife. Jack yanked the man’s arm back, turned it over, and grasped his assailant’s wrist. He jerked it to the side and squeezed until his attacker cried out and finally released the blade.
Something about the cry made Jack’s blood run cold. That cry certainly hadn’t sounded like a man.
He grasped his assailant’s hood and yanked it back to reveal a woman with hair the color of a chestnut. Jack froze as he gazed into her mismatched eyes. She was lovely, but he’d seen far prettier women. However, something about her robbed him of his breath while his heart hammered in his chest. She was unlike anyone he’d ever seen before, and he longed to run his finger across the curve of her delicate cheekbone before tracing his thumb over her plump bottom lip.
What would she taste like?
Charlie gazed at the man who was gawking at her as if she were a walking, talking crocodile, but then, she understood his reaction as she couldn’t deny the shock that went through her when she got her first good look at him. Handsome, and with flecks of green and amber in his warm hazel eyes, he caused her heart to do an odd stuttering beat as, for a second, the pit vanished and all she saw was him.
Then Charlie recalled where she was, and anger filled her as she realized how stupid she’d been to be distracted by him. This was not a game; this was herlife.
Jack’s stomach churned when he realized he’d hit awoman. He only had a second for the horror of this realization to sink in before she pulled her arm back and punched him in the face. His nose broke with a crack and blood spilled free.
“Ugh!” Jack started to grab his battered nose, but he lowered his hand when she tried to knee him in the nuts. He blocked her knee in time to save any future children from certain nonexistence, but she used the opportunity to punch him in the face again.
Jack almost howled before recalling the assholes searching for him above. They could still be close by, and his shout might draw them in. He couldn’t smell the vampires amongst them who killed innocents as a purebred vampire could, but he didn’t think this little hellion was one of those Savage vampires. She wouldn’t be hiding down here if she was involved with whatever was going on above.
Also, she’d made little noise during their fight too, as if she were trying to remain as hidden as he was. He needed to take her down before she gutted him, but now that he knew she was a woman, and most likely not involved with the bastards above, he didn’t know how to do it without hurting her.
She was gearing up to launch another punch at him when Jack tackled her. A muffledumphescaped her when they hit the ground, and her breath rushed out against his ear. He’d knocked the breath from her, but she didn’t hesitate before starting to squirm beneath him.
The woman was as slippery as an eel as she bucked her hips to dislodge him and battered her fists against his chest. He’d battled three-hundred-pound men who put up less of a fight and caused less damage than her.
He grabbed one of her wrists and pinned it over her head, but before he could secure her other hand, she seized his ear and twisted it before yanking it to the side. His ear went from feeling as if it were on fire to numb, and he wondered if she’d torn it from his head. The only thing that made him think it might still be attached was she wasn’t waving it in front of his face. He had a feeling she would proudly display that little trophy.
Grasping her other wrist, he squeezed until she finally released his ear, but not before she caused blood to trickle down the back of it and around to his chin. Her nostrils flared, and red flashed through her eyes when they latched onto his blood.
Unable to stop it, Jack experienced a visceral reaction to her hunger that caused his cock to stir. She was trying to tear away his body parts and kill him, and he wanted to nourish her, make her stronger, and fuck her. He was losing his mind; he had no idea why, but this woman rattled him.
When she went to hit him again, he pinned her hand to the ground near her other wrist. He secured them both in one hand as she hooked her leg around his back and started kicking his spine. He grabbed her leg and, pushing it to the side, held it there.
When he finally succeeded in pinning down three of her limbs, she gasped and fell back against the ground. She still jerked at her wrists, but she didn’t use her free foot to batter his back black and blue.
Between his rib and his swollen nose, every breath he released created a strange whistling sound. “I’m not the enemy,” he hissed. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’m not the one bleeding,” she retorted.
He blinked at her, unsure how to respond as he swung between contemplating choking her and kissing her. “I’m not the one pinned to the ground,” he countered.
Her smile never faltered as she kicked him in the back with her free foot. Jack gritted his teeth against the pain in his bruised spine. “We can’t stay like this forever, and if you release one of my hands, I’ll get free again.”
“And then what?”
“And then I’ll kill you.”
