Jack hesitated. If he let her up and she turned on him, he’d have to fend off herandwhoever was above. And if she were on their side, he’d be in trouble, but he couldn’t remain sitting on her while he fought them.
“What is it?” another voice asked.
“It’s a hole,” the first said, as if the questioner was the dumbest thing on the planet.
“Fuck you,” the second one growled.
“Go down there.”
“Yougo down there.”
“Let me up,” Charlie whispered, drawing Jack’s attention back to her. When she saw the doubt in his eyes, she realized she had to offer him an olive branch or they could end up dead. “I have two stakes inside my sweatshirt. Take one and arm yourself.”
He had no choice; he had to let her go and trust her not to stab him in the back. Reluctantly, he released her leg. She didn’t take the opportunity to start trying to kick his spine to pieces again. Instead, she remained unmoving as he felt over her sweatshirt for the stakes.
“Lower,” she muttered as her gaze remained fixed on the hole. “They’re coming.”
Unable to find the stakes, Jack rolled off her as the first vamp landed inside the hole.
“Well, lookie at what we have here,” the vampire said as its red gaze ran over them. “Did we interrupt the foreplay?”
Charlie rolled to the side and put her hand down as she surveyed the enormous vampire who’d entered the pit. He had to be a Savage as he wore the security coat and looked quite capable of dealing out the death the Savages loved to mete out. He had a good foot on her five-eight height and about two hundred pounds on her one-hundred-thirty-pound frame.
If this thing got a hold of her, he could crush her in one hand. Reaching into her sweatshirt, she pulled out the two stakes. She glanced at Jack as the second Savage landed inside the hole.
“Here.” She tossed him one of the stakes as the two assholes grinned at them.
Jack caught the stake and turned his attention back to the two vamps. The second one wasn’t as large as the first, but they were both bigger than Jack.
“I think they’re lovebirds,” the first vamp said.
“Who messed up his face?” the second asked.
“No one. I’m always this handsome,” Jack replied.
The two vamps scowled at him as Charlie chuckled while edging to the side. Air from the open tunnel behind her flowed against her back, but she didn’t dare turn and flee. At least one of the Savages would follow her, and if they survived the traps in the tunnel, Charlie would lead them right to the others. If, for some reason they didn’t chase her, they would report what they’d discovered here to their bosses, and the small sanctuary she’d found in the middle of this hell would vanish.
She couldn’t risk that happening.
Charlie maintained her position in front of the tunnel as the second Savage turned and ran his gaze leisurely over her body. Her hand clenched on her stake when she saw the interested gleam in his eyes. This asshole had a rude awakening coming to him.
Then, the vamp charged her with its shoulders hunched forward and fangs bared. Charlie had seen such attack methods before and knew how to handle them. She didn’t move until the vamp was nearly on top of her, and then she spun to the side in a graceful move she could credit on the years of ballet her parents made her endure.
The vamp would have barreled past her and into the tunnel if she hadn’t thrown out her foot and delivered a solid kick to his gut. He grunted and stumbled back; she may be a lot smaller than him, but she knew where to deliver a blow that would stagger her opponent.
Before he could recover, Charlie leapt up and punched him in the cheek. The blow knocked him to the side, but she still didn’t have a good view of his heart so she could stake him. She wished she had her knife on her, but it lay in the center of the pit where she dropped it.
From now on, she wouldn’t go anywhere without at least two of her knives, but she’d gotten complacent. Things were always quiet the few weeks before a hunt started as the Savages in control were occupied with filling their cages. She cursed herself for her stupidity now.Never again!
The other vamp circled Jack like a shark about to devour a seal. Jack grinned at the vamp as if he wasn’t a whole person larger than him. Charlie mentally shrugged over his cavalier attitude. If the giant was distracted by using Jack like a chew toy, she could come up behind him and kill him, once she dispatched this Savage of course.
When the Savage spun toward her, Charlie smashed her foot into his knee. It buckled backward, and the vamp almost hit the ground. She leapt up and swung her leg down; driving her heel into his back, she knocked the Savage to his hands and knees.
Her parents would shit themselves if they could see what she’d turned all those years of endless ballet training into. She’ddespisedevery single one of those lessons, but she learned young to shut up and take it. Whining got her sent to her room and, unlike other kids where sometimes being locked in their room wasn’t much of a punishment, she didn’t have anything in there to distract her other than her bed and clothes.
Charlie couldn’t recall having toys as a baby, but she doubted she ever did as she certainly didn’t have them when she was a child. Being sent to her room was torture as she stayed there until she relented to her parents’ demands or they decided she’d served her time.
One time, after going to her lesson and refusing to dance in the hopes she could finally break free of ballet, she was kept in the room for three days with only oatmeal, bread, and water for dinner. Over the years, she adjusted to not eating as much as she would like. Her mother watched her food intake like a hawk to make sure she maintained her weight, but those three days were the worst she ever experienced.
