It’s not much, just enough to disorient them as Ares shifts. His clothes fall in tatters to the grass as he leaps, crashing into the vamp in midair. He clamps his jaw around the creature’s throat and whips his head to the side, an audible snap ringing out around us.
I roll to the side before springing up, tearing through the belly of another. These abominations are little more than a pack of feral rats, no rational thought despite their once human status. I’m used to the condemnation as anyone catches sight of our faces, so I feel like a damn hypocrite as I look down at the wide, unseeing eyes of the vamp to ensure he’s really down for the count. The golden brown irises are rimmed in red, but there isn’t the same wild look as usual that every vamp has, unable to even masquerade as a sane being.
With extended teeth and claws, they’re preternaturally fast, but when shifted, we can hold our own fairly well. If we were to stay in our human forms though, we could very well end up like the feebs around us being drained dry.
Rin?
“I’ve got her,”comes Cole’s instantaneous reply.
A brief flash of deep black fur flashes in my periphery before claws rake across my side and I’m forced to turn with a snarl. The vamp gets one more decent slash in before I slash through his throat, leaving him to bleed out beside several of the humans currently being torn apart and bolt for the truck. He might not die simply from the swipe I used to fend him off, but we aren’t here to exterminate a nest terrorizing a town, we just need to get the hell out of here.
The mage is already in the truck, hand extended to help haul Rin inside and Cole jumps into the truck bed and over to the other side, shifting back and tearing open the door to the driver’s seat. I leap into the back with Rin before she slams the door shut, slapping her hand on the lock for an illusion of safety.
“Ares?”Cole shouts, checking in.
“I’m good, start driving.”A roar loud enough to make my hair stand on end echoes through the air as Cole slams his foot on the gas and swerves in the grass, trying to get back onto the road.
“We’re not leaving him!” Rin panics, pivoting in her seat.
We’re not, he’s just holding them back until we get to the highway.
It’s clear she doesn’t believe me until a flash of striped fur comes into sight as we’re pulling onto the road. He’s soaked in blood, but by his sure footing, most isn’t his. Increasing his speed, he leaps into the bed of the truck, the entire vehicle lurching with the weight. When we put a little more distance between us and the vamps, he shifts back, because a naked man in the back of a pickup still draws far less attention than a tiger and we’re not the only car on the road.
We wait in a tense bubble of silence, trying to process everything that just happened so quickly. After several more miles, Cole pulls over long enough that they can each tug on a pair of jeans and get back in the truck, heading in the direction of home, but taking extra unnecessary turns.
“Do you think they’re all dead?” Rin finally asks and I curl up on her lap so she can nervously pet me, since I know she needs something to do with her hands. That, and I can keep an eye on the mage, but he looks on the verge of passing out.
“Your dad, for sure,” the mage speaks for the first time, sounding breathless. “Ate his face clean off.” He’s pale and unnaturally still, like he’s trying to remain as invisible as possible.
Rin jerks her head in a sharp nod. “Okay, yeah,” she states flippantly, but starts petting me faster. “That’s good. One less problem. Everything’s fine.”
“Are you hurt?” Ares asks, turning in his seat. He wiped off most of it, but there’s still a good bit of blood streaked across his chest as well as his side from the bullet. It went clean through thankfully, but it’s still bleeding pretty profusely.
Rin swears, snapping out of her shock. “Me? What about you?” She starts rummaging in one of the backpacks and pulls out a shirt. “And we need to get the bullet out of Cole’s arm. I should be the one driving, pull over.” She balls up the shirt and leans forward, pressing it to Ares’ side, looking better with having a job to distract herself.
“I’m fine, beautiful,” Cole argues. “Let’s figure out where we’re headed next and can deal with it there.”
If the mage can keep his mouth shut, we can find another shitty motel. We’ll treat Cole’s arm and see if the mage is even useful. We shouldn’t show him where we live and end up with the cops at our door if he escapes.
“Agreed,”all three of them respond simultaneously and I smile.
Now to just hope he even knows what he’s doing, because that defensive blast was weak as fuck.
Eighteen
Rin
“Shit, that stings,” Cole hisses as I pour the antiseptic over his wound and the tweezers.
His curses only increase as I start digging around for the bullet, beyond thankful when I yank it out in one piece. Smothering the hole with antibiotic ointment, I wrap the gauze tightly around his upper arm and pray I never have to do something like this again.
Ares cleaned his already, but I help rewrap his next since it keeps slipping off. “So how did you make that plan with the mage?”
“Ian,” he snaps from his chair, resting his elbows on his knees and head in his hands. “Enough with ‘the mage’ already. You clearly want something, so just get to the point, would ‘ya? Please?”
He sounds on the verge of a nervous breakdown, not that I blame him. The vampire attack will be something I replay in my nightmares for years to come, never actually seeing one in person before. They were just…soulless monsters.
Add in the whole abduction and leaving him bound and gagged for a day, and I can’t fault him for reaching his breaking point. Until you get a read on your situation, it’s smarter to stay quiet and unassuming, gleaning any information you can that might help you. But after that scare, we’re all rattled and in uncharted territory.
