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Thank God it was dark out. The glowing green of a vampire’s eyes made them distinguishable from the zombies, who continued to pour out of the woods in all directions. Ghouls were a little tougher to filter, but then there were only about ten of them here. You just didn’t realize how interchangeable one figure could appear from the next when your gaze was continually splattered with blood, flesh, or flying pieces of rotted limbs. And the limbs were everywhere; disgusting parts crawling on the ground, unattached fingers squirming like leeches on your body, or whole and still adorning the monsters that kept coming from the woods.
I was in the mindless frenzy of killing, slashing out at anything that came near me. A mental numbness had set in, making me oblivious to my own injuries. My arms, shoulders, legs-every part of me had been chewed on. I wasn’t even sure if I was still clothed; all I saw was red from both the rage and the blood in my eyes. That’s why the matching emerald lights from my comrades was so helpful. At least when I saw them, I knew I wasn’t alone. I certainly felt alone, with nothing but maddened zombies surrounding me, screams blending into a continuous white noise, and the ceaseless cleaving of my sword into the inviolable force of walking dead.
Vlad had an advantage. With enough time, he could grab hold of a zombie and burn them to pieces. They ran around like macabre torches, what was left of them, anyway. Still, it seemed he needed a solid minute of holding them to burn them into a less harmful state, which meant it wasn’t the most productive method of dealing with them.
Every now and then, though, I’d catch an orange glow from the corner of my eye, hear indescribable screams, and know Vlad was still alive. Even more important was that periodically, I’d hear an English accent cresting over the sounds of death and pain, urging everyone on, taunting the creatures with gleeful scorn. Bones was still alive, too. Aside from that, I had no idea who was around me.
“Fall back, fall back!” the shout came. The thing in front of me was suddenly cleaved straight down the center into two halves. Between the falling forms there was Bones, almost unrecognizable in appearance, and I stopped my sword in midarc to avoid slashing his head off.
“Come with me,” he growled. He tugged on my arm and then dropped it with a savage curse.
“Bloody fucking hell, why didn’t you call for help?”
I didn’t know what he meant, and arguing wasn’t an option, since he yanked me to his chest with one arm and began a deranged hacking at anything near us with the other. My feet barely brushed the ground, swinging with his gait while I began to feel nauseous. Some of the haze lifted from my vision and when we entered the house and went at once down the stairs, I could see with clarity again.
Every item in the house had been smashed. I was confused, because the main fight was outside, but then it made sense. Not knowing what the mysterious object was, A
Bones deposited me into the arms of Tate, who appeared out of the spattered forms. “Take her to the lowest level,” he barked and turned away. “I have to cover our retreat.”
“Bones, no!” I protested, ignored by both of them as Tate whirled and ran down the stairs. He shoved past people, muttering something that sounded like, “Your arm, your arm,” as he went.
We went through a door where inside, several frightened faces stared at us.The kids, I realized.They’re scared. Maybe this wasn’t outlined in the Be a Vampire Snack brochure.
“Clear some space,” he snapped to them, and fear from either his appearance or his tone made them quick to respond. They huddled together as Tate lowered me to the floor and withdrew a knife.
“Get off me, I have to get back out there-” I started, and then shut up.Oh. No wonder the two of them had given me such a look.
“Give me a little blood by mouth, if you can spare it,” was what I said instead as I considered my arm. Well, what was left of it.Always the left arm, the dispassionate part of me mused darkly.First burned by Max, now this. If it could talk, it would never stop bitching at me.
It was hanging by a few stubborn ligaments, but most of it was chewed off to the bone.Now I resemble the zombies, it occurred to me. Some of their limbs were a dead ringer for this one.
“It’ll hurt when it heals,” Tate rasped, pressing a knife and my mouth to his throat. “Drink deep. I’ll refill.”
Normally I wouldn’t have drunk from him, deeply or not, but these weren’t normal circumstances. Bottom line was, I’d have to be back in fighting condition and fast, because the things outside weren’t calling a time-out. With that in mind, I clamped my teeth over the puncture Tate made in his neck and sucked hard, biting to keep the wound open.
He made a noise I refused to diagnose, because I knew better. Cool blood filled my mouth and I swallowed, pulling harder, feeling shards of shooting pain erupt in my arm. His grip tightened until my upper body was glued to him, tilting his head back as I applied stronger suction. By the fourth pull my arm was in agony, but by the sixth, it had settled into a harsh tingling. At the ninth I was able to shove him back using two hands, panting as cravings for more awoke in me.
Tate’s eyes were green when I looked at him, and it made me scramble back further, because his expression said they weren’t lit up from battle.
I jumped to my feet, watching in amazement as the skin regrew on my limb, knitting back together like a scene from a science fiction movie.
The new blood coursing in me made me feel wilder, less human. Considering the amounts I’d no doubt lost, I was probably ru
“Come on, soldier,” I said. “We have things to kill.”
Without a backward glance I ran up the stairs and back toward the fierce sounds of battle.
The vampires were clustered around the hall in front of the landing like an undead gauntlet. Every shrieking, unholy thing that tried to gnaw their way through them was set upon by all sides. It was holding so far, but one look told me the grim truth. This barricade wouldn’t last long enough. More and more creatures kept coming.
I sprinted forward to join the fray when I collided with A
“A
She gestured in no general direction. “Tick Tock is on the other side of the house, Zero went to Anubus to attempt to beat the answer out of him, but I saw six of those…things follow after him, they’ve broken in! I heard Zero scream, and then I went this way. Oh, Cat, I can’t find it, I can’t find it!”
Whatit was didn’t require asking. This place was coming apart at the seams.
“Just keep at it, A
She shoved me. “You don’t understand. It’s on the news! Graves emptying, rumors of things crawling from them…all headed in this direction. We’re in an isolated area, but not that isolated. Don’t you see? Patra doesn’t need all of them to kill us; very soon she’ll know exactly where we are, because all the zombies are a sign pointing the way!”
Shit! Didn’t it ever stop? So our situation had upgraded from awful to doomed. Surprisingly, I was more angry than anything else. That bitch didn’t deserve to win. We might not be i