Страница 56 из 68
A loud splash a
I scrambled to my feet and started to run. I kept my left hand out in front of me to protect my face, but the rest I left to chance. I couldn’t see shit. I was ru
The sounds of sliding scales was getting farther away. I was outru
A piece of rock slammed into my right shoulder. The impact spun me into the other wall. My arm was numb from shoulder to fingertips. I’d dropped the gun. Three bullets left, but that had been better than nothing. I leaned into the wall, cradling my arm, waiting for the feeling to return, wondering if I could find my gun in the dark, wondering if I had time.
A light bobbed towards me down the tu
The light was going slowly, sweeping from side to side. I had time, maybe. I got to my feet and felt for the rock that had nearly taken my arm off. It was a shelf with an opening behind it. Cool air blew against my face. It was a small tu
I placed my hands palm down and pushed up. My right arm protested, but it was doable. I crawled into the tu
I got out the knife for my left hand. The right was still trembling. I was better right-handed, like most right-handed people, but I practiced left-handed, too—ever since a vampire broke my right arm and using my left had been the only thing that saved me. Nothing like near death to get you to practice.
I crouched on my knees in the tu
I waited in the dark with my knife and prepared to slit someone’s throat. Not pretty when you think of it that way. But necessary, wasn’t it?
He was almost here. The thin penlight looked bright after the darkness. If he shone the light in the direction of my hiding place before he got beside it, I was sunk. Or if he passed close to the left-hand side of the tu
His pale hair came into sight nearly even with my knees. I moved forward and he turned. His mouth made a little “O” of surprise; then the blade plunged into the side of his neck. Fangs flicked from behind his teeth. The blade snicked on his spine. I grabbed his long hair in my right hand, bowing his neck, and tore the knife out the front of his throat. Blood splashed outward in a surprised shower. The knife and my left hand were slick with it.
He fell to the tu
Blood turned the stream dark. I shone the light back down the tu
Alejandro stood up behind her, covered in blood but walking, moving. I wanted to shout, “Why don’t you die” but it wouldn’t help; maybe nothing would help.
The lamia pushed onward down the tu
I kept the light on her pale chest and raised the gun.
“I am immortal. Your little bullets will not harm me.”
“Come a little closer and let’s test the theory,” I said.
She slid towards me, arms moving as if in time with legs. Her whole body moved with the muscular thrusts of the tail. It looked curiously natural.
Alejandro stayed leaning against the wall. He was hurt. Yippee.
I let her get within ten feet; close enough to hit her, far enough away to run like hell if it didn’t work.
The first bullet took her just above the left breast. She staggered. It hit her, but the hole closed like water, smooth and unblemished. She smiled.
I raised the gun, just a little, and fired just above the bridge of her perfect nose. Again she staggered, but the hole didn’t even bleed. It just healed. Normal bullets had about as much effect on vampires.
I put the gun in the shoulder holster, turned, and ran.
A wide crack led off from the main tu
The tu
I could run faster than she could move. Snakes, even giant snakes, just weren’t that fast. As long as I didn’t hit a dead end, I’d be fine. God, I wished I believed that.
The stream was ankle-deep now. The water was so cold, I had trouble feeling my feet. Ru
I kept ru
The water was filling the passageway and growing deeper. I was knee-deep in water. It was slowing me down. Could she move faster in water than I could? I didn’t know. I just didn’t know.
A rush of air blew against my back. I turned, and there was nothing there. The air was warm and smelled faintly of flowers. Was it the lamia? Did she have other ways of catching me besides just chasing? No; lamias could perform illusions only on men. That was their power. I wasn’t male, so I was safe.
The wind touched my face, gently, warm and fragrant with a rich, green smell like freshly dug roots. What was happening?
“Anita.”
I whirled, but there was no one there. The circle of light showed only tu
Suddenly, I knew what it was. I remembered being chased up the stairs by a wind that couldn’t have been there, the glow of blue fire like free-floating eyes. The second mark.