Page 127 of Fangs and Fudge

“Do you think I fear you, Alpha King?” The vampire blurred and appeared next to a wolf fighting two vampires a few yards to the right.

As we watched, the master jumped on the wolf’s back and tore into his neck with his teeth.

Shepard growled and lunged for him, knocking his cat ears from his head. The master danced away with a laugh. Rather than follow, Shepard retreated back to us and put out his arm like he was shielding us. I set my hand on his back, letting him know where I was as Vena crowded close to me, her back to my back. Not that it would do either of us any good. We didn’t have claws or weapons.

I wished more than anything they’d allowed Vena to keep her knife.

Shepard tensed under my hand and disappeared a moment later. I saw him closing in on the master, who was attacking another wolf.

I grabbed Vena’s hand and pulled her in the direction of our safety corner.

Wolves and vampires were fighting all around us. So many vampires.

They saw us. Several stopped helping their companions fight the wolves and turned toward us.

As the first one blurred toward me, I screamed one desperate word.

“Cross!”

The sound that filled the room wasn’t like the wolf snarls and growls or the vampires’ hisses. It was pure rage and savagery and scary enough that I wanted to close my eyes.

Cross appeared in front of me, his suit jacket ripped and glistening with blood in the overhead lights. He moved wickedly fast, breaking the oncoming vampire’s neck then moving to the next in a blur. One by one, they toppled in a circle around us.

Cross looked over his shoulder at me, his eyes completely black with the veins visibly spidering around it.

“You’re still bleeding,” he said. “Get to Doc.”

I nodded, grabbed Vena’s hand, and towed her with me as we followed Cross and his body trail to the other women. More wolves were with Doc, protecting the women there. They growled at Cross. The sound he made back sent shivers running down my spine.

He turned toward me.

“Do not leave this circle again.”

I nodded and watched him disappear into the chaos.

Vampires littered the ground. I saw wolves too, but not nearly as many.

Through the churning bodies, I saw Shepard, still fighting the master. Another familiar vampire was fighting not far away. He wasn’t facing a werewolf three-to-one but one on one. And the werewolf was losing.

Pet, or as Cross knew him, Vivian Di Rossi.

My gaze swung back to Shepard’s fight with Master.

“Pet’s here,” I said to Vena. “If Cross can kill him–”

Master looked directly into my eyes from across the room. The lapse in focus cost him. Shepard’s wicked claws raked down the vampire’s front from left shoulder to right hip. The vampire hissed and scrambled back, blood trailing down his pale skin.

Shepard pressed the advantage, moving crazy fast. Another vampire was thrown back from the wolf he was fighting and collided with Shepard’s back.

Shepard spun around, claws already slashing. That vampire didn’t stand a chance. Blood sprayed, splattering Shepard front then back as he faced Master again.

The interruption had lasted a few seconds at most, but it was enough time for Master to disappear.

“Where did he go?” I asked Vena, knowing she was watching the same thing.

“Rafters,” she said.

I looked up with her and saw Master walking along the rafters like he was a cat but still in human form. Naked human form.

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