Page 55 of The Vampire and the Case of the Hellacious Hag

The vampire hesitated for a second and then took the wrist I offered him. His fangs bit into my wrist and I cried out in pain. I guess this dude hadn’t learned the neat hypnosis trick that Connor could do. I gritted my teeth. He wouldn’t need much blood to kick start his healing, so it would be over soon. You can cope with anything for fifteen seconds, right? Except maybe decapitation.

With a panicked shout, Connor was suddenly there. He ripped the vampire off me, reared back and punched him in the head. ‘Connor! No! I offered!’

He turned on me, chest rising and falling rapidly. ‘Fuck! Vampires don’t feed off vampires, Bunny!’

I blinked. ‘Because it’s rude?’

‘Because they can’t stop! He would have sucked you dry!’ His panic was evident, his eyes blown wide.

I licked suddenly dry lips. ‘He’ll be okay, though?’ I looked at the unconscious vamp who was already visibly healing.

‘I should kill him,’ Connor said tightly.

‘No!’

‘Your blood,’ he hissed to me. ‘You’re ahybridBunny, remember?’

‘Okay, so?’

‘So there’s a reason why the council is scared of hybrids. Beyond the fact that you can feed on auras, if a vampire feeds off your blood they’ll be in thrall to you. Totally and utterly. He’ll do whatever you want forever – he’s your slave, Bunny!’

He shook his head. ‘And if he lives we’ll have to hide him, hide his blind obedience to you.’ His expression was grim and he took a step towards the fallen vampire. ‘Better he dies.’

‘No!’ I snapped. ‘I didn’t save him to have you kill him! Look around you – there’s been enough death tonight.’ I held onto his arm and looked pleadingly into his eyes. ‘Please, Connor, we’ll deal with this together. But don’t kill him.’

Connor blew out a long breath as he looked at me. ‘You’ll be the death ofme,’ he muttered, but he turned and shook the vampire until he awoke. ‘Go to my old cabin and remain there until we come for you.’

The vampire ignored Connor and looked glassy eyed at me. ‘Mistress,’ he said happily.

Oh boy. I swallowed hard then repeated Connor’s order. ‘Go to Connor’s cabin and remain there until we come for you.’

The vampire floated to his feet and was gone in a second. ‘Shit,’ Connor said. ‘Shit.’ Visibly upset, he scrubbed a hand through his curly dark hair.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘That’s Parker.’

‘So?’

He grimaced. ‘He’s been one of my biggest rivals since I arrived in Portlock, and now we’ll have to bring him into the heart of our group if we’re going to hide this. I’m not sure the other vampires will buy such a sudden change of heart.’

‘We’ll work it out,’ I said stubbornly.

I’d never seen Connor look uncertain before and it was unnerving to see it now. ‘Yeah,’ he agreed hollowly. ‘We’ll work it out.’

‘How did you arrive so quickly?’ I asked.

‘I was at Kamluck,’ he said. ‘I ran.’

I blinked. ‘That’s some run you’ve got there.’

He gave me a crooked smile that warmed every inch of me. ‘I will always run to you, Doe.’

Sirens blaring, the ambulances arrived and interrupted our moment. The firemen followed moments later. Connor and I split up to help the emergency teams, and I pointed out the more seriously wounded dwarves to the paramedics.

We worked for hours. The injuries worsened the closer we got to the mine until there were only dead bodies and scattered limbs. At one point my phone buzzed in my pocket – I’d missed a call from Helmud’s dad. Hard to worry about that amongst all that surrounded us.

Gunnar finally found me as I was staring into the caved-in mine. I hoped Matilda was okay; I knew elementals were tough, but even the toughest being would die if they were blown to smithereens.

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