Page 92 of How a Vampire Falls

“I’d love to know, but first we should neutralize them.”

“I’ll call 911.”

He seized her wrist when she reached for her phone on the coffee table. “No.”

“Ryker—”

“We don’t need human cops, Leslie. We’re vampires.”

Yes.Yes. Time to be exactly everything that she was. Her fists curled tightly again, and when she spoke, the words came with a breathy undertone that sounded like the hiss of a serpent. “We are vampires.”

Twenty-Six

Leslie’s body felt like a deep freeze as she waited, as she hated the waiting. She could hardly believe she was going along with Ryker’s plan, but there hadn’t been time to argue, so instead she’d chosen to trust he knew what he was doing and wouldn’t get himself killed.

He was letting the hitmen break into his house.

She crouched out of sight around the corner from the bedroom where Ryker pretended to be asleep. She was backup, but if Angstrom’s henchmen didn’t have to see her, Ryker didn’t want them to know she existed. They were human. Ryker would take them down in seconds.

She still hated the waiting. She listened as hard as she could, took in every scent, and her senses painted the picture she couldn’t see from here.

The window screen across from his bed fell to the ground outside, and then the window slid open. It had been locked until less than a minute ago, a wide low window easily stepped through. Ryker had flipped the lock open and dove into bed as she darted to her corner out of sight.

Two henchmen climbed into the house. Then three. A buzzing noise smacked her senses. She flinched. What—?

A Taser. She and Ryker hadn’t sensed it because it had been powered off. The three humans outside the window were powering up Tasers too.

Ryker sprang out of bed. A dart struck him. She heard it pierce and latch on. He hissed in pain.

Then Leslie was in the room. She struck out, knocked one of the henchmen to the floor, glared with all her might at the one who stood frozen halfway inside the walk-in window. In seconds he toppled over, dizzy from the assault of her gaze. She stared him down as he lay there, and in another two seconds, he passed out.

In those two seconds, the other four assailants were down as well, unconscious on the floor. Ryker had restrained his punches so as not to kill them, but he still needed only one per man. Of course he could beat them all, even with a Taser dart in him. He yanked the dart from his side and tossed it onto the floor. His blood seeped from the torn wound in his side, thicker and darker than human blood, nearly black. The scent was different too, more fragrant.

“Oh,” she blurted.

“It’s nothing. They only got one jolt in. Lucky hit.”

He was right. Barely bleeding, flesh wound. He pressed his palm to it and winced, but the attack was over, and he was okay. She shuddered and pressed against him.

“I didn’t want them to see you,” he said.

“I had to help when I heard the Taser.”

“Hey, you’re shaking.”

“They—they hurt you.”

He cupped the back of her head and stroked her hair. “Shh. I promise it’s nothing.”

But she couldn’t stop trembling. Hearing his hiss of pain, knowing six men were here to end his life if they could… It didn’t matter that he was a vampire, that he’d never been in danger. She wanted to rip the throat out of every last would-be murderer sprawled on the floor.

One of them twitched as he began to wake up. This was the guy she’d stared into unconsciousness. A vampire’s gaze was supposed to be able to knock a human out for up to an hour, so hers must not be very potent. Maybe practice could strengthen it. She needed to be the strongest vampire possible, because she was in love with a man who fought battles on behalf of those who couldn’t fight, who might get Tased again by would-be assassins and need her help.

At the very thought, a strange purring hiss came from the back of her throat. She pressed her lips tight to silence the noise of rage.

“Leslie?” Ryker said.

“No one touches you. Not ever again.”

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