Page 74 of Stripped

Axel shrugged, looking a bit pale. “I don't like this. There could be vamps crawling all over this town.”

“We will own this town before the sun has risen,” a man said. He stepped into the living room from the front entryway. “We win or we die trying.”

“Iris,” Axel said. “Get Julie and Abby out of here. Take them to the jail, it's the most secure place in town.”

Iris grabbed my hand and led me to the back door. Julie followed without an argument. Zane joined us as we stepped out into the dark night. “I'm going with you,” he said. “Let's move fast and silently.”

Zane took my hand and I held on tight as he raced through the woods in the pitch-black night. I gripped my stake in the other hand and prayed I didn't impale myself on it tripping over a tree root in the dark.

We emerged onto Main street about a block from the cinder block building with the word JAIL in block letters on its facade. Three men and a woman stalked toward us. The only light was from the stores still lit for customers and we couldn't make out if the people were friends or enemies until they stepped into the light of the grocery store and we saw their fangs glint.

“Shit,” Zane swore. “You three stay back. Julie, text someone for help.”

“Already on it,” Julie said, her fingers flying over her phone. Zane stepped toward the vamps, gun raised.

“I'm going to have to ask you to get the hell out of our town, or I'm going to shoot you.”

“We've got no beef with you,” the shortest man, who didn't look older than fourteen, said. “Give us the alpha's woman and we'll leave you be.”

“I can't do that,” Zane said. “You need to go back to your coven and tell them we're willing to kill to protect our alpha and his wife. You will die if you don't turn around and leave.”

“You can't kill us,” the female vampire said. “That gun’s probably not even loaded. You're some sort of hippy do-gooders up here.”

“We prefer not to fight,” Zane said. “But we will.” He fired at the woman and she hit the ground. The other two vamps didn't run, but advanced on Zane growling.

Zane put his finger over the trigger, ready to shoot again, but a blur zoomed out of the shadows and knocked him to the ground. A vamp bared his teeth at Zane as he sat on his chest. He grabbed the gun from Zane's fingers and tossed it at the other vamps, who broke the gun in two with their bare hands.

My heart pounded and fear blurred my vision as the vamp bent over Zane, sharp teeth bared. He was going to bite him. I was not going to just stand there and watch that happen. I raced forward and slammed my stake into the vamp, the weight of my body following.

Beneath me, the vamp went still. Zane smiled up at me. “Thanks,” he said.

I couldn't help smiling back, even though there was a dead vamp between us. I got to my feet as gracefully as possible and Zane shoved the vamp corpse off him and stood next to me. He opened his mouth to say something, but a vamp came at us. Zane got in front of me and pushed the vampire away from me, before his fists started to fly in a battle that made my heart pound with fear for him.

The adrenaline that had filled me when I staked the vamp ebbed away and I started to feel things that made me want to curl up in a ball and cry. There was no time for that, I needed to get my stake and be ready to fight. I bent to pull the stake out of the corpse, the reality that I'd killed someone making it hard to breathe. I pulled in a deep breath and shoved away my grief and disgust. I wrapped my fingers around the stake and began to pull, but something heavy landed on me, squishing me against the dead vamp. “You'll pay for that,” a raspy voice growled near my ear. I felt hands, like iron bands, tighten around my waist and sharp nails digging in. Hot breath wafted against my neck and I knew it was going to hurt. I'd braced myself for impact when the vamp's grip on my waist loosened and I was suddenly free, nothing on my back.

“Get up,” Julie shouted at me. “We need to get out of here.”

I leapt to my feet. Zane was fighting two vamps now, a bloody stake in his hand. Two other wolves raced over and joined in his fight.

“Come on,” Julie said, grabbing my hand and pulling. “He'll be fine.” Zane glanced my way, smiled, and gave me a thumbs up. His moment of distraction earned him a punch to the jaw from one of the vamps, but he swung his head around and got back to fighting. “You're a distraction for him,” Julie said.

Since she was right, I turned and ran with her.

Julie grabbed my hand, her phone still in her other, and we raced into the night just as more vamps charged into the scene and into us knocking the phone from Julie's grasp. It hit the pavement with a loud crack and Julie cursed. “That was my third phone this month.”

“You won't need it where you're going,” a vamp said, sneering. It didn't sneer long. It went suddenly still and fell forward to reveal Iris, bloody stake in her hand.

“Get to the jail,” Iris said. She spun and jabbed another vamp I hadn't even seen approach.

More vamps appeared from seemingly nowhere and joined the fight. I grabbed Julie's hand, since she was now the one hesitating, wanting to help, and pulled her toward the jail. Getting Julie to safety was my top priority.

Hand in hand, Julie and I raced around the crowd of fighting werewolves and vampires and down the block. We were about ten steps from the jail when two vamps, their teeth dripping red blood, stepped into the circle of light in front of the jail.

Julie and I skidded to a halt. We spun to run back the way we'd come, but there was another vamp behind us, a woman, running a long, pink tongue over her sharp fangs and smiling. “What a pleasant surprise,” she said. “It's almost like you were coming here to offer your life to me.”

“I think you've got it backwards,” Julie said. She got down into the fighting stance she'd shown me the other day. It was awkward with her baby belly, but the look on her face promised death and violence.

I glanced over my shoulder to see the other two vamps moving in on us. Terror streaked through me, along with the knowledge that today would probably be the day I died. With that knowledge, came a sort of peace and acceptance. There was no way out of this situation, but I could take down as many vampires as possible before they took me out.

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