Page 75 of Stripped

I turned to the approaching vampires, putting my back to Julie's. My stake was still buried in the vampire I'd killed and there was no way I'd win bare handed against the vamps, but giving up wasn't an option. I widened my eyes in fear and I let my lower lip tremble. All the terror I felt, I let it show on my face and I kept the acceptance of my likely death for myself. “Please,” I said. “Don't hurt me.”

One of the vamps looked me over and licked his lips, but the other focused on my eyes, as though he could read my mind. Or was attempting to compel me. I dropped my gaze to his nose and bent my knees a bit, getting ready to fight.

“We don't want to hurt you, little stripper human,” the vamp said. “We have bigger plans for you. Just step away from the alpha's woman and we'll make sure you're taken of, just as well as you took care of Leopold.”

“Really?” I said. “Do you promise?”

The vamp stepped closer and I placed one foot in front of the other, getting into a modified lunge position. “I promise, sweet one. Just come to me and look into my eyes, and I swear you'll feel no pain.”

I met his gaze and I lunged. I rammed into the vamp with my full body weight, hoping to at least throw him off balance, but he didn't move.

Ice cold hands gripped my neck and squeezed so hard spots danced before my eyes. The vamp slammed my body against the cinder block wall of the jail so hard any breath I'd had in my lungs left. “I was going to be kind to you,” he said. “But you just had to fight.”

I opened my mouth to tell him what I thought of his version of 'kindness' but I didn't have the breath to speak. My lungs were starting to burn and the spots in front of my eyes had gotten bigger so that I could only see the vamp through a tiny circle of vision. I kicked out weakly, trying to make contact with his shins, but he laughed and squeezed tighter.

Julie shrieked with pain and I knew there was no one coming to help us. This was it, this was the end. I closed my eyes and I pictured Zane, his warm smile, the fondness in his eyes when he looked at me. I thought of how good it felt when he held me and pretended I was in his arms again, warm and safe.

Suddenly, I fell to the ground, hard, my neck free. I gasped for air and the air moving through my damaged throat hurt. I opened my eyes, but I couldn't see anything.

“You're going to have to get up,” Julie said. “I can't lift you.”

I sucked in another lung-full of air and pushed to my feet. I leaned against the wall, my vision clearing a tiny bit. Julie grabbed my hand and yanked me forward. “Catch your breath when you're inside.”

I stumbled forward with my hand in hers and then I heard a door slam shut and a deadbolt sliding into place. “Fuck,” Julie said. “Tatiana.”

Julie let go of my hand. “I'll be right back,” she said.

Since I couldn't find my way to a chair, I dropped to the floor and sat, crisscross applesauce, on the cool, concrete floor. Slowly, my vision cleared and I saw Julie walking toward me from the back of the building. “I've bolted all the doors,” she said. “There aren't any windows, so we should be safe.”

She was holding her left arm limply in her right hand, resting it over her baby bump. “Are you okay? I heard you scream.” Every breath and every word felt like thousands of tiny pins scraping my throat. I swallowed and nearly cried out from the pain.

Julie winced, too caught up in her own pain to notice mine. “That fucking bloodsucker broke my arm. I can heal faster as a wolf, but being a werewolf doesn't make a broken bone hurt any less. As it is, I'm probably going to have to have this in a cast until after the baby is born and I can shift.” She walked over to the right side of the room where there was a desk and a woman slumped across it.

Julie pressed her fingers to the woman's neck. “Damn it.” She stood by the lifeless body for several long minutes, before swiping at her eyes and rejoining me. She sat on the floor across from me, wincing as she lowered herself.

“I'm sorry,” I said.

“Me, too. I didn't know her well, but what I did know was that she was kind and tough as hell. She was going to be married next month.”

I sat with her in silence for the lost woman for several minutes before I asked her for something for my throat. She led me to a small refrigerator with bottled water. We returned to our seats on the floor and I sipped the water, the cold making my throat feel better and better.

Julie stood and started pacing. “I fucking hate being in here and not out there helping them fight. Axel says I'm going to be a mother soon and the baby will need his mother.” She fisted her hands and punched the air with her good arm. “He's the fucking pacifist. He can stay home with little Axel, but I'm not going to be locked in a glass case like a china doll.”

She paused and looked over at me. She gave me a small smile. “Sorry. Axel's a good guy. He probably will stay home with the baby. I'm just frustrated and tired of being pregnant.”

“I don't blame you,” I said. “I can't imagine being pregnant, especially when you've always been so physical and active.”

She nodded and continued her pacing.

“Could we call that council you were talking about?” I asked. “Doesn't this attack break some rule?”

She kept pacing. “Not if there aren't any humans around to see it. I wouldn't be surprised if the council put the vamps up to this. They'd love to have me and Axel out of the picture. A way to punish us without actually punishing us.”

“It seems so brutal. Why don't they just tell you what they want and negotiate with you?”

“Because the council loves their secrets more than anything. Information is power and all that. Plus, if other packs or covens found out what's really going on, the council could be looking at a mutiny and they don't want that. They couldn't handle it.”

“Maybe you should mutiny anyway,” I said. “Broadcast what's really going on to the other covens and packs and force the council to make some changes.”

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