Page 43 of Stormbinder King
“Drop her,” the Alpha King said flatly.
The vampire put a finger out to smear my blood down my arm in a long, vile movement. “If you want her,” he said. “You’ll have to come get her.”
The vampire’s breath stank like thousand-year-old death in my nostrils as I desperately ripped at his dry flaky hands.
“Let her go,” Symeon ordered again, and he took a step towards us.
My fingers clawed helplessly at the vampire’s superior strength.
“A little too easy to get past the wards around your land, don’t you think?” the vampire asked, but I felt him watching the big man warily.
He only raised an eyebrow. It didn’t even look like Symeon had a weapon. He was going to be torn limb from limb right in front of me.
“The wards are there to keepyousafe,” the King replied, and I felt power begin to crackle all along my skin.
I tasted violence under my tongue, blood filling my mouth, and Symeon shifted in an instant, transforming into a massive, powerful wolf with dark umber fur.
The vampire suddenly let me go just as the king leaped for him, and I landed hard on my side on the ground, the wind knocked out of me.
The two monstrous beings connected with a powerful collision that shook the ground underneath.
Surely Symeon was going to get himself killed! I hated him but my heart was in my throat as the vampire flew at his neck, its grisly fangs outstretched.
Symeon blocked him with a slash of his long, vicious claws, throwing the vampire aside with a splash of blood.
In its rage, the vampire ripped at a nearby tree, tearing it from the ground and hurling it at the King. Symeon moved quickly to avoid it, but I saw a few of the low-hanging roots tear through his right shoulder.
His fur was dark with scarlet-red blood but he only pivoted with a swish of his rough tail and sprung for the vampire.
My hands dug into the ground as they fought, exchanging blows so loud and thunderous I felt the forest floor shake under me.
Every time I thought the vamp had the upper hand, the king blocked it, his massive sharp teeth tearing at the other creature, forcing the vampire to use its superhuman speed to tumble away again.
“Help!” I tried, but my voice sounded thin and reedy.
And we were so deep in the forest I didn’t know if anyone could hear me.
They thundered past me, wind swirling up around my hair, blood spattering wet and warm on my crouched figure.
But despite the vampire’s superhuman speed, as it lunged for Symeon’s neck, the king knocked the monster off its balance.
It stumbled sideways, just one stumble, just one miscalculation, and Symeon leaped, tearing out the bloodsucker’s neck in a gush of blood and viscera.
I screamed again, watching blood and guts spatter as the King put his massive wolfish mouth around the vampire’s head and severed it from the creature’s body
The vines and roots dug into my hand as I buried my fingers in the ground.
I didn’t even realize I was screaming until I heard his stony, cold voice beside me.
“Stop squalling,” Symeon snarled.
Suddenly it was the Alpha King before me again, the vampire’s torn limbs in his massive hands.
Symeon’s eyes were fixed on me as I did my best to arrange my clothes and stand up.
“You’re not supposed to be out here,” he bit out harshly.
“I—”
