Page 56 of Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker)
My adrenaline surged, blood rushing in my ears, a metallic tang on the back of my tongue. I realized after a moment that whatever it was my attacker had tripped over? That was moving too.
What the hell was?—
Rats.
It was the colony of rats.
“Bite her!” one squeaked, and the lot of them rushed my attacker, all shouting battle cries and insults and I caught one little “for the food giver!”
As for my attacker? She shrieked, high and terrified, flinging rats in every direction as she pushed to her feet, and then she ran.
I didn’t much blame her. If a swarm of rats started attacking me, I’d have been out of there too. The rats didn’t give chase, letting her go, and frankly, so did I.
I did a lot of unwise things, but rushing to get my ass kicked by a vampire who’d just tried to stab me repeatedly was not one of them.
When she was gone, one rat stepped forward. My friend from the day before. “Are you well, food giver?”
“I’m . . . I’m good, thanks. Thank you very much for your help.”
She made a decisive motion with her whole body that felt like a nod. “You are a colony friend. We could not allow you to be injured when we had the power to intervene.”
I remembered Twist, turning to check in on her, when she slunk out of the dark dragging a giant chunk of...of gross. It looked like an entire leg, clenched in her jaws. She pulled it right in front of the rats, who were now cowering, then turned to look at me. “Tell them they may have my kill. I am fed, and do not require it.”
I turned back to the rats, who were all staring at Twist like she was the most terrifying thing ever to slide out of their shadows. “This is my friend Twist. She says you can have her kill, because she doesn’t need it.”
The colony descended into a cacophony of exclamations at that. Apparently, rats didn’t have a problem with eating vampire. Or, I supposed, it was possible that only one of the attackers had been a vampire.
Either way, I was never going to question Twist’s real name again. The double-dead douchebag could only wish he’d kept her name out of his mouth.
I went over to where her fight had taken place, and the guy was...well, I never wanted to fight Twist, for sure. Holding down my gag reflex as hard as I could, I looked long enough to find—there. His head.
His features were forever etched with an expression of pain and terror, but, I was relieved to see, he was no one I knew.
I turned to look at Twist and the rats. They were in an arc around her, cheering her very impressive kill. They weren’t wrong, but I was never more acutely aware of my humanity than in moments like this. Not that I often dealt with rats cheering adismembered body, but...the whole thing made me feel ill. It made them grateful they were going to eat.
“Ready to go home, Twist?” I called to her. “The colony is grateful, and I appreciate your help and theirs, but I could use some sleep, I think.”
She nodded, and as she walked toward me, she started to shrink. By the time she reached me, she was her tiny two pound self again. That was somehow both convenient and terrifying.
“Yes, let us return home, Father.”
I knelt down to pick her up, wished the rats well, and headed for my bike.
CHAPTER 23
By the time I pulled into the parking lot next to the shop, I was struggling.
The vamp had probably broken at least one of my ribs, and I wasn’t struggling to breathe, exactly, it just hurt.
A lot.
So for the second time that night, I took my time getting off my bike, even if this one was for very different reasons.
I was just starting to think that maybe, in fact, I would curl forward, rest my head on whatever was most convenient, and take a quick nap before I worried about going inside.
Fuck me, vamps packed a wallop.
The hard slamming of a car door woke me up, and only then did I realize that I had started to fall asleep standing up. Shit.
