Page 32 of Visions in Blood
We circled, and I watched his footing as Devon’s training pounded in my head, and that was the single lesson that saved me.When he put his weight on his right foot, I moved.His attack was quick, and his intentions clear—take me out.I used a roundhouse kick that clocked him in the jaw, following it up with a slash of my dagger, and was surprised when I felt the knife slice skin.
He didn’t scream, but I heard the soft intake of surprise, and could only imagine the burn he must be feeling from the silver.That was when I made a mistake.I thought I’d gotten away clean, but he grabbed my free arm and swung me around, attempting to roll me into his grasp for what I knew would be a neck-snapping move.
He grabbed the wrong arm, and that was his mistake.I rolled with him, getting closer than I wanted, closer than I should, but when he had my waist in his grip, reaching for my neck, I rammed the blade into his gut and twisted.He released me, taking two steps back to glance down at the blood dampening his shirt.
Before I could take advantage of the moment to run away, a sword swept out of nowhere.
One minute my adversary faced me with a look that said he’d kill me before I took another step.The next, his head bounced off the asphalt.
Simone stood behind the still-standing body like some sweet avenger, her fangs bared, and her lavender hair bleached to white in the stark sunshine.Blood streaked her sunflower-yellow bodysuit.I think I could have kissed her at that moment.
“Where’s Ginger?”
A dead vamp in the street, my breath struggling to get out, and that was all she asked?
“Don’t worry.I’ll be fine.”I held my side, just now feeling the punishing blows the vamp had been able to land.
“Obviously.Where’s Ginger?”
Worry crept in.“I sent her to the car.Didn’t she make it there?”I glanced past her, already moving to jog down the alley, until I saw Devon stalking toward us.
“Where’s Ginger?”I yelled, taking up Simone’s mantra.
“She’s safe.”He stopped to take in the scene.
“This was only a young blood.”Simone responded to Devon, but her hard stare was on me.
I don’t know why I’d expected something more positive in regard to my performance, but her words held a lesson.Point taken.This vamp wasn’t more than ten years made.His new abilities were still being honed.I’d been lucky.
I simply nodded in acknowledgment of message received.
Devon said nothing.If Simone’s dress down was enough of a reprimand, time would tell.He grabbed my arm to hustle me down the alley.
I limped to keep up, and he stopped.“You’re injured?”
“Just some bruises.”
He swept me into his arms before I could stop him, and he jogged the rest of the way to the sedan where Sergi, on the phone again, and Lucas waited.Bella and Jacques stood with them.They were all bloody.
“I can walk.”I tried to get out of his grip, but it was like pushing against iron bars.
“We need to get you out of here before police arrive.Our cleanup crew is on the way.”
I snorted, then grimaced.“It will be an hour before police arrive, and that’s assuming anyone called it in.Most people wait for Bulldog to handle any problems.”
He set me down and took the time to look me over more thoroughly, taking liberties to test my ribs which induced an involuntary groan.
“How many did we lose?”I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
A glimmer of a smile passed over him before his expression shut down.“One.Justin.”
“I’m sorry.”
“We could have lost more without your quick thinking, even though I would never have approved your participation.”
His mixed compliment meant we’d have words once we were back at the mansion, but it was his acknowledgment that we would have lost Ginger without my interference that caused the shakes that rattled my body.It was shock.And I knew it wasn’t from the fight or seeing the vamp’s head removed, but that Ginger could have been taken from me.
I barely had a chance to slide into the back seat before she was in my arms, crying against my shoulder.Everything until this moment had been about paying back a debt.A debt I’d created by saving Ginger.Now that debt had put her at even greater risk.All I was supposed to do was steal stuff.But what good was being debt free if I lost my best friend?I glanced at Devon over Ginger’s head.What new hell had I created?
