Page 96 of Obsessed in Blood
They jogged on, Simone scanning the area as she ran. Cressa and Mateo followed ten yards behind. As they drew closer to the safe house, the sounds of battle reached her, and she increased her pace.
A vampire sprinted from the right, and Cressa ran to meet him. Crazy human. Simone was tempted to follow, but the vampire smiled when he recognized a human coming for him. He lowered his short sword and slowed as Cressa approached. He looked haggard but didn’t have any blood on his blade unless he’d cleaned it off, which was possible.
A few feet from him, Cressa launched herself and hit him in the chest, riding him to the ground like a surfboard—Cressa’s words. It was a technique she’d accidentally used once but had honed into her favorite move when approached by a vampire who thought her harmless. Simone couldn’t blame the vampires for falling for the trap, there weren’t many humans that went up against a vampire, and even rarer a female. But neither did she pity them.
Simone’s last glance over her shoulder was of Cressa stabbing the vampire in the throat over and over. Cressa refused to carry a short sword, but after today, Simone expected that to change.
No longer worried about Cressa, she moved on and found one of their security guards. His left arm hung uselessly at his side and blood from a deep cut just below his rib cage dripped on the dirt. He continued to battle two vampires.
She raced toward them, her sword lifting as one turned in time to come at her. He was no match for her blade work, and she took him down with the second swipe of her sword. The second one, a female, was better trained, but not good enough when it was two against her. She turned to face Simone, ignoring the badly injured vampire now behind her.
The guard’s anger and lust for vengeance drove him past his injuries. He stepped up behind her and, with his only good arm, swung his blade and severed her head before dropping to the ground. She couldn’t stop to check on him and continued on.
Sergi was attacked by two vampires who had run from the house. After watching the fight for two seconds, she moved on. These weren’t Venizi’s best vampires, and if she had to guess, most were probably halflings. None with the experience of Devon’s Family.
This was what she’d expected to find. A test of Devon’s security. They couldn’t allow any of them to escape.
She crossed the threshold of the house. The place was a mess of destroyed furniture and bloody bodies, most of them headless. Someone sprang from a closet where they’d either been hiding in fear or waiting for some unexpecting vampire.
She felt the slice across her right arm, cutting muscle. The pain was intense, but she compartmentalized it and moved her sword to her left hand. She twisted to the right, and with both hands on the hilt, blocked the sword aimed for her neck.
The vampire had a wild look in his gaze, one she’d seen before. He was on the Poppy. They crossed blades, and she pushed him back. She dropped her sword for a second, which unbalanced him, and kicked out. Her boot hit him in the chest, sending him sprawling. She dispatched him quickly and took a moment to check her injury. She’d taken blood two days prior and smiled when she felt the muscles knitting back together. Her arm would be ready for a sword within the next few minutes.
Though she doubted she’d need it by then.
With the vampires Simone had brought, the fight was over quickly. The number of vampires Venizi had thrown at them equaled the number housed at the safe house. They lost three total, and based on the reports from her team, not one of Venizi’s had escaped.
The drivers left at the gate were now searching for abandoned vehicles, but the attacking force might have been dropped off. Any survivors would be expected to find their own way home or, more likely, Venizi hadn’t expected them all to live. The primary goal would have been to take out as many of the Trelane Family as possible.
The vampire they lost at the gate had held it for as long as he could, giving the other two guards the time they needed to alert the house. There hadn’t been time to call anyone except the manor’s security office. Their other two losses must have fallen at the beginning of the battle or because they’d been cut off without backup.
All of the remaining survivors had some form of injury—some minor, others much worse. Simone had called for the healer and blood donors as soon as the last enemy fell. When she walked back out to the front porch, she abruptly stopped.
She blinked back the tears that unexpectedly stung her eyes.
Cressa was kneeling over the vampire Simone had first come upon with the almost severed limb and bad belly wound. Her wrist covered his mouth as he drank.
When she glanced to her right where another vampire was on the porch, unable to stand, Ginger was doing the same thing.
“What are they doing? Devon would never allow this.” She started for Ginger, but Lucas came out of the house and grabbed her arm.
“They’re only giving small amounts to the most critically injured until the blood donors arrive.” Lucas’s grip tightened when she tried to shake him off. When had he become so strong? “It was their idea, their offer to help. Don’t take that away from them.”
Simone relented and took a step back. “Devon won’t be happy.”
“Maybe. But it’s not his call, is it?”
She caught his gaze and shook her head, resting a hand on his shoulder. “No. Every team member gives what they’re able.”
Lucas grinned, but it quickly turned to a grimace as he kicked one of the dead vampires in front of him. “Some of them looked to be on the Poppy.”
“Yes. Were they all halflings?”
“I don’t know. Some might have just been young.”
“The Wolf’s lab could tell us if we supplied him with some blood.” Sergi stepped up behind them. “Lorenzo was testing us.”
“Or testing his vampires. Maybe both.” Lucas watched Ginger, who was smiling, pat the vampire on the chest before standing. She never glanced their way but followed the porch toward the back of the house, her head turning as she scanned the area for fallen vampires.
