Page 26 of Don't Bite The Boss
“Oh, my fucking God! What have you done?”
“Serena doesn’t know yet. I discussed it with Tess before I did it. But you’re the first one we have told since it happened.”
“Charlotte, no.” My voice comes out cold, croaky, robotic.
“I know this is a lot to take in…”
“Charlotte, Serena hasn’t spoken to me for a year. It’s bad enough that I’ve been excommunicated, but she willneverforgive you for this, our family will no longer exist,ourfamily.”
“Nick will be part of our family when we marry,” Charlotte says, raising her chin, “and Tess says she understands. Surely you can see, you of all people, that it was necessary? Serena is being stubborn. I won’t lose Nick as she has lost Christopher. Nick didn’t make the decision lightly.”
I shake my head back and forth, completely thrown, and it is only my doing this and seeing a flash out of the corner of my eye that saves me from the initial attack, as six vampires launch themselves from where they had been sneaking up on us through the olive trees.
“Charlotte,” I scream, hurling forward to push her aside and block the assault coming at her from behind.
I’m shocked, pleasantly surprised, to see she needs no warning, spinning and ripping the heart out of the one virtually on top of her without hesitation. And I turn quickly to dispatch my own attackers.
The fact that Charlotte, someone who is a dead-perfect shot with a bow and arrow, but who had never so much as broken a nail grappling with a foe, had just basically eviscerated someone without blinking, makes me laugh out loud as I am circled by two of Solomon’s minions.
But these are no ordinary minions.
Fear momentarily freezes me when I see who has been sent for us this time.
“Hello, Pru,” the biggest of the two circling me says, sniggering as he looks me up and down.
A third I hadn’t noticed knocks me forward and bites me viciously on the shoulder, but I dodge to the side before he can do any serious damage. As he is grappled by Nick, I refocus my concentration on the vampire before me.
“Darnel,” I snarl, “Solomon must be growing tired of your company, to send you on a suicide mission.”
I dodge a feint by another vampire, a woman I don’t know, as I keep Darnel in the forefront of my vision. In the background, I hear grunts, groans and screams, but I know Charlotte, now that Nick is also a vampire, has someone at her back. The best thing I can do for them, and me, is to dispatch Darnel as quickly as possible.
“You need to return, you will return, tonight. No more running, no more fighting, the master grows tired of your insubordination,” he growls.
“Master? Do you even realise how Medieval-creepy you sound,” I laugh, flipping backwards and poking the eyes out of the female vampire with the small paintbrush I had in my top pocket – handy things, paintbrushes.
She screams and reels away, that kind of damage won’t kill her, but it could take weeks to heal, even with blood on tap. Of course, she won’t have weeks, I will finish her off shortly. But at least I know I won’t be bothered by her for the next few minutes, which is a good thing, because Darnel is older than I am, stronger, and when under Solomon’s control I was always scared of him – we all were.
‘But that was centuries ago, things have changed. Get a grip, you are not that frightened young woman anymore – you have trained with the best.’
“Pru, I will punish you now, as I once did, and take pleasure in doing so before I return you to the master, do you remember how I liked to punish you?”
I grit my teeth and paste on a wicked full-fanged grin.
“Maybe I’ll punish you, Darnel, the same way. I’ll bet you would like that. After all, I’ve seen the way you look at Solomon, I’ll bet you bend over for him nightly, mewing like a kitten.”
He snarls and makes his lunge, but rather than dodging, as he might expect, I kick him with both legs in the chest. The momentum of the kick throws us both into the excavated bath behind him, but it doesn’t keep him down for long. Flicking up to my feet at the same time he does, I realise pushing him in here might not have been the smartest move, because the close confines make it difficult to manoeuvre. But I am smaller than him, and the advantage is still mine.
Smiling, I start with a few low blows, kicks, dips in and out, quick punches, the odd karate chop, lulling him into a sense of security. I can see the confidence on his face as he gets in a few blows of his own, one with such force that I stagger momentarily.
But I stagger in a direction furthest from the light of the moon, and my brief concealment in the corner of the bath gives me the opportunity to pull the gun I have tucked securely in a leather belt at my back.
“A gun?” he sneers, “you disappoint me, girl.”
“Silver bullet, fuckwit,” I sniff, spitting out a mouthful of blood, but keeping the gun, and my gaze, on him. “And I stopped being a girl centuries ago.”
“You will always be a girl to me, a girl to use as I see fit. I will ask the master if I can have you for a few days when he finishes with you, I will teach you respect once more.”
“I never respected you, moron,” I snort.
