Page 17 of Bite of Passage
Where was she?
The mirror.Look in the mirror.
The tips of her fingers peeked through and then disappeared back to her side.
He didn’t see his reflection.Instead, a human male, or maybe not human based on the wolf-like howl the creature had let loose moments ago, struck her.The force of the blow threw her a few feet across the room.
White-hot anger left an uncomfortable numbing sensation roaring through his spine.
His training kicked in.Anger has its place, but not here.Not in battle.He attempted to cool the boiling inside.Think.Head tight and in this.
The smell of blood—hers—crashed into him.A droplet rested beneath her nose against the mouth gag in the mirror’s reflection.Fuck calm.That was her blood leaking out of her body, and the man planned to draw a lot more before he let her die.
With a deep growl he surrendered to the monster within.
Everything went red.
He pressed a finger to the mirror.It disappeared into the glass as if it was water.He’d never gone through a magic portal like this, but she had done so and come out in one piece.
The room he leapt into smelled of a flowery mixture combined with an exotic food scent—not unpleasant, but foreign.Over those smells he picked up the odors of fear and her blood.The creature torturing her would die.
“Who’s the fake man?”Skarde asked.“You?”
The human male jumped off her and spun so fast he tripped over a small table but righted himself immediately.The human was average height, which meant the smaller male had to look up to challenge Skarde.“Where’d you come from?What the hell are you wearing?Leather pants?Are you a cosplay weirdo?”He addressed Gemma.“Is this what turns you on?Do you make him dress up before you suck him off?”
The asshole thought himself a threat, waving his tiny knife.
She blinked up at both of them, dazed.She could have a head injury.
With a chuckle that sounded evil as shit even to his ears, Skarde brandished his own blade, which was four times as large as the man’s, serrated, and gleaming after its recent sharpening.“Try your best.”
His vision burned with all the pent-up anxiety of the past few weeks and the need to shred this human for hurting the mysterious woman.
Whatever comprehension the human had of his mortality faded.He discharged a squeal of madness and lunged, fully intent on stabbing Skarde’s chest.The angle was off, given their height disparity.A gut wound would’ve been a better objective.His advance was pitiful.
Skarde itched for a decent fight.Something that might leave him with a few bruises, maybe even a gash he’d feel an hour from now, but this… It wasn’t even worth expending the energy to tolerate.
Too easily he stepped out of the knife’s path and caught the attacker’s arm.He bent against the bone’s natural angle until it snapped.The knife dropped at the same time the human let loose a shrill wail.
A fist around his throat cut off the annoying racket.Although tempted, Skarde stopped the squeeze short of crushing the human’s windpipe.He’d drink him out and put the loony creature out of its misery.The starvation of weeks without blood urged him to bite.But as Skarde’s head descended toward his prey’s neck, Gemma’s horrified stare registered in his peripheral vision.
Jaw clenched, he drove the blood hunger to the back of his mind.Doing so left him twitchy.
He released the male but caught him by the hair before he fell completely.With an effortless lift, he threw him to the ground hard enough to knock him out.Not dead.The heart still pumped blood.He’d save the meal for later.
She had already removed whatever the human put over her mouth.“He’s going to kill me.”
“Not anymore.”
She stared at the human as if the man would jump at her again.
“Is your head damaged?”he asked.
She touched her head.“I don’t think so.I hit my shoulder.How are you here and still a vampire?”
“Did you expect me to turn into a fairy prince when I crossed through your magical doorway?”
She blinked up at him.
