Page 82 of The Vampire's Thirst
Hell no.
His whiplashing emotions about Chiara were getting to him. He had to get a handle on them. He would when this was over. When she was safe on Scath. When he got his life back.
Chiara’s head pivoted toward the sound of gunfire as she swiped a tear from her cheek. “You better come back for me, Dax.” She poked him in the chest. Once. Twice. Three times.
He shoved her finger aside and touched her palm to his lips, kissing it. Realizing what he’d done, he dropped her hand and took two steps back. He resented caring for her. At the same time, he couldn’t help it. “Time to go.”
He pushed Chiara onto the floor of the backseat. Once Thorn did the same to Fin, he pulled a tarp over them.
“I love you.” Thorn patted the lump under the canvas that was Fin.
Dax said nothing to Chiara. “Ready, shifter?” After he cast one last look toward where Chiara hid, he put on his warrior face.
Thorn shot him a wolfy grin. “Always ready. Let’s do it.”
The shifter’s amber eyes shimmered with the same excitement which flowed through Dax. No matter what, a Firebrand was always up for a battle. The bloodier the better. It was in their DNA.
They took off toward the gunfire, their legs pumping and arms heaving.
A chaotic scene met them a few blocks away. Crazed Aeternals charged out of the rubble where a parking garage housed the portal. Though the brick building had collapsed, the gateway was still active.
Tanks continued to fire on invading Arisen Dawn soldiers. Military grunts, armed with Sig Sauer MCX assault rifles, took out targets. Not enough. Though bodies littered the road, the humans didn’t seem to realize most Aeternals would heal and rise. They needed to lob off heads, cut out hearts, or incinerate them. Big mistake. Bullets didn’t always kill his kind.
The Earth army’s weapons weren’t stopping Arisen Dawn. Witches and warlocks diverted their firepower with spells. Other Aeternals were so fast the bullets couldn’t catch them. Older vampires avoided the waiting military by shadowflashing around them.
Faced with charging demons in beast mode and shifters in animal form, the American soldiers were forgetting their training. At this rate, Dax figured the Earthers might lose the skirmish.Hell. They’d be lucky to walk away with their lives. The most monstrous of his species would be loose on Earth, free to maim and kill, free to feed.
Dax swung toward an ear-piercing scream. A coyote shifter clamped his jaw onto a soldier’s thigh, tearing flesh from bone. The guy’s buddy looked on, frozen in shock, so paralyzed his rifle hung limply at his side. When the Aeternal dropped his dead catch, the stunned human didn’t even try to run. He was dog meat, his eyes empty as he accepted his fate.
Dax glanced at Thorn. “We’ve got no choice.”
He started off at a slow jog but kicked up the speed to attack a female Aeternal who jacked a soldier off the ground, her fingers curled around the guy’s neck. Dax snaked an arm around her throat and squeezed. She dropped the human but released her poisoned claws. To avoid the sloth demon’s deadly weapons, he pressed his free hand to the side of her head and snapped it off her shoulders, blood spurting through the air. One down.
Dax flashed to a satyr who was finishing off a human. When he slapped his hands to the Aeternal’s ears and twisted, another head rolled.
Pop.
A glance told him a half-shifted Thorn held his own with a succubus, dancing out of her way so she couldn’t plant a hand on his chest to steal his lifeforce. In a swift move, the wolf’s jaws fixed on her throat.
Dax hefted his Sig to fire dead center between a demon’s eyes. An exploding melon. The next shot tumbled a witch. With her down, he targeted an incubus and kept going. Once he emptied the magazine, he shadowflashed from one kill to another, using his blade to sever their heads. The air ripe with blood, Dax’s fangs punched from his gums.
A shifter howled as he prepared to sink canines into a high-ranking officer. A colonel. Dax slapped a new clip into his Sig and fired.
With the attacker dead at his feet, the officer whipped his head toward the vampire, his brows drawn tight, puzzled at the assist.
Dax drew the edge of his palm across his neck, signaling a slicing motion. The human caught onto the message, grabbed a blade, and whacked it across the Aeternal’s throat, severing flesh, ligaments, bone, the works.Job done. The officer nodded a thanks before moving on to another invader.
Ping. Thud.
Dax slapped a hand to his shoulder as he hung a one-eighty. Blood seeped through his fingers.
That’s what I get for playing the hero.
He looked around for the gunman.There. Another vampire. A young one. He flashed to the female’s side, disarming her with one swipe. A blade through the neck sent another head flying.
Dax glanced toward the portal. No more Arisen Dawn soldiers exited the portal, but the humans couldn’t keep the loose ones in check. Aeternals were fighting their way through the army’s defenses, leaving terror in their wake.
Dax’s eye caught a big muther who was grinning like an asshole as he flung humans right and left. Though he wasn’t killing his marks, he was incapacitating a shitload of them, bowling his way through the American soldiers as if they were pins and he was the ball rolling down the alley toward a strike. The guy was a shifter. Maybe. Hard to tell.
