Page 71 of Bonded By Blood

“L-like I’d—”

“God-fucking-dammit, Troy.”

Kendall grabbed a fistful of Joe’s shirt and the scent of something he had no word for other than ‘fear’ bubbled up from her. He gave her arms a squeeze and deliberately brought both of them to their feet. If he needed to run, he’d need his feet under him.

“Ah,” Colt said, his lips twitching at the corner. “Must be the brother.”

On cue, Tobias Wilson emerged from the thick darkness of the edge of the building just beyond them. Where Joe suspected he’d been hanging back, lying in wait. He, like his brother, was dressed in casual, unremarkable clothing. Instead of a hat, he had a hooded sweatshirt with the hood raised. It fell down as he moved forward, his speed increasing. Fury was etched on the features of his face. “I fucking told you this was a bad idea!”

“Stop,” Colt said. “Or your brother dies.”

Tobias curled his lip. “That dumbass is nothing but trouble,” he said. But he’d stopped moving.

“C-come on,” Troy said. His voice was weaker, unabashedly pleading.

Tobias glared blatantly at his own brother. “Now we have to deal with a fucking Slayer because of you.”

Colt let out a breath, as if they were exhausting him.

Tobias released a feral snarl and leapt into a dash, aimed straight at Colt.

Joe held Kendall behind him, unsure of which direction they should run to get out of the way of the fight and knowing she wouldn’t be able to keep up with their speed.

Colt shoved the stake forward, but Troy moved faster and twisted aside just enough that all it did was rip through his shirt. Then Colt fell to the ground, an angry vampire on top of him, and his stake clattered on the sidewalk several paces away.

“Holy shit, I’m alive,” Troy mumbled, stopping and running his hands over his tattered shirt.

Joe looked back at Kendall, who had both hands clapped over her mouth to keep from screaming. He nudged her, then carefully tapped the pocket where her phone resided. She was still the only one of the two of them with a phone.

She swallowed heavily and nodded her understanding.

“Hey, no secrets,” Troy snapped, grabbing Joe’s attention. He took a step forward, but stopped when Tobias let out a roar of pain and the stench of stale blood burst into the air.

A stream of curses flying from his mouth, Tobias moved away from Colt, holding his arm as it slowly dripped onto the pavement. “Goddammit, help me rip this Slayer’s fucking head off before you settle your score with that bastard.”

Colt stood, a bloodstained stake in his hand, and grinned. “Oh? So that’s the deal, huh? Doesn’t seem fair. Two idiots against me.”

Tobias growled. “I will feed you your intestines, Slayer.”

“Pretty sure you already tried.”

Kendall’s fumbling, which had so far seemingly gone unnoticed, suddenly drew everyone’s attention as her phone slipped through her shaking fingers and crashed onto the ground. “No!” She clapped her hands back over her mouth, but the damage was done.

Troy twisted sideways, enough to see them without putting his back to Colt.

Tobias slid his glare in their direction. “On second thought, start with the girl.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Colt said, the teasing tone gone from his voice again.

Joe appreciated that he was trying to keep them both focused on him, but holding off two vampires at once was probably not as easy as it sounded. And it didn’t sound particularly easy. So when the attempt failed and Troy turned entirely back toward them, Joe steeled himself. Physical confrontation had never been his thing. And he was educated enough to know that older, more mature vampires were stronger than newer, younger ones.

He’d just have to take the risk.

“Joe!” Kendall cried as Troy launched at them.

Only his weight never landed. There was a muted thud, accompanied by another rush of air, and Troy’s airborne body flew unnaturally sideways. He toppled into his brother, both slamming hard into the wall of the building beside them. Two distinct, muffled groans from the pair assured Joe that Troy was still alive—in the vampiric sense.

“Are you both all right?”

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