Page 40 of Blood Illusions

“Go,” Justice yelled. His voice was like a gun going off at a track meet.

My feet were already sprinting toward the Fairlane before my brain had time to process what was going on. My shaking hands stayed firmly clenched around my bow and arrow, though it felt like aiming at an invisible target. Nothing I saw was moving any slower than a hurricane.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Equinox leap into the air without Justice. His brown-feathered wings flapped hard as he kept flying higher.

More blurs flashed through the trees.

There was no way I could fire the crossbow. They were too damn fast.

One of the hyped-up vampires raced in front of the Fairlane and sneered, revealing razor-sharp fangs. He was six feet tall and wearing a suit. The GQ vampire lunged at me.

Someone grabbed my arm hard and dragged me away from the car, moving full steam ahead. The fang’s fingertips brushed over my skin. My feet barely touched the ground. I couldn’t even breathe. The only thing I could do was hold on to my weapon.

I glanced up to see Justice’s determined face, his grip firmly on Damon’s arm. I tripped over my feet and fell onto the soft bed of soil and plants in the neighbor’s garden. The earthy smell of sage filled me as pain pulsed through my palms and knees.

A fierce growl snarled behind me, and four dark shapes broke away from the other vampires, trampling through the plants toward us. Before I could get up, Justice had assumed a protective stance in front of me while Damon held his sword above his head.

My fingers trembled as I raised my crossbow. With a deep breath, I aimed at one of the stoked-up vampires and loosed it with a sharp twang. It pierced his chest, and he dropped to his knees with a howl, smoke billowing around as flames licked through his body. He was quickly reduced to ash that scattered in the wind.

The remaining vampires leaped toward us, landed in the middle of the garden, and screamed. They turned to run, but flames consumed them. One of them reached across the rock garden boundary, and the flesh burned away, leaving a skeletal hand.

Damon’s eyes widened with shock and a hint of satisfaction. “Well, looks like we found the vampires’ new kryptonite. Who knew gardening could be so deadly?”

“I didn’t burn up. Why did they? Sage isn’t supposed to be lethal to vampires,” Justice mumbled as he knelt to examine the vampires’ ashes.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.” Besides the sage, there were ornamental grass shrubs with red and orange hues, columbines, tiny white flowers, and purple lobelias.

Equinox glided back down and stood in front of Justice, prancing his feet.

I heaved a sigh as I looked at Equinox. “At least you’re safe.”

My lingering fear and shock was like a physical blow that sent me tumbling to the ground. Every hair stood on end, and my heart raced faster than an engine revving out of control. My entire body started shaking uncontrollably, and it felt like a swarm of spiders had taken over my veins.

No matter how many cases I’d been on before, nothing prepared me for this. It terrified me in a way I had never experienced before.

“We need to collect some of these ashes,” Justice remarked with an edge of hesitation in his voice.

Damon stared in disbelief. “With what?” he asked, gesturing to the charred pile of ash at their feet. “It’s not like anyone is carrying around a vial.”

“Then we improvise.” Justice scooped ashes into his palm. “Back at the house, we can find a container to put this in.”

Damon walked over to the skeletal hand. It was singed and curled into a shape resembling a spider. He bent down and peered at it more closely. “Looks like we found one thing that missed the bonfire.”

I drew a stiff breath. “Why did the bodies burn up and not the hand?”

Damon shook his head. “I don’t know.” He poked it with a stick as if he was afraid to touch it. “There must be something in this garden that is deadly to those vampires.”

Justice nodded with understanding. “You’d better grab the hand.”

Damon took off his jacket and picked it up. “Hope you have something in the house for this dead spider.”

I looked at the neighboring house. There were no cars in the driveway, nor did any lights turn on. “I guess they missed all the excitement.”

The three of us and Equinox retraced our steps back to the safe house, our eyes darting to and fro. Justice had dropped his sack of books next to our car, and luckily, it was still there. The air around us was deathly still, and no heat emanated from my forearm. I didn’t know where the other vampires had gone.

When we reached the house, Justice looked at Equinox. “Stay here. I’ll be back shortly.”

The pegasus nodded as if he understood. Maybe he did. For all I knew, the pegasus could read our minds.

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