At Grave s End A Night Huntress Jeaniene Frost

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.The vampire’s eyes flashed green for a moment and he murmured something, too low for me to catch.No one else noticed.The boy followed him into the next room without a pause, disappearing behind one of the partial walls.I went after them, noticing the vampire had picked the least busy place, where all the out-of-order games were kept.He was kneeling, the little boy in front of him.I could see the green light of the vampire’s gaze reflecting off the skin of the boy as he stood there, making no attempt to run or scream.He’s going to bite him right now.Right here, and he could have his body stuffed behind one of those broken machines in less than a minute.His parents will never even know he’s in danger until he’s already dead…The russet-haired vampire leaned down, no fear of parents or God or anyone else stopping him.I pulled out a silver knife from my sleeve and crept forward.Say hello to my little friend, asshole!“What the—?”I whirled, feeling the inhuman power at my back even as I heard the voice.The vampire wearing the Chuck E.Cheese costume stood behind me, his big fake mouse head tilted questioningly to the side.The other vampire dropped his hands from the little boy, and his gaze narrowed on my knife.“Silver,” he muttered.The gig was up.“Deploy!” I screamed, knowing Bones would hear me, and flung the knife.It buried into his chest to the hilt.I leapt on him in almost the same movement, knocking him over to give a few rough twists of the blade.At the same time, something heavy landed on me.And cushy.It was the vampire in the Chuck E.Cheese getup.I rolled over, crunching my legs up and then kicking the vampire off me.He hit a video game hard enough to make it crash through the window.I heard Tate shout, “Homeland Security, nobody move!” as I palmed more knives and then flung them with perfect accuracy into vamp Chuck E.’s chest.He staggered back, but didn’t go down.Damn costume must be too thick.I grabbed more knives from under my clothes and tackled him.He fought as hard as he could—while being encased in a large mouse suit.Our struggles had us rolling, me attempting to stab deep enough to penetrate that costume, and him trying to beat me while seriously hampered in his movements.“Leave Chucky alone!” I heard a child wail.Several more screamed.Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, talk about emotionally scarring these kids, watching what must appear to be a crazy woman trying to stab their beloved icon to death.They’d have nightmares for years unless Bones wiped their memories.I didn’t focus on that, however.I kept hammering away with my knives, hearing another fight break out.The other vampires.I finally got a deep enough slant on the knife under me to have the vampire go limp, and I gave the blade a final twist.I got up to the horrified gaze of children and parents alike, but there was no time to explain that Chucky wasn’t Chucky, but his evil twin instead.The blond vampire came roaring across the room to me, almost kicking people big and small out of his way.I reached for another knife, found I had only a few left, and went toward him as well.I couldn’t risk throwing my knives at him—if he ducked, whoever was behind him would get hit.No, this would have to be a brawl.My eyes blazed green.Come on, Blondie, let’s see what you’ve got.Seeing my eyes glow made him falter, but only for a moment.In my peripheral vision, I could see Belinda wrestling with the dark-haired vampire.We hadn’t given her any weapons, for obvious reasons, but it was a relief to see her fighting for us instead of against us.Behind the blond vampire, the last one appeared.He snarled and started toward me, too.Then his gaze flickered to the door.“Oh shit,” I heard him say right before he turned and ran behind the stage.I didn’t have to turn to know what had scared him; I could feel Bones enter the place.But the other vampire hit me at the same time, so I couldn’t enjoy the view of that one tucking tail and running.“You take him, I’ve got Blondie,” I called out, avoiding a set of fangs aimed for my throat.“I’ll get the sod,” Bones growled, disappearing behind the large, fuzzy, robotic figures that still sang and joked among themselves on the stage.“Let’s move it outside, people!” I ordered in between receiving and giving brutal blows.Fast, before any parents or kids became hostages.A quick glance showed Belinda roughly handling the dark-haired vampire, moving him outside by almost bear-hugging him.She seemed to be speaking to him, too, but with all this racket, damned if I knew what she was saying.A hard swipe brought my attention back to the blond vampire in front of me.Just a little farther, I chanted in my mind.I don’t want to kill you, too, in front of dozens of children.They’ll have nightmares as it is.When he was in front of the hole in the window left by the video game, I charged him, ducking low to avoid his mouth.We spilled out the window into the parking lot, pounding each other on the asphalt.I only had a couple knives left on me, not expecting losing so many of them to Chucky’s thick hide.I had to make sure I chose my moment.“Mommy, make them stop,” a child wailed, and I cursed inwardly.This was the worst setting for a vampire takedown.From the sounds of it, the guys were having a hard enough time keeping the parents and kids from fleeing to the parking lot in a panic, which would compound the problem even more.Dave barked out orders to have the dark-haired vampire Belinda had wrestled out secured in the capsule.Smart.He’d be no threat there, and we could cart him off and stake him at our leisure later.I was ducking to avoid a roundhouse punch that would have snapped my neck when I saw Belinda, no longer restraining the other vampire, suddenly seize Zachary, a newer recruit, and bury her fangs into his throat.“Tate, stop her!” I screamed, helpless to do anything as Belinda gave a jerk and Zachary fell back, clutching his neck with red streaming between his fingers.Then Belinda ran.I heard gunshots, cursing, and the scrambling of feet as several of the team rushed over.“Hostile on the loose, secure the perimeter!” Cooper shouted.I gave the vampire in front of me a grimly cold stare.“I don’t have time for this,” I growled, and charged him, knocking both of us over.His fists pummeled me, but I didn’t defend myself.I took the battering, holding his mouth away from my throat with one hand and ramming my knife into his heart with the other.Three rough scissors of that blade and he was dead the permanent way.I crawled off him.My ribs hurt tremendously, but I didn’t cradle my aching sides like I wanted to.A scuffle to my left made me whip my head around, just in time to see the dark-haired vampire who had been about to be pronged in the capsule fling the two soldiers nearest him to the ground.Most of the team who weren’t guarding the exits had gone after Belinda, except for the ones kneeling by Zachary.This vampire had taken full advantage of their distraction.Dave leapt for him, but the vampire ducked under, slid like a macabre penguin on his belly, and then took off at a flat run [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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