"Well, well...well." Druilla clucked her tongue and shook her head in mock sympathy as she walked slowly up to where I was strung up between her goons. "It looks like your one and only chance at salvation isn't going to be able to save you this time, witch."
Hissing against the pain of the vampire fisting my hair, I turned my head towards Fang's limp form lying on the asphalt. I was totally screwed...or in this case...staked. Turned out I picked heroes as well as I picked lottery numbers and checkout lines...really badly. Druilla was going to have to aim that stake much lower because my heart had plummeted down to my stomach.
The vampire nightmare of Vidal Sassoon wrenched my head back to face Druilla.
"Ouch! That really hurts, you asshole," I griped.
"Shut up demon spawn," came the hissed reply.
One sniff and I knew who was pulling my hair like a trichotillomania maniac. The unmistakable smell of burnt plastic, dog poo and rotten tuna fish accosted my person in a stagnant cloud. It was none other than my good buddy, Vincent.
"Hey, Vinny. Long time no see," I said, trying to roll my eyes back far enough to see his chrome domed of a head. "You know, there's this new invention they have. It's called mouthwash. You might want to give it a try sometime."
"It's Vincent," he snarled, jerking my head further back so I was eye to eye with his beady teal ones. Well...sort of. If you can count looking at someone upside down, eye to eye. I can tell you one thing, having a perfectly clear view of his flaring, wide nostrils was like looking into hairy potholes. There were things in there that I could have sworn blinked at me.
"Vincent...Druilla, let's not drag this out," Nicolai calmly said.
I could only imagine he was probably readjusting his stupid bow tie. I would have turned to see if I was correct in my assumption, but Vinny here wasn't about to let me move a muscle.
"Oh Nicolai, you take away all my fun," Druilla sighed as she stepped into my line vision.
My heart pounded in my chest so hard, I thought it might pop out like it does in the cartoons. I was terrified, but I swallowed down my panic and met her sandy gaze head on. She had the stake to her side and looked completely relaxed. Her beautiful face, composed and serene. But her golden eyes...they told a different story. She may have looked like a fairytale princess, but deep down she was pure evil and in her hand held the weapon that was going to be responsible for my untimely demise.
"She is too dangerous. Kill her quickly and let's be done with this," Nicolai said.
"Without Drake to back her up, she is hardly a danger," Druilla murmured, leaning in closer until we were almost lip to lip.
And then...I sneezed.
Not a dainty one either, but a full blown achoo of monumental proportions. The kind that made you feel like you were sitting in the front row of a Gallagher show with no rain slicker while you got deluged with bits and pieces of watermelon while he walloped them with uninhibited glee with his sledgehammer. Druilla was that poor sucker and took a shower of spittle straight to the face.
She reared back, dropping the stake as she cussed and floundered trying to wipe it off. You would have thought I had just thrown holy water at her. Seriously, I get that it's gross, but sheesh...it's not like it was acid or something.
After wiping most of it off, she charged back towards me...seething in rage.
"You...you...disgusting little twat!" She slapped me so hard my teeth rattled.
"Most people just say gesundheit," I told her once I stopped seeing stars swirling around my head. I wanted to give her an indifferent shrug to cover up the tears flooding my eyes from the sting, but I was finding it impossible. There were still about a dozen hands on me and they were holding on tighter than a balding man with a ponytail holds on to his youth.
She gave me a small bored smile, wiping the last of the evidence of my sneeze off the side of her cheek.
"Always the jokester, aren't you?" Druilla hovered over me once more, but I noticed not quite as close as before. "We had this silly idea you would be difficult to kill. But, without Drake, you are as helpless as a new born babe." Her lips curled and for the first time this evening, she looked truly furious as her calm and cool demeanor melted. "I don't know how you got Drake to fall under your spell, witch. But I will make you regret it."
Again I tried to shrug, but to no avail. "It's not my fault I have unholy sex appeal. If you'd stop acting like heifer with mad cow disease, you might have better luck in finding a boyfriend." I yanked and pulled trying to free myself. "Will you guys give it a rest already?" I huffed.
"They will...when you are dead," Druilla hissed. "And then...poor, poor Drake will be in need of comfort having lost yet another mate and I will be right there with waiting opened arms."
"And the fact he despises you isn't a hindrance or anything."
"Hindrance!" She threw her head back and laughed. Nicolai's answering chuckle floating in made me morbidly aware there was an audience beside the vampires who were still latched onto me like a pack of ticks. "I'm surprised you know how to pronounce such a big word without assistance."
"I don't need assistance to know you are a bitch," I snapped back. "Drake is never going to have anything to do with you, so why don't you just give up already?" My only hope was to use the classic villain distraction tactic to keep her talking long enough until I could escape. Which was an awesome plan. Now, if I only had one for actually escaping.
"I disagree. He will have no choice but to come to me."
I snorted. "I tell you what. Let's make a little bet. You go wake up Drake over there and we'll ask him. If he says he prefers you over say...anyone on the planet, then I'll just go about my way and you'll never see me again and you two can rule the world in vampy bliss."
She cocked an eyebrow at me. Drat! I should have known she would be able to do that too, the bitch.
"How stupid do you think I am, witch?"
"Is that a rhetorical question?"
"Enough!" Nicolai yelled from wherever he was standing. "Finish this now, or I will."
"No! She is mine to kill," Druilla snapped at him. "You promised me." She sent him a pout that made my stomach roll.
"Fine, but stop..." His voice was cut off and replaced with a grunt. There was a sickening crushing sound and then...chaos.
The echoes of punching and things breaking followed by groans and screaming filled the air. A round of colorful cussing with gently rolled R's filled my ears and made me beam brighter than neon. Fang was awake, fully functional and kicking some serious butt.
I grinned up at Druilla's whose face was more confused than the Where's the beef old lady from Wendy's. "He's going to kick your ass," I gloated.
She turned panicked eyes to me and I felt a few hands disappear off my person as a couple of the goons took off to join the scuffle, giving me the ability to almost wiggle. If it wasn't for old dragon breath holding my hair, I could have gotten loose.
"You better let me go, Vinny," I warned. "If you're still here when Drake shows up, they're going to make a movie about what he's going to do to you. After he's done, Michael Myers will look like a choir boy compared to Drake."
"Hold her!" Druilla barked, just as I felt his fingers begin to loosen. "I was going to make this as painful as possible, but..." Her eyes jumped over to the ass kicking that was still going on and I was able to finally turn my head.
Drake was poetry in motion, his legs flaring out kicking heads while his fists punched everything else that had the misfortune of invading the danger zone. A body went sailing into the air, hanging there in the moonlight just before it twisted and fell with a sickening thud onto the pavement. The goon who had done the spectacular landing, picked his head up slightly, but beings half his face was gone, he quickly gave up and clunked it back down.
We must do this quickly!" Druilla said, her eyes flicking to me and back to the moaning goon and then back to me. "Tilt her head to the side, I will drain her dry!"
Vincent cranked my head to the right so hard my spine felt like it was about to snap. But as I watched Druilla's fangs drop, I sort of wished he had broken my neck. It would have been a hell of a lot more pleasant than getting the worst hickey in history from her.
I closed my eyes tightly so I wouldn't see her red lips descending on me like a carp. But instead of feeling the sting of her bite, I heard the sound of walnuts cracking. Vinny let go of me so fast, he yanked out a handful of hair and I yelped as my ass hit the parking lot.
Rubbing the back of my head and checking for bald spots, I looked up to see the petite Courtanya beating the holy hell out of Druilla with the stake. Her little red cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk, her lips so tight, they almost disappeared and her Bambi brown eyes were filled with manslaughter. It was like watching an avenging angel with her shiny blond bangs hanging over her eyes, her quaint clothing splatter with blood as she repeatedly lifted her makeshift club over and over, beating her Mistress's unconscious form. She never looked more adorable to me than she did right at that moment and my heart swelled with pride.
Vincent recovered from Courtanya's strike and with a shake of his melon head, picked himself up to lumber towards her. Jumping to my feet, I plowed into him to intercept before he could attack my minion. Hitting him like a linebacker, I sent him barreling into the wall of the Waffle House. He stuck there for a moment before sliding down to the ground. His face far flatter than it used to be. Guh-ross!
Running back over to Bubbles, I snatched the club out of her hand before she succeeded in turning Druilla into something resembling mashed potatoes and wrapped her in a huge bear hug.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I chanted, bouncing up and down in my glee to be alive.
"Get your slimy, demon spawn hands off me," Bubbles muttered, trying to shove me off her, but my arms were like two rubber bands snapping us back together.
Giving her one last squeeze that might have cracked one of her ribs, I finally pulled away and looked into those fantastic creepy brown eyes. I was so happy to see them blinking angrily at me I could spit. Well...not really. Spitting is grody to the max and I never really quite understood that expression. Why couldn't it be something like...I'm so happy I could break out the Rocky Road or I'm so happy I could piss a rainbow? Wait. Peeing wasn't much more pleasant than spitting. Whatever, you get the point. I was pretty damn happy.
"Awe, come on Court. You know you love me."
"I most certainly do not!" she snapped. "And my name is Courtanya!"
But, I could have sworn that was quick hug she gave me before she pushed me away from her.
"You saved me. That means you liiiiiiiiiike me," I sing-songed at her, giving her shoulder a little nudge with mine.
A vampire goon dropped in on us and she stomped on his toes while I swung for left field with the stake and sent him flying. He hit the ground hard some distance away from us, twitched for a few seconds and then stopped moving.
Bubbles whirled around and poked me in the chest. "I only saved you so I can kill you myself later," she snarled, continuing the conversation as if we hadn't been interrupted.
Loud grunts and swearing followed by distinctive sounds of fists pummeling the crap out of someone brought our attention over to Fang who was standing in the middle of a blood splattered parking lot. The good news, a bunch of unmoving vampires lay strewn about around him. The bad news...he was caught between Nicolai and one of the biggest vampires thugs I had ever seen. I wasn't even sure he was actually a member of the Vampyre. Hell...if he was green, he could have easily been the Hulk.
Nicolai had some kind of blade in each hand while the other creature was content to use his fists as battering rams. Both of them swarmed around Fang like two angry bees. Nicolai would lash out with one of daggers, but Fang would duck just in time to keep his head. But as he recovered enough from one strike, the other would attack and Fang was working double time to keep them both at arm's length. He was battered and bloody. The new shirt I had given him lay in tattered strips across his torso. The rapid rise and fall of his chest was a telling sign how much effort it had taken to defeat eleven vampires the size of Volkswagens buses. Well...minus the two Bubbles and I had managed to take on.
Fang ducked another slash from Nicolai and plowed into his midsection, sending them both barreling into a black SUV. The impact of the collision collapsed the grill like a taco and Nicolai hissed in pain, lashing one of his blades out and nicking Fang's handsome face. Immediately, blood began to course down the hard edges of his cheek as he raised up a fist and smashed it into Nicolai's head.
The Hulk vampire, apparently eager to get into the foray, made a lunge for Fang. One big tree trunk of an arm rose and came down towards Fang's head, but he deflected the blow and whirled a leg out kicking the behemoth in the gut, catapulting him towards Bubbles and me. He hit the ground with a loud thud, his head falling back on the pavement with a crack. Obviously, his head was harder than the asphalt, because after a quick shake of his head, he popped back up and let out a blood curdling roar.
"How abut we pick up this discussion later," I muttered to Bubbles, tightening my grip on the stake.
"Deal," she agreed with a quick nod.
Both of us sprang into action. Jumping in the air, I swung with all my might and caught the goliath in the temple while Court tripped him up. The vampire's body hit the ground so hard, it shook. He laid sprawled out on the ground like a crime scene chalk outline and I walked up to him. Well, that was easy enough. I might just have to trade my spoon in for this stake.
"Mel! Watch out!" Fang yelled just before Nicolai sucker-punched him in the stomach.
I didn't get a chance to respond before something smashed into me and sent me soaring into the air. When I hit the ground, the air was forced out of my lungs at maximum velocity, leaving me gulping like a fish out of water. Holy Moses on a pogo stick! That hurt.
I tried to force myself up, but I was too late. The asshole straddled me, the dead weight crushing me further into the Waffle House parking lot. I pushed against his chest, but he didn't budge. He only grinned down at me, his fangs elongating and drool dripped onto my face. Yuck! I shoved even harder, trying to keep his mouth from my throat, but my arms were weakening and his ugly mug was looming closer.
An earsplitting "HI-YAH!" filled the night as a delicate foot wrapped in an adorable Prada crisscross leather espadrilles in nude crashed into the side of the assholes head.
It didn't knock him out, but it was just enough of a distraction for me to heave against his chest and roll out from underneath him. Shakily standing up, I snatched the stake and charged forward like I was breaking through a Black Friday sales line. The goon was just getting to his feet when the stake entered his chest. With another roundhouse kick that would have made Patrick Swayze proud from Bubbles, his body shoved forward until the stake was buried deep into his sternum. His eyes grew wide and glowed brightly for an instant before dimming and then with a gurgle, he keeled over and took me down with him.
No flash of light. No disintegration into ash. No oozing pile of goo. Just a really big...really dead...body lying on top of me, his glazed eyes staring at me vacantly.
Author's Note:
So Courtanya came to Mel's rescue? Does this mean they will be friends? And what about Drake? Who will win the battle? Stay tuned to find out!
I hoped you enjoyed this latest installment of FANGED and if you liked it, you will consider giving it a vote. I love hearing from you and comments are always appreciated. If you don't see any updates here, feel free to check out my other stories Bending Steele, When Roses Collide and Steal You Away.
My next scheduled update for this book is July 1rst.
As always, thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
K