The smell of sulfur gets stronger, and I know more of these things are coming for me. I throw my legs to the side, twisting my body over. My face presses into the damp ground as I’m dragged forward, and we go a few more feet before I’m able to yank one arm free. I grab his ankle and he trips. Several strands of my hair break and snap in his hand as he falls.
I scramble up, kick him hard in the ribs once, twice, three times before taking off. I sprint through the woods with no sense of direction. If I stopped and looked up, gave myself a minute to get a feel for the land, I’d be able to tell where I was going. But stopping to get my bearings would mean certain death.
I’ll come to a road or a clearing eventually. This nature park isn’t that big. And these things…these hillbilly psychos on bath salts…they won’t follow. I’ll come back prepared and I’ll—
Something hard collides with the back of my head. Pain radiates through me and I pitch forward, ears ringing. My vision is spotty and I desperately move forward, holding my hands out in front of me.
I smell him before I see him. The guy I bashed over the head with a rock stands before me, grinning and holding a rock in his hand. Nausea twists inside of me and I try to push through the pain. Something warm drips down my temple and I cannot get my vision to focus.
He raises his hand, drool running down his chin, and I flinch, bracing for the pain. Before he can bring his hand down, he’s yanked backwards into darkness. The rock falls to the forest floor with a dull thud. The bare branches above me shudder as if a thousand birds took flight.
Two of the creatures look at each other, confused. Then they run at me, but he gets there first.
Hasan comes from the sky, landing right in front of me. His large wings are open, acting as a shield. I can’t see what’s going on, but I can hear the carnage. Reaching up to my head, I carefully feel the wound. It’s bleeding like crazy but doesn’t feel deep. It’ll sting for a good while, that’s for sure, and I’m already pissed about the little bald spot this is going to create. I don’t think I need stitches, but there’s a chance I have a concussion.
“Acelina.” Jacques’s voice rings out in the dark. His feet hit the earth and he folds his wings in, coming for me, holding out a hand. I shouldn’t trust him. I don’t know him. I don’t understand what he is. For all I know, he could have sent these creatures after me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Hasan lift one of them off the ground and snap its neck, twisting until he rips the head clean off. He tosses it down and lurches forward, half running, half flying. Thomas and Gilbert aren’t far, and I see flashes of their wings and claws through the trees. They’re fighting the creatures.
Killing them with ease.
They can do the same to me.
“Ace,” Jacques repeats, and I snap my attention back to him. I only have half a second to make a decision to trust him or not. I’m soaking wet—again—and bleeding from my head. I can’t keep sitting here on the forest ground if I want to live. Especially not when those things keep coming.
I take his hand. He pulls me to my feet, then wraps his arms around me, bringing me to his chest. His flesh is warm like mine but rough, almost calloused. I guess that’s what happens when you spend a thousand years sitting out in the elements. Gently, he presses his hand to the wound on my head, trying to stop the bleeding.
“You’re shivering again.”
“Yeah,” I say through chattering teeth. “It’s still cold and I fell in a creek.”
“Why did you do that?”
I narrow my eyes, not liking being patronized. If I wasn’t so fucking cold, I’d push him away. “I didn’t do it on purpose. I was trying to get away from those…those things.”
“Vampires.”
“Excuse me?”
“Those things. They’re vampires.” He looks down at me. “I’m guessing you’re not familiar with vampires, either.”
“Not in this sense.”
Jacques brings his hand back, wiping the blood on his pants. I push away, looking around him, and see Hasan grab the remaining vampire, lifting him one-handed by the neck. He looks more like a Greek god than a monster right now, with flexing muscles and powerful wings. Blood’s spattered across his face, and his dark eyes are set.
He says something to the vampire, speaking an ancient language I don’t understand. The vampire responds with hisses, madly swinging his arms at Hasan. With a frown, Hasan grabs his head and twists.
Thomas and Gilbert appear from the trees, both smiling.
“That was fun,” Gilbert says.
“Too easy, though.” Thomas pushes his golden locks behind his ear. “I thought there’d be more.”
“There usually are.”
I step away from Jacques, glad to stand on my own but missing his body heat. I’m so incredibly tired of being wet and cold tonight. Bodies lie on the forest floor. What am I going to say to the crime scene investigators?
“Those things are vampires?” I ask in disbelief. “If you tell me they sparkle in the sun, I’m going to puke.”
“They die in sunlight,” Jacques says seriously. I don’t think he’d know sarcasm if it came up and bit him in the ass. He turns his attention back to me. “Are you ill?”
“No,” I say, though there’s a good chance I’ve gone insane. Gargoyles. Vampires. What’s next, fairies?
“Are they still eating bone?” Gilbert nudges a body with his foot.
“Yeah…how did you know?”
He looks at his fellow brothers. “When they’re first turned, blood isn’t enough. They eat the bone as well for the first few years. Once the transformation is complete, blood is all that’s needed to sustain them.”
The implications of his words hit me hard, and I’m dizzy all over again. “Something is out there turning people into vampires?”
“Yes.”
“Lovely.” I pull my hood up over my head, but all it does is dump wet leaves down my back.
“You need to warm yourself,” Hasan tells me gruffly. “Before you fall ill.”
Should I tell him it’s been proven cold doesn’t actually make you sick? The entire concept of medicine and disease will be foreign to them.
“I plan on taking a long, hot shower when I get—fuck. I need to get back to work.” I put my head in my hands. Don’t lose your shit, Ace. I rub my eyes and look back at the gargoyles. “How did you find me?”
Jacques looks at me as if it’s obvious. “You summoned us.”
6
“I didn’t summon anything,” I insist. “I don’t know how to.”
“We heard you,” Thomas says, and taps the side of his head. “In here.”
Being able to telepathically communicate with the gargoyles is crazier than the dead vampires feet from me. “You heard me summon you?” I repeat, needing to hear it again.
“Not quite like that,” Gilbert explains. “It’s more like we could sense you were in danger.”
“How?”
Jacques’s brow furrows, and he considers his words before speaking. But as soon as he opens his mouth to talk, static comes through the radio.
“Shit,” I say, and pull the walkie from my belt. “How the hell am I going to explain this?”
“You don’t,” Hasan says.
“I have to say something about the bodies out here. You said they were turned. So that means they’re people. Missing and murdered people who could have families and friends and pets waiting to be fed at home. I can’t just leave them.”
“The people from our time were unaccepting of dark forces,” Thomas starts. “From your reaction earlier, I think it’s safe to say they still are.”
“Yeah, they’re not at all and are probably a lot less accepting now. We don’t blame demons for half the problems people did back then.” I bring the walkie to my face and tell whoever is contacting me I followed a dead lead and am on my way back.
I’ve never lied like this at work before.
“We will handle the vampires,” Jacques says, putting his hand on my shoulder. His touch is warm and sends a pulse of heat through me, right to my core. “We’ve sworn an oath to do God’s will. It is our duty.”