“Gert!” Caxton shouted. “Oh my God, Gert!”
There would be no more babies for Caxton’s celly. She would never finish her jolt and walk out the main gate of the prison. It was a twenty-five-foot drop. Straight down into coils of barbed wire. If Forbin killed Gert on the way down, it would be a blessing. Otherwise—Gert would be snarled in vicious barbed wire, struggling still with a hurt and angry vampire. There was no way that fall would kill Forbin.
“Gert!” she screamed again, wanting to close her eyes. Wanting to sink to her knees and start crying.
Unfortunately, there was no time.
Malvern was still watching her.
“You… bitch,” Caxton said.
Malvern smiled, showing all of her teeth.
“Why do you kill everyone I care about?” Caxton asked. “Why do you have to destroy my life, over and over? Is it because I’m dangerous to you? Because I’m the only one who can kill you?”
Malvern shrugged. “It’s because you’re in my way.”
Something clicked inside Caxton’s head. A puzzle piece attached to another puzzle piece. Connections started being made. She did not, however, have time to finish her thought process.
Without any further words, Malvern disappeared. She just stepped back into the shadows and vanished.
Caxton knew perfectly well that she wasn’t gone, though. Malvern didn’t know if Caxton was armed or not. She didn’t know how badly Caxton’s arm was hurt. She wasn’t going to take any chances. This time—she would go for the kill.
Caxton had chased Malvern long enough to know that what happened next would not be a game. Some vampires liked to play with their food. They would tease and scare and startle their victims until their eyes were bugging out of their heads, until they were gibbering in panic, and only then would the vampire move in to feed.
Malvern didn’t have a sadistic bone in her body. Not out of any nobility or morality, though. It was because sadism was inefficient. It didn’t help her meet her goals. She would circle around Caxton and strike from behind, and she would do it quickly. Caxton had maybe a second or two to get ready.
She ran toward the tower. It was the last direction she would be expected to go—straight toward where she’d last seen Malvern. Right into danger. It was, however, the best move defensively. The tower had walls she could hide behind.
The door to the tower was open. Caxton pushed her way inside and closed it behind her. Locked it, for all the good that would do her. Inside the tower was a small circular room containing a mounted machine gun and a searchlight that could be moved around by hand. There was also a chair, an unfinished thermos of coffee, and a dead CO.
Caxton nearly stepped on him in her haste. She pulled her foot back just in time and crouched over the body. Judging by the smell, he must have been killed back when Malvern’s half-deads took over the prison, more than a day before. Killed and then just left to rot. She apologized to him, then grabbed his stun gun and his stab-proof vest. As she clicked open its quick-release buckles, something heavy thunked against the floor. She couldn’t see very well in the gloom, so she reached down to see what had made that sound, but—
Malvern hit the door like an enraged sledgehammer. It shattered in its frame, chunks of wood and broken glass bursting through the tower room like a vicious rain. Caxton sat down hard, the stun gun held up in front of her as if it would do any good at all, and braced herself for an impact. But it didn’t come.
The doorway was empty.
“Oh shit oh shit,” Caxton breathed, because she knew what that meant. Malvern had destroyed the door just as a distraction. In point of fact, she would be behind Caxton, sizing up the back of her neck.
Caxton scrabbled upward as cold fingers brushed her spine. She swung around and threw herself behind the searchlight.