“Like hell you will,” Nigel said, gripping her flesh arm.
She gazed up at him, eyes charred by the screaming sun. “It’s them, Nigel. I know this woman’s face like I know my own.” Westie caught a glimpse of a tan Stetson over Nigel’s shoulder. “There he is,” she said when the sheriff came into view.
Her hand trembled, stomach coiled with nerves. She shook off Nigel’s grip and made her way toward the sheriff. Nigel lunged at her and Alistair followed. Their first attempt to take Westie down before she reached him didn’t go well. Alistair received a copper blow to the chest that knocked the air out of him. Nigel’s strength was no match, and he soon found the seat of his trousers dusted with red clay when she pushed him down.
“Stop her!” Nigel cried out to Bena, but Bena had seen the aftermath of what the cannibals had done to Westie’s family and made no move to help in the effort.
Westie cussed as the hem of her skirt caught on a broken hitching post. Struggling to get free without stripping down to her bloomers, she failed to notice Costin at her side until he tackled her.
She flailed her arms for something to grab hold of. It was no use. Her head hit the dirt with a blunt sound. The pain it caused wasn’t as dull. It rippled through her like a rock being dropped into a sleeping pond. Costin straddled her waist while Nigel pinned her metal arm to disable her strength. A tendon in her shoulder was the key to her machine, a shutoff switch. The arm was useless when enough pressure was applied. Nigel knew exactly where to push, and there was no doubt in Westie’s mind that he’d planned it exactly that way when attaching the machine to her arm. If it hadn’t been for that vulnerability, there would’ve been nothing to stop her strength.
A choking veil of red dirt rose around them as the pair worked to contain her. She fought like a feral cat. Tears filled her eyes. She let out a howl that caused the women who’d gathered around to step back, and their children to take shelter behind their skirts.
“What’s happening to her?” she heard Costin ask.
“She’s having a seizure,” Nigel said to Costin and the crowd, “a long-standing medical condition. Please stand back and give the poor girl some air.”
Costin started to stand. Nigel stopped him. “No, not you. I need help keeping her down.” Costin hesitated. Eventually his weight settled on her again.
He looked down at her. His face was hidden by his veil, but she saw his throat move when he swallowed. “Do you need my blood to heal her?” he said.
The onlookers gasped. It was an astonishing thing to ask. The consumption of vampire blood by humans and creatures alike was illegal. It certainly had its healing qualities, but it could give a powerful deadly creature even more strength. It could give humans an unnaturally long life span, or it could give them a horrible death and even turn them into the Undying, if someone were to consume too much. It was poison, after all. Only a vampire knew the right dosage, and vampires couldn’t be trusted.
Nigel whipped his head to face Costin and answered with an enthusiastic “No!”
He leaned into Westie’s ear so only she could hear his words. “Stop this at once,” he demanded.
Slobber frothed from her lips. “They’ll pay for what they did,” she said through gritted teeth.
“I’m not releasing you until you calm down.”
Clay stuck to her cheeks, turning tears to mud. “But it’s them,” she said, hating how meek she sounded.
Nigel’s expression battled between anger and sorrow. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know? Where’s your proof?”
Her forehead wrinkled. “I don’t have any.”
Nigel pinched her face between his fingers and forced her to look at the woman in red and the family walking toward them. “Look at them,” he said. Westie blinked the dust from her eyes. “Those are people of society with a fortune in their pockets. Money means power. Do you honestly think anyone will believe they are cannibals? And do you think the sheriff will just take your word for it like he did the last time?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “I assure you he will not. If you go off spouting accusations and the Fairfields catch wind of it, they will get spooked and leave.”
No, that wasn’t at all what she wanted. She hadn’t thought of it that way. If the sheriff didn’t believe her, the Fairfields would be gone, and by the looks of it they had enough money to take themselves far out of her reach.
“You need to forget about this, at least until we can get home and discuss it rationally,” Nigel said. He let go of her face. “Now, pull yourself together.”
She wanted to curl into a ball and hide from everyone watching her. “I don’t think I can.”
“You must try.” He glanced to his side. “And be quick about it.”
The faces of the mayor and the woman in red appeared above her like air balloons hiding the sun.