Runaway Vampire (Argeneau, #23)

Mary looked like a broken doll amid the debris surrounding her. She was pale and still, covered in blood, and Bailey lay in front of her, her back legs still tucked between the dash and the floorboard, but her upper body out. She was whimpering and licking her mistress’s face, trying to wake her.

The scent of gas reached Dante’s nose then. It was followed by a waft of smoke and he glanced toward the back of the RV. It had pretty much crumbled under the impact of the roll, the walls collapsing. Dante couldn’t see much of anything but a jumble of household items mixed in with the crumbled walls. He didn’t see fire, but he could smell the smoke it was producing somewhere in that mess.

Cursing, Dante started feeling for the buckle of his seat belt. He nearly undid it the moment he found it, but then realized that would let him drop on top of Mary and Bailey. Pausing, he glanced around, then braced his feet on the motor cover between the two seats, and tangled his arm in the upper strap of the seatbelt before releasing it. Much to his relief, while he dropped a bit and swung, Dante was able to keep himself from simply dropping onto the pair on the floor. Grabbing the belt with his free hand now, he quickly untangled his arm, and then carefully let one foot drop to the floor, positioning it behind the passenger seat at Mary’s back. Then he lowered the other as well before releasing the belt to stand behind her.

“It’s okay, girl,” Dante murmured to Bailey, as he bent to examine Mary. The amount of blood covering the pair of them was terrifying, but he could hear Mary’s heartbeat, and while it was slow and weak, it was there. Spotting the nearby empty cooler that had held the blood; he glanced around and noted that the empty bags were all around them. It gave him hope that they were the source of most, if not all, of the blood he was seeing.

Bailey whimpered again, this time licking his hand, and Dante turned back and gave the dog a quick, reassuring pet, then undid Mary’s seat belt.

“It’s all right Bailey,” he said as he scooped Mary into his arm. “Come on, let’s get her out of here.”

Dante straightened slowly with Mary in his arms, and then paused. The RV was lying on the side where the only door was situated. The only way out was through one of the windows. The front windshield was the obvious choice. It was huge. He’d guess about eight feet wide and five feet high. At least it was when the RV was upright. Right now, with the vehicle on its side, the opening was eight feet high and five wide. But there were shards of glass still in the frame, most of them small pieces, but a couple of larger ones that he had to be careful of.

“Come on, Bailey,” Dante murmured and carefully maneuvered his way through the opening, moving slowly to ensure he didn’t scrape Mary up against any of the glass shards. Once outside, he paused to glance back, frowning with concern when he saw that while Bailey was following, she was moving very slowly, and limping and whimpering in pain as she did. She’d obviously not escaped unscathed, but she was still mobile, so he left her to follow at her own speed and carried Mary several feet away from the vehicle to lay her in the grass.

Kneeling beside Mary, Dante began to run his hands over her, searching for injuries. His heart began to sink as he realized there were many of them. The blood was not all from the bags. She had cuts, bruises, broken bones, and a fearsome head wound, he saw as he turned her face to see both sides. What scared him most, however, was the jagged piece of glass he found protruding from her side. The blood was oozing out around the glass. Too much blood. Her weak heartbeat was growing slower with each beat.

“Mary,” he whispered helplessly, and then did the only thing he could; Dante slid one hand under her neck so that her head fell back and her mouth dropped open, then he raised his other wrist in front of his mouth, let his canines descend and bit viciously into his own flesh. Dante pressed the gushing wound to her open mouth, and kept it there, hunching over her protectively as the RV exploded behind him.





Twelve


Mary smiled sleepily and reached up to pet Bailey when the dog ran a wet tongue up her cheek. She frowned in confusion, however, when her hand encountered a curtain of long soft hair instead of short, dog fur. Blinking her eyes open, she peered blankly at Dante. He was leaning over her, but his head was presently turned away as he did something out of her line of vision. When he swung his head back, his eyes widened as he saw that she was awake, and then chagrin filled his expression.

“I am sorry. I was hoping to clean you up before you woke, but I did not intend to wake you. I expected you to be unconscious for a couple more hours at least.”