Into Death's Arms (41 page)

      Dayton pulled me briefly into his arms and kissed me hard. Then he stepped back his fangs elongating, his eyes glowing neon. I was glad he was a
Vamp
ire
as well as an AoLi it was hard for an AoLi to kill, not so much for a
Vamp
ire
, I didn’t want him hurt. He
stalked off tracking one of the
Shifters
who was beginning to shift. I watching him go. He was all predator and it made me tingle from head to toe watching him.

      A werewolf in mid-form lifted his lips at me in a snarl and beckoned to me with one large clawed finger.
He was looking so sure of himself. I so wanted to knock that smug look off his face. So, I shot him. Yeah, I know it wasn’t sporting but it was fun. I shot him in the chest because he was still a good hundred feet from me, which was too far to hit something as small as his head.  He roared and sprang toward me. One hundred feet might be too far to hit him with a bullet but he leapt it like it was nothing. He knocked me to the ground, I immediately rolled and was up and shot him in the chest again. He roared and swiped me with his claws. I had already learned the two tricky things about fighting with
Shifters
were, one
stay out from under them, and two
stay out of the way of their claws
,
do those two things and you’re good. I stayed away from his claws.
H
e
snapped h
is head forward and sank his to
sharp teeth into my left shoulder. Damn that hurt. Stupid
Shifters
all teeth and claws, I shot him a third time. This time I was close enough I got his heart. He fell back and didn’t get back up. 

     Another wolf was on me in a second. He backhanded me so hard I flew back a couple of feet and landed on my ass. That was going to leave a mark. I hopped back up. My shoulder hurt, my face hurt, I was getting pissed. I was glowing brightly. I pulled the gladius from my back. Shooting them was taking too long. I braced waiting for him to come at me. He was smarter than a lot of the
Shifters
I’d fought he didn’t just jump at me. He moved around me looking for an opening.
I was breathing hard.

  
I could feel the wind brushing against my skin. The air smelled of smoke and blood. The
Shifters
brown hair blew around him. He didn’t break eye contact. Then he dove toward my feet. Four massive claws tore at the back of my leg. I crumpled. Crap!

  
I rolled trying to get away from him but he had been expecting me to fall so he was on me in no time. His claws dug into my thighs as he pulled me closer to him.
The dirt dug into my back as I was dragged closer to the mass of claws and fangs. I was swinging my sword at him but he was too close I couldn’t get the angle right. He rose above me mouth open wide ready to bite. I put up my arm trying to block him from my throat. Sure, I’d bleed a bit but it wouldn’t have killed me.

  
White hands closed around his head and turned it swiftly. He fell away from me. Dayton was standing above me. “Do try not to get killed
,
my sweet
,
I have waited entirely too long to have you, I don’t want to lose you now.” he held out his hand. He was bleeding from several locations too.

      I let him pull me to my feet.
“You have a lot of room to talk,
” I snorted. I was hopping on one
foot,
as the other leg wasn’
t working anymore. He kissed me, crushing my body to his own. Heat speared me. Not the normal kind of heat I got from him although it was a divine kiss. No, it was an overwhelming warmth like I had a fever. I felt the wo
und on my leg close up. Sneaky
Vamp
he was healing me. “Thank you,” I whispered.

     He smiled at me. “Always,” he brushed the hair from my face.  We turned back toward the fire. More
Shifters
were moving toward us. The lion who’d nearly killed me in Dayton’s building was standing not too far off.
    

  
He
leapt upon me. This time I rolled with
him,
I didn’t want him on top of me again. It hadn’t worked out so well for me the last time. I came up on top thank God and I hadn’t lost my grip on the
Sig
, bonus! I leveled it at his head but he managed to knock my hand away and the shot went wide.  He held my wrist with bone crushing force. “Last time I wasn’t trying to kill you Ao this time
you aren’t going to be so lucky,” h
e snarled.

      I
leaned down so our faces were almost touching, obscuring his view of my left hand. “It’s AoD,” I jerked back and plunged my silver blade into his chest. His eyes went wide but the big ass lion didn’t die.  He shifted to his mid-form, crap they healed when they shifted I watched while the wound closed around the knife protruding from his chest. Blood still traveled down his chest but the flow had definitely slowed. I jerked the knife out and stabbed again but he caught it with his off hand. Now he was squeezing the hell out of both of my wrists I screamed but I wasn’t going down easy this time. I slammed my forehead into the bridge of his nose. Dogs noses are sensitive it stands to reason a were-critters no
se would be sensitive too. He
yowled in pain. Yeah
,
that noise cats make when their fighting outside your house late at night
,
that would be the sound that came from his mouth. He bucked me off his body.  I landed on my rump but I was okay with that because my gun hand was free. I pointed at his chest and pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession. He stood, looked down at his chest in surprise and slumped back to his knees. I didn’t get to see him actually eat dirt because I was jumped by another damn
Shifter
.

      This one was a wolf he’d already taken his mid-form. His big hairy hands slashed out toward me. I was still on my butt. I
laid down and pointed my gun at him. I could only get his big meaty arm but hey bullets in the arm
don’t
kill but I bet they still hurt like all get out.  Oh, and b
lood loss when it’s your enemy
is always a good thing. He took the bullet in his right arm and swung away from me giving me time to get up off the ground. He was standing less than a foot from me. Spittle slid from his canines, eww. He was circling me trying to decide how best to attack me. I snorted and brought up my
Sig
again, “You’re making it too easy.” I said as I pulled the trigger again. Silver plus bullet makes
a
big mess when it comes to
Shifters
he fell to the earth twitching. I looked around.

       My father was battling it out with Kinsley. They
were both bleeding but neither of them had done any
major
damage yet
.

   
Dayton slid his sword into the belly of a
Shifter
whose eyes had gone very round. Dayton had blood on his mouth and seemed to be smiling.
My mind hissed
Vamp
ire
, but
a minute ago I’d been laughing
at the carnage
who was I to judge.

   
Donovan tore a swath through the resisting
Shifters
it was a gruesome sight to behold. I was glad the night I’d broken his
kneecaps
he hadn’t been expecting me to fight.
H
e could have killed me easy
, he must not have wanted to
.  A bear lunged up behind him
and I shot it without even thinking
. I saved
Donovan’s
life, damn I’d come far. The bear staggered but got back to its feet. I was running toward it and pulling my gladius from its sheath in the same moment.  Bad thing about guns eventually they run out of bullets and you had to reload.

   
He lumbered after Donovan but I let out a roar that had him turning toward me. I leapt into the air and brought the blade down with a force that would have cleaved a normal man in half.
Unfortunately,
bears are the toughest of the
Shadow-born
the blade sank into his shoulder but got lodged in his sternum.

  
He wasn’t going to live long with a wound like that but he didn’t have to live long to tear me apart. He grabbed for me with his claws I was just a bit more spry than
him,
as I didn’t have an ancient sword sticking out of my chest. I dodged but didn’t let go of my blade. I was going to need it. He swung again just as I managed to
jerk my sword free of his body. The sudden release made me fall back just a little his claws tipped my left arm, leaving behind small bloody scratches.

  
He on the other hand was bleeding profusely. “Just die already!” I yelled at him as he swung his arms again. I was expecting it and crouched down. I twisted to the right and punched the sword into his left armpit. It slid in smooth. He took one shuddering breath and fell. Claws sank into my lower back. Holy hell that hurt, then the
Shifter
proceeded to lift me off the ground with the same claw. I heard a crunch and for a moment was worried he’d broken something so badly I’d gone into shock but I dropped to the ground. I turned to see what had just happened.
 

    
Donovan dropped the
Shifters
body to the ground then spit a chunk of meat onto the corpse. The
Shifters
neck had been torn from him. I gulped, yep, could have killed me easy.
He held out his hand to
help me up. I took it. “Thanks,” h
e said and was moving away again stalking some other
Shifter
. Bodies were strewn about us.

     
I took another moment to look around. I was
worried;
I had too much to lose on this field.
Kinsley had
shifted;
my father glowed like I’d never seen before. His back was to me so I couldn’t see if he’d taken much damage or not but I did see a black form moving toward him. Silver claws were raised into the air. I bowled the
Dream-walker
over. He struggled to get upright, as I climbed up his body. I had dropped my sword when I hit him. I pulled out one of my knives and was deciding where to stab him when I realized he wasn’t fighting back. His eyes weren’t scared or pissed like any of the others they were relieved.

  
Yeah, I’d be damned if I was going to be
his
savior.
He’d killed my mother whether he’d wanted to or not. He’d done the deed. I just sat on him. He was weak from being a prisoner for so long. It was easy to overpower him. “Where is Laith?” I asked him. Completely aware of the fact that I looked like death itself at that moment.

      “Other side of the fire,
” h
e gasped out. That whole relieved look was gone.
“You’re not going to finish me,
” he asked roughly.

      “No, you
’ll
suffer more living than you would dead.” I hissed. I grabbed his hair. “Up we go.” I said as I lurched to my feet dragging him behind me. He stood but couldn’t get completely
upright,
as I was a lot shorter than he was. I dragged him toward the bonfire. From what I know about
Dream-walkers
,
they are the most sensitive to light so it was a spiteful thing to do. That’s okay I was feeling pretty spiteful.

  
We got about three feet from the fire when another wolf was jumping at me. God I should have reloaded my gun. I spun so he slammed into Nikissos. They both grunted and tumbled to the ground. I let go of the
Dream-walker
so I wouldn’t be pulled to the ground yet again. I’d spent enough time in the dirt tonight as it was. The
Shifter
tried to get to his feet. I raised my sword but before I could strike the
Shifters
, mouth fell open. Silver tipped claws emerged from the
Shifters
chest.
It was my turn to be surprised.

     “Duck,” Nikissos mouthed from behind the
Shifter
. As he’d just killed one of my enemies I decided to listening to him might be a good plan. I fell to my knees. Large tawny covered arms flew over my head just where my torso had been moments before. Lions blah, I spun on my left knee and plunged my sword
into his belly. He looked down with a rather surprised look on his face.

     I rose pulling the blade along with me. “I
…
really
…
don’t
…
like
… lions!
You guys are always trying to tear me up.”
I punctuated each word with a yank of the blade as I tried to drag it through his breastbone.
I actually disliked bears more as my big brother was a lion.
That meant
there was at least one lion I really liked.
Besides,
bears
were harder to kill. Hi
s blood was racing down the edge of the blade.