Dancing Dragon (44 page)

“Come on then,” I coaxed him. “Show me what you've got.”

I fingered my stake and settled myself into a fighting stance. I could have made this quick and easy. He wasn't a master, just a low level rogue. I could have spun towards him and taken him by surprise. He lacked the
Sanguis
Vitam
to be able to match my speed. I could have ended this in under ten seconds flat. And considering there was a cowering human on the sidelines, I should have. But, I needed to feel something other than loss. I needed to wipe the loss and heartache and sadness away. Pain would do it. The physical pain of a fight.

I let him circle closer, feinted a move to the left and a half hearted lunge to his right and received a solid punch in my shoulder for my efforts. A dull pain shot down my arm and made me feel more alive than anything had in weeks. I rolled my neck from side to side and was rewarded with a glint of satisfaction from the vamp. He thought I was untrained. Funny. I'd had the best Nosferatin teacher in the world. Nero would be chastising me for what I was doing right now. Letting a vampire beat me.

His fist found my jaw and I was forced to punch him in the diaphragm in return, or let him near my neck. I may have wanted a hands on battle, but my neck was off limits. I twirled  away and using the force of his last strike, punched him in the kidneys, and then feinted a stumble backwards. He spun, unaffected by my last pulled punches and landed a fist to my stomach, followed by a fucking beauty to the side of my head.

OK, so now stars were sparkling and the world had decided to spin. Time was up. Any further and this pathetic excuse for a blood sucker
would
get the better of me. I rounded with a side kick to his upper chest and followed through with a roundhouse to his head. He stumbled - I don't think it was an act like mine had been - and then recovered quickly with a pounce.

I was momentarily impressed. Most would have chosen by now to high-tail it down the deserted street causing me to chase. I may not be a vampire who enjoys the chase of their prey, but I am descended from something like them, so I can appreciate the irony. Let them think they can escape when really their capture is inevitable. This vamp was on borrowed time.

Tell
him
that.

He came at me with his fangs down and an eerily red glow to those baby blue eyes. I tried to ignore the purple and swiped out with my right hand landing a gash with my stake, at least an inch deep, into the side of his arm. He growled - a nasty high pitched sound of pain - and sprang off against the wall of a building beside us to land on top of me in a flash. So much for my superior speed. Or his lack thereof.

We tumbled for a few feet, the world doing its topsy-turvy thing and allowing me to see the human had finally exited stage left. Thankfully I wouldn't have to convince him the vampire bursting into dust was all a dream. My back hit the edge of the pavement, right above the gutter. Any harder and I'm sure it would have fractured. As it was I did grunt with pain and had to grit my teeth through the after effects.

I rolled him over onto his back. I'm stronger than they expect. He did seem surprised. But, despite my superior position I still couldn't land the damn stake. His arm came up and blocked my downward strike and then his other simply peeled me off his body and tossed me away. I jumped to my feet instantly and spun back towards his side.

I would have landed the stake right at his heart, but I'll admit, I was having too much fun. I'd underestimated this vampire and he was giving me the best fight I'd had since I got here. I wasn't ready for it to end. My stake slashed down the front of his chest baring muscle and tendons beneath. He screamed, a horrible frightening sound, that under normal circumstances would have made me pause, but I just smiled and slashed another down the side of his thigh.

He collapsed to one knee. His breath ragged. Even though vampires don't need oxygen to survive, when they exert themselves it's damn near impossible not to breathe. Pain also does it. An old human spill-over from when they were alive. Suck in a breath and breathe through the pain. This guy was sucking deep. Silver hurts.

“Just do it,” he said in a low voice.

“What?” I asked, a little incredulous that he'd end this game so soon. “You're still upright, you can fight.”

He growled and then spat some blood out of the side of his mouth. Ni-ice.

We stood there facing each other for a while. When it was obvious that I wasn't going to make it easy for him, he leapt to his feet, gritted his teeth and flew at me. It was a standard vampire attack. Launch and use brute strength. No real strategy. No real plan.

I dropped to the ground on my back and as he flew over top of where I lay, I thrust my stake up into his heart. He burst into dust above me before he had made it a further foot along. I let the dust flow down around me softly, like a welcome blanket of warmth, holding my breath until it all stilled. Then wiped it off my face and took a slow breath in.

What was happening to me? I'd never draw a fight out like that before.

It was the sound of shoes on pavement that made me jump to my feet. I think I would have wallowed there on my back for a bit longer, given the opportunity. But, my sense of sound is keen and although I couldn't see the owner of those expensive sounding shoes yet, I was already prepared to defend myself. Or die trying at least.

I took a quick glance around me and realised I'd allowed myself to be cornered. This was a dead end delivery lane to several of the shops behind the hotel. Stupid. In my need to fight I had failed to take in my environment. A rookie mistake. Something I hadn't made for at least two years now. Nero would be spinning in his grave.

I tried a door handle to one of the premises nearby. Used a little Light to free the lock, only to find it had a deadbolt on the other side. I could shift it, if I concentrated hard enough and have enough time. But neither of those was an option. Time was up and for some reason I couldn't think straight to save myself. Now, I felt little tendrils of fear. Suddenly, I was a tasty meal for the vampire who approached.

I could tell he was a vampire, it's just what I do. A Nosferatin knows a Nosferatu immediately. It's their
Sanguis
Vitam
, it thrums in the air and hums in our mind. This was a high level vampire, no dreg of society like the rogue I'd just dusted. This one had clout.

I was just about to try to scale a brick wall when he entered the lane. Dressed in faded jeans and a black bomber leather jacket. Thick soled biker's boots on his feet and a dark green, almost black T-Shirt hugging his muscular chest. He looked all business. That's the business of taking care of a vampire hunter who strays.

My eyes trailed up the length of his immaculate tall frame and took in a familiar, handsome and arrogant face. I let a breath of air out in relief and then bit my bottom lip to bring me back to reality. If he was here, it was for one thing. And I certainly wasn't going to give it to him.

“You should know better than to play with them, before you end their lives, Ms. Monk.”

He'd found me. After only two months of hiding, Avery Rousseau had tracked me down.

Find more Nicola Claire books at:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5831941.Nicola_Claire