Slayed (10 page)

A wave of icy terror slaps me as I look up and see a man somehow defying gravity as he scurries across the ceiling toward me like a spider. He leaps down and lands catlike on the rafter above me. His eyes are black as tar and he smiles, revealing two impossibly large canine teeth. Before I can even fully register what I’m seeing, he jumps down to the loft and knocks me onto the bed like a rag doll. I lose my grip on the stake and hear it clatter to the floor.

I try to roll off the bed, but he pins me with one arm and tears away at my shirt with sharp fingernails. He grabs my braid and pulls my head back and stares down at me hungrily. He licks his lips and then plunges at my chest—classic I-don’t-want-it-to-get-noticed spot. I gasp as his teeth sink into my flesh above my breast—but then a calmness flows through me. The pain disappears. I hear
him sucking hungrily and feel like I’m floating. Warmth radiates from his bite. Electric shocks tingle under the trail of his hand at it roams my body. I lean my hips into him and I want to beg him to never stop, but I can’t find my voice.

“Get off her, you freaking psycho!”

Suddenly his mouth is torn from me and I cry out. “No!” Pain radiates from my wounds and I push myself up and try to clear my head.

Kiki is stabbing the vampire in the back with her hunting knife. He howls in frustration, my blood spraying from his mouth. He turns and pulls the knife from Kiki’s hand and throws it over the loft rail into the main room. She screams as he grabs her by her ponytail and drags her to the rail, pinning her with his body.

I can’t let anything happen to her.

My body still feels fuzzy and I struggle to get my knife from its sheath on my leg. With every ounce of energy I can muster, I raise my arm and come down hard on the back of his neck. Bones crack and I’m sure I’ve partially severed his spinal cord. This distracts him enough for Kiki to push him back. He lands on the bed and she’s on him. Stake raised high, she plunges it directly into his heart on the first try. He goes limp and I swipe my blade, hacking against his neck until it’s severed all the way through.

Kiki and I stare down at him—our labored breathing the only sound.

“I thought you said they aren’t very powerful in the daytime,” she manages to say in between gasping breaths.

“They’re not supposed to be. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It was like he was at full power times ten.” The body hasn’t decayed much so he’s not one of the ancient vampires that are stronger than normal. What gives?

“You didn’t tell me they were wall-crawlers like Spider-Man either.”

I look at her helplessly. “I’ve never seen one do that.” I cover my mouth with my hand and force myself to take slower breaths through my nose. What the hell kind of vampire was he?

“You’re bleeding.”

I look down at my chest and besides the puncture wounds there are deep scratches from where he ripped at my shirt.

“Let me get something to stop it.” She runs down the stairs and I hear her ripping a sheet. I collapse on the bed next to the vampire trying to understand what just happened.

She pounds back up, and I take the ripped piece from her. I wince as I put pressure on my wounds. “Well, we’re even now. I saved your life and you saved mine.”

“Wow. I did, didn’t I?” She sits next to me. “Holy unicorn shit. I just killed my first vampire.” She gives a little laugh. “When you opened that bathroom door I wanted to run the hell out of this place and curl up in a ball and cry—but now I am officially
Kiki Crusher, vampire slayer
.”

We both do jazz hands and despite the pain, I laugh. I imagine we look surreal—two girls—one half-dressed and bleeding—giggling on a bed next to a decapitated vampire with a stake in his chest.

“If this were a fairy tale your debt to me would be paid and we could each ride off into our own sunset,” I offer.

She shakes her head. “I’m not going anywhere. I know people in this town. What if they get Dorothy who runs the bookstore—or Gabe—or even Shelly who is always trying to stop me from ordering more drinks?”

I look her in the eye. “Are you
really
up for another house cleaning?”

“Are you?”

“I guess so. My mother would certainly expect me to be.” I look over at the vampire. “It’s never been this bad during the daytime; I think this guy was some sort of fluke. I’m also thinking I’ll need a couple of painkillers before the next house. If you want to call it quits though, I
totally
understand.”

She sniffs. “I’m not going to let you do it by yourself—you almost got killed just now.”

I want to protest, but she’s right. I was sloppy. In my defense I’ve never seen a vampire crawling around on the ceiling before, but still …

“Why do your parents let you hunt alone? Aren’t they worried you might … you know …”

Her question makes my stomach churn uncomfortably. I’ve asked myself this question before. How can two people be hell-bent on protecting others but put their child in harm’s way? “I don’t know,” I say, not wanting to admit that hunting vampires is an obsession with my parents—one that supersedes me.

She picks up my torn shirt—it looks like someone slashed it with a knife. “This is trashed. Take this.” Kiki unzips her hoodie and hands it to me.

“Thanks.” I remove the sheet from my chest and see most of the bleeding has stopped. The long scratch marks throb and I grimace in pain when I reach out and take the hoodie. It’s warm and smells like perfume—something I’ve never had.

I put it on and realize this is as close as I’ll ever get to sharing clothes with a friend. In a
Jennifer-Kate
piece, she cautioned readers to make sure each article of borrowed clothing gets returned in good shape. I’ve
already gotten blood on the inside of the hoodie, but I know Kiki won’t mind.

Jennifer-Kate knows everything about fashion but shit about vampires.

“Did it hurt?” Kiki asks as I zip the hoodie up. “You know—the vampire. I asked Sam about it, but he’d only say it was something he’d like to forget.”

While I doubt Kiki has any interest in dating a vampire now, I decide not to tell her how frighteningly good it felt. Now I understand what the vampire-fetish groupies find appealing about the whole thing. I’m pretty sure my particular vampire wasn’t in it for a quick fix—he seemed like he was going to go all the way and I would’ve ended up like Mrs. Harker.

“Let’s just say it sucked,” I finally say. “And I can’t believe I got groped by a vampire. Not what I was expecting for the first time someone touched my boobs.”

“You’ve
never
been felt up before? Ever?” She stares at me like this is crazier than killing vampires.

“I’ve never even held hands with a guy! I drive around the country in a van with my parents. How exactly am I going to meet someone and get to know him well enough so I’d
want
him to feel my boobs?”

My fantasy prom date, Brad, flashes into my head.

If only.

Kiki shakes her head. “Daphne, Daphne, Daphne. That is what a one-night stand is for—or what I have with Gabe. You don’t necessarily need to know them well or even like them for a good booty call.”

I know what Jennifer-Kate would say to that, but since Kiki and I are getting along at the moment I decide not to mention it. “I couldn’t do that. I think you need time to get to know someone—build up trust.”

She smirks. “You might be surprised how quickly you can
build trust
with the right person, but you do what feels right and I’ll do what feels
good
.”

I roll my eyes. “Let me call the kill in and we can hit our next house.”

Kiki jumps up and pumps a fist in the air. “I’m ready. Let’s kick some more ass for team Van Helsing!”

I smile comes to my lips. Kiki isn’t going away anytime soon—and I’m glad.

We leave the second house,
a ritzy vacation chalet, a little worse for the wear.

“How about we call it a day?” I suggest even though it’s only eleven o’clock. My entire body aches. I have never taken a beating like this before. I check my phone—still no reply from Mom and Dad. They always check in. Worry runs through me like cold water.

Kiki nods. “Three on two,” she says as we slowly make our way to the limo. “Holy shit, that was crazy, and that one was like a
kid
—maybe eleven or twelve.”

“He looked like a kid but he was
old
. Did you see the rate of decomposition after you staked him? There wasn’t much left besides bone and dried connective tissue.”

She shudders. “That was so fucked-up.”

“Yeah.”
That little “kid” threw me into a wall with the force of a Mack truck.

The front of the hoodie Kiki lent me is soaked in blood, and one of the straps of her cami has been torn off. Our pants are ripped at the knees, and we’re battered, bruised, and bloody.

Kiki leans over and puts her hands on her thighs and inhales deeply. She tilts her head up at me. “Are you
sure
they’re supposed be weaker during the daytime? Are you sure you didn’t get that backward?”

Before I can answer Sam jumps out of the limo and gasps when he sees us. He’s probably six foot five and three hundred pounds of muscle and I’m thinking Kiki should have tried a little harder to get him to fight with us.

“Miss Crusher, your parents would kill me if they knew I was allowing this.”

She holds a hand up to his face. “We talked about this last night. I
need
to do this so don’t even
think
of telling my parents I’m hunting vampires.”

“But surely—”

Kiki points at him. “I’m a big girl; I can take care of myself!”

He nods. “How many this time?”

Kiki holds up three fingers. “And I got the worst one!”

Despite his objections to the hunt, I can’t help but think he looks a little proud. He opens the door to the back and Kiki drags herself in. Sam puts an arm out and blocks me from going in. He gives me a look like it’s my fault Kiki is risking her life. “If anything happens to her …”

“This was her idea.” I gesture toward Kiki. “And do you ever have much success getting her to take ‘no’ for an answer?”

His eyes soften and he shakes his head.

“But I’ll do everything I can to make sure nothing happens to her.” As I join Kiki in the back, all I can think is what might have happened to me if she wasn’t there. The vampires in South Bristol are on crack or something.

Kiki groans and closes her eyes as Sam pulls the limo away from the curb. “We need a drink.”

“It’s not even noon and you promised you wouldn’t drink on the job. Besides, I have to go out again tonight for street patrol.”

She sticks her tongue out. “Yes, Mom.” She opens one eye and looks at me. “I’m guessing you’ve never even been drunk before.”

I fold my arms across my chest. “Like that’s a bad thing?”

She sits up and rolls her eyes. “I know you’ve led a somewhat
strange
and sheltered life, but your bucket list now includes getting felt up by a guy with a pulse and getting drunk. You don’t have to get puking drunk or anything, but God, you need to live a little.”

“I drank a whole beer once even though my parents have told me—”

“Hey,” she interrupts, hitting me on the shoulder.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“Look, it’s your friend.” She leans forward and knocks on the partition. “Sam! Pull over by that guy in the unfortunate trench coat.”

Tyler Harker is talking on his cell phone by the side of the road. “He’s not my friend,” I insist. “Keep going, Sam.”

“Don’t listen to her, pull over,” Kiki insists. She lowers her window. “Hey, Slayer-dude, do you need a ride?”

Tyler is completely taken aback and briefly glances over his shoulder as if Kiki is addressing some other vampire slayer nearby. “Me?”

“Yes, you—we met this morning in the parking lot, remember?”

“Kiki,” I say through clenched teeth.
“What are you doing?”

She turns to me, grabs her breasts with both hands, and then points to Tyler.

My face flushes. “Oh, my God, are you kidding me?
Not going to happen!
”

“I’d bet he’d be happy to feel you up; a guy like that has probably never even touched a boob,” she hurriedly whispers to me. She sticks her head out the window again. “So Daphne and I just cleaned a couple of houses,
if you know what I mean
, and I was thinking we might want to hit the hot tub at my house to unwind a bit. Care to join us?”

I lean my head back and whimper.

“Um, no, thanks. I’m going to go back to my hotel room; I just talked to my dad and he’s on his way to pick me up.”

Kiki scoffs. “You’re turning down a limo ride and a
hot tub
so you can hang with your
dad
? Are you kidding me? Oh, and we have freshly brewed
coffee
,” she sings. “Really good coffee.”

He raises his eyebrows and I glare at Kiki. I had told her earlier how our crappy hotel didn’t even have free coffee and how heavenly it was to get some of the good stuff.

He brushes the hair out of his eyes and looks at us uncomfortably. “Um, my dad wants to work on this theory he has and I kind of have to help. He’ll get really pissed if I blow it off.”

“Well, we can drive you to the hotel and compare notes,” she continues. “You won’t believe the shit these vamps put us through today. Right, Daphne?”

She pulls me over to the window and I nod wearily.

“I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. After all, we slayers have to stick together.”

He looks past Kiki—his blue eyes lock onto mine. “Not
everyone
shares that sentiment.”

My stomach flutters and I wish he’d look away. “That’s because
everyone
has their own way of doing things, and just because someone does something the other someone doesn’t, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be doing it or should be made fun of!”

Kiki raises an eyebrow. “Okay, Daphne, I have no idea what the hell you just said.” She turns to Tyler who is rolling his eyes. “Have I missed something?”

“No!” I say before he can respond. “But my parents don’t want me hanging around with him.”