Wes grabbed Rico’s neck amid the punches and began to squeeze. His grip remained strong and his fingernails dug into the skin covering Rico’s throat, straining it to the point of tearing it open. One more punch from Rico forced the Nymar’s grip to slacken.
With all the blood coming from Rico’s flayed palms and fingers, his weapon was covered with a layer of gore thick enough to make it look like something that had truly formed from his own flesh. The hole he’d dug into Wes’s stomach was massive. Rico jammed the weapon in as deep as it would go and showed the Nymar an ugly, blocky smile as he willed the charmed wood to stretch up toward an infected heart. Since the weapons were bound to their Skinners by blood, Rico’s responded quicker than his own fingers. The wooden spike snapped up, out, and then diverted as much of its mass as possible to form a series of branches that punctured and tore just about everything within Wes’s chest cavity. In moments the spore was reduced to pulp. Rico drank in the sight of Wes’s vacant stare as he lost the last bit of strength he had.
Paige turned toward the front door and shouted, “Tara! We’re leaving!”
Tara emerged from one of the rear bedrooms, glancing back and forth between Paige and the wounds that her tendrils were slowly knitting back together.
Hacking up a strained breath, Ned was unable to utter a single word. Hope had shifted her hands to grab his chest and rake through his shirt using black claws that had emerged from the tips of her fingers. When those claws sank in, his eyes widened and the bat slipped from his hand.
A steely calm drifted onto Paige’s face, settling in beneath the tears and dirt that covered her like a cheap mask. “Tara,” she said. “Get out of here. Now.” The moment Tara backed away, Paige shifted her attention to Ned. Hope was taking her time with him, slowly peeling him open while feeding through the holes her fangs had drilled into the base of his neck. Paige picked up the bat, which had been frozen into a long, gnarled stake. Shifting it around to grab the handle, she winced as its thorns bit into her palm. After adjusting her grip so her fingers fit around the thorns as best they could, she held the stake out in a trembling, two-handed grip. “You too, Hope,” she said. “Out.”
The Nymar’s eyes wandered up to her, and the corners of her mouth curled into a grin without allowing her fangs to come away from Ned’s flesh.
“Out!”
When Hope tightened her hold, she looked as if she was hugging Ned from behind. She even let out a soft, throaty moan while pulling another drink from his veins.
Paige stuck the Nymar’s arm using the stake that was still coated in Evan’s blood. “I said get the fuck
Hope glared angrily at Paige and tore her arm out from the stake without seeming to notice the damage it caused. Paige’s response was to pull the weapon back and drive it in again. Hope’s face twisted with pain and she looked up to speak. Before she could say a word, Paige angled the sharpened end of the weapon to drive it in farther and twist.
The rage that surged into the Nymar’s face was the first truly demonic thing Paige had ever seen. Stark terror mixed with wonder on her young features, but she maintained her grip on the stake and continued to grind it within the widening wound. Hope couldn’t take much more of that before pulling away from Ned.
“I’ll kill you!” Paige swore.
Clutching her arm to her chest, Hope surveyed her surroundings to find nobody else in the room to come to her aid. She scurried down the hall and glared at Paige with solid black eyes. “You’ve got to sleep sometime, Paige. I don’t.” Holding up both arms to show them to her and Ned, the Nymar trembled as the gaping wounds began to slowly seal. “I’ll come for you.”
Those were Hope’s last words before she was overpowered by the slender woman who charged at her from the bedroom. Despite the veil of dirty blond hair covering her face, Tara’s broken fangs and crazed expression could be seen as clearly as if they were illuminated by a searchlight. Thanks to the multiple spore attached to both of their hearts, Hope and Tara moved like streaks of frenetic energy. Tara wrapped her arms around Hope’s midsection and forced her into the kitchen, where both Nymar exploded through the hole left by the broken patio door. Once outside, they were not heard again.
“Give me that weapon,” Ned grunted at Paige.
“Only if you promise to leave me and Tara alone!”
“That ain’t gonna happen,” Rico said as he staggered from the bedroom. The syringe was still in his arm when he walked down the hall. After emptying the healing serum into himself, he tossed the syringe toward the spot where it had been stashed and braced himself against a wall while it took effect. “After what happened tonight, there ain’t any deals we’re gonna strike with you.”
Ned’s wobbly steps carried him to the cheap stand used to hold the television set. Kicking open a little cabinet intended for videos or possibly a game console, he stooped down to retrieve a small leather manicure pouch. “Hope had me dead to rights,” he said while opening the pouch, then taking one of the syringes that had been slipped through a loop meant to hold a nail file. He popped the cap off, injected himself, and sighed, “Until this one here got her offa me.”
“Fine,” Rico said. “She can go. But them bloodsuckers out back are dead meat.” At the sound of a single inhuman wail from outside, he added, “Or whichever one is left, that is.”
Tightening her grip on the gnarled wooden bat, Paige set her feet shoulder width apart, pulled in a shaky breath and said, “You’re letting both of us go.”
Ned held a silencing hand out to Rico before the big man could respond. That visibly perturbed Rico, but he let it go with a muttered curse.
“Your friend’s sick, girl,” Ned said.
“I know. I can help her.”
“Can you?”
The skin around Paige’s left eye twitched. Whatever was trying to get out of her at that moment, she fought to keep it buried.
Ned stared her down as he asked, “What’s happening outside, Rico?”
The big man hauled his aching body into the kitchen and took a quick look through a small rectangular window situated above a cheap, stained vinyl countertop. “Shit! Hope’s gone.”
“What about Tara?” Paige asked.
“She’s gettin’ up. Oh wait. Damn it to hell! She’s gone now too. Damn, those bitches can jump!”
Paige nodded. “Now it’s my turn. I’m out of here, and neither of you are following us. The first time I see either one of you assholes anywhere near me or Tara, I’m calling the cops and telling them about you.”
“Telling them what?” Ned asked. “That we killed a bunch of vampires?”
“You guys can’t tell me this is your first time doing this sort of thing,” she replied. “You want me to believe the cops won’t dig up something rotten on you if they look for more than a few seconds?”
Ned kept his composure, but Rico was too tired to prevent the worry from showing on his battered face.
“That’s what I thought,” she said smugly. “Those vampires or whatever the hell they are got what was coming to them. They were about to kill all of us, but you kept that from happening. I appreciate it, but don’t think I’ll let you near me again. All I ask is for a head start so me and Tara can get the hell out of here.”
“Hope’s still out there,” Ned pointed out. “And there are more to help her do what she wants or attack whoever she pleases. If she can’t find any friends, she’ll turn the next batch of people she can find just like she turned your friend.”
“Whatever. This is the first bunch of vampires I’ve ever seen, so I’ll just head back to any other place I’ve ever been that was vampire-free.”
“Nymar. They’re called Nymar.”
“Again. Whatever. I’m leaving now. Don’t try to follow me.”
Ned took a tentative step toward her. “What are you going to do when they come after you, Paige? How are you going to help your friend? Do you think you’ll even find her again?”
“She’s a multiseed,” Rico said. “Even among the Nymar, they’re freaks. Wild, strong, and tough to control. If they don’t got the smarts to rise to the top of the heap like Hope did, they’re hunted down and ripped apart.”
Paige remained silent, but her arms suddenly seemed too tired to hold the weapon she’d grabbed.
“You wanted to protect Tara from them and us?” Ned asked. “That’s why you struck this deal to give them what they wanted.”
