“When this is over, I’m gonna force you into bed.”
“Is that a promise?” I knew he meant putting me to bed so he could take care of me, but I couldn’t deny the chance to be pervy about it.
A smirk crept out of the corner of his mouth. It was adorable.
We turned a corner and ran face-first into Priscilla and Daggett. The four of us collectively screamed, but it was Priscilla who raised a fist and almost socked me in the mouth. The fear of getting a black eye obliterated my relief to see them.
“Hey!” I yelled.
“Don’t ever do that again!” Priscilla yelled back.
“What, walk?” Max griped.
“Don’t get cocky,” she snapped. Funny thing to say to a guy in nothing but a blanket.
Max sized a bloodied Priscilla up and down. “What the hell happened to you?”
Priscilla scoffed. “Cora tried to knife herself, an asshole turned into a bat, you’re half-naked…and you’re weirded out over some blood?”
“It was a simple question.”
“Veronica emptied her stomach acids all over Priscilla’s face,” Daggett replied.
“It was gnarly,” I added. “You should have been there, Max.”
“Yeah, I guess I’ll just have to live with that regret.”
“Oh, ha, ha, Priscilla got puked on,” Priscilla said spitefully. “Let’s rent a plane and scroll the words across the clouds. Why don’t you all eat my ass?”
“Not with that shit all over you,” Max said. I laughed. “And wait, what does she mean by you almost knifed yourself?” Max stared at me with one eyebrow cocked.
“That vampire freak tried to hypnotize her into killing herself,” Priscilla answered.
Max took a deep breath like he was counting to ten. “I’m gonna enjoy killing this fucker.”
“We have to get out of here first to do that,” I said.
“We just follow the wall,” Daggett chimed in. “Follow me, and I’ll get us out of here.”
I nodded. “I trust him. He’s the only reason I didn’t slit my throat back there. He maneuvered our way out of the hypnosis, the clever boy.”
Max slapped a hand down on Daggett’s shoulder. “Fuck, Daggett, thank you. Seriously.”
Daggett bit down on his lower lip. “Just doing my part.”
Priscilla bounced up and down, shivering. “Can we please go before I piss my pants?”
I suddenly had to pee too.
We made our way through the rest of the hedge maze, following Daggett. He seemed to know what he was doing.
I quietly said, “So, what happened to Veronica?”
“She’s dead,” Daggett answered. So, he killed her. It was strange to feel relieved that someone was dead, but it cut into how much danger we were potentially in. Without her, all we had to worry about was Master and Molly.
“You get the werewolf?” Max asked.
Shoot, the werewolf, too.
With his hand trailing the wall, Daggett looked over at him. “I thought maybe you got it.”
“It came in here after you guys.”
“But it left me. I thought maybe it went back to the lawn to kill you.”
My heart raced. “Oh, God, what if it’s after Melanie? What if it’s got her right now?”
I expected Max to say something reassuring, like I wasn’t thinking straight and everything would be okay, but he looked away and kept walking. He probably didn’t want to say any of that to me just in case he was wrong. My stomach twisted. Another minute of this unsure, scary walk and I may have lost my mind, but thankfully we got out of there fairly quick.
And Melanie slowly came into my line of view.
Dana was seated on a stone bench, hunched over and out of breath as Melanie had both of her hands on her shoulders, keeping her sitting upright. They were in quiet conversation when she saw me, and immediately she stood.
“Melanie!” I called. I abandoned all fear and ran to her. She met me halfway, opening her arms and letting me crash into her chest. I snuggled my face against her collar and tightened my hands around her midsection, locking my fingers together behind her back. We swayed.
“They fixed you,” Melanie said, her voice dripping with relief.
I unlatched my hands from around her and took a step back. “I thought for sure you were gonna be dead when I got here.”
With a crooked smile, she said, “Too late for that.”
I lightly punched her shoulder. “Don’t joke. You guys okay?”
Melanie glanced over at Dana, who was getting to her feet but looked winded. “Molly knocked Dana on her ass, so she’s recovering.”
“I’ll be fine,” Dana said. It’s like she knew I was about to ask.
Melanie looked over the group as they approached from behind me. “Please tell me you killed that bitch Molly.”
“Afraid not,” Max replied, stepping forward. “She got away, but she’s bleeding pretty good. Meaning she’ll either be out of this fight for a minute, or we have a trail to track.”
“I thought you woofers couldn’t track vampires,” Priscilla said.
Max glanced at her, irritated. “She’s bleeding all over the place. We still have eyes, you know.”
“Oh.”
“Speaking of tracking,” Daggett began. “Where’s The Master?”
Melanie took a deep, inward breath. I wanted so badly for her to reveal that she and Dana had beaten the shit out of him and that he was dead and buried on the property. Instead, I got, “Inside. Waiting.”
“Waiting? I asked.
“It’s totally weird,” Dana said. “It’s been just the two of us out here for the last fifteen minutes. He could have killed me and taken Melanie any time he wanted, yet…”
“He waits,” Melanie finished.
“You don’t sound surprised,” I replied.
“The only thing Master loves more than killing is a good fight.”
“That, or he thinks the rest of us were taken out and he’s just waiting for Molly and Veronica to get word back to him,” Max added.
Priscilla scoffed. “That’s not
