Sweat beaded Zan’s brow and rolled down his face as he ran toward them with Bull. The heat of the place was bad before, but now it was nearly overwhelming. However, the vamps so caught up in the battle, and the humans they took down, continued to fight and feed.
Someone punched the side of Bull’s head. It lulled to the side as Zan spun on the offender, lifted his foot, and placing it in the attacker’s gut, shoved the vamp into the flames.
Dante jerked Cassidy out of the way when a vamp charged out of the smoke at them. The man’s eyes were a vivid red, and blood dripped from his fangs. Dante recognized him as the vamp who killed the woman. Completely out of control, the monster was looking to make Dante pay for taking away his meal.
Pushing Cassidy behind him, Dante ducked the punch the vamp threw at him and sank his fist into the vamp’s stomach. Air erupted from the creature’s lungs as Dante lowered his shoulder and, lifting him, flipped the vamp over his shoulder. The vamp’s fingers clawed at Dante’s back and caught on the jagged piece of stool embedded in him.
Dante grunted and stifled a shout as the vamp tore the wood from his back before hitting the ground. He spun to face his attacker as the vamp lunged to his feet and swung viciously at him. The jagged piece of wood sliced his shirt open as the vamp aimed for his heart.
Cassidy’s panic over being trapped in this place vanished when the vamp lunged at Dante again. Cold anger descended over her as she removed a stake from her jacket and ran at the man. If her brothers and sisters taught her anything, it was how to fight and how to defend herself.
The vamp was so focused on killing Dante that he didn’t see Cassidy coming. When he swung the makeshift stake at Dante again, Cassidy attacked. Her lip curled in revulsion as flesh and bone gave way and her stake plunged into the vamp’s heart. Warm blood spread across the man’s shirt and pooled against her hand before she yanked out the stake.
As he fell, the man’s head turned toward her, and his mouth parted. The red was gone from his eyes as his bloodlust eased, but it happened too late to save him. Regret churned in her stomach as he fell, but after what he did to the woman, he probably couldn’t be saved anyway.
She’d done the right thing; she couldn’t let him hurt Dante, but for the first time in her life, she’d killed another. Turning her hand over, she stared at the blood staining her palm. She’d never wanted something off of her so badly in her life.
She swallowed the rush of saliva filling her mouth as she strained to retain her composure. With a calm she didn’t feel, she knelt to wipe her hand and stake on the clothes of the man she killed. The action felt so wrong, but she couldn’t stomach cleaning his blood on her.
“Are you okay?” Dante demanded as he knelt in front of her and seized Cassidy’s arms.
She stared at the body of the fallen vamp before her eyes met his again. In them, he saw her confusion and horror. Her ivory skin had paled further, and she looked like she might pass out as she swayed briefly in his hold.
“Cassidy, are you okay?”
She thrust out her chin as her eyes darted around the club. Now was not the time to fall apart. She hated the blood on her hands, but she’d done the right thing, and she would do it again if it meant keeping him safe and getting out of this place.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m okay. I’m good.”
Dante felt a measure of relief when her eyes came back to his. In them, he saw the steely gleam of determination. She slid her stake back into her jacket as he clasped her elbow and helped her rise.
The slurping sounds of a feast mingled with the screams and roar of the inferno. Death spread through the room, billowed across the ceiling, and ate the building, but some vamps were lost to the bloodlust the blood and violence ignited.
Dante despised himself for the hunger the blood and screams ignited in him. The feel of Cassidy in his arms helped to calm his rising bloodlust, but it still slithered like an insidious monster through him. It was times like this when he despised the vampire part of himself.
The dim lights blinked, went out, and surged back to life brighter than before. Then something popped, and the power went out. The screams briefly rose to overshadow the conflagration, but the snap of the flames and the crackle of wood drowned them out again.
The growing inferno illuminated the room as the red of the fire emphasized the blood coating the floor.
Chapter Fourteen
Dante released Cassidy and moved her behind him. With his back to her, he watched the brawling vamps as he nudged her toward the door. From out of the smoke and flames, another vampire emerged.
It charged at him. Blood soaked the man’s lips, dripped down his chin, and coated his shirt. His red eyes were as vivid as the flames when they latched onto Dante. The humans, still clustered around the door, screamed louder. They’d come here in search of vampires, but this was not what they expected.
He’d bet that even if they truly believed vampires were real, they’d expected them to be poor, sweet, misunderstood creatures, but they hadn’t anticipated the brutality vampires could unleash.
Though he rarely fed on humans and never killed for fun, the vamp’s uncontrollable bloodthirstiness enticed his. His fangs lengthened and a snarl curled his lip as he anticipated the fight to come.
He’d spent the past ten years keeping his deadlier instincts under control; that was all unraveling now. It didn’t help that Cassidy was in jeopardy and all his instincts screamed
