Mandy leaned heavily against her side, her extra weight was a strain on Emma's shoulders, but Emma refused to release her. She was having a difficult time trying to run through the sand with her prosthetic leg, but she was keeping up with them. The shock of what they had just witnessed made Emma's legs feel like she was trying to walk with her ankles tied together. She couldn't quite get her feet to work cohesively, but she still managed to get them to move enough to get off the beach and onto the pavement of the road.
Ethan turned his attention back to Tristan; an evil smile twisted his mouth as he finally had a chance to get him alone. He'd seen the look on Emma's face, the revulsion and terror radiating from her eyes. She wasn't supposed to find out like this, there was no easy way to break this news to anyone, but this was a complete disaster. It was something he wasn't sure he could ever fix, but he would make sure this monstrosity never went near her again.
"She really was a good piece of ass," Tristan said in a taunting tone of voice.
Ethan had never experienced such a burst of rage in his life as he did at Tristan's words. With a ferocious snarl, he lunged forward. He almost had his hands on Tristan when a scream reached his ears. The nearby restaurants and bars diminished the sound, but he detected it.
Tristan grinned at him as he danced backward across the sand. "By the way, I have more friends."
Those words weren't like a cold glass of water in the face; they were more like being dunked into Niagara Falls in the middle of January. He didn't hesitate, didn't think twice about Tristan as he spun toward where he last saw Emma and her friends. Thoughts of Emma pushed him over the sand faster than he'd ever moved in his life. It almost felt like he was flying, his feet barely touched the ground as he covered the beach in bounds that would surpass a Cheetah. The world rushed past him in a blur.
The only thing he saw were the three people ahead of him, and the vampire pursuing them. There was no way the three of them could escape the woman honing in on them, even as the thought crossed his mind Mandy stumbled and went down. From the shadows, another vampire emerged.
Emma's shoulder was wrenched when Mandy went down; Jill groaned on the other side of her as they were both almost pulled over with Mandy but they somehow managed to remain on their feet. Emma's lungs were on fire; there wasn't enough oxygen in the air as she panted heavily to get more of it into her body. The woman with red eyes pursuing them was getting closer, and from the shadows of a cropping of palm trees, another man emerged. She bit back a scream and released Mandy's arm to snag a brick sized rock off the ground.
"Get inside!" Ethan's bellow echoed through the night. "Emma, get in the house!"
There wasn't enough time for that though as Jill managed to get Mandy onto her feet and the woman jumped at her. Panic for her friends and herself took over. Acting on instinct alone, she held the rock as she swung her arm up and smashed it against the side of the woman's head. The force of the blow jolted her arm and knocked the rock from her hand, but it also sliced the side of the woman's face open. Blood poured from the gash that revealed her cheek all the way to the bone.
Jill had Mandy's arm around her shoulders as they stumbled past her, but the woman was already recovering from the blow and coming back toward her.
"Key! Key! Key!" Jill shouted as Mandy scrambled for the key in her pocket.
Emma stumbled back and fell against the side of the house. Her heart leapt into her throat when the woman's lips peeled back to reveal two lethal-looking fangs hanging over her bottom lip. Emma’s mind spun in circles faster than the earth spun on its axis. There was no way to process what was coming at her. Even as every sane part of her screamed this must be some nightmare or alcohol-induced hallucination, the rest of her knew there was no way to deny the events of this night.
"Holy shit," Jill said.
Mandy swung a fist at the man who had emerged from the palm trees and was bearing down on Emma. Emma threw her hands up against the man's chest, he was as solid as a rock and just as unbending as her pushing, and Mandy's fist in his chin did nothing to deter him.
The rattling ting of the key falling from Mandy's hand onto the stone walkway was extraordinarily loud, and condemning, in the night.
This is how I’m going to die, Emma realized as she felt the man's breath against her neck and then the cool press of his fangs on her skin.
At first, she thought she was screaming as an echoing bellow tore through the air, but her mouth remained closed while she fought to keep the man off her.
A loud crack reverberated through the air, and the man’s head twisted to the side. Ethan appeared behind the man. The unnatural angle would have killed a human; it only caused this monstrosity to stumble around.
Behind Ethan, she spotted the woman, Tristan, and four others coming at them in the night. Ethan grabbed the stumbling vampire and shoved him at the others, knocking them back.
"The door!" he shouted.
"I
