Vampire for Christmas (3 page)

Rafe
laughed.

Was he
enjoying his game against the gale? Shannon huffed. This wasn’t a
game. There was a demon on the loose and she wasn’t about to let
the season of goodwill become the season of blood spill for some
unfortunate passerby.

“
Rafe,” she called out to him but the wind stole her voice
again.

Squinting, she braced herself against the wind and then took
a laboured step forwards, towards him. She ducked to one side when
the tail of his coat whipped the air and narrowly missed her face.
Edging around the grave he was standing on, she frowned and shook
her head when she saw the look of sheer elation on his face. She
couldn’t remember ever seeing him happy, but this was the closest
he had ever got to that emotion. If challenging the wind was
amusing him, then he could come back later and do it on his own
time.

“
Rafe!” She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back
into the wind. It started to ease. “Get down here.”

Rafe
raised a dark eyebrow and then opened his eyes and looked down at
her. She stood her ground, not caring if she sounded as though she
was scolding him. They had a mission to complete, and she wanted it
over with as soon as possible. Her head was filling with ridiculous
notions that she didn’t want to entertain and her guard was
slipping. She was certain that the moment he was out of her life
she would forget about him and her muddled feelings. The thought
that had crossed her mind earlier had been ridiculous.
Love?

Never
going to happen.

She
wasn’t in love with him and a clean break from him would prove
that. She wasn’t going to miss him or this town at all. She was
going to pack up, leave, and get on with her life, and maybe she
would even find herself a boyfriend.

One with
a heartbeat.

Shannon
cursed that thought. Rafe was not her boyfriend. He was a guy, and
sort of a friend, maybe, but he was so far from boyfriend material
that he stood in the next galaxy along from it. This was just some
strange form of Stockholm Syndrome. Rafe had been her closest
acquaintance for two years. He had helped her out of some bad
scrapes, had given her someone to talk to when she needed it most,
and had even protected her a few times.

Although
he always said that he didn’t protect her out of chivalry, rather
it was done out of desire to end one night without having to bind
her wounds.

A lie
that she didn’t believe.

Rafe
sighed and started to move but then stopped. A look of pure
revulsion twisted his face.

“
What the—” He wiped his cheek and she wondered what was wrong
until he hopped down from the tomb and she saw the clear jelly-like
substance coating his fingers. Trails of it stuck to his left
cheek.

She
mirrored his face of disgust. The dying wind caused strands of her
hair to dance across her face. She clawed them back.

Rafe
flicked the goo off his hand. “Someone seems to think it is funny
to go around throwing slime at—”

Something
hit her arm and Shannon didn’t want to look. She could feel the
heavy glob on the sleeve of her coat. It eased down her arm and she
let out a long sigh. Rafe bit his lip and she glared at him. How
dare he laugh at her misfortune when she hadn’t laughed at
his?

Anger
bolted through her, sharply raising her temperature, and she looked
down at the right sleeve of her black jacket. A clear track of
slime covered her arm, shining in the combination of moonlight and
the streetlights along the path through the cemetery. Blobs spotted
the silver trail here and there, the largest of them rolling down
towards her elbow. Someone was going to pay for that.

Shannon
set her jaw and scanned the cemetery for their
assailant.

It wasn’t
difficult to spot.

Seven
foot of hideous green demon was heading straight for them, oozing
slime as it walked and leaving a trail like a slug. It moved on
thick legs that supported a midriff that said the owner needed some
serious time in a gym. Long muscular arms hung at its sides, and
its large hands gave Shannon the distinct impression it could crush
her head in just one of them. It spat slime at a headstone,
covering it completely, and then grinned towards her. Globs of
clear goo rolled down from its wide serrated mouth. Black eyes
fixed on her. Dark pine trees waved in the distance behind it.
Light clung to its shiny coating. This was not going to be a fun
fight.

She
removed her coat, wiped the slime off her sleeve, and flicked it to
the floor. Rafe took the jacket from her and placed it down on the
lid of the tomb he had been standing on. He removed his own coat,
setting it down next to hers, and then nodded when his gaze met
hers.

Shannon
pulled the stake from the back pocket of her dark jeans, flexed her
fingers around it to get a good grip, and then hesitated. Rafe
didn’t move either. She couldn’t blame him for having second
thoughts about launching an attack on an unknown species of demon
that looked as though it was as slippery as an eel and far slimier.
She wasn’t exactly enjoying the prospect of getting completely
coated in the cold sticky substance that was on her hand
either.

“
Any ideas?” She gave Rafe a hopeful look. Maybe he would do
the chivalrous thing now and fight the demon for her.

“
Not really.” Rafe ran his gaze over the approaching demon and
then glanced at her. A moment later, his gaze came back to meet
hers. “Would you like to go first?”

She
frowned. Was that his idea of chivalry? Ladies first? She shook her
head.

“
After you.” She swept her hand out towards the demon. It was
getting closer now. One of them had to attack, and at this rate, it
was going to be the goo monster.

“
How about we do this together?”

Together?

Shannon
swallowed at that thought.

“
Or you could do it by yourself.” The sharp edge to his words
cut her deep and the anger that flared in his eyes only made her
feel worse. “Just forget I am here. It is what you do most nights,
is it not?”

She
cringed.

Whoever
had said that the truth hurts was right.

Shannon
felt as though it was splitting her in two. Part of her wanted to
admit that she needed him to fight at her side, with her, and that
she need him period. The other part said to ignore him. In a few
days, they would be at opposite ends of the country and she would
never see him again.

She
couldn’t bring herself to do either.

A feeling
of discomfort settled in her stomach as she stared into his dark
eyes.

It
squirmed there like a snake, hissing things at her. She was
callous. She was cruel. And why? Because he had gotten too close to
her? Because he had offered to fight beside her? Because he had
said they would do this together? What was it that made her do this
to him?

Was it
even about him?

Or was it
about her?

She had
thrown Hell, Heaven and high water at him and he had borne it all.
He had taken every insult and jibe, and every harsh word, and it
hadn’t stopped him from coming back to hunt with her, or made him
stop listening to her. He had still been there for her whenever she
had felt the need to talk to someone, never once mentioning the way
she had treated him or the things she had said.

To hurt
him.

To push
him away.

All so
she didn’t have to face her feelings for a little while
longer.

Why
couldn’t she just admit to herself that she liked having him
around? She liked heading out on missions with him and fighting
demons with him at her side. That was why she had called him
tonight. She enjoyed hunting with him, but not as much as she
enjoyed the quiet nights when nothing happened and they just spent
time together in silence, or talked about what was on their
minds.

She liked
the fact he listened without judging her, and when she was done, he
offered her all the reassurance that she would let him.

She loved
the comfort he gave to her.

“
Together,” she said with false resignation and, out of the
corner of her eye, she saw him smile. An inferno blazed into life
inside her. She had never made him smile before, not like this, not
with so much happiness. “Just don’t get in my way.”

His smile
became a grin. “I would not dream of it.”

Shannon
was about to smile when something cold and wet grabbed her. She
squealed as the demon lifted her from the ground and her legs
dangled helplessly. Rafe punched it and his fist slid off the
demon’s chest and hit her in the side of her head.

“
Thanks,” she muttered through a face full of clear slime and
wriggled hard. The moment she slid free of the demon’s embrace, she
turned and levelled a swift kick at the juncture of its
thighs.

Rafe
winced.

The demon
made a noise that caused bubbles of slime to pop around its jagged
mouth and then launched itself at her. Rafe grabbed it and slid
across the grass with it. He growled and his eyes changed, turning
pale blue and bright in the moonlight. Shannon didn’t think that
brute vampire strength was going to help him hold the monster
back.

She
punched it hard in the stomach, pulled a face of disgust at the
cold slime on her hand, and then started pummelling it. Almost
every punch that she landed slid off the demon. It didn’t even seem
to notice them. It just kept ploughing forwards, dragging Rafe
along with it.

He
growled again, leapt onto the demon’s back and wrapped his arm
around its neck. He grinned at her when the demon choked. His
victory didn’t last long. The demon grabbed his leg, yanked him
off, and slammed him face down into the frosty grass. Rafe choked
this time.

Shannon
attacked.

She
lunged at the demon with her stake. It grabbed her and then she was
flying through the air. Her eyes widened when she saw the tomb and
then she grunted when she hit it left shoulder first. Pain ripped
through her entire body. She dropped her stake and grabbed hold of
her arm, holding it tightly in an attempt to ease the pain. It
throbbed so hard that every inch of her pulsed with intense
heat.

“
Son of a bitch.” She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes
shut, waves of pain making her nauseous. She just needed a moment
and then she was going to kill the bastard.

“
Shannon?” The note of worry in Rafe’s voice made her open her
eyes. He was back on his feet, his attention wholly on her, and the
concern in his gaze overwhelming. She nodded to let him know that
she would live and waved him away towards the demon. He glanced at
it and then back at her, and then shot through the
darkness.

She
couldn’t keep up with him when he used his abilities to fight. He
moved as fast as lightning, here one moment and there the next. The
demon didn’t seem to be able to keep up with him either. It turned
left and right, and then all the way around, exposing its
back.

Shannon
glared at it, grabbed her stake, and then launched herself at the
demon. It turned at the last second, caught her shoulder in one
large sticky hand and tossed her back across the
cemetery.

Rafe
didn’t fare much better. He hit the demon square across the jaw,
knocking its head to one side, but didn’t get away fast enough. It
grabbed him and smashed his head against a gravestone.

“
Rafe!” Shannon ignored the pain blazing outwards in sickening
pulses from her shoulder and pushed herself onto her feet. She ran
at the demon, her own feral growl on her lips as she watched it
bashing Rafe’s head against the grave marker.

She
yelled, leapt and plunged her stake into the demon’s shoulder,
burying it deep. The demon roared and tossed Rafe aside, turning on
her at the same time. She glanced at Rafe, searching for a sign of
life in him and telling herself that it took more than bashing his
head against a rock to shut the vampire up.

The demon
yanked the stake out of its thick muscular green shoulder, regarded
it with a low bubbling sound, and then threw it at her. Shannon
rolled to one side, gritting her teeth when she landed on her
injured shoulder, and crouched, ready to attack. Without a weapon.
Her gaze darted to the stake on the grass and then her jacket on
the sarcophagus. Both were over twenty feet away from her. Her
nearest weapon was Rafe and he was still lying in the dirt,
groaning.

She
stared down the demon. “Shoulder for a shoulder.”

The demon
wheezed, grunted, snorted and then shot slime all over her and
Rafe.

By the
time Shannon had cleared the cold goo from her face, the demon was
gone. She looked around, not trusting that it had left the area
after only sustaining a little damage, and then shuffled across the
icy grass to Rafe. He sat up, slime rolling in strings down his
face. She would have laughed if she hadn’t been in so much pain.
She knelt beside him on the slick ground and cleared the slime off
his face, scooping it out of his eyes and flicking it to the
floor.