Saul took this moment to take in the carnage. He saw Nikki fighting with a female Greely. She was holding her own, but was clearly outmatched. As Saul watched, Nikki delivered a punch that barely phased the female vamp and the Greely woman responded with a roundhouse kick that Nikki was able to block. Still, the force of the kick itself sent Nikki stumbling into the porch railing.
It was then that Saul saw just what Jill had meant by Jason and Lester becoming servants to Nikki. As Nikki stumbled backwards, Jason and Lester were immediately on the attack. They attacked the Greely woman with a tenacity that surprised Saul, but he could tell that they were weak. Other than serving as distractions, he didn’t think that Jason and Lester would be much help in this fight.
Jill, meanwhile, was kicking some serious ass. She had already pinned one of the Greelys to the ground and was working on getting him into a headlock to tear his head free. She was being distracted by two others, though. Taking a cue, Saul followed up on the Greely he had thrown into a tree. As he did, he saw that the other two were coming back at him.
Saul delivered a thunderous punch to the Greely by the tree. He reached for the Greely’s head but was attacked from behind by another. Saul went stumbling into the tree he had cracked only moments ago as he felt a pair of vice-like hands wrapping around his throat. He braced his hands against the tree to push back and when he did, realized that he had splintered the base of the tree when he had thrown his attacker into it. Saul grabbed the longest of the wooden splinters—roughly two feet in length and about four inches across. He pulled it free from the tree and wheeled around, feeling silly to have such a small weapon in his hand.
Still, it did the trick. He plunged it squarely into the heart of the closest attacker. It was a younger member of the Greely clan and the splinter went through his heart so quickly and unexpectedly that he looked honestly confused for a split second.
He let out a groan, then a scream as he toppled back. Saul caught him before he hit the ground, grabbing the small shard of wood. He pulled it free and could feel its weakness right away. It would probably snap in half if used for another attack. Still, he had to work with what he had.
Hearing the screams of their fallen members, the remaining Greelys stopped fighting for a moment and took in the situation. Jill, still with a Greely pinned to the ground, took advantage of this and, as she had done in Kara’s car, pulled her grip on her assailant’s head upwards with tremendous force. His head tore off and Jill didn’t bother with apologies. She hefted the severed head towards the nearest Greely and spat at him.
“Next?” she said as she got to her feet.
The Greelys howled in rage and began to swarm them, like hornets. They had gone from eleven in number to nine in less than ten seconds. Their fury was obvious and although they had just killed two, Saul wasn’t so sure about their chances of coming out of this alive.
He shared a glance with Nikki, squaring off with a male Greely that was twice her size, and she nodded back at him. She looked scared; Saul didn’t think he had seen her look so troubled before and it pained him.
With his heart hammering in his massive chest, Saul planted his feet and waited for the two Greelys that came barreling towards him, fangs bared and faces full of hatred.
5
The heat of battle wasn’t at all what Nikki had been expecting. Yes, there was a very thick and present fear coursing through her, but she was also excited. With each punch she delivered and each attack she blocked or dodged, she thought back to being in the cave with Leibald. She remembered the sense of triumph she had felt in besting him and tried to keep that at the center of her mind.
But it seemed that the Greelys were drawing from their anger and getting fiercer with every second. One moment Nikki was doing rather well against a Greely female, and the next she was being pushed hard to the ground with yet another Greely lunging at her. She rolled out of the way and realized that she was trapped against the side of the cabin. She bared her teeth, feeling those peculiar fangs sprouting from her gums. Two on one…not odds that she was particularly comfortable with, given the newness of her talents.
As they came towards her, she thought of Jill and how she was so agile—how she could run and jump with supernatural speed. Nikki wondered if she had that in her but had simply not discovered it yet for lack of trying.
With the two Greelys closing in, Nikki planted her feet, crouched slightly, and pushed off from against the cabin. She went sailing upwards, over the heads of the two advancing vampires. As she cleared them, she sent a hard downward kick that made a pleasant crunching noise as it connected with one of the Greely’s heads.
Yet, the moment her feet hit the ground, there was another vampire bearing down on her. She clenched her fists, ready to meet him; however, the oncoming Greely was intercepted by Lester Dobbs. Lester tackled the vampire to the ground, allowing Nikki to regain her ground. She looked around and saw that despite the two deaths that Jill and Saul had doled out, the situation was still not in their favor. With Jason and Lester, they were still outnumbered five to nine—and Jason and Lester didn’t seem to be particularly strong. As she watched, she saw Jason getting mauled by a particularly tall member of the Greely clan.
“Jason,” she yelled, taking off in his direction.
She made it four running steps ahead before she was bowled over by the female Greely that she had been so preoccupied with mere moments before. Her hands went directly for Nikki’s throat and her fingers felt like slabs of rock digging into her neck.
Nikki looked around, hoping that someone could come to help her. No matter how much she fought against the woman, she couldn’t get any leverage. But as she looked around, she saw that Lester was on the ground, not moving, and being assaulted by two Greelys. Jason was being manhandled by the taller Greely. Jill was engaged in a two-on-one battle that she was slowly losing, and Saul was busy with the other three. As Nikki saw blurry shades of black creep into her vision, she watched them pummeling Saul; although he fought back valiantly, they were overpowering him. When Nikki saw him drop to a knee, her heart sank.
She struggled against the woman on top of her, but her strength was being drained. She couldn’t breathe. She almost hoped the woman would tear her head off before she suffocated. She knew that she could die like this, unlike wholly-turned vampires. She wondered if the woman that was strangling her knew it, too.
Everything grew faint and fuzzy. Somewhere, she heard Jill scream.
They were losing. And this, apparently, was how she was going to die.
6
Kara watched the battle from Saul’s living room window. She had seen Saul impale one of the Greelys with a splintered shard of wood and then watched as Jill had ripped the head off of one of the Greely males. But the tables had turned quickly and the Greelys were winning now and from the looks of it, the battle would not last much longer.
Her hand kept instinctively going to her pistol, but she knew it would do no good. She knew that going out there would be suicide, but she kept having to restrain herself. Still, the fighting spirit that had led her to a position on the Red Creek police department pushed her closer towards a decision to join the battle.
Even if you are nothing more than a temporary distraction, you can better their odds, she told herself. If they lose, do you really think the Greelys will just leave? No…they’ll smell the terrified human female inside the cabin and come for you. So you may as well go down fighting.
It was this logic that made her decision for her. She looked around the living room quickly, looking for anything she could use as a weapon. There was a small end table by the sofa that looked relatively light-weight. She picked it up and threw it hard to the floor. It took two more tries before it shattered. Of the four legs, two broke at the ends in moderately sharp points.
Kara picked them up and eyed them with disbelief. Was she really going to do this? Was she really going to—
She heard Jill scream outside. Kara knew her time for indecisi
on was over. She placed one of her makeshift stakes between the waist of her pants and her back and gripped the other one tightly. She then opened the door and stepped out into the center of the melee.
The Greelys were so engrossed in their fight that they didn’t even notice her as she made her way quietly onto the porch. She made it down two of the porch stairs before anyone noticed her. Stunned, she saw the female Greely strangling Nikki. Her head turned around and when she saw Kara she opened her mouth to scream out a warning.
Kara cut her off, though. She shoved the stake through the woman’s heart as she was still perched on top of Nikki. With strength she didn’t even know she had, Kara planted a foot against the woman’s shoulder and kicked her off of the stake.
Kara knelt by Nikki and saw bruises already springing up around her neck.
“You okay?” she asked.
Nikki nodded and then her eyes got wide. She pointed behind her, croaking a cry of warning.
Kara wheeled around just in time to see another Greely springing at her. He went airborne, flying at her like a bird of prey. Kara hit the ground and raised the stake. She missed his heart, planting the stake just below his throat. When he hit the ground, he screamed out and Kara realized that all eyes were now on her. All of the Greelys knew that she was now a contender.
Nikki got to her feet groggily and walked over to the Greely with the stake in his neck. “Here,” she said. “Let me help you with that.”
She grabbed the stake, gave it a twist, and then slid it hard to the right like a sword. The result was gruesome, as it didn’t remove his head entirely. Nikki remedied this with another swift blow to what remained of his neck.
The battle paused for a moment as both sides sized one another up. The numbers were even now, although the Bentons’ side consisted of a partially-turned vampire, two lethargic servant vampires that weren’t nearly as powerful as their enemies, and a mortal woman. Still, the Greelys looked a lot less confident. Even as they resumed their attack, there seemed to be less fire in their movements.
Kara withdrew her other stake and waited for the attack. The taller of the Greelys came barreling at her, letting out a roar of rage. Moments before he had a chance to attack, Saul was there, getting in his way. He locked up with the taller Greely and they went to the ground in a heap of arms and legs.
This left one of the Greelys unattended and he came straight for Kara. She could do nothing but wait for him to get to her. She jabbed the stake forward but he easily sidestepped it knocked her down to the ground. He lifted his head, bared his fangs, and went in for the kill.
Moments before he tore into Kara’s neck, Lester was there, wrestling the vampire to the ground. Kara stumbled in getting to her feet and it was that one stumble—that one fraction of a second—that cost Lester his second life.
A mere second before Kara plunged the stake through the back of the vampire, popping it through his front after puncturing his heart, he had managed to behead Lester in the same way Jill had been dispatching the Greelys.
Kara let out a stifled cry at the sight of it and tried to reclaim her stake. But it was stuck inside the body too tightly and it wouldn’t budge. Before her, the taller Greely was beginning to get a slight edge on Saul.
Not knowing what else she could do, Kara drew her pistol. She walked over to the two men, waited for the Greely vampire to raise his head, and then planted the barrel directly to the back of his head. When she pulled the trigger, the sound filled the tiny little clearing that the cabin sat in. Every head whipped in her direction, except for the one she had just out a hole in.
Still, the vampire didn’t fall. He shrieked in pain and rage, wheeling around to her. The sight of where the bullet had come out just above his right eye was grisly. Kara took a step back, her gun still raised.
Saul and Jill acted accordingly, taking advantage of the slight break in the action the sound of the gunshot had caused. Saul grabbed the taller Greely from behind, placing him in a brutal headlock. He wrenched back and forth, trying to tear his head free. Another Greely was rushing to the aid of his kin, closing the distance quickly.
Kara aimed her gun and fired two shots, one in each of the vampire’s knees. She knew it wouldn’t stop him but it did slow him down for a moment. It was enough time to allow Saul to behead the taller Greely.
As the knee-capped Greely stumbled forward, Nikki dashed up behind him and planted the stake she still held into his back, aiming for his heart. The vampire shrieked as it fell and then stopped moving altogether. Nikki pulled the stake free and whirled around as if daring another Greely to come at her.
Kara stood beside her, her gun still drawn. Jason Eastman stood directly beside Nikki, bloodied and clearly exhausted. Jill and Saul stood a few feet away from them, staring down the remaining four Greelys. Kara couldn’t help but wonder if the tall member of the clan had been their leader. After he had fallen, the others seemed to have had all of the fight sucked out of them.
“Well come on then,” Saul said. He stood firm as looked as if he hadn’t even broken a sweat. “You’ve come all this way. Let’s finish this.”
The remaining four Greelys said nothing. As Kara kept her eyes on them, she saw that one was actually backing away.
“Is that it, then?” Saul asked. “Your precious little plot against us and other smaller clans ends this easily?”
“Oh this is far from the end,” one of the Greelys said. His voice was laced with hate and his eyes burned into Saul. “We’ll have our day.”
“I don’t think so,” Jill said. “We beat you with a half-turned and a mortal on our side. I dare you to return some other day. And maybe do a better job of putting together your little devious plots in the future.”
“Or,” Saul said, taking a step forward, “come at me right now and let’s just make sure it ends today.”
Nikki stepped up next to him with the bloodied stake still in her hands. Her hair was disheveled and she was winded but Saul didn’t think he’d ever seen her more breathtaking.
The Greely that stood furthest away from Saul let out an agonized screech of defeat and then dashed through the forests with the same speed Kara had seen Jill and Nikki exhibit. The other three followed suit. Only once did a member of the surviving Greelys turn to look back at them.
When they were all out of sight, Kara holstered her weapon. She took a single step towards her patrol car and the world started to swim.
“Kara?” Jill said. “Are you okay?”
Kara thought she may have said “yes” but she wasn’t sure. The world went black and she was vaguely aware of a brief falling sensation.
7
Kara dreamed that she was walking through a meadow. The weeds were high and golden. The tops of the grass and the weeds were smeared with blood and in some odd way, this made the whole scene prettier. Standing further ahead, there was a male figure standing in the weeds, beckoning her. For a moment, she thought it was Saul but the closer she got to him, she saw that she had never met this man before.
A smile touched her face as she neared him.
She said something then. In the dream, her voice was muffled and made little sense. But as Saul carried her into his cabin to check her over, he, Nikki, Jill, and Jason heard it clearly.
“There you are,” she said. “You’re late. I’ve been waiting.”
8
(…four days later)
Saul opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. It took him a moment to put the pieces together. He and Nikki had gone away for a few days. They were in a small bed and breakfast just outside of Wintergreen Resort. They’d stayed close to Red Creek just in case anything should occur while they were gone. Jill was still staying at the cabin to cover all of their bases.
He looked to the bedside clock and saw that it was just shy of three in the morning. It was hard to get used to sleeping at night, but if he was going to have any future with Nikki, it was something he’d have to get used to. He looked at her, sleeping naked above the
covers, and was again amazed at how he was unable to get enough of her.
Still, something had woken him up, so there was no time for an early morning bout between the sheets. He felt something in the air, something familiar. He was sure of what it was even before he saw the figure standing in the far corner of the room.
Magdeline stood there, eyeing his naked body with appreciation. She smiled at him and said, “Our little Nikki is a lucky girl.”
Ignoring the compliment, Saul replied, “What can I do for you, Magdeline?”
“Nothing yet,” she said.
Nikki stirred beside him in bed. She rolled over and saw Magdeline standing there. She jumped slightly in surprise and then gave her a suspicious look. It then dawned on her that, because Magdeline always appeared naked, that they were all naked. It was like some odd sort of commune.
“Greetings, Nikki,” Magdeline said. “I was just about to tell Saul that his first duty as a right hand to The Guard is fast approaching.”
“It is?” Saul said. “What is it?”
“Nothing you can’t handle, I’m sure. It appears that although the plot against you and the other small clans has been stopped, there are certain individuals that have taken it upon themselves to question the rule and intentions of The Guard. We may need you and Jill—and Nikki, if she chooses—to pay them a visit and assure them that things are as stable as they ever were.”
“Are they?” Saul asked.
Magdeline shrugged. “Of course not. A member of The Guard has been destroyed; we put Benali to death for his treason. And then the majority of one vampire clan was wiped out by another. News of these events is spreading fast. So certainly, there are questions. And the fact that you and your sister, along with some very unorthodox help, were able to best the Greelys has earned the Bentons some new respect.”
VEILED Complete Boxed Set Page 21
