I Bite She Sucks Bloom, Penelope (howl and other poems TXT) 📖

demanded. “I should mention my father and mother were planning to meet me here as soon as father finishes up in the dungeon. I can imagine how much fun they’d have with three Coven vampires trespassing on neutral ground. And maybe a werewolf conspirator?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

Shut up, I thought. “Tell me,” I said again, looking at Lazarus.

Lazarus narrowed his eyes, and I felt the tell-tale tingle of vampire influence trying to seep into my brain. I did my best to shut down my thoughts, but the bastard was strong. He raised his eyebrows and laughed. “I see. I see,” he said, smiling. “No matter.”

“Where are-”

Lazarus was fast. He was so fast that I barely saw him moving toward The Prince. I whipped my head to the side and had only taken a step toward the two vampires before Lazarus was on the Prince. He had him from behind with both forearms locked around Victor’s neck.

The other two cleaners moved fast, but not fast enough. I lashed out, clawing both of them open with freshly transformed hands.

Victor let out a gurgling yell and it was all over as quickly as it had started.

Mere seconds and two vampires were gutted on the ground and Victor’s fresh, hot blood was spraying me in the face.

I stared at Lazarus, rage boiling.

Victor’s headless body slumped to the floor with a thump, and it was over. The rebel Prince was dead, and war was coming. But if I brought Lazarus down, I could at least make sure it was between the Coven and the Rebels.

I let more of my wolf take me until I felt all my senses heightened nearly to the edge. The world snapped into sharp focus. Lazarus’ inhuman speed suddenly didn’t seem quite as impossible to track.

I readied myself for the moment when he came at me, but instead of trying to attack like I’d expected, he grabbed the bodies of his fallen cleaners under both arms. With an obnoxious wink, he seemed to melt into the shadows with them. The lone window at the back of the room broke, and I was suddenly alone with Victor’s head at my feet and covered in blood.

The whole exchange had taken maybe thirty seconds. Everything had gone to shit that fast, and I didn’t have time to think before two vampires who looked like faculty entered the room. “We heard-” the female one started to say.

They took in the scene then, baring sharp teeth and hissing at me.

“It was The Coven,” I said, taking a step back. Of course, I nearly tripped over Victor’s disembodied head, which probably didn’t help the heightened tensions.

“Go get Vladimir and Ana,” the woman said, advancing toward me.

Three more vampires appeared while I backed away from the woman. I could’ve taken her, I was sure, but I didn’t want to dig the hole deeper. I still needed to find a way to get Sylvie out of this place. Killing rebel vampires was not going to help me accomplish that.

“Just fucking listen,” I said, holding my palms up. I’d transformed them back to my human hands, but they were still covered in blood from the vampires I’d swiped. It pissed me off how perfectly it had all played out for Lazarus, and I had to grudgingly give the man credit. There was a reason the Cleaners had the reputation they did. “Lazarus was here. He wants you to think I did this. Why would I want to kill your Prince?”

One of the new vampires who had entered spoke. His lip was curled and he was circling to my side, pinning me in the corner of the room. “You hate our kind. Everyone knows it. We tried to warn Victor not to trust you, but he wanted to mend the tensions. Look what that got him.”

“It. Wasn’t. Me,” I growled.

The vampires circling me spread out, and I saw the only opportunity I might have. I tried to dash through them, but I wasn’t fast enough to make it unscathed. The four of them all lashed out. Vampires were stronger than they looked, and their fingertips dug into me like claws as I passed. I’d nearly made it to the door when they got a hold of me, keeping me from moving. I had no choice but to fight back. I did my best to keep it from being lethal.

I threw my elbows, fists, and knees until they decided it wasn’t in their best interest to keep holding on.

I’d added a little blood to the collection by the time I staggered back into the hallway, but the alarming majority of it was my own.

I burst into my room and found Sylvie waiting anxiously by the door. “Slight complication,” I said.

31

Sylvie

Riggs looked like he’d taken a bath in blood. “Slight complication,” he said.

“You were gone like two minutes!” I shouted. “What happened?”

My eyes fell to his sides, which were glistening with fresh blood. His shirt was torn in several places like he’d been in a fight with a pack of lions.

“Grab your medicine,” he said. “Victor’s dead. It wasn’t me, but it sure as hell looks like it was to the four vamps that just walked in on me playing soccer with his head.”

“What?” I demanded.

“Pills!” Riggs said, rushing over to help me scoop them into a bag, which he quickly shouldered before taking my arm and leading me toward the door.

I was in the hallway before I knew what to think and we were stumbling toward the stairs. Night had fallen and the mansion was quickly filling with students heading to classes with books in their arms. Most of them stopped to stare at Riggs’ bloody form, but no one tried to stop us.

We made it down the stairs and out the front doors before I saw Vladimir and Ana Black coming toward us.

A small contingent of students and faculty had followed us out front and were now forming a semi-circle behind us.

“Hold on,” Riggs said loudly