Below is a little peek at Tinder and Bane, the vampire he really didn't want to fall for. As you'll see, their relationship is...complicated. In this scene, Tinder and fellow vampire hunter Lee have tracked a group of vampires to a warehouse near the Port of Long Beach in Southern California. Oh, and just a heads-up: like most vampire books, it's a little gory. But I think that's part of the fun. ;)
A
big, burly vamp was coming down the stairs toward me, who I recognized as one
of the fab five from Shoreline Village. I shot at him with my crossbow, but he
managed to dodge the arrow. Damn it! He lunged for me, and again my agility
worked to my advantage. I avoided his grasp and he stumbled down a few steps
before righting himself. That gave me a chance to reload my crossbow. I didn’t
miss the second time.
The
other four were closing fast, and I sprinted up the stairs. On the top floor, I
continued my mad dash. When the corridor ran out, I ducked into a big, drab
office and slammed and locked the door behind me, a split second before one of
the vamps reached me. It was a metal fire door and fairly solid, but I knew it
wouldn’t keep a bunch of vamps out forever. I shoved the big desk across the
room and up against the door, then leaned against it, gasping for breath, my
heart pounding like it was trying to bust out of my chest. Shouts could be
heard out in the hall. It sounded like the vamps who'd been chasing me were
calling for even more reinforcements. Awesome.
I
looked around the room. Besides the desk, all it contained was an office chair
and a big metal file cabinet about five feet wide and six feet high. There were
no windows, only a single skylight in the center of the fifteen foot ceiling.
Yeah okay, I could make that work.
The
file cabinet was a bit problematic, because it weighed a ton and I couldn’t
budge it. I folded the top door of the cabinet up and back and swore vividly as
I began grabbing armloads of files and flinging them out of the cabinet. As I
worked on emptying it out so it was light enough to drag under the skylight, I
wondered what had happened to Lee. There’d been no sign of him since I entered
the building.
It
took for-fucking-ever to empty the cabinet. Meanwhile, it sounded like the
vamps out in the hall had located an ax and were trying to chop their way
through the door. I rolled my eyes at that. If they’d been smart enough to hack
through the wall instead of the metal door, they’d be in here already.
Even
with all the paper out of it, the steel cabinet was still crazy heavy. Lucky me
to find the one file cabinet in the universe built to survive a nuclear blast.
I crouched down, grasped it by the edges and threw my weight into it. The
cabinet slid about half an inch. I tugged on it again and again, painfully
making my way to the center of the room and completely wearing myself out in
the process. That sucked, because as soon as I got myself out of this room, I
was going to have to run right back into the ground floor and
get those civilians to safety.
The
chances of living through this were not looking good.
When
I very nearly had the cabinet in position, the skylight shattered. I held up
the edge of my jacket and hid under it as glass rained down on me. A light thud
alerted me that someone had just jumped through the skylight and landed beside
me. I lurched to my feet and grabbed a stake from inside my jacket as I whirled
around, but was immediately grabbed, transported across the room and slammed up
against the wall with my wrists pinned to either side of my head.
I
looked up into pale green eyes and a permanent smirk. “Which just goes to
prove,” I said, my voice a low growl, “that no matter how bad a situation is,
it can always get worse.”
“Hello,
Tinder. You’re looking well.”
“Hi
Bane. Hey, do me a favor. Let go of my right wrist for a second, so I can jam
this stake through your heart.”
Bane
was the most aptly named vampire ever, because he was, in fact, the bane of my
existence. I’d gone up against him several times over the years. It somehow
always ended with him getting away, despite my best efforts to reduce him to
something I could suck up with a Dustbuster.
And
now he had me pinned to a wall, his big, powerful body pressed against mine to
keep me immobile. This was seriously not good. I threw everything I had into
trying to break free. Failing that, I tried to head-butt him. He pulled back,
just out of range, then changed his hold on me, grasping both wrists with one
hand and holding them to the wall above my head while wrapping his other hand
around my neck. It fucking pissed me off that he was so much stronger than I
was.
“I don’t suppose if I asked nicely,” he said, “you’d be a love and stay in this
room for the next half hour.” His English accent made his odd request sound
downright civilized.
I
knit my brows. “I think that’s about as likely as you jamming this stake
through your heart yourself, just because I said pretty please.” I still grasped
the big wooden spike in my right hand.
He
sighed and said, “It’s such a bother that you can’t be compelled. Makes
everything just that much more difficult.” He pushed down the cuff of my jacket
with a fingertip, revealing the beginning of the incantation that was tattooed on both arms. My body was a canvas of spells and
symbols, all of which provided me with various protections. Several, including
the one he somehow knew to look for, made me immune to compelling.
“I
live to annoy.”
He
grinned at that. And then he said randomly, his voice low and seductive, “You
smell like sex. That’s quite often the case, is it not? And yet, you never
smell like the same bloke twice. You really should have more respect for
yourself, Tinder.”
“Eat
me.”
His
grin erupted into a full-blown smile. This was slightly unnerving, because Bane
was in the minority of vampires that had elected not to file their fangs down.
Blending in with the general population was apparently of no interest to him.
“Thanks for the oh-so-tempting offer, love, but I haven’t the time, I’m
afraid.” In a lightning fast move, he grabbed the stake from my hand and drove
it through my right shoulder. I cried out as pain shot through my body. “Rain
check,” he said with a wink.
He
stepped back from me. I started to collapse but was held up by the stake, which
had passed all the way through me and embedded in the wall. “Son of a bitch,” I
muttered through clenched teeth.
Bane
scaled the file cabinet using the empty drawers as a ladder. He jumped up
effortlessly and hung from the frame of the busted out skylight, then kicked
the file cabinet over. I hissed, “God damn it!"
He
hung by one hand and pointed at me. “Stay.” He said it like he was talking to a
dog. Then he used both hands to easily pull himself up and out of the skylight.
I
threw every swear word I knew at him as I grasped the end of the stake with my
left hand and tried to pull it out of my shoulder. It wouldn’t budge. Just
then, the ax finally broke through the metal door. I took hold of the stake
again and tugged frantically. My chances of escape where nonexistent since that
asshole had knocked the file cabinet over, and no way did I have the strength
to pull it upright again. But when the vamps finally busted through that door,
I wasn’t going down without a fight. I’d probably be able to take at least a
couple of them out before they killed me.
Since
the stake was embedded too deeply in the wall to remove it, I knew what I had
to do. I gritted my teeth and lunged forward. The stake was a lot thicker at
the handle end and the pain was so intense as it tore through my shoulder that
I almost blacked out. I dropped to my knees, panting and shaking, but for only
a few moments. Soon I pushed myself up and staggered across the room to my
crossbow. I pointed the weapon at the door as I sat down, leaning against the
upended file cabinet, and waited for the vamps to finish breaking through.
Only,
they never did. Some kind of commotion in the hall interrupted them, with the blade
of the ax embedded in the door so deeply that I could see a few inches of it
on this side. For several minutes, some kind of battle raged. I thought at
first that it might be Lee, but that would have been over quickly, given how
many vamps were out there.
Eventually, all fell silent. I gave it an extra minute, then pushed to my feet, holding my
right arm against my stomach to try to stabilize my shoulder. I leaned back
against the desk and used my legs to shove it out of the way, then paused and
listened at the door. Nothing. When I flipped the lock and peered into the
hallway, the only thing out there was six piles of clothing. What the fuck?
