Page 75 of Midnight Kiss

“You should have thought about that before you decided to stay. We told you to leave!” Mike yelled.

“Yeah, well, if you’d told me that there were bloodthirsty vampires hovering around, I might have thought twice about staying,” Morgan shrieked back.

“You wouldn’t have believed us if we’d told you. You?—”

“Shut up, guys,” I said. “Both of you shut up.” I sat back, trying to keep myself upright and the dizziness at bay. “It’s quiet.”

They fell silent.

It was intensely quiet. So quiet that there was no sound at all. Not the passing of cars in the street, or the distant honk of a horn, or movement in the apartment building, or the settling of the pipes, or a distant TV. All those sounds were gone.

“What the?—?”

The door blew open, slamming against the counter behind it.

Morgan shrieked and fell over the armchair.

Mike drew his gun.

The three vampires stood out in the hall as they had been before.

“I’m warning you,” Mike said, but his voice trembled. “Do not take a step over the threshold, or you’ll regret it. I am warning you.”

“Warning us?” The vampire on the left laughed. “As if you could do anything to us.”

And then he stepped across the threshold and burst into a literal ball of flames. The vampire screamed and howled, clutching at himself, and the other two yelled and hissed.

“Nathaniel!” the middle vampire screamed. “No!”

“A ward. A vampire ward,” the third vampire said. “It seems you had help.” He caught his brother and stopped him from entering the apartment. “Jeremiah, wait. Just wait.”

“They killed him,” Jeremiah spat. “They killed him. I’ll tear her limb from limb. I’ll?—”

“Patience, brother. Nathaniel’s sacrifice will not be forgotten.” There was a steely coldness about the speaker. As if the death of the first vampire hadn’t affected him at all, as if he had no emotion to give.

And that in itself was terrifying.

I tried to get up but failed.

“Stay where you are,” Mike shouted. “Just stay there. They can’t get in.”

“That’s where you’re mistaken,” the vampire said.

“Ezekial—”

“Silence.” Ezekial held up a hand and shut his eyes. Crimson light poured from his hands and spread over the doorway, pressing against Alex’s magic. “Ah, he was strong, your friend. Mr. Knight, is it? I can taste his magic. Strong but tainted. Interesting. Tainted by human touch.”

“Mike, shoot them. Shoot them!”

Mike popped each of the vampires in the forehead, and they recoiled slightly. Morgan had risen, and she started toward the door but stopped when the vampires returned.

“Werewolf venom?” Jeremiah growled. “You’ll pay for that.”

Ezekiel made a face, and the bullet itself fell from the hole in his forehead and dropped to the floor with a ping.

“I’m going to be sick.” Morgan ran off toward the bathroom.

“Leave,” Mike roared. “Leave this place or I’ll kill you.” He removed a stake from his belt and held it aloft.