“You’re still cute though,” Barret assures me, and I can’t help but flash him a happy smile. Ladies and gentlemen, get yourself a boogeyman in your life. Even when you’re covered in green slime, he’ll make you feel beautiful and treasured.
“Thanks, Boo Bear,” I say, leaning forward to peck him on the cheek. Immediately, crimson rushes to his face, and he ducks his head with a chagrined, almost bashful, smile. Turning away from him, I focus on the cemetery in the distance, the dark slabs of cement shrouded in a light, gray mist.
The rest of my guys surround a very lifeless looking Violet. I dressed her in my Academy-issued red shirt and shorts and tied a fake flag around her left wrist. From this distance, I can’t see her dazed eyes or the numerous scars marring her porcelain skin. Hopefully, that means Cheryl won’t be able to see them either.
“Let’s finish this,” I whisper darkly as the group steps over the unofficial line marking the end of our barrier. On cue, Cheryl, Alex, and a dozen other monsters crowd around us, hideous sneers distorting their features.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Cheryl’s shrill voice carries in the wind, reaching me where I huddle behind an overgrown bush. “The little slut and her merry gang of fuck-ups.”
“I’ll show you ‘little slut,’” I mutter beneath my breath, bracing myself for a fight. Barret places a calming hand on my shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze.
Taking a deep, fortifying breath—rebuilding my previously shattered defenses—I focus once more on Cheryl with a clinical detachment. I can’t think about her as the bitch who banged my men or the girl who kissed Vin. I can’t think about her as anything other than my enemy. With a clear head, I allow my gaze to wander over her, stopping briefly on the flag tied around her ankle. It almost appears to be a sock—which was no doubt her intention.
“Give us the flag, Vinny Poo,” Cheryl cajoles, sauntering a step closer. My men close around Fake Violet, obscuring her from view.
“Choke on dick,” Vin responds tersely, and he better not mean his dick, or else I’m going to stab a ho.
She pauses abruptly a few feet away, eyes narrowing into thin, unforgiving slits. “Why are you protecting her?” she hisses.
Before Vin can respond—and hopefully, declare his undying devotion for me—Alex removes himself from the throng of students, head canted to the side. He closes his eyes briefly before reopening them and focusing on my hiding place.
“It’s a diversion,” he snaps, grabbing Cheryl’s arm to pull her backwards. “That’s not Violet.”
Before their group can make it more than four steps, the ground rumbles and then the graveyard explodes with a bang. Monsters sail through the air in every direction at the intensity of the detonation.
“Hell, yes!” I jump to my feet and fist-pump the air. Frankie offers me a cheeky wink from where he still stands with the others, and a burst of laughter escapes me unbidden.
I spot Cheryl up ahead, groaning, and I skip forward feeling significantly lighter than ever before.
“Violet, let me do it, dammit!” Vin protests when I stop above the simpering redhead.
“It’s the twenty-first century, baby.” I wink at the glowering hunter before bending down and untying the flag from her ankle. “The ladies are leading.”
Before I can celebrate my win, a leg kicks out and knocks me onto my ass. I blink rapidly, attempting to orient myself, as Cheryl throws a punch at my jaw. My head reels to the side as she straddles me, her knees on either side of my hips.
“I’ll take that,” she says cheerfully as she grabs first her flag and then my flag I had wrapped around my ponytail.
With a grace and agility fitting her dainty size, she jumps to her feet and saunters over to where Alex is now standing. All they need to do is bring the two flags to Mummy and they’ll win the game.
I cannot let that fucking happen.
“…shove my fist right up her Egg McMuffin,” I murmur darkly, eyes spewing vitriol.
“Violet, please stop talking about fisting my ex.” Vin moves to stand beside me and places a restraining hand on my shoulder. I don’t know if he’s attempting to pull me towards him or keep me from lunging after Cheryl fucking Ness, and frankly, I don’t care.
“I’m gonna Happy Meal that bitch,” I announce snidely, shrugging off Vin’s arm and charging forward. There’s nothing more dangerous than a girl on a mission.
There’s nothing more dangerous than a vampire out for blood.
With a burst of vampire speed, I ram my shoulder into Cheryl’s legs, knocking her off her feet. She lands on her ass with an audible thump, and I can’t help my grin of satisfaction. That smugness turns into annoyance when Alex touches my shoulder, prepared to spin me around.
“Dude, you’re going to leave a mark, and I don’t like them in any non-sexual context,” I hiss, kicking my left heel back and jamming it into his kneecap. He releases me with a pained groan, and I take advantage of his momentary lapse of concentration to reach down and grab both flags. “Poor little Alex,” I taunt as I begin to walk backwards.
He’s still keeled over, but his eyes are fixed firmly on me, watching my retreat. Pure hatred emanates back at me, barraging my senses. It hangs like a palpable entity over both of our heads, reminding me eerily of a guillotine. You lie there awaiting your inevitable fate, unable to see anything but the blade glinting overhead. All you can do is wait for it to fall.
The wind stirs his pitch-black hair as his eyes cloud over. It’s like a cauldron of ink being spilled. Slowly, painstakingly slow, the black devours the whites around his eyes until I’m staring into pure darkness. He lifts his hand, and the mist gliding over the gravestones gradually recedes.
“Oh, shit,” I murmur, peering over my shoulder at the other guys. They’re far enough away to be unaware of my predicament, busy fighting off the remaining monsters who weren’t rendered unconscious by the blast.
A crackling sound has my attention diverting to one of the graves. As I watch, horrified, a pale, gnarled hand breaches the freshly strewn dirt, followed immediately by a second. I spin in a circle, terror raging through me, as more and more hands appear. Those hands are followed by skeletal heads and lean bodies.
Necromancer.
Alex is a fucking necromancer.
One of the skeletons grabs my ankles, and another wraps his bony arms around my stomach. One, I could take out. Maybe even five. But two dozen? All grabbing at me and pulling me to the ground? Fuck, no.
“Poor little vampire,” Alex tuts, leaning over me with a malicious smirk.
“Let me go and fight me yourself, you coward,” I hiss as a rough hand grabs at my blonde ponytail, yanking it backwards. “Don’t be a cock. I would’ve said pussy, but let’s be honest… Which one is actually stronger?”
Alex continues to smile, unperturbed by my taunts.
The knobbly hands continue to paw at me, pulling me towards a fresh patch of dirt near the opposite end of the cemetery.
This fucker is trying to bury me alive! Not cool.
I try another tactic, wrenching my face away from one of the hands attempting to cover my mouth. “Wait! Please, wait! You don’t have to do this. I know you hate Dracula and everything—”