Wrong.
There were several dead bodies littered on the ground outside of it. By the looks of things, they were driven mad by the chaos mist and killed each other. I stood over a bloated middle-aged bloke with shaggy red hair, his lifeless head hanging to one side. With the toe of my boot, I nudged his shirt collar down, checking his neck for fang marks. None.
My suspicions were right. These poor sods killed each other.
“Looks like we’ve found a ride,” I told Gabriel with a morbid grin.
He scratched his head, not looking too thrilled about the prospect of taking some dead people’s car. All the same, he came and helped me lift the body out of the driver’s seat. The vehicle reeked of blood, but in my line of work, I was used to it.
Checking the dash, I saw that the tank was three-quarters full. Handy. I slid in and turned the key in the ignition, the engine roaring to life. Sticking my head out the window, I called, “Hop in boys and girls, we’re off for a picnic.”
Delilah gave me an irritable look. “You always have to be such a fucking piss taker,” she muttered, slipping into one of the back seats with Ira. “Now’s really not the time.”
“I won’t let your brother take the shine outta my sun,” I shot back.
She huffed, narrowed her green eyes to slits, and turned her head away, ignoring me.
“All aboard?” I shouted jovially, letting my arm hang out of the open window and banging hard against the metal door. Nobody answered. Guess my attempt to lighten the mood had failed. I pulled away from the side of the road.
We were only driving for about five minutes when all of a sudden a white stretch limousine appeared out of nowhere. There were tendrils of pearly, effervescent light shining from the windows as it sped by and overtook the minivan. With my driver’s side window open, I heard a sharp female cry for help erupt from inside the limo.
What the fuck?
“Oh, my goodness,” Alvie gasped.
“Where is all that light coming from?” Delilah questioned.
“Looks like magic,” Gabriel said.
On instinct, I increased my speed, following the limo. The door flew open a second later, and a woman dressed in a shimmery white evening gown jumped from the vehicle. She rolled along the road, huddled in a crouch for a moment, then got to her feet and broke into a run. She was about to come face to bumper with the minivan so I slammed on the breaks and came to a screeching halt seconds before I would have hit her.
Up ahead, a tall man emerged from the limo. He came marching determinedly after the woman, who was now staring right into the minivan, shaking like a leaf. She had long, curly blonde hair and bright hazel eyes. When they met mine, I saw her desperation.
Without thinking, I hopped out and hurried to her.
“Are you okay?” I asked as her gaze flickered over me in an unfocused manner.
“Stay away,” she croaked, holding out her shaking hand at the same time the guy from the limo called, “Touch her and die, slayer.”
I looked to the tall guy, recognising him as Michael Ridley, one of Theodore’s warlock cronies and also the prick who set fire to Rita’s house.
Delilah, Gabriel and Ira emerged from the van, coming to stand beside me.
“I’ll do what I like, warlock,” I sneered back at him.
His attention went to the woman. “Alora, come back here now. You are being completely unreasonable.”
Alora flinched at the sound of Ridley’s voice and took a step toward me.
“Please, don’t let him take me. It hurts … he hurts me too much.”
At this statement, my protective instincts kicked into high gear, and I pulled her to stand behind me.
“You hurt women, eh?” I asked, levelling my stare on Ridley. “Why don’t you try hurting me instead? See how well you fare?”
Ridley huffed out an angry breath and raised his hand into the air, on the verge of casting a spell. Luckily, Ira leapt at him with a snarl and clamped his big teeth down on Ridley’s hand before he got the chance to finish. I winced when he didn’t just bite him, but jerked his head and tore the hand clean off.
Well, Ira did have some, uh, issues with magic, so I couldn’t really blame him for overdoing it slightly.
An almighty wail erupted from Ridley. He stared down at his now handless arm in horror as blood gushed out. Ira dropped the hand to the ground with a wet thump and walked away with doggy style disinterest. Yep, I just said doggy style. It’d been way too long since I last had a woman beneath me.
“I’m going to kill that fucking dog,” Ridley screamed.
“You’ll be killing no one unless you get yourself to a hospital real soon, my friend,” I called out, grimacing at the sight of his severed hand.
He swore profusely, picked up his hand, and hurried back to his limo. The door slammed shut and the vehicle tore down the road. I turned to see Alora running away from us now, in the opposite direction of the limo. Gabriel and Delilah stared after her, dumbfounded. Ira sat by the side of the van, licking the blood off his paws, and Alvie still sat inside, too shaken by the night’s events to get involved.
I guessed it was my job to go after her then. I ran down the road, but she must’ve heard me coming because she quickened her pace. She was in her bare feet and I knew it had to hurt running without any shoes. A second later, I caught up to her, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her to a stop. She wriggled in my hold, struggling to break free.
“Let me go, please,” came her throaty cry. It sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “I need to get as far away from him as possible. I need to find my family.”
“Hush,” I whispered soothingly. “You’re not going to get very far in your state. Let me help you.”
She went still when I spoke and turned in my arms to look up at me. Her eyes, which I now decided were far more gold than hazel, continued to roam in an unfocused way. Suddenly, I realised why. She was blind.
Now that she’d stopped struggling, I took the opportunity to study her more closely. Her eyes were amazing. I’d never seen gold eyes in a human before, only in vampires. I felt like a dick noticing, especially since she was in obvious distress, but she had a fantastic rack and plump, heart-shaped lips. Her skin was lightly tanned and smooth, and her hair was a mass of silky curls. In other words, she was beautiful—and still trembling in my arms.
“I know your voice,” she whispered, her forehead crinkling in thought.
“I don’t think so, baby. We’ve never met before. I would definitely remember meeting you.”
She shook her head. “No, you don’t understand …”
“Are you hurt?” I asked. “What were you doing with that son of a bitch Ridley anyway?”
Her soft breath hit the base of my throat as she breathed frantically. “He kidnapped me when I was on my way home from work two years ago. I haven’t seen the outside of his house until tonight.”
“He kidnapped you?” I asked in disbelief. “Why? Is he some kind of sicko?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking. He called you a slayer. Does that mean you know about supernatural creatures?”
“Yes, you can speak freely,” I replied.
She exhaled in some kind of relief, and then her small hands were cupping my face, moving over my features in concentration. “Can I trust you?” she asked as she tried to see me through touch. I stood stock-still, utterly entranced.