Two
PIPER
I
have to admit, when I first saw the guy walking through the food court, I felt a bolt of electricity surge through me. And it’s not like I, Piper Prescott, feel hottie volts race through my body on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t remember ever feeling this way before. I mean, when this guy looked at me, it was like he looked at
me
. Past the exterior I chose to show the world, past the attitude, past it all. He could really see me, you know? The only other person who truly saw me, in my opinion, was Colby and let’s face it, chick factor aside, she is totally not my type.
However, if the walking rebel with long black hair sweeping his broad shoulders would just, oh yeah, rake his fingers through that single layer of inky darkness, I might swoon. Well, at least tremble a little on the inside, playing it oh-so-cool on the outside. The guy was yum-my.
I looked at Colby and immediately noted the knowing smirk on her face. Sure, things like this were easy for her. She could always have her pick of guys. Even Aidan, her last flavor of the month before Thomas, had been an easy conquest at several parties. Let’s face facts here: Colby hadn’t been the deepest of chicks in those days. Actually, she was a downright vapid twit most of the time. But when she was attacked and changed into a half-vampire, the old Colby reemerged fighting. It took real guts to take on the Vampire Council and fight for her life. But to throw the dice and go all or nothing—emancipating all half-bloods instead of just thinking about herself—was totally ballsy. That’s why we were best friends.
And since we were best friends, she obviously knew I liked what I saw.
“Let me guess?” she asked drily. “Tall, dark and menacing in a very sexy sort of way just crossed the food court, right?”
“Who is that guy?” I asked breathlessly.
Colby peeked over her shoulder toward the general direction of my salivating stare and caught him looking at us with an unfathomable expression. Suddenly, she moved her chair so that she sat between him and me, effectively blocking my view.
“Hey!” I complained.
“Sorry.” She sounded anything but. “Don’t know who he is, but I can tell he’s trouble.”
Sure, she was just trying to protect me from possible harm, but this was just the kind of guy I wouldn’t mind being in a dangerous position with. I gave a dramatic sigh as she lifted my tote of stakes from the floor.
“I like trouble.” I pouted childishly, but allowed her to keep a defensive stance between us.
“Yeah.” Colby snorted knowingly. “I know exactly what kind of trouble you like and that’s why I’m standing between it and you.”
She stood up and I chuckled, then gasped in pain.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, bending over to assist me.
I took a deep breath and tried to straighten up.
Is it that time of the month already?
“Ever have those killer cramps that make you wonder why giving birth was ever considered a blessing for women?”
“Are you telling me that cry of pain was from PMS?” Colby asked, astonished.
I stood up, indignant. “You know, not all of us get the crap knocked out of us on a daily basis and are numb to pain. Some of us are actually delicate flowers, you big oaf.”
She laughed at me and looped my arm through hers as we made our way toward the escalators. I took a quick glimpse around the food court and discovered my new infatuation had vanished. There were a couple of disheveled-looking men close to the elevators who seemed to be taking a particular interest in us as we made our exit but since they didn’t follow, I wasn’t too concerned. Colby and I always turned heads when we were out. At least, Colby always turned heads. I didn’t consider myself a ravishing beauty, but our styles were so different, we just didn’t look like we belonged together.
We took the escalator down several floors, and then I directed Colby toward the door leading to the parking garage.
“I parked down a floor.”
I was annoyed I wouldn’t have access to forbidden vampire scripts. It seemed so unfair that she needed my help but would only let me do so much. I would never tell Colby this, but secretly I loved investigating the ancient prophesies. Unlike the female Terminator next to me, I didn’t care for the physical side of her Protector role. She forced me to take self-defense classes with the rest of the half-bloods so I would be as safe as possible, but I fought her tooth and nail about attending regularly.
It wasn’t that I was a wuss or anything. The truth of the matter is, I could trash-talk with the best of them; usually, that was enough. I don’t think I’ve ever really had to walk the walk, ya know what I mean?
Colby and I looked like our exact opposites in so many ways. I might look all tough and stuff but I had a weak stomach and was really more of the damsel in distress type. Which is really quite funny when you think about it. I mean, most people would assume Colby needed protection, not me.
As a matter of fact, the last time I had a tussle with a real vampire, I froze and—this is so embarrassing to admit—I actually
curled into a fetal position on the grass
. Colby claimed all’s well that ends well because she used me to trip the bad guy onto a picket fence and save the day. Can you believe she took advantage of me like that? Forget that I was frozen with fear. She’s such an opportunist when the situation calls for it.
“Some of the lights are out on this level,” Colby mentioned, trying to find my car in the dimness.
“I’m over there.” I pointed to the second row when I felt a knifelike pain shoot through my stomach again. I cried out in pain and doubled over. Colby reacted quicker than my eyes could follow, bending and catching me before I hit the cement floor. At the same moment we both heard a
ku-thunk
of something breaking against the pillar behind her. Before I knew what was happening, she catapulted both of us behind the closest vehicle.
Luckily it was a Honda Odyssey and we had room to maneuver.
“Are you hurt?” she demanded, checking my body for injuries.
I gasped again, the stabbing pain causing me to clutch my stomach, and asked through clenched teeth, “What the hell was that?”
She quickly peeked through the van’s windows out into the parking garage, trying to identify the whereabouts of our attacker.
“Arrow,” she said grimly.
“Arrow?” I replied in a bit of a panicked tone. “Someone is shooting at us with freakin’ arrows?”
This was no time for cramps so I took a deep breath and tried balancing on the balls of my feet. When I felt steady I looked around as well.
“Can you run?” she asked me uncertainly. As though I could read her mind, I realized she had no idea what we were facing; and if I couldn’t make a run for it, she wasn’t sure she could protect me. It was just the sort of catalyst I needed.
“I can run.” I was grim but determined.
She nodded in agreement. “Okay. When I tell you to, I want you to run back the way we came. We’re pretty close to the door. Run into the crowds. They won’t come after you with a lot of people around.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked anxiously.
“I’m going to try and slow them down, then I’ll join …”
“Protector! Come out, come out where ever you are!” A singsong voice broke the relative silence of the parking garage.
“We have you surrounded,” the mysterious voice assured us. I took a quick look toward my planned emergency exit and confirmed we were, indeed, surrounded. One of the disheveled men I’d noticed by the elevator in the food court was hanging out by the door, his eyes searching the darkness for his prey.
“Colby?” I questioned softy, totally out of my element. You see, this was her department. She was forever getting attacked by vampires who don’t like her because she’s a half-blood. I wasn’t usually part of the equation—and frankly, I preferred it that way.
“You stay here. When I tell you to run, you do it. No questions asked. Got it?” Colby looked self-assured and confident, so I bobbed my head up and down in affirmation. She had a plan, which had to be better than my plan since my plan consisted of cowering by the tires. When she started to move, I grabbed her arm and pulled my bag from my shoulder. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten I had goodies for just this sort of occasion.
She grinned cockily and I returned the smile after she plucked the biggest stake out of my tote. I’d written “Stakeo-matic” on them as a joke. It didn’t seem as funny now that I was going to witness her using them.
She put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a small, comforting pat before quickly moving past several parked cars and emerging far away from our hiding spot. You have no idea how happy I was that it was nighttime and she was at full Undead power. Part of the whole half-blood gig was that many only possessed a few vampire powers and then maybe just the watered-down version. Colby was very kick-ass when it was nighttime. Don’t ask me why, it was what it was.
“Dude!” I heard her taunt as she stepped out between cars a good ways from where she started. “What kind of pansy uses arrows on a girl? Are you afraid the big, bad Protector is gonna kick your butt in front of all your little friends?”
We seriously needed to work on her trash-talking.
From my position I could identify four of the five guys from the food court. I wasn’t sure where the last guy was, which made me nervous.
I yelped when Colby jumped onto the closest car as an arrow pierced the space she’d occupied only a moment before. She jumped from car to car, going right for mystery man number five as he fired another bolt from his crossbow. Colby dodged,
Matrix
style, by doing a truly spectacular vault/cart-wheel thingy onto the car closest to the creep. I cheered in my head when she landed perfectly. Her attacker didn’t even have time to reload and threw his weapon at her instead.
She caught it in the shoulder but it barely slowed her down, because she was already delivering a fierce kick to his chin, practically snapping his head off. She finished the job with her stake and I realized I had a serious girl crush on my best friend. I mean, who wouldn’t be part of the Colby fan club after seeing her fight?
She’d nailed him in the chest and I was surprised to see a white mist escape the puncture with a hiss. It rose over the body, seemed to suspend in midair for a moment and then dissipate.
WTF? This didn’t happen the last time I’d witnessed a vampire wasting. True, I’d only seen one and this was far from Colby’s first whacking but she’d never mentioned the mist before. The look on her face led me to believe it was her first time as well.
I glanced at the door; the guy guarding it was running toward the fight. I could make my escape now but I hesitated. It was obvious Colby was up against something she hadn’t expected and now she had four of them teaming up on her. She neatly staked a second one that exploded a pus that caused her to jump back.
Sure, killing vamps was never pretty but they usually just dissolve nicely into a puddle of goo. At least, that was my limited experience. This whole smelly, oozy thing was new to me. And I had to say, I didn’t like it at all. I had a feeling if any of it got on Colby’s shoes, she would go medieval. Colby had a thing for shoes, don’t ask me why.
Number Three grabbed her from behind and Number Four punched her in the face. I debated running to the door. Could I really leave her now? She was getting punched in the face. But besides pissing her off, punching her in the face wasn’t going to stop her.
Then she did something so shocking, she actually shrieked. She reached back behind her for Number Three, grabbed his head and pulled, hard. I expected him to come flying over her shoulder into Number Four and I think she must have as well. To my shock and dismay, his head detached from his body and now Colby was holding it upside down against her chest.
She tossed it to Number Four; the surprised look on his face was pretty classic. He threw it back and before I knew it they were playing a game of hot potato with this guy’s noggin. The fifth guy arrived in time to slap the head out of Colby’s hand and knock her to the ground with a single punch. He was huge and ugly and very, very angry.
I watched him kick her twice as she yelled for me to run. But I couldn’t just leave even though I really wanted to do just that: run far and wide. Colby was taking a serious beating. So instead I moved toward the battle, armed with a stake from my tote. I know, I am too stupid to be allowed to live, but I had to try to help her.
As I approached, Colby grabbed the smaller of the two guys and used him as a shield when the big one produced a wicked-looking blade. It was bigger than a knife but smaller than a sword. Who did this guy think he was, anyway, Captain Jack Sparrow?
The big guy effectively slashed his partner to ribbons as Colby dodged his slicing and dicing action. I was whimpering when I realized she had nothing left to use as a shield, and then Colby slipped on the oozy mess and went down on one knee, hard. I heard the crack her kneecap made from my hiding place.
Her face was contorted with pain and she was defenseless. The big guy brought up his sword and a power that I couldn’t begin to describe filled me. I leapt forward, stake in hand, poised for action when I heard the man say to Colby, “It’s time to go.”