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