Pretty much.
You do realize I’m now going to have to fight the vampires with a raging erection, right?
Her gaze dropped to his groin. Wow. He wasn’t kidding.
No, I wasn’t.
Oops. She must have been broadcasting again. I thought you guys had tremendous control over your bodies. Can’t you just . . . think it away? What a waste. Damned vampires.
Lips twitching, he closed his eyes. I’ll try.
Since his eyes were closed, she didn’t bother to avert her own. That was quite a bulge. Even more impressive than the one he had sported in her dream as he had torn off her shirt and tongued her breasts.
Damn it! Close your mind to me!
Oh. Sorry. What was the opposite of sexy and seductive? What was so not sexy that, if she pictured it, it would be the equivalent of a bucket of ice water dousing him?
Hmm. Sean’s nasty-ass meat loaf might do it.
Or the girl from The Exorcist projectile vomiting.
A skinny, saggy, one-hundred-year-old man dancing around naked.
He grimaced. Where the hell did you see a one-hundred-year-old man naked?
In a movie I really wish I hadn’t watched.
Well, thank you. I guess. It worked.
She grinned.
What the hell was the brown and green lump you showed me first?
Sean’s meat loaf.
He shuddered. Okay, sober up. They’re about to come around the corner.
She could hear the vampires herself now. They weren’t exactly trying to keep their movements or boasts unobtrusive. As Étienne had said, three of the vamps seemed to be doing most of the talking.
The group strutted into view.
Krysta did a quick head count and came up with eleven.
They halted at the sight of her and Étienne.
“Gentlemen,” Étienne greeted them.
“Well, well, well,” one vampire said, his glowing blue eyes fastening on Krysta. Blood soaked his shirt and pants down to the knees.
What the hell had he done to his victim?
Another stepped up beside him, a sleazy smile shaping his thin lips. “Looks like tonight’s fun isn’t over.”
Étienne snapped his fingers. “Over here, gentlemen.”
They frowned at him.
“Apparently it has escaped your notice that I’m an Immortal Guardian.”
The eyes of all the vampires lit like lamps, glowing in varying shades of blue and green and amber. Almost as one, they drew weapons. Mostly bowie knives and machetes.#p#分页标题#e#
Krysta drew her shoto swords.
Étienne’s weapons remained sheathed. “I have a proposition for you.”
“I have a proposition for you, too,” one of the other vamps sneered. “I propose we kick your ass.”
“Yeah,” another said. “An Immortal Guardian killed Mac and Keith.”
“And Eddie.”
Étienne shrugged. “I suppose it could have been me, but that’s neither here nor there.”
“Fu—”
“A new enemy has arisen. One that poses a threat to both vampires and immortals.”
“Horseshit!”
“Humans are hunting us,” Étienne continued, unperturbed by the swears and slurs and shifting movements of the vamps. “More specifically, mercenaries are hunting us. They want to catch one of us, dissect us, and use the virus for economic gain.”
“Then I say we hand you over to them,” the first vampire jeered.
“That would be monumentally stupid.”
“You’re stupid!” a vamp in the back shouted.
“Great comeback,” Krysta muttered.
They turned their attention to her.
“Ah-ah-ah,” Étienne reprimanded. “Over here.”
They looked to him once more.
“As I was saying, turning me over to the mercenaries would be monumentally stupid. Whatever they learn about the virus and our physiology from dissecting me could be used against you. And vice versa. Which, by the way, is the only reason any of you are still standing.”
“We’re still standing because we outnumber you, jackwad.”
“I’m two hundred years older than you. Two hundred years stronger than you. Were your numbers twice what they are now, I could still defeat you.”
Really? Krysta asked mentally. That was damned impressive.
No. I’m bluffing. One of the elder immortals could, though.
More curses and denials and posturing. The blood-covered vamps and a few of the others were getting pretty amped up.
Krysta tightened her grip on the shoto swords, watching their auras carefully for any hint of impending attack.
“Though they’re human,” Étienne stubbornly persevered, “the mercenaries pose a serious threat. They’ve developed a new weapon to use against us. A tranquilizer—”
“Drugs don’t work on us,” a vamp snorted.
“This one does. It takes several darts to incapacitate an immortal. But a single dart will drop one of you in your tracks instantly and land you on the dissection table.”