Crowbones

CHAPTER 89

Vicki

Moonsday, Novembros 5

Crap. Crappity crap crap.

Well, I did find a clearing, but I think I also found the septic tank for the main house and the lake cabins.

If I headed north from here, I should be heading for the Mill Creek Cabins and should reach the clearing where Kira said she and Aggie would be waiting.

Okeydokey.

Which way was north?

Finally!

I saw Aggie on the ground and ran to her.

“What happened?” I asked as Kira rushed toward me and grabbed my wrist, burrowing under sweater and coat sleeves to touch bare skin.

“I did like you, but you kept getting in the way,” Kira said.

Natasha told me Sanguinati were often in their smoke form when they extracted blood from prey. Biting someone was more personal, more intimate. She also said the advantage of feeding in their smoke form was that the prey didn’t notice the loss of blood.

She was soooo wrong.

Or maybe Kira was still too young to have sufficient skill, because I sure noticed the sudden drop in blood pressure as she fed off me.

I staggered. She released my wrist and grabbed my hair as she tried to pour the contents of a small bottle into my mouth.

Being Sanguinati, she was strong. But I had sand. I surely did.

I also had a healthy fear that if I was injured and survived, I would be given another transfusion of Grimshaw blood. Who knew what traits I would acquire from another dose of Grimshaw?

I knocked the bottle out of Kira’s hand. Some of the liquid went down my throat as I choked and coughed and shoved her away from me. I fell on my hands and knees, too dizzy to stand. I was in trouble. So was Aggie, who looked terribly hurt, with her neck all bloody. But I started to feel good and just didn’t care what was going to happen next, except to think it would be pretty interesting.

I didn’t think blood loss would make you feel good, so my vote was drugs. Yep, probably drugs, since I swallowed some of the stuff in that small bottle.

“Adequate, Kira, but not stellar work,” a male voice said.

I looked up and saw the muddy green coat first. Crappity crap crap. Then I looked at the face.

“Richard Cardosa,” he said pleasantly. “Not that you’ll remember.”

Why not? Oh. I was going to be the next dead donkey. Phooey.

Just a point of information? A drug that is supposed to make you feel good cannot compete with terror. Terror will sober you right up. Or leave you gibbering. It’s pretty much fifty-fifty.

For me, there was a moment of clarity as I stared at this man with the cruel smile and the eager look in his eyes—as I stared at Viktor, who stepped up beside him and looked just as cruel, just as eager. I had no chance of getting away from them, let alone getting Aggie somewhere safe. But I could give these killers and deceivers a moment of uneasiness. Maybe even a lifetime of looking over their shoulders.

I got to my feet and was proud that I didn’t just fall over and land on Aggie. Then I said in my best “I got sand” voice, “Crowbones is gonna gitcha.”

That’s when things got weird.