Bitten by Darkness by Marie E. Blossom Read Free Book Online Page A

worried, yes, but not really frightened, the same as she
was when she’d found Linda standing over the dead girl in the woods. Jasper
grunted when the broken neck didn’t seem to stop the man. No, the vampire. An ordinary man would be dead by now ,
she thought, grimacing. She refused to look away. She and her mom were trapped
between the back wall of the building and the violent struggle. The creature
didn't die and Jasper didn't let go, which was just wrong.
    “Why
isn't he going down?” she muttered, easing her mother behind her a slight bit.
    “He's a
monster,” her mother whispered harshly.
    Sienna
stilled. Her mother never sounded like that. Never. Except for that one time when she'd explained that monsters were real, that
vampires truly existed, and that Sienna had the blood of an alien race in her
body. “It’s a vampire,” she said aloud, forcing air past suddenly tight lungs.
She was worried for Jasper, yeah, that’s
right , she told herself. What had happened to her calm?
    Violet
nodded.
    Jasper
glanced at them, face shuttered. The monster struggled, arms ripping at
Jasper's hair. Sienna clearly saw the elongated incisors, their sharp points
glittering in the low light.
    “Jesus,”
she breathed. She reached into her purse, which had somehow, miraculously,
fallen down to the ground with them, and extracted the knife she always had
with her. Without a word she flipped it open, eyed Jasper's position and the
vampire's struggles, then threw it. It landed in the
creature's chest with a thick pop, the pearl handle gleaming weirdly. Jasper
bared his teeth— a smile? a growl? —then pulled
it out and sliced the vampire's throat.
    Her knife
was very sharp. She made sure of it, honing the edge whenever she felt
unsettled. It soothed her. Now she was grateful for her paranoia because Jasper
needed it to be just that sharp. Sienna swallowed hard as blood sprayed out and
down, thick and black. She almost started praying before she remembered that
she no longer believed in God. What now? Should they call the police? But no,
Jasper wasn't done yet. She stared as he tossed her knife to the ground and put
a foot over the monster's right foot. With a sharp, horrible twist, he tore the
creature's head completely off and threw it onto the deck. Head and body
disappeared in a violent puff of red dust. It glittered for a moment, floating
on strangely calm air, then disappeared. It was as if
nothing had even happened.
    Sienna
fought the urge to giggle wildly. He'd ripped a man's head off! With his bare hands. No, wait. A vampire's
head. And weren’t they much stronger, sturdier than humans? That meant
that Jasper was stronger, too. Much, much stronger. She felt a bit light-headed.
    “We need
to move,” her mother said abruptly. “It's not safe here.”
    Jasper
shook his hands and a trace of red floated away. “Go to my house. You’ll be
safe there.” He looked at them, eyes shadowed.
    Violet
shook her head and shoved herself upright. “No.”
    Sienna
frowned, thinking of the weird barrier at Jasper's mansion. They would probably
be more secure there than anywhere else. She stood up, wondering if she should
fetch her knife or leave it on the decking. It had clattered to the ground just
as the creature puffed into nothing.
    “Please,”
he said, lifting a hand.
    Her
mother shrank back. “No,” she said, louder. Her hand found Sienna's wrist and
pressed, hard.
    Sienna
bit back a wince. Her mother was on the edge of hysteria. She'd only seen her
like this once before: when her father had left them. “We can't,” she said,
apologetically, trying to convey her worry for her mother without words, but
Jasper wasn’t getting it.
    His eyes
darkened. “Sienna, this isn't a game.”
    She
laughed bitterly. “Yeah, no kidding.” Somehow she
managed to turn her arm so that her mother's hand was holding her rather than
bruising her forearm. “I've got to take her home.”
    He tilted
his head, examining them.
    Finally, he