Love is Darkness (A Valerie Dearborn Novel) by Caroline Hanson Read Free Book Online Page A

Put that on my tombstone, “Would have made it but for Smith and Wesson.”
     
    She withdrew her knife and ran for him —   acting on instinct, not wanting to give him any time to regenerate.
     
      A wet growl gurgled from his throat as he reached for her.
     
    Val ducked and tried to come in under his grasping arms to stab him in the chest but he was quick. Val tried to adjust and go for his thigh instead. The femoral artery was harder to get to but she was getting confused, panic rising and she felt like she was running out of options, had to end this now! No time for patience or thinking.
     
    He grabbed her, held onto her shirt, yanking her up like a rag doll, before tossing her several feet away.
     
    Close to the front door. The easier to snack on you, my dear.  
    Flecks of paint and dust rose around her in a clogging breeze.
     
    Val was paralyzed, her faux-calmness gone, replaced by panic and violent memories, stunned from the painful landing.
     
    Her lungs needed air but she couldn’t breathe yet. She needed the knife, but her muscles were jerky and slow to respond.
     
    Where is Jack?  
     
    The vampire lunged at her, throwing his weight on top of her, banging her head against the ground. It felt like a firework exploded in her head.
     
    Her wrist!
     
    She slammed her arm into his face and the ball exploded. His skin sizzled, shards of silver embedded in his skin.
     
    He screamed and rolled off of her, hands cupping his face. She grabbed the stake from her waistband and threw herself forward, holding the stake steady with two hands, stabbing him in the chest with all her strength.
     
    It wasn't deep enough.
     
    She remembered the last time she'd done this, with Lucas holding the other vampire. Val had thought it would be easier, that she'd be stronger now that she was older, but she was still too weak.
     
    The wood clung to his flesh, not pulling clean freely but like it had melded into his body. Blood pumped out of him, gushing in time to his heart beat , oozing up from around the stake.
     
    So close!
     
    Val went for the same hole again, slamming down with all of her strength, screaming in fury. He exploded.
     
    She closed her eyes and tried not to breathe vampire ash into her lungs.
     
    Everything was gone except for a few bone fragments.   He’d been older than they'd thought. The really old ones left nothing behind. In their natural state they wouldn't even be dust anymore.
     
    She held the stake in her hand, still clutching it tightly.
     
    Jack ran towards her, dropping to his knees beside her and said something she didn’t understand. She'd been so scared. This was so awful! She kept reliving those final moments again and again. Hearing the echo of stake pulling free from flesh. The displacement of air when he’d disintegrated.
     
                Furious, she lashed out at Jack. Screamed and pushed him. He fell backwards, allowing her to push him onto the ground. She followed, straddling his chest as she tried to slap him.
     
    “Damn you! Damn you, you know what this is like! Why would you do this to me? He wouldn't have known!” Val paused to take a breath, the anger lessening with her violent outburst, instantly replaced by a sad tiredness.
     
    She didn't know how to explain to him how betrayed she felt. “I thought you were on my side. That if you could protect me, you would. Wasn't that the deal? But, this was your chance and you didn't. You threw me into this, just like my father would.” She felt like she was babbling and stopped talking.
     
    Jack hadn't let her hit him but had grabbed her wrists in his hands, holding her as loosely as he could as she thrashed against him and tried to rail at him. He listened to her torrent of words and didn't know if she was right. Didn't know if this had damaged their friendship.
     
    Would it change her? Make her more cold and distant than she already was? She threw herself into life like she had mere moments to live, but