Passion Bites: Biting Love, Book 9 by Mary Hughes Read Free Book Online Page B

idled, back doors wide open. Ready for a human victim.
    Luke reached for his mist…the silver riddling his body collapsed him almost instantly.
    Fuck it. In a final, suicidal leap, he vaulted vampires, trying to reach the woman. But without mist, he’d never rescue her in time.
    Despair skewered him. Just like Adelaide.
    “Help her!” As he leaped, he shouted, “Emerson, Thorsson—damn it, someone get out here.”
    “ Protect. ” Julian came roaring out of the house, tossing vampires like jumping fleas.
    Prow-nose yelled, “Cover!”
    Attackers turned away from the house en masse, eyes scrunched shut, and slapped hands over their ears.
    Horrific foreboding triggered Luke to clap hands to ears and clench eyelids, just in time.
    Bang. A brilliant flash of light hit his lids.
    Ears ringing, Luke blinked away a pained white wall to see Julian stumbling around like a blind man.
    A flash-bang for vamps?
    While Luke clawed for his bearings, a raw shout, pumped with rage, came from the building. “Move!”
    Dashing tears from his rapidly healing eyes, Luke picked out a blurred vision of the big human he’d sent to get weapons.
    Owun rushed from the doorway, screaming and shaking a sword . “Get the hell out of my way.” Hunching massive shoulders, he bulled into the mass of vampires. Slashed like a berserker through the mass.
    Only human, yet he plowed through the vampires like a lawn mower.
    The woman screamed with rage—and bit the vamp.
    He yelled and his arms loosened.
    That…that makes no sense. Even a fledgling could easily hold human prey, strong-arming or hypnotizing into cooperation or biting into semi-consciousness. Yet Prow-nose wasn’t using any of the tools in the plentiful bag of a vampire’s predatory tricks.
    Instead, he struggled with a resisting woman.
    Too new to know better? Or something else going on?
    She tore free. The prow-nosed vampire licked his wounded hand and let her run.
    Luke struggled toward her. Why didn’t matter. Vampires felt everything more acutely. Maybe she’d hit a nerve. Maybe he’d had to let her go. It wasn’t as important as saving her. But again, the mass of vampires swarmed between him and the woman.
    Yet the human Owun slashed his way to her side. She flung herself into his arms.
    The prow-nosed vampire grinned, raised claws flashing in the street light, and leaped for the humans.
    “Owun,” Julian called from the doorway. “Look out!”
    Horrified silence descended on the watchers.
    Luke’s heart pounded in his ears. His vision narrowed, dark edges creating almost a spotlight on the scene.
    Owun released the woman and brought the sword up at the last moment. The woman stepped forward and twisted a leg in Prow-nose’s path.
    The vampire stumbled into Owun’s sword, impaling himself in the chest.
    Except from where Luke was standing, it looked like Prow-nose had missed the woman’s tripping leg. That he’d actually thrown himself onto Owun’s blade.
    Why the hell would he do that?
    As the vampire fell, the woman cried, “Owun, my hero.” She collapsed into the man’s arms and wept gratefully.
    “Owun!” Julian threw a triumphant fist into the air. “We’re coming to aid you.” He waded into the stunned fledglings and started chopping heads.
    “ Retreat. ” The van’s driver bellowed the order.
    Vampires scattered like cockroaches, grabbing fallen pieces of their brethren as they skittered away. Two vampires grabbed Prow-nose and whisked him into the van, already accelerating rapidly from the curb.
    Thorsson chased the van. Luke might have followed Thor, but the van’s speed plus the fact he had to get the silver out of his body stopped him.
    So instead he went to Owun, the hero of the hour. “Congratulations. That was some rescue. You went through those vamps like butter.”
    “Insane, right?” The man cocked a roguish smile at him. “Like they were taking a number to fight me. Stupid, or what?”
    “Rogues aren’t the sharpest crayons in the