He swore and backed up, right into the hands of the second vampire. The undead gripped him in bony hands and bent his head to sink his teeth into Gerard’s neck, all the while keeping his gaze on Andre. He held the human in front of him as a shield.
“Take care not to be too greedy, Bacsa,” Andre cautioned. “Your master needs his blood and he will be most unhappy with you if you bring back a dead feast. He likes his blood hot and fresh.”
Bacsa was careful to close the wound on Gerard’s neck. “I see you have your own messy feast.” Deliberately he indicated Kirt and Keith.
Andre shrugged. The lightning whip sizzled.
Bacsa smirked, believing he was safe as long as he had the human shield. He lifted his head and scented the air. His gaze widened and a crafty expression crept over his face. “You have a woman. A lifemate. I can smell her on you.”
“Where is he? Your master,” Andre asked softly. “You know why he sent the two of you after his food. He knows he cannot defeat me and he sent you as his pawns, fodder to be killed while he slips away. You have been around long enough to know how it works. Where is he?”
Bacsa took two steps back, dragging Gerard with him. “You are wounded. You have a woman. Do not follow and I will allow you to live.”
“I will not allow you to live, Bacsa. I am a hunter. I bring you the justice of our people.”
Teagan went still. She realized right then that Andre didn’t argue—not with anyone. Not a vampire. Not a human. Not with her. He explained things to her, but he didn’t argue with her. He told her what he was going to do and the consequences if she didn’t listen to him, and he followed through no matter what. It was a very good insight to have if she was going to spend a lifetime with him.
She knew what he was going to do and she wasn’t at all shocked when the whip cracked, unfurled and wrapped around Bacsa and Gerard. The vampire screamed. Gerard disintegrated, the blackened ash falling away from the undead. Bacsa’s rotted flesh and clothes melted away, leaving him a hideous shell of bloody, burnt bones.
Andre dropped the whip and was on him in a flash, driving his fist deep into the chest cavity, seeking the heart of the vampire. Bacsa shrieked and fought, pummeling Andre’s face with bony hands and then ripping at his throat and shoulders with sharp talons. He tried to shift, but Andre’s fist was already too deep inside, his fingers grasping the shriveled heart.
Bacsa slammed his bony hand into the gunshot wound on Andre’s arm. Teagan raged at her inability to move, to help. She could see Keith crawling across the ground toward Andre, knife still in his fist. His gaze was on Andre, not the vampire, his entire being focused on killing her man.
Teagan found the command keeping her still, right there in Andre’s mind. His entire concentration was on taking Bacsa’s heart. He blocked out all pain and everything else around him, determined to kill the undead. She fixed her focus on the command, reversing what he’d done. Instantly she felt freedom. She spread her wings and dropped down fast, straight at Keith’s face, talons extended.
The talons raked his cheeks, her wings beating hard, striking him repeatedly. Keith fell back, swiping at the bird with his knife, sawing the air back and forth in an attempt to get the owl off of him. He struck the body of the bird on a frantic and very lucky slash. Bright red droplets of blood splattered in the air. At the same time, Andre withdrew the heart and stepped away from the vampire.
Bacsa turned his head toward the bird, his gaze desperate. He lunged and caught the faltering bird by one wing, dragging it to him. Even as he did, Teagan had presence of mind to rake her talons down Keith’s face, ripping through flesh and bone, destroying his face as the vampire jerked her to him. His teeth sank deep just as a bolt of lightning slammed into the heart Andre had tossed to the ground.
The moment the heart was incinerated, Bacsa’s body shuddered. His bony fingers closed reflexively around the bird, his mouth opening wide in a silent scream. He fell hard, taking the owl with him, so that she landed beneath his toppling body. Teagan felt the dead weight of the vampire pressing her into the ground. The owl’s neck was twisted funny and she couldn’t move. Black blood dripped onto the feathers of her back, burning right through the flesh of the bird to the very bone.
Panic set in immediately. There was no air to shift back to her normal form. She couldn’t even form a picture in her mind she was so afraid the heavy body was smothering her. Abruptly the vampire was lifted from her. She saw the bright flash as the whip of lightning incinerated first the vampire and then Keith as he crawled blindly along the ground, his knife still clutched tight.
Shift. The command came in a tight, hard voice.
The sound was shocking to her, enough so that it snapped her out of her panic. Air rushed back into her lungs. I just saved you and you’re angry at me again. I can’t believe you. This was terrifying, and in case you haven’t noticed, there are dead people everywhere. Dead people and dead things. I’m having a very bad night.
Shift. Now. I am holding the image in your mind for you.
His voice was unrelenting, and Teagan shivered. She was reluctant to face him in human form. Her body hurt and she knew she was bleeding. She had vampire teeth marks in her back, up high where Bacsa had driven his teeth deep. She didn’t want to see what her belly looked like and more than anything, she didn’t want to face Andre’s steely wrath. Not now, not with dead people’s ashes floating in the air around her.
Teagan, if you do not obey me, I will force the shift.