Natalie felt her temper heat. “If women have been murdered—”

“Just wait, Nat,” Beatrice said. “Let’s check it out first before we start arguing. I’ll go listen, but if there’s no one alive, I say we wait and watch for now.”

Brigid smiled smugly as Natalie glared and Beatrice darted away.

She wanted to scream in frustration. The journalist in her said that the people—no matter who they were—deserved a proper investigation if they had been killed. Those women didn’t deserve to be pawns in some vampire chess game. She wanted to call the police. She wanted to open the truck door and take pictures of the atrocities these creatures had committed and plaster their deeds on the front page of every newspaper in the world. She wanted to shine a glaring light on the guilty and make them burn.

But as she considered it, Baojia’s voice echoed in her mind:

Those girls deserve nothing. They are dead. They are past caring. And if you publish a story that exposes our kind to the world, then you will be dead, too. You will be ridiculed by your own press and then someone, somewhere, will come and kill you. I am not threatening; I am predicting. And you cannot die. It is not acceptable.

Her own fear shamed her, because she didn’t want to die. And she knew, as much as she hated it, that Baojia had spoken the truth. So she shoved back her indignation and waited in the car. Beatrice only shook her head when she returned, slipping silently into the backseat as Natalie’s instincts throbbed.

They waited for only ten minutes before they saw him again. The driver was nowhere to be seen, but Tio was exiting the casino and heading toward the back with a woman on his arm. She stumbled, either drunk or intoxicated by his amnis; there was no way of knowing. Brigid and Beatrice didn’t even hesitate.

“Oh no, this isn’t going to happen.” Her old friend’s voice was a grim promise. “Asshole.”

Brigid leaned over and shoved what looked like a flare gun in her hand. “Taser. You ever shoot one of these before?”

Natalie felt the panic start to well up. “No, never.”

“Well, crash course, then.” Brigid pulled her out of the car, following Beatrice, who had already sped toward Tio. “Point, shoot. You’ve got about twenty feet with this model. Try not to hit anything friendly.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if I stayed in the car?” she whispered.

“And leave you there unprotected? Not likely. Just follow me.”

Natalie hoped Beatrice had already incapacitated Tio, but by the time they rounded the corner, her hopes were dashed.

Five figures struggled in the dim lights behind the casino. Natalie could spot one with long hair, swirling and kicking in an almost elegant fight. Brigid grinned. “Elixired vampires. So much more fun. Stay here. These bastards tend to be strong.”

With a snap, Brigid brought two balls of fire to her hands and strode toward a vampire who charged her. The creature only had a split second before he was engulfed in flames. The others spotted him and ran into the night, Brigid and Beatrice hot on their trail. Natalie heard a muffled sob from the corner. It was the woman, huddled against the wall.

“That… What the hell was that?” She wasn’t in good shape. Natalie tried to lift her to her feet, but the woman pulled away. “Oh shit, you’re one of them, aren’t you?” She pointed at the stun gun in Natalie’s hand.

“What?” She looked at it, holding her hand up in surrender. “No, no. Let me help—”

“Get back, bitch!” The woman scrambled to her feet, still sobbing. “Help!” she cried into the night. “Help me!”

Natalie was about to run after her when a dark shape swooped in from the night, grabbing the woman and clamping a hand over her mouth as hesped towarthe creature latched on to her neck. The woman went still, and Natalie froze at the sight of her nightmare, watching helplessly as Tio drained the human dry. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound escaped. Tio kept his eyes on her, black gaze staring madly over the woman’s neck as the blood dripped on the ground. Without a word, Natalie turned and ran.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

He stalked her. Panic pumped through her blood, and the acrid tang of adrenaline kicked in the air.

Faster.

He could hear her scrambling through the brush and the rocks. The smell of blood cut through the dry night and he knew she was bleeding.

Faster.

A low snarl ripped from his throat when he sensed her other pursuer. There was no time to lose. He heard her heart racing, faster than the beat of birds’ wings and just as fragile.

The tremor of breath caught and held. A small cry escaped her throat.

Faster. Faster. Faster.

He was almost on her.

Not fast enough.

Baojia felt the sting of a thousand blades when he reached the rise of the hill to see Tio closing in on Natalie. She had stumbled in a gully, splayed on her back, her legs twisted beneath her as she raised her hands, holding something in front of her in the low light of the moon. No cry rose in the night when she reached out toward the monster that hungered for her. There was a spike of energy scenting the breeze, then a blue flash as the blur of the immortal’s body stilled, arched, and flew back from Natalie’s raised hands. Baojia was already on top of him when he felt the quake. The rush of energy mushroomed out from the prone immortal as the earth beneath his feet groaned and shuddered.

He reached out, slicing off Tio’s head with one clean stroke as the ground opened up and a chasm appeared in the desert sand. He heard Natalie cry out as she disappeared into the dark slash of earth. Baojia roared as his enemy’s body fell lifeless onto the sand, blood soaking the earth that was still shifting and rolling.