Page 51 of New Nebraska Heat

It was as if those vamp bastards had walked on water.

Serenity

Iwoke up with my vision blurry and body floating.

Hanging bent over, I watched a dirt path pass underneath me, bathed in dull orange haze. There was patchy, shadowed grass on either side and the faint scent of smoke thickening the air as I continued to defy gravity in a fast, bobbing rhythm. A lump pulsed on the back of my head, but that was way down my list of worries.

For one thing, I couldn’t see my own arms, my hands, the dangling hair tickling my jaw… nothing. I could feel my limbs swaying, just not see them. What the hell was going on?

As my brain fog cleared, the image of the fiery roof collapsing on Dagger came surging back. His agonized screams clanged around my aching head.Oh God, poor Dagger! Please don’t let him be…

“Would you fucking hurry up?” Conrad’s voice, fizzling with anger, reminded me I didn’t have the luxury to think about anyone else right now. “I’d like to get there some time this year.”

I had deathly serious problems of my own. Conrad, that monstrous sack of shit, was carrying me over his invisible shoulder. Andwhatever his intended destination, I knew all too well the horrors waiting there.

“You try marching with a bullet stuck up your ass.” Gasps and guttural groans strained Armand’s usual smug tone. I could just make out the tips of his shiny Chelsea boots hobbling a few feet behind us. “I want to kill that fucking bitch.”

While my mind scrambled for a way to escape, I closed my eyes and pretended to still be out cold, hoping they couldn’t detect my rising heart rate. My shredded nerves and horrendous thoughts ratcheted up my adrenaline, forced my heart into a game of twister, its beat contorting, slowing, and sprinting sporadically as I tried not to give myself away.

“You’ll do no such thing. Not unless you want to lie on the slab beside her.”

“You and your obsession with this little cunt’s blood. She can’t be worth all this trouble. Just drain her dry, throw her in a ditch, and let’s—”

“Don’t make me have to remind you who’s coven leader,” Conrad snapped. “Shut the fuck up and consider yourself lucky I didn’t make you swim, you moaning fuck. You’re not exactly a light load.”

“If you’d share a little of that magic,” Armand mumbled so low I thought I might have misheard, “thenIcould’ve walked on w—”

“What’d you say?” Conrad snapped, tone cold.

“I said, uh, what about that big shifter cop? He saw our faces, all the workers too. He knows. What if he—”

“The dead know nothing,” Conrad said, snickering.

No. He couldn’t be. Not Mr. Bad Boy. He must have gotten out somehow. Some way.

Which is what I knew I had to do right now. I wasn’t going back to a living nightmare of brutal vampire feedings. Fuck no.

“Why’d you park across the bridge?” Armand griped. “This is like training for those stupid fucking human Olympics.”

“It’s right up there, moron. Hurry up and get the trunk open.”

Goosebumps prickled along my invisible arms. I let them keep swinging down Conrad’s unseen back as I steeled myself, preparing to kick, gouge, scream and bite, not knowing how much good—oh, shit, I’d heard him talk about a badly wounded knee for years. He liked to brag while he drank his fill, like I’d somehow feel honored to be savaged by someone so tough. The tendon tear was a parting gift from his former coven leader when Conrad had staged a coup. His right knee had been slashed to the bone by his outgoing boss’s silver katana sword and never recovered fully.

Peering discreetly so I wouldn’t alert Conrad, I gauged the rough location of his see-through knee. I interlocked my fingers and made my hands into a single fist, pushing the scant odds of success out of my mind.

I could hear the double bleep of a car being unlocked by remote, and Armand murmuring something about the trunk being too good for me as he clunked it open.

It was now or never.

Wham! Struggling forward and taking him by surprise, I hammered my combined fists into the back of Conrad’s leg, making him curse, stumble, and drop me onto dusty asphalt.

The impact thumped my side, and I wheezed as I struggled to my feet.

Conrad reappeared out of thin air about a foot in front of me, wagging his finger slowly and sporting a crocodilian grin. “Well, well, that actually hurt. Naughty little toy.” He spread his arms wide, his fangs glistening as he gestured around the deserted and dimly lit car park. “Who do you think’s going to help you?”

I could see my body again, which was poor comfort as Armand’s powerful grip took hold of my arms, forcing them behind my back. I kicked and screamed, my lungs finding renewed vigor at being pushed toward the gaping car trunk. Flailing my head back, I caughthim on the nose. He shook me from side to side then tightened his hold. “You’ll pay for that, you little cunt. Get in there.”

“Help! Somebody help!” My voice wavered but was loud in the cool night air.