Page 7 of Taken by the Ripper (Time for Monsters #9)

But before the liquid within touched her tongue, something dark and large flew over her head in a single bound and tackled the vampire to the ground.

The vial shattered against the cobblestone, spilling the dark liquid across the alleyway.

Growls and hisses lifted into the air, and the vampire holding her steady swore before tossing her to the side.

She crashed into a brick wall, her cheek scraping against the rough surface.

Heavy breaths heaved in and out of her lungs as she spun around in a desperate search for an exit, for a way to escape.

But then her gaze settled on the large beast attacking the first vampire with sharp black claws extending from his dark gray fingers.

His form appeared mostly human but with black ridges protruding from his back and elbows.

The last thing she noticed was the tail whipping out from behind him and stabbing the second vampire with its sharp end.

Deciding not to linger a second longer, she scrambled away from the fight, but her movements were slow and sloppy when terror weighed heavily on her limbs.

She only managed to sprint several paces before something tackled her from behind.

She wasn’t sure which monster to pray that it was—the vampires or the spined creature—as both options seemed quite deadly.

She twisted sharply around and dragged her nails across the face of the long-haired vampire. He hissed in pain and flinched back, but not enough for her to free herself from beneath him.

His fangs seemed to grow longer in his mouth. His eyes flashed red. And when he moved as if to strike, she squeezed her eyes shut to brace herself for the agony that was sure to be his bite.

But at the last moment, the man’s weight lifted off her as the creature tackled him to the ground and tore into him with its claws. The vampire screamed. The fog began to dissipate.

Once again, she struggled to her feet and sprinted forward but cursed when she came face to face with the dead end of the wrong side of the alleyway. She was all turned around and no longer knew which way led to the exit.

A hand clamped around her wrist. She screamed. And then the face of the vampire with the hat snarled down at her, his bleeding cheek knitting back together with each passing moment.

“This wasn’t personal before,” the man hissed, his eyes flashing red. “But now it is. You’re coming to our den. And you’re never coming back out.”

A cloudy gray mist encircled them, and for the briefest moment, her entire body seemed to float as if becoming a cloud drifting along the breeze.

Her body smacked to the earth with a jarring thud.

A gasping breath escaped her. She pushed herself to her hands and knees and turned her head to find the creature’s long, sharp claws buried in the vampire’s chest. The vampire screamed and slashed at the creature with his own sharp fingernails, but his arms weren’t long enough to reach.

The creature violently tossed the vampire to the ground, pulled out a silver stake from its pocket, and thrust the sharp weapon into the man’s heart.

Another scream erupted between the man’s fangs, but the sound quickly cut off as his body became limp and his head rolled to the side while the color leached from his eyes until the red transitioned into a milky white in death.

The second vampire evaporated into gray mist, disappearing from the alleyway entirely as if wanting to place as much distance between himself and the creature as possible and taking the unnatural fog with him.

And then the creature turned toward her.

Her breaths quickened as she stared into its yellow eyes before her attention darted toward the claws coated in red blood. Red. Not black like whatever was in that bottle the vampires had attempted to feed her.

The creature advanced slowly with a form similar to a man’s but with protruding ridges, pointed, ridged ears, and sharp teeth and claws. Its tail whipped back and forth behind him as it advanced on her with shredded clothing and no shoes on its large, monstrous feet.

Slowly, she backed up until the brick wall behind her blocked her retreat. She had been unable to escape the vampires. She would never be able to outrun whatever creature managed to kill her previous captor.

“What are you?” she whimpered. “A demon?”

The sharp cheekbones on its dark gray face became more prominent as it lifted its upper lip in a snarl. It closed the distance between them and trapped her against the wall with a clawed hand near her head.

She whimpered again, squeezing her eyes shut. In the face of death, perhaps she didn’t want to know exactly when it was coming. She should never have ventured into the city by herself at night. What a foolish thing to do! There were vampires and terrifying creatures that she’d never known existed.

Until tonight.

What a foolish woman she was.

The creature moved closer and took a deep breath near her neck. She anticipated another bite, but it never came. At least not yet.

Next, it sniffed her hair, and she cracked her eyes open to find it shifting nearer still until only a breath remained between their faces.

Her heart jolted in surprise when a long, gray tongue protruded from its mouth and licked the corner of her lips, tasting her.

It leaned back and tipped its head to the side, now studying her. And surprising her once again, it spoke. No, he spoke. With a deep voice that could be nothing other than male. “You are not infected.”

“With what? Who are you?”

Trembles took hold of her hands as she turned her head away as the only means of placing distance between them. He was no vampire, but he was another monster entirely. Perhaps one more dangerous than the last.

Finally, the creature stepped back and placed himself on the opposite side of the alley where he very nearly blended in with the shadows surrounding him.

“Go,” he growled, nodding his head in the direction of one end of the alleyway.

“You won’t receive any more trouble tonight, but you better watch yourself. ”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Clara scrambled to snatch the crate of supplies from where she’d dropped it on the ground. She abandoned her hat entirely, not daring to give the monster time to reconsider letting her go.

She quickened her pace until she was all but sprinting in the direction of her home. Shadows seemed to close in on her. She swore fog licked at her feet. And then like a beacon in the night sky, the sight of her home filled her with hope and desperation.

She scrambled through the black gates surrounding her property, jogged up the steps to the estate, and when she finally burst inside, she slammed the door behind her, breathing heavily with her back against the wall.

Several times over, she’d almost died tonight. All for a few measly supplies. She could not allow it to happen a second time. But then again, she also couldn’t allow innocent people to die on her watch. Especially not an infant.

“Did you get it?” Norma’s voice startled her back to the present, smacking her back into a reality not filled with darkness, shadows, and monsters she wasn’t entirely sure weren’t of her own mind’s making. Was she batty just like Detective La Cour?

Or had he been correct all this time? That monsters existed?

Pasting on a faux smile, she nodded her head toward the crate in her arms. “I have everything we need. Let’s go save the child.”

She just hoped nothing inside was broken.