Page 130 of Taming His Vampire Mate

Then the creature crawled into view.

Eight feet tall, impossibly thin. Its body was a glistening black wood, blood-soaked vines twisting through it like veins and arteries. Its claws scraped the earth with a shriek. The face it wore—a deer skull threaded through with vines—was like something out of a horror movie. Where eyes should’ve been was pure black, abyssal.

This was the creature that had killed Ian.

Conviction surged through me. If we didn’t stop it, it would kill Thierry, too. It would keep killing.

“You bastard,” Thierry spat.

The creature’s jaws opened, and it was exactly like it had been in the dreamscape. Rows of jagged, three-inch shark teeth. Viscous violet fluid dripped down, sizzling against the earth. Its mouth was impossibly vast, bigger inside than out—big enough to bite a man in half.

Two more creatures, identical to the first, crawled from the hole. A pack of nightmares.

A sick disbelief rolled through me. We couldn’t fight them all.

In the distance, howls cut across the night, cut off mid-note. It was a signal we’d set long ago. It meant serious trouble.

At least two sets of howls. Which likely meant creatures had breached in two other places nearby.

We’re outnumbered. Thierry, run.

No.

The first monster let out a guttural noise that sounded disturbingly like laughter. A chill ripped through me.

Dante had been wrong. They weren’t just hungry. They could reason. Worse—they enjoyed our fear. They relished knowing they were about to slaughter us. And likely the rest of the town afterward.

Beside me, Reed’s ears slicked back. He threw his head up and let out a howl—cutting it short, like the others we’d heard.

The lead creature cocked its skull to one side, an eerily human gesture.

Thierry moved.

I’d seen him fight before, but never like this. He wasn’t fighting to subdue, the way he had been in Rookwood. He was fighting to kill.

He didn’t rush head-on. In a blur, he scaled the nearest tree and vanished into the branches.

An instant later, he dropped from above, slamming onto the second creature’s back and driving it to the ground. His hands seized one vine-wrapped limb and wrenched.

A sickening crack split the night. The monster shrieked, thrashing.

The first creature whirled and lunged, claws slashing. Each one was a sharpened stake, lethal enough to end my vampire.

The third darted forward too, impossibly fast.

I snarled and leapt, crashing onto its back before it reached him. Reed was right behind me, both of us driving it into the dirt.

The ground shook with the impact. I lunged, seizing a vine in my teeth and ripping hard. Rot and copper filled my mouth. Reed tore another section free.

The creature shrieked, thrashing beneath us, claws raking furrows in the earth. Venom hissed as it dripped, burning holes into the ground.

Reed tore away a mouthful of vines in one brutal motion, exposing the central column—two inches thick, oozing inky-black ichor.

I struck, jaws closing around it. With every ounce of power I had, I bit down. It snapped between my teeth.

The creature went limp beneath us. Dead.

The other two screamed in fury.