Dark Ghost (16 page)

“Uh.
No.
Not in your wildest dreams, you freak,” she snapped. “Illusion or not, I’m outta here.”

Her heart pounded louder, hammering in her chest, and she forced air through her lungs, remembering at the last moment what Andre had said about not giving the creature the satisfaction of hearing her fear. Andre wasn’t real either, damn it. She was just losing her mind. The tea had mushrooms in it. Something. Right? There was no stilling her pounding heart.

The hell with that, Andre. You aren’t here. I’m scared and there’s no way to control it.
Still, she didn’t move.

I am with you.
 

How could he sound so arrogant? So confident? How could his voice resonate with her body so that every single cell reached for him? And where exactly was he? Invisible? Because she sure as hell didn’t see him. Real or not, if this thing wasn’t a vampire, she didn’t know what it was. She was in desperate need of her grandmother’s vampire-hunting kit.

The undead’s burning eyes widened and his mouth stretched in glee as he reached with his bony hands. She rolled fast, away from the rock, toward the narrow trail. One fingernail sliced open her shoulder, ripping right through the material of her shirt. It burned like nothing she’d ever experienced before. She had presence of mind to snag her climbing shoes as she rolled and then she was up on her feet and running.

“This isn’t happening. There’s no such thing as vampires. There’s
really
no such thing. I’m freaking out, having delusions!” she shouted as she kept running. “They aren’t real. My grandmother’s nuts and I’m nuts, too. None of this is real.”

Something streaked above her head. She felt a terrible wind nearly blowing her off her feet as it passed, and then she heard the vampire shriek. She halted abruptly, spinning around, her heart in her throat. Andre was in front of the vampire, his solid body between her and the terrible creature. His fist appeared to be
inside
the undead. Black blood ran in streams down the monster’s chest. He spit venomous acid at Andre. Teagan knew it was acid because it burned Andre’s skin.

“Oh my God. Oh my God.” She wanted to cover her eyes and ears and drown out the horrible creature’s screams.

The vampire raked viciously at Andre’s face, tearing long, deep furrows in the skin, opening the wounds so that his blood flowed freely. She gasped as the creature drove his teeth into Andre’s throat – or rather tried to do so. Andre, with his fist and now part of his arm buried in the vampire’s chest, turned his body slightly so the teeth sank into his shoulder.

The vampire tore out a chunk and, to Teagan’s horror, began gulping at the blood. She couldn’t run. Real or not, she couldn’t leave Andre to face such a terrible thing. She had no garlic, she didn’t have a stake or holy water, none of the things in her grandmother’s kit. She looked around and found a rock, one that would fit her hand, her only weapon. Maybe if she bashed the vampire over the head, it would give Andre time to sharpen a stick so he could drive it through the heart of the beast. If her grandmother actually wanted to hunt and kill one of these things, she really
was
nuts.

Teagan caught up the rock and took two steps toward the two men. Andre was covered in his own bright red blood as well as black blood from the vampire. Everywhere the vampire’s blood touched him, it burned his skin. Worse, it burned
through
his skin. Teagan didn’t see how he could stand the pain.

Andre didn’t move. Didn’t defend himself from the raking nails or the savage teeth. He began to pull his arm back. There was a sickening sucking sound. The vampire screamed horribly, the sound nearly bursting her eardrums. She saw his hand rear back, his terrible, bony fingers curl into a fist, and he drove it straight into Andre, right beneath his heart. She cried out and ran toward them.

Stay back.
 

Andre’s voice was absolutely devoid of all feeling. There was no pain, no fear, only a cold order.

Teagan skidded to a halt. There was no question of leaving. Andre’s body was shredded by teeth and talons. Up close she could see the vampire had buried his hand in Andre’s chest, and Andre was withdrawing his own arm from
inside
the monster’s chest.

This was a scene straight from a horror movie – and she hated horror movies. Seriously, under any other circumstances she would have thrown up. There was no time for that sort of thing, even if the bile was right there in her throat. She had the rock, and Andre was being ripped to pieces.

He’s killing you. I’ll just bash him with this rock. I don’t have good aim and if I throw it, it might hit you.
That was strictly the truth and she tried to convey it to him with her voice, but even mind-to-mind – especially mind-to-mind – her voice was all wobbly and she sounded like a girlie-girl ready to cry. She wasn’t ready to cry. She was ready to run. If that thing tore at her face and neck and gulped her blood like it was doing to Andre, she’d just keel over and faint or something.

Teagan took a firmer grip on the rock and stepped closer. The moment she did, Andre yanked his arm. The sucking sound was horrendous. Disgusting. Bile rose into her mouth, and the vampire shrieked loud enough to wake the dead. Rocks began rolling down the cliff face above them.

She couldn’t move, her gaze on Andre’s hand as he withdrew it from the vampire’s chest. His fist was closed tight, his arm and hand covered in black blood. Everywhere the blood touched him – which was pretty much everywhere – his skin was burned. In some places, particularly his hand and upper arm, the burn was all the way to the bone. She gagged and pressed her hand to her mouth, unable to pull her horrified gaze from Andre’s closed fist.

The vampire withdrew his hand from Andre’s chest and rich, red blood poured down Andre’s clothes. The creature seemed captivated by the flow of blood, unable to look away from it even as he reached, with a torn cry, for Andre’s closed fist.

Andre opened his hand and tossed the prize away from him. Teagan saw it was a heart, blackened and shriveled. It rolled away from the vampire and Andre.

Stay back. Well back.
 

It was her only warning and the tone of voice Andre used had her scurrying back several feet. The movement immediately garnered her the monster’s attention. He leapt past Andre and straight at her.

“I’ll kill her if you don’t give it back to me,” the vampire snarled.

Teagan stepped into him as he reached for her, sweeping with one foot to take his legs. As the monster went down, she slammed the rock against his temple and leapt back, running toward Andre, with a vague thought of protecting him.

Teagan.
 

Andre simply said her name softly. In that voice. The voice that could move mountains or just plain send shivers over her body. His tone sounded just a little exasperated this time, but she couldn’t imagine why when she’d just knocked the crazy monster to the ground. She heard a sound and glanced behind her.

Her heart went into double time, thudding now. The vampire was already on its feet. So much for rocks and martial arts.

Andre held out his hand to her. The good one. The one not covered in black acidy goo.

She hurried to his side. “We need a stake. Do you have a knife?” She tore off her shirt and ripped the hem while he ignored her, doing something else with his hands.

The vampire roared and ran toward the heart on the ground. The heart actually rolled toward the creature. The entire thing was just plain wrong. She kept tearing at her shirt, telling herself none of it was real.

A bolt of lightning slammed down, hitting the blackened heart, incinerating it completely. The spear of white-hot energy leapt from the heart to the vampire. He disappeared in the bright glow, completely disintegrating to become a fine ash.

Andre had shoved her body behind his to protect her, but he hadn’t moved a muscle. The lightning strike didn’t seem to affect either Andre or her. Andre did the craziest thing and actually stuck his arms and upper body in the white, glowing light. The moment he stood straight, she shoved the torn shirt into the hole on his chest.

“We’ve got to get you to a hospital. I can heal things, but this is really bad and you’re losing way too much blood.”

His hand slid up her back to the nape of her neck and then into her hair. His fist closed around the thick ponytail of braids. “Would you like to tell me what you were doing?”

His tone gave her pause. He spoke slowly. Distinctly. Enunciating each word as if he was biting them out between his teeth.

She looked up at his face streaked with blood because she had no choice. He tilted her head back, forcing her gaze upward. She had presence of mind to keep pressure on the wound in his chest. He looked terrible. He had four long, very deep grooves in his face, and his shoulder was a hideous mess. Part of his chest was streaked with deep furrows and then there was the hole the size of the vampire’s fist.

He should have been on the ground. She expected him to topple over any moment. Her legs were shaking and she was ready to fall to the ground in a girlie faint, but she had to take care of him. He didn’t seem to understand that he was wounded. In shock maybe. That had to be it.

Teagan made certain her voice was soft, yet very firm. “Andre. You’re injured. You need to sit down and let me take care of this as best I can. You’re losing way too much blood. It’s already dark and the wolves are going to smell this and come running.”

He ignored her as if she hadn’t spoken, his gaze moving broodingly over her face. His glacier blue eyes were hooded and in spite of everything, all the gore and shock and horror of what she’d seen, his amazing eyes were just plain sensual.

“Tell me what you were doing, Teagan,” Andre repeated. “Do not make me ask again.”

He reached for her hand, his fingers shackling her wrist, and he tugged it to him, even though she tried to resist. She needed both hands for pressure. He ignored the fact that she was saving his life when he used that scary tone, the one that said she’d better come up with an answer.

She opened her mouth to respond, but he was looking at the blisters on the back of her hand and arm from the acid in the fog. He dipped his head, and she felt the stroke of his tongue. Her breath stopped right in her lungs. Her throat closed. Her eyes burned and she blinked rapidly to stop the tears.

Teagan knew exactly what he was doing. He stood there, torn and wounded beyond anything she’d ever seen, and he was healing her minor little burn. “Andre.” She whispered his name.

His tongue was a caress. A velvet rasp that sent shivers through her entire body. Everywhere he touched, the pain vanished. She wished she had a healing agent in her saliva in order to heal him, but her gift didn’t work that way.

His gaze jumped to her face, and she took a breath. He was angry with her. Not just angry, but
really
angry. She had thought the vampire scary, but Andre’s anger turned the air around them into an electrical heat wave. Worse than the lightning bolt. He waited in silence, one hand in her hair, the other holding her healed wrist. She knew he wasn’t going to allow her to help him until she answered.

“Andre, this is all crazy to me. I mean, I came here to find something to heal my grandmother’s mental illness, and suddenly everything around me is making me think I’m mentally ill as well. I thought you were a figment of my imagination. A really, really gorgeous one. I should have known I couldn’t conjure up someone like you. I don’t have that much of an imagination…” She trailed off.

Her mouth was running away from her. When she got nervous, she talked and anything in her head came out of her mouth. She pressed her lips closed, willing him to understand.

His eyes softened at her ranting, but she could tell he wasn’t finished with the topic. “We are too exposed here. We have to get back to the cave. That one has friends.”

“We need to get you to a doctor, Andre. You need a transfusion. Seriously. This wound can kill you.”

He wrapped his arm around her waist and pinned her to his side. “Close your eyes, Teagan.”

“What?” She pressed her hands tighter to his chest now that she had both of them. “Andre, you’re in shock.”

“Close your eyes.”

She huffed out her breath in total exasperation. He was really annoying when he went all
H
e-
M
an macho on her. She wasn’t certain all that gorgeous was worth the attitude. Still, she closed her eyes to humor him. She had the feeling healing him was going to be up to her anyway. How could they climb down the mountain at night? Especially when there were wild animals everywhere and he was bleeding so much. Her shirt was soaked with blood. It had been useless tearing it. Now she was in her bra, and he could see she had no curves whatsoever.

She had that floating sensation again, the one she got when he kissed her. She lifted her lashes just a little and saw the ground was gone.
Gone.
Completely gone. As in she really was floating. Well, flying. Technically she wasn’t flying. Andre was flying and just carrying her along for the ride.

She closed her eyes again because if she didn’t, she was going to scream very, very loud. “This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. This isn’t real. This isn’t real.” She chanted the denial, hoping she was caught in the throes of a terrible nightmare.

Just in case it was real, she continued to press both hands tight against the hole in his chest. The wind on her body told her it was true, that she was flying through the air, with his arm locked around her waist. If he was flying, what did that make him?

Um. Andre. What exactly are you?
 

Teagan peeked at the earth below her. Yep. Still flying. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to ask him. What if he realized she peeked and he just dropped and smashed her body against the rocks below? She knew how to fall, but not from this kind of height. It made her a little dizzy to look down so she closed her eyes again and pressed her bloody shirt tighter into the wound on his chest.

I hunt the vampire.
 

A monk
and
a vampire hunter. A monk, a law enforcement bounty hunter type and a vampire hunter. She hadn’t really expected that from him.