“What’s the matter, Trinity? Cat got your tongue?”
And with that, Summer leaned down and took Trinity’s displaced tongue into her mouth and bit down. Trinity made a squealing noise in the back of her throat, but I saw no more. I had to turn my head away, though I couldn’t bring myself to move into the house.
I heard a muffled crackling sound and more moans from Trinity. The hairs on my arms rose and prickled. Another crackling sound and more moans had me wracking my brain for what I could do to help, but I knew I was no match for Summer. Besides, I wasn’t entirely sure that Trinity was someone I was willing to risk my life for.
Some rustling sounds were followed by a shriek, only this time it sounded like Summer’s. I had to look, if only for a second.
I saw Summer shoot across the grass like a rocket. At first I wasn’t sure how Trinity had managed to get her off of her, much less send her all the way across the yard. But then I saw who Summer was aiming at. It was Bo.
When she hit him, it slowed her down, but she still managed to get him to the ground. I never would’ve imagined that Summer could possess a strength like that, but I saw firsthand how easily she dispatched Trinity and she was a vampire. And I knew how strong vampires were.
Bo wrestled with her for a few seconds before pushing her off, sending her soaring through the air. I was relieved that he was able to fight her off, but it barely phased Summer. She leapt immediately to her feet and went back after Bo. He darted this way and that, but she was perfectly able to keep up with him, catching up to him and wrapping her thin arms around his torso. With one vicious bite, Summer sank her teeth into the side of his face where his jaw hinged. Though her teeth appeared to be smooth and blunt, it was apparent that they were sharp and deadly.
Bo made a noise I’d never heard before and brought his arms up between their bodies, where he pushed out, fast and hard. Summer lost her hold on him just enough for Bo to free his hands and grab her right arm.
In one quick move, Bo ducked and at the same time yanked on Summer’s arm as he moved around behind her. Rather than a snap like breaking bone, I heard a dull thunk sound, like concrete busting or rock being split. Her bones sounded petrified.
With a maniacal laugh, Summer swung around and leveled a punch right at Bo’s head, staggering him to the side. When he let her arm go, it hung at her side, twisted behind her back at an odd angle.
Wrapping the fingers of her good hand around the wrist of her wounded arm, Summer jerked until, with a nauseating pop and squish, her arm was back in a semi-normal position. And then she attacked again.
She scrambled toward him as if she had a thousand arms and a thousand legs, all battering and grabbing at once. She maneuvered him back against the tree she’d split only minutes before.
Summer ripped and tore at Bo, clawed and snatched at him, nipped and bit at him. Across the lawn, I could hear her teeth clicking together as she snapped them at his face. Bo was so quick he managed to avoid them for the most part, but he was struggling to contain her.
I gasped when Bo lost his control on her and her teeth found purchase in the flesh of his forearm. She shook her head from side to side until she came away with a mouthful of bloody flesh. I could see the golf-ball sized chunk missing from Bo’s arm.
Bo reached behind his head and snapped off a large branch as easily as if it were a twig. As Summer was coming back for more, Bo brought the makeshift stake around and buried it in Summer’s chest. And it stopped her. For a moment.
Looking down at the branch and then back up at Bo, I could tell that Summer was confused, but that only lasted for a few seconds. Summer quickly recovered, and when she did, she giggled. It was an eerie, dainty, crazy-little-girl giggle that sent an uneasy tingle slithering down my spine.
But then, Summer did the unthinkable. In one smooth motion, so fast it was almost a blur, she pulled the stake out of her own chest and shoved it deep into Bo’s.
I was stunned. Shocked. It was as if the whole thing happened in slow motion.
“No!” I yelled.
For an instant the world stopped spinning and time stood still. I couldn’t see the exact placement of the strike and I wasn’t yet completely convinced that Bo was the boy who can’t be killed. So for that moment, I was terrified beyond description.
I waited breathlessly to see if Bo would move. I willed him to be alright, willed him to fight back.
My mind struggled to grasp how Summer—just a skinny teenaged girl—
could actually hurt Bo. It was hard to believe, but it was the nature of what Summer had become. Lucius had been right; it seemed that she was nearly invincible.
My legs finally came alive and I sprang into motion. They carried me quickly across the grass. I’d hesitated to put my life on the line for Trinity, but there was nothing on earth that could keep me from risking it all for Bo.
As I drew closer to them, I saw Bo reach between them and pull out the stake. I let out the breath I’d been holding. I was so relieved my legs felt like jelly.
Afraid that they could no longer support me, I slowed to a stop a few feet from where the two fought.
Bo and Summer were so focused on one another that I never would have expected for Summer to turn toward me, to even remember that I was there. But she did, and because I’d been nearly crippled with relief, I was slow to move.
She landed on me, taking me to the ground effortlessly. I was on my back again and this time, she wasn’t toying with her food. She went right for my neck with her bloody mouth.
When her face was so close it blurred in my vision, I closed my eyes. I knew my fate and there was nothing I could do to stop it. If Bo couldn’t defeat her, then I didn’t stand a chance.
I felt more pressure on my chest, like someone was pushing down on me, more than just Summer’s weight, and then I felt a warm splatter spray my face and run down the sides of my neck. I had no idea what it was, but I wasn’t going to open my eyes to find out. There were some things that a person was just better off not seeing. Brutal, disgusting death coming right at you was one of them.
I thought it was strange when I felt Summer’s body slump down onto mine.
It was as if her arms had given out, and she just collapsed onto me.
She lay atop me, warm and motionless. When several seconds had passed and she had yet to rip out my jugular or bite off my face, I cracked one eyelid. What I saw took my rattled brain a few seconds to process.
I saw Bo. He stood above me, looking down at his hands. Between them, he was holding Summer’s head.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bo was amazing that night as I gave in to the urge to let hysteria have its way. It had been a long time coming and when I finally succumbed, I fell to pieces.