Slay Alive

Chapter 4

four

“Eat shit you bourgeois fuck!” I grab the first thing that I spot and throw it at him. It’s a rock and it hits the rich people hunter right in the face.

He howls when he takes a rock to the eye. He doesn't go down but he does stagger. I take the opportunity to run for it. I’m good at running right now so that feels like a strong move.

“You witch!” He’s after me. I can hear him behind me, crashing through the knee length grass. I know he doesn’t have to do that, not with the way he leaped the whole clearing to get in front of me. He’s doing it because he wants me to hear him. He wants me to know he’s almost got me.

Anger surges through my body at the spoiled, most likely nepo-baby that paid Rhia to dump me out here for his little Most Dangerous Game moment. If he thinks I’m going to let him make me scared he’s got another thing coming. As fast as I am, I can’t outrun this psychopath. He’s toying with me. I had been with Preston for six years, so I’m used to people not taking me seriously. This asshole thinking he’s going to get one over on me is nothing new but I can use that against him. But how?

Think, Bonnie, think.

“Come here!” The man chasing me puts on a burst of speed and swings. There’s a loud crack and the ground shakes. I don’t have to look to know that the blow is just a half second behind me. He swings again, the whistling sound of his fist slicing through the air the only indicator that he’s tried to hit me.

I have to get out of the clearing. I can’t keep up my pace forever. Sooner or later I’ll trip or he will get lucky and bash my brains in. What is he swinging at me that’s hitting the ground so hard? It has to be a mace or something with a long handle that lets him put his entire body weight behind the swing. The next time he swings, I turn and look to see what he’s trying to hit me with and I nearly pass out when I realize that there is no weapon. He’s swinging nothing but his fists at me. His hands are clasped together and raised over his head, and that’s what he is bringing down with enough force to make the ground shake. We’re near the edge of the clearing now, the trees are close enough that if I make a dash for it I might be able to lose him in them. Maybe I can climb a tree and wait him out. Probably not, from the way he jumped across the clearing or the way he’s hitting the ground with his meat hooks with a broken arm but I’m delulu if anything.

I put on a burst of speed and avoid his next fist smash into the ground. We’re close to the treeline only a few yards ahead of us and when I scan the treeline, I know what to do. The plan comes so clear and quick to me that it doesn’t feel like my plan but I can’t worry about where it came from with the serial killer on my ass.

He cackles. “The trees won’t save you! I’m going to tear your heart out, hunter.” He keeps blathering but I block him out. I focus on my next step and when I see my opening, I take it. Instead of running into the trees like he thinks I will, I twist and step to the side. The effect of my quick shift is instant. I come to a stop with my side-step but he’s running too fast to stop straight away and goes sailing past me into the trees. He gets tangled in a few low hanging branches and howls with anger.

“Aghhh! You plague me. I will taste your blood tonight!”

My blood? Great. Rhia didn’t just sell me to the rich for sport, but she sold me to a rich cannibal. This fucker really thinks he’s going to eat me?

“Oh fuck that.” I bolt to the side and make for the trees up ahead. I need to make moves or the lunatic is actually going to take a bite out of me. The first tree I get to, I reach up and grab a limb. It’s not the strongest and it bends under my weight but I ignore it and pull myself up to try and reach the next limb.

“Tonight is your end! I’ll taste you yet!” The serial killer nepo-baby yells at me. From the sound of it he’s still thrashing around in the trees he just face-planted in. I ignore his entangled ass. I’m too focused on the task of climbing or at least, I’m trying to. My fingers brush the limb I’m reaching for. I’m not high enough yet.

“Move your ass, Bonnie,” I order myself. I take a deep breath and time slows down as I lunge for the branch. Three things happen in rapid succession. The branch I’m on snaps, I get a hand on the branch I was aiming for and the broken branch that just broke is ripped away from the tree.

The end result is that I’m left hanging one handed from the tree trying to process what just went down.

“What on Earth…” I grab onto the limb with my other hand and look down to see the broken branch sticking out of the psycho that’s been chasing me. He’s standing below me with both of his hands on the branch embedded in his chest. He must have run straight into it after it broke.

“Oh my god, are you okay? Can I call an ambulance?” I ask because I’m nothing if not a polite people pleaser to my core, even if I’m having a shitty night because this psycho tried to eat me. Besides, if the ambulance comes, then it’ll bring the cops too and I can turn him in.

He points a finger at me and bares his teeth in a snarl. Moonlight shines down on his twisted features and I gasp at the sight of him. His features are twisted in rage, his eyes are pitch black and sharp fangs flash in the light when he speaks. Why are his canines so long? Is that why he was obsessed with eating me?

“ You will pay. The House of Nocturne will avenge me. Mark my words, hunter, your soul is forfeit.”

The man goes up in a ball of flames so bright and sudden that I’m stunned by the light and heat. A second later it’s over and everything goes dark again. Dust hits my face and I swear to god, I’ll scream if it’s the serial killer’s ashes. I want to move but I don’t. I can’t. I’m blind from the light and desperately holding onto the limb while I blink away the after images of the nepo-baby going up in flames.

That serial killer nepo-baby, whatever the fuck he was. He wasn’t a man.

There’s no man that looks the way he did and his teeth… Fear rolls over me so bad that my hands start to shake. Men don’t die in a ball of light and flame. They don’t turn to dust and talk about tasting people’s blood. Men don’t cite the House of Nocturne either, but I know what does.

I think I just fucking killed a vampire.