Cody

“No,” Miranda breathed, but her protest did little to stop the hungry vampire.

It was Cody’s hand that caught him by the shoulder and brought him up short. “You won’t make it another eight months if you keep being this stupid. All a vampire killer has to do is follow your trail of dead bodies and that’ll be the end of you.” Cody focused on the girl who lay sprawled in a fast-growing pool of her own blood. He could hear the faint beat of her heart and the slow draw of breath. She wasn’t dead, but she was close. “You took too much blood. She’ll live, but only if she gets medical attention right away.” He spared the vampire a glance. “Take her to the hospital.”

“Are you freakin’ kidding me?”

Cody tightened his hold on the vampire. “Take her to the hospital,” he bit out. “Or you won’t have to wait for the vampire killers to find you. I’ll end your miserable existence myself.”

“You wouldn’t do that.” The young vamp eyed him defiantly, but Cody didn’t miss the flash of fear in the younger man’s eyes. A few seconds ticked by and he seemed to deflate. “What the hell am I supposed to tell them?”

“You take her to the E.R., tell the front desk that you found her like this on the side of the road and then disappear. Don’t give any names or locations. Just drop her off and leave.”

The vamp nodded and scooped up the girl.

Cody watched the blur of shadows disappear before he turned toward Miranda. Her entire body shook and her lips trembled as she stared at the far end of the paved lot where the vamp had disappeared with the dying woman. A strange wave of possessiveness went through him and he stiffened.

“Miranda?”

At the sound of her name, her head snapped up and her gaze met his. Relief flashed before she seemed to remember what had just transpired and exactly what she’d seen.

The blood.

The fangs.

The truth.

“You.” She stumbled backward, ramming her knee against a nearby car as she turned.

And then she bolted for her life.

GO, GO, GO, GO, GO, GO, GO!

The command echoed in Miranda’s head as she dove behind the wheel, slammed and locked her car door and shoved the key in the ignition.

Panic zipped up and down her spine and her heart pounded so hard she thought it was going to burst out of her chest.

No, she told herself. No, no, no, no, no.

Vampires didn’t exist.

But cold-blooded, psychotic killers did and that’s who she’d stumbled upon. Maybe the guy had been drinking the woman’s blood. But he was probably just some sick crazy. Or a cult member. Or a poor schmuck obsessed with the undead. That didn’t make him an eight-month-old vampire.

It was the shock. She’d freaked at the sight of all that blood and so she’d imagined things. Like the growling and the fangs and the bloodred eyes.