Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

192 - Rebecca

I could tell Colby was suffering. After experiencing watching him fight so many times before, I knew what to look for when he wasn't at his strongest, and now was one of those times. His face was the telltale sign for me. Everything about the way he was surveying his options told me he knew he wasn't going to be able to fight.

If I went out there, there was no way he wouldn't get more distracted and the little strength he had would be lost. I needed to wait until there was no chance of his distraction, which meant he had to already be down. Either we had to get rid of this guy before then or I had to move fast enough to stop him from taking my boyfriend.

The first option was ideal.

We had to play smart from now on. Colby didn't have long and I knew there were several vampires waiting in the wings to take him as soon as he dropped. I didn't know how many vampires I would be able to fight—two at once had been the maximum Colby allowed when we trained. It felt like the odds were stacked against me.

Looking at the group watching uselessly from the street, I tried to figure out who might have the best tolerance for vervaine besides Colby. Perhaps they would, if nothing else, be able to run in and take him so the enemy couldn't while I fought this dickhead taunting us. He didn't seem to be affected by the vervaine at all; as though he were completely immune. I hadn't heard of that before but I was willing to believe it.

As I carefully edged closer to the porch, I noticed Colby's face turn paler than ever before. He was about to go down so whatever I was going to do, I had to do fast—that included deciding what it was I was going to do.

I didn't have time to be indecisive. I needed to get Colby out of the way and I needed to do it now, before he went down. Any of the vampires waiting to take him could just do it before I could blink.

Grabbing a stake from beside the door instead of my dagger, I stepped out onto the porch. Colby's head moved to me immediately but he didn't say anything, his eyes begging for me to go back inside. I kept walking, though, and I held my head high. It hadn't been long since I'd had Colby's blood, meaning I knew I was close to my most powerful right now. I didn't have to worry about my abilities shutting off.

A vampire started to move for me from the dark and I jumped out of the way, which happened to put me in the smoke with Colby. I headed towards him quickly as he lightly shook his head, trying to shake off the effects. He had to get out of the vervaine cloud and soon. I didn't want him to pass out first—it'd distract me.

Dodging another vampire on their way toward me, I ran through the rest of the smoke and practically body-slammed Colby, sending him—in his weaker state—stumbling backwards. It was enough to get him out of the cloud of smoke. Griffin, as though he'd read my mind, zipped as fast as he could with Kevin holding onto his arm. They grabbed Colby and began to run off with him, despite his weak protests. My heart almost broke but it wasn't him I had to focus on.

Slowly, I turned around to look at the vampire immune to the vervaine. His eyes were as red as they'd been this whole time, his body stiff and ready for a fight. I rolled the stake around my hand without breaking our eye contact. If he thought one of us wasn't going to die here, he was wrong. One of us was and it was going to be him.

He met my challenge. He ran at me and I dodged him at first. I moved to the side, bending all the way back to avoid his outstretched arm then I spun to face him in his new position. He was assessing the situation, clearly wondering how I'd moved so fast. We both knew how fast my heart was racing; how nervous I was. But I still knew what I was going to do, and it didn't end well for him.

When he came at me this time, I had a move prepared. He reached for my arm but I shifted it out of the way and leaned around him, sending my elbow into his back. It didn't have much effect but gave me half a second longer to stomp on his hamstrings, sending him onto one of his knees. He managed to grab one of my ankles and brought me down with him, but I wasn't fucking around. I stabbed the stake into the hand he'd had on me then pushed his shoulder so he fell onto his back. After getting up on my knees, I placed one foot on his chest and pressed down as hard as I could with the stake to his throat. He'd screamed in pain at some point but I wasn't listening, I was deafened by the action.