His heart surged into his chest; his adrenaline boiled as the hunter became prey. Another six strolled in the side door.
Loose gravel slipped under his feet as he changed direction. Pumping his arms faster, he scanned the room. Aiming for the stairs, he spun in place.
Ten more from who the hell knew where. These weren’t foolish newbies. As a unit, combat ready, unusually patient, they surrounded him.
Fucking trap.
He stilled, his breath coming fast. His shirt clung to his sweat-soaked skin, chest rising and falling. Bracing his legs, he tightened his shield and rolled his shoulders.
Blocks away from home, his team scattered, his temper peaked… the trap was very, very deliberate. Calculated and designed for him alone.
They closed in.
Diving, he skidded on his hip and out of the bullseye center of the bloodsuckers.
The first lashed out. He slipped under, blocking him and driving his sword into the next.
He flipped over his shoulder and leapt to his feet. One by one, they dove at him. A shrug, a bash with his sword, he knocked them back.
Between blows, he searched for an out that didn’t exist.
Foolishly naïve, the largest of them popped back to his feet and roared toward Bennett. Crunching under the impact of his elbow like a walnut shell, he shattered his nose, then spun and slammed his shield into the next that thought herself clever enough to catch him off-guard.
As one, another cluster of vampires lunged to take his legs out from under him. As he struggled to stay on his feet, he slammed his shield back. In a calculated move, three of them wrenched his sword from his hand. Red-hot sparks blasted from his shoulder. His eyes burned with a furious pain.
Ignoring the searing sensation of his shoulder hanging loosely out of its socket, he swung his shield around and flattened any in his reach. The move bought half a second to snap the loose joint back into place. The ripping grit of it spliced black stars across his vision. Blinking, he shook his head to bring the fight back into focus.
Another mass of them closed in. Bennett dove for a slide tackle out of the fray and took off across the warehouse.
Fast as fuck, a cluster caught up to him, latching onto his neck, his waist, another dangling from his foot. Kicking, he smashed its face under his boot.
His sword unreachable, he fisted one in the throat, shoving another by the chin while he pummeled a pair with his shield. Rolling out of reach, he snapped back to his feet.
He knocked the next that came for him with the full force of his shield, the flailing body flying at a concrete pillar. Cracks sprouted through the support on impact, rattling the steel roof.
The metallic taste of blood coated his tongue, his vision blurred as his face swelled from a few fractures. Almost halfway done, only fifteen more to go. Blinking, he tried to clear his head until he could see halfway straight.
He wasn’t making it out in one piece.
A big guy with dark hair and a neck thicker than his own thigh sprinted after him, arrogance flashing in his pale eyes.
Wiping the corner of his mouth, Bennett grinned. Jagging at the last second, he spun and grabbed the asshole’s arm and heaved him into the post. At the force of the massive vampire’s body blasting into it, the pillar shattered. Above, the roof creaked and bowed.
As they surrounded him, closing in to finish him off now that he was well and truly trapped and broken, one muttered something about this not being as easy as they’d been led to believe.
Bennett took off for the next pillar, the crowd following as he’d hoped. Never stopping, movements erratic as he was no match for their speed, he kept them guessing. Skidding to a halt, he waited.
Cracking his shield against the skull of the next, he sent it flying against the pillar that crumbled on impact. The roof tumbled further. A flutter of hope rattled in his chest as he sighted the next two pillars. Might take him out with them, but he’d survived worse than a building falling on top of him.
Gaze scanning with desperate calculation, he lined up the vampires in his path. Two pillars. And still another seven vampires blocked the exit.
Before he could make it to the next pillar, laughter obliterated his last flicker of hope. He knew before he saw.
A dozen more strutted in.
The rest was a fucking blur, and not just because he couldn’t see a damn thing through his swollen eyelids. Too many, too fucking fast.
Lights out, darkness closing in.
