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flesh filled the air.
    The creature fell backward in a smoking heap as one of his friends came at me. I ducked the vampire’s swing and drove my elbow into his stomach with as much force as my muscles could generate. It was enough to fling the monster backward and send him skidding across the pavement.
    Dimitri leapt, landing on the hood of the van and denting the front, which probably didn’t matter since the vehicle was probably useless. Then he came at me. I was instantly thankful his three friends were still back by their car.
    He crashed into me, tackling me to the ground, and my skull smacked against the pavement with a wet thud. His jaws came snapping at my neck, and I instinctively threw my arm up to block. His teeth clamped down on my wrist, and the moment his fangs pierced my flesh, a strange sense of euphoria clouded the edge of my consciousness. He wasn’t old enough for me to totally succumb to his bite, but it was enough to take the edge off my concentration.
    Then his head detached from his body, teeth still wrapped around my arm. Luc stood over me, holding my wakazashi. Blue light flared up his hands and arms as he grabbed the still bleeding headless vampire and flung it at the three oncoming creatures. The body hit them like a sack of wet cement, and they all went down in a heap.
    How had he done that? And, more importantly, why was his skin glowing like a goddamned sapphire torch? I was about to ask him when he jerked me to my feet and tore the vampire’s head from my arm, ripping my flesh in the process and spattering himself with my blood.
    His eyes went golden for a second, and it was then I realized they were ringed with red and silver. How could that be? What was he?
    “Get down,” he said, shoving by me and taking the head off the vampire behind me with one swing of my wakazashi. As it hit the ground, Luc spun and actually leapt ten or so feet, landing next to the downed vampires as they flung their headless companion to the side.
    Not that it mattered because he pulled a bottle from his pocket and flung its contents on the creatures. The smell of gasoline hit my nose as he flicked open a lighter and tossed it on the vampires. Flame swarmed over them as they fell back to the ground, thrashing and clawing at the fire like they could somehow put it out.
    “What are you?” I asked as he walked toward me, the light around his body making him seem like some kind of blue angel.
    Instead of replying, he held out my wakazashi to me. “My name is Jean Luc. I thought we were past this part?”
     

Chapter 4
    “Yeah, so that’s when we decided to steal Dimitri’s car because, well, he doesn’t need it anymore,” Luc said into his silver cellphone as he weaved through traffic. There was noise on the line I couldn’t understand. “Well, I’ve always wanted a Mercedes. Anyway, we’re on our way over. The Dioscuri needs some medical attention.” He shrugged as though the gesture would be visible through the phone. I didn’t think it would be, but then again, what did I know? He pulled the phone from his ear a moment later and tossed it in the cup holder as the screen faded to black.
    “Who was that?” I asked, not because I cared exactly, but I’d been sitting in the car bleeding as he drove yammering for the last ten minutes. He hadn’t even asked if I’d minded if he made a phone call. I wasn’t sure if he was supposed to do that, but it seemed like he should have.
    Part of me was still pissed off about the fight, but only part of me. I couldn’t believe one of them had bitten me. Granted, it was on my wrist where I’d stupidly blocked his lunge, but it was the principle of the thing. It wasn’t very deep and didn’t even really hurt, but thanks to the anti-coagulant in their blood, it hadn’t actually stopped bleeding yet. It would eventually so I wasn’t
that
worried. My body was more than strong enough to fight off the effects of their venom.
    No, I was angrier about Jean Luc.