Free Bound (Dark Reflections Volume 1) by Dean Murray

intense concentration on her face while Jasmin and Jess were squared off against what looked like a kid our age who was stabbing at them with a pair of short swords.
    My guy slashed at me with a complicated double attack that I couldn't follow and only barely managed to knock aside with the back side of my claws, and then someone screamed and I saw one of Jack's wolves burst into flame. She hit the ground and rolled in an effort to put the fire out, but it continued to burn despite her best efforts.
    Jack swore and picked his opponent up, spinning once before throwing the struggling man into the vampire who was responsible for the fire.
    "Quit screwing around and just commit. You're fighting their kind of fight instead of our kind of fight!"
    He was right. Facing off against people who were armed instead of against hybrids or wolves had thrown us all off of our game, but Jasmin was the first to recover. I saw her take advantage of an opening and throw herself at her opponent, jaws finding his throat as Jess grabbed hold of his right arm, slowing it just long enough for Jasmin to plant her legs and start whipping her vampire back and forth.
    James was trying to create an opportunity to get in close to the girl he was fighting, but she seemed to be anticipating every move he made. He was already bleeding from half a dozen slashes to his arms and legs, but even more concerning was the spot where she'd stabbed him in the chest. It had obviously missed his heart, but he was clearly outmatched.
    My vampire attacked again, burying one of his axes in the muscle of my left arm before spinning away and grabbing another axe from his belt.
    I couldn't see enough of the rest of the fight from where I was standing to tell whether or not Jack's people were holding their own, but our little corner wasn't going well. Jasmin was still trying to kill the vampire she had latched onto. He'd dropped one of his swords and Jess had ahold of his arm again to prevent him from stabbing Jasmin with his other weapon, but he was proving remarkably hard to finish off.
    It was only a matter of time before Jasmin and Jessica succeeded in killing the vampire they'd been fighting, but there was no telling how much longer James was going to last and that was even assuming that they didn't get wrapped up in a fight with one of the other vampires.
    My opponent looked like he was experiencing some of the same kind of frustrations I was feeling. I hadn't succeeded in marking him yet, but it was obvious that he'd expected to beat me already and be on to his second or third opponent. He needed to connect with a blow to my neck or chest if he was going to end our fight quickly and so far all I'd given up was strikes that were only slightly more than flesh wounds.
    He attacked again, but this time his hands were slightly out of position. There was a very high likelihood that the opening was something he'd left there on purpose in an effort to draw me out, but I couldn't afford to pass it up, not if I was going to help James and the girls.
    I took the opportunity, but I took it the same way that I would have attacked another hybrid. My left hand shot forward claws seeking for his chest, but at the same time I charged forward with all of my considerable weight bearing down on him as my right foot came up so that I could sink talons into his stomach and carry him to the ground.
    Against an off-balance hybrid it was a devastating attack. Against a vampire who couldn't weigh much over two hundred and thirty pounds or so, it was practically guaranteed to be successful. It was just a question of how much damage he'd do to me as I killed him.
    Only suddenly it wasn't a foregone conclusion like I'd thought it was. My left hand hit something a few inches in front of his chest, something hard and unyielding where my eyes were telling me that nothing existed. I'd been leading with my left arm and while bringing my left arm to a complete halt wasn't sufficient to completely arrest