Free Death's Excellent Vacation by Charlaine Harris, Daniel Stashower, Christopher Golden, Jeff Abbott, Katie MacAlister, Jeaniene Frost, Lilith Saintcrow, A. Lee Martinez, Toni L. P. Kelner, Chris Grabenstein, Sarah Smith, L. A. Banks, Sharan Newman

relieved to see the room emptying. But when Tammy tried to dart away, I grabbed her.
    A man barreled through the door, knocking the panicked deluge of students aside as if they were weightless. I shoved Tammy away and whipped out three of the silver knives that I had strapped to my legs under my skirt, waiting until no one was in front of him before flinging them at the charging figure.
    He didn’t try to dodge my blades, and nothing happened when they landed in his chest.
A ghoul, great.
Silver through the heart did nothing to ghouls; I’d have to take his head off to kill him. Where was a big sword when I needed one?
    I didn’t bother with more knives, but launched myself at the ghoul, bear-hugging him. He pounded at my sides, smashing my ribs as he tried to shake me off. Pain flared in me, but I didn’t let go. If I were human, the punishment from his fists would have killed me, but I was a full vampire now, so my broken bones healed almost instantly.
    I managed to put the gun’s muzzle to the ghoul’s temple and pulled the trigger.
    Screams erupted from the few kids still left in the room. I ignored them and kept pumping bullets into the ghoul’s head. The bullets wouldn’t kill him, but they did a lot of damage. His head was in oozing pieces when I let go.
    Tammy tried to run past me, but I was faster, knocking over desks in my way as I grabbed her. Scraping sounds let me know the ghoul was crawling toward us, his head healing with every second. I hopped over the desks, yanking Tammy along with me, and pulled out my largest knife from under my sleeve. With a hard swipe, I skewered the ghoul’s neck.
    The ghost appeared in the window, followed by another surge of energy coming from the same direction. Time to go.
    Tammy screamed as she fought me, trying to break my hold on her. “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said. “Fabian.” I glanced at the ghost. “Hold on.”
    He wrapped his spectral hands around my shoulders. Tammy wasn’t as trusting. She kept screaming and kicking.
    I ignored that and ran right at the window. Tammy shrieked as we smashed through it with a hail of glass. Since her classroom had been on the third floor, we didn’t have a long hang time before something collided with us, propelling us straight upward. Tammy’s screams rose to a terrified crescendo as we rocketed up at an incredible speed.
    “Somebody help me!” she shrieked.
    The vampire who’d caught us adjusted his grip, flying me, Tammy, and the hitchhiking ghost toward our destination at the far edge of campus.
    “Somebody has,” he replied, English accent discernible even above Tammy’s screams.
    * * *
    THE Hummer was equipped with bulletproof windows, a reinforced frame, and a backseat that couldn’t be opened from the inside. Tammy found that out when she tried to escape as soon as we’d thrown her in and sped off. Then she’d shrieked for another ten minutes, ignoring my repeated statements that we weren’t going to hurt her. Finally, she calmed down enough to ask questions.
    “You shot that guy in the head.” Her eyes were wide. “But that didn’t kill him. How is that possible?”
    I could lie. Or I could use the power in my gaze to make her believe she hadn’t seen anything unusual. But it was her life on the line, so she deserved the truth.
    “He wasn’t human.”
    Even after what she’d seen, her first reaction was denial. “What kind of bullshit is that? Did my cousin send you?”
    “If he’d sent us, you’d be dead now,” Bones said, not taking his attention off the road. “We’re your protection.”
    I knew the exact moment Tammy got a good look at the vampire who’d snatched us out of thin air, because she stared. Her scent changed, too. That former reek of terror became a more perfumed fragrance as she checked out his high cheekbones, dark hair, ripped physique, and sinfully gorgeous profile.
    Young, old, alive, undead, doesn’t matter,
I thought ruefully.
When Bones is around, women go