Free Vampire for Christmas by Felicity Heaton Page B

air.
    Impressive.
    He landed
on the demon’s broad back and hooked his arm around its throat,
choking it. The demon waved its arms around, trying to dislodge
Rafe, and managed to knock the stake out of his hand. Rafe growled,
flashing fangs, and grabbed the wrist of the arm he had around the
demon’s neck. He leaned back, pulling on his arm and throttling the
demon. It wheezed and bubbled, thick trails of slime rolling down
its jagged jaw. Rafe’s grip on his wrist slipped and the demon
grabbed him, dragged him over its head and threw him against the
wall beside Shannon.
    He slid
down it to land in a pile of slime.
    “ It was worth a try.” He smiled at her.
    Shannon
swept the slick black curls from his forehead and then dived to one
side when the demon shot slime at them. It only caught her trainer.
Rafe wasn’t as lucky. She looked back and suppressed her laugh when
she saw he was covered in a thick clear layer of jelly. The demon
snorted and stepped towards Rafe. Shannon ran at the wall, kicked
off it, and landed on the demon’s back. Her arms weren’t long
enough to get a good grip on its neck. She started to slide down
its back and shoved her stake into its shoulder to stop herself.
The demon growled and bubbled furiously. It backed up towards the
wall and Shannon desperately scrambled for freedom. In the end, she
dropped, landing at the demon’s feet, and threw herself forwards
before it could squash her, rolling between its legs.
    She ended
up at Rafe’s feet. He roared and launched himself at the
demon.
    Shannon
turned in time to see him shove two fingers firmly into the demon’s
right eye. Green ooze shot out of gaps around his fingers, covering
his shoulder and narrowly missing her. Disgusting.
    Rafe
kicked the demon in the stomach, using its eye socket to hold on to
it.
    She
covered her mouth and tried to keep her dinner down. Rafe certainly
knew how to show a girl a good time. Take her into town for a nice
quiet night demon hunting and charm her by gouging its eye out with
your bare hands. A guaranteed winner.
    The demon
grabbed Rafe by the ankle, yanked him away, and slammed him into
the wall. Rafe grunted and the demon snarled and turned the other
way, smashing him into a dumpster, and then the floor.
    Shannon
grabbed Rafe’s discarded stake, took a running jump at the nearest
dumpster, and then launched herself off the lid. She held the stake
with both hands and yelled as she flew through the air at the
demon. It made the mistake of looking at her. She smiled and
brought the stake down hard. Green slime shot up her arms, coated
her chest, and splattered her face. She hadn’t actually expected to
hit the demon’s eye. She had been aiming for its shoulder, so she
could use the stake as an anchor to hold on to while she retrieved
her stake from its body, and then stabbed it in the eye whilst
leaning away from it.
    The demon
fell backwards with her on top of it. Shannon landed on its chest,
slid down onto and over its head, and skidded along the alley in a
trail of slime.
    “ That was disgusting.” Rafe sounded revolted too.
    Shannon
couldn’t have said it better herself. She got to her knees and
looked down at her saturated black jacket and then at her hands. A
thick layer of green goo covered them. She touched her face and
grimaced when she felt the slime there too.
    “ You can talk,” she said and crawled away from the slime so she
could stand up.
    The demon
began to bubble and melt into a big pile of ooze.
    Rafe
looked confused, but he was staring at her, not the
demon.
    “ I saw you stick your fingers in its eye,” she
said and ran her hands down her chest and legs, squeezing some of
the slime out of her clothes. “ That was disgusting.”
    He smiled
and shrugged.
    “ It was the only weapon at my disposal, and it weakened it
enough for you to kill it.”
    Shannon
frowned. “What do you mean by that? That I couldn’t kill it without
your help?”
    He
shrugged easily again.
    “ I could