Free Kidnapped by Annabelle Lake Page A

started jerkily out the doorway straight into his arms, and Sussex on instinct, caught her, only to push her away quickly as he heard the same snarling death rattle as before. She landed on the floor but quickly scrambled to her feet and came at him once again. Her eyes were glazed over with the same white film as the man before her and he recognized her as a Courtesan named Rose. Sussex had sampled her wares a time or two, but there was no recognition in her eyes for him now; only the same blood hungry gnashing of teeth.  
    “Rosie; it’s Sussex. Stop, please stop!” He pleaded with her but she still kept coming, and he was left with no choice but to take up his sword and allow her to impale herself, in self defense. He had prayed fervently that seeing the sword her course would detour but it had not.  The blade rammed securely in her chest, seemed to make no difference to her despite the fact that he knew he had made direct contact with her heart. She stood at the end of his sword, snarling and snapping at him. Again it was the same as the creature from before; only harder for him this time as she was someone he had known and a woman at that. Shakily Sussex used the full force of his strength to push the blade deeper into her body using her backwards momentum to pull her off the blade on her way down. She was bleeding heavily and fell to the ground; the force of Sussex’s strength sending her petite body reeling. Sussex prayed she would stay down this time, but ignorant of his silent pleas, she scrambled to her feet with a snarl and flew at him again.  
    “Fuck!” Sussex cried out in horror at his own actions as he swung the sword to defend himself, connecting with her neck.  Two hacks this time, one less than before and she lay motionless upon the floor in a rapidly spreading pool of blood. Sussex stared numbly at the body, he was no cold blooded killer, but these things were unnatural.  
    Cutting off their heads seemed to the only way to kill them. His stomach once more rebelled on him at the idea, and he wished that he had not had so terribly much to drink the night before.  
    Ducking into the room Rose had just exited, he scanned the area for anything else that might rise up and attack him, but it was empty; locking the door he leaned heavily against it, heart pounding wildly as he tried desperately to catch his breath. His mind was an infinite jumble of barely coherent thoughts.  
    What he had witnessed was impossible, but he was no lunatic and it had certainly been real, for the blood still stained red upon his sword and hands. Grabbing a handful of the bedclothes, Sussex wiped the blood from his sword tip. Rosie was dead now and wouldn’t care. Removing the blood made him feel somewhat better, though the metallic scent of it still remained to haunt him.  
    Going to the window, he glanced out surreptitiously at the London street below, it was absolute bedlam. Horses ran amuck across the square, carts were tipped over, and blood, so much blood, stained the street where dead bodies littered the road. Worse; those soulless creatures seemed to roam wild everywhere. He watched in horror as a woman ran down the street screaming as a horde of the beasts chased her mercilessly. She stumbled and fell upon a loose cobblestone, and the group made up of six or seven of the beasts were upon her.  
    They dragged at her with their hands each one trying to pull a different part of her towards itself as they chewed ravenously upon her; their jaws sinking into tender flesh and ripping. Her white dress quickly became stained with her own blood as she was torn bit by bit. Her struggling ceased after only a few moments, and he knew without a doubt that she was dead. Staggering away from the window in abject horror, he vomited upon the floor; the alcohol from the night before burning his throat raw as it made its way back up.  
    When at last he could heave no more; he pulled himself up, sides aching, throat burning and