Damn it.
And right about now, the Rogues who'd been there were no doubt scouring the area looking for her.
Tegan turned around and hauled ass back to her apartment building, using all the preternatural speed at his disposal. He banged on her door, cursing the blare of music likely drowning him out.
Elise! Open the door.
He was just about to throw the locks and barge inside when he heard her on the other side. She opened the door only a crack, glaring at him. Before she could tell him to f**k off like he deserved, he pushed her back inside with the bulk of his body and slammed the door shut.
Get your coat and boots. Now.
What?
Do it!
She flinched at his barked command, but she held her ground. If you think I'm going to let you send me back--
Rogues, Elise. He saw no reason to pretty the situation up for her. They just killed the clerk at the FedEx store. Now they're looking for you. We don't have much time. Get your things.
She blanched white at the news, but blinked at him like she didn't quite trust him--which made good sense, since he'd given her no reason to think she could. Especially after what he did to her not a few minutes ago.
I have to get you out of here, he told her when she hesitated another second. Now.
She nodded, grave acceptance in the pale amethyst of her eyes. Okay.
It took her no time to grab a wool coat and shove her feet into a pair of boots. On her way to the door with him, she suddenly doubled back. Wait. I'm going to need a weapon.
Tegan took two strides in and caught her by the wrist. I'll protect you. Come on.
They hurried out of the apartment--only to find a Rogue peering through the glass of the building entrance, its feral eyes glowing amber as it locked on to them in the narrow hallway. It curled back bloodstained lips and snarled something over its thick shoulder, no doubt calling in reinforcements from the street.
Oh, my God, Elise gasped. Tegan--
Get back inside. He pushed the book he was carrying into her hands and shoved her back toward her apartment. Stay in there until I come for you. Bolt the door.
She obeyed him at once, her footsteps retreating fast, the door shutting tight as the Rogue outside shouldered his way into the building. Another followed, both suckheads leering psychotically through their elongated fangs, both big vampires armed for bear.
They started coming for him, and Tegan went on the offensive, springing from his stance near Elise's door. He plowed into the one in front, driving that Rogue into the one behind him. The Rogue who would have been at the bottom of the pile feinted left at the last second, dodging the fall as Tegan took his companion down in a killing grip.
The commotion brought one of the building's residents into the hallway, but the human took one look at the confrontation and wisely decided to butt out. Oh, shit! he squeaked, then immediately spun back into his unit, slammed the door, and threw all the locks.
Totally unfazed, Tegan pounced fast and hard on the Rogue he held on the floor, ripping one of his blades across the suckhead's throat. It roared and sputtered under the swift poison of the dagger's titanium edge, oozing gore as its body began a rapid meltdown.
Your turn, Tegan told the other one as it attempted to scramble out of the way.
The vampire threw its arm out, swiping at Tegan with its blade, but it was a careless move, even for a Rogue. When it had the chance to come at him, it hesitated, started inching to the side, drawing things out. Distracting him, Tegan realized in that next instant, when he heard the sudden crash of breaking glass coming from Elise's apartment.
Son of a bitch, he growled as the female's scream shot through the walls.
The Rogue chose that second to fly at him, but Tegan was ready for the attack. He leaped out of the suckhead's path, landing in a low crouch behind it and coming up fast with his blade. He skewered the bastard in a split-second's move and was gunning for Elise's door before the dead bulk of the Rogue hit the floor.
Using mental will and brute force, Tegan smashed the apartment door off its hinges and stormed inside. Elise was on the floor, facedown, her spine trapped beneath the heavy boot of the Rogue who'd come in through the window. She held the journal tight to her chest, protecting it with her body.
Jesus Christ.
She'd been cut somehow in the struggle; a gash on her upper arm was bright red, slick with fresh blood. And the scent and sight of it had sent her Rogue attacker into a slavering fit of Bloodlust. Instead of going for the book, which the trio had no doubt been dispatched to do, the Rogue on Elise seemed rooted on just one thing--slaking its unquenchable thirst.
Tegan! she cried as her stricken gaze lit on him. She started scrambling to push the journal out from under her now, like she meant to pass it to him even though her life was hanging in the balance. Don't let them have it. Take the book, Tegan!
Fuck that, he thought, his temples pounding with the need to spill more Rogue blood. He went after the suckhead on Elise, knocking the Rogue off with a fierce strike of his mind. Without touching the bastard, using only his will and a flaring, savage anger, Tegan threw the Rogue against the far wall and held him there, two-hundred-and-fifty pounds of thrashing, feral vampire suspended three feet off the ground.
He saw the hunger in the Rogue's eyes, those slitted pupils fixed on Elise, even though Tegan was tightening his mental hold around the suckhead's throat, killing him by degrees. The long fangs were dripping saliva, the mind inside the huge skull no longer capable of any thought besides feeding the thirst. Tegan despised this element of his kind--knew it better than most, enough to know that extermination was the only solution for vampires lost to the disease.
But it wasn't duty or cool logic that made him draw his blade and drive it into the Rogue's heart. It was the heather-and-roses scent of Elise's spilled blood, the bitter tang of her fear, which clung to the air like a mist. This bastard had injured her, an innocent female, and that was something Tegan could not abide.