“What are you doing in my house?” he asked in faux outrage. “Do you want more hot, sexy photos of sweet Ji-Su? Sorry. I’m fresh out.”
Raul didn’t let Cedric’s taunt get to him and he didn’t mince words when he stated his intention. “I’m here to kill you.”
Cedric put his hands on two of the guards’ shoulders. He pushed them apart just enough for him to lean past them and show off a smug smile.
“You can try.”
A growl rumbled in Raul’s chest. Cedric didn’t know who he was dealing with. Raul flicked a glance at the guards. There were seven total—six lined up in front of Cedric and one standing at his side. But Raul wasn’t worried. Not with Everett, LaToria and his guards there to have his back. The human barricade wouldn’tstop him from getting to Cedric. It might slow him down, but that would only piss him off more.
One of the guards on the end, a muscular, bald, barrel-chested vampire strolled forward, getting disrespectfully close into LaToria’s personal space.
“You bring a woman, in a pretty little dress and heels, to a fight? What’s she going to do with those soft, weak hands? Pull my hair?” He started laughing as if he’d told the funniest joke in the world.
LaToria laughed along with him—the hands the guard had mentioned demurely clasped together at her waist. But her laughter only lasted a few seconds. In the next, all humor dropped from her face. And before anyone could so much as blink, she backhanded the guard so hard he went flying several feet to crash into a wall on the other side of the room. The impact created a huge man-sized crater in the drywall before he dropped to the floor. LaToria tossed her hair back over her shoulder and sneered at the felled guard.
“Bitch, I was strong when I was human. Don’t test me now that I’m a vampire.”
The guard struggled to his feet, his face mottled purple with rage. He sped across the room to attack LaToria. With a powerful leap, she met him halfway.
The moment they crashed together, another piece of Cedric’s wall of protection peeled off to attack Everett. That left five guards before Raul could get to Cedric.
Raul went for the big, blond guard in the center—the one closest to Cedric. He looked strong as an ox and the punch he landed to Raul’s gut confirmed it. They fought, trading blow after blow. The skin on Raul’s knuckles split from the punches he landed on the vampire’s brick-hard jaw while his own jaw ached from the punches he took. But soon enough, Raul got the upper hand. He delivered a punch that cracked the othervampire’s orbital bone and immediately followed it with a kick to the knee that sent him crashing to the ground. The blond struck the back of his head on the floor and lay there in a daze.
“Don’t make me kill you,” Raul warned. “Stay down.”
The only death he wanted tonight was Cedric’s. But hewouldkill these unfortunate bastards if they wouldn’t yield when beaten.
The blond looked as if was about to concede the fight. But then he flicked a glance at Cedric. And Cedric persuaded him to continue fighting.
“I’ll double the payout I promised in a bounty for each one of these Sanguis Syndicate fuckers you kill.”
Greed was apparently this man’s weakness. At the promise of more money, he shook off his daze and determinedly rose to his feet.
Raul sighed. So be it. He took the stake from the small of his back. It wasn’t easy to kill a vampire. Outside of a severed head or destroyed heart, vampires could recover from damn near anything. Using a weapon would make the task easier.
“This is your choice,” he said as he gripped the stake.
The blond snarled and came at him. This time the fight was even more vicious—they were both fighting to kill. Raul ducked the fist that came at his head. He stepped slightly past the guard and swung out with a brutal chop to the back of his neck. The blow would have instantly paralyzed a human. It only weakened the vampire, but that was enough for Raul. He grabbed him in a rear choke hold to keep him in place as he raised the stake high in the air.
Realizing what was coming, the guard beat at Raul’s arms with weak, ineffectual punches. Without hesitation, Raul brought the stake down in a swift strike and stabbed him straight through the heart. He sagged in Raul’s hold as bloodflowed from his chest. When Raul let him go, his lifeless body crumpled to the ground.
“Shoot him!” Cedric screamed.
Another guard pulled out a gun and fired at Raul. He dodged the bullet. But a second later, he heard a grunt of pain. Everett had been hit. He’d taken off his jacket and vest in the truck. Now, his powder blue dress shirt was stained with blood from the fresh bullet wound on his side.
“I’m fine,” Everett said before Raul could ask. To prove it, he grabbed his opponent’s arms and yanked, twisting until he ripped their forearms loose from the tendons that connected them to their elbows.
The guard stumbled away from Everett, screaming as their arms dangled uselessly at their sides.
“Shut the fuck up,” Everett snarled before he delivered an uppercut that knocked the screaming vampire out cold.
Raul whistled sharply and Juan and Petra jumped into action. They attacked the shooter together. Cedric’s man tried to fight them off, wildly firing his gun but hitting nothing but the wall, the floor, and a lamp before he ran out of bullets. Juan and Petra wrapped around him like a two-headed octopus. They bit down on his neck at the same time, delivering a double shot of vampire paralysis venom. Then they let him go and stepped back.
Within seconds, the gunman’s body went slack and he dropped to his knees. He gave a slow blink before he slumped to the floor face first. He lay there unable to move, mouth open and drooling on the carpet. It would be a while before he had control of his body again.
One of the four guards left standing looked around at the dead and broken bodies littering the living room. Shaking her head, she stepped out of position.
“Get back in line!” Cedric shouted.