“Yeah, it’s short for ‘I’m going to kill you now.’” He frowned. “Why are you still talking?”

He kicked the icicle out of my hand. It hit the ground next to me and shattered. I blinked at it.

I held my shaking hands up in front of me. “Look . . .Chad , just walk away now. Youdo not want to mess with me.” What was I going to do to get out of this alive? To defend myself? I’d go for the groin.

Always a good place to start. And end.

“Let me tell you a little something . . . ” he paused expectantly and raised his eyebrows.

“Sarah,” I offered, without thinking.Stupid .

“The only reason you’re still talking, Sarah, is because I’m allowing it. I might not look it, but I’ve dusted over a dozen vamps, this year alone.”

I swallowed hard and felt a trickle of perspiration run down my spine.

“Well, if you’ve killed that many,” I said, even less confident now if that was possible, “you should know it’s not really dust. It’s more like goo.”

“Whatever.” He looked down at the stake, ran his thumb along the sharp tip, and then glanced over at me. “Now let’s get this party started.”

Hell, he looked fairly harmless what with the Dockers and all. Guess you can’t judge a man by his casual, stain-resistant pants anymore.

I turned and tried to run farther into the park along the snow-covered, cobblestone path, but before I got more than a few steps, I felt his hand clamp down on my shoulder, stopping me in midflee. He spun me around, then shoved me so hard that I stumbled back and fell to the ground in a heap. I scrambled back a few feet on my butt and looked around frantically. We were all alone. Why were we all alone?

Where were innocent bystanders when I needed them?

“I’ll make it quick.”Chad winked at me. “If you stay nice and quiet for me.”

Yeah, like that was going to happen. “Are you aware that you’re the bad guy?”