They were so busy with Gordon that they appeared to have forgotten I was even there. I was beginning to think that was a good thing. Finally I was able to stand up unsteadily. But I felt frozen in place as I watched the straight-out-of-a-horror-movie scene before me. I’d changed my mind. Didn’t want their help anymore. Nope. And what had he said before? They’d deal with me in a moment? Gordon was no longer screaming or begging for his life. He’d stopped moaning. Stopped moving. In fact, he appeared to be disintegrating. The more they stabbed at his prone body, the less there seemed to be of him, until finally there was nothing but his empty clothes lying in the middle of a nasty dark stain on the road.

Then White-teeth turned to me. I shuffled backward a painful step at a time. My brain was screaming for me to run, and I finally decided that was the best idea I’d had all night. I turned around, but Stringy-hair had quietly moved to stand behind me. He grinned as he put his now-bloody wooden spike back in his belt, then grabbed my wrists to pull me closer to him. I tried to twist away.

“Where do you think you’re going, vampire?” His breath smelled like rotten eggs.

I wanted to argue, to tell him I wasn’t a vampire because vampires didn’t exist. I also wanted to tell him to invest in a good mouthwash. But I still couldn’t find my voice. A hot tear slipped down my cheek as I looked at the other two men and took in a shuddery gulp of air. I had a funny feeling these guys wanted to add more stains to my ruined dress than the grass and the dirt that were already on it. I wished I had another shoe to throw.

“Look at her; she’s petrified,” White-teeth said with amusement.

“She’s new,” Burly answered. “It’s almost cruel to exterminate her so soon. She looks like she might be fun. Check out those legs. Can’t it wait till the morning?”

White-teeth’s smile widened. “Yeah. Maybe we can wait a bit. What do you say, darlin‘? Want to buy yourself a little time?”