Page 142 of Hoofin’ It

The vampires scattered, and I went limp from relief that I might survive for a few more minutes. I concentrated on my breathing, tasting blood. Mom roared again, crouching over me, one of her clawed hands on my shoulder, her hot breath washing over the back of my neck. “Shane?”

“He lives,” Ernesto reported, and he took Ricci’s place, his fingertips resting on my forehead. “Broken nose, probably stunned. I’d bitten him earlier, but they’ve bitten him several times, which is rough even with my protection.”

Bai Bao Chen stepped forward, lowered her head, and prodded my shoulder with the tip of her horn, hard enough to hurt. “Conventional wisdom states it is unwise to take on part of a brood and its master at the same time.”

“Good to know,” I croaked.

“See? He’ll be fine. Go help your mate deal with Ricci. I’d be honored to guard your puppy and watch you toy with that vampire before you tear him limb from limb until unlife flees his body.”

Mom whined an eager whine and bounded away.

The kirin laughed and gave me another poke. “So enthusiastic. O’Conners is dead. You dropped his body on your father’s head. Your father took severe offense to that for some reason. Werewolves are fast, strong predators. I should tell my kin to cohort with werewolves. They are entertaining.”

“Long lived, too.” Ernesto shifted his hand to my throat, pressing to check my pulse. “Weaker than I like. How is it you wander off and manage to find the worst of the trouble, my dear boy?”

“The broken fire escapes offered a clue. I didn’t think O’Conners had been turned into a vampire. He had a sniper rifle.” While tempted to sit up, I erred on the side of caution and stayed down, careful to breath through my mouth. “Fucker broke my nose.”

“Yes, rather badly, too.” Ernesto worked his arm under my chest and hauled me upright. “I’ll set it, but you’ll need to see a doctor to make sure it doesn’t heal crooked.”

A little warning would’ve been nice, especially since I blacked out when the vampire grasped my nose and gave a yank. When I pried open my eyes, the din of battle and the screams of the dying and the undead still filled the air. I was leaning against Ernesto, who absently patted my back.

Bai Bao Chen bumped my chin with her soft muzzle, careful to angle her horn away from me. “He’s coming around.”

“Just in time for the fun. Look.”

I needed the vampire’s help to sit upright and stay there, but I had no trouble figuring out what he meant. Before Mom’s lycanthropy virus had matured, she’d enjoyed playing tug-of-war with Dad in his wolf form, battling with him over an old, frayed rope.

That game had been more playful in nature, with my mother the destined winner, since Dad refused to risk hurting her. His care and tenderness were absent in their new version of the game. My parents waged a vicious, snarling war over who’d get their new rope.

I almost pitied Ricci. Almost. I might have had more mercy if the vampire was still alive, but he hung limply in their grasp, and his open, dead eyes stared at nothing.

“I’ve learned a valuable lesson. I underestimated the viciousness of a pair of lycanthropes defending their puppy. It won’t happen again. I thought their violence had peaked when they’d gotten their paws on O’Conners—nicely done, by the way. He would’ve died on his own soon enough. Your parents just helped him along.” Ernesto chuckled, and a satisfied smile brightened his expression. “You made quite a noise when I set your nose. Your parents were greatly offended. Ricci did not survive to his next breath. I think they’re just working out their frustrations.”

“I’m surprised you don’t want a piece of him.”

“I don’t need that satisfaction. I lured him here, and I tricked him into bringing his most vulnerable children. The ones who don’t die will belong to me, and they won’t be long for this world if they don’t give up their old ways.” Ernesto’s smile turned grim. “I have lost none of my children. He has lost all of his. Some of my children are weakened and will be a long time recovering, but none have died their second death. I have won this war—and you have bought many human victims time. No, I don’t need anything else from his corpse.”

“Is Marian all right?”

“She’s with Pierina, guarded by my other sons and daughters and by Fang Jaihao Yi as well. It would take an army to reach her. Last I saw her, she was sulking, as she only got to shoot one vampire.”

“Offer your knees later.”

He laughed. “I shall. We’ll both enjoy it. Bai Bao Chen, I leave him to you. It may take a while to cool the temper of the lycanthropes.”

The kirin slid her way between me and Ernesto until most of my weight rested against her foreleg. “An entire cow, vampire. That is what you owe me for making me miss my share of the battle’s bounty.”

“It’ll be done.” Ernesto rose to his feet and approached my parents, staying out of their reach while they fought over the dead vampire.

“I was stupid,” I confessed.

Bai Bao Chen lowered her head so I could look into one of her bright eyes. “Perhaps. It will be a challenge tempering your courage with wisdom. You killed one before they caught you.”

“Two.”

She whinnied. “Even better than I thought. You fought well, although foolishly. You are lucky you emerged with your true life. That vampire would have turned you, given a chance. That would have been a pity. That vampire’s plan was well-aimed. It would have hurt Ernesto’s heart to put you to your final rest. But who knows? It is an odd thing, the nature of souls. Like attracts like, so perhaps he would have found himself the father of a new son, one with similar spirit to the one he would have lost. But it would have hurt him all the same, knowing it was not you within your body. A near thing.”

“A near thing I will try to avoid.” I meant it, too. Vampire bites hurt, and my chest throbbed as though my body still fought the vampire draining my blood. “I got O’Conners.”