Chapter 23

• Standing over me, bearing down, he grabs me by the back of my neck and digs nails into my skin. Long piercing claw-like talons that bite with scorching pain, and he drags me partially upright to snarl in my ear. My body is cringing with the agony of being moved. I reach back pathetically to grip his hands on my flesh. The cold, icy, and clammy skin that’s alien to anything I’ve ever felt before. I know what this is for sure—we heard stories —the ice-cold, vile touch of the skin of the undead. This lifeless, cold monster is a vampire.
• They’ve returned.
• “Too easy. Call yourselves warriors. You’re all dropping like putrid flies, and one snap, it’s all over for you, puppy. I’m rather enjoying dragging it out, though ... why don’t you go on and beg as your little friends did. Whine and cry some, make it worth my while.” His icy cold stinking breath fans my cheek and chokes me to quiet submission, and I wretch, losing consciousness despite my fight. I have nothing. My powers fail me, my words dead on my lips as I gasp for air that my lungs can’t seem to take in, and I choke on my bodily fluids.