H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set Read Online Free Page A

black hair.
    I coughed, and more blood came up. I stood
slowly. I think Ronnie boy had cracked a rib, too. As I stood, I
felt a gentle hand under my elbow, helping me. Say what? I looked,
surprised, wanting to know who it was. Lena! She smiled at me, but
the smile quickly faded. Her eyes flashed a warning in the
direction of the death rock trio.
    As I steadied myself, the tallest of the van
freaks—easily seven feet tall—rushed over to Lena, who was still
holding my arm. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. She
pulled me with her a little, and I spun, too, nearly falling.
    The giant weirdo said, and none too
politely: “What the hell are you doing at this meathead party? I
warned you to stay away.”
    She stood her ground, looking up at the guy.
“You think I wanted to come to this party, Atticai? One of these
assholes drugged me at the club, kidnapped me, and brought me
here.”
    A woman got out of the driver’s side of the
van. She had dark reddish-maroon hair and was paler than all the
guys put together. She was stunning. She too, wore all black, but
it looked like a jumpsuit, and she had a bull whip in her hand. She
cracked it in the air for effect, not hitting anyone, but it was
one of the sexiest things I had ever seen. Hot damn. This night was
just getting better and better.
    “They drugged you?” asked the tall guy.
Atticai, I assumed.
    But before she could answer, one of the frat
guys yelled out, “Hey, Freak Show! Get your fucking van off my lawn
or I’m calling the police.”
    “Who said that?” Atticai said, scanning the
crowd, which was pretty easy for him to do, since he was the
tallest guy I had even seen up close.
    A real muscular guy came forward. “I did,”
he said. “Now get your fucking van off my grass or I’m going stick
my foot deep in your bony ass.”
    Atticai turned away, ignoring him. He took
both of Lena’s shoulders in his abnormally large hands. “Did they
hurt you?”
    Lena looked away. There were tears in her
eyes. Hell, there were tears in my eyes, too. “Almost.”
    I looked at Ron. He was standing with his
back to me, holding the bat loosely, completely absorbed by the
three strangers. My back throbbed to the rhythm of my
heartbeat.
    The tall guy said, “So, which one of these
young men thought it would be okay to drug a young woman and take
advantage of her?”
    Without hesitation, Lena pointed at Ron, who
stepped back a little and gripped his baseball bat. “Hey, man, I
don’t know what she’s talking about.”
    “Of course not,” said Atticai. “Lena, get in
the van and shut the door.” He looked back at Ron. “My little
ginger-haired friend is going to be taught the correct way to treat
a lady.”
    Lena grabbed the tall guy’s hand. “Atticai,
please. Someone already took care of it. Just let it go.”
    Ron, hearing this, took a step back. He also
raised the bat again. Atticai continued looking at Ron. “Yes, I can
see that someone did some damage to the boy.”
    “Who are you calling boy, punk?” Ron jutted
the fat part of the bat in the direction of the tall figure.
    Atticai’s face hardened. He looked back at
Lena. “Get in the van. Now.”
    Lena looked at me one more time, tried to
smile, and then hurried over to the van. I want to say something,
but I’ll admit, I was awkwardly caught up in the scene. Besides,
Lena seemed to know these weirdos and didn’t seem afraid. Or, at
least, she seemed less afraid.
    I had been in enough brawls to know that one
was about to go down, and I was pretty fought out for the evening.
Getting hit in the back with a bat has a way of doing that to
you.
    I told myself: This is none of your
business. Leave now before this gets ugly.
    Easier said than done. For now, it was all I
could do to suck in a deep breath, let alone walk away. Besides,
there was the small matter of a little payback.
    Let it go, I thought. And get the fuck out
of here.
    “So, you play baseball, Fatty?” Atticai
asked to Ron. From