3.5. Black Magic Woman Read Free Page A

Candles than James Earl Jones in anything past puberty, but it worked. The humans in the lobby all slumped to the ground, leaving Greg and I alone with our attacker. 
    She glared around at her fallen minions, and then hissed at me “No matter, vampire! I will feat on your bones tonight!” She leapt across twenty feet of atrium like she was on wires, and I barely got out of the way of her outstretched arms, which were suddenly much longer and much clawy-er than they had been a few minutes before. I ducked another slash, then lashed out with a kick that she narrowly avoided. 
    We both pulled back, taking the chance to size up our opponent. She was tall, built like a centerfold, with blonde curls spilling all the way down to her butt. And thanks to the open back of her toga, I could see exactly where that part of her started. She wore Roman sandals that laced up exceptionally long and well-formed legs, and except for the claws at the ends of them, had gorgeous arms, too. In short, she was like every beautiful woman in the magazines, except a little more open about the fact that she wanted to rip my heart out and eat it. 
    “Isn’t this the point where you waste a lot of valuable time explaining yourself so I can figure out how to defeat you?” I quipped as I circled, jockeying for position. She didn’t even crack a smile, just stopped moving and closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them, the stood stock still and smiled at me. 
    “No, vampire. This is the point where I use your idiot friend to kill you.” I heard the air move behind me, but I was too slow to get out of the way as Greg suddenly smashed into me with both fists. The force of the blow lifted me off my feet and deposited me face-first onto the steps beside the monster-chick. I rolled over just in time to see her claws streaking down at my chest, and kicked out just in time to deflect her into the concrete beside me. I hopped up and punched her in the jaw, but she only smiled at me. I turned my head in time to meet Greg’s fist full on with my nose, and borrowed blood exploded from my face. I went back down onto the steps, rolling to the side to avoid getting skewered and trying desperately to come up with a way to survive this that didn’t include killing my best friend. 
    Greg lashed out again, this time trying his best to stomp me into the carpet. I rolled away and kept rolling until I was far enough away to regain my footing. I looked up just in time to see the rotund revenger charging me like a spandex-wrapped rhinoceros, and jumped high over his head, letting him pass harmlessly underneath me. I cast a glance at our wayward soul-sucker, but she was nowhere to be found. Great, my partner wants to kill me and the real baddie has vanished. I hate leaving the house.
    I shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind and furiously worked on a plan to beat down Greg without permanently injuring him. He was fast, but I was faster. I couldn’t hold a candle to his strength, but I could (probably) outwit him in his addled state, and I was definitely faster. Unfortunately, all that meant was that I could run around in circles indefinitely while I tried to figure out what this freaky woman was, and how she’d befuddled my partner. And how I’d escaped her rather obvious and spectacular wiles. 
    When the idea hit me, it landed with all the force of a portly vampire running at full steam. Well, the idea didn’t hurt, but when I had the idea, I stopped in my tracks. Since Greg was chasing me at the time, that meant that he caught me, rather suddenly. And that did hurt, quite a lot, actually. He tackled me with all the form, speed and power of an NFL linebacker, ramming me into a guardrail that groaned against the impact, but managed to hold. Good thing, I thought as I looked out over the twenty-foot drop to the floor below. 
    I rammed my head backwards, connecting solidly with Greg’s nose and crushing it with a satisfying thwack! My partner