No Man's Land Read Free Page A

the venom glands. They were one of the few body parts that wouldn’t regenerate. Without them, she would need another vampire’s assistance to feed, or face a slow and painful starvation. But that was the future. Right now, she was hoping to survive long enough to face it.
    The two older vampires pulled her from the chair and dragged her by her arms out the back door to the private alley. Blood poured from Kelly’s mouth, dribbling a trail of red down her clothing and across the floor. Her glands had long emptied, leaving her mouth tingly with a sharp, bitter taste. The empty sockets, where her fangs had been, throbbed with agony. She thought about the day before, when she’d fed on a guest who’d borrowed heavily at the black jack table. His blood had tasted warm and rich with a tang of gin from the martinis he’d drank. She’d never envisioned that would be her last meal.
    Pierre thrust open the door into the alley, and the moonlight stung her eyes, the reek of dumpsters assaulting her nose. They weren’t just filled with rotted lettuce and banana peels; but also with dismembered body parts. She could smell them; the congealed blood, and the decaying flesh. Everything was so sharp, so clear. It was as the books had said — death brought her surroundings into clearer focus. The two vampires holding her arms spun her around. She caught a glimpse of Pierre’s smug face, and the emotionless, somewhat bored expression on the Master’s son before a fist in her stomach doubled her over.
    Blows came at her from all sides, and Kelly ineffectually tried to deflect them with her hands. It only meant the few that missed her waist and head bruised her arms instead. A kick to the side threw her off balance, and she curled into a ball on the oily asphalt, trying to protect her midsection.
    “Get her back up again.”
    Pierre’s frustrated voice sounded tinny in her ringing ears. A hand grabbed each of her arms, one twisting until she heard her shoulder pop and felt a snap of bone. The two elder vampires held her upright, while Pierre, grinning with glee, repeatedly punched her face.
    The pain all blended together with the tickle of wet blood from her arm, face, and mouth. It hurt to breathe, and in her blurred vision she saw the Prince standing ten feet away with his arms crossed, his toe tapping impatiently. Won’t get blood on his suit or shoes over there , she thought through the pain. Pierre’s fists left her face, and he drove a hard punch into her shoulder, ripping the splintered edge of her broken arm through the flesh.
    “Help him out. I don’t have all night,” the Prince drawled. One of the vampires that had been holding her upright, kicked the side of her leg, and Kelly felt her knee give way and heard the sharp crack as her thigh bone fractured. The vampire on the other side mirrored his move slightly higher, breaking her other leg. Now she was suspended by her separated shoulder, the weight of her body sagging in agony on broken ribs.
    “Kill me,” she pleaded, looking at the only man in the alley with the authority to grant her a merciful death.
    The Prince smiled. “But that would be no fun at all, and we have a long evening ahead of us. Let’s see how long we can make it last.”
    The two vampires at her side let go of her shoulders, and Kelly collapsed, her broken legs folding like sticks beneath her. Three sets of feet kicked at her, tossing her back and forth like a football with the force of each blow. Thankfully, one to the side of her head knocked her into blessed oblivion.

3
    J aq held her tall, thin frame absolutely still in the shadows of the propane tank. The three men with the big black car were vampires, and she did not want them to see her — or smell her for that matter. It was a few hours until dawn. If she hadn’t been out hunting, she would never have seen them drive silently up to the vacant trailer.
    Skirting the patches of moonlight, she darted to the rear of the trailer,