Heart of the Dead: Vampire Superheroes (Perpetual Creatures Book 1) by Gabriel Beyers Page B

Jerusa fell to her knees, swooning from the lack of oxygen and loss of blood. There was a commotion in the house, but it had fused with the raging storm outside to form an indistinguishable war clatter. Hot droplets of blood spattered her face. Jerusa forced open her eyes to see the dark-haired man, his head back, his arms flailing wildly, with a bloody fist extending from his chest. The fist retracted through the chest wound with a sickening slurp, and the dark-haired man crumpled at the feet of Silvanus.
    “You,” is all that Jerusa was able to say before tumbling over on her side. She lay exhausted, unable to move, confined in a body that no longer obeyed her commands. She wondered if she was dead.
    “Kole,” the blond man screamed, his voice overriding the thunder. He tossed Thad to the side like a piece of trash and rushed Silvanus.
    The blond’s speed was impossible, turning him into a blur, but as he lunged for the attack, Silvanus vanished and reappeared five feet to the left. The blond hit the floor, but recovered in a flash, spinning back onto his feet and coming at Silvanus again.
    Silvanus did not vanish this time, but instead, rushed with even greater speed to meet his attacker. Silvanus and the blond collided in the middle of the room with all the force of the storm. The blond lashed out, swinging wildly with his fists. Silvanus dodged each blow and delivered a powerful kick to the blond’s chest that sent him soaring into the wall at the far end of the room. His back crumpled the wainscoting and he sat dazed and heaving.
    The dark-skinned woman near Foster was coming out of her stupor. The man that seemed forged in her likeness crouched before her, watching Silvanus with fearful eyes. A low growl permeated the night in between thunderclaps. Jerusa swayed from side to side, while the sense of disconnection evaporated. At first, she thought the growl was coming from an engine, that perhaps Thad had made it outside to his Jeep. But Thad was still face down and still.
    A sob escaped Jerusa’s throat. Please be alive , she prayed to herself.
    The growl came again, this time louder, more organic, like the growl of a wolf somehow intertwined with the grunt of a gorilla. Jerusa scanned the room and her heart went cold when she saw the look on the dark-skinned man’s face. He was no longer watching Silvanus, but instead had his eyes fastened to the body of the man that bit her — was his name Kole? — who was lying not even five feet from her.
    The growl poured from the hole in Kole’s chest like an echo from a deep cavern. His pale and perfect flesh was now the greenish-gray of rot, and the blood inside his chest wound seemed to have congealed into a thick black scab. The veins in his neck and face turned black before Jerusa’s eyes.
    Thunder shook the house and the lights flickered.
    A deeper, more menacing growl poured from Kole, this time from his mouth, which twitched as the noise escaped. Silvanus spun on the balls of his bare feet to look at Kole, an almost childish look of confusion upon his face. The blond — Jerusa thought his name was Taos — no longer under Silvanus’s watchful eye, stood crouched as if he meant to leap into another attack, but stopped short when he noticed the spasm in Kole’s hands.
    All at once, Kole opened his eyes, the orbs no longer vibrant but dry and milky, and sat up with his lips pulled back into a snarl.
    A scream poured from Jerusa that was so much more than fear. It was guttural, primal, all of her natural survival instinct rushing out in a siren’s song. Lightning filled the windows, thunder shook the very earth, and the lights in the house extinguished, leaving nothing but the flickering candles by which to see.
    The monstrous form of Kole shot at Jerusa like a massive spider, coming at her on all fours. Her mind ordered her to flee, but Kole’s speed seemed amplified and he grabbed her around the waist before she could react and scurried across the