The New Night Novels (Book 1): Rippers: A New Night Novel by Ashlei D. Hawley

victims. After a moment, Simon rose to join them.
         Apartment 1C was home to Cole and Kallie Yeats. They had been packing and preparing to leave. Kallie wanted to find one of the safe zones that had withstood the Rippers so far. Cole had wanted to stay in their home, but as chaos claimed the city, he found himself shifting more toward Kallie’s plan.
         It was too late to put the plan into action. Cole pushed Kallie into their bedroom.
         “Go! Get out through the window!” he insisted. Kallie wanted to argue, but he shoved her harder and slammed the door shut. He stayed behind to fight as the Rippers pounded their way through the apartment’s front door.
         The blade of the kitchen knife he gripped bent as the first Ripper slammed into him. The feral woman didn’t react to the blade imbedded in her stomach. She snapped at Cole as he held her back. 
         Cole’s grip slipped and those gnashing teeth found purchase against his face. He shrieked in agony as she tore off his nose and half of his left cheek. He struggled to release himself from her grasp, but another Ripper barreled into them from behind.
         Cole went down under the weight of both of the cannibalistic monsters. One of them bit into his neck. Another ripped chunks of his right arm off. Cole’s screams joined the brutal music of the other dying individuals in the apartment complex.
         Outside apartment 1C, Kallie stumbled and fell. She cried over the loss of her husband. Distracted by the blur of her tears, she didn’t see the Ripper who’d come into their bedroom, following the sounds of her escape. When she stood, the monster pulled her back inside the open window. Before she was even fully back in the apartment, the Ripper buried its red stained teeth into the skin of her neck.
         Kallie thrashed against the creature’s hold, but as the air wheezed out of the hole in her skin, the strength drained from her body. She was left on the bed to bleed out until she stood to join the ranks of the Rippers.
         So it went, across cities, villages, towns and remote locations all over the world. People ran and hid, fought and barricaded, but humans alone could not stand against the tide of Rippers.
         As they worked silently and quickly to shimmy down the fire escape, Phoebe hoped that with a vampire, they would gain a better chance at withstanding the flood.
    Chapter Fifteen – Elise
         The Rippers who had converged on the apartment complex had made their way inside. Phoebe saw from their place on the second level of the fire escape that they were alone in the back area except for one woman who’d had the same idea as them.
         The woman gripped the edge of the fire escape railing with one hand. The other rested on her heavily-pregnant belly. Her dark eyes locked on Jameson’s as the vampire and his group began to move over to the landing she stood on.
         “Stay where you are!” the woman commanded. She backed away from them, one hand still protectively on her stomach as she thrust the other out as though to prevent them from moving closer.
         “Listen, we’re just trying to get away, too,” Phoebe said as she drew the kids closer to her. “You could come with us. It’d be better than being alone, wouldn’t it?”
         The woman looked as though she didn’t trust the suggestion, but she was less resistant to accept when it came from Phoebe.
         “My name’s Elise,” the dark-skinned woman said. She pushed her thick hair away from her pretty, worried face and held out a hand. “I’ll help you over. If we can get around to the front, I have a van.”
         Phoebe sent Hannah over first, then Eli. Leland went next. He was followed by Phoebe, who reached out for Carmen. The others began their descent down the fire escape as screams and roars continued to pour from inside the apartment complex.
         When Phoebe reached the first floor