Trish Milburn: Out of the Night

He jumped to his feet just as a horrible crunching noise filled the night. A car sat sideways in the lane with a gash down the side. The V Force truck had spun around and was hanging over the side of the bridge, the front wheels spinning in open air.

With a curse, he sped to the side of the truck and jerked the guy out of the cab. The vamp retaliated with a punch to Campbell’s gut that tossed him back several feet. “Give up, loser.”

Okay, this guy had officially pissed him off. “We’ll see who the loser is.”

Campbell lost count of how many times they slammed fists into each other, but he had to be dripping blood from half a dozen wounds, including one above his eye that was messing up his vision. He swiped at it as he ducked another blow and swept his leg in an arc that buckled the other guy at the knees.

The sound of metal on metal drew his attention. He looked toward the truck in time to see it tip a little more over the edge. Damn, he had to get those women out of there, and that meant ending this knockdown. The guy flashed his fangs and took another swing at Campbell, but he ducked out of the way.

“Just remember you brought this on yourself,” Campbell said. With that, he slammed the full force of his fist against the guy’s family jewels. Man or vampire, that always did the trick. When the guy doubled over, Campbell dragged him to the side of the bridge and tossed him over. He didn’t wait to hear the splash but ran to the truck and leaped inside.

Both women screamed when they saw him.

“I’m not here to hurt you. You’ve got to get out.”

The woman from earlier headed for the back door.

“No!” He moved to grab her but froze when the truck tilted again. Instead, he slowly extended his hand. “Give me your hand.”

“Like hell.” After everything she’d been through tonight, he was surprised to see she still had some gumption left. Even though it was stupid at the moment.

“Unless you want to end up in the East River with that vampire who was here before, give me your damned hand.”

The younger woman who’d been in the blood den roused herself enough to scuttle toward the front and take his hand. Campbell grabbed her but didn’t miss the look of betrayal and disbelief on the other woman’s face. The former slave was so weak she couldn’t manage to drag herself out of the truck, so he left the other one behind to move her to safety. Len and Colin pulled up in a black Camaro they’d borrowed from someone.

“Watch this one,” he said as soon as Colin hopped out of the car.

The stubborn woman screamed. When he looked over his shoulder, the front of the damaged truck was tipping upward. He ran to the front bumper and grabbed it, keeping the truck from toppling over the side of the bridge.

“Len, hold this thing.” When Len took his place, Campbell eased back into the truck.

Shock slammed into him. The back door had swung open and the woman had slipped out. She hung on for dear life, her feet dangling in thin air. Her slim fingers were white with the effort of holding up her weight, and her heart was pumping so fast that it momentarily distracted him.

He shook his head and edged into the back of the truck, trying in vain not to scare her even more. He didn’t want his appearance to cause her grip to give way. Her eyes were huge when she spotted him. As he drew near, he extended one of his hands.

“Take my hand.”

She simply stared at him. Even in her current state, she couldn’t trust him. He saw the very real possibility that she would let go, choosing to drop into the frigid waters of the East River rather than accept his help.

“You won’t survive the fall.”

A shudder went through her and her hands slipped free. She screamed in that split second when she realized she was falling to her death, but that was all the time it took him to leap forward and grab her arm. He jerked her back into the truck and into his arms, trying to ignore the rich coppery scent of the blood trickling from a cut on her left cheek.

Good Lord, this woman was going to be the death of him.

* * *

It all happened so fast she barely had time to take a breath. She didn’t, however, have time to exhale before the big bloody vampire yanked her back from certain death. He held her tight against his side, making it evident that his clothes were hiding plenty of muscles as hard as iron. She had to remind herself that he was a monster, and that those muscles didn’t matter.

“What are you doing?” she managed to say.

“Saving your ass, again.” This close, and without his fangs diving toward her neck, his voice was a sexy rumble that reverberated throughout her body, making a part of her tingle that hadn’t in two long years.

Good grief, she must have cracked her head worse than she thought when the truck had shifted that last time.

Before she could attempt to free herself, he’d pulled her free of the truck and set her on her feet on the bridge. But he kept a firm grip on her shoulders. “You okay?” His eyes flicked to her forehead.

Her breathing stopped again as she realized he was looking at the spot that was stinging, a cut that was likely producing blood. His type of blood.

“Fine.” It came out as a raspy whisper as she pulled against his hold.

“Camp,” Colin said from where he was standing guard over the injured woman.

“I’m fine.”

“You sure about that? You look as if you’ve gone a few rounds with Freddy Krueger.”

“I said I’m fine. If I wasn’t, you’d know.”

He met Olivia’s eyes and for the life of her she couldn’t look away from that unnatural shade of blue. He finally broke eye contact and directed his attention to the other guys. She became aware of cars slowing down so the drivers could gawk, and she got the distinct feeling it wasn’t the precarious position of the truck that had drawn their interest. He stepped to the side of the guy holding the truck in place. If she’d needed any more evidence of vampire strength, there it was staring her in the face.

Campbell helped his buddy, coworker, whatever the hell he was, pull the truck fully back onto the bridge. Then he glanced at Colin and the injured woman. “You two take her to the hospital then return that car to wherever you found it.”

“How about you let one of us take her home?” Colin asked.

Olivia knew he was referring to her, and though she didn’t fancy any more time in the presence of vampires, she’d much rather be with one who had no interest in feeding from her, one who hadn’t already almost killed her today.

But he was one fantastic-looking man.

No, he wasn’t a man. Hadn’t been for who knew how long.

Why couldn’t being turned into a vampire make one butt ugly?

Campbell gestured toward the woman on the ground. “She’s AB negative, too.”

“Of course she is,” Colin said with no little bit of sarcasm.

At the end of her mental rope, Olivia found the courage to speak to them as if they weren’t deadly monsters. “I don’t care who takes me home as long as I get there in one unbitten piece before I go for the trifecta of almost getting killed today.”

“Your day has been a bit of a horror movie, hasn’t it?” Colin asked.

Understatement of the century.

“Get in.” Campbell gestured toward the truck.

Despite what she’d said, she hesitated.

“Or we can leave you standing on the Brooklyn Bridge all night and see how you fare.” Campbell said it as though it didn’t matter to him one way or the other.

She pressed her lips tightly together and managed to find enough courage to give him the stink eye before she turned and climbed into the passenger seat of the truck. Once inside she started to shiver, more because the reality of the day’s events were crashing into her like hurricane-force waves than because of the cold night air. Not that the latter was helping any. She’d been running on adrenaline so long, she hadn’t really noticed the cold of approaching winter since before she’d been attacked the first time. But she was pretty sure her body had burned up the final ounce of her adrenaline, and she was going to collapse the moment she stepped across the safety of her threshold.