Graybeard fisted her hair, jerking her head sideways and exposing her neck. Junior leaned in and licked her flesh, groaning with sick pleasure.

Charley choked back bile. She didn�t care how strong they were, how determined. She would not let this happen.

She struggled against their hold, using her elbows, her knees, the back of her head, anything to get in a hit. But it was no use. The men were impossibly strong, like two stone walls closing in from all sides, determined to turn her into a pancake.

But not before they had their fun.

"Fire!" she screamed again, then slammed her head backward, finally connecting with Graybeard�s face. She heard the crunch of bone and hoped she�d taken out a few teeth, but the man behind her only laughed.

"I love it when they fight." He released his hold and shoved her away. "Run along, little plaything. Fast as you can."

She took off at a run down the hill, doing her best to stay upright in bare feet on the dew-slick grass. Her heart slammed against her ribs, lungs burning, feet stinging as rocks and sticks sliced through her skin, but she didn�t dare stop. Not until she was certain she�d left them far behind.

For a fleeting instant, she actually thought she�d escaped. But when she took a chance and glanced back over her shoulder to check, her forward momentum came to a crashing halt.

She�d run smack into them. Even though they�d given her a clear head start, somehow, they�d gotten out in front of her.

How the fuck�?

"You�re fast, gorgeous," Junior said. "I�ll give you that."

"Not fast enough." Graybeard laughed, resting his arm on the younger man�s shoulder. They leered at her again, their eyes even hungrier than before.

The reality of the situation sank into Charley�s gut like a sharp-edged rock. Now, she was even further from civilization, trapped at the bottom of a hill in the darkness with two raving psychopaths, no weapons, no phone, nothing but crickets and moonlight.

She dropped into a crouch and fisted a nearby rock. If she was going down, she was going down fighting.

The men laughed again and took another step toward her, their smiles twisting into grimaces, those awful fangs flashing like blades.

But then, just before they descended and shredded her flesh, they fell to their knees, strangled gasps slithering from their mouths.

Dark blood spread across the front of Graybeard�s shirt like spilled ink.

Beside him, Junior was covered in even more blood�more than Charley had ever seen in her life.

His head, she realized, was gone.

And there, like something out of the worst B-movie horror flick ever made, two of the so-called Royal Redthornes towered behind them, fangs bared.

Gabriel clutched his knife, his arms and chest covered in blood, eyes wild with rage. Now, instead of an apple, he held a severed head.

Dorian�s expression mirrored his brother�s. A hunk of raw, red meat glistened in his hand, blood leaking out between his fingers.

Charley blinked.

Not meat. A heart. Graybeard�s fucking heart.

Charley blinked again, and the bodies of the men who�d ambushed her turned to ash before her eyes, scattering across the hillside. JrNovels.com