Slayed Read Online Free PDF Page B

boost sales.”
    She stops and tilts her chin up to the sky. “I can sing rings around Sugar, but they put
her
center stage and I got stuck dancing backup in a unicorn costume.” She looks at me. “Do you know how hard it was to watch Sugar playing it up with my parents on the red carpet or photo shoots like she was their kid? They don’t usually televise the kids’ CD winner at the Grammys, but the year they put Sugar in the band they turned into superstars and got a prime-time slot. I was five years old and I was in the background.”
    “Wow.”
    “Yeah,” Kiki whispers. “It sucked watching Sugar being a shiny, prettier version of me.”
    On the scale of suckiness that is definitely up there.
    She leans over and rests her hands on her bent knees. “Did I also tell you I don’t feel so good?” She starts to rock on her feet and I remember the goal is to get her off the streets.
    “Let me help you to your car.”
    She nods and I put an arm around her.
    “Uh-oh,” she says again, putting her hand to her mouth. “Hold on.” She leans over and I cringe as she throws up a liquid brown mess that reeks of alcohol and bile. She coughs and spits, and then looks up at me as she wipes her mouth. “Sorry.”
    “It’s okay.” What else can I say? “Come on, we’re almost there.” The driver’s leaning his head against the window and I’m guessing he’s fallen asleep.
    I open the back door and Kiki stumbles in. She leans forward and taps the man on the shoulder. “Sam, I’m ready.”
    A woman with a bloodstained face pops up beside the driver and Kiki screams,
“Who the hell are you?”
    The woman pushes the driver away and he moans and grabs the steering wheel to steady himself. Blood drips from two wounds on his neck.
    Kiki’s mouth drops open. “Sam? Are you okay?”
    From the dim light hanging by the back door of the pub I can just make out the fangs as the vampire starts to scramble over the seat toward Kiki.
    Kiki lets out another horror-movie scream, and I drag her out of the car. “Run! Go back in the bar—don’t come out until I tell you to!”
    “That bitch was eating my bodyguard!”
    “Just run!” I shriek, pushing her in the direction of the front door.
    I pull a stake out of my bag as the vampire crawls into the backseat. She eyes me hungrily with glowing black eyes. Her body tenses and then she lunges out of the car like a panther, knocking me to the ground. My head slams into the pavement and I try to blink away the pain.
    A mouth full of teeth growls over me and with a snarl she dives in toward my neck. I smell the metallic-tasting blood in her mouth and suddenly a pointed boot arcs inches from my face and connects with the vampire’s chin, knocking her off me.
    I roll toward her across the pavement, gravel digging into my hands and knuckles, and then grunt as I plunge the stake in her chest.
    “Shit!” I’ve missed the mark by a long shot—there was no sound of bones cracking to tell me I’d broken through the ribs. Her mouth opens in a silent scream as her hands claw at the stake. My near miss hasn’t done a thing to dampen her fight.
    “Damn it,” I mutter through gritted teeth. I punch the woman in the face to distract her, then straddle her and yank the stake out. She bares her teeth like a wild animal and lifts her head toward me as I drive the stake back in. Her clawlike fingers ball up in fists as her dark eyeswiden. Her arms fall to her sides and her body stills like she’s suddenly fallen asleep. Blood puddles up out of her mouth and trickles from her nose. I pull out the knife from the sheath strapped to my calf. It takes three strokes but I finally sever her head and knock it away from her body with the blade.
    I spy my purse across the pavement and hustle to it. Once a vamp has been exterminated it’s urgent the authorities are notified for pickup to avoid people stumbling onto the scene. I fumble for my cell phone and call Mom.
    One ring,