(Thomas POV)
I looked at the group in front of me. Five men altogether, but one missing his right arm. Movement behind them caught my eye, and I saw Edythe and Leah at the edge of the clearing.
Good, they had the advantage of surprise so long as I kept the group's attention. That thought led me to focus on Johnny. His eyes were a burgundy red that identified him as a newborn as well as a vampire feeding on humans.
He still wore a cocky smile that I had learned to hate as a child. It was the look he always had when mom wasn't around; he was still looking down on me.
"Wow, Tommy, my boy." Johnny said, "You have some neat tricks. Victoria didn't warn me about this one."
My lips pulled back, revealing my teeth as I growled out, "You should have stayed away, Johnny. Now I have no issue killing you for what you did to my mother and me."
"For what, loving her and trying to make you a better man? Don't try to lay her death on me, boy. That was all your fault."
Having said all I wanted to say, I sprang forward while they waited for my reply. My action was surprising enough to catch one of the men I hadn't seen before. The others managed to react to my speed, but they were moving back. It would take a second or two before they could change their trajectory. That was more than enough time to pull the head off the vampire I had caught.
The head was still in my hand when the body hit the ground. Four left.
When they settled from jumping back, a couple of the men had a new look in their eyes. This was not the easy kill with overwhelming numbers Johnny had told them it would be. Perhaps he saw them starting to waver because Johnny started shouting out orders.
"Circle him, get him in the middle." He shouted.
Their reaction was trained in from their time as humans; they obeyed.
I threw the head in my hand at Johnny, who just slapped it out of the air. Every part of me wanted to go after Johnny first, maybe the others would break if I did that, but if I did that and they reacted correctly, then at least two would have my back, and I wasn't sure I could survive that.
The two at the far side started to circle me, one crouched low, the other was the one missing the arm. Johnny stayed in front of me, and the one on the near side stepped around to try to make the circle complete.
Seeing a chance, I shuffled towards the two on the far side. They skittered back and rotated more to stop me from protecting my back enough to attack. Even as newborns, these men were not stupid. But they weren't experienced either.
Edythe exploded from the edge of the woods and quickly grabbed the one-armed vampire. She ruthlessly tore his remaining arm off and kicked him into the woods, where Leah was waiting with jaws wide open. Edythe then started to attack the vampire directly behind me.
Seeing that Johnny's guard was still up, I went after the last vampire soldier. His surprise made him an easy target, or so I thought.
The newborn batted my clawed hand away and stepped into my midsection. He managed to punch me twice before I got my arm between us; those simple punches shattered at least two ribs on my right side and three on my left side. I jumped back, keeping the vampire between Johnny and me. But I was careful to move away from Edythe, who was dancing around the vampire she was fighting.
I sucked in a breath and tasted blood.
I kept my weight on my back foot, ribs screaming every time I breathed too deeply. The tiger part of me wanted to explode forward and tear him apart before he could land another punch. The human part, annoyingly useful, ran numbers.
The armless one in the woods with Leah, I assumed/hoped, was dead. Edythe was occupying one, and I had two. If I pushed too deep into fighting one, then Johnny had a chance to help the one Edythe was fighting. Her abilities weren't working now that they were prepared; she made too many kills for them not to be careful.
The one in front of me rolled his shoulders like he was warming up. "I am going to take your head. Then I'm going to skin you so Johnny can make you into a rug, or, better yet, a blanket to use while he fuck's the girl behind you."
I didn't answer. Talk was for men who had breath to waste.
He lunged in, fast, straight, confident, exactly like Jasper taught us they would.
I let him think he had my timing.
At the last second, I dipped, caught his forearm with both my hands, and twisted hard.
He hissed and tried to yank his arm free.
I didn't let him go. I shoved him back in the direction of Johnny.
When he was off balance, I released his arm with one hand and used my claws to scrape down his chest. My nails tearing through the stone chest with a loud scraping sound. He screamed in outrage and pain.
I looked into Johnny's eyes as I grabbed the newborn with both hands again and pulled at the same time that I kicked his chest. He flew at Johnny, landing right in front of him, while I kept his arm.
Seeing Johnny keep his contemptuous grin on me without even looking at the vampire on the ground in front of him just reaffirmed what I knew growing up. This man was trash. How could my mother have ever seen anything in him worth loving?
Then something slammed into my shoulder from the side, hard enough to spin me.
The vampire Edythe had been "dancing" with had disengaged at the perfect time, using my distraction like a knife.
My ribs screamed again. I stumbled.
And Johnny smiled wider.
"I do so love seeing you in pain, boy."
The vampire who'd hit me went low, trying to take my legs.
I twisted, caught him by the back of the neck, and flung him straight past Johnny's left shoulder.
He hit a tree with a crack that shook the branches.
But he didn't die.
Not yet.
Johnny finally moved, stepping forward like he'd decided the warm-up was done. He pulled the man in front of him up and shoved him to his right side. The Newborn I had thrown at the tree pushed off the trunk and joined Johnny, stepping to his other side.
Edythe was at my side in an instant.
Johnny's eyes flicked to Edythe…and for the first time, the cocky mask cracked.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Hate.
"You," Johnny breathed.
Edythe's smile wasn't warm. It was elegant and lethal. "Hello, Johnny."
The look that passed between the two told me there was something there that I didn't know about. I would have to ask Edythe about it later.
With a growl, Leah moved from the tree line up to my other side. Her massive wolf shape was limping but alive, eyes feral and teeth bared.
Edythe stepped forward, just one pace, staying out of range but making sure Johnny's eyes stayed on her.
"You brought soldiers," she said, mild as if commenting on the weather. "That was adorable."
Johnny's lip curled. "You don't get to speak to me."
Edythe tilted her head. "Oh? But you came all this way. I'd hate for you to leave without… conversation."
Leah's low growl vibrated the ground. It wasn't directed at Johnny.
It was directed at the two newborns still trying to keep me boxed.
They heard it.
They hesitated.
And hesitation, in a fight like this, was blood.
I used it.
I lunged…hard, fast…straight into the newborn closest to me, shoulder-first, driving him back into Johnny's space and forcing the entire formation to compress.
For half a second, all their spacing was wrong.
All their angles collapsed.
And I was inside their guard.
Johnny snapped an order, sharp and furious. "Back…back, regroup on me!"
They tried.
They started to move.
But they were newborns, and they were angry, and I was already on them.
I caught the nearest one by the throat, lifted him, and slammed him down.
Stone hit stone.
He bounced.
I went to finish…
And Johnny's hands clamped around my wrist.
Cold. Iron.
Using all his strength was enough to stop the motion dead.
His face was inches from mine.
His red eyes burned.
"Got you," he said softly.
And then he smiled.
The old smile.
The one he used when my mother wasn't looking. Then he sank his teeth into my neck.
This time, it was me who screamed in outrage and pain.
Leah, having no shot at Johnny, did the next best thing and sank her teeth into the vampire I was holding down, allowing my hand to get free and force Johnny away from me.
I shoved him away and staggered back a couple of steps, my neck burning.
Johnny spat off to his side, "Damn, you taste foul. But from what I heard from Victoria… Venom is poison to you shifters. Even if you take me down, you will follow me soon."
Behind Johnny, I saw Edythe pull the head off the vampire she had attacked. Leah just finished off the one she took from me. The tables had turned completely; now Johnny was outnumbered.
"That's funny, little man. Because you are the fourth vampire to bite me today, and all I feel is a little warmth. Guess Victoria was wrong about that as well."
I took a step forward, ready to end his life, Edythe and Leah moving with me.
"You think this makes you righteous?" he hissed. "You think your mother would be proud of what you became?"
That hit where he meant it to hit.
I smiled anyway.
Because I'd learned something about monsters.
They always try to make you feel dirty for surviving them.
"My mother would be proud I'm still standing," I said, voice rough. "And she'd be thrilled to know I am building a family of my own."
Johnny's eyes flicked, calculating, toward the deeper woods.
Retreat.
He was going to run.
Leah moved first. She lunged forward, not at his neck, but at his knee. Her teeth tore it from his body with a twist of her head. Before Johnny could fall though, Edythe was behind him with her arm wrapped around his neck, looking at me.
"Goodbye, Johnny."
I nodded to Edythe, and she pulled his head off.