A Vampire's Claim by Joey W. Hill

of the second Rover had caught the tires of his vehicle. It would be going up in a matter of minutes. As she crouched, she had the satisfaction of seeing the fear as he met her gaze. Yeah, you worthless bastard. You’re dead, no matter what happens. This far out, no supplies, on foot, you’ ll cook as good as me.
    You’ d beg me to kill you.
    Then he stopped, the flamethrower stuttering to a halt, dropping out of limp fingers. Fear became confusion and then vacancy as he fell to his knees, a knife protruding between his shoulder blades, the same fate as Harry. Dev charged around the petrol bonfire that was her remaining Land Rover, snatched his blade out of the man’s back and came toward her. Danny didn’t give herself time to think, just focused on a clear spot and leaped out of the flame. Fire grabbed at her calves, licking up toward her hips. As she landed, she stumbled, her usual vampire balance abandoning her such that she almost dove into the flames of the Rover.
    Dev caught her, rolling her to the ground to douse the small licks of flame before he hauled them both outside the range of the rapidly spreading fire. Her startled cry was muffled when he twisted her beneath him, sheltering her with his back as her attacker’s vehicle went up in another wave of blasting heat and noise.
    “Christ, just what we need.” He was up and pulling her forward again, even as he swore and muttered. “Come on, I have a bike over here.”
    “Dev, sunrise. Everything to protect me—”
    “Is gone. I know. Come on.” He got her to the motorbike, about a hundred yards away. Yanking his swag out, he removed the pack of belongings it held and then tossed the swag across the ground, unrolling it in a deft, practiced move. “Lie down on this.”
    “It won’t be enough—”
    “It’s what we have. It’s thick. Come on,” he snapped.
    Behind him there was a dramatic backdrop of flames. Men’s bodies littered the ground. Not only the bastards who’d attacked her, but two innocent guides and three men she’d known for several years. Men who’d let her into their minds, who’d protected her when her strengths could not. Who’d tried to do that, even to this end. And now here was another man, risking himself for her.
    Pressing her lips together, knowing now was not the time for regrets, she lay down.
    Without another word, Dev rolled her in the swag, tucking the ends around her, working the ties with fast fingers, handling her as impersonally as a bundle of stones. The heat of the flames was being encompassed by the building light in the sky, which she could feel to the marrow of her bones. The sun was about to crest, turn the world around her into a hell on earth.
    “You don’t need to breathe, right?” She nodded, a quick jerk. Before he brought down the full hood he’d fashioned, he nodded toward a cluster of rock formations in the distance, a series of pillars and hillocks. “It’s going to take me about an hour to get us there, long as we don’t have any problems. If we’re lucky, we’ll find a cave or at least an overhang with a shadow. I assume that would get you through until night.”
    She didn’t have to agree or disagree. There weren’t any other options. Still, at his light shake, she managed another nod. “And this cloth? Will it protect you enough to get you there?”
    It was all they had. He didn’t have to say that, either. “I’ll be a bit uncomfortable, but I’ll manage.”
    Perhaps it was because they both knew the Aussie gift for understatement, or maybe there was a shameful quaver in her voice.
    Regardless, Dev studied her with serious green eyes, a momentary assessment, and she saw the man whose bush craft was the only thing between her and a very painful death. “All right, then. You hang in there, you hear me? I didn’t drive my arse off through the night and miss out on a piece of Joe’s birthday cake so you can die on me.” Then he cinched down the hood, shutting out light, most