Kissing Skulls *Revised*

Chapter 28

*unedited.  Be prepared for a billion mistakes. :)*

Chapter 28

“When’s the last time you saw her?” Dustyn demanded, snapping into action.  I had never seen him so serious.  In the blink of an eye his eyes sharpened into bits of silver.  His shoulders went back with authority.

He was all Slayer, now. 

I looked into his eyes and saw no worry.

No fear.

Just pure determination.

“About an hour ago…” Carlos admitted with a grimace.  He eyed Dustyn warily. “You don’t think that she—”

Dustyn didn’t answer, he just took off across the warehouse floor, reaching back to drag me along by the wrist. 

“She did it,” I blurted, as something inside my throat clenched tight.  A bitter taste swallowed the back of my throat.  I felt like I might throw up.  “She went to the Wharf…”

“You don’t know that.” Dustyn’s voice was as cutting as a whip, snapping me back into the cold reality of things.  “Jumping to conclusions will only give you a headache.”

He was right.

Now was definitely not the time to start freaking. 

I had to keep a cool head like he was, stay focused—for Misty’s sake, if anything.  But it was so hard to think rationally when all I could picture in my mind was her hanging limply by the throat in Serenity’s grip like a doll.

Yeah, keeping my cool didn’t seem very likely.

My heart thudded like a sledgehammer in my chest.  I couldn’t keep from shaking even as I scuttled after Dustyn, fighting to keep up. 

Too make matters worse, he stopped short. 

I tripped over my own two feet only to slam face-first into his shoulder so hard my nose crunched off his back.  Hot pain splashed through me as it someone had dumped a bucket of molten lava over my head.

“Whoa!” Dustyn spun around, catching my wrist as I reached up to clutch at my nose.  Thick, globby blobs of blood dripped down to paint the floor. 

“Tilt your head back,” he ordered, pushing on my chin.  “Apply pressure…”

“What’s going on?”  I craned my neck to see Dave marching across the great room with Anna, Melissa and Sasha at his heels. 

I winced as Dustyn pinched the bridge of my nose with clinical accuracy, ignoring the scarlet blood that coated his fingers.  Without glancing at the others he asked, “Have any of you seen Misty?”

Dave slowly shook his head.  “No…”

Melissa shrugged.  “Not since this morning.”

Only Anna seemed worried.  Her blue eyes darted nervously in my direction.  “I haven’t seen her either.”

“Why?”  Dave asked.  “What’s going on?”

“She’s missing,” I garbled, sounding like a suffocated squirrel as Dustyn pinched my nostrils shut.  “The vampires,” managed to grumble.  “We have to go after her—”

“Hold still.”

I stomped my foot impatiently as Dustyn calmly tried to staunch the bleeding from my nose.  In the end, I tried to just bat his hands away, but he held me off with a firm shrug of his own.