My gray eyes skipped down to the knife I still clutched, the one I’d been chopping onions with. A strange calm settled over me, and my fingers tightened around the handle until the stainless steel imprinted itself over the silverstone spider rune scar on my palm.

“Leave him alone,” I said and dropped the knife below the counter, out of the giant’s line of sight.

Douglas stopped rolling up his sleeves long enough to stare at me. “What did you say, little girl?”

I drew in a breath. “I said leave him alone, you fat, ugly, cow-faced bastard.”

Douglas’s eyes narrowed. “Well, aren’t you a feisty one? A shame you’re going to die so young—and so painfully.”

The giant stepped over Fletcher and started toward me.

Fletcher reached out, trying to stop him, but he was too weak and injured to hold onto the bigger, stronger man. I stayed where I was behind the counter and moved my right arm behind my leg, hiding the knife. Douglas came around the counter and reached for me.

His left hand grabbed my shoulder, yanking me toward him. Something wrenched in my arm, and pain exploded in my body. His right fist was already drawing back to hit me.

Somehow, I pushed the pain away, gulped down a breath, lunged forward, and slammed the knife into his chest as hard and deep as I could.

My aim must have been better than I’d thought, because Douglas’s hazel eyes bulged in surprise and pain. But he didn’t go down. He staggered back. I kept my grip on the knife, and it slid free from his chest. Blood coated my fingers like hot grease, burning my skin. I wanted to drop the weapon. Oh, how I wanted to drop it. I might have, if Douglas hadn’t started laughing.

“Stupid bitch,” he said. “You think one little stab wound is going to stop me? I’ll enjoy making you pay for that.”

He came at me again, fist drawn back, but I didn’t hesitate.

Before he could hit me, I lurched forward and stabbed him again. I felt the blade slide off something in his chest.

A rib, maybe, or some other bone. The sensation made me want to retch.

Douglas screamed again, louder this time, and his beefy hand tangled in my brown hair, yanking my head back until I thought my neck would break. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the glitter of yellowish fangs in his mouth. A vampire.

He was a giant, and he was vampire. One who wanted to drink my blood to replace his own.

Panic filled me. Before he could sink his teeth into my neck, I wrested the knife out of his massive chest and plunged it into his body again.

And again.

And again.