by Laken Cane
“After he slaughtered her family, he became obsessed with her. Out of guilt, I’d imagine. It wasn’t really his fault he killed them, you know.”
“It’s always their fault,” Copas growled. “You don’t give excuses to a vampire.”
“Damn right,” I whispered.
“He gave her Silverlight.” That was Clayton’s voice. He was okay then. I’d begun to wonder.
The silence was thick and dark and heavy, and when Shane spoke, I had no idea what I heard in his voice. Disgust? Shock? Envy? Certainly disbelief.
“No.” I heard a chair scrape across the floor as he stood. “That can’t be right.”
“It accepted her,” Angus said. “She has the scars to prove it.”
I pressed my fingers to my chest, ignoring the slight pain. The wound was nearly healed, and the scar was beginning to resemble a cross. Silverlight had carved a cross into my chest.
“He wouldn’t give a vampire-killing weapon to a vampire-killing human,” Shane said, a cold certainty in his voice.
“But he did,” Miriam told him. “He’s claimed her. He’s part of her. So is the sword. And she said the master hopes she’ll kill the infected, who are going to end up killing them all. The virus is spreading more rapidly than ever.”
“And he knows she can’t kill him,” Angus growled. “Not even with a magical sword. Much as we might want her to, it’s impossible. He’s her…”
But not even he could say the word or admit the truth. Not aloud.
Master.
“He hopes she won’t kill innocent vampires,” Miriam said.
“There are no innocent vampires.” Shane’s voice was calm, but full of derision.
Another point I agreed with.
“Why don’t you admit the real reason you don’t want to partner with her?”
That was Rhys Graver’s voice, and I stiffened in surprise. I hadn’t been aware he was in the room.
Shane said nothing, but he must have looked at Rhys, because Rhys continued after a slight pause. “You don’t care if she’s a baby hunter. You care that she’s got some nasty vampire blood running through her.”
“You don’t have to like her to work with her,” Miriam said. “Help her. Stay with her as she learns and grows. Humans are dying, Shane. You can work with us to wipe out the carriers. You can work with her.”
“Not when she’s one of them,” Shane Copas said. “She belongs to Amias Sato. Let him take care of her.”
I shoved open the double doors and stepped into the room, shaking with anger. I strode to Shane Copas, praying I’d be able to control myself enough not to hit him. He’d surely kill me.
“I am not,” I said, my voice as dark and hard as his had been, “one of them. I will kill them all.” And then, unable to resist, I slammed the palm of my hand against his chest. He barely moved. “You stay out of my way, asshole.”
I turned to give them all a sneer of contempt. “You, with your secret meetings, discussing me like I’m a dumb kid to be handled and managed and coddled. Fuck all of you.”
Angus walked toward me, his hand out. “Trin…”
I glared at him. “Get away from me.”
“You’re not ready to hunt on your own,” Miriam told me, calmly. “You’re going to need a partner.”
My smile nearly cracked my face. “It won’t be this son of a bitch.” I jerked my thumb in the direction of Copas, who never said a word. Most likely he thought speaking directly to me or acknowledging my presence was beneath him.
“Calm down, Trinity,” Angus said. “There’s no reason to get upset. We want to do what’s best for you.” He glanced at his watch. “I need to get back to work. It’s our busiest night and they’ll burn the place down without me there.” He squinted at me, then added, “You’ll come back to work soon. That’ll make you feel better.”
Miriam nodded. “I have a job tonight as well. Trinity, would you like to come to the graveyard with Clayton and me? You can watch me work.”
They continued treating me like I was a child or a wild thing to be handled delicately. No wonder Copas looked at me with such blistering condescension.
I’d have to prove myself to all of them. And that would start tonight.
I gave one last, disgusted look around the room and then walked toward the door. My flare of rage was lessening, and I let it go.
“Where are you going?” Miriam called. “Wait, darling. Where are you going?”
I didn’t answer.
“Hang on, Trin,” Angus ordered, but I ignored him as well.
I left the doors open and jogged down the carpeted hallway, heading for the stairs that led up out of the basement. The basement was Angus’s domain, and the children and household staff were expressly forbidden from going down there. I didn’t know what lay behind the three other doors on the basement level, but the entire space was quiet and dim. I didn’t like it. It felt too…cold. Too alien.
There was an exit door in the opposite direction of the stairs, but it was locked, and Angus hadn’t offered me a key.
When I opened the door and stepped out into the main floor, it was like a different world. Angus’s kids and their friends yelled and played and scampered, adults scolded like angry birds, and bright colors splashed a cheerful calmness across the walls.
It was Saturday, and apparently every little kid within a fifty mile radius wanted to weekend with the Starks.
I took a deep breath of fresh air when I left the stifling house, jogged to the trunk of my car, and lifted the lid. Amias had said I wouldn’t need any weapon but Silverlight, but I didn’t want to go out there without my silver, my holy water, or my vest. I didn’t know Silverlight enough, really, to trust her with my life. Not yet.
I was calm, and I was confident. I’d killed the vampire behind the bar. Sure, he’d kicked my ass, but I’d killed him. I’d won. I was meant to be a hunter and that knowledge lay like an impenetrable wall around me.
I was afraid, but that didn’t worry me. Of course I was afraid.
But part of me knew with deep certainty, even if I wouldn’t admit it aloud, that I had my supernats, I had my Silverlight, and I had Amias—even if I didn’t want him. I wasn’t alone.
I glanced around as I put on my vest, wondering if he crouched somewhere in the shadows, watching me.
The vampires were everywhere.
Despite my bravado, I began to shiver as I slammed shut the trunk. Maybe because I felt that Amias was near. Maybe just because I was scared. I knew what it was like to have a gang of infected vampires attacking me.
And now I had something new to add to the mix—the man who’d attacked me with the foam. I really, really didn’t want that stuff touching me again.
I felt for Silverlight, holstered at my side, climbed into my car, then drove toward the city.
I hadn’t been back to my apartment since the attack, but Angus had assured me they’d taken care of everything. My lease would have been up in a month. The few pieces of furniture and clothing I had were carted to a storage unit.
They’d done it all, my supernatural friends. I hadn’t had to worry about a thing. Perhaps that was why they thought they had the right to manage me. To take care of me. I was letting them. I was taking advantage of them, wasn’t I? So I couldn’t very well bitch and moan when they treated me like a six-year-old.
A cold, light rain began to fall as I drove into the city. The moon was a white crescent high above, but the stars were dimmed because of the many lights of the city.
I had no specific destination in mind, so I drove to the center of Red Valley and parked in the lot of a 24 hour convenience store. The city was alive, bustling with frenetic activity and discordant sounds of impatient traffic, shrill sirens, and honking horns.
I donned a cap, pulled the bill low, and left my car. What foot traffic there was ignored me as they hurried along, heads down, bundled against the brisk cold and steady rain. Once, a woman met my eyes, then dropped her gaze immediately and hurr
ied by me, and I wondered what she saw. Did I look like a hunter? Did I look like someone on the prowl, searching for vampires to kill?
Or did I look like just another lost soul in a dark city?
As I walked, the excitement began to take the lead over the fear. The fog trails, with their muted colors and swirling mists, grew heavier and brighter the deeper I walked into the city. They wafted gently, almost lazily, beckoning me on.
I’d never spotted the fog before the Thanksgiving Day Massacre, but afterward, I’d begun seeing the swirling mists everywhere. But only at night.
I pulled Silverlight from its sheath as I walked by alleyways and shops and clubs and entered that part of the city that held empty lots, abandoned row homes, and grim tenements. In minutes, I’d picked up a trail of three human men.
“What’re you doing out here?” one of them called. “You lost, lady?”
“Is that a sword?” another asked. “What are you doing with a sword?”
I ignored them until their catcalls became too loud and their proximity too suffocating, and then I turned on them. Silverlight expanded when she was freed from her sheath, but she remained quiet and dark in my grip.
“Fuck off,” I said.
They didn’t laugh, didn’t look at each other, just took another step closer to me. “You shouldn’t be out here if you want left alone,” one of them said, and the others nodded in agreement.
I shot a glance into the empty street behind them. I hadn’t exactly prepared for human predators.
“Hey,” one of them exclaimed, suddenly. “She’s the girl from the vampires.” The others looked at him. “Yeah, yeah,” he went on, “she’s that girl from the Thanksgiving Day Massacre.”
They peered at me. “Don’t look like her,” one of them muttered.
“Just skinnier and older,” his friend said. “And maybe meaner. It’s her. Look at the scars.”
“Rumor is,” the guy who recognized me said, “you went crazy. Must be true, you being out here.”
“Go away,” I said gently. “Before you get hurt.”
They cackled and high-fived each other, and another man drifted from the shadows to join them. They didn’t even glance at him.
A group of men was a dangerous animal.
But I was no one’s prey.
Not anymore. They were right. I was crazy—at least a little bit.
I couldn’t fight, not really. Sure, I’d taken self-defense classes and learned to shoot a gun, but classes only went so far and I hadn’t brought the gun.
Then Amias slid from the darkness and stood between me and the men. The men didn’t see him, but I saw him.
Even though I’d known he was there, even though I’d prepared myself, even though during our last encounter I’d softened, my familiar hatred and rage rose up and roared over me.
But I controlled it. I controlled me. Barely.
I couldn’t have done that a week ago.
And Silverlight woke up.
“Holy shit,” one of them murmured. “The fuck is that?”
“Guys,” I murmured, finding it difficult to talk through my clenched teeth.
They tilted their heads, listening. Intrigued.
“Remember the vampire who slaughtered my family?”
“Yeah.” The talkative man nodded. “We just said.”
I smiled. “He’s right in front of you.”
Amias showed himself.
The group of men broke apart, yelling, and scattered like spilled BBs across a hardwood floor.
Amias turned to me, and he was smiling, as though we shared a joke. As though we were friends.
I forgot the men and went for the master with Silverlight leading the way. It didn’t matter if I couldn’t kill him. I had to try. I had no other choice. My control had fled with the humans.
“Like a baby,” Amias murmured, tenderly. “But you will grow.”
And then, before Silverlight and I could slice out the bastard’s heart, he was gone.
“Oh, shit,” one of the young men yelled, as he and his buddies milled about, unsure whether to run away or stay and get something to record on their phones for YouTube.
Now that Amias had fled, they saw no threat, and they turned their phones on me and Silverlight.
Silverlight hadn’t dimmed with Amias’s departure. She buzzed in my hand, as though aware of something I wasn’t. Likely, Amias hadn’t gone far.
The sword would kill in a fight and defend against attack, but it couldn’t run after him, and my human legs were just…human legs. They weren’t going to catch a master vampire.
So how was I supposed to catch and kill vampires if they all ran away?
I got my answer in the next few minutes as vampires raced from the darkness, their fangs flashing in the light from the tall streetlamps.
And I had a strong feeling that even though Amias would be watching, he would let me handle it. He would not interfere.
He seemed more inclined to protect me against the humans than the monsters. He wanted me to learn, after all.
He wanted to see what I could do.
Maybe even if it killed me.
Chapter Fourteen
I didn’t have to hunt vampires.
They were hunting me, just as Clayton had predicted. They were coming for me.
I was ready.
Sort of.
I shrieked and whipped Silverlight through the air, and it took me all of five seconds to realize that I needed to stop fighting the sword for control. She knew what to do, much better than I did. So I gave her my right arm.
The vampires surrounded me, darting away, screaming as Silverlight caught one in the throat and sent him reeling—but another took his place immediately. There were at least a dozen vampires, or so it appeared to my terrified brain, but Silverlight didn’t hesitate.
And some of them went after the humans who’d followed me. “Run,” I begged, but I heard their screams, and I knew it was too late for the men.
Adrenaline lent me speed and strength and I whirled, dodged, and leapt, cutting and killing, truly killing, and the vampires I downed did not rise again. As one fell I was already attacking another.
And those still living began to falter.
They’d known I was a hunter, but they’d been sure they could take me out. One inexperienced hunter against a dozen vampires? No hunter would survive that.
But they hadn’t counted on Silverlight.
I heard distant sirens screaming toward us, but I heard them through a filter, and somehow, they weren’t even real. The only things real were the vampires, the sword, and the fight.
I drove Silverlight through a female vampire’s heart, and turned to get the one on my left as she fell. At that instant, one of them rammed me from behind. He sank his fangs into the back of my neck, and I felt the pain all the way to the bone.
The success of his attack seemed to give the remaining ones courage, and they all converged upon me at once. Still, I gave Silverlight her head, and together, we fought on.
The vampire biting me snaked his arms around my waist and jerked me off balance, and he began to suck. It was as though a stick, long, thin, and sharp, had gotten lodged in my body and he was pulling it out with his teeth.
It was agonizing.
Another vampire sank fangs into my left forearm, and I could almost hear the bone being scraped. My entire body began to shiver with the pain of it.
I plunged the sword into that one’s head. As he fell to the ground, Silverlight followed him down to enter his heart. Not because he’d come back from the injury to his brain—she was Silverlight, and he wasn’t coming back—but because his heart tasted like a little slice of heaven.
There were stakes in my belt and I yanked one out, grinding my teeth against the pain, but even as I lifted it, another vampire latched on, sinking his fangs into the top of my left shoulder. I immediately dropped the stake as the pain shot from my shoulder to my fingertips and even after Silverlight took his head, the
arm still hung useless and unmoving.
The vampire who’d bitten my neck was gone, just abruptly gone, and I had no idea what had happened to him until I glimpsed a very welcome sight.
The new guy, Shane Copas, was fighting with me. He fought like a fierce shadow, fast, strong, and mean, and I could barely take my eyes off him.
And watching him almost got me killed.
A vampire leapt and grabbed me around the waist, trying to bring me to the ground where I’d be less of a threat. Silverlight was ready for him, even if I was not, and a second later, his head was rolling across the pavement.
There were others, but I was not alone, and my reluctant partner fought with experience and speed. He held a long blade in one hand and a stake in the other, and used them like magic wands, dropping every vampire he touched.
And then there was silence.
The dozen vampires lay spread across the street, dead, shriveling in pools of spilt blood that hadn’t ever belonged to them. Some of it—a lot of it—was mine.
Some of it belonged to the young men who’d followed me. The humans. Their deaths would haunt me, I had no doubt. I hadn’t saved them. I hadn’t even attempted to save them, really. The supernats were right. I wasn’t ready. Lesson learned, though it was a lesson that’d come too late.
But I was alive.
Silverlight gave me back my arm.
I automatically shoved her back into the sheath, and breathing hard, I turned to look at Copas.
He snarled at me, then turned and pointed.
Police cars, lights on, screamed to a halt not half a block away. Cops took shelter behind their open doors, guns drawn and trained on the battle scene. On us.
I shook my head to clear it, then reached up with my right hand to clear blood from my eyes. Still breathing a little too hard, I flung the blood away to land upon the pavement.
My shivering intensified as I watched the police. They’d begun to creep toward us, slowly, guns still drawn, silver crosses gleaming from around their necks. I felt for my own cross, but it was gone. The chain must’ve broken. Most likely the vampire had broken it when he’d bitten the back of my neck.
At the thought, the injury from that bite began clamoring for attention. My left arm hung like dead weight, and I realized there wasn’t an inch of my body that didn’t throb with pain.
