Slayer's Prey

by Crystal-Rain Love

  “So you’re some kind of half-breed?” Jake asked, turning up his nose in distaste while scrutinizing her with hate-filled eyes.

  Nyla turned her face away, unable to bear seeing the disgust in his eyes, and retrieved clothes from her duffel bag on the floor. “Yeah, something like that,” she answered as she quickly dressed.

  “I don’t buy it. No one known to man has ever turned vampire by just a bite.”

  “I didn’t turn full vampire. I gained traits.”

  “Do you drink blood? Do you have the thirst?”

  She sat on the edge of the bed and kept her eyes trained on the boots she pulled onto her feet, not wanting to see his revulsion. The sound of it in his tone was demeaning enough. “Yes, but I can’t help what I am, Jake. I didn’t ask for any of this, just like you didn’t ask to be what you are.”

  “A hunter? Believe me, sweetheart, I chose what I am. As far as I’m concerned, the greatest job in the world is killing bloodsuckers.”

  “You’re not just a hunter, Jake. You’re a slayer,” she advised him, raising her eyes to meet his gaze, fresh anger squashing her moment of shame. “And a slayer isn’t a normal human being. You’re an outcast, just like me. Just like the people you hunt!”

  His eyes darkened, both nostrils flaring as he tightened his grip on the switchblade. “Don’t ever insult me like that again. I’m nothing like the things I hunt!”

  “No, you’re not, because if you knew what I was you would have killed me the moment we met, and that makes me just a little bit better than you.” She walked past him, her heart threatening to crumble as she headed toward the door, knowing she was walking out of his life.

  “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Jake clamped a hand around her arm and wrenched her back, nearly causing her to fall. “You can’t just put me through hell and leave.”

  “Put you through hell? How have I done that?”

  “You conned me, Nyla, and you did a damn good job of it too, but you’re not getting away with it. You’re leading me to Demarcus.”

  “No!”

  “Yes! You claim you love me, so prove it.”

  “I’ve been proving it for sixteen years!”

  Jake’s mouth dropped open, his eyes growing wide in shock as he loosened his grip on her arm and stepped away. Nyla realized her mistake too late and felt her heart race with the onset of panic. She tried to think of a way to take back what she’d said, or say something to throw Jake off, but she came up with nothing.

  “Just how long had you been following me before we met outside The Crimson Rose?”

  “A while.”

  “Sixteen years?”

  Nyla looked away, not wanting to answer, knowing once she did it would all come together.

  “That freak was telling the truth. You were there that night. You were one of his minions—”

  “No!” Nyla’s head jerked up to face him before he could complete the horrid accusation. “I was never his anything. I’d never even seen him before that night!”

  Jake’s face reddened, the muscles in his arms bunching as he tightened his hands into fists. “You’re telling me you were there the night Bobby died, and you expect me to believe you weren’t on Demarcus’s side?”

  “Yes! I’d never be on the side of anyone that evil! I was sent there to protect you!”

  “By who?”

  “The Dream Teller!”

  Jake stumbled backwards, his mouth agape. “The Dream Teller? The old blind woman in my dreams is in yours too?”

  “Yes,” she answered, surprised to hear Jake had also been visited by the old woman.

  “Bullshit! I don’t know how you know about that, but it’s a lie! All of it!”

  “Jake, I’m telling you the truth! I was sent to protect you that night, and that’s exactly what I did!”

  “How the hell do you expect to convince me of that? I remember everything about that night, Nyla, and everyone I encountered in that alley. There was Demarcus and his three minions, Niles, Lionel and Detra. Bobby died, and nobody jumped in to save him! Nobody jumped in to save me, either, except for an alley cat who jumped in the psycho’s face. If anyone protected me that night, it was . . .” His voice trailed off as he looked at Nyla with a mixture of realization and denial. “No. You can’t be . . .”

  “I’ve watched over you for sixteen years, Jake, and I’ve been in love with you for the last eight of them.”

  “No.” He stepped backward, seeming to want to escape. He was so desperate to get away from her, away from the truth that he didn’t watch where he was going and backed into the small table, almost stumbling. “You can’t be Alley. I’d sense lycanthropy.”

  “I’m not a lycanthrope. I’m a therian, pantherian, actually.”

  “What the hell is that?”

  “We’re a purely female race of people who can shift form, but only if we survive a ritual we’re subjected to during infancy. My true animal form is the panther, but I can also take on the appearance of a small, black cat.”

  “No,” Jake said, shaking his head vigorously. “You can’t be my pet alley cat.”

  “I was sent to that alley sixteen years ago to protect you, Jake. After you ran I shifted to panther form and attacked the vampires. Demarcus bit me, somehow passing on some of his vampiric traits in a single bite. He is, in a way, my sire, and he can get inside my mind and, apparently, if he tries hard enough, my body. I’ve been fighting him off for sixteen years.”

  She tried to approach Jake, but he continued backing away, moving away from her until his back hit the wall. “All these years when I’ve been talking to my pet cat, I’ve really been talking to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you rode with me from Baltimore to Louisville? You faked the stolen car, the other motel room, everything?”

  “Yes.”

  “And when we . . . oh, man, I thought it was bad that I’d slept with a vampire, but I . . . I fucked a cat? There are laws against that! People go to the frigging loony bin for doing nasty stuff like that!”

  “I’m not an animal, Jake. It’s just a form my body can take.”

  “But you’re a cat!”

  “Jake, you made love to a woman, to me.”

  “No, I screwed a damn cat! And you let me! Hell, you didn’t even give me much choice that first time in the car. You just jumped on me like a damn . . . cat in heat. Oh, that’s just so twisted it’s almost funny. You were in heat, weren’t you? I guess you have nine lives too.”

  She flinched, his words hurting far worse than she’d been prepared for. “Just one—one which has been devoted to you for sixteen years.”

  “Save it, lady, or . . . whatever the hell you are,” he snapped. “You conned me. Love isn’t about lies.”

  “Is it about turning your back on someone when you discover something about them you don’t like?” she countered, anger and desperation making her tone sharp. She was losing him, and at the moment, she didn’t know whether to be mad at him or beg him to stay. “You said you loved me an hour ago, and I know you meant it. Now, just because I can shift form, you’re taking it all back? I help you through the aftermath of the killer you become when your hunter rage takes you over. Why can’t you see me through my abilities?”

  “How do you expect me to?” he asked, incredulously. “You’ve lied to me since day one. Even now, I don’t know what’s real or make-believe.”

  “I couldn’t tell you what I was. You’d have killed me on the spot, and you know it.” Fresh tears slid down her face as she clasped her hands together, praying for the right words to fix the damage her avoidance of the truth had done. “I understand there is a lot of evil in the world, but you let your prejudice label us all bad without any consideration that we might be different. Demarcus is evil, yes, and he
deserves to be killed, but Seta and Christian—and most of all, me—we’ve done nothing but try to help you.”

  “It figures you’d take up for your friends.” He glared at her as his nostrils flared.

  “Yes, I consider Seta a friend.” She threw her hands in the air, wishing Jake could get past his blind hatred and distrust of the entire vampire species. “If I ever get to meet Christian, I’m sure he’ll be a friend too, but Demarcus has never been a friend. I killed Niles because he hurt you. I’ve fought against evil with you more times than you could imagine over these past sixteen years. My life has been devoted to protecting you.”

  “If that’s true, why have you been protecting Demarcus?” His glare grew hotter.

  “I’ve been protecting you. I’ve seen inside Demarcus’s mind, and I know the evil that lies there. I don’t want you near it. It’s me that he wants. I’m the one he set the trap for. You just got swept up in it. This is my fight.”

  “No.” He shook his head hard, and his jaw clenched tight.

  “Jake, just leave here. Let me deal with Demarcus. Please,” she added, voice cracking.

  “You’ve been able to find him all along, but you’ve let him live. Why should I trust you now? You didn’t even save Bobby!”

  “I know,” she admitted, lowering her gaze to the floor, feeling the shame deep in her heart. “I should have moved quicker. I can’t apologize enough for my failure.”

  With a rush of speed, Jake barreled into her, knocking her to the floor before she could react. Her head hit the floorboards, sending a burst of stars shooting before her eyes. Her vision cleared, and she saw him kneeling over her body, using one hand to pin her down while the other held the opened switchblade, poised for attack. “Jake, don’t do this,” she pleaded, gazing helplessly into his crazed eyes.

  “You let Bobby die,” he growled, his voice full of rage. “You let that sick bastard inside you, and I could have been killed while trying not to hurt you. You lied to me. You made me care about you, knowing how I feel about what you are.” He growled the words out while his eyes smoldered in rage.

  “Jake, please.” She could buck beneath him, throw him off, but she didn’t want to fight him. She knew it would be a fight to the death, and she couldn’t kill the man she’d loved for more than a decade of her life. Not even if it was to save her own life. “Please, Jake. Please.”

  He brought the knife down in an arc, letting out a roar of pain-filled fury, and Nyla forced herself to remain still. She would willingly die if it would bring him peace, but she knew he’d never find peace if he spent the rest of his life knowing he’d killed the woman he loved. So she put her faith in him and prayed that love would stop his hand in time. She gasped in relief as the blade dug into the floorboard beside her, and even though he wiped viciously at his eyes, a tear fell upon her face.

  “I can’t even kill you!” he cried, his voice thick with anger as he stood and backed away from her.

  “Jake . . .”

  She didn’t get to say anything else because he fled the room, silent tears falling like hot rain down the sides of his face.

  Hours later, she sat on the bed with her knees pulled to her chest, arms wrapped tight around them, wondering if Jake would ever return. She knew she’d hurt him, despite her best intentions, and he’d probably never again look at her with love in his eyes, but she didn’t want their relationship to end with such an awful experience. He’d tried to kill her. She didn’t want that to be the last memory for either of them.

  She heard footsteps just outside the room and leaped off the bed and ran to the door, throwing it open. She gasped in surprise as a beaten and bloody Peewee slumped against the doorframe.

  “Peewee! How did you escape?”

  “Where’s Jake?” His voice came out as a rusty rasp.

  “He left. How did you get here?”

  “I’m sorry, Nyla.”

  “Sorry for what?” An alarm bell rang in her mind, but the warning came too late as she felt the prick of a needle in her side.

  “He said I had to do this, or he’d kill me,” Peewee said, catching her falling body as she toppled forward, darkness closing in around her.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “SETA.”

  The vampiress opened her eyes to find herself in a forest filled with warm, earthy hues of green, brown and orange. Leaves danced in the breeze, their soundtrack provided by brightly colored birds. Above her, the golden sun was large and magnificent. She stood in one of its rays, wrapping herself in its warmth, a pleasure she hadn’t experienced in far too long.

  “It must feel wonderful to embrace the warmth of the sun without fear after all these centuries.”

  “Yes, it does,” she responded to the blind, platinum-eyed witch standing before her. While it was true that not all vampires immediately burst into flame once the sun touched their skin, they could still burn to death if they remained in its presence for too long. She knew that in this realm, however, the sun would not harm her, no matter how long she basked in its warmth and beauty. “It’s been a long time since you’ve brought me into your realm, Dream Teller. I don’t recall it being so warm and beautiful the last time.”

  “You were afraid of the truth the last time you were here. You’ve changed over the last century. You don’t scare easily.”

  “So that’s why this realm is all sunshine and rainbows now?”

  “The realm reflects what it finds inside you. You’re strong, Seta, which is why I’ve summoned you here. Something has happened.”

  “What?” Seta asked, noticing a cloud move past the sun as trepidation crept inside her. She immediately thought of Eron, where he lay healing beneath the earth in Baltimore, and feared for his life.

  “Eron is fine,” the Dream Teller said, reading her mind. “Your son is perfectly capable of protecting both him and Aria. Right now, they are not the ones being threatened. Jacob and Nyla are.”

  “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” she asked, curiosity replacing her fear.

  “Yes. They are part of the Blood Revelation.”

  Seta crossed her arms and cocked her head, studying the ancient witch. She didn’t appear to be joking. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the Blood Revelation state vampires will save the world from the ultimate evil?”

  “That is correct.”

  “If Jacob Porter is turned into a vampire, he’ll go mad.”

  “Most likely.”

  “So how can he be a part of the Blood Revelation? If Nyla changes him over—”

  “Nyla won’t change him over. She couldn’t, even if she wanted to. She’s not pure.”

  “I hope you’re not suggesting that I change him over.”

  “No one is changing Jacob Porter over.”

  “Then how—”

  “You will see in time. Right now, there is a more pressing matter. Nyla has been captured by her sire, Demarcus.”

  “I thought that beastly rogue was dead.”

  “Interesting term you’ve chosen. He is far more beastly than you recall.”

  “He is the fur-covered vampire whom I saw in my vision,” Seta said, suddenly understanding what she’d seen. “He passed along vampire traits to Nyla, and in return, she passed along feline traits to him.”

  “Yes.”

  “Serves him right,” she said with a chuckle, enjoying the man’s misfortune.

  “It is not so funny, Seta. He has grown madder. Nyla is a genetic carrier of a feline disease. It’s a recessive gene in her bloodline, and if she has children, it will be recessive in them and their children, et cetera. But when Demarcus bit her, he somehow contracted it as a full-blown disease, and he is steadily growing more dangerous because of it. The fever is affecting his brain.”

  “So you need me to kill him before h
e can harm Nyla?”

  “No. Jacob Porter must save Nyla. It is his destiny.”

  “It’s a slayer’s destiny to save a shifter-vampire hybrid and have a child with her?” Seta asked in disbelief.

  “Yes. Like your grandchild, their child will be one of the three who will be charged with saving this world from Satan’s wrath.”

  “So why did Aria have to be changed over if Jacob doesn’t have to be?”

  The blind witch smiled. “Everything will be revealed in time.”

  “Why can’t you just be straight with people when they’re brought here?” Seta snapped, her voice elevating with irritation. “You always make everything so mysterious. Just tell me straight out what is going to happen.”

  “It is not the way, little witch. You know that.”

  “Yes, I know it. My baby was ripped away from me because of it!”

  “You got him back. As for what is going to happen, I cannot tell you everything because no one knows the future. The chosen must follow their hearts to fulfill fate’s design, and only time will tell if their hearts will lead them to fulfill their destinies. It is the way fate works.”

  Seta expelled a hot, angry breath, balling her burnt, but fortunately not aching, hands into fists and placed them on her hips. “Fine. So why am I here if I’m not supposed to kill Demarcus? What am I supposed to do?”

  “Give Jacob guidance. He has discovered what Nyla is, and he has run from her. He’s confused.”

  “A slayer in love with a pantherian vampire? I’d say confused is an understatement. How am I supposed to guide him? He hates my kind, remember?”

  “During your battle, while your energy was waning, you were nearly attacked by a charging vampire. Jacob swung his sword just in time to save you. He followed his instincts, and his instincts have always been to protect the innocent. On a deeper level, he knows you aren’t evil. And he knows Nyla isn’t evil. He tried to kill her, but he couldn’t do it.”

  The witch stepped forward, reaching out for Seta’s hand. She ran her own leathery, wrinkled hands along the skin of Seta’s burned arms. Electrically charged magic crackled between them as she healed the burns, returning Seta’s skin to the flawless beauty it had always been. “This should help you.”