The Hunter
A Vampire's Obsession: Book 4
Stephanie Rylai
Copyright © 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents used are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:
A Vampire's Obsession
Life In Between (Prequel): http://eepurl.com/ceaBvX (free)
Book 1: Gabriel's Secret - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LQMZR30
Book 2: A Forbidden Temptation: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LYK0YRT
Book 3: A New World: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LWPZHBX
Book 4: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M30MP38
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
Prequel (“Life In Between”)
About The Author
Connect With Me
CHAPTER ONE
A loud scream in the distance woke Elora from her slumber. Her hazel eyes flickered open, finding herself nestled in her cloth hammock in the warehouse they had arrived to the night before. She peeked over the edge of the fabric, her eyes falling on Lance across the floor, yelling at everyone to get up. She rolled her eyes, laying back down in her hammock and bringing her blanket up to her neck. Just as she closed her eyes again, a hand was on her shoulder.
“Ella, doll, you have to wake up. We’re going to be going in like ten minutes,” Lance spoke to her softly.
Elora glanced over to him and rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, okay,” she mumbled.
She waited for Lance to walk away before she climbed out of the hammock. She stretched and reached into her bag, plucking out her outfit for the night; a pair of high-waisted shorts and dark violet crop top, accompanied with black ballet flats.
As she soothed her chin-length chocolate hair, Abigail came around the column, “Are you taking your bike out tonight or do you want to ride with me?” she asked, flashing Elora her big brown eyes.
Elora checked her appearance in a compact mirror as she contemplated her answer to Abigail’s question, putting on a little bit of a matte brown lipstick.
“I guess I’ll ride with you if that’s alright,” she shrugged, figuring might. Ever since Gabriel and Ezekiel left, the nest had to find ways to save money to keep them going; they relied solely on credit card scams since Gabriel and Ezekiel had all of the artifacts. Most of them buddied up and rode together, Abigail was her buddy.
“Of course,” Abigail grinned. “That’s why I was asking.”
The two girls linked arms and made their way through the rows of makeshift beds, heading towards the door. All of the other nest members were filing out as well. Even though her skin was permanently ice cold, she could still sense the thick, sticky southern air around her. If Elora had been human, she probably would have died from the heat.
“Ella, doll,” Lance called to her from across the lot.
Her eyes were dull as they slid over to him.
“Wanna ride with me, baby doll?”
“Didn’t yesterday, can’t imagine why I would want to ride with you today,” she smiled sweetly to him as she jumped on the back of Abigail’s bike.
Lance gave her a sullen look as Abigail kicked off and started down the lot. Elora gave him a wave and blew him a kiss, laughing into the wind as they pulled onto the side road.
“He is hung up on you something terrible, isn’t he?” Abigail called back to her, humor in her tone.
“I don’t think he’s ever going to take the hint,” Elora called back to her over the sound of the wind.
Abigail laughed loudly as they pulled into town. Abigail was Elora’s oldest friend, being an older vampire than she was. She had been there through all of Lance’s ridiculousness. Lance had been the vampire to change Elora, having saved her after a newborn vampire attacked her and drained her to an inch of her life. Ever since Lance has sworn to have some sort of magnetic pull to her. He liked to claim that they were soulmates. When she first became a vampire, she had entertained the idea and had dated him for a little bit. But after seeing how thick and controlling he was, Elora quickly broke things off with him. He hadn’t taken it well, and still to that day tried to win her back.
They parked on the street outside the bar among the bikes and trucks of the nest members who had already arrived. Elora stepped off the motorcycle and tamed her windblown hair by combing her fingers through it. The two then moved into the bar, greeted by the rowdiness of the Friday night and stench of beer and cigarettes. Abigail and Elora walked to the bar together, sitting down and looking to the bartender. The tall and stocky man walked over to them, looking each of them up and down.
Before they could even say anything, his eyes fixated on Elora, “ID?”
She was annoyed but gave a polite smile and pulled the couple of cards she had from her pocket. Shuffling through them, she found her fake ID and showed it to him. The ID claimed she was twenty-two years old, even though she was frozen in age at nineteen and was forty-one; Abigail appeared to be twenty-five so she never had a problem with getting carded.
The man took the ID and examined it before handing it back to her, “What can I get you?” he asked.
“Hard cider, please,” Elora answered him.
“Same for me,” Abigail chimed in.
The man walked away for a second before returning with two ciders, opening the bottles before sliding them to the girls. Each girl picked up the drink and took a sip before turning to look around the bar. Many humans occupied the bar that night, making it easier for everyone to get fed that evening. With small towns, the beginnings of the weeks were always particularly dry, not many humans drank during the work week. Her eyes scanned through the many faces, trying to see if anyone caught her eye.
“See anyone?” Elora asked Abigail.
“I see a cute little number over there,” Abigail nodded towards a woman across the bar, sitting alone at the end of the bar.
“Here goes nothing,” she grinned, standing from her spot and wiggling her brow at Elora before heading off.
Elora let out a sigh, wishing her friend could have at least hung around for one drink. She understood, though. There was no telling how long Abigail’s window of opportunity would be open. Elora watched as her friend sat on the stool next to the red-headed woman, flirtatiously laying a hand on hers and complimenting the woman. There was no telling whether or not the human identified as gay, but it didn’t really matter. Abigail had a way of getting what she wanted. She was gorgeous with thick brown curls and piercing honey eyes, and had the charm of an incubus.
Elora could
n’t think of a time where Abigail had been turned down be a human, no matter if they were gay, straight, married, or simply not looking. She admired that about her dear friend and had even picked up some of her tricks along the way. If only the entire nest could be as smooth and cunning as Abigail, there would probably be a lot less drama. It seemed neverending that members of the nest were getting jealous and violent over love affairs and humans.
She sipped her drink and kept looking through the bar, waiting to see if anyone caught her eye. Elora wouldn’t consider herself picky, but she did always try and find the ideal person to feed from. It just didn’t make sense to her how some of the nest could just walk up to any human and seduce them and feed on them. If she was going to be kissing and flirt with someone, she wanted to do that with someone she was at least semi-attracted to.
As she started to give up on finding someone preferable, Elora spotted a man in the corner of the bar. He sat alone with his back to the wall, holding a beer that had hardly been touched. The man had sandy blonde hair that was styled in some sort of messy pompadour, and even from across the bar she could make out the vibrant color of his emerald eyes. She took it that he was a drifter from his tanned skin and worn leather jacket with jeans and boots to match. While normally gruff wasn’t her type, he was gorgeous and alluring.
Ordering another beer for him, she picked up the drinks and made her way over. As she approached his table, his eyes lifted to look her over. He gave her a questioning look, The woman just gave a charming smile and held out the beer,
“Seemed like you could use a cold one,” she teased about his lukewarm beer.
He looked her over, head to toe as if he was calculating something before he finally let a half smile pull at the corner of his lips, “Thanks, that wasn’t necessary, though,” he told her, taking the beer from her.
Elora smiled and sat down in the chair across from him, “Well, what else was I supposed to use as an excuse to come talk to you?” she giggled softly.
“Point taken, though a simple hello could have done just as well,” he grinned at her.
“Yeah, but then I would have just been a weird girl coming up to you in a bar.
At least with the beer, I’m a weird girl with free beer, coming up to you in a bar,” Elora smiled at him.
The man gave a hearty chuckle, “You’re cute.” He stuck his hand out then, “I’m Thomas.”
She shook his hand, “Elora, but you can call me Ella.”
“Already on a nickname basis?” he grinned at her, clearly embracing the flirtatiousness of their interaction.
Thomas gave a chuckle, “Elora… that’s a beautiful name. Sounds old school.”
Elora gave a shrug, “Just an old religious name my parents adorned me with.”
“Are you religious, Ella?” he asked her, a hint of humor shining in his eyes.
She gave a wicked grin then, “Not in the slightest.”
His eyes darkened at her words a bit, sparking her interest immediately. If his mind was already in a dirty place, then that evening would be even easier than she anticipated.
“Are you from around here?” she asked coyly, though she had already pegged him as a drifter.
“Nah, just stopping in town for a bit,” he shrugged. “How about you?”
“Just the same, as luck would have it,” Elora smiled to him.
Thomas looked down to his beer with a smirk on his lips, off in his own land of thoughts.
After a minute or so, he returned his gaze to her, “Do you like hanging out in bars?”
The question threw Elora off for a second, the question seeming strange for a man she met in a bar to ask.
“Uh, well, I don’t know. Bars are fun, I guess. They just get old really quickly,” she answered him.
“What about you? Do you go to bars a lot?”
The man gave a shrug, “I guess you could say that. I don’t care for them much either, though.”
There was a pause before Thomas looked to her with a winsome smile, “Perhaps this is a little forward of me, but would you like to get out of here? Maybe go get a bite to eat or just walk around. No point of two people who don’t care for bars to hang around a bar.”
Elora gave a big smile, “I would really like that.”
The two polished off their drinks before standing up. When she did, her eyes immediately went across the bar to Abigail, who was making out ferociously with the redhead she had picked out. Elora chuckled a bit, shaking her head. Thomas moved next to her and then led the way to the door.
CHAPTER TWO
As soon as the door closed behind them, they were disconnected from the overwhelming volume of the bar. Elora embraced the quiet for a moment before turning to him and asked, “So do you even know of anywhere to go in this town?”
“I do,” he smiled at her. “Want to take my car? It’s gonna take a long time on foot.”
Elora contemplated for a moment but then shrugged, “Sure.”
Safety wasn’t really a concern for her, considering she was probably twice as strong as him if not stronger. Thomas led the way to his car, it was a black Ferrari Testarossa from the eighties. He opened her door for her before rounding the car and climbing in as well.
“Nice car,” she complimented him. The car, even back in the day, had cost a fortune.
“Thanks. It was my great uncle’s, but he left it to me in his will,” Thomas responded as he put the keys in the ignition and headed off down the road.
Elora looked out the window, appreciating the country town as it was illuminated by orangish street lights. She wished she could see places in the daylight, everywhere looked just about the same at night. It also didn’t help that Elora only ever got to see the inside of bars and old, abandoned warehouses. But, that wasn’t to say she hated the vampire life. She loved her friends she had made in the nest, loved traveling, and enjoyed drinking. If anything, she was just content—not super happy, but not miserable either.
Eventually, they pulled up to a late night Mexican restaurant. Elora climbed out of the car and walked towards the restaurant with him. Thomas opened the door to the restaurant, Mariachi music playing loudly from within the restaurant. So much for peace and quiet. They were quickly shown to a booth near the bar. Elora slid into his side of the booth, making him raise a brow at her a chuckle.
“You’re really cute, you know that?” he asked her.
“I’ve been told a time or two,” she gleamed, resting her head on her hand.
The waitress came over and got their drink orders, Elora ordering a margarita and Thomas ordered a Mexican beer. She then handed them each a menu and Elora let out a sigh. It had been quite a while since she had tried to eat actual food. The last time she tried it, it was just a terrible mush of bland flavor and strange texture.
“Everything okay?” Thomas asked her.
Elora looked up from the pages of the menu to meet his dazzling emerald eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she assured him.
“Not hungry?” he asked, his eyes looking over her yet again.
She hesitated for a moment; she could say she wasn’t hungry and get out of having to eat food, but shouldn’t she have said something earlier when he mentioned getting something to eat? Elora had just been focused on getting alone with him, away from the nest.
She gave a slow smile, “No, I am. Just thinking about what to get.”
The waitress returned with their drinks and then asked for their food orders. Thomas ordered himself a fajita skillet with rice and beans, and then the waitress turned to Elora with a polite smile. She ordered herself a random combination plate, unsure of what would even be remotely bearable.
As soon as the waitress walked away, she quickly turned her attention back to Thomas, “So, I take it you don’t have a girlfriend?”
Thomas took a sip of his beer before putting his arm around the back of the booth, “Nope. And I guess I can say the same about you?” he smirked.
“Perhaps. Or maybe I’m just trying
to make you my mistress,” Elora grinned to him.
He chuckled at her, “Thinking that far ahead, hm?”
Elora gave a modest shrug, “Just thinking about the end of the night,” she fired back boldly.
Thomas nearly choked on his beer at her words, his eyes staring into hers. A faint blush actually came over his cheeks, making her smirk.
That conversation was followed by several margaritas, beers, shots of tequila, and two large, sizzling plates of Mexican cuisine. While the food had been horrendous, Thomas’s company hadn’t been. They flirted rather heavily as they ate, his hand even drifting down to her hip while hers rested on his knee. But he was only so brave after his eyes were glossy from the alcohol. By the time their food was mostly gone, they were kissing passionately. Thomas’s hand had slipped into the waistband of her shorts, while the other held the side of her head. Elora was surprisingly into it. Typically, she didn’t mind kissing the people she hunted—but she never actually enjoyed it. But there was something between them, as cliché as it seemed. They just seemed to click.
“Excuse me...,” a voice called from beside them.
They still kissed, completely ignoring the woman next to them.
“Excuse me!” the voice called again. Thomas finally pulled away from Elora, her arms going around his neck and keeping close to him.
“We’re going to have to ask you to leave,” the woman told them, her name tag indicating she was the manager.
Thomas looked down to Elora and smirking before looking back to the woman under his arm.
“Yeah, alright.”
He leaned in and gave Elora another kiss before pulling out his wallet and putting enough cash on the table to cover their bill. Elora then slid out of the seat, letting Thomas up as well. As soon as he stood from the both, he started to stumble. Elora caught him with ease, giving a giggle.
“Looks like you may need some help to bed,” Elora teased, commenting on his stupor.
Thomas laughed, his hand drifting to her bottom, “Oh, yeah… I’ll definitely need help.”
The Hunter: A Vampire's Obsession: Book 4 Page 1
