Page 3 of Bloodhunter

He opened his mouth, deliberately showing them his fangs,which were once again elongating and then retracting, over and over, with asmall clicking sound like they were popping through thick plastic.

“Trinity,” Linda yelled, “Get in the house. Get in thehouse!”

Derek grabbed Linda’s arm and stepped back. “I’m calling thefucking cops.” And once more, he lifted his phone.

“Wait,” Trinity begged, as it all began to spin out ofcontrol. “Just wait.”

But fear spread through them like a fire that had caught thecurtains. Panic followed. The littler kids began to cry and their motherssnatched them up and backed away, some turning to run for the house.

Trinity put her cold hands to her hot cheeks, then turned tothe vampire she’d tried to save. “We should go. I’ll drive you somewhere safe.”She put her hand on his arm. “Please. Come with me.”

He turned his head slowly to look at her, silent.

Chad returned with the gun, and when he hesitated, Derekyanked the weapon from his grip and turned it on the vampire. “In the house,”he told his family. “Get in the house. Now.”

The vampire smiled, and that smile shocked Trinity to hertoes. It wasn’t the smile of an injured man needing sanctuary. It was the smileof madness. It was the smile of hunger.

Derek pulled the trigger and the bullet ripped through thevampire’s head. He didn’t appear to notice as half his face was blown off.

“I made a mistake,” she realized.

“I’m afraid so,” the vampire said gently, and suddenly hewasn’t the only vampire there.

As though he’d silently beckoned them, dozens of vampires,reeking of death and disease, raced from the shadows. And they went after herfamily.

“Hungry,” one of them screamed. “So hungry!”

Her family shrieked and scattered, but it was too late.

He and his vampires killed them. Killed them all.

Except for her.

She lay seizing on the street, blood spilling from dozens ofbites, and as police sirens screamed through the night, he slipped away,leaving her alive.

And that washismistake.

Part One

Chapter One

Amias Sato landed on the hood of my car with a violent unexpectednessthat jerked a startled scream from me two seconds before I leapt from the carand went after him.

Despite the pain the attempt would cause me, I went afterhim.

I held a stake in either hand, barely aware I’d pulled themfrom my belt. Amias slipped away, so fast, like dark water sliding through mydesperate grip.

I caught a glimpse of his eyes before he disappeared intothe night. Eyes as familiar to me as my own. I saw them every night in mydreams.

My nightmares.

The hatred and the desire to kill him twisted with physicalpain and became almost too much for me. I pushed the stakes against my stomach,moaning. One of these nights, those overwhelming emotions would split me wideopen. I could feel it.

“Trinity.”I felt the breath from his whisper on mynaked neck and I whirled, striking with the sharp pieces of wood. I moved fast,but not faster than the vampire who tormented me.

Amias was a master, and he wasfast.

That didn’t stop me from trying to kill him. It never would.I’d stop trying when I was handed my death—which, judging by the pain thatripped through my body when I tried to hurt him, wouldn’t be too long in coming.