Page 41 of Bloodhunter

Chapter Fourteen

I didn’t have to hunt vampires.

They were hunting me, just as Clayton had predicted. Theywere coming for me.

I was ready.

Sort of.

I shrieked and whipped Silverlight through the air, and ittook me all of five seconds to realize that I needed to stop fighting the swordfor control. She knew what to do, much better than I did. So I gave her myright arm.

The vampires surrounded me, darting away, screaming asSilverlight caught one in the throat and sent him reeling—but another took hisplace immediately. There were at least a dozen vampires, or so it appeared tomy 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 didnot 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 couldtake me out. One inexperienced hunter against a dozen vampires? No hunter wouldsurvive that.

But they hadn’t counted on Silverlight.

I heard distant sirens screaming toward us, but I heard themthrough a filter, and somehow, they weren’t even real. The only things realwere the vampires, the sword, and the fight.

I drove Silverlight through a female vampire’s heart, andturned to get the one on my left as she fell. At that instant, one of themrammed me from behind. He sank his fangs into the back of my neck, and I feltthe pain all the way to the bone.

The success of his attack seemed to give the remaining onescourage, and they all converged upon me at once. Still, I gave Silverlight herhead, and together, we fought on.

The vampire biting me snaked his arms around my waist andjerked 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 withhis teeth.

It was agonizing.

Another vampire sank fangs into my left forearm, and I couldalmost hear the bone being scraped. My entire body began to shiver with thepain of it.

I plunged the sword into that one’s head. As he fell to theground, Silverlight followed him down to enter his heart. Not because he’d comeback from the injury to his brain—she was Silverlight, and he wasn’t comingback—but because his heart tasted like a little slice of heaven.

There were stakes in my belt and I yanked one out, grindingmy 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 thestake as the pain shot from my shoulder to my fingertips and even afterSilverlight took his head, the arm still hung useless and unmoving.

The vampire who’d bitten my neck was gone, just abruptlygone,and I had no idea what had happened to him until I glimpsed a very welcomesight.

The new guy, Shane Copas, was fighting with me. He foughtlike a fierce shadow, fast, strong, and mean, and I could barely take my eyesoff him.

And watching him almost got me killed.

A vampire leapt and grabbed me around the waist, trying tobring me to the ground where I’d be less of a threat. Silverlight was ready forhim, even if I was not, and a second later, his head was rolling across thepavement.

There were others, but I was not alone, and my reluctantpartner fought with experience and speed. He held a long blade in one hand anda stake in the other, and used them like magic wands, dropping every vampire hetouched.

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 ofit—a lot of it—was mine.

Some of it belonged to the young men who’d followed me. Thehumans. Their deaths would haunt me, I had no doubt. I hadn’t saved them. Ihadn’t even attempted to save them, really. The supernats were right. I wasn’tready. Lesson learned, though it was a lesson that’d come too late.

But I was alive.

Silverlight gave me back my arm.