Page 42 of Bloodhunter

I automatically shoved her back into the sheath, andbreathing 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 blockaway. Cops took shelter behind their open doors, guns drawn and trained on thebattle scene. On us.

I shook my head to clear it, then reached up with my righthand to clear blood from my eyes. Still breathing a little too hard, I flung theblood away to land upon the pavement.

My shivering intensified as I watched the police. They’dbegun to creep toward us, slowly, guns still drawn, silver crosses gleamingfrom around their necks. I felt for my own cross, but it was gone. The chainmust’ve broken. Most likely the vampire had broken it when he’d bitten the backof my neck.

At the thought, the injury from that bite began clamoringfor attention. My left arm hung like dead weight, and I realized there wasn’tan inch of my body that didn’t throb with pain.

I groaned. “Dear lord,” I murmured. “I hurt.”

Shane didn’t even look at me. “You caused this, baby hunter.You killed the humans and you brought the cops. You deal with it.” And then heturned on his heel and trotted away, fading into the darkness even as thepolice shouted at him not to move.

It dawned on me that the police weren’t exactly pleased withme only when they began screaming at me to get on the ground.

“What?” I asked, slightly dazed, very tired, and tempted todo as Shane had done and run away. But with my luck, the cops would have shotme dead.

“I said get down,” a cop screamed. “Get downnow.”

“Asshole,” I muttered, and dropped to my knees.

“Hands on your head,” he screamed.

“I can’t move my arm,” I explained. I lifted my right armand put my hand on my head, but that wasn’t good enough.

“I said get your hands on your head,” he yelled.

“And I said I can’t, you fucking moron!” Fury rushed throughme, and I would have liked nothing more than to leap at him and beat him to abloody pulp.

Fortunately for me, I got a handle on the anger.

“Getdown!”

I fell to my stomach and put my right hand behind my back,and then they were upon me. I was pretty sure more pain was coming from theunimpressed cops.

I was right.

By the time they slung me handcuffed and controlled into thesmelly backseat of a cruiser, I was blubbering like a baby.

And they’d taken Silverlight. They’d taken my stakes, too,but those didn’t concern me. One night as a hunter and I found myself introuble and missing my sword. It wasn’t my proudest moment.

Policemen walked around the area as I watched from the car,talking and pointing and speaking into mics on their shoulders, and still morecars arrived. The area was taped off, investigators bent over the dead humansand what remained of the shrunken vampires, and still no one drove me away.

No one asked if I needed medical care, or came to talk to meabout the fight.

The life of a beginner hunter was obviously not a veryglamorous one. It was filled with pain and sorrow and so very many mistakes.Rookie mistakes.

Shane was gone, the street was littered with dead vampiresand dead humans, and I was the only one left for the police to concentrate on.

Then someone began screaming, crying, and yelling for God,and I saw the cops holding back a woman who’d burst through the rapidly growingcrowd. “That’s myboy,”she screamed. “That’s my boy.”

“No,” I whispered. “Oh, no.”

I’d messed up. I’d messed up badly.

But then I saw something that made me feel a little lessalone.