Page 55 of Bloodhunter

“Who’s out there?” the man yelled. “Trevor, that you outthere?”

Shane surprised me by answering the man. “Vampire hunters,”he called. “Go on back inside, sir.”

The man muttered something I didn’t catch and beat a hastyretreat, slamming his door shut against the night and the vampire hunters whowalked it.

“You’d think he’d be more afraid of the vampires than thehunters,” I remarked.

“He’s got protections against the vampires,” Shane answered.“But not so much against the ones who hunt them.”

I didn’t ask him to elaborate, because just then, I lostGray’s scent.

I stopped walking abruptly, and Shane took a couple of stepsbefore he realized I’d halted. “I lost his tracks.” I played my light over thegravel, growing more agitated by the second.

The light cut through dozens of swirling tracks, but none ofthem belonged to Lucy’s killer. I lifted my nose to the sky, but Gray’s scentwas gone. I could neither see nor smell him. “Shit,” I muttered.“Shit.”

“Find him.” Shane swiveled his head as he kept watch. “Andhurry. We can’t stand here all night.”

“I’m not delaying on purpose,” I snapped.

And a little farther down the road, another dog began tobark. I whirled in a circle, splashing the light over the road, the ditches,the woods.

I saw no gray tracks. They’d simply disappeared.

I lifted my nose to the air and drew it in, desperate.

“Nothing,” I whispered. “Where’d he go? How could the scentjust suddenlystop, for God’s sake?”

“Okay,” Shane said. “We need to keep moving until you latchon again. Come on.”

“What’s wrong?” I bent forward slightly as I began a fastwalk beside him. “Did you see something?”

Give me the city anytime. The country was messing with mymind. It was freaking me the hell out, honestly.

“You’re going to need to calm down, Sinclair. What’s wrongwith you?”

“I don’t know. It feels bad out here.”

“Deliverance syndrome,” he said.

I paused my frantic searching to look at him. “That’s athing?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Relax. Breathe.”

I forced myself to take slow, deep breaths and concentratedon getting a whiff of Gray’s scent, when Shane spoke once again and shatteredmy hard won pretense at calmness.

“Someone is watching us.” His voice was so calm andmatter-of-fact that it took a few seconds for his words—and their meaning—to sinkinto my agitated brain.

And when they did, I gave up trying to find Gordon Gray’stracks, dropped the flashlight, and pulled Silverlight from my belt.

Almost before she cleared the sheath she expanded andexploded into silver light almost bright enough to blind me as she lit up theroad, illuminating not just the ground and the tracks and the edge of thewoods, but the dozens of vampires who stood there like silent, eerie sentinels.

Watching us.

Chapter Nineteen

“You ready?” Shane asked.

“I’m ready.” I let Silverlight take a practice swipe throughthe heavy backwoods air. There were vampires to kill, and the excitement ofthat, the joy of that, was way bigger than the fear.