Page 78 of Bloodhunter

Shane’s kills hadn’t disappeared—they just dried up intosomething resembling earthworm casings like the vampire I’d killed behind thebar.

The vampires I’d killed using Silverlight, though, they weregone.

When Shane had silently handed me his coat, I’d taken itgratefully. Then I’d scrambled around on the ground, searching for mybelongings. Phone, knife, car keys, flashlights, Silverlight.

It was a pitiful shame, the way I was so careless with her.

I’d found one of my stakes, but the others were long gone.No biggie. I could always get more stakes.

When I arrived at Angus’s house, I sat in the car for a goodfive minutes, watching the house. The absolute last thing I wanted was to runinto Angus in the state I was in. He’d smell the sex. I would never, ever livethat down.

I crept up the back stairs to my room, realizing that livingwith Angus and his brood was no better for me than living in the city. I wouldstart looking for a place of my own tomorrow.

Today.

I didn’t see Angus—he was probably still at the store, doingpaperwork. He didn’t need the restaurant, but he’d said it made him legitimateto the humans. They liked a supernatural to have a little something—not toomuch of something, of course, but a little something. So he’d opened the storein the Bay Town Business Park, and used it to be something closer to what madehim and his family a little more acceptable to the humans of Red Valley.

Angus wasn’t immortal, but without being outright killed, hewould live a few hundred years. Nearly all the supernaturals lived outrageouslylong lives. It wasn’t something to envy, he’d told me once.

With long lives came lots of pain. And lots of wealth. Thesupernaturals had been amassing great sums of money for hundreds of years. Itcame in handy when they had to pay off the authorities, make people happy, andexist in a world in which they were unable to work side by side with the humans.

And in Angus’s case, it also came in handy when there weredozens of exes and offspring to take care of.

So when I crept up to my temporary room, holding my breath, Icounted myself lucky that the only person I saw was Angus’s ten-year-old daughter,a strange little child named Nava.

She glanced at me, then hugged the wall as she hurried by.

I slipped into my room and closed the door. I locked it,then leaned back against it and closed my eyes, sighing.

“Trinity.”

I screamed and shot my eyes open, then gaped. Clayton stoodat my bed with his empty eyes and his blank face, his hands at his side.

“What are youdoing?” I asked. I’d rather have beenseen by Angus than Clayton.

“Miriam sent me with a package.” He gestured at thenightstand. “I put it in the top drawer.”

“Son of a bitch.” I rubbed my temples. Ofcourseshe’d sent Clayton. She wasn’t going to deliver them herself.

“You look…” He shook his head. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. I just need to get cleaned up and eat something.” Isniffed the air. “Do I smell…?”

“I picked up a pizza,” he said. “It’s on the desk.”

“Thanks,” I murmured. “That was really very nice of you.”

“I had to leave,” he said.

“I know.”

“I didn’t like leaving you there. Not with…”

I squinted, then drifted toward the bathroom. I reallydidn’t want to get too close to him. Not smelling the way I did. “Not withwhat?”

“Copas,” he replied. “Not with Copas.”

I wet my lips, my gaze sliding away from his. “It was fine.There were so many vampires. We killed them all.” I stared at the floor.