Aurora Sky Vampire Hunter - By Nikki Jefford Page 0,42

read two twenty-five.

The roads were deserted. The temperature on a bank display board said negative fifty-three degrees. Seriously, how did anyone other than vampires live here?

"Got to make a quick pit stop to pick up my informant."

"You have your own informant?"

"Not exactly. Melcher prefers we don't meet them at all. He likes informants to report to him and then he passes the intel onto us. But sometimes we work together."

"How do informants get chosen?"

"Like us. They die, the agents and their surgeons step in, but the transfusion doesn't take. The procedure costs a fortune. Might as well make some use out of them."

"So I guess we're lucky."

"Ain't that the truth. Informants have to pose as vampire junkies, getting the juice sucked out of them time and again while we swoop in and save the day. We've got it made, Sky."
Chapter 15 Drink Of Death
Dante turned onto a secluded road leading into dense woods. He followed a set of tire tracks through the snow. They led to a small cabin with smoke drifting from its chimney. The windows were dark.

"Brrr!" I cried when I got out of the Jeep. "If this Ivo doesn't kill me, the cold certainly will."

Dante grinned. "The great thing about Fairbanks is it doesn't matter whether it's twenty below or minus seventy. It all feels the same: damn cold." Dante tapped out a rhythm once he reached the cabin door.

A bolt slid back. A young woman with heavy eyeliner opened the door. She nodded for us to come in. Dante slipped in with Tommy, and I followed close behind. The woman shut the door as soon as I was through.

"Took you long enough," she said. "Hopefully there's still a party to go to."

Dante raised a brow. "It's two thirty - Ivo's just getting started."

"Hi, Tommy." The women's voice softened when she talked to the retriever. She scratched him behind the ears.

"Aurora Sky, meet Janine."

"Latest recruit?" Janine asked Dante.

"Roger that."

"Is this her first time in the field?"

"She'll do great," he said.

Janine walked over to a small square table. Dante tossed a duffel bag on top. As Janine turned up the flame on the gas lamp, shadows stretched and leapt across the sparse room to the wood beams overhead.

I hovered by the doorway a moment before walking over to the wood stove. Tommy followed me and curled into a ball on the ground beside the hearth. The backs of my legs started to prickle as I watched Dante pull knives out of his bag and set them on the tabletop. I turned myself slowly, evenly, like a piece of corn on the cob rotating over the flames.

The cabin was one open room with a small kitchen. There was a twin bed against the wall near the fire covered in a patchwork quilt.

"I thought you were going to wait until Renard was back in town and do one clean sweep," Janine said.

"Nah, we'll catch up to him next time."

"Who's Renard?" I asked.

"A real nasty," Janine said.

"As bad as this Ivo character?"

"Worse."

"Worse than Ivo?" Dante asked in disbelief.

"Even the junkies avoid him."

I was definitely not getting the romanticized version of vampires here. Surely they weren't all rabid nut jobs and psycho killers? The Mouseketeers didn't seem to think so.

"Sky, let's get you a weapon."

"Dagger," Janine suggested.

"Perfect."

"Lift up your pant leg," Janine ordered.

I pulled up the right leg of my jeans. Janine wrapped a leg holster around my calf and stuck a dagger into the sheath. I wrapped my fingers around the hilt and took it back out. My stomach tied into knots when I held it in front of my face.

"You'll be fine," Dante said, slapping me on the back. "Let's go party. Tommy, stay."

I returned the knife back to its holster, covering it with my pant leg.

Janine sat in the front seat of the Jeep and navigated Dante to a house party on the edge of town. The windows on the house were all boarded up. Only four cars lined the curb.

Janine sounded uneasy when she spoke. "I thought there'd be more people here tonight."

"Aurora, what's your cell number?" Dante asked.

I recited my number and Dante dialed it into his own phone. My phone began to ring seconds later.

Dante hung up. "There, now you have mine. Okay. Let's go over this real quick. Janine and I are going to make an appearance, but head out before the rest of Ivo's guests leave. For Janine's safety, we don't want any witnesses placing her as one of the last people at the