my shoulder and jerked my head to the side as his fangs came down on me.
A rush of fear of another bite, of becoming a Vampire myself, sent strength I didn’t know I had soaring through me.
I twisted and grabbed the Vampire’s head and brought it down as I rammed my knee into his face. At the same time I dropped my dagger and grabbed a wooden stake from my weapons belt.
With all my strength I jerked his head back by his hair, hard enough to expose his chest to me. Then I rammed the stake up and into his heart.
The Vampire crumpled. I let him drop.
I felt a presence behind me and whirled to face the next attack.
Instead I saw Armand casually leaning up against a tree, watching me. I was breathing hard, my heart pounding like crazy, and he could’ve been a patron watching a Broadway show.
I kicked the Vampire out of my way. I needed something to kick given the amused smile on Armand’s face.
“Very impressive,” he said.
I pushed my hair out of my face. “Just another day at the office. Now that you’re so well rested, we have more tracking to do.”
TWENTY-ONE
Lack of sleep was eventually going to get to me.
I rested my forehead in my hands, the desktop hard beneath my elbows, and sighed.
Fae bells jangled at the front door and I sensed Olivia walking in. I raised my head and met her gaze.
“You look like crap.” Olivia pulled off her Mets jacket and tossed it on her desktop, right in the middle of the neon orange and green sticky notes.
“I bet Scott would like to see you try,” I said as I looked at her T-shirt.
SOME DAYS IT’S NOT EVEN WORTH
CHEWING THROUGH THE RESTRAINTS
A sly grin crept over Olivia’s face. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
I leaned back in the chair. “Too much information.”
“Well, we both enjoy the struggle but you don’t want to hear about that.” She paused as if considering. “Or do you?”
I rolled my eyes.
“You need to get some rest, Nyx.” She walked around her desk and plopped into her own chair. “You’ve been putting in time all night and most of the days, too, ever since Rodán was turned.”
“Five days.” I let out a harsh breath. “And bad news in the city is getting worse by the hour.”
Olivia faced her monitor and started typing on the keypad. “What happened last night?”
“More of the same.” All of the blood and death was getting to me, too. “The Vampires in this city are getting out of control. They know our attention is divided and we can’t focus all our efforts on taking them down. It seems to get worse every day.”
She looked thoughtful. “What about Proctor whatshisname and that bunch he brought along?”
“Armand Despre probably thought he’d be able to take them all down on his own.” I rubbed my eyes again. “And the Vampires are proving him wrong.”
“You two make a hell of a team.” Olivia stared at her monitor and moved her hands over the keyboard as she spoke. “Ever since you wiped out that bunch at the church in New Jersey, you’ve taken down more Vampires than the rest of the Trackers put together.”
“I almost hate to admit it,” I said. “But he’s good, really good.”
Olivia looked at me and smirked. “I have a hard time believing you aren’t pulling your weight every night.”
I shrugged. Armand made sure I got my share of the “fun.” It irked me that he just watched while I cleaned up the last of whatever mess I was dealing with. At least he didn’t try to take over everything just to show how good he was.
And I had to admit, he was probably the best Tracker I’d ever seen—and a Proctor on top of it. Talk about hands-on management.
Olivia pulled up an online newspaper’s headlines. “This is sick,” she said.
I nodded. I didn’t want to believe what was happening. The city was in the grips of a panic with bodies turning up every day.
“Just like last fall.” Olivia scrolled through other newspapers as I looked at the monitors. “Wannabe Vamps are being blamed.” She glanced at me. “No one wants to hear the truth.”
I turned away from the headlines. “Would you believe it if you weren’t involved in the paranorm world?”
“Not a chance.” Olivia shook her head. “Speaking of unbelievers, I talked with Wysocki last night.”
I frowned. “She doesn’t get it? After the last time we dealt with Volod, you’d think a New York police