To Kill a Vampire - A.K. Koonce Page 0,19

my shirt. Her breath falters as I kiss up her jawline, her body molding against mine. I feel the change before the switch ever flips. She inhales long and deep, a mixture of control and need in her unsteady breath. A sound I’ve heard hungry animals make just before death strikes.

I push back from her, holding her as far away as my emotions will allow me. Less than a foot of space separates us as I stare up into her blazing eyes, our hands still clinging to each other.

She swallows slowly, her eyes closing as sadness flashes across her beautiful face.

“I’m sorry,” I tell her. My heart crashes, free falling through my chest.

With the turn of the wind, she’s gone. I’m left sitting alone just as I was before. As if she was never even there.

Ten

Pleading Mercy

Fallon

Tension follows us on our journey. Everyone seems to be glaring at one another. The strangling need to wash away the thoughts of bloodlust bite through my mind with every passing hour.

I settle into a shallow cave just before the sun rises. I press my back against the cool wall as I lie on my side, waiting to see the warming light I’ve come to miss so much.

A diluted hue of the rising sun sneaks into my safe haven, lining the leafy floor with a beautiful golden cast of light. My fingers press against the dirt and smooth over the ground, my nails toying with the ray of sunlight.

Asher walks toward me, pausing just outside the cave before lowering himself to the ground to lean against the cliff wall. Twenty feet separate me from him, but endless emotions cloud the space between us. The sunlight casts him in a warm glow that only heightens his good looks. He throws his arms across his knees, his shoulders falling with an unseen weight.

I pull my hand back to the safety of my chest. My eyes begin to flutter closed, willing my mind to push away everything in my life for just a few hours. The snapping sound of twigs breaking brings my attention to the outside world once more. Declan stands at the opposite side of the cave entrance. The two hybrids briefly acknowledge one another without speaking before Declan joins Asher, sitting opposite of him and crossing his legs as he tips his blonde head up to the morning sun. Asher’s narrowed gaze remains on the hybrid for several long seconds.

One of them is going to hurt the other. Maybe that’s their intention. Maybe they need to hurt one another to feel … balanced. The world is a teetering mess of politics, and yet the two mystics most alike in this world can’t find amity with one another.

I roll my eyes before allowing sleep to pull me away from their unreasonable behavior. The nothingness is a solitude I seek out too often now.

For once in my exhausting life, I dream of absolutely nothing. Peace is all that comes.

When I wake that is not the case. A splintering sound fills the air as my eyes fling open just in time to see a tree hurtling to the earth, crashing against the cave that shelters me. Its branches scrape down the rocky cliff until it settles with a booming thud in the dirt. Tangled branches nearly seal me within the cave, but my fingers break the strong limbs as if they’re nothing, pushing the large oak tree from my path as I make my way outside.

Asher holds Declan by his jaw as he pummels his fist into his face. A slick fleshy sound fills the air after every assault, but he continues with no restraint as he hits Declan again and again at the base of the now broken tree trunk.

My eyes shift quickly over the others. Kaino, Luca, and Gabriel wait with almost impatience for the quarrel to conclude. Shane actually has his hands in his pockets as he speaks casually to Kaino. Only Ayden seems alarmed by the outburst. The mortal runs his hand down his face as he shifts from one foot to the other, his wide eyes taking in every quick and violent movement the hybrids make.

Declan finally gets ahold of Asher’s shoulders, pushing him hard until the hybrid stumbles off him. A heap of dust billows around Asher as he staggers across the dirt. With deadly glares they stare at one another, each daring the other to finish what they started.

“You can’t even say it. Tell me you haven’t spoken to them