Night Kissed (Chosen Vampire Slayer #1) - Mila Young Page 0,18
it fall angrily down my back.
It was safe to assume that Orion hadn’t been kidding about watching me—if he really was the regional clanmaster, he’d have eyes in a lot of places. And that meant he could pop up wherever he wanted, unannounced. I was determined not to be caught off guard again.
Next time, I vowed, he won’t be so lucky.
Lian and I had mapped out more scenes of as many murders as she had information on, and in the days following my first encounter with Orion, I hit the pavement hard.
Most of the sites we had pinpointed, especially the older warehouses and rundown houses, were long since cleaned up or degraded, but the air still hummed with the residual energy of violence. Sometimes it was difficult to find a quiet moment away from the eyes of the city to commune with the spot, but patience and perseverance proved to be my best friends. I spent the next few days walking around in phantom worlds of blood and death, terror lingering like a memory in the fresh mountain air.
The work was haunting and draining in equal measure, and it left me chased by nightmares filled with creatures whose faces I couldn’t see. But despite my best efforts, the perpetrators’ identities remained unknown to me for days. If I saw any of them, it was only as silhouettes, vanishing like smoke on the wind. The thing that stuck was the power of their energies. Like Orion’s, but not quite the same. His was unlike anything I had seen or felt before.
It made me certain that something bad was going down in Anchorage.
On my way back to the hotel, a shadow caught my attention from between two homes. A small passage, flanked by tall wooden fences.
When a scream tore free that direction, I sprinted toward the sound without hesitation. Fingering the stake on my belt, I retrieved it, and followed the curve of the passage. A thin layer of snow crunched under my quick steps when I happened upon two vamps cornering a young boy who hugged his school bag, shaking. Terror flooded his huge eyes when he looked my way with a pleading expression of help.
“For hell’s sake,” I started, lifting my stake, twirling it in my hand. “You bloodsuckers are so predictable.”
The darkhaired one swept his gaze up and down my body, his attention stopping on my stake, then threw his head back with laughter. “Come over here, and I’ll show you what a real weapon looks like.”
I rolled my eyes at his cliché line. The second vamp sneered in my direction, nostrils flaring.
Just then the young boy slipped free and darted out of their grasp.
The fiends twisted in his direction, but I called out, “I bet you two can’t take me on.”
Vampires had egos to match their bloodlust, and as predicted, they both turned in my direction, leaving the boy alone.
A deep guttural sound tore from one of their throats, and with the wind growing colder, I didn’t have time to tap dance with these monsters. They came at me.
Inches from their grasp, I threw myself into a low forward roll right between them.
Throwing myself to my feet, I spun around and drove the stake right into one of the fiend’s back, right over the heart. He arched, his knees already buckling as he gurgled his protests.
Except, the second bastard moved faster than I expected. He tackled me and threw us both to the wet, cold ground. Stars danced behind my eyes from the impact, and I struggled to suck in a breath with his weight pressed down on my chest, laying on top of me. We were face to face, and I gagged at his putrid breath.
I shuddered as I stared into his dark eyes where only my death waited.
“Get off me,” I growled, bucking against him, shoving a fist into his chest. I quickly slid my other hand down my side and grabbed my switchblade on the ring from my pocket.
“You chased away my meal,” he snarled.
While I clawed at his face. His hands snatched my wrist, distracted enough as I rapidly slashed my weapon at his head.
He turned his attention to the attack, reacting a split second too slow. My blade jammed right into his eye. He flinched backward and there was a scuffle as I shoved him off me and I rolled to my feet. My heart thundered in my chest because I didn’t have much time. My attack was a distraction, nothing else.