A Shade of Vampire 79 A Game of Death - Bella Forrest Page 0,117

not after the battering we gave it. I’ve never encountered a bill as tough as that.”

Vindicated! I felt like saying the word aloud and giving a little fist pump, but the seriousness of our captain’s expression stopped me.

“Do you think it was just a one-off?” I asked, eyeing him. “Some genetic fluke?”

Bryce shrugged. “I sure hope so. Definitely wouldn’t do us any good if they started breeding stronger.”

He glanced around at us darkly, and I knew what he was implying. The Bureau was stretched to the max for personnel as it was.

There’d been an increased number of redbill sightings over the past year, around North America particularly, for reasons that were still unclear to the Bureau. It was as if the birds had spiraled into a breeding frenzy. Recruitment agents, my mom among them, were working overtime to keep up with the demand for new officers, and younger trainees were starting to be allowed into ground missions as a result. Which explained our motley crew.

Some state and city departments simply didn’t have enough people. Our branch here in Chicago, for example, sometimes had to send out squads as far as Oklahoma to help deal with threats. It was lucky that tonight’s sighting had been local… well, not so lucky for the revelers of Navy Pier Park.

A secondary, albeit unrelated, factor didn’t help the Bureau’s staff problems. The demand for soldiers, and law enforcement workers in general, had grown slowly but steadily over the past half-decade or so, thanks to a slight but continuous rise in the regular human crime rate. It meant there was a smaller pool of officers the Bureau could recruit to their specialized force, since more soldiers were out dealing with ordinary human problems.

I just hoped things would smooth out sooner or later, for all of our sakes.

“Anyway,” Bryce said, casting another strong look around the room. “Don’t any of you take this as an excuse to start whining. Even a bird thrice the size of that one is nothing like the bloodsuckers we used to hunt.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Roxy mumbled from behind. Too loud.

Bryce spun on her again. “And what was that, my wee lass? Care to speak a bit louder, so we can all hear your precious thoughts?”

Roxy gave a soft sigh. “I find that hard to believe,” she replied sullenly. “There’s no way vampires were as strong or dangerous as these freaking monsters.”

Bryce’s lips formed a hard line. “Mm-hmm. And what, precisely, makes you say that?”

I turned over my shoulder to glance at Roxy’s half-flustered, half-incredulous expression. She didn’t know how wrong she was.

“I mean, how could they even compare?” she started. “Vampires didn’t fly, for one thing, so it couldn’t have been half as difficult to catch them. They had small fangs, compared to huge, snapping beaks. They kept way more to themselves, too, from what I’ve heard, and weren’t a big threat to public places. Plus—”

“And what about their brains?” Bryce interrupted.

Roxy stuttered. “Their… brains?”

“Their brains,” Bryce repeated, his eyes widening.

Roxy’s brow furrowed. “Well, yeah. Vampires were smarter. But still—”

“Exactly.” Bryce took a step back, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Vampires were cunning devils. They could outsmart a human in almost any situation, and usually the only way to match one was to put many human minds together. Bills are just dumb brutes, and any comparison is frankly offensive.”

He gave an almost wistful sigh and sank back into his chair, facing us. His eyes grew distant.

“Honestly, if vampires hadn’t been such a menace, I would’ve been sad to see them go. Watchin’ them was like… pure poetry in motion… put any martial artist to shame. They could distract you by just the sheer skill and speed of their movement, and the way they used your own strength against you, you’d barely realize you were bleeding until it was too late.”

He tugged at his collar and pulled it down to reveal the beginning of a massive scar on his upper chest.

“Aye.” He grinned, watching our stunned faces. “This was done with my own weapon. But I’m not going to lie. As risky as the job was, it was more of a thrill hunting a vampire. You never knew what could happen. Would they lure you into a trap? Attack the moment they saw you, or wait a while, and lull you into a false sense of security? Or maybe they’d do neither and instead slip away into the night, let you try to trail ‘em some more until you