My mom lay between the coffee table and the settee, her still body making fear rise in my throat until I caught the steady beat of her heart.
She was still alive.
The hunter stood behind Jenna, his gun pointed at her head. The tape muffled her voice as she screamed at me.
“It’s going to be okay, Jenna. I promise.”
“You shouldn’t lie to your sister,” the hunter drawled, his eyes moving over my shoulder.
I had only enough time to think this was going to hurt before a heavy blow on the back of my head knocked me out.
Everything north of my shoulders throbbed in time with my pulse when I finally came to. The rest of my body wasn’t feeling so great either. From the pain radiating from my ribs, I was guessing whoever had rendered me unconscious had also taken the time to send a couple kicks there. My skin prickled from being in close contact with silver, leaving me weak and unable to heal from my injuries.
A foot nudged me in the ribs, sending a fresh jolt of pain throughout. “We know you’re awake, vampire. Stop pretending.”
The sound of quiet sobs brought me the rest of the way to awareness, reminding me of the situation.
I looked up at my captors, unsurprised to find a pair of hunters standing over me. My eyes lingered on the amulet of the hunter who’d attacked me from behind.
He lifted it for me to see better. “Like it? The witch who made it promised it would work on your kind.”
“Looks like she was right,” I said as Mom opened her eyes and glanced at me with an alertness that made me think she’d been awake for a while and was just biding her time.
I forced myself to sit up, moving gingerly against the pain in my ribs and the restriction of the chains.
The hunter dropped the amulet against his chest. “It’s a pity I killed her. I should have had her make me a hundred more beforehand.”
A rusty laugh escaped me as I leaned against mom’s antique sideboard. “I’d say I’m surprised at how stupid and short sided you are, but I’m really not.”
Mom shot me a warning look to stop antagonizing them.
Sorry, Mom. No can do,I told her silently. I needed their attention on me as much as possible. Otherwise, they might realize hurting her or Jenna would be far more torturous than any harm done to me.
“Remember our mission, Kurt,” the first hunter said, catching the other’s arm when he would have taken his anger out on me.
The second hunter threw off the first’s hand. “Fuck our mission, Miles. Everyone else is dead.”
Mom moved again, reaching for the serving tray that must have fallen on the ground when she was attacked. Miles looked her way at the same time Jenna made a high-pitched squeal, almost hyperventilating as she blubbered. Miles sent Jenna a disgusted look that only made her cry harder.
It wasn’t until he looked away again that Jenna’s hysteria faded and she nodded at Mom, signaling the coast was clear.
Holy shit, my family were bad-asses. I hadn’t been giving them near enough credit all these years.
“All the more reason for us to take our time. You heard what the elder said. They’ll feel her pain. This is the only way to make them suffer as much as we have,” Miles pointed out in far too calm a voice. As if he wasn’t discussing my torture and eventual death.
Jenna and my mom’s movements froze. Luckily too, since Miles turned back to them. “How does that sound?”
Jenna shook her head, her wide eyes conveying her horror as he leaned down to her.
“We’re not the monsters,” he told Jenna. “She is.”
Kurt walked over to me, reaching down to haul me to my knees in a movement that made my head swim.
“Look,” Miles instructed.
Kurt cut a finger and waved it in front of my face to force my fangs to drop from their hiding spot in my gums. He grabbed my chin with rough hands, using his sausage fingers to peel back my lips.
He made sure Jenna got a good look at my fangs, before retreating. I hissed and snapped at him.
