But looks are deceiving when it comes to vampires. For all I know, this guy could be a few hundred years old and wicked strong.And what about his gift?
“Speak, vamp!” I demand. “State your business. And know you’re on enemy grounds.”
“Oh, I’m no enemy,” he says in a smooth voice. “Quite the opposite, in fact. I’m here to join your little… party.”
A vampire that wasn’t an enemy? “What’s your name?” I demand.
“Kaine Esterly,” he says, stopping about twenty yards away. “And I must say, I’m a little hurt. Don’t you recognize me?”
The wolves growl and paw at the earth, but I hold my hand up to steady them. My head spins.This man knows me?I study his face, but nothing comes to mind.
“Have we met?”
He gives me a weird half-smile. “Once, but you were a little… preoccupied trying to kill my best friend.”
I stiffen.
“Not that I blame you, of course. You were a newborn vamp and all that. Less than a day old, if I had to guess. I stopped you, of course. Threw you off her, just outside the hospital. You might remember her.” He holds a hand up around shoulder-height. “She’s about this tall with purple hair and gold eyes. Well, her hair is blue now, but you get the idea.”
His description triggers a memory so powerful that I stumble back. He’s describing the third person I drank from after my turning, and the first person I didn’t kill. But only because of him.He’d ripped me off her and thrown me across the damn parking lot with so much force that I’d dented two vehicles and set off one alarm.
I was lucky I got out of there without being seen.
“She lived, by the way,” Kaine says. “In case you care.”
I didn’t know her name. But I never forgot her face. I will never forget any of their faces.
As if sensing it, Evan takes a step closer to me, gun still set on Kaine. “Why are you here?”
Kaine looks right at him, unfazed. “Like I said, to meet my new BFFs.”
Evan cocks his gun. “Tell us the truth, vamp. Why are you here?”
Kaine’s nostrils flare, like he can’t decide if he’s amused or annoyed by the human. After taking a breath, he says, “There were rumors in town that someone killed Alden Durrant, so I had to check it out for myself. It wasn’t hard finding the clearing where it happened. Their stench is like a poison around here.” His attention drifts to me. “But then I recognized another scent and followed it here. Imagine my surprise when I findyou.The vamp who almost killed Willow.”
Willow. A name to put to the purple-haired beauty whose vibrant life I nearly snuffed out.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
He huffs. “Oh, I know. Our kind never means to do anything when we’re turned, do we? And yet… you did. Hurt her, I mean.” He tilts his head. “But now you can pay your penance by helping me.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “What do you mean?”
“Willow got herself stuck with those monsters, and I need help getting her out. I want you to do it.”
“Monsters? Who are you talking about?” Evan asks.
Kaine rolls his eyes. “Who do you think, human? Foxx and his little… cult of psycho vampires.”
I can’t hide my surprise. Kaine knows Foxx?
“What makes you think I can help?”
“I’ve been watching you all day, so I know you’re immune to fire.” Kaine looks around the field. “I must say, though, I’m… unimpressed by what you can do with it. You haven’t learned how to control it yet, have you?”
This guy knows too much.
“What do you know about Foxx?” Evan asks.
