The best thing I could do now would be to forget the whole thing happened and go on with my life.
“You need to keep your neck covered until that crap heals. Maz would lose her mind.” Liv eyed the angry puncture marks on my neck that I stroked with my fingers. One of the DNA modifications I’d underwent did speed up healing, but nothing vampire level. It would still take a day or two for this to disappear completely.
I nodded. “So you don’t think I need to go on the run and leave the society?” I clutched my bug-out bag, thinking of the exit plan that Liv and I put in place in case things ever went sideways.
Liv barked out in laughter. “Wouldn’t be the first time a hunter has willingly let a vampire feed from them, won’t be the last. Come on, let’s go home.”
Liv and I grew up in the society. We were raised by hunters and Maz, who told us some pretty crazy vampire hunting stories. Liv was right, this wasn’t the first time, and her nonchalance was making me feel tons better.
“Yeah, no biggie,” I said, but the knot in my stomach told me it was a very big thing indeed.
* * *
Once we got backto the society, I covered my neck with a scarf and gave Maz a modified rundown of everything that had happened.
“Cursed Shadow Bloods!” she rasped as she took a dried blood sample from my shirt to identify Luka Drake’s DNA. In place of a head, this was the next best thing. Why was I lying and saying he was killed? Why didn’t I just say he got away?
Partly because I’d never not taken a mark—and because then she’d send a bigger team after him and he’d die. He saved my life … twice. I just wasn’t ready to kill him yet.
The machine that she’d put the blood sample into beeped.
“Luka Drake. Well done,” she said, and my phone buzzed. She’d paid me the twenty-five grand. I almost sagged in relief.
“I have something else I want to speak with you about,” she said, and panic flared inside me.
She knew.
Oh frick, she knows.
I kept my face calm. “What’s up?”
She beamed at me, grinning so big that her hair covering pressed into her cheeks. “The annual Hunter Society Gala is coming up.”
I nodded, feeling relieved she hadn’t started withDid you allow Prince Luka to feed from you and are you now imprinted like werewolves?
“I always take a senior hunter with me to represent the Spokane branch. I’d like to bring you.”
Holy bloodsucker.
My mouth opened and closed like a fish as pride and shock ripped through me. Did this mean … I was a senior hunter? “Thank you, Maz … I’d be honored.”
Every branch of the society all across the world sent a lead member like Maz and one senior hunter to the gala. It was a huge freaking honor to rub shoulders with the society’s elite.
She nodded, smiling. “We leave Friday. Pack an evening gown. If you don’t have one, buy one. You could meet your future husband at this thing.” She winked.
Maz was badass, and in some ways forward thinking, I mean she was one of the founding members of the society, but in every other aspect she was old school. I was nineteen! Marriage was so far off my radar it wasn’t even funny.
“I’ll get a dress. Thanks.” Friday was three days away.
“Hey, Maz … does this mean I’m a senior hunter?” I was still in shock by her invite to the gala.
Maz walked over to her desk, using her key to unlock the top drawer. My breath hitched in my throat as she pulled out the twenty-four-carat golden stake pin and handed it to me. “Wear it with pride, dear. You deserve it.”
As I reached for the pin, a small pang of guilt washed over me. I technically hadn’t killed Luka Drake … but I could have, and I watched Thorin die, so there was one less Drake in the world.
Yeah, I did deserve this.
I ducked out of the office with a smile on my face.
