I stumbled backward, confronted by all of these questions. A dark pit opened inside of me and I feared I would fall in and never make it out.
What was he saying? He never hurt a girl? The story was made up?
Luka shook his head, face softening. “You better go.”
I nodded, turning around and headed for the door. When I put my hand on the knob, something came back to me. A memory.
“Luka, why did the Shadow Bloods want you?”
The Shadow Bloods were sent to kill Luka the same night I was. Coincidence?
“I’m not sure you’re ready for that answer, Aspen.” His voice came from directly behind me and it sent chills up my spine.
I think he was right. I think he could feel the walls I’d built around myself slowly crumbling and he didn’t want to shatter them. With a nod, I opened the door and left. Dreading having to come back tomorrow. Dreading facing a truth I suspected would ruin everything I’d built my life upon.
Chapter Eleven
Vasquez,Sterling, Liv, and a dozen of our best hunters all crouched behind the barn, pulling weapons left and right. I had my newly sharpened katana in one hand and a stake in the other. We were all wearing our watches and waiting for the kill order to come in from Maz, who was at society headquarters. Music bled through the thin walls of the barn as the smell of blood filtered through the air.
Feeding party. Vampires’ idea of a kegger. We were in Green Bluffs, a farming town just outside of Spokane, where you could kill someone and no one would hear their screams.
“I love raids,” Julia, a junior hunter with a pretty impressive kill record, whispered as she gripped her stake.
Liv grinned, double fisting her stakes. “I’m feeling quite stabby.”
Something felt wrong about this and I couldn’t put my finger on why. I loved killing vampires, it was literally all I had wanted to do since I was born … but after Luka told me they’d all started out human … now I just felt muddled about it all.
I mean, if I was attacked and turned into a vampire, would I drink blood to survive? Probably, yeah … as long as it didn’t hurt anyone and they were willing. Would that make me a demon? A monster?
Oh, God, help me.I felt sick that I was even questioning my reality like this, everything I thought I knew. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts, when our watches buzzed with a text.
Okay, hunters, you are approved to exterminate all vampires and werewolves present. Happy Hunting - Maz.
I frowned.
Wait, werewolves?
Since when did we hunt werewolves? That wasn’t in the House of Rose’s rulebook. The Thorns, Ashes, and Skulls sure, but we stuck strictly to bloodsucking vampire demons.
“Yeehaw, let’s party,” Vasquez called and stood, running around the side of the building. Sterling and the rest followed, but I hesitated, reaching out to grab Liv’s arm.
“Werewolves?” I whispered.
Liv shrugged. “Must be some baddies here. Come on.”
We’d never been approved to kill the wolves, they weren’t in theHunter Scriptures, and it felt wrong. A dark feeling came over me, one that made me rethink everything.
Liv had already run off to the side of the barn, but I stayed where I was.
If God made you, he made me too.
Luka’s words pinged around my head until a sob formed in my throat.
No. Stop it. I’d seen a bloodsucker drain young women before. I was seventeen and I’d pulled him away right before he’d raped her. Most vampireswerebad.
Focus, Aspen. Trust Maz. Trust the society.
I took off in another direction hoping to catch the ones who ran for the fields. I trusted Maz, I trusted God, this was my purpose, what I was made for.
