And I’ll bet there were over a dozen scared human feeders in there to prove my point. Women usually, being coerced, paid, or compulsed to give their blood to some old creepy-ass vampire. It was wrong.
“I heard Luka is poised to take over the monarchy,” a female voice trilled, and I froze.
“Well, he’s hiding out pretty good for the month of mourning, that’s for sure,” a male countered.
Luka take over the monarchy? Month of mourning? Only the hunters thought Luka was dead, clearly these people didn’t believe that lie.
“I’m surprised he’s still alive with every royal putting out a hit on his head,” a third voice joined, and my stomach dropped.
Other royals were putting out hits on Luka? Well, I guess that made sense with what the Shadow Bloods said and his own aunt Morgana ordering the hit on him, but … why? Because he was staging a coup? Was Luka Drake trying to become king of Vampire City?
A scream rose up into the night and I knew it was showtime.
“Hunters!” someone yelled, and then the barn doors flew open and the party erupted into complete chaos.
I jumped out from where I had been lurking and raised my katana. The three vampires who’d been talking were halfway across the growing cornfield, but two other figures were running right for me.
Wolves.
Their furry paws pounded the ground as they ran. I could see the terrified look in their eyes. We’d just come in and busted up their party and now they were running for their lives. Werewolves … creatures I knew little about because it wasn’t my job to hunt them. The other hunter factions took care of stray weres, fey, and even trolls. The witches pretty much kept to themselves and they were the hardest to fight because you couldn’t tell a witch from a human unless you caught them doing magic. As I stared at the wolves running at me, teeth bared in fear at my brandished katana, I did a gut check with myself.
Were these two wolves evil? Did they just kill a human? Not that I knew of, so why was I playing God and just expunging them from this earth because they weren’t human?
I lowered my sword and backed off to the left, allowing them to pass.
I thought of Sage and Walsh, the kind wolves who’d driven me six hours in a van to hold up my cover story while I was passed out in the back. What if these wolves were them? It was too dark to tell. I wouldn’t kill needlessly.
As the wolves darted past me, I stared at their retreating forms with shaking hands. What was I doing? What had I become?
I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn’t sense the bloodsucker until it was too late. A male vampire slammed into me, taking me to the ground. I fell backward, hitting the hard-packed dirt as my katana slipped from my hand.
Okay, I wasn’t going to needlessly murder werewolves, but Iwoulddefend myself against an attack. The vampire straddled me and I pretended to go weak, allowing him to reach up and wrap his hand around my throat. Pulling my arms between us, I came up hard with the tip of the stake, stabbing him right up through the chin. He immediately let go of my throat and fell backward, reaching up to claw at the stake imbedded in his face.
I kicked out, shooting up into a fighting stance and leaning over the male, the dark moonlight casting macabre shadows across his face.
Shit.
He was barely a teenager. Maybe fifteen at the most.
He yanked the stake out of his chin as blood spurted from the wound and I stumbled backward in shock.
What was happening to me?
I … I couldn’t kill him. He was a kid.
We were all human once. Some of us didn’t ask to be changed.
Luka’s voice echoed in my head.
No.
I couldn’t do this, not right now. Mental breakdowns were for nights alone in the bathtub, not in the middle of a raid.
The kid stood and came at me, a menacing look on his face as he brandished the stake, swinging at me violently. I dodged to the left, then the right.
“Stop!” I shouted.
Pulling my other stake out, I held it before me so that we were in a dance. Each of us trying to stab the other in the chest like some vampire video game.
