The vamp had a good three inches and fiftypounds on him, but that meant nothing to him. Julian was fast, andhe could fight. No one survived growing up with his siblingswithout knowing how to maim someone.
When the vamp lunged at him, Julian darted tothe side and spun before his shoulder crashed into the brick wall.He drove his fist into the vamp’s temple and knocked its head tothe side. The vamp almost went down, but it managed to keep itsfooting as its fingers clawed at Julian’s leather jacket.
When its hand caught in one of his pockets,the vamp jerked him to the side. The uppercut Julian threw snappedthe vamp’s head back. Blood burst from its mouth as its fangssliced its bottom lip.
Julian’s eyes pinpointed on that blood as hiskiller instincts raced to the forefront.Kill, destroy. Kill,kill, kill.
He couldn’t think beyond seeing this thingdead. Before the vamp could recover, Julian punched it again as thepart of him that he kept restrained burst free, and he allowed itto have the freedom it had sought for years.
He’d only let himself go like this oncebefore, in Greece, and he loved every second of it. Like then, thiswas one of the only times he felt alive since he walked away fromAida. He should end it and kill this thing, but he punched the vampagain and again while he reveled in the freedom of letting himselfgo.
The vamp threw its hands up to protect itshead, but Julian’s next two punches shattered its hands and madethem useless. When it first came at him, the vamp was sure itssize, weight, and brutality would win this battle, but now itrealized it had made a deadly mistake.
Julian grasped the bloody and graspingcreature by its neck and yanked it away from him. “You made a bigfucking mistake,” he hissed in its ear before smashing its faceagainst the brick wall.
When the creature started to howl, Julianbattered its face off the wall again. It went silent as the secondblow left it dazed, and its head lulled on its shoulders. Julian’spulse thundered through him as excitement filled his veins.Thisis why he was born.Thiswas what was missing inhis life, and he wanted to experience it over and over again.
Saliva dripped from his fangs; he almost usedthem to tear the creature’s throat out, but he couldn’t stand theidea of its putrid blood in his mouth. The vamp’s head fell forwardbefore jerking back to reveal its bloody, demolished face. Comingback to its senses, its feet scrabbled for purchase on the wetasphalt.
A shout at the end of the alley drew Julian’sattention. A couple of girls laughed as they danced past the alley.They were completely oblivious to the monsters only one hundredfeet away from them.
Once he finished with this thing, Juliancould follow them and take them down before they realized he wasthere. He couldn’t drink this thing’s blood, but he could feast ontheirs.
Julian shook the impulse away as revulsionrose to replace his bloodlust. What was he thinking? Killingvampires was one thing, but killing humans was something elsecompletely, and if he didn’t get control of himself, he would be nobetter than this thing.
Just as the vamp regained its footing, Julianhammered its chest, knocking the breath out of it and causing itslegs to give out. It hung limply in his grasp as air rattled pasthis lips. Julian had broken its ribs and collapsed at least one, ifnot both, of its lungs with his last blow.
Though he could have kept this up for hours,it had to end before someone saw them. Reaching into the innerpocket of his jacket, he pulled out a stake and sank it into thebastard’s heart.
He tore the stake free and shoved the vampaway from him. It hit the ground with a thump that, instead ofdisgusting him as it should, only made his fangs throb more as heresisted the continuation of his killing spree.
He had to find somewhere to stash the bodyuntil the sun came up and took care of the remains. Though peopleand cars continued to go by both ends of the alley, they remainedalone. He couldn’t carry this thing out of here, which meant he wasstuck with it until morning.
Bending, Julian slid his arms beneath thething’s armpits and dragged it against the brick wall. He retrievedhis backpack and placed it on the ground. Perching on top of it, hestudied the blood staining his hands as he tried to figure out ifhe was a man or a monster.
CHAPTER 2
Cassidy set her brush down before leaning closer tothe mirror across from her. In the glass, her deep blue eyes metJulian’s. For a second, she simply stared. The last time they spokethrough video was a year ago, and he hadn’t had a beard. Then, herbeautiful face lit with a smile, and she leapt from her chair.
He’d planned to surprise her, and hesucceeded. The waitress who’d directed him back here hadn’t wantedto tell him where his sister was, but once he smiled at her andexplained his surprise, she directed him to the employee room.
“Julian!” Cassidy cried as she rushed acrossthe room and threw herself into his arms. “Whatare youdoing here? No, I don’t care. You’re here!”
Guilt tugged at Julian’s heart while hehugged her back. At one time, he was incredibly close to the twins.He’d been close with his whole family, but as the years slipped by,the distance between them grew.
These last six months were the worst. Once hehit maturity and his killer instinct kicked into hyperdrive, hehadn’t felt as capable of hiding what he was becoming from hisfamily, so he avoided talking with them.
“Where have you been?” Cassidy asked as sheleaned away from him. She tugged at his beard. “And what’s withthis?”
He rubbed his beard as he replied. “Somethingto keep me warmer on chilly nights.”
“So, it was cold where you were?”
He released her and stepped back to shove hishands in his pockets as he leaned against the doorway of thecramped back room. Lockers for the employees took up most of theleft-hand wall. On the right wall was the small table with a mirrorCassidy had vacated. A couple of hairbrushes, some deodorant, and acouple of hairbands were on the table, and he suspected it waswhere the employees came to fix themselves during their shiftinstead of using the bathroom.
Towels hung from a couple of hooks in thewall over the table, along with some aprons and one coat fromsomeone who hadn’t bothered with their locker. In the corner nearthe back metal door was a stack of empty beer cases. The singlebulb hanging in the center of the room didn’t do much to illuminateit.
“It was cold. It was warm. It was sunny andcloudy. It was everything it could be as I went almost everywhere,”Julian told her.
