Page 28 of Peacemaker

The two aides glanced up at us. “Time to die,” the man said, jolly. He turned his phone on us. “The vampire hunters have arrived. Now we’ll watch as they work their magic and make the dead stay dead.”

Clayton walked toward him, and the man grinned as he continued filming. “The male hunter wants the female vamp. Can’t blame you, partner. I had a little—”

Clayton punched him. Not as hard as he could have, but the phone flew from the man’s grip as he slammed into the wall. The shocked expression on his face was probably larger than the pain of his broken nose.

The woman held up her hands and backed away, her eyes wide. She dropped the object she’d been using to torture her vampire. An ink pen.

I needed an outlet for my rage, but when I strode toward her she screamed and ran. I let her go. I controlled my anger and let her go.

If I’d set Silverlight free, as I’d wanted to do, I’d have sliced the woman to ribbons before I stopped. I knew it. I felt it. I wanted to kill her. I thought I wanted to kill her. Really, I just wanted to kill the pain.

Even after the humans cleared the room I couldn’t free my sword, because the families needed the corpses of their loved ones. Silverlight would have left nothing but ash.

I yanked a stake from my belt and gave the crying, almost mindless vampires a quick, clean, true and traditional death.

I didn’t know if I did the right thing.

There was a big difference between fighting aggressive vampires and sending freshly turned…innocents to their awful afterlife.

I wanted to kill vampires.

I didn’t want to kill vampires.

All I really wanted to do was stop the suffering of the beings who lay crying in their painful beds.

Clayton stood against the wall and let me have all three of them. He must have thought it would help me feel better.

“People suck,” I whispered, afterward.

And then we walked away, leaving the dead to the humans.