Date: 2014-04-12 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Young Adult; Vampires; Paranormal; Fantasy; Short Stories; Romance
Description: Society now knows of the vampires that roam the world. The creatures of the night no longer hide from humans. Instead, they are attacking on the streets, in plain view; either killing them or turning them into one of their own. Six months have passed since Chloe and the other Hunters took down the vampire business tower, The Talon Building. Dahlia, a beautiful yet wicked vampire, warned Chloe that by destroying their business she had started the vampire apocalypse, and that each and every vampire turned would be on Chloe’s conscience … and she wasn’t kidding. The vampire apocalypse was upon th

~~~***~~~

The Arcadia Falls Chronicles

Vampire Apocalypse

~~~***~~~

BY

JENNIFER MALONE WRIGHT

Copyright 2014 Jennifer Malone Wright

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Visit the website of Jennifer Malone Wright
www.jenniferwrightauthor.com

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost I thank my husband. Trying to raise five children, even together, isn’t easy, but we manage to do it together and support each other in our work. But, when it comes to writing, he is not only supporting my work, but my dream.

I also want to thank my good friends who take part in the creation of these books. Rose, Tracy and Shawn, Kym, and Willow, thank you for always being there for me to run ideas by or simply to support me.

A huge thank you goes out to my street team, I love you Double Trouble team members, especially our hard working team leader Jeni, without whom I would never know what was going on with the team.

And finally, I would like to thank my cover designer Paragraphic Designs and my editor There for You Editing Services.

CONTENTS

Prologue – Chloe’s Diary

The Arcadia Falls Chronicles book 3: Vampire Apocalypse

Excerpt from the Arcadia Falls Chronicles book 4

Excerpt from Savior (A Higher Collective Novel)

Other books by Jennifer Malone Wright

About the Author

~~~***~~~

The Arcadia Falls Chronicles

Vampire Apocalypse

~~~***~~~

~~~***~~~

Prologue - Chloe’s Diary

~~~***~~~

When I was a little girl, we moved around a lot. Therefore, I never really had many friends. I was always the loner in school, mostly because I knew that eventually we were going to leave again. At the time, I had no idea why my mother moved us so much, but in the long run it made us super close. She was pretty much my only friend … my only anything.

One thing that occurred to me as I made my way through all of the different towns, different schools, and different people was that I didn’t have any inkling of what I wanted to do when I grew up.

Until the day my mother died.

When I lost her and was found by the Hunters, I discovered something my mother probably never really realized that she was depriving me of … my family, my friends, and my destiny.

I’m sure things would have worked out differently if I had grown up on the community. Mom was just trying to keep me safe, and if I had lived there growing up I probably would have never gone to Trevors, which means I never would have met Alice or Oscar.

I know that I shouldn’t dwell on the past, but I can’t help it. I wonder sometimes what would have happened if time had passed differently. If I had grown up in Arcadia Falls, surrounded by Hunters, would I have made such a terrible decision later in life?

It has been six months since the Talon Building fell and the world is now a very different place.

Zander and I still can’t get through the magical shield that Alice put up around Arcadia Falls, which is probably a not such a bad thing at this point. Almost the entire community is ticked off at me for pretty much triggering the vampire apocalypse.

Yeah, that’s right … vampire apocalypse.

Dahlia warned me, and she wasn’t kidding. In the last several months, baby vampires have been popping up all over the world. These young vampires have no control whatsoever and are killing anything that crosses their paths.

So … we train, we fight, and we kill them.

The world is changing. People were all obsessed with that stupid zombie apocalypse, preparing for that when they really should have been worried about what to do if half of the population suddenly turned into vampires.

Six months ago, people were oblivious to vampires, the monsters lurking in the shadows, and now they are fighting them in the streets in an attempt to stay alive.

The community of Arcadia Falls has the right to shun me … I did this. I am supposed to kill these demons to protect the world. Instead, I made a bad decision which is getting people killed. More than just getting people killed, it was a decision that is diminishing our population.

Now that the world is aware of what kind of creatures are out there, the Hunters have also come out into the open. It’s crazy, but it’s a necessity. The Hunters are pretty much the only people equipped to fight the vampires, so the rest of the population just lets them.

Training centers have even opened so that people can learn how to defend themselves. Sort of like a self-defense class, but instead of learning how to stop a purse thief or a sexual assault, people are learning how to off a vampire.

Each day, the television and the papers have more bad news for us. Hunters can’t be called in from anywhere else because they are just as busy as we are. The vampires are turning faster than we can kill them.

We are basically screwed.

The world is going to crap and it’s all my fault.

I am not giving up yet. None of the Hunters are, it’s just not our way. However, we seriously need a better plan because killing them off one by one doesn’t seem to be helping much.

Meanwhile, nothing else matters. Every other problem that I thought I had before is now miniscule and forgotten. I have to make this right. What I don’t know is how I am going to do that. So, until then, I am just going to take them out one at a time.

~~***~~

Rock music blasted through the in-house speakers at a deafening level. The intent was to drown out the pounding of my feet on the treadmill and numb the thoughts roaring through my head.

Sweat ran down into my eyes and my tank top was totally soaked from the ten miles I’d just put behind me.

Zander peeked around the corner. “Are you trying to break that thing?” he hollered over the music.

I shook my head and slowed the speed a couple of notches. “I can’t run outside, so this is my only option.”

“Well, this treadmill isn’t the highest quality in the world. Take it easy, all right?”

“Sure thing, bro.” I nodded and waited till he left the room before I turned the treadmill back up to full speed and sprinted the last mile.

As soon as I was done, I hopped off the treadmill, wiped the sweat from my face with a towel, and did a few stretches before heading over to the weights. Luckily, we had a home gym in this house, so staying in shape was no problem. Zander and I both spent a lot of time in there. He fought me at first, claiming that he didn’t need to work out, but we both knew that was a lie. He may be tough, but I stood firm that staying in shape is one of the most important parts of vampire hunting.

Zander is my half-brother, and we came across each other by pure coincidence. When we found him, he was pulling some vigilante vampire killing stint while looking for Trevor, our father.

The new house was more of a necessity than anything. Once we figured out that I wasn’t going to be able to get back into Arcadia Falls, the community where the vampire hunters live, I ended up having to stay with Zander. His apartment wasn’t big enough for both of us with only the one bedroom. We tried it out for a while—with me sleeping on the couch—but that was awkward … especially when Christina slept over.

The solution was found in Alice, who had been staying with me at my grandfather’s house. Once I was unable to get through the barrier she had put up around the community, she felt strange staying there without me.

So, Alice bought a house with some of the money that Trevor had left her. With new vampires popping up all over the city, we decided that a house in the country was the best bet. It was still not very safe to go outside alone without any weapons, but it was better than being trapped inside some apartment building in the city.

Of course Oscar came to live at the new house, too. That left only Drew and Luke, my grandfather, back at the house in Arcadia Falls. Drew would not leave Luke for anything, even to be near me, and I understood that. Besides, he was here every day anyway.

The new house was a four bedroom, log house in the middle of nowhere. It was really, really big though. We had a gourmet kitchen, which was a selling point for Alice. Go figure, the vampire apocalypse was going on outside and Alice was worried about cooking and baking stuff.

I was impressed with the house; not only was it big, but super homey. The only problem we had was cleaning. Aside from Alice, we were all slobs, and she refused to pick up after us unless the mess happened to be in the kitchen, her work zone.

Outside of the house, we had an expanse of lawn and the other selling point to the place, a wall. There was a fifteen foot stone wall, much like the one that had surrounded Trevor’s mansion. Our wall had old-fashioned iron spikes set on top of the top of the wall. The spikes were decorative—a repetition of a tall spike and then one a bit shorter—and lined the entire wall, lifting its height another couple of feet.

Even better than the wall, we had a security system that consisted of a crap ton of cameras, which covered every inch of the property. We could access the cameras from any of the televisions in the house, and there was a television in every room.

Another thing we had here, which we installed after the purchase of the house, was a vampire-proof panic room. The panic room had four entrances and exits, allowing us multiple ways of getting in and out. It was solid steel and the inside was stocked with food, water, weapons, and other provisions. It also had access to all the security.

After finishing up with the weights I went to my room, which was way bigger than the one I had over at Luke’s. This room had a gigantic king-sized bed that was covered in a black and purple comforter and like a zillion matching pillows. The beige carpet matched the rest of the carpet in the house and was really fluffy. I favored walking around barefoot just to feel it under my feet. The floors at Luke’s house were hardwood and cold as ice in the winter.

Other than the bed, I had a desk, which was currently covered with papers and books from all of the research and studying I’d been doing when I wasn’t hunting. The only other furniture was a long, but short, dresser made of cherry wood with a huge mirror above it and a matching tall dresser.

I did have an attached bathroom of my own just like at Luke’s, which I immediately hit for a shower after my workout. I wanted to wash all the sweat off of myself and get ready to go out hunting again. Drew was going to come and get me so that we could spend some time together.

Once I was dressed in jeans and a tank top, I tied my hair back into two braids to keep it out of my face. Then, I strapped on my holster, beginning the process of attaching all of my weapons to my body. First, the two forty fives went into my double holster, my black one and my pink one. Then I strapped a knife sheath onto my leg underneath each boot, and finally I hooked my bow over my head so that it rested on one of my shoulders and hung loose. The quiver went over my shoulders as well. I had rigged it so that it was more like a backpack-style and wouldn’t fall off when I was fighting.

I had finally been using my bow more often, now that no one freaking cared if you were walking around on the streets with weapons. As long as you were killing vampires they didn’t do a damn thing to stop you. Using the bow was actually a huge asset. I could pick off the vamps from far away, which saved me from having to get close.

Lately, though, I wanted to get close. I wanted to make them hurt, so if it took me getting a few bruises then I was all right with it … as long as they ended up dead.

With all of my weapons securely attached to my body, I slid my necklace with the bullet on it over my head, letting it rest gently on my chest. Drew gave it to me for my birthday. It was supposed to symbolize the bullet from when I got shot. After that, I grabbed my iPod off of the desk and stuck it in the pocket of my jeans and headed out to wait for Drew.

I could hear voices coming from the kitchen as I approached.

“She is going to get hurt if she keeps this up,” Alice said in a low voice.

It was Drew who answered, “What’s going on? Did something happen?”

“You don’t know what she’s been doing?” Alice questioned, the shock evident in her voice.

Drew must have shook his head or something because there was no answer from him. “She is going out by herself all of the time, for one. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she stands up on top of the roof picking off all the vamps who even come close to this place, and she isn’t just killing them when she goes out into the city.” There was a pause and something that sounded like the oven door slamming. “She is doing the best she can to beat them bloody before she kills them.”

“What the—”

Not wanting that conversation to go on for even one more second, I burst into the room, interrupting Drew’s reaction. I threw Alice a dirty look for ratting me out to my boyfriend and headed for the fridge for a water bottle. “What are you guys up to?” I uncapped my water and took a big swig, switching my eyes back and forth between the two of them like I didn’t overhear anything.

Surprisingly, Drew managed to compose himself pretty quick, and he didn’t even say one freaking word about me going out by myself. He simply lifted his lips into a grin and strode across the kitchen to give me a kiss. “We were just talking about how Christina will be over in a little while.” He shrugged. “Nothing big. Are you ready?”

Alice stood by the counter with a towel in her hand and her mouth hanging open.

“Let’s go.” Drew put his palm on the small of my back and directed me out of the kitchen, toward the front door. As soon as the door shut behind us, a series of clicks were heard and I knew that the alarm system had been engaged immediately after the door was sealed.

“Kill something for me.” Zander’s voice came over the intercom.

I tried not to look concerned, but if he was watching the cameras he probably saw me snooping outside of the kitchen while Alice and Drew were talking. That was one drawback to all of the security in and around the house: there was no privacy at all. We just had to assume that everyone would respect each other enough to realize what was appropriate and what was not.

“Will do,” Drew called into the air and waved at the camera.

His truck was parked on the black pavement where Zander’s truck and our new Escalade were parked. The Escalade was technically mine, since I paid for it with part of the money my mother left me. I was still learning to drive, but I guess I didn’t really need a license anymore now that the world had gone all crappy. I kind of regretted purchasing the Escalade in the first place; all I had to do was wait a month, then I could have gone into the city and had my pick of any vehicle down there. The same went for the house.

However, I was an honest person, and just because some crap was going down didn’t mean we were dishonest or thieves. We were trying to fix this mess, not contribute to the chaos. In any case, I did occasionally drive the Escalade, but usually someone else was doing the driving if we were out hunting.

And we were always hunting.

Oscar wasn’t home, but normally his motorcycle was parked beside the other vehicles.

I opened the passenger door and set my bow and quiver inside before hopping up into the messy but comfortable interior.

The truck roared to life and Drew pulled out of the parking spot, heading down the long driveway. Zander opened the gate automatically from inside without Drew having to show his face to the camera, which was mounted on top of the key pad.

The mechanical iron gates rolled open and Drew roared past them, emerging onto the deserted back road that led to the highway.

“Where are we headed today?” I asked because it was only around four in the afternoon. It was July, so it didn’t get dark till really late and the vampires wouldn’t be out until then.

Drew took his eyes off the road and threw a glance at me. “You’ll see.”

I sat back against the seat and put my feet up onto the dash. “You know I don’t really like surprises that much.” I looked out the passenger window. The trees this time of year were full and green and the terrain always smelled fresh … like it had just rained. I cranked the old handle on the door and rolled down the window.

Drew kept his eyes on the road, but his lips formed a grin. “That’s too bad.”

I sighed purposely to let him know he was annoying. “I wish that we could go up to the falls. It sucks not being able to get into the community.”

He nodded, agreeing with me. I knew that he missed me, but he was not going to leave Luke to come stay with me. And Luke sure as heck wasn’t going to move away from the home he had lived in since before my mother was born.

We turned off onto another back road a few minutes before we got to the highway and the road immediately turned into dirt. I didn’t ask, because I knew that Drew didn’t want me to. The truck’s tires crunched over the loose gravel, and dust churned up and followed behind us in large cloud.

After about twenty minutes of driving, he finally pulled off onto a tiny road … if you could even call it that. It was more like a trail since it was barely big enough for his truck to fit. Branches, which had become overgrown, swiped at the sides of the truck as he slowly maneuvered over the pothole infested earth.

After a few minutes the road finally ended, exposing a wide dirt lot where the trees had been cleared out. Someone had made a fire pit by erecting large rocks into a ring. Remains of charred firewood were left in the pit, as well as a scattering of beer cans and other garbage.

Drew parked and hopped out from behind the wheel. “Come on.” He waved, urging me out of the truck.

I opened the door and jumped down, but immediately fitted my bow and quiver back onto my shoulders. “Drew, we should be out there scouting already. I know you’re trying to be all romantic or whatever, but we are wasting time.”

My hunter boyfriend merely shrugged his shoulders. “The vampires will still be there, but you need a time out.”

“What?” I felt the heat rise into my cheeks. “A time out?”

Drew ran his hand through his blond hair, which had grown longer over the last few months, and then he reached out for me. “Just come with me before you get all bent out of shape, all right?”

I gave him my hand and let him lead me toward the trail. “I don’t need a time out,” I mumbled.

“Shhhh” He pushed aside some of the brush that had grown over the unused trail.

“Don’t you shhhh me!” I growled at him, feeling myself getting more and more frustrated by the moment. “Ahhh!” He let go of the branches he had been holding for me to pass by and they swung back, hitting me right in the face.

“Don’t be a pansy, oh fierce hunter,” he teased.

“Shut up.”

We walked in silence for a few minutes, and the trail gradually sloped downward. Eventually we emerged from within the brush and found ourselves on the bank of a small lake.

I held my hand over my eyes to shield them from the hot sun, which shone down onto the calm, flat surface of the water. If we had been above the lake it would have been like looking into a mirror. Even from where we stood on the bank I could see the image of the tree laden mountains reflected off of the water.

As I stared out, a cool breeze lifted my hair away from my neck. It felt nice on such a hot day, but for some reason standing before this lake with no one else around, the air felt cleaner than usual.

“It’s beautiful here,” I admitted.

“Well, it’s not the Falls,” he shrugged, “but it’s peaceful and out of the way. Plus, there is little chance of any vampires heading out this way since there aren’t any people around.”

I turned to him and gave him a weak smile. “This is all well and good, it is nice here, but we can’t sit around and stare at the water when we should be hunting or scouting the areas.” I couldn’t help it, I was getting antsy. Every moment spent messing around was a moment we should be killing vampires … or training to kill them.

“We aren’t going to sit around staring at the water.” He offered me a small smile before bending over and untying his boots.

“Well let’s go then.”

He straightened up, still with that smirk on his face. His eyes met mine and those twinkling greens suddenly portrayed mischief. He reached down, not taking his eyes off of me, and began unbuttoning his jeans.”

“What the hell are you doing?” I practically screeched, taking a couple of steps back. I unintentionally covered my eyes with my hands, but peeked through them when I heard him laughing.

Through my fingers I saw that my boyfriend had kicked off his boots, shed his jeans, and was standing there in his swimming trunks while holding up my bikini in his hands. “Swimming,” he said between chuckles. “We are going swimming.”

“Where did you get that?” I pointed at my bathing suit, which had been in my underwear drawer the last time I’d seen it.

He shrugged. “Alice.”

“Well, where were you hiding it?”

He glanced at the tiny bits of fabric still in his hand. “I stuck it in my pocket … there isn’t that much here.” He strode forward and held it out to me. “So, are you joining me for a swim or not?”

I shook my head. “We should go.”

He bowed his head in defeat, and then looked back up to meet my eyes. “Chloe, you need to take a break.”

I turned my head away and glanced at the lake, and then back at his eyes again. “No, what I need to do is take out every single vampire I can. I started this mess, it’s my job to help clean it up.”

“You can’t do it alone, though. Especially if that’s all you do. You can’t forget how to have fun.”

“Yeah, coming from the king of partying it up.”

Shaking his head, Drew sighed and tossed my bikini on the ground. “Fine. I’m going swimming. You can just wait here if you don’t want to swim.”

“Drew, we have to go!”

He took off toward the waterline. “We will,” he called over his shoulder before he splashed into the water.

I stood there for the longest time, waiting for him to get out. But, no, he didn’t come out. He swam far out into the lake and then floated on his back for a while, staring up at the clear blue sky.

While he was out there, I found myself beginning to sweat in the fierce July heat. Damn it, now I understood his plan: leave Chloe out in the heat until she practically melts and is forced to go into the water.

Drew’s blond head was bobbing in the water as he swam back to the shore. I watched him with frustration, feeling the lines of sweat roll down from my hairline. “Fine,” I muttered to myself, spinning around in the dirt to grab my bikini off the ground. It would feel good to cool off, but I needed to be out protecting people … saving them. How many were going to die while I was swimming?

I stalked off to the confines off the trees so that I could put my suit on where Drew couldn’t see me. Once I had shed my clothes and my bikini was securely in place. I realized how exposed I felt not having my weapons on. The last thing I was comfortable with was going out into the lake, without any protection, and becoming bobbing targets for vampires. I still had my fire, but I liked having a variety of ways to kill at my disposal.

Gathering my clothes and weapons in my arms, I found my way back to the beach and dropped my pile of stuff as close to the water as I safely could without risking them getting wet. Then, I secured my dark purple bikini once more and looked out over the water. Drew was out there, staring at me with a big grin plastered on his face.

“What are you smiling about?” I yelled at him.

“Victory!” he hollered back at me.

I stepped into the water and felt my body start to cool down immediately. Oh, it felt so good. The heat was awful this time of year. “You won’t be feeling that victory for long, hunter boy,” I called out as I waded deeper into the lake.

His grin spread even wider when he reached out and swept his hand across the water, causing a wave-like splash to spray up around him. “Challenge accepted.”

I dived down underneath the brisk water, feeling totally rejuvenated as the lake enveloped my entire body.

Okay, so maybe swimming wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

I emerged at the surface and looked around. Drew seemed to have disappeared. “Drew?” I treaded water while turning myself at the same time. “Where are you?”

My heart began to beat faster. What if there were vampires out here? The idea that they were was highly likely because they came out to our place all the time … so why wouldn’t they be roaming around the woods?

“Drew!” I called again more urgently. “Answer me.”

Suddenly, something grabbed my foot and yanked me under. I opened my mouth to scream, but only had time to release a yelp before I was dragged—gurgling water—below the surface of the lake.

I kicked my feet viciously, trying to break loose from the attacker’s grip. He had a firm hold on my ankles, and no matter how hard I kicked I couldn’t get free. Water forced its way down my throat and up my nose. Oh my God, I was going to die from drowning. I’m a freaking vampire hunter and I’m going to drown to death. Never saw that one coming.

Then, as suddenly as the attacker had grabbed me, they let go. I waved my arms and kicked my feet, pushing my way to the surface while calling on my fire at the same time. I broke the surface with my hands first, and let loose the streams of fire … not caring where they went, but hoping it hit the target somehow.

My head came up out of the water next and I simultaneously gasped for air and fired another stream of flames all around me.

“Chloe! Stop!”

It was Drew. He was all right!

I sputtered, choking nasty lake water out of my mouth. “Are you all right? Drew … someone … they had me.” I couldn’t make anything very coherent and shot away, swimming for shore as fast as I could.

Not a minute later I hit the shallow water. My feet connected with the pebbles on the bottom of the lake and I lunged for my weapons, grabbed a forty five, and aimed it out at the water.

Drew was right behind me. “Relax, Chloe. It was me. All right, it was just me.”

I lowered my gun. “Are you insane? Seriously, why would you do something like that?”

“I was just fooling around.” He moved to put his arm around me and I jerked out of the way.

“That was wrong, Drew.”

“Chloe, you need to calm down.”

“You tried to drown me!”

Frustrated, he marched off in the direction of where he’d left his clothes. “Look at how you’re acting. You have to loosen up and stop being so serious about everything all of the time. You have become so high strung that you can’t even joke around anymore.”

I blew a raspberry at him and picked up the rest of my weapons. “Sure, like you have any room to talk, Mr. Serious. You never joke around. Oh, wait, until the vampire apocalypse started … now you’re chock full of fun.”

He glared at me with his cool green eyes and released a noise that sounded similar to a growl. “Settle down,” he ordered.

I had no intention of settling down.

“People die, Drew! People are dying! How can I possibly set that aside to make jokes and have fun? This is all my fault and I have to do everything I can to fix it. I don’t know why you can’t understand that.”

He dropped his clothes on the ground again and marched toward me. “Chloe. You are being too hard on yourself. This ... all of the responsibility that you are putting on yourself is hardening you, and you’re only a fraction of the person you used to be.”

I slid my clothes on over my bathing suit while he spoke. “I am a Hunter and that is what I need to do. I can’t relax until we fix this problem.”

“What if we can’t fix it, Chloe?”

“Then I guess I’ll never be the same person I was.” I strapped on my holster, as well as my bow and quiver, and headed for the trail, leaving Drew behind me. The branches grabbed at my clothes as I hurried back to the truck. I just wanted to kill some vampires and try to remedy the problems I’d caused.

Back at the truck, I waited for Drew. After a few minutes, he emerged from within the trees, fully dressed and looking solemn. Suddenly I felt bad; I didn’t mean to bring him down when he was only trying to help me.

He opened the driver’s side door and slid behind the wheel without even sparing a glance at me. With a turn of the key, the truck roared to life and he shot off down the minuscule dirt road, much faster than he had gone when we came in.

“Drew, I know you want the best for me, but I just can’t force myself to feel a different way. Please … please, bear with me through this.”

He kept his eyes on the road, still not looking at me. “Chloe, I’m always going to be there for you. You are a fighter at heart. You are moody, snarky, and throw childish fits when you don’t get your way … and I love all of those things about you.”

Heart melting.

He continued, “I just want to help you because I’m afraid of what you are becoming. But, know this … I will never, ever abandon you simply because you are going through a hard time emotionally. I, of all people, know what it’s like to shut myself off from the world and focus on one thing. You are the one who breathed life into me. Before you, there was only the other Hunters, training, and killing vampires. I found light in you and now I see that light slowly dimming.”

Talk about making a girl feel bad.

“Drew—”

He shook his head. “Let me finish. I just want you to try not to be so hard on yourself. All right?”

Tears stung the corners of my eyes as they tried to break free. Why was it that he always did this to me? I knew I was becoming hard, but I had to keep going with the mission. I thought he, of all people, would understand that.

In the end, all I said in response to his beautiful words was a choked, “I promise to try.”

“Good.” He nodded his head in confirmation.

~~***~~

We drove into the city a couple of hours before sundown and people were already bustling through the streets, trying to get their supplies before the sun went down and the vampires took over the city. It was a sad, sad sight to see. These innocent people had no idea if they would survive the night.

When the vampires first went public, it was a blood bath. A lot of people died in a horrible massacre on the city, and another city after that, and another after that … until the entire United States was dealing with a vampire epidemic.

We’d heard from Hunters in other countries that the problem was not limited to the United States; they were also infested with insane amounts of new vampires.

After the initial murders, thousands were left dead in the streets and even more were turned. Each morning when the sun rose, people would leave their homes to go in search of a loved one who hadn’t come home the night before. With any luck, they would find who they were looking for amongst the bodies the vampires left scattered throughout the city.

One morning, the whole group and I had finished a particularly gruesome fight. We stayed in the city until the sun came up and witnessed the morning ritual. Watching people wander through the sea of bodies, looking for someone, but hoping they didn’t find them dead, was probably the most emotional thing I’d seen since the first killings of the vampire apocalypse. Also, they knew that if they didn’t find them, there was a huge chance they had been turned.

Too freaking sad.

The one problem that Dahlia seemed to be having with her plan for vampires to take over was the sheer blood lust of the newborns. They killed almost every single person they fed from. If they kept killing people, as well as turning them into vampires, there wouldn’t be any food source left for them, which would put kind of a dent in her plan for world domination.

Pulling myself back into the present, I shoved the memories of the morning ritual and Dahlia out of my mind and concentrated on the streets.

“Let’s park here.” Drew pulled into a grocery store parking lot where there were a lot of cars, which were probably abandoned or left because the owners were killed.

When he came to a stop between a minivan and a VW Bug, he killed the engine and leaned toward me. “Wait,” he demanded.

About to pull the door handle, I paused. He reached out, taking my face in both of his hands, but he didn’t say anything more, like I’d expected him to. He simply pulled me in and placed a soft kiss on my lips.

I felt my heart skip and my stomach flutter as it always did when we kissed. The heat began in my toes and fingertips as my body responded to the stimulation of contact. When he pulled away, I reached up and wound both of my arms around his neck, pulling our bodies even closer together for another, much longer, kiss. I felt his hand work its way into my hair and his other rested on my thigh.

He broke contact first, moving away until his face was only an inch from mine and he was staring into my eyes. The green in his eyes was always so intense. When he was mad, they were icy, and when he was happy, they were twinkling. At that moment they were twinkling. “You ready to go kick some ass?” he asked.

That was my Drew! How could I resist a man who had such a way with words?

I leaned away and reached for the door handle. “You know I am. Let’s hit it.” I jumped down out of the truck and adjusted my holster because it had ridden up while I was sitting in the truck.

After I was situated, I hurried around to the front of the line of vehicles and found Drew scanning the buildings. “Do you want to go high or low today?” he inquired.

Decisions, decisions. Up high was good because we could pick them off from a distance, but on the other hand they could attack and trap us, leaving us nowhere to go. Low had its advantages and disadvantages as well. On the streets there was a lot more contact with the vampires, but we also saved a lot more people being on the ground. That thought alone pretty much made up my mind; keeping people safe is why we did what we did in the first place. “I’m not sure yet, let’s see what we find,” I told him as my gaze moved over the commotion surrounding us.

Most of the shops in the city had long since been abandoned, so what was considered gathering supplies was actually looting. During the day, the city was pretty much a free for all … except for the human law enforcement. They weren’t on our side anymore, though; the vampires had control of them and anyone was at their mercy if they were not pledged.

At night, people ran and hid, hoping that they wouldn’t be found.

A new order was being established. Not just in our city, but the entire country … maybe even the world.

It probably wouldn’t be long before the vampires cut the electricity to drive the humans out of hiding. Already, a vampire mayor had been appointed and a televised announcement had been broadcasted into every home and every radio station.

For a few moments I became lost in thought again as I remembered seeing my nightmares come to life. The male vampire with glowing blue eyes and dark brown hair had appeared behind a podium set up in front of city hall. He had several vampires in suits standing behind him like they were freakin’ secret service agents or something. They even had their dark sunglasses on to perfect the look.

The vampire at the podium had cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone. “Members of this community, as you surely know by now, the debate concerning the historical legends and whether vampires exist or not has finally been settled. The truth is right in front of you … I am a vampire, and we do, indeed, exist.

“Now, onto the subject at hand. I have been chosen to represent this fine city. With that responsibility, changes must be made. These changes are being made in every state, every city, and every county all over the United States. Therefore, leaving town will do you no good, you will face the new laws wherever you go.

“At this moment, a bit of chaos is taking place, but we are working hard to establish order once again. To achieve order, the changes I spoke of before must be put into place and obeyed. The changes will be made within the next few months and years. But, to begin with, we have a few laws which are going into effect immediately.

“We will allow anyone who comes forward and pledges themselves to the Vampire Council to live. The condition being that every pledge has to willingly give blood twice a month. Each pledge will receive a tattoo signifying their loyalty to the Vampire Council. The tattoo will be placed on the right cheek. Any human who has not given their pledge to the Vampire Council is fair game to every vampire.”

The cameras panned the audience crammed into the tight space before the podium. Loud murmurs and shouts of unfairness rose from the disgruntled crowd. The new mayor held his hands up for silence, but the shouting did not cease. After waiting a few minutes for his audience to settle down, he just spoke over them, continuing on with his speech. Regardless of how pissed off they were, the people still wanted to hear what he had to say … their lives depended on it.

“We have designated several human guards who will replace the regular police force which you have previously known. The law enforcement and laws that you once followed no longer exist. As of this moment, they are null and void. These law enforcement personnel will be present and in charge at the pledging areas. The pledging areas have currently been secured in the public libraries. If you choose to pledge, simply go to any of the libraries in the city, day or night, and you will be accepted in, allowed to pledge, and required to give your first blood donation. You will also receive your tattoo upon pledging.

“These law enforcement officers will also be in command at the blood banks where those who have pledged will go to give blood. The first donation will take place at the library, then an appointment will be made for you at one of the local blood banks. If you miss an appointment to give blood, the consequences will not be something you want to endure. So do not miss your appointment. Beginning immediately, anyone can come forward to pledge themselves. As I stated before, those who are not pledged will not be protected, so the longer you wait, the more danger you put yourself in.”

“Chloe!”

I snapped out of another memory and the world came into focus around me. I realized that Drew was beside me, staring into my eyes with concern. “Are you all right?”

I nodded and adjusted my bow again. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about how crappy things have gotten already.”

Drew nodded that he understood. “I know what you mean. There is no going back now, society has been too traumatized. Even if we manage to win this war, it will have affected so many. Too many people have been lost already.”

It was my turn to nod that I understood. It was true, the world would never be the same as it was. “Let’s keep moving.” I shook off the memories and marched forward. Once we were up on the sidewalk, the people out in the streets began to notice us. They knew what we were; Hunters always carried a lot of weapons and walked with a purpose. The survivors moved with caution, practically running wherever they went.

Almost everyone stared at us as we passed. Most looked at us with awe; knowing that we were actively searching out the enemy put us on a level to be looked up to. “This is weird,” I whispered.

Drew didn’t respond, but I knew he was thinking the same thing. For so long, especially for him, the fact that vampire hunter’s even existed was kept secret. If the world had discovered the vampire hunters, it was only a given that the existence of vampires would have been exposed. The Hunters had worked very hard for a very, very long time to stay hidden, now … now we were saviors in a world being taken over by demons.

After a few minutes of walking and ignoring the stares of the survivors, Drew finally said, “I wish these people would go to the training centers and learn how to protect themselves. Most will probably end up pledging simply because they have no other options.”

I nodded. “Me too, but until then, it’s our job to try and protect them.”

The people who roamed the streets at least had some spine. The weakest and the most fearful had already pledged to the Vampire Council. The ones with the most will to survive had gone to the training centers or taken off with their families. There were also the preppers who were prepared for some kind of “end of the world” to happen, those people were in hiding, too. But these who were left, they had something in them that told them pledging was wrong, they just didn’t have the strength to actively fight against them.

I didn’t blame them, though. Vampires could kill you within seconds and no one in their right mind would want to go up against them one on one. Vampire hunters weren’t just humans who fought, we were bred from the blood of angels and demi-gods. In my case, I was half vampire, a dhampir, which made me even more powerful.

My brother, Zander, is also a dhampir, but not a true vampire hunter as far a blood and power. He’s a bad ass, though, and that goes a long way when fighting the undead.

“This looks good.” Drew paused and gestured to the bakery on our right. It was an old structure, built out of red brick. The door was newer than the rest of the place; double glass doors with a dark tint over them. Perfect for seeing out, but harder for people to see in.

The place also had a balcony on the second floor. The aging but sturdy looking balcony ran the width of the building and extended about four feet over the sidewalk where we stood.

“Yeah. This is as good a place as any.”

I followed Drew to the tinted double doors, silently slipping my gun out of its holster. Drew held his gun in one hand and cautiously reached for the door handle with the other. I stayed a few feet behind him just out of habit. It was part of how we worked, he usually took the lead and I stayed back to cover.

He pulled on the door handle gently, giving it a testing tug before he yanked it open completely. Then he held the door open and I moved forward, into the darkness of the building with my gun out in front of my, ready to shoot pretty much anything that moved.

Contrary to what a lot of people believed, vampires could be up during the day as long as they avoided direct sunlight. So, it was completely realistic that a vampire could be hiding out inside any of the buildings. Entering the buildings without being prepared was a common mistake amongst the survivors. A lot of vampires actually hid out, waiting for some unprepared human to come along like a meal delivery service.

I veered right, keeping my gun up and ready to fire while Drew came in behind me and took the left side. Hearing nothing right away, I stepped backward a few steps and reached out for the wall with my left hand, searching for a light switch. My enhanced dhampir vision allowed me to see better in the dark than full blooded humans, so Drew needed the light more than I did. But, a well lit room was obviously better than a dark one. After a few seconds of groping the wall, my fingertips finally connected with a small panel of switches. I flipped them all and suddenly the room was bathed in a harsh fluorescent light.

The place looked empty, but that didn’t mean anything. Unlike a lot of the businesses that had been abandoned when the vampires attacked, this place was actually pretty clean. The counters and tables were free of crumbs and dishes; if it wasn’t for the light layer of dust, they might have actually appeared shiny.

It only took a few minutes for us to clear the room, assuring it was free of vampires, and then we were off to check the upstairs.

As we found the stairwell and headed up, I felt beads of sweat begin to form on my forehead. They immediately rolled downward, threatening to sting my eyes. It was hot outside, so that made it sweltering inside of the abandoned bakery, which hadn’t seen any air conditioning for quite some time.

Drew and I didn’t speak the entire time. He and I were one of those couples, and teammates, who worked perfectly in silence. I had trained with Drew … and killed with him. I could read his body language and his silent cues. Words were not needed between the two of us.

Upstairs, we found a studio apartment above the shop where the owner must have lived. We went through the same process of clearing the room as we did downstairs in the bakery, and then took a moment really look at the apartment. It was spic and span, but like downstairs the whole apartment was covered in a light layer of dust, telling us that no one had been around for quite some time.

There were no pictures on the wall except for paintings and artistic photographs. On the T.V. stand there were only two frames with pictures; one was of a woman with her big orange cat, and the other photo was just the cat. I reached out and touched the edge of one of the shiny, wooden frames. No family pictures for this woman, apparently.

Feeling a rare flash of sadness for my old life, I turned away from the photos to find Drew pushing open a set of heavy, beige drapes. Once opened, they exposed the French doors that led out to the balcony. The doors were made with panes of glass squares, which allowed sunlight to pour into the dim apartment.

“Still a little while before the sun sets. You want to sit out there or in here?”

I shrugged. Normally inside would have been the choice so that we could stay hidden from any of the vampire loyal humans that might be outside, but after giving the hot and dusty apartment another once over it felt a bit claustrophobic. “Outside.”

As soon as he pulled open the balcony doors, I felt the rush of fresh air and inhaled deeply. Boy it felt good to breathe the clean air. I hadn’t realized just how much it had gotten to me until I got a whiff of the good stuff. We could even see the dust particles floating around where the sunlight streamed in.

Drew and I exchanged a look and headed out.

The balcony had a wrought iron fencing that stood about three feet tall, effectively keeping whoever was on the balcony safely within its limits. There were gaps between each of the posts that looked to be about four or five inches apart, giving us plenty of space to see through if we sat down on the floor of the balcony. Which was exactly what we did.

Waiting out the sunset was something that we did a lot. I wasn’t the most patient of people lately, but it was something we had to do. Coming into the city after it was already dark wasn’t really a good idea.

I took one side of the balcony and Drew took the other, and we kept our posts in silence. We wouldn’t risk speaking and giving away our positions. I didn’t really want to talk to him anyway. I understood where he was coming from, being worried about me and all. What I couldn’t understand was why he didn’t understand my point of view.

I was so used to him being the hardcore Hunter, the one who trained me and made me pay attention when I wanted to quit. He was always the one who went first into battle, and now he had gone soft on me. I just didn’t get it at all.

Eventually the sun went down behind the hills and veil of darkness began to spread over the city. All of the survivors had long since abandoned the streets to go to their hiding places or find a new one. The growing darkness was gradual; both Drew’s human eyes and my dhampir eyes didn’t need to adjust. Since we could both see just fine, it was no surprise when we saw the first group of vampires strutting down the street like it was a perfect day in the park.

Drew stretched his leg out and tapped my foot with his, and nodded in the direction of our targets.

I indicated that I saw them, too, moving onto my knees so that I could get a better shot. Drew and I had both attached silencers to our guns while we were waiting. Silence was the key; if any of the nearby vamps heard the gunshots it would give us away and we would be in some serious trouble. So, we opted for the silencers. As for my bow, I wasn’t going to sacrifice my arrows from such a high position unless I knew I could get them back.

There were only five of them all together, so it should be easy. They strode down the street with ease, looking from side to side and chatting amongst themselves. If we played this right we could take them all out with five quick shots. Hopefully they were all fairly new vampires and the UV bullets would take care of them.

I rose up on my knees and took aim. Time to go to work.

I took the first shot and the vamp on the far left went down. Before the others even had time to react, Drew shot the one on the left. Instantly, I took the one on the right of the three remaining confused vampires.

Two left.

One of the remaining two took off at a dead run back the way they had come. The other one was a woman and she had fallen to her knees beside one of the dead guys. “No!” I heard her scream as she shook the dead vampire’s body. She had long blonde hair that fell down in waves over her and the fallen vampire. “Wake up!” she shouted, shaking him violently. She got no answer except for the glowing light which appeared and began to slowly erode through the body.

Drew shot the one who was running, pegged him in the back and took him down. I was having a hard time getting a bead on the one who was bent over.

“We have to go down,” Drew hissed. “Make sure that one is dead and get the other.”

“I’m on it, boss.” I stood up, threw my leg over the railing, and jumped down to the sidewalk below me.

Drew wasn’t an idiot; he went through the apartment and took the stairs. I could make that jump for several reasons. For one, I had a lot of abilities that vampires had, like the ability to jump long distances and land them. Even if I did break a bone or something, it would heal fast. But, Drew wasn’t about to risk his body by making that jump.

As soon as I hit the ground, the female vampire’s head snapped up and turned in my direction. As soon as her she realized that I was the threat, that I was the one who had shot the others, she stood to face me.

Sweet, just the position I needed. I raised my weapon, took aim, and fired.

She had been expecting that. With vampire speed, she dodged to the right and the bullet zipped past her, missing its mark.

Damn it! I never missed.

Before I could get her within range for another shot, she was in front of me. She grabbed my gun, painfully twisting it out of my hand, and tossed it aside.

Whatever. She wanted to play dirty, I could play dirty.

Just as she reached out with her other hand to grab my throat, I side stepped then turned and threw my leg out, grabbing my knife as I spun. I landed the roundhouse on the side of her ribcage. I’m sure it didn’t hurt her, but it jostled her enough that she was momentarily stunned. It was just long enough for me to charge her.

With my knife raised, our bodies met and we fell into the hard cement. As we went down, I tried to plunge the knife into her chest, but she grabbed my wrist and kept the blade at bay. My other hand was holding her arm down. Well, not necessarily down, but it was there. She was much stronger than me and it would only be a second before she threw me off of her.

So, I let the warmth flow through my body, starting from my core and extending out to my fingertips until the flames appeared. I pressed my palm down onto her arm, letting the fire sear into her undead flesh.

“Ahhhh!” she cried out and twisted, releasing my knife hand in the process. As soon as my wrist was free, I slammed the blade down into her chest. She lurched upward, but quickly relaxed.

I relaxed for a moment, too. She lay there, her pale face accentuating the dark red lipstick she wore. A few droplets of blood slid off the corner of one of her lips. Suddenly, I wanted to punch her in her dead face.

I was deterred from my act of unnecessary violence by Drew’s boots pounding over the sidewalk behind me. He ran to the unconscious vampire he had shot to confirm that the UV bullet was doing the job it was supposed to do.

I rose up off of the female, ran over to collect my gun, and joined Drew just as he was firing two more shots into the vampire’s chest. He finished, satisfied with the amount of light we were seeing from within the body.

UV bullets were helpful for killing vampires, but as I had learned early on in my training, sometimes they didn’t work all that well. The older vampires were more immune to the UV, so it took more to kill them. Therefore, UV bullets worked better on the younger vampires.

“Check the others,” he ordered.

We hurried to make sure that the other two vampires were truly dead and then I popped off a shot in the female vampire that I’d wrestled with.

After we were done with that group, we both gave each other a triumphant glance and silently hurried back to our hiding spot on the apartment’s balcony to wait for more vampires.

It was rare to see a lone vampire; they usually wandered in groups now that there were so many of them. I guess it was some kind of a predator thing, like how wolves traveled in packs. When we attacked them we normally got more than two or three kills.

So, imagine our surprise when we went back into the apartment and found a vampire sitting on the couch, his legs casually crossed as if he had been waiting for us. He was dressed in black jeans and a black button down shirt, a gothic looking cross embroidered on one side of the chest. His dark brown hair was cut very close to his head.

Instantly, both of us had our guns drawn, and I felt the fire surge into my fingertips in preparation for defense.

At first, none of us said anything; he just sat there on the couch staring at us with our weapons pointed at him. Even in the dim apartment, his dark brown eyes twinkled with amusement. I took an involuntary step backward. This guy, with his demeanor and dress, was disturbingly similar to Trevor. That caught me off guard, which didn’t happen very much anymore. The only major difference between the two was that Trevor was super pale and this guy was black. When people with dark skin became vampires, the color didn’t change much, just a bit of a fade.

The vampire was first to speak; I guess he thought it was a good idea to say something before one of us shot him.

“Well, well … that was some show you put on out there.” He didn’t move from his position on the couch, which was a good thing for him because that definitely would have gotten him shot.

“What do you care? You’re going to die, just like they did,” Drew snarled at him. I stayed silent, wondering why we hadn’t already killed him.

The vampire smiled, showing his pristine white teeth, fangs and all. “Trust me, you do not want to kill me. I am here to help.”

I sensed Drew’s confusion, but he didn’t show it. I was confused, too. Help with what? Killing the vampires? That hardly seemed like something he would want to help with … not to mention the fact that as Hunters, we were led to believe that all vampires were bad and evil. All of them.

Drew shook his head slightly. “I highly doubt there is anything that you can help us with. On top of that, what would make you think that we would even want your help?”

The vampire leaned back into the couch cushions. “You intend to stop the new vampires from being made and kill the existing ones, do you not?”

His eyes flicked back and forth between Drew and I. When neither of us responded to his question, he just continued, “I know who you are, Hunters, I also know that you want to stop this destruction that my kind is causing.”

Finally, I found my voice. “There is nothing that you can do to help us. The only way you can help is to accept the inevitable … you are going to die today.”

That bastard actually laughed at me. “And the dhampir speaks. So gallant of you, Ms. Kallistrate. However, your threats mean nothing to me. If you kill me now you may never find the answers you seek.”

Shocked rippled through me. He knew who I was and he knew I was half vampire. This information only stunned me for half a minute and then I recovered … and charged him.

I don’t know what happened exactly. I could have just shot him, I could have used my fire on him, even from that distance. But, no, I ran forward a couple of steps and jumped, covering the space between us in the single leap. I landed on his lap, knocking the couch backward in the process.

“Chloe!” Drew called from behind me. I couldn’t tell if he was warning me or pissed off, but I didn’t really care. I pulled back my arm and slammed my fist in Mr. Know It All Vampire’s face.

I hit him again, and again. It wasn’t doing anything to him … in fact, it probably felt like I was tickling him, but I didn’t care, it made me feel better. Drew stood back and let me beat on him. However, I knew this was mostly because if he intervened we would give the strange vampire an opening to attack us while we were distracted. Therefore, it was better for him to keep an eye on the enemy. After hitting him several more times, I guess he grew tired of it because he pressed his palm against my chest and pushed.

Mid-punch, I felt myself lift into the air and let my fire loose from my fingers in attempt to get one last hit in on him. None of the flames hit him. Before I knew it, my back slammed into the entertainment center where the lady and her cat pictures were. I bounced off of it, landing on the floor. I turned over, trying to get up quickly, but the damn thing toppled and fell over onto me.

Pain flashed through entire body and I found myself trapped underneath the evil entertainment center. It didn’t help that the television was an old one, not one of the newer, lighter flat screens.

I tried to call for Drew to help me, but nothing was coming out, and I felt a horrible pain in my chest. I gasped, trying to suck air into my lungs and kicked against my confines.

Suddenly, the entertainment center was being lifted off of me. “I got you,” Drew reassured me as his face come into view. Then he lifted the television off my midsection and threw it in that crazy vampire’s direction. “Look what you did, asshole!

The television flew by his head, missing him by close to an inch. I kicked my feet and tried to get up, wanting to tell Drew to just shoot the bastard. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t manage words; only few choked gurgles escaped from my throat when I tried to speak.

I felt Drew’s strong arms encircle me and lift me to my feet.

Why in the hell wasn’t his attention on the enemy? This was not like him at all, he never sacrificed a kill to help another. We were Hunters! We were supposed to be able to take care of ourselves.

“Ugh,” I groaned, turning to face my opponent. He must have seen the fury in my expression because he got one look at me and lifted his hands into the air. “Now, now … you attacked me. I told you, I’m simply here to help.”

“There is nothing you can do that will help us!” I wanted to yell at him, but my voice cracked and was more of an angry whisper.

Drew silently slid into a position where he was between me and that vampire. At that point I wasn’t sure if his intention was to protect me from the enemy or to protect him from me.

“Drew! Shoot him!” I threw my hands in the air. “Why haven’t you killed him yet?”

“Because I want to know what he has to say.” He didn’t look away from the vampire when he spoke.

“What? Are you kidding me? He knows me, he has obviously been following us or had us followed. He is a freaking vampire, just kill him already.”

The two males met gazes; staring each other down in some kind of silent challenge. “And that is exactly why we need to find out more information from him,” Drew finished.

“Ugh!” I marched over to where my gun had been thrown, snatched it off the floor, and then held it up, aiming right at the vampire’s chest. “Fine. You want to talk, let’s talk.”

Drew shook his head, probably in exasperation. “Chloe, if he was going to kill us he would have already. He has had plenty of opportunity.”

“I don’t see you lowering your gun,” I shot back at him.

He didn’t answer, so I flicked my gun toward the tiny little kitchen table that was set up in a corner of the room. “Go sit over there.”

Still standing by the overturned couch, he threw a glance at Drew before he silently complied with my demand. He strode confidently over to the table and pulled out a chair. “Aren’t you going to join me?” he asked.

I tried not to limp as I crossed the room to sit at the table with him. My left leg was killing me from when I was crushed by the entertainment center. I hoped I managed to look unharmed, though, I didn’t want that guy seeing any weakness in me. Before I sat down I met Drew’s eyes and he nodded, indicating that he would stay standing.

I pulled out a chair and plopped down into it. “Well, you seem to know us, now tell us who you are.”

His lips curled into a smile. “Of course you would want to know, it’s only fair, I suppose. My name is Anthony Christos.”

Drew’s eyes widened and Anthony smiled with satisfaction. “Ah, you know of me?” He directed the question to Drew.

“Of course I know who Anthony Christos is, but that doesn’t mean that you are who you claim to be.”

“I have no reason to lie.”

“Wait,” I interrupted. “I don’t know who Anthony Christos is. Why is that so important?”

Drew actually had the audacity to roll his eyes while we held this guy at gun point and interrogated him. “Didn’t you learn it in school?”

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “You mean while I was held captive in my evil father’s mansion for a year? Oh wait … no, you must mean after I got back and spent a few months back in classes, and then the vampire apocalypse started. I’m so sorry, I must not have been paying close enough attention.”

“You probably just missed it somewhere. And you do all that research on your own, too.”

“Drew, just tell me.”

Anthony raised his eyebrows. “She is truly a feisty one. I have always taken a liking to women who have a bit of fight in them.”

Drew raised his eyebrows at that last part. “She’s not a woman.”

“Really, Drew?”

He shrugged. “I mean that you’re young.”

Anthony grinned. “Long ago, when I was a human, girls were married off when they were very young and considered women at an early age.”

“Forget about it and start talking,” I blurted out, fuming over how blunt this guy was.

Drew picked up the conversation since he seemed to know so much about the topic. “Anthony Christos is one of the very first vampires. After discovering how evil his kind was, he fought against them with the Hunters, but the evil offspring had become too many for them to win the battle. Ever since, Anthony Christos has lived in hiding or a chosen seclusion. Either way, no one has heard of him or from him since that battle long ago.”

I almost rolled my eyes again. Really, why was that such a big deal? He was the same as the next vampire in my book.

Anthony clapped his hands in a slow arrogant manner. “Well done, Hunter. At least you know your history.”

I wasn’t at a point to even consider moving my weapon away from him. “This doesn’t mean anything. You are still a vampire, making you a threat and part of the problem.”

Surprisingly, he nodded. “Yes, I am part of the problem.”

Drew took a step forward. “You say that you want to help, that we need you. What do you know that can help us?”

“I am actually quite shocked that none the fearsome Hunters have discovered the answer to that question, especially since you are all supposed to be so educated on vampire lore.”

Drew ignored the jab.

“Tell us,” I demanded.

He smiled that half gentle, half scary smile again. “To kill the vampires … all of them, you have to kill the first in the bloodline. You do that and the entire line will cease to exist.”

I sat back a little bit in the hard wooden chair. It seemed so simple. How could the answer to all of this chaos going on around us be something so freaking easy. And here, in front of us, sat the first in the line of many. “Do you know what this means?”

He nodded, his smile suddenly replaced with a solemn expression. “I am willing to accept my final death. After so many years of seclusion from my own kind, as well as humans, my time has come.”

Drew didn’t look convinced. I know I sure as hell wasn’t. “So you’re just giving yourself up to us? That is why you found us?”

“Not entirely.” He leaned forward and folded his hands on the table. “You cannot possibly think that I am the only vampire that is first in a bloodline.” He lifted his hand, giving us a dismissive wave. “This … problem you are facing right now did not start with my line. In fact, there are very few left in mine.”

It was my turn to lean forward. “Do you know whose it is?” I asked.

He nodded. “Of course I do.”

“And you are going to help us find them?”

“I will do my very best. However, I stay alive until the other lines are taken down. That is the deal.” Anthony looked to Drew for confirmation of the deal.

I didn’t like this at all. He was a vampire! I knew some were worse than others, but at this point a vampire was a vampire and I just wanted to kill them all. Regardless, I had a feeling that Anthony was telling the truth, and if there was any way that he could help us find the head of each line, we were going to have to keep him alive.

Drew met Anthony’s eyes. “I don’t understand why you even want to help to begin with.”

Anthony merely shook his head a tiny bit. “You, young man, were raised as a Hunter, raised with the understanding that all vampires are inherently evil. But, there are some … very few, in fact, who are not. Yes, we drink blood and have a lust for it that drives us to do the most ungodly acts, but the few who can fight the demon inside do not like the creatures that we are and want to rid the world of the evil ones just as much as you do.”

I almost laughed. Did he seriously think we were buying this garbage? “I don’t believe you.”

“Whether or not you want to believe me is your choice. I have no reason to lie, even more so since I have agreed to let you eventually kill me for good.”

Drew rubbed his forehead. “All right. Tell us about the other lines.”

“Yes, of course.” The solemn yet wistful expression returned to Anthony’s face as he leaned back and prepared to tell his story.

“In the beginning, the original lines consisted of six vampires. No, we weren’t related. We were simply in a bad place at a bad time … chosen by the woman who cursed us. This woman, like the race of Hunters, was also the daughter of a god a descendant of Hades. With his blood running through her half human veins she was very, very powerful.

“Now, as most stories go, love and deceit played a very large part in how it ends. This woman, who was named Chryssa, was born into a wealthy and prominent family. Not only was she extraordinarily beautiful, but she wanted for nothing … and when she fell in love with a commoner it was no exception.

“The man she fell in love with was called Lavrentios. As a commoner, he was obviously taken with Chyssa from the very beginning. He may have been from a poor family, but he was indeed as handsome and strong as the males from more prominent families. Chryssa, even though descended from the God of Hell, was human enough not to deny what she thought was true love.

Lavrentios would have been a fool to deny Chryssa; she was everything he could have ever wished for. Along with the inheritance of her family line she was a rare beauty with her long, dark mane, eyes just as dark, and flawless golden skin. So, Chryssa took this man as her husband, and more than willingly, he came to live with her among all her wealth and power.

“It was only after a few years of marriage that Lavrentios, who never had any sort of wealth nor power, eventually let both of these troublesome things go to his head. Chryssa caught him fornicating with two of her handmaidens. Now, understand … these women were under Chryssa’s rule, which meant her husband was able to make them do whatever he wanted them to. They were slaves, with the title of handmaiden. Just as the servants were slaves with the titles of servants. All of the slaves were obligated to do as their master’s ordered. If they refused to comply, he would have whipped them or perhaps worse, depending on his mood.”

Anthony paused and took a deep breath before he went on. “I was there, I was one of their servants who bore witness when she discovered her husband’s infidelity, when she went mad with jealousy and rage. There were two handmaidens and four servants in attendance of the incident. Two men were standing watch over him and I, as well as another male servant, were always with Chryssa.

“Insanity followed Chryssa’s initial shock of finding her husband with two other women. She screamed and threw things, telling him that she gave him everything. Lavrentios, a changed man since his commoner days, merely dismissed her with a wave and instructed the servants to remove her from his presence. I will never forget the next moments, for they are seared into my memory, but they happened so quickly and in such a blur of time.

“Lavrentios had absolutely no idea of the power that his wife was able to wield. It is entirely possible that even she had no idea until that tragic day. The magic of the gods swarmed up around her in dark, oily smoke and she ordered us to bind his hands and feet together. Immediately, we complied. He fought us and he put up a good fight, but the last few years of laziness had made him weak. We were slaves, which meant that we were stronger, plus there were more of us. Even Lavrentios’s own servants had to heed her word and helped us to subdue him. Once he was bound, she ordered us to kill him.

“We were a gentle people, the slaves. Everyone has a line they will cross and murder was that line for all of us, which was the reason we hesitated when she demanded that we kill her husband. I was not going to kill a man over adultery, which happened on a day to day basis in those days. Many wealthy men took mistresses. I floundered, as did my fellow friends.

“Seeing our hesitation, she became enraged once again. I felt the magic well up within the walls as she called upon the power of her descendants to help her. It was then that foreign words escaped her lips and a curse was place on all six of us who bore witness.

“Suddenly, I felt as if my body was afire. We crumpled to the ground while Lavrentios cried out for help, screaming for mercy from his once so doting wife. Even the handmaidens had fallen to the floor and were writhing in agony from the pain that seared their bodies from the inside out.

“I do not know how much time passed in which we were forced to endure the pain. We all awoke feeling weak, confused … and hungry.

“She stood there watching us and waiting.

“My mouth was dry, drier than it had ever been. I moved my tongue over my teeth, trying to force saliva to form, and discovered sharp points had developed on my teeth. They felt as sharp as the edge of a sword.”

Again, Anthony stopped speaking, but this time he absently moved his hand to his mouth. His lip lifted and he touched the tip of one of his fangs as if he were remembering the first time he felt them.

“What happened next?” Drew tried to direct him back into the story.

Anthony swallowed and then continued, “Finally she spoke only one word. ‘Feed!’ she demanded, pointing at her bound husband.”

Sadness filled his brown eyes as he caught my gaze. “You have no idea how it felt. Have you ever been so hungry that it literally burned in the pit of your stomach? I felt this hunger in every pore, every cell, and every part of my being. I looked to my five companions, knowing they felt as I did. As I set my sight upon them, I saw that none of their eyes were the deep, rich brown they were before. Each of them had changed from the original color to the glowing red of demons.

“We had become demons.

“And with her demand … the curse was sealed … sealed in blood.

“As one, we attacked Leventrios, who had no possible way to escape. I was beyond comprehension of any right or wrong as I felt my fangs pierce his skin, letting his blood flow freely into my own being. We drank from his veins until there was no life left in him.”

Anthony looked to the ceiling before finishing his tale. “And that is how the first six vampires were created.”

I switched my gun to the other hand and rolled my eyes. “This has been an interesting history lesson, but you haven’t told us about the remaining original lines and how we find them. That’s what we want to know.” I felt a bit like I was belittling the emotion of his tale. It was an interesting story and I was actually surprised that with all of my research on the history of Hunter’s and vampire lore, that I hadn’t come by any of that particular information. I wasn’t going to say anything, but I knew that the information he had just given us would eventually be help of some kind.

“Patience, my dear.”

Drew stepped forward. “If you haven’t noticed, we don’t really have time to sit around telling stories. The sooner we end this, the sooner we can get society back into something that can at least function.”

Anthony shook his head. “It will never be the same.”

“Yes,” Drew agreed, “but if we get rid of the vampires the rebuilding can begin. People can stop being so scared.”

The pain I’d felt from the entertainment center had finally faded away, so I stood up and paced a little bit. I still didn’t trust Anthony, but I was tired of sitting there pointing my gun at him. If he was going to try and kill us, he had already had plenty of opportunities to do that. I waved my gun at him on a pass by. “So tell us about the other vampires and their bloodlines,” and for my own personal curiosity, “and what happened to Chryssa”

Drew took over my chair while I paced and Anthony went on with his story telling. “Chyssa, knew what she had done to us. After her husband had been drained, she ordered us into the cells and locked us behind iron bars. It was a learning experience for her as well as for us. She did not realize the superior strength of the creatures she had created, but … neither did we. After the initial phase of hunger had been sated, the six of us were more afraid than anything. We cowered in the cells. She tried having food delivered to us, but the first of the servants she sent down ended up meeting his demise the same way as her husband. The servant came to the cell I shared with Mihalis and Pavlos, and tossed a loaf of bread in between the bars in our general direction.

I could smell him. His blood pumping, churning so freshly in his veins. The sour scent of the light sheen of sweat which covered his body almost distracted me from the delicious aroma of his blood. He had barely let go of the bread before I had ahold of his arm. I pulled him flush against the bars and bit into the veins at his wrist with a brutality I never thought possible of myself. Mihalis and Pavlos were right behind me, reaching through the bars for the poor servant’s other limbs.

“Afterward, the servant’s body dropped to the floor and once again, we were sated, if only for another short time. Each of us felt remorse for killing the servant, but we did realize that when the hunger took over, we did not feel that way. When the hunger took over we did not care about anything but feeding.

“We spoke amongst ourselves in the cells. The girls, Korina and Elene, were in the cell next to us with Vlasis, so we could hear them even though we could not see them. We were not imprisoned long, for soon Chryssa came to see what had become of the servant who never reported back to her.

“She approached the cells without fear, knowing that we would obey her every word. A darkness we had never seen before surrounded her, as if the summoning of the dark powers had left a stain on her aura. She found the dead servant and looked to us with no regret in her eyes or her words. She told us she would be back with a proper feeding. However … it was too late, we detested her and not one of us trusted her word. And most important, none of us, including Chryssa herself, knew that the blood we had already consumed had made us even more powerful. With every drop of blood our strength grew and so did our ability to deny her demands.

“She once had a power over us because she created us, but she created demons who evolved with the life force of others.

“As she strode away into the darkness of the hallway leading away from the cell, I felt anger well up inside of me. How dare she treat us this way! It was bad enough when we were treated poorly as servants, but being locked away and fed like animals because of her own selfishness … well, that was what sent me over the edge.

“In a flash, I was at the bars. My hands wrapped around the thick iron, grasping them with the rugged hands of a servant. I pulled inward with my anger fueling the motion. All of us in the cell were surprised when the iron cracked and split in the middle. I took no time to revel in the shock of what I had done. Instead, I forced the bars even farther toward me until I had an opening and I ran. I barely realized that I had moved with supernatural speed when I found her alone in the dim torchlight of the hall. She only had time to spin to face me, her charcoal mane flowing out around her at the same instant my hands wrapped around her neck.

“‘Stop!’ she choked out. ‘I command you to stop!’ Unlike before, I was able to ignore her wishes. When she ordered us to kill and go down to the cells, we obeyed because our bodies left us no choice, but now … I was the one in control.

“The others, all five of them, appeared behind me and slowly encircled her. She actually had the decency to look afraid of us. However, didn’t stop her from trying to call out commands to stop us. She called upon the powers of her ancestors as she had done before, but this time nothing appeared to help her. I grasped her neck even tighter and squeezed, feeling her heart rate quicken with fear and the blood pump even faster. I then brought my lips to her shoulder and let my fangs slip into her perfect golden skin, piercing the vein.

“My comrades followed suit, each taking a piece of her … our beautiful maker. And like her husband, we drank from her until there was no life left in her. Then … well, then we had no choice. We ran. We ran as far away as we could get from the home of Chryssa and Leventrios.

“The six of us traveled together for a long time, never staying in one place for very long at all. We discovered a lot about the creatures we had become as we traveled. Much of it was trial and error, like the fact that we could not set foot into the daylight. The day we discovered that was a sad day. You never realize how much something like sunlight means to you until you cannot have it.”

Anthony’s gaze moved to the darkened windows as he remembered the loss. “After many years of moving around, we also found that none of us aged. We stayed exactly the same as we were the day Chryssa cursed us.

“None of knew for a very long time that we could make more of our kind. It was an accident when it happened the first time. Korina, she drank a man to the brink of death, but did not kill him. This was the first of our offspring. The others, except for Vlasis, were thrilled to find that we could create more of our kind. Even after many, many years, they were still bitter over what Chryssa had done to us. So, they made up for the loneliness of only having each other by making others like us with the hopes that they would join our small group.

“The newborns, they became a problem. We found that they could not be controlled, and were even worse than we were when we were created. Our offspring were born with a lust far worse than our own. Few of those that were created stayed with us and eventually, the warrior woman and the warrior angel appeared to kill off our rapidly growing kind. We lost Elena, Mihalis, and Vlasis to the warriors during that sad time, it was then that we discovered the secret of killing head of the line. When each of them died, their entire line fell to their death within a few hours. Korina, Pavlos, and I went into hiding, hoping to avoid the wrath of the warriors. We knew that we were evil and that we should not exist, but even as demons, the human will to survive ran strong in our veins.

“The three of us stayed hidden for a long time, coming out into the villages and cities to feed. We were very careful not to create anymore vampires. Well … Pavlos and I were, Korina was another story. Our beautiful handmaiden, our sister, she had another evil that lived inside of her. As the years passed by, she began to resent humans all together, she felt them beneath us … she began creating vampires unbeknownst to us.

“By then, the warriors had created their own offspring.” He waved his hand toward us. “The Hunters. Your race was born to kill ours.”

Damn straight! And if he didn’t get to the point of this story that was exactly what I was going to do to him.

“We discovered what Korina had done when the Hunters waged war on the vampires. Pavlos and I did not want any more of our kind tainting the earth, for we still had some humanity left in us and knew without a doubt that those evil offspring should not be allowed to survive. So we fought with the Hunters, tracking the demons and killing them.”

Drew shifted in his chair. “Why didn’t you just kill Korina?”

Anthony shrugged. “She is my family. That long with someone builds a bond, whether you actually like that person or not is a different story than if you love them. I loved her, we were as brother and sister in a world where all odds were against us.”

“Would have solved a lot of problems,” I mumbled under my breath.

Anthony’s head snapped in my direction. “Little Hunter, do not speak of things you know nothing about. Spend a hundred years with him,” he waved his hand at Drew, “and then kill him because he made a few mistakes in that century.”

I kept silent. I wouldn’t do it; that was all there was to it. I would like to say that I could kill someone I love for the greater good, but even after only knowing Drew a few years, I would never be able to do that.

I didn’t apologize or elaborate on my thoughts to him, though. “Keep going.” I knew the important parts of the story were coming soon.

“We were almost killed by Hunters many times. That was one secret we kept, the secret of the bloodline. The Hunters did not know and we kept it that way in order to keep the three of us safe.

“Eventually, most of the stray vampires were killed, but not all. A few lived and moved on to create more and more. With the Hunters now in existence, it became their problem to deal with. Until we went our separate ways.”

“So Korina and Pavlos still live? That makes the three of you?”

Anthony nodded. “Yes, I have not created an offspring since the times of the warrior woman and the warrior angel. It is safe to assume that Korina and Pavlos are the remaining bloodlines of the vampires.”

I returned to my pacing. “Do you know where they are?” Man, why couldn’t he just tell us this before. I loved my history, but that was a long story that could have been summed up with the part at the end.

“I know where Korina is, and I’m assuming that the problem here is associated with her. I don’t think that Pavlos is in this country.”

Drew stood up, clutching his gun so tightly his knuckles were turning white. “Tell us,” he demanded of Anthony.

“New Orleans.” He tapped his fingers on the table.. “Korina resides in New Orleans.”

I threw my hands in the air. “Of course she does,” I said sarcastically, and looked to Drew. “You up for a road trip?”

He nodded. “We have to.”

Anthony stood, but neither Drew nor I moved to shoot him or anything like that. He seemed all right for now. Then he gave us the final bit of information. “Like I said, you can kill me if you want to afterward, however … there is one thing that I think you’re forgetting.”

Here it comes. I should have known there would be an ultimatum. The situation thus far just seemed too easy. “What?”

“You, young Chloe, are half vampire, also descended from one of our three lines.”

Oh.My.God. How could I have forgotten something like that?

He smiled. “Do not worry, after a bit of researching I have discovered it is my own line that you are born of … So, as long as I live, then so do you.”

My gun hand dropped to my side. “Oh, crap.”

~~***~~

Drew and I abandoned hunting for the night and went back to the house. We left Anthony at the apartment; he had told us that he would stay there for now and if we wanted to find him that he’d be there. As uncomfortable as it made me to just leave a vampire out there, we couldn’t really take him with us. Although, I was pretty sure he already knew where we lived.

We had to talk to the rest of the group and the other Hunters back at Arcadia Falls about the situation as soon as possible. So, continuing to hunt for the night wasn’t an option. It wasn’t like we really wanted to go out after learning all that we had, anyway.

Back at the house, we found everyone asleep. With the exception of Gavin, who was running the security system, and Christina, who was on patrolling the grounds outside.

Christina met us in the driveway as soon as Drew parked the truck. I caught sight of her jogging toward us as she appeared out of the darkness. The breeze caused strands of her dark hair to fly up behind her as she made her way in our direction. As always, she wore something fashionable, even if it was only to guard the inner grounds of our home. This particular night she had chosen a pair of black jeans and a black tank top. This outfit was accentuated by a lot of silver. Her boots were combat style, reached her knees, and had all kinds of buckles on them. She didn’t wear any bracelets because they usually made too much noise, but she made up for that with a pile of silver chains of all different sizes looped around her neck. Her gun belt rested on her hips and held a gun on each side. I preferred the shoulder holster myself. Of course, Christina wouldn’t be Christina without her knives, which could be seen strapped onto her thighs. There were most likely more knives on her body that we couldn’t see; she always had several knives of different shapes and sizes on her.

“Hey,” she greeted us as we hopped down from the truck.

I waved. “Hey. How is everything here?”

She shrugged. “It’s pretty quiet tonight. Nothing so far.”

Drew came around the front of the truck and we all walked in together.

“What about you guys, how was your night?” she asked. The front door clicked several times as Gavin unlocked them for us. Once the door was open, we all filed into the house and headed for the kitchen. I immediately went for the fridge and got out a couple of water bottles.

“It was eventful, actually.” I tossed one of the waters to Drew and uncapped the remaining one. “We have some very, very interesting information that everyone needs to know about, even The Board.”

Christina’s eyebrows shot up. “That important, huh?”

The Board consisted of some of the older Hunters. Once they didn’t go out on missions anymore, they were made part of The Board. All decisions regarding the community of Arcadia Falls or the vampire hunting missions were approved or disapproved by The Board beforehand. I wasn’t a favorite of the The Board at the moment. They were pissed at me because we went behind their back and took down the Talon Building, a building made up entirely of vampire run businesses. It was what started this whole vampire apocalypse to begin with.

Drew pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. “Yeah, it’s something we all have to talk about and soon. I’d rather not have to repeat the story to everyone individually. After we, as a group, decide what to do, then we can take it to The Board.”

Christina and I had both joined him by sitting down at the table. I eyed Drew; he looked really tired. This whole situation was stressing everyone out. Hopefully, with Anthony’s help, we could end it and some of us could actually get a decent night’s rest.

I began the process of taking my weapons off and setting them on the table. “Do you think we should talk to Luke about it before we tell The Board?”

He nodded and I noticed Christina nodding as well. “Yeah, we should definitely bring him over here first thing in the morning and let him know what’s going on when we tell everyone else.”

Christina leaned back in her chair and pouted. “You guys suck, now I really want to know what’s going on.”

“I’m with her,” Gavin’s voice stated over the intercom.

Drew shook his head. “It’s only a few hours, you guys. I have to get back to Arcadia Falls, and then I will be back here first thing in the morning with Luke.”

Christina stood first. “I should ride back with you, I don’t want you going by yourself.”

With a quick glance at me, Drew shook his head. “No, I’ll be fine. Besides, you were watching the grounds here.”

“I’ll do it.” I returned one of my guns to its holster. Both of their heads swiveled in my direction. “What? She’s right,” I insisted. “I don’t want you going all the way back to Arcadia Falls by yourself, either. So, Christina can go with you. I can watch the grounds until the sun comes up, and then I’ll grab a couple of hours sleep before you guys get back here with Luke. It’s the easiest way to do this right now without waking someone up.”

Christina flipped her hair. “See.”

“Don’t let that go to your head.” I rose from the table, went to the pantry door, and opened it. I was met with two floor to ceiling shelves full of food and another floor to ceiling shelf that housed ammo. I grabbed a box of 45 rounds from the stack and brought it back to the table where I began filling one of my empty clips.

Drew scooted his chair back and stood. “I guess if you’re all right with it, then Christina should come, just in case.”

I finished loading the clip and slid it up into my un-holstered gun. “Why wouldn’t I be all right with it?” This time both Drew and Christina rolled their eyes. It was common knowledge with everyone we knew that Christina and I hadn’t always gotten along. She and Drew were lifelong friends who had occasionally dated … and other things. She and I still had a rocky relationship, but at least we didn’t hate each other. It was also easier to make these decisions about her being around Drew because I knew that she was dating my brother, Zander, and the two of them were a pretty hot item. Well … as hot as an item could really be in the middle of an apocalypse.

I shrugged. “What? I’m totally okay with all that now.”

Christina shook her head. “I’m going out to the truck. See ya, Gavin,” she called out.

“Later,” his tired voice said over the intercom.

After we heard the door unlatch and then close again, Drew reached out and pulled me close to him. “We are going to take care of this. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. All right?”

I laid my head on his chest and wrapped my arms around him. He knew I was worried about what Anthony had told us, but I wasn’t ready to be worried about myself yet. Not yet … there were more important things to worry about, like saving the world. “I know,” I whispered.

He reached up and lifted my chin a little bit so that I would look at him. I always enjoyed gazing into his eyes because they told so much about him that he never voiced. At that second, when I looked deep into the green of his eyes, I saw that he was scared. To make it even more interesting, I knew it was me he was scared of losing.

My fingers found their way up and into his hair. “I am going to be just fine. We have other things to take care of before we can worry about me.”

He shook his head. “That is not even an option. We will not sacrifice you.” His voice had lowered to a whisper because Gavin was listening on the intercom.

“That really isn’t up to you,” I whispered back, and pulled him down for a kiss. Aware that Gavin was most likely watching us, I had totally intended for it to be a gentle peck of a kiss. However, Drew was also aware of Gavin’s presence and completely went the other way. He crushed his lips against mine and moved forward; I was forced to back up until I felt the wall press against me.

I wanted to tell him he was mean for intentionally flaunting our relationship in front of Gavin. At the same instant, heat flared within me, sizzling through my veins. I wished desperately that we weren’t being watched. I wanted to wrap my legs around him and let him carry me to bed so we could make out for a while before sleep finally claimed us. “I wish you were staying,” I mumbled against his lips.

Reluctantly, he tore his lips away from mine. “Next time,” he whispered. His breathing was heavy and his voice was husky; this kind of behavior was dangerous for us. I knew how hard it was for him to wait for me, but I didn’t really want him to wait. I was totally all right with sex, even though I’d never had it before. Drew, on the other hand, felt that we must wait until I turned eighteen.

I didn’t really think it was that big of a deal one way or the other.

Standing there—wrapped up in his arms, knowing he wanted me so badly—I realized something. If what Anthony said about the killing the bloodlines was true, I could possibly die a virgin. Yeah … that was so not going to happen.

“I have to go.” Drew pulled himself back, putting some space between us. “Christina’s waiting.”

I nodded. “Yeah, you should go.”

~~***~~

I woke the next morning feeling the aches and pains I felt every single day. Hunting vampires was really tough on the body. Even though we trained all the freaking time, when I fought with vampires I always ended up with a ton of bumps and bruises. Even with my superior healing I was always sore the next morning.

By the time I managed to drag myself out of bed, shower, and throw some clothes on, Drew and Luke had already arrived and were sitting in the living room chatting. Actually, the entire group was in there lounging on the couches and eating some kind of yummy looking pastries that Alice had made.

Luke, Drew, Alice, Zander, Christina, Oscar, and Gavin all looked up when I hurried into the room. “Why didn’t anyone wake me?” I demanded. “You shouldn’t have let me sleep so long.”

Luke stood as I hurried into the room and opened his arms for a hug. I rushed over and wrapped my arms around my grandfather. I missed him so much. There were a lot of downsides to living in his little house, especially when Alice and Oscar were crowded into the small space with us, but I often wished I was able to get back onto the community and go home.

“Ah, Chloe! I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you, too,” I told him honestly. “I wish we could come back home.”

He nodded. “As do I.” He looked to Alice. “Has there been any progress with finding a way to break the shield?”

Alice had had a smile on her face, but it fell as soon as Luke brought up Arcadia Falls and the shield. “No,” she shook her head and her blonde ponytail bobbed all over the place, “I’ve been searching all of the spell books trying to find the right one. Nothing has worked so far. I’m trying, though.”

He smiled with understanding. However, the reality of it was that she wasn’t trying all that hard. The group had had numerous discussions about the subject and we all decided that it was actually better if we left the barrier up. Leaving it up would protect the Hunters within from being attacked, and that was one less thing we had to worry about. Zander and I being unable to get through was a small worry at this point.

Luke released me and rubbed his hands together. “So, I hear that you have some news. Let’s hear it.”

He returned to the recliner he had been sitting in and I found a spot between Drew and Alice on the couch. As I squeezed myself into the tiny space, I caught Gavin staring at me. Our eyes locked and he gave me a small smile, but I saw hurt swimming in the depths of his pretty green irises.

He still insisted that he would fight for me, but since the vampires had taken over everyone sort of had bigger priorities than our love lives. Gavin and Drew still had a lot of issues to sort out and it wasn’t going to be something that happened overnight. Drew harbored so much jealously and anger toward Gavin because of their mother. She had abandoned Drew and his father so that she could be with Gavin and his father. She was not a nice lady, and I would never say it to his face, but I knew without a doubt that Drew was a lot better off without her in his life. Gavin turned out all right, but she loved him, and from what I could see, she didn’t really care that much about Drew at all.

Everyone was waiting for one of us to tell them what was going on, so Drew took the initiative and recapped Anthony’s story about how the first vampires were made and the remaining bloodlines, leaving out the last part about Zander and I being part of Anthony’s own line. His gaze flicked over to Luke, since Luke was his mentor and one of the elder Hunters.

It wasn’t often that I saw Luke surprised, but his jaw was slack and his eyes wide. “An end to the vampires. It … could it really be possible?”

I nodded. “If what Anthony says is true, then yes, it’s totally possible.”

“There are a few things we need to discuss before we get too excited, though.” Drew rubbed his forehead like he always did when he was stressed out. “First of all, he only knows where Korina is. That is only one bloodline, but it can still take out a huge majority of them.”

Christina had gotten up during his story and stood by the window, flipping her giant knife around like a baton. “Well, I don’t understand why we don’t just take out Anthony, too.”

“Good question,” Drew complimented her. “Two reasons, one is that he can help us find the remaining vampires, since he knows them. The second reason is a bit more complicated. We can’t prove it, but Anthony says that Trevor was of his line, which in turn …”

“Makes Chloe and I at risk to die if you kill him,” Zander finished for him.

I nodded. “Yes. Exactly.”

“Shit.” He bowed his head down into his hands.

Gavin spoke up before anyone else had the chance. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. We can’t risk it.”

“We risk our lives every day,” I told him. “Each time we leave this house to go fight the vampires we take the chance that we might not come back.”

Luke shook his head. “No, it doesn’t matter. Anthony stays alive then.”

I threw my hands up in the air. “We don’t even know if he is telling the truth about this. He could be making it up just to save himself.”

Gavin glared at me. “Not. Gonna. Happen.”

I sighed. I knew they were all going to feel like this. “Another thing we haven’t thought about is that Zander and I are only half vampire, the concept of the line falling might not work on us because we were born, not made.”

“I can probably find a blood spell somewhere, but we won’t be able to do it unless we can get some of his blood. That will determine if Chloe, Zander and Anthony share the same bloodline.”

Alice appeared thoughtful as she spoke, as if she were already searching the spell books in her mind

“You can do that kind of thing.” Christina questioned, her eyes wide.

Alice nodded. “Of course.”

Oscar leaned forward and flipped the pages of one of the magazines on the coffee table. “It’s strange that he would want to help in the first place.”

“I thought the same thing,” Drew agreed. “I feel that he is genuine in wanting to get rid of the other lines. He says he is willing to give himself up, but he did go through some trouble to find Chloe and let her know that if he dies then she possibly could, too. That sounds like something a person would do to protect themselves.”

Luke held his hands up. “Let’s take this one step at a time. The first thing we should concentrate on is finding the other lines. We can worry about Anthony Christos and his bloodline later. For now, we have the opportunity to take out, at the very least, one other line. If Dahlia is of Korina’s line, this should eliminate a large majority of the vampires who have taken over the city.”

Drew raised his eyebrows. “So, we go to New Orleans?”

Luke nodded. “We have to. Getting into New Orleans is not going to be easy, though. All of the cities are guarded.”

I hadn’t thought about that part. What I had thought about was that if it was bad here, it had to be worse in New Orleans. Vampires there just walked around out in the open all the time, even before the attacks began.

“I also think it might be better if we do not tell The Board about this,” Luke added.

Suddenly there was a heavy silence that hung heavy in the room. No one seemed to know what to say. I know I didn’t. Luke wasn’t really a member of The Board anymore—they had pretty much booted him off for endorsing our infiltration of the Talon Building—but he was still a Hunter and he almost always went to them with important information. I guess he was more peeved about them not backing him with the Talon Building than I thought he was.

Drew was the first to speak up. “All right. It’s just us then.”

That was the downside to not telling The Board, we wouldn’t have any backup. I had a feeling that this trip to New Orleans was going to be one place we were actually going to need it, but at the same time I knew that collectively we were a force to be reckoned with. I had several superior skills, including my fire power, we had several trained Hunters, Gavin had his water power, Alice rocked a sword, Christina handled knives like they weren’t deadly weapons, Oscar was a siren who could compel people with the sound of his voice, and Zander was just a badass who liked to kill vampires.

I had faith in us, but that didn’t mean that some extra Hunters wouldn’t have made this job a whole lot easier. “I’m game. But I had an idea today, to keep people safe while we go to New Orleans and try to fix this.”

It looked like everyone was still taking in the whole bloodline ordeal. My group of friends usually had a lot more to say. I was especially surprised that Christina hadn’t been shooting off smarty pants comments the whole time. Even Drew and Gavin weren’t bickering like they usually did.

“What do ya got?” Christina gave her knife a final flip and sheathed it before hopping onto Zander’s lap.

“I know that this might be an inconvenience to The Board and the Hunters, but it would keep people safe.”

Luke leaned forward, his curiosity piqued.

“I want to get a couple of buses and gather up the survivors from the city who haven’t pledged to the Vampire Council yet. Arcadia Falls is safe and I want to take them there.”

Silence followed. I shifted uncomfortably because I didn’t know what everyone thought of the idea. Sure, it would give away the secret of the community, but we could save a lot of people.

“It’s genius,” Luke whispered. “My granddaughter is a genius.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” I mumbled.

Finally, people started talking. Drew reached over and squeezed my leg. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of this before.”

“Because we thought that we would be taking the barrier down,” Alice pointed out. “What would be the use of sending them there if the protection wasn’t going to remain around the community?”

I continued with my train of thought, “If we cleared out the old gym, we could put up cots in the building and use it as a shelter.”

Oscar, who had been quiet most of the time, adjusted his body on the couch. “If we do this, we are going to need to find supplies, too. A lot of supplies. Feeding all those people is going to be pretty hard. Plus, you will need cots and blankets. All of that is what we will need … at the very least.”

Luke stood. “I’ll run it by The Board right now.” He left the room to go contact whoever he needed to call. The Board members might not sanction a trip to New Orleans to find the head of a few vampire bloodlines, but this was something they would probably go for. A Hunter’s mission in life was to protect the human race from vampires by eradicating them from the world. In this case we could protect a lot of humans and they would probably be on board with that.

Luke was on the phone for a while, I assume with several different people. He came back after a little while sporting a satisfied grin. “They’ll do it.”

“Yes!” I executed a fist pump. “Let’s save some people from those blood suckers!”

Luke chuckled and held up his hand. “They are spreading the word through the community and starting preparations immediately. If we are going to pull this off, it has to be in broad daylight, when it’s safest. For now we just need to worry about getting people there. They will take care of the details.”

“Sweet.” I looked to the group. “You guys up for this?”

There was a chorus of all kinds of positive responses while everyone got moving. I hurried to the hall closet and flung open the double doors. Yet another arsenal greeted me. I ran my eyes over all of the weapons and ammunition, then selected a box of UV shells for my gun.

I turned over the closet to Alice and Oscar before hurrying to my room so I could get my weapons on.

Excitement about what we were going to do made me giddy. I couldn’t help it, it was so rare that anything good happened lately. I wanted to savor the feeling. I strapped on my weapons as fast as I could, grabbed my bow, and headed out the door.

This was going to be awesome.

~~***~~

We locked up the house securely and all of us crammed into the Escalade to head into the city. Normally, we never left the house unattended—we always had someone stay behind to run the security system and keep watch while we were gone—but no one wanted to stay behind for this mission. Plus, we figured as long as we got it finished while it was still light out, everything should be fine.

We headed straight for the high school in hopes that we could find a couple of buses there. Luckily, we picked the right school because there were two buses parked behind the school in a gated in lot. I burned the lock off of the gate and let our SUV pass through. Running behind them, I drew my gun before prying one of the bus doors open.

After I was on the bus, I walked the aisle and cleared every seat to make sure there weren’t any vampires hiding out for the day. Once I was sure it was clean, I poked my head out the door. “It’s clear!”

Christina and Zander climbed the steps up onto the bus with me, and Zander immediately checked the ignition. “We’re going to have to hotwire it.”

“Do you know how to do that?”

He spread his hands wide. “I’m a man of many trades.”

I rolled my eyes. “I wouldn’t call knowing how to hotwire a vehicle a trade.”

“Call it what you will.” He shrugged and sat down in the driver’s seat, then reached under the bulky dashboard, feeling for wires. “Honestly, though, I’ve never hotwired a bus, but I don’t see it being much different than a car.”

“I’m sure it’s not,” Christina mumbled just as the bus shuddered and roared to life.

“Piece of cake,” Zander told me as he stood up. “I better go help with the other bus now. Who’s going to drive this thing?”

Christina smoothed down the red, oversized tank that she had on over a pair of black skinny jeans. “I think Drew is going to drive this one and Luke is going to drive the other,” she answered.

I nodded. “Sweet.”

In less than ten minutes we were divided up and pulling the buses out onto the streets. Drew joined me and took the wheel. Surprisingly, Gavin hurried up the steps and sat down in the seat right behind Drew, greeting us with, “Hey, guys, I’m with you.”

“Really?” Drew muttered.

I took the seat across the aisle from Gavin, closest to the door. “Shhh,” I scolded Drew, “we’re on a mission. Save that for another time.”

Christina and Zander stayed on the bus Luke was driving, and Alice took over the wheel of the Escalade, so of course Oscar stayed with her.

We only went a few blocks before we started seeing survivors. The scared humans scattered and hid when they saw the big yellow buses roll up. It was one thing to see cars out in the city, but no one used buses anymore.

Drew stopped in the middle of the street and put the bus in park. A loud hiss sounded as he reached over and pulled the lever to open the door. “Ready?” he asked.

“Totally,” I answered. “Let’s do this.”

Gavin simply nodded and we stepped down off the bus into the street.

The others were descending, and Alice had parked the Escalade behind the second bus. I watched Alice get out from behind the wheel. The harsh summer sun beat down on us brutally, but it glinted off her hair when she reached up and re-did her ponytail. Oscar stepped down from the passenger side and gazed over the top of the SUV to where she stood. He stared at her for less than a minute while she finished with her hair. She was oblivious to the look, but I saw it and it made me happy that she had someone who loved her. Well, someone who loved her and didn’t want to drink her blood.

Suddenly, her head snapped toward him and she realized he had been staring at her. She flashed him a playful smile and slid her short swords into the sheaths crossed at her back.

Focus, Chloe, focus.

“I guess I’ll try and get them to come out … let them know what we’re doing here.”

“Good idea,” Luke agreed. I glanced over at Drew and he nodded agreement as well.

“All right.” I made sure my bow was in a good position. “Here goes nothing.” I jogged away from the buses until I had a good distance between myself and them. Then, I sprinted back toward the first bus, pushing off when I knew the time was right. I leapt up into the air, hoping I had gauged the distance correctly. I brought my feet up and tucked them under me until I was directly above the roof of the bus.

I landed on one knee with the other bent in front of me. Thank God I made that landing; it would have totally sucked if I had overshot it or not gotten close enough. I stood and turned a circle. Hiding behind the corners of buildings and behind cars, I could see curious eyes peering out at me, wondering why we were here.

“Don’t be afraid. We are friends,” I shouted, hopefully loud enough for them all to hear. “We are here to help you. If you want help, we can take you to a safe place where the vampires can’t go.”

Nothing. Silence.

The eyes were still staring at me. The ones that I couldn’t actually see, I could feel. The group all stared up at me, every one of them squinting against the sun and smiling up with reassurance. “Um … Do you see us here?” I swept my hand across the general area of where the group stood. “We are Hunters. We know how to kill the vampires, and we know how to stay safe. You have to trust me, but if you are going to come with us you have to choose to do so now so we can get you out of here before nightfall.”

Again, I moved my gaze across the cluttered streets. Why didn’t any of them come out? It never really occurred to me that we would have to talk the survivors into joining us. I assumed that they would be so thankful that they would all run on to the buses.

Then, I finally saw a man step out from behind a truck. He wore jeans and a dirty beige T-shirt. His hair was dark brown but had a bit of gray streaked throughout it. He looked exhausted and malnourished. “You can really take us to a place where the vampires can’t go?” He shaded his eyes and looked up me.

“Yes, we can,” I called down to him.

“Then I want to go, my … my family needs safety.”

“You and your family are more than welcome to come with us. Get them and get on the bus.”

Luke approached the man and appeared to be talking to him. I turned on my super hearing and heard Luke telling him that we didn’t have time for them to go back to their home for personal items.

“I’m sorry, but there simply isn’t time to wait. You will be provided necessities when you arrive,” Luke tried to reassure the man.

The guy appeared to weigh the options between going to a safe place with none of their personal items and facing off with vampires every night. Should be no contest there, right?

Finally, he turned and waved back in the direction of where he had originally come from. “Come on, Amber.” Not long after, a blonde woman dressed in jeans and a light blue button up shirt emerged from behind the truck. She held a baby girl in her arms. I couldn’t tell how old she was, but definitely less than a year. Another little girl was clinging to Amber’s leg. The little girl had blonde curls like her mother, and appeared to be about five years old. Not that I knew all that much about children or how old they looked.

Luke beckoned to them. “Come on, no need to be scared. None of us will hurt you, it’s our job to protect you.”

Gavin stepped up next to Luke. “Which is why we want you to come with us. It’s much safer where you will be going.”

Amber’s husband peeled the little girl off of her mother’s leg and lifted her into his arms. He stared into his wife’s eyes, “Let’s go, honey. We have to.” He used his free hand to gently touch his smaller daughter’s head and his eyes flicked to the little girl he held. Amber seemed to understand what he was trying to say and nodded that she understood.

“All right,” she whispered. She quickly strode over to the open door of the bus and stepped inside. Her husband followed right behind her.

I let out a breath I didn’t even realize that I’d been holding as soon as they were safely on the bus. After a couple of deep, cleansing breaths, I called out again, “Will anyone else join us today? I don’t know if or when we will be able to come back again, so please, if you seek safety then come with us.”

I waited.

The group waited.

Eventually, they began to withdraw from their hiding places and come to us. Once several survivors had joined us, and I was fairly sure I wouldn’t have to stand on the bus and do anymore pleading with them, I hopped down. I joined the others and helped greet the survivors, who apparently needed reassurance before they got their butts on the bus.

The main reason we were trying to greet each one before they got on the bus was to check for tattoos. We had to make sure that we weren’t putting someone loyal to the Vampire Council on a bus that would take them right into Arcadia Falls.

We filled one bus and drove to another neighborhood. Once there, we had to go through pretty much the same process of convincing them that we were not going to hurt them and that we wanted to help them.

We had the first half of the second bus filled when our luck ran out on us. I heard the cars coming and hollered to the group, “Someone’s coming!”

The police cars appeared at every intersection, effectively blocking us from escape. The policemen who got out were dressed in the usual uniforms of the local law enforcement, but we all knew they were not on our side.

Crap, crap, crap.

I looked over at the rest of the group, discovering they were drawing their weapons. The survivors who weren’t on the buses ran off to hide, knowing that their lives were at stake by these people who had pledged themselves to the Vampire Council.

“Surrender your weapons,” a male voice demanded from a loud speaker on one of the cars. “Set them on the ground and put your hands in the air.”

Yeah, like that was going to happen. Wait, on second thought, I had weapons they didn’t know about.

I caught Gavin’s eye and locked gazes before very deliberately setting my gun on the ground. He seemed to understand the silent message and also put his gun on the ground in front of him. Next, I looked to Alice. She had already seen the exchange between Gavin and I, so she followed suit, already knowing what my plan was.

They were coming, and fast. I could hear the screams from the frightened survivors on the buses already. They knew who these people were; they were one of the only reasons they were afraid to go out while it was daylight.

The “police” had their guns drawn and were running toward us. “On the ground! Everyone on the ground,” one of them yelled.

Good. We needed them close to us.

Suddenly … a fire hydrant blew. Water sprayed up about fifty feet into the air. The law enforcement officer who was next to it jumped in shock and popped off a shot when his finger involuntarily pulled the trigger.

While they were still recovering from the first hydrant and trying to avoid being soaked, another one made a loud popping noise and exploded like the first one.

During this time, Gavin and I ran forward while Alice slid back, taking the rest of the group with her to the buses. They lined up along the side of the large yellow vehicles and Alice worked her magic.

A sheen of sparkle slid around them, and then up and over the buses. Her magical shield would protect the others while Gavin and I did the fighting. There were six pledged policemen; if we could take on groups of vampires, then we could do this.

The only problem was that they weren’t vampires.

These were people. They had pledged to the Vampire Council to stay alive, and they would kill us if they had to. Then, the people who had gotten on the buses would either be killed or taken prisoner. So, that only left us one choice.

Gavin used his power to push the water down on the policemen. Reaching over, I grabbed my gun with one hand and holstered it, then reached for my bow. Lightning fast, I notched an arrow. Aim and fire. I could not let myself think about the fact that these were people. I just couldn’t. I hit the first one in the heart.

And then the second in the stomach.

That’s when the bullets started flying. I ran to one side and Gavin ran to the other. These guys were horrible shots. Gavin and I knew we had a much better chance of not getting hit if we kept moving. Still targets were a lot easier to hit.

I put my bow back over my shoulders and ran into the fray, letting the fire swirl within my body. The warmth spread quickly until the tiny flames appeared at my fingertips. The police seemed really shocked that I had ran right in front of them. I was so close they couldn’t even get a bead on me. All five of them were concentrating on me, so they forgot Gavin had run off the other way. I let the fire fly.

My arms spread out wide like I was going to fly away and I released a stream of fire, then spun like a wannabe ballerina. Even though they were soaked to the skin from the hydrants, there was no avoiding the pain of my fire. I knew it was doing the job when the screams began.

They ran in circles, flailing their arms as they tried to escape the burn of my flames. I just kept spinning, hoping Gavin would do what I thought he was going to do.

Bang!

Yes, he was on it.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

And just like that. They were all down.

Well … they were all down, but they weren’t all dead. I reined in the fire and pulled out my gun. I could hear painful moaning of the injured policemen and knew that we couldn’t leave them there alive.

Suck it up, I told myself. You can do this. You have to do this.

The four policemen who had just been shot lay sprawled on the pavement. Water rained down upon them in giant, fat drops, pooling in large puddles around their bodies as it mixed with their blood.

I marched forward with determination. Gavin appeared beside me, both of us soaked from the hydrant water. My hair was heavy and my clothes stuck to my body in a very uncomfortable way.

“You don’t have to do this,” he whispered.

“Yes I do.”

“We could leave them … or I could do it. It doesn’t have to be you.”

I shook my head and blew some of the water off of my lips. “I can do it.”

I could have easily passed this off to him, but the whole saving the survivors thing was my idea and I had to be the one.

There were two who were still alive. One of them was on his hands and knees trying to crawl away. The gunshot wound in his lower back was exposed, bleeding profusely as he inched through the water and away from the other bodies.

Just do it.

I lifted my gun and fired. It was a rare thing that I missed, and this time wasn’t any different. I had aimed for the head and that is where the bullet made its home. His arms and legs went out from underneath him and his body hit the pavement.

Tears escaped from the corners of my eyes. I was grateful that the water from the hydrants was still going because it masked my weakness.

The other officer lay on his back shivering with pain and fear. He turned his head and watched me come toward him, his hand covering his chest where Gavin had shot him. Blood seeped out of the wound and through his fingers. His eyes widened when I got a little closer and he could focus on me.

I averted my eyes to avoid looking into his. I concentrated on his tattoo instead. Everyone pledged to the Vampire Council had a small dragon tattooed on their right cheek. When they first started the tattoos, I had wondered why they chose that particular symbol for their people. After researching, I’d discovered that the dragon was a symbol of strength, courage, and immortality.

“Please,” he breathed out so quietly that I could barely hear him. “Please … do it.”

I felt Gavin’s hand on my shoulder and my vision blurred with more tears as I aimed for the head again.

Bang!

It was over.

Not wanting to look at the bodies even one more second, I turned away and sloshed through the water, back to where the group was waiting by the buses. Drew hurried over to me, and after taking one look at my face he pulled me in and wrapped his arms around me.

“Are you all right?” he whispered against my ear.

I was afraid to speak. I didn’t want to break down in front of a whole bus full of survivors and my friends. So I just shook my head, hoping he would understand.

“Come on.” He pulled away from me and looked into my eyes. “We have to get out of here. More might be coming.”

I nodded and followed him to the bus. Everyone was already seated and ready to leave. They had gotten some more of the survivors to come out while we had the policemen busy and almost filled the bus.

It was later than we thought it would be, so we hauled butt back to Arcadia Falls. During the drive I tried to forget about what had happened. I had killed people … not vampires. I just never thought that would happen to me.

Gavin kept looking over at me like he wanted to come over and comfort me or something. I avoided his inquiring gaze and leaned back in the seat with my eyes closed. Pretending it never happened was probably best. I had to act normal, be strong, and get on with our mission.

When we parked at the gate, I ignored the fact that Gavin was sitting right there and gave Drew a quick kiss on the lips. “See you soon,” I told him.

I turned to Gavin and saw hurt swimming around in his green eyes. “Hurry back,” I said flatly, and stepped down off the bus. Zander got off his bus, too; we had to trade places with Alice and Oscar since we couldn’t get past the barrier.

“How are you guys going to get back up to the gate?” I asked Oscar as I opened the passenger door to the Escalade.

“Luke will probably bring us in his car. We’re going to leave the buses here.”

“Good. I just wanted to make sure that you are going to be able to get back up to the gate without having to walk the whole way.”

He nodded. “We will be fine.”

“Hurry,” I told him. “We need to get back before dark.”

I worried a lot about leaving the house unattended. During the day it should be fine, but it was late afternoon, so every hour brought us closer to darkness and death.

He patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll be quick.” With that, he took off to join the others. The gate rolled open and the buses passed through the invisible shield that protected the community, but kept me out. Once they were safely through, the gate closed and the buses disappeared from sight.

I hopped up into the passenger seat of the Escalade and leaned back on to the soft leather seat. Man, it felt wrong sitting on the leather with my wet clothes.

“What’s the matter?” Zander asked from his seat behind the wheel.

I stared at the gate which locked me out of the world of Hunters. “A bunch of stuff. You know one of them. It’s the same problem you have, only you don’t really care.”

He shrugged. “I don’t really have a reason to care.”

I understood that. “But I do. I didn’t live here very long, but it’s home to me. The house we live in now, it’s just a place to be, not a home.”

He turned the key and the Escalade came to life, idling with a steady purr. “I get that,” he told me. “Alice will fix it. After all this is over.”

At least I could take solace in the fact that that dumb barrier would save some lives.

Zander moved the Escalade off to the side of the road by the gatehouse so that we could wait for the rest of the group without sitting in the middle of the road. Once we were parked, he cut the engine again and spent the remainder of the wait in silence.

The time passed quickly … too quickly. It was absolutely agonizing watching the sun get further and further down in the sky and hoping they would show up any moment. The most dangerous part of the mission was over, but I didn’t want to leave the house alone.

“Knock it off, Chloe.”

I looked over and Zander had an annoyed expression on his face. “The house will be fine. We are only going to be there one more night anyway. Aren’t we leaving for New Orleans in the morning?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I know.” My reasoning didn’t make sense. The damn vampires would probably break into the place while we were in New Orleans, but my hopes about finding the head of the bloodlines remained. If we could kill them, there wouldn’t be any vampires left when we returned to the house.

“Here they come!” Zander pointed.

My head snapped up. Through the windshield I saw Luke’s car speeding up the road leading to the gate.

“Thank God,” I muttered as Zander started the engine.

~~***~~

The first thing we did back at the house was clear the place to make sure it was, indeed, free of the enemy. Then, I hurried upstairs to change out of my wet clothes. Oscar loaned Gavin some things to wear since he was also soaked from the hydrant water.

After that, it was our own sort of chaos that ensued. There was a rather heated argument about Anthony. Drew and I had to go tell him that we were leaving, but no one in the group wanted to travel with him. So, long story short, he was going to have to meet us there.

Zander seemed to think that we shouldn’t even tell him we were leaving. “The dude is ancient, he should be smart enough to figure out that if he hasn’t seen you for a few days, you probably left without him.”

“I agree with Zander.” Christina propped her feet up on the coffee table to adjust one of her boot buckles.

“Of course you agree with him,” I shot back at her.

Luke sat at the table with his gun taken apart and spread out in front of him for cleaning. He looked up with a glint of remorse in his eyes. “As much as I’d like to disagree, he does have a point. Why should we send you into a dangerous situation if we don’t have to?”

Drew shook his head. “No, we have to go tell him. We want to be able to trust him … well trust him as much as we can. But for us to do that we have to prove that we are trustworthy. Why should he do anything for us if we are going to go behind his back as soon as he gives us information we could use.”

Luke didn’t look convinced.

“Look,” I sat down in a chair across from him and looked him in the eye, “I don’t really want to go out into the city tonight, either. I don’t want to tell Anthony that we are leaving, but we have to. This is a risk we are going to have to take. We know nothing about the other original vampires and he is the only one who can help us find them.”

He still didn’t seem very happy about it, but he conceded. “Fine. You guys can go tell him that we are going there,” he pointed his finger at us, “but do not tell him when we are leaving. We can meet him there in a few days. That gives us lead time.”

“Deal.” I jumped up from my seat and went around to give Luke a hug. Surprised, he returned the embrace.

“Why are you so excited about this guy?” Christina asked from across the room where she was reapplying a coat of pink nail polish. I guess she had her priorities when it came to getting ready to head out for a battle.

“I’m not. I just have a feeling about this. I don’t trust the guy at all, but I can feel it in my bones that this is the answer.”

She nodded, still concentrating on her nails. “We have never done this before … joined forces with a vampire, I mean. It doesn’t feel right to me.”

“I get that,” I agreed. “I don’t think we are joining forces, exactly,”

She capped her nail polish and blew on her fingertips. “Oh, we are. We have to have a certain amount of trust to work with—”

Oscar interrupted, “No, we have to tolerate him. You are all trained to kill the likes of him. One vampire doesn’t stand a chance against us, even if he is thousands of years old.”

Everyone agreed with that, at least.

Luke began putting his gun back together. “So, we leave at first light. Drew, Chloe, you guys go ahead and drive into the city, but come right back to get your things packed and rest up.”

Drew, who had been quiet the whole time, nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Anxious to get it over with and actually be on our way to New Orleans, I grabbed my holster and strapped it on. “We’re leaving right now.” I put all of my weapons on as fast as I could, grabbed my bow, and headed for the door. “Come on, Drew.”

He was doing the same thing I had done; getting all of his weapons placed where they felt best and were the easiest for him to get to. “I’m coming, calm down.”

I really wasn’t trying to be a pain, but we had to hurry and get back to pack our things if we were going to leave at first light. Gavin, who had been quiet most of the day, wandered over to entryway where I waited for Drew. “Be careful,” he told me.

I grinned, trying to look normal. “This is nothing. Just like any other night, so no need to be worried.”

He didn’t return the smile; his face remained serious. “I haven’t met this guy, but I don’t like him. Don’t forget that he’s a vampire.”

“I don’t know why you all act like he’s my new BFF or something. I’m doing a job and I’m taking a lead to help end this crap. I’m just doing what needs to be done.”

He leaned against the wall. Stray locks of dark brown hair fell down into his eyes. I fought the urge to reach out and brush them away. He smirked like he knew what I was thinking. “We know what you’re doing, but lately you have been doing things without really thinking them through and that’s dangerous.” He paused. “Plus, with what just happened today, you might be distracted.”

“I’m fine.”

“I hope so.” He pushed off the wall.

Drew appeared beside me. “You ready?”

I nodded, moving my gaze between Gavin and Drew. “Just waiting for you.”

Gavin gave Drew that head nod that silently said ‘Good luck, but I’m still not speaking to you’ and strode back into the living room.

~~***~~

We took the Escalade instead of Drew’s loud ass truck. It was already dark, which made our entrance into the city far more dangerous than coming in before nightfall when we could hide out and wait.

“So,” he broke the silence about halfway into the city, “are you going to talk about what happened today?”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. “No.”

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” Boy, I was saying that a lot today. Unfortunately, I really wasn’t fine. I just hoped I would be.

“Well,” he took his eyes off the road to glance at me, “I’m here for you. I’m not going to make you talk about it, but I’m always here for you to confide in or whatever it is that you need.”

Damn the tears. I felt the trickle on my cheek and wiped it away, then reached out and set my hand on his leg. “I know you are.” After that he didn’t say anything and we rode the rest of the way in silence.

We went directly to bakery and parked out front. I hopped out as soon as the truck came to a stop. Both of my guns were drawn and my fingers were twitching to shoot something. Drew was out of the truck almost immediately after me, taking the other side of the truck.

“I’m gonna jump,” I whispered to Drew and looked up at the balcony to let him know what I was thinking.

He glanced at the balcony and then back at me, his eyes wide with fear. A quick shake of his head told me he didn’t want me to do it.

“It’s faster that way, and safer,” I insisted. “We don’t have to clear the bakery, the stairwell, and the apartment.”

“No.” His voice was firm and took on that ‘I’m the leader here’ tone.

“Drew—”

“I said no.”

Suddenly, another voice joined our whispering. “Would it be helpful if I came to you?”

Both Drew and I swung around and aimed at the source of the voice near the back of the truck. Anthony Christos stood there, dressed in blue jeans this time instead of black ones. He had on a maroon button up shirt that looked really nice against his skin and his lips were turned up in a smirk.

“Anthony!” I hissed. “You are seriously trying to get yourself shot.”

“I was not concerned about that,” he responded.

Drew rolled his eyes at Anthony’s blatant dismissal of his safety. “Obviously.”

Anthony stepped forward a few feet in our direction. “So, are we traveling to New Orleans?”

I nodded. “That’s what we came to tell you. We are going, but you can’t come with us. You will have to meet us there. We need time to prepare so we are leaving in a couple of days.”

“Mmmm,” He flicked his gaze from me to Drew suspiciously. I was pretty sure he could sense the lie. “I see. Your friends don’t want to travel with a vampire, am I correct?”

I glanced at Drew before I answered and found he had taken his eyes off of Anthony to check the rest of our surroundings. We were, after all, out in the middle of the city at night. Vampires could be anywhere. “Yes,” I finally admitted. “But you can’t blame them for how they feel. We both feel the same way.” I motioned to Drew and myself. “You’re a vampire and we don’t trust vampires … we kill them.”

Anthony tilted his head slightly. “Speaking of which, when are you going to stop pointing your guns at me. There is no need for that.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” My guns didn’t waver.

“Relax, little Hunter. There is no need for such acts of violence. I know that you do not trust me, nor do I trust your friends not to simply kill me off before I am ready. I will meet you in New Orleans in three days’ time. Does that meet your approval?”

I don’t know what I expected, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be so easy. Lately, nothing was easy. Again I looked to Drew before I answered. He had returned his attention to Anthony and me. He gave me a slight nod of approval and I quickly answered Anthony’s question, “Um, yeah. That sounds fine.”

Anthony chuckled. “When you get to New Orleans, find this address.” He held out a slip of paper with an address scrawled on it. “It’s in the Garden District.”

I knew of the Garden District, but I’d never been to New Orleans so it didn’t really help me any. I holstered only one of my guns, but let the other one come to rest at my side. “This is where you will be?”

He nodded. “Yes. I have owned the house for years. Rented it out for a short time. Homes in the Garden District go for a pretty penny.”

Well, at least we would know where he was and wouldn’t have to go on a wild goose chase looking for him when we got there. “Thanks.” I waved the paper at him and then tucked it in to my pocket.

Drew moved to open the driver door of the Escalade. “We’d better go now.”

“Yeah, things to do,” I agreed, wanting to get back home just as much as he did. “We’ll see you in New Orleans in three days then. Well … nights, three nights from now,” I confirmed with Anthony. He nodded and gave a slight gentlemanly bow.

“You have my word.” And then he was gone.

I went around and got into the passenger seat.

“Like his word means anything,” Drew scoffed.

I shook my head, not really wanting to talk about it. “Let’s just go home.”

Without a word Drew turned the key and started the engine. We rode home in silence, listening to the sound of the tires on the pavement and our low breathing. Both of us had things on our minds, but I still didn’t really feel like talking about my feelings at the moment. The mission was at hand and first priority for me. If we could take out a vampire line, then that came first before anything.

~~***~~

The next morning I literally had to drag myself out of bed. None of us had gotten much sleep, but we needed to get on the road. We were mostly going to be traveling during the day and hunkering down at night. It was just safer that way.

We had packed the two vehicles the night before so that we didn’t have to do it in the morning. We were taking Zander’s truck and the Escalade; that way everyone would fit comfortably since we had a lot of luggage as well. Christina had far more than any of us. Plus, we had to bring food since we weren’t sure where we would be able to get any, and we didn’t want to spend half our travel time looting for provisions.

We set out at dawn, leaving behind our little fortress and Arcadia Falls as well.

We avoided the main freeways to the cities by going around them on the back roads. Most of the cities were guarded, some were not. It just took us a lot longer by going around the major cities instead of through them. I was actually quite surprised at how little action we got and took the opportunity to sleep a lot in the car.

I was worn out, plain and simple. I needed the sleep to get my groove back and I knew it. If I had gone on much longer such a severe lack of sleep, I would have been putting myself and my friends at risk. So, the car ride was a good time to catch up and get my strength back.

The trip to New Orleans took two full days. Mid-morning of the third day we approached the city famous for its ghosts and vampires with anticipation.

Suddenly, the bridge leading into New Orleans loomed before us … but that wasn’t the only thing waiting for us at the entry to the city.

Military trucks were parked in such a way that it blocked passage over the bridge. Men in Army uniforms stood in a line across the road in front of the trucks, armed with standard military weapons. The dragons on their cheeks were prominently displayed for all to see, telling us that we were going to fight our way into New Orleans.

I sat in the Escalade with Luke, Drew, and Gavin. Alice, Oscar, and Christina were in the truck with Zander. This scene wasn’t a surprise; we knew that it was the only way in, aside from searching the banks of the Mississippi for a boat. And if we were caught in the middle of the river and needed to fight we stood much less of a chance.

We rolled to a stop, both vehicles pausing side by side. The men in uniforms didn’t budge an inch, but a loud shouting erupted from one of the vehicles. “Step out of your vehicles and put your hands in the air!”

The four of us glanced at each other, again not surprised.

“You ready?” Drew asked us.

Luke took a deep breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Gavin and I answered in unison, “Ready.”

Drew was driving and I was in the passenger seat. He reached over and gave me a much longer kiss than I would have preferred in front of my grandfather, but … it could very well be the last one ever, so what the hell.

After he released me, my adrenaline was really pumping from the contact and I withdrew my guns from their holsters. “Let’s do this.”

They drew their guns as well, then we all opened our doors simultaneously and stepped out of the vehicle.

~~~***~~~

READ AN EXCERPT FROM

THE ARCADIA FALLS CHRONICLES BOOK 4

This is an un-edited excerpt, at this time of uploading Arcadia Book 4 has not been published yet.

I was on autopilot now, open the door, get out, fight, kill … survive.

I stepped out of the car and a blast of hot, muggy Louisiana air hit me, causing a sheen of sweat to instantly appear on my skin. The breeze didn’t do anything to help matters, it only made things worse by catching my hair and making it flutter around into my eyes.

My guns were both drawn as I moved out from behind the car door to face the men who awaited us at the bridge. They had blocked the entrance into New Orleans with their trucks and stood in front of the vehicles with their assault rifles aimed at us.

The men were in military uniforms, right down to the Kevlar and flack vests. Dark sunglasses covered their eyes, but the dragon tattoos on their right cheeks stood out prominently displaying their loyalty to the Vampire Council. I counted eight men in uniforms. There were six of us, but that didn’t mean anything when we were up against assault rifles. It looked like Alice was going to have to do a lot of the heavy lifting for us to get out of this one.

“Set your weapons down and put your hands in the air!” The loudspeaker guy repeated.

I knew better than to look at my comrades, a good Hunter always kept her attention on the target. We had known this was coming long before we arrived, so we were somewhat prepared.

I felt, more than saw the shimmering bubble silently slip around me. I knew without looking that the shield was large enough to cover the whole group.

Drew, and Luke stood to my left and Gavin was directly behind me. Alice, Oscar, Zander and Christina were to our right, having pulled Zander’s truck up on that side of the Escalade. It had been decided ahead of time that none of us were going to part with our weapons. We couldn’t chance losing our only guns since there was no way for us to get any more at the moment.

“Now!” The loudspeaker guy demanded.

None of us complied with his repeated order, so his next order was to his soldiers. “Fire!”

If you have enjoyed the books in The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter and The Arcadia Falls Chronicles, please consider leaving a review wherever you purchased it.

Thank you!

READ AN EXCERPT FROM SAVIOR

A FULL LEGNTH NOVEL BY JENNIFER MALONE WRIGHT

Sweltering heat emanated from the searing flames. Alex ignored his blistered skin and burnt clothes. He plunged both arms into the blazing orange inferno without a second thought for his own well-being. His hands frantically flailed until he found what he searched for. He pulled the charred remains up and hugged them to his chest before he gave a desperate glance toward the others.

Smoke curled into his mouth and nose and made it nearly impossible to breathe.

“Hurry, hurry. Get out now,” a gentle voice whispered into his ears. “You must go right now if you want to live.”

However, he couldn’t leave them behind.

“Go now,” the voice whispered more urgently.

Sparks flew when a giant log broke in half and fell from the ceiling. It crashed onto the floor less than two feet from where Alex stood. Flames engulfed the fallen wood and created yet another obstacle.

The voice tried again, crying out, “Hurry, Alex!”

Alex knew he needed to move if he wanted to live, but he paused for a moment to question whether he even wanted to bother. The flames grew while Alex stood motionless, undecided. Suddenly, a great push from behind thrust him forward toward a wall of fire.

***

Alex stirred in his mahogany coffin, one of the best money could buy. He felt the soft, white velvet lining rub against his cheek, but it didn't comfort him. He panted like a thirsty dog and writhed helplessly inside the narrow wooden box.

His eyes snapped open. First, he checked his hands for burns, but he found none. He groaned while he became more aware, and realized he'd had another nightmare.

He sighed, wondering if the recurring dreams were going to last forever. He reached up and unlatched the locks he’d installed for his own safety, or at least his peace of mind. He pushed open the lid and sat upright. His gaze wandered across the room while his mind tried to fight off the feeling of dread he had about the night ahead.

In the center of a large stone room that was buried deep beneath his house, his coffin rested on a massive stone slab with Egyptian hieroglyphic carvings around its edges. The carvings read, ‘Death is not but eternal life.’ The slab and coffin were the focus of the room, with the only other items being his slippers and a small table that held a candelabra and a box of wooden matches.

Alex lit a match and touched it to the candle wicks. A soft glow lit the room and let him safely climb out of his coffin. When he slammed the lid shut, the hollow sound reverberated off the stone walls and quickly died. He wedged his large feet into his slippers, padded to the wide steel door and punched a series of numbers into an electronic keypad. The door emitted a soft whooshing sound when the lock released.

Yawning, he stepped through the door and into a maze of tunnels that worked their way into deadly traps scattered throughout his underground chamber. Another whoosh signaled the door locking behind him. With the candelabra in his right hand, Alex moved through the maze and watched the flickering shadows play on the walls.

Alex stopped short and blinked. He saw what he thought was Malcolm's face, shining menacingly in the light ahead. He held the candles out toward the face, but the image wavered in the candlelight and disappeared.

Hmmmm, he thought, perhaps the night ahead will prove eventful after all.

Except for his echoing footsteps, the tunnels were deadly silent. Once he reached the end of the tunnels, he faced yet another heavy steel door with an electronic lock. Again, Alex entered a code on a keypad and exited the tunnels into a small closet.

Finally, he came to a thick oak door that simply needed a key. He removed the key from the pocket of his pajama shirt. Alex unlocked the door, entered the actual bedroom of his house, and relocked the entryway to the tunnels like he always did.

More out of habit than concern, Alex scanned the room with all his senses. Despite popular legend, the many mirrors in the room reflected his image off each other.

Alex gazed longingly at the four poster bed in which he never slept. The thick mattress was clothed in burgundy blankets with piles of decorative pillows scattered across the head of the bed. Burgundy and black dominated the color scheme: black carpet, burgundy walls, and sheer black curtains shading the windows.

Preferring the softer light of candles, he bypassed the light switch and went to the dressing table. He placed the candelabra on the table and picked up a candle that stood in a golden holder with biblical carvings on its base. Each time he lit the candle he was reminded of his time in Rome. The things there were so beautiful he couldn’t resist bringing something home for himself.

Alex knew his hobby of decorating bordered on obsessive. He brought back things from his journeys all over the world to put in his main house in Reno. But his house was finished.

On top of that, his casinos practically ran themselves. His place on the Higher Collective only occupied him every now and then.

He found it an awful feeling, having no purpose.

He tried to ignore the weakness that plagued his body with pain, indicating it was time to feed again. Glancing at his nightstand, he noticed the blinking red message light on his cellphone. Pushing back the pangs of hunger, he checked the messages.

Damion’s smooth voice came through the earpiece. “Hey Alex, I’ve set a Collective meeting for tonight. Something is going down with Malcolm ... I really don’t like the feel of it. I think we all need to get together to talk about this one. Eleven, conference room.”

Clicking his phone shut and throwing it on the bed, Alex went to his closet and rummaged through his clothes. With exacting care, he chose a black Armani suit, complemented by a dark red dress shirt. Dark red was his power color, and he loved to feel powerful.

In the connecting bathroom he stripped out of his pajamas. The reflection staring back at him was one that would never change. Until the end of his existence, each time he looked in the mirror, he would see a twenty-eight-year-old man. His harsh Russian features would forever remain without wrinkles, and his coal black hair would never gray. His eyes, though, told the story of his age, and even he could see the stories in them.

His bare arms and chest still held the large muscles of the hardworking man he had been as a mortal. Although, his chest now bore the one mark he had allowed himself to get. He ran his fingers over the red longevity symbol. He had chosen longevity as a marker for being immortal. Like it was yesterday he remembered China and the tattoo shop where he had received the tattoo. As a last minute decision he asked the artist to add the three koi fish in a circle around the longevity symbol because the koi fish were associated with life-long good luck. And he felt like he sure need some of that.

Alex continued to think about China and its rare beauty while he carefully applied a dark, skin-colored foundation to his face and hands to cover his paleness. It was worth the effort to prevent mortals from questioning his light skin. After checking himself in the mirror again, Alex donned his black leather overcoat, a long flowing garment that swept the floor.

He allowed himself one last approving glance in the mirror, grabbed his briefcase off his dresser, and left the room.

He opened the garage door and sighed with pride. The room glimmered with glossy paint and shiny chrome from the many vehicles. He chose his orange ’69 Mustang, because he wanted to stop at the church before the meeting, but he didn’t have much time to spare. He slipped into the driver’s seat, set his briefcase on the seat beside him, and then, with the turn of the key, the car came to life. After he backed out of the garage, he shut the doors with a remote and roared his way out of the long driveway.

At that hour of night, the pine-tree-lined streets were deserted. Alex liked that. Living outside the city, between Reno and Lake Tahoe, gave him more privacy. Although it was raining, he opened his window halfway to let in the fresh scent of the rain-washed earth.

When he approached the city, he took in the view of the lights. For Alex, each time was like the first time. The lights were like beacons, calling to him, enticing him. For that matter, he thought the lights were like vampires, deceivingly beautiful, alluring, and full of promise.

Until you’re bitten, he thought.

Unable to help himself, he chuckled and continued the drive into the city. Traffic there was crazy compared to the lonely streets near his home. Among the multitude of hotels and casinos dominating the city, he kept his focus on the Lucas Hotels and Casinos—the massive towers stood tall and proud—while he drew closer to them.

He passed the exit and kept going for a few miles until he came to a stop in front of a large brick church. He parked the car, ran through the rain, and ascended the cement stairway. Alex found the church deserted and locked, as it always was that time of night.

Taking out his set of lock picks, he thought about the old days when churches were never locked. They were always open for the public whenever someone needed to be close to God.

Upon entering, he felt a presence; not God, but something else.

Danielle.

She had always had a habit of following him when she was invisible. Although he knew she was there, he rarely let on. He couldn’t think of any reason why she would want to keep herself secret from him, since she knew he would tell her anything she wanted to know. Besides, she could read minds.

Although the bricks muffled the sound of the rain, its presence was evident. It drizzled down the outside of the multicolored stained glass windows.

It’s like they are melting, Alex thought as he stared at them.

An aisle separated two sets of pews, and at the far end of the church, behind the podium and the large choir section, was the baptismal area.

Following his usual ritual, Alex knelt in front of the podium at a short wooden table that, without fail, held a fresh flower arrangement. It also held a large leather-bound Bible, always opened to the same verse: John 3:16.

Alex lowered his head and spoke aloud to the empty church, his voice echoing in the darkness. “Lord, forgive me. I have sinned. I live a life of sin. Yet, you let me live. Again and again, I ask how that can be. How is it that you could let something as evil and corrupt as I live on this earth and walk with the humans you created?"

He dropped his head lower.

“I still don’t understand a lot of things you have shown me, Lord. I'm depressed. I've never asked for anything from except guidance and strength, but it's time I humbly ask, just this once, for you to bless me with something to give me the will to go on.”

A clap of thunder shook the walls of the church.

“This depression has become too great. I can barely rise from sleep when the sun sets. None of the hobbies that previously occupied me so well interest me anymore.”

Alex paused and took in a deep, shuddering breath.

“I would never try to bargain with or demand anything from you. I would never be so bold as to assume I'm owed anything. All I ask is for some kind of meaning to this life, or after-life; whatever you wish to call it.

“I need a reason to persevere. After all, I no longer have a family. The only thing I have, besides a few friends, is the everlasting torment of being one of the most unholy creatures to walk this earth.

“Please hear me and consider the needs of one of your servants. Thank you. Thank you so much for everything you have given me. I would do anything for you. I am yours in all ways, and I am yours in everything.

“In Jesus’s precious name, Amen.”

When Alex rose from his knees, contentment flowed through his veins and filled him up. He felt the same every time he prayed.

A moment later, he rushed out the door, stopping only to relock it like he always respectfully did.

***

“Do you think he’s ready?” Damion asked.

“He’s past ready,” Danielle murmured while she slipped off her perch on the railing that separated the choir area from the rest of the church. “Damion, his depression has to end.”

She felt Damion follow her to the front pew, on the right side of the aisle. She wanted to sit so she could see the altar.

He sat next to her. “I know Alex was chosen for this, but how do we know it will cure his depression? It could end this present situation, but begin another lengthy and dangerous one. How do we know this will not be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?”

Danielle smiled. “I have known Alex for almost four hundred years. Even though he thinks he is dammed, he keeps his faith in God, and that, my dear friend, is the strongest kind of faith there is.”

“So he’ll do it?”

“He has yet to decide.”

“I hope it goes the way we've planned.”

“So do I, Damion, so do I.”

“Why do you always come here to watch him pray? Don’t you think that’s like invasion of privacy or something?”

“I am his guardian.”

“You were, when he was a human. He hasn’t been mortal for a long time. I know enough to know you aren’t required to be with him at all times.”

“That’s true, but his prayers are a most important time for me to be with him.”

“Why?”

“He’s convinced God doesn’t hear his prayers. That’s why he comes here almost every night. He could go on living a sinful life, believing he is dammed anyway, but he doesn’t. It's vital he has some reinforcement of his faith in God. I know he feels me here.”

Damion shook his head. “We'd better get to the meeting. I'll see you there."

Damion left. Danielle didn't want to leave the church. She looked up at the large cross on the wall above the baptismal. “Come on, Big Guy. His time to shine is finally here, so let’s show him how much you really have in store for him.”

She reluctantly stood, walked back down the aisle, and moved transparently through the tightly locked doors.

Other Books by Jennifer Malone Wright

Savior (A Higher Collective Novel)

Once Upon a Zombie Apocalypse – Jade (Always free)

Once Upon a Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 2

The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter Part 1 (Always free)

The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter: Part 2

The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter Part 3

The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter: Part 4

The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter: Part 5

The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter: Part 6

The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter: The Complete Collection

(All six parts a total of 72,000 words)

The Arcadia Falls Chronicles is The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter story continued

Love & War (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles 1)

Taking Talon (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles 2)

About the Author

Jennifer Malone Wright is best known for her short story series, The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter. Other works include the follow up to The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter series called The Arcadia Falls Chronicles and her vampire novel called The Birth of Jaiden. Jennifer also co-authors a series called Once Upon a Zombie Apocalypse.

She resides in the beautiful mountains of northern Idaho with her husband and five children where she practices preparing for the zombie apocalypse. Just kidding!

But seriously, between the craziness of taking care of her children, Jennifer has little time left for herself. The time she does have left, usually leading far into the night, is spent working on her beloved fiction or chatting with her equally crazy friends.

Jennifer also loves coffee, has a passionate affair with red bull, wishes the sushi were better where she lives and dances while she cleans.

Please visit Jennifer’s website at
www.jenniferwrightauthor.com

Follow Jennifer on Twitter

Follow Jennifer on Facebook

Follow The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter on Facebook

Find Jennifer on Goodreads

Table of Contents

- Prologue – Chloe’s Diary

- The Arcadia Falls Chronicles book 3: Vampire Apocalypse

- Excerpt from the Arcadia Falls Chronicles book 4

- Excerpt from Savior (A Higher Collective Novel)

- Other books by Jennifer Malone Wright

- About the Author