Authors: Lyn Gala
“I said the lower level ones were. I also said higher demons
could sound very human and that some vampires seemed to take pleasure out of
tracking down people they knew in life. You remember that, right?”
“You did manage to make an impression on me.”
“Good. I always like to know I’m making an impression.” He
leaned against her wall and watched her with his arms crossed and a cocky grin
on his face. “I also like to know that people aren’t doing anything stupid. I
thought I heard voices. So, you aren’t doing anything stupid, are you, Silver?”
“What I’m doing isn’t any of your business. I had a shitty
day and unless you’re my father, my minister or the moral police, you don’t get
to say shit about what I’m doing or who I’m fucking.”
Jim smiled wider. “And here I thought you were going to use
the old television excuse.”
“I don’t have to make excuses for having a man in my room.
Who was your partner?” Paige asked. Hopefully Brady would warn her if the man
was trying to double back around.
“Don’t know what you mean,” Jim answered without even trying
to make his words sound honest.
“Right.” Paige snorted. “Just get the fuck out of my house
before I decide that arresting you would feel really good.” Paige held her
breath. Obviously it wasn’t safe to keep Brady at the house anymore, but
depending on how many friends Jim had, getting him out might be difficult.
Looking past Paige toward the bedroom door, Jim asked, “He a
cop?”
“If he was, he’d be out here with a gun.”
Jim nodded. “Fair enough. So, on to why I came. I think I
have information on a nest. Since I know you’re not going to back off, I
thought you might like a little first-hand training. Maybe seeing these guys in
action will convince you that you’re out of your league, because right now you
have way too much bravado going, Silver.”
“The nest?” Paige asked, ignoring the rest of Jim’s comment.
“Nest, clan, pack—whatever you call it, I’ve found a whole
bunch of the dead guys. So, you in?”
“Definitely,” Paige answered. She glanced over her shoulder
at the bedroom door. “Just…let me tell Rick.” Jim’s smile grew a little more
salacious and Paige glared at him before lowering her weapon. “Rick, I’m coming
in, so don’t hit me with a chair. It was just some idiot from work playing a
really stupid prank. I’ll kill them tomorrow.” Paige slipped inside and closed
the door behind her before Jim could see anything.
Brady was standing in the middle of the room, his arms
crossed and his body practically vibrating with anger—an image that really
didn’t match the pink sheets wrapped around his waist. “You can’t be
considering going with him,” he hissed in a rough whisper.
“He thinks he knows where your killers are.” Paige kept her
voice quiet, but she made her expression as hard as she could. She wasn’t
taking orders from a trainee—not even an undead one.
“Fine, then I’ll go with you.”
“Oh yeah, that’ll go over well. Jim, vampire hunter, meet
Brady, the vampire I just slept with.” Paige kept her voice to a low, fierce
whisper as she grabbed jeans out of her closet. “If you think that’s feasible,
I failed to teach you any logic at all.” That took a lot of the starch out of
Brady.
“I don’t trust him.”
“I don’t either,” Paige said as she sat on the bed and
searched for the shoes she’d kicked off when she’d first come home. “I’ll watch
my own back.”
Brady snorted. “Then who will watch your front?” He frowned.
“Wait, that came out wrong, but you know what I’m saying.”
Paige squirmed into her bra, twisting to get the snaps to
catch. When she did, she walked over to Brady, her guts twisting and her
emotions hopelessly tangled when it came to this man. Moving carefully, she
rested her hand against his chest. “I’ll be careful. Promise. But I have to go
now that I know what’s out there.” She needed information and Jim was the best
source she had.
Brady chewed on his lip and looked so much like the cadet
that she wanted to believe that this was Brady…nothing more than Brady with one
or two physical upgrades. She wanted to think he was Peter Parker after getting
bit by the radioactive spider—that he had powers while staying the same.
However, she just wasn’t sure anymore.
She turned her back and grabbed a long-sleeved brown sweater
from the closet. “I’ll be back soon.”
“You’d better be.” Up until now, Brady’s eyes had been
surprisingly clear. The white had returned to white with just a trace of red
and the amber color really was striking with his dark looks. However, now the
red veins started to swell and capillaries filled with blood until he looked
like he had a raging case of pinkeye again.
“Don’t threaten vampire hunters—not until you understand
what’s going on a whole lot better than you do now,” Paige said firmly.
“Actually, since vampire hunters are probably trying to do the right thing,
it’s probably best to never threaten them.”
“If he gets you killed, I’ll do more than hunt him,” Brady
warned, his red eyes and his raspy voice sent a shiver of fear down Paige’s
back. This wasn’t a young trainee who listened to her every word. This was a
dangerous creature. Paige had no doubt that Jim was going to catch a serious
case of dead if he let her get killed. And yet, this dangerous creature cared
about her because Brady had. There was too much weird for her to figure out.
She grabbed a belt holster and started threading her belt through the straps.
“Just keep your head down. I get the feeling that Jim has
enough experience at this to stay alive.”
“I’m more worried about you staying alive. Last time you
promised me to keep clear of these guys, you got out of the car and went in
without backup.”
“Technically I went in to back up Jim.” She could see Brady
gathering an argument for that and she held up a hand. “No, this is not open
for debate. I’ll be back by sunrise or I’ll call. Period. No arguing on this
one.”
For a half-second, she thought he was going to grab her. His
hands flexed and the muscles over his chest tightened and bulged as Brady
strained against some invisible force.
“I’ll come home. Promise,” she said softly and that tipped
the scales. Brady’s furious expression faded in favor of something closer to
worry. “I’ve been doing this a long time—chasing down bad guys. This is my
job.”
“Not these kind of bad guys and not with a man you don’t
know,” Brady said. His tone was still mulish, but she knew he was going to
yield on this. He looked so miserable about yielding that Paige went over and
reached up to cup his cheek in her hand. He looked at her, the red in his eyes
still vivid. When she tilted her head up to him, he looked confused for a
second, and then he leaned closer, his movement slow and tentative. Paige
brushed her lips over his.
“You have more of Brady than you think.” Paige still wasn’t
entirely sure she had her emotions under control because her feelings for Brady
were veering wildly out of control. However, he cared about her. One way or
another, he cared about her. It was hard to ignore that.
He didn’t answer her as he solemnly watched her leave the
room.
Jim stood by the front door. “Your man’s not coming?”
“Rick hates you. He doesn’t even know you and he hates you,
so I think we’ll avoid the drama.”
“How can he hate me? Everyone loves me.” Jim gave her a
cheesy grin.
“He gets cranky about people breaking into my house and
scaring the crap out of me. So let’s go.”
“I scared the crap out of you?” Jim snorted. “Silver, if
you’re scared that easily, you have no business being a hunter. And personally,
I happen to think you’d be a damn good hunter.”
Paige walked to the door and put her hand on it. “Either
we’re going or I’m arresting you. Take your pick.”
Jim shook his head. “You’re one cranky woman.”
“You interrupted something important,” Paige said dryly. She
didn’t point out that he’d interrupted her panic attack, so he could just make
his assumptions about what he’d interrupted.
“Sorry about that, Silver.” Jim actually sounded apologetic.
“I just really was worried that if you were that attached to this partner of
yours, there was a chance he’d come for you.”
“I’ve never been close to a recruit in my life,” Paige said,
warning Jim away from the subject through her tone. And she was mostly honest
in saying that. Brady was dead before she got close to him, and according to
him, he wasn’t even Brady. She really didn’t want to think about that. Paige
headed for the door. “What’s your last name, anyway? I don’t like you well
enough to call you Jim.”
“Hunter.”
Paige frowned. “Give me a break.”
He shrugged. “I really am Jim Hunter. It’s a handy enough
name given my chosen profession.”
“Fine, Hunter, let’s move out.”
“Ma’am, yes ma’am. I don’t suppose you were ever military,
were you?”
“Move.” Paige gave him a push and he let himself be ushered
out the door so she could lock it behind them. It was time for her to see real
vampires.
Paige locked the door and then stopped two steps down the
walk. “That your partner?” Paige asked. A man leaned against her neighbor’s car
about halfway down the block, a tall man with a long, sharp nose and slightly
horsey face. He definitely wasn’t a local. Not only would she remember that
face, but around here, people just didn’t wear the sort of formal button-up
shirt he wore, not unless they were heading for work, and it was a little late
for that.
“Who?” Hunter played innocent, but Paige could see how his
back stiffened the moment he saw the other man. “No,” Hunter said flatly.
“So, just a random stranger then? Maybe I should ask for
some ID.”
“Silver, we don’t have time for this,” Hunter snapped. For
the first time he showed some real frustration.
“Don’t you want me getting your friend’s name?” Paige smiled
sweetly, and started across the yard toward the guy. However, Hunter caught her
arm.
“First, that is not my partner, Silver. I give you my word
on that. Second, we have some vampires to see to.”
Paige frowned. Hunter might be lying, but she didn’t think
so. “He’s not a local. Maybe we should check him out.”
“Focus, Silver, you’re not on-duty.”
“How do we know he isn’t a vamp?” Paige asked in a whisper.
Hunter’s eyes went wide and he looked over at the stranger before he looked
back to Paige and narrowed his eyes.
“Well, shit. I never thought you’d be one of those idiots
that started seeing vamps behind every tree. If that was a vampire, he’d be
running after you trying to suck the life out of you.”
Paige frowned. “I thought you said some were smart.”
“Some are,” Hunter agreed. “But any vamp that could ignore
us that well…that would be one of those old, powerful ones I told you to stay
away from. However, that guy is someone’s brother-in-law who just lost his job
and is couch surfing. Stop getting paranoid on me, Silver, or I won’t let you
play with all the little vamps I found.” Hunter wiggled his eyebrows and made
it clear that he planned to have some fun tonight.
“Okay, that is more than a little disturbing. I’m starting
to think I should worry about you.” Paige followed Hunter to the driveway. He
enjoyed the thought of killing a little too much for comfort. Resting her hand
on the butt of her gun, Paige nodded toward her car sitting in front of his.
“I’ll drive myself.”
“Suit yourself,” Hunter said with a smile before he headed
for his truck.
Chapter Ten
“So, where is your partner?” Paige asked as she got out of
her car in an old part of town that straddled one of the tributaries that fed
the local swamp. The smell was enough to make people gag on bad days, but the
night was cool enough to muffle the sharpest of the stench. Paige understood
why some people had been fighting to drain the swamp and that extra special
smell for years, but the Endangered Species Act was pretty much impossible to
get around. Anyone who could afford better housing had moved out, leaving
behind a number of ramshackle houses and badly leaning barns.
“What partner?” Jim asked with exaggerated innocence.
“You don’t exactly inspire trust with all these secrets.”
He shook his head. “You wound me. Okay, so it’s time to arm
ourselves.” He dropped the back gate on his truck and reached in to catch the
handle of a huge trunk and pull it close enough to open.
Paige rested her hand on her weapon. “I have a Glock 22 with
fifteen shots and two extra clips.” That sounded like a lot of ammunition to
Paige; however, Hunter seemed less than impressed.
“Hollow point or standard ammo?”
“Standard.”
“Swap it out for hollow point. To kill these guys, you want
to take out the entire brain, enough that they can’t get the brain to control
the body anymore. One shot with standard ammo, even through the eye, is going
to limit their movement without killing them.”
Paige crossed her arms. “Yeah, well the police department
frowns on hollow point. More importantly, I’m here to watch what you’re doing.
I’m not interested in going in there like Wyatt Earp.”
Hunter leaned back against his truck and studied her. Sadly,
he shook his head. “You still want to find a way to save your Brady.”
“It’s my first priority,” Paige admitted.
“That’s why I hate most women hunters—they want to save
someone, they all want to fucking save someone. I thought you were tough enough
to deal with reality. Get your head around this, Silver. The only goal is to
kill them.”
Paige smiled sweetly. “Keep suggesting that I’m incompetent
and you’re going to meet the not-nice side of my personality.”
“Sweetie, you have no idea what not-nice really looks like,”
Hunter said, but he turned back to his trunk before he could see her glare.
“The first line is going to be low-level vamps. They’re more like zombies than
anything you see in a vampire movie. If you try to kill them, you’re going to
give the big boys time to prepare, so the goal is to slip through them without
having anyone notice. That’s where these come in.”