Vampire's Shade 1 (Vampire's Shade Collection)

Chapter 1-2

He snorted and walked out into the silvery dawn. Carl wasn’t a bad guy all round, I just didn’t like him. There was a time when we got along, but he’d gotten cocky about his kills and somewhere along the lines he’d picked up that I was a half-breed. That made all the difference, usually. He didn’t see me as an equal anymore. Good thing I never really cared. I was good at working alone, and his smoldering looks might have worked on other females, but I didn’t have time for dating.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Ruben said when I walked into his office and dropped the ID card and keys I’d taken off the vampire on his desk. His salt-and-pepper hair looked like he’d spent a night sticking his hands into it, and he wore a jersey over his shirt that I would bet hid the fact that it was creased. The smell of whiskey hung in the air, lacing the day-old smell of his cologne, and I crinkled my nose. He picked up the ID and looked at the photo. He nodded, satisfied. “It took Carl a week and he still couldn’t put this one down. And you do it as a quickie on the side.”

“Not my fault you’re not delegating right, Ruben,” I said. “I told you this one wasn’t going to go down easy. Some of them you have to get hot and heavy with.”

“Nothing as hot as a vampire slayer willing to get personal.” He shook his head, his amber eyes were bright despite the fact that he looked like he could do with a year of sleep. “I wish there were more people like you on my team. Carl is good but he’s not you, and I’ve already got your quota filled.” He leaned on his desk and intertwined his own fingers. “About this journalist. You need to watch your back. She’s not letting this one go.”

“Nothing I can’t handle. You know that.”

He stretched his arms up and his jersey pulled taut over the expanse of his body. Under the desk I noticed he was wearing slippers. I guess if I were stuck in this office all night I would do something to get comfortable too.

“You’re not immortal, Adele. If anyone finds out what you are, what you’re doing is only going to count against you.”

“I’m doing what most humans are too scared to.”

“And you’re an abomination...”

I turned and walk out of the office before he could finish his sentence. He didn’t reserve the right to hire a killer and lecture her. I didn’t want to hear how wrong I was. He had to stay clear; I beat myself up enough without him joining in. “You make sure you’re back here by sundown,” Ruben called after me. I didn’t bother to answer.

Being a half breed meant there were some rules that didn’t apply. My human genes won out more often than not. Things like the fact that I had a perfect set of blunt teeth – no fangs – and I didn’t need blood to survive, even though I could smell it and sometimes it called out to me. The sun was uncomfortable, but it wasn’t going to turn me into ash.

Ruben knew it, but we worked on a schedule that stretched from sunset to sunrise. He had me working all night as it was. I wasn’t going to give him a chance to put me on double duty. Daylight was a better time to hunt vampires, if you could find where they holed up. But I had a thing about killing something helpless. Even if it was a vampire. I’d seen enough of that in my life to know that something deserved a fighting chance, at least. I refused to slay in daytime. Personal policy. Besides, everyone needed downtime, and that included me.

I found my motorcycle three blocks in the opposite direction of my home, on the outskirts of Westham’s Business District where I’d abandoned it when the vampire had hopped a fence my motorcycle couldn’t. I was attracted to raw power, and the MV Augusta M4CC was just that. It had a black body with smooth curves and it was an orgasm on wheels.

Where did a civilian like me with a slightly-above-average income get her hands on something as rare as an Augusta? Vampires have resources, and I happened to kill the right one. Who would have thought my job had perks.

The bike purred underneath me and the wind wrapped around my body as I raced down the street. The speed gave me the illusion that I was actually escaping for a change. I preferred it to walking, not just because it was a hot piece of metal, but because the neighborhood wasn’t a great one and I was a girl that was said to get attention. Not that I had any trouble. The last man that ran his hand up my thigh when I’d politely asked him to back off was still trying to figure out which way was up. Still, my ride was a reward, and after a night of kills I wasn’t in the mood to play nice.

I turned into my street. It was another couple of blocks to my apartment building, and shadows lurked in between trash cans and narrow alleys. I twisted the throttle and ate up the distance. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the place. It was just that the threatening shadows reminded me of what could hide in them. Once you opened yourself up to the creepy crawlies of the night, you never really escaped them again. I wanted to be off duty at some point. I didn’t like killing after hours and Ruben wasn’t going to pay me overtime.

A sharp scent flowed in through the air vents in my helmet and pulled my head to the right. I slowed down the bike, stopped, and backed up with my toes on the tarmac until I almost felt the smell inside of me. I fought the urge, but it drew me. Being a half-breed meant blood could call out to me, and I wasn’t as immune to it as I liked. It was a weakness in the field I didn’t like to acknowledge.

I knew the smell of vampire, and it was my downfall that I couldn’t ignore the call if it was on the right frequency. This one had something else to it too, though. Something I couldn’t quite place. The draw was stronger than usual.

I switched off the bike and got off, pulling my helmet off and leaving it hanging on the handle. My hair fell into my face and I shook my head irritably and followed my nose. It wasn’t the safest place to leave a bike unattended, but I didn’t plan on staying very long. I looked up and down the street but I was alone. In all black clothing I was camouflaged for night time, but with the rising sun I stuck out against the silvery color of morning.

The scent pulled me and I sniffed it out like a bloodhound. I walked into an alley that had walls reaching three stories up on either side, and it ran into a dead end at the back, a chain link fence that looked onto a dumpster. My nose prickled with the pungent smell. It was sour and it spelled out trouble.

When I moved the trash cans around the fence at the back where the scent hung heavy in the air, a pale hand fell onto my foot, and I jumped. I wasn’t nervous as a rule, but this could be a trap as much as anything else.

I reached behind my back and gripped the SIG Sauer P226. I’d left my stake with the bike and the only other gun that I still had silver bullets for was the Beretta at home. It was costly to be cocky. This gun wouldn’t do much damage to a vampire who could heal at will and had the force of fury behind him, but it would slow it down long enough for me to get away. I wished I had more bullets for my Smith & Wesson. I was fresh out of shot. The 500 packed a punch that could kill a large animal. I still had to meet a vampire that could hold onto its head after a good aim. The gap between life and death was only a hairline crack when you stared down the right barrel.

The hand on my foot was limp. I pointed my gun, and trailed it up a well-shaped arm. On the other end of it I found a male vampire. The skin was tight over its skull and almost translucent in its neck. It was unconscious, it’s cheeks sunken and dark circles around its closed eyes. Its skin wasn’t as pale as some of the older vampires I’d seen despite the dull, almost colorless appearance of its hair that made it look washed out, and it had fresh puncture marks at the base of its neck. A couple of them, with the skin bruised around the bites.

This vampire was freshly turned, and left out here in the ally to die. Why? I looked around, preparing for company, but the atmosphere around us was empty. I couldn’t smell anyone. A vampire didn’t become a vampire by accident. It took a lot of work – a person had to be held for a number of days and drank from at regular intervals until there was nothing left to give. Death by absolute blood loss turned it, when the body had to mutate to survive. Death by consumption. I smiled at my own joke.

Generally vampires just bred to make more vampires. But humans were turned sometimes, too. Usually with good reason, but it often remained a mystery.

After all that trouble to recruit, why would it be left here to die at sunrise? Unless it had escaped. I considered getting my stake. I should have killed it right there. One vampire less to deal with when the time came. But when I looked at its face, I couldn’t do it. My values were twisted, but I had a set of rules I tried to live by. Helplessness tugged at my heartstrings, and I couldn’t just turn my face away and shoot point-blank. The vampire had dirty-blond hair and flawless skin, like porcelain. Vampires were slimmer than people, tall and skinny, but even so it must have worked out in its past life. Still, all that muscle was no good when it was unconscious. It would be wrong to kill it.

I grabbed it by the ankles and dragged it down the alley towards the street. The sun was heading this way soon, and even the first rays of dawn were fatal for a pure-blood. It was heavier than it looked, and I was stronger than most girls with my supernatural gifts. Its arms flipped up and the shirt rode up. The concrete was going to leave a hell of a graze, but if it survived it would be healed up in no time. Possibly even before it woke up, if it ever did.

I worked my way across the street, keeping an eye out for danger. The street was deserted. When I got to the other side I kicked a closed garage door. It lifted enough on its hinges for me to work with. I worked my fingers underneath and it rolled to the top with a groan. No one had lived here for years. The vampire would be safe, and ready to dematerialize by sun down if another predator didn’t sniff it out first.

I shoved the body into the cold garage and slammed the door shut again without looking at it, dusting my hands on my pants. When I walked away I knew I was going to regret saving the vamp, but I would get it another time. I didn’t like going after vampires who hadn’t done anything wrong, even though they deserved it just as much.