Heart of a Vampire (Durand Supernatural Academy #1)
Chapter 1
Chapter one
Jack
Static from the comms device crackled in my ear. I resisted the urge to take it out to scratch my ear, knowing I’d get chewed out for it. My ears were still ringing from the lecture I’d gotten about my lack of proper gear.
It wasn’t my fault I’d had to torch my gear after the last mission. Werewolf blood and guts were a bitch to clean off.
Crouched behind a car, I shifted in place, anticipation thrumming in my veins.
The smell of spilled oil and the drying wet pavement filled my nose, and the faint scent of my teammates surrounding me lingered just on the edge.
My hands carefully tightened my ponytail, the thick curly black hair almost too wild to keep tamed, as my eyes squinted in the dark of the street.
Normally, the streetlights would have lit the way for our crew, but it seemed the city maintenance didn’t give two shits about this part of town, leaving the first two blocks with only a sliver of light from the moon.
The crackling of the comm again in my overly sensitive ears made me wince. Unlike the other hunters, who only had a heightened sense of smell, all my senses were in hyper overdrive. I didn’t need the comm, I could hear the echo of our team leader as he whispered from a few feet in front of me.
Unfortunately, the last time I reminded them of that earned me a long-winded lecture on the aspects of being a team player.
“There’s nine vamps,” the gruff, cultured voice of our team leader, Julian Fawley, explained.
“Brayman, Ives, take the north entrance. Ashcraft and McDowel? You guard the back entrance. Durand, you’re with me.”
The coinciding voices grunted their agreement, but I didn’t answer as irritation filled me.
Every hunt, every fucking hunt in the last six months, I’d gotten paired up with Julian.
It didn’t matter whether I was stronger or faster than any of the other hunters.
It didn’t matter that, out of the whole of the hunter’s guild, I knew the insides and out of the monsters above everyone else.
They still treated me as if I were breakable, unreliable.
Even with a legendary kill rate. Even with —
“Durand?” Impatience filled Julian’s voice. “You got that?”
The desire to avoid a lecture overrode my irritation. “Yeah, I got it.”
“Was that attitude I just heard in your voice?” Julian’s tone turned firm and, even though it was dark, I could practically see the firm set of his jaw, the narrowing of his crystal blue eyes.
Suddenly, I was in a different time. A different place.
Rain poured outside. The coppery scent of blood, my blood, filled the air.
That firm yet gentle voice commanded me with each thrust, each grip of his hands on my hips.
One of the few times I’d ever had to retreat from a fight had turned into the one and only time anyone had ever touched me like I was wanted and not just something to be protected.
“Durand!”
I jerked out of the memory and huffed. “No, sir.”
There was a reason they told you not to eat where you shit, because eventually they’d end up being your commanding officer and up your ass in a completely not fun way.
There was silence for a moment, telling me that I’d still be in for a lecture when we got back to base. Then Julian spoke again.
“Just like we practiced. Flash bomb first, then we go in on three. Ready?”
A chorus of consent echoed back.
I slipped my blades from their sheaths, holding the warm metal in each hand as anticipation had my heart thumping. I drew in a few long breaths, letting them filter out of me until my heartbeat slowed.
Vampires might not be able to hear me through the walls of the building before us and the few yards back I’d been stationed.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t. Living around vampires my whole life made me hyper aware of my own pulse and scent and, in some cases, thoughts.
Any one of them would give away secrets I didn’t want to give.
“Move!” Julian’s voice cracked through the comm, and we snapped out like a bullet.
Two figures circled the back of the building. The other pair found their place at the front door, waiting for the moment they could go racing in. I pulled up next to Julian near a window where he crouched, prepared to throw in the flash bomb.
In the dim light coming from inside the building, I could make out the deep furrow of his brows, his blond hair tied up into a low bun, and the scruff of his beard covering his jaw line and surrounding the thin press of his lips.
While Julian had instructed me to come with him, he wasn’t happy about it.
“You should have borrowed someone’s flak jacket at least.” His gaze slipped over my black outfit.
A fitted long-sleeved shirt covered me from neck to wrists, my wrist sheaths strapped over each forearm.
Cargo pants were belted at the waist, a handful of tools hidden in the numerous pants pockets.
The only part of my uniform I’d been able to wear was my boots.
Fortunately, the black wasn’t that hard to match with anything in my closet.
I pursed my lips, not giving him the same perusal.
I didn’t need to. I knew what my team leader looked like with his clothes off.
The long, hard line of muscles that decorated every inch of his body and the V-shape that I’d spent most of my teen years daydreaming about licking until I’d made it a reality one random night a year ago.
Now, the body that had taken my virginity was covered in hunter-issued black, a plain t-shirt and pants with built-in hooks and pockets for all our gear, and a modified flak jacket to top it all off.
The jacket buttoned at the top of the neck and at the end of each wrist, the armor strong enough to hold off the sharpest fangs.
“You know what Tristan always says,” I muttered, ignoring his look of disapproval. “Want in one hand, shit in the other.”
His nose curled up in disgust. “That’s President West, and I’ve never heard him say such a thing.”
I snorted. “That’s because my godfather doesn’t dare break his cool-guy face in front of the underlings.”
“Just because he’s your godfather doesn’t mean you shouldn’t show him the respect he deserves.” Julian continued with the same old lecture he rehashed every other time we interacted, which had been more and more lately, despite my attempts to change my unit.
“You try to respect someone who used to change your diapers and played baby dolls with you.”
The comm crackled. “Uh, Fawley?”
Seeming to remember exactly where we were, Julian pulled the flash bomb out of one of his many pockets and pushed the button on top before throwing it through the glass of the window.
Once thrown, he turned back to me with a scowl. “That’s beside the point. He’s your superior, and you should treat him with respect.”
I leaned forward until I could see the blue of his eyes. “No one is my superior. Three.”
Without warning, I threw my body through the partially broken window and brandished my blades. The blinding light from the flash bomb had dissipated so we could see, but the vampires inside were still covering their eyes or blindly swiping at us.
An old favorite song played in my mind as I twisted and slashed.
My body moved as if dancing with each vampire that came charging at me.
It anticipated their attacks, shifting one way and then the other before the sting of my dagger slipped into their hearts and twisted, obliterating the muscle inside their chests.
A bolt flew near my face, and I only just shifted out of the way. A tiny sting lanced across my cheek. I glared at the one who shot it, Ives. He gave me an apologetic shrug before turning his attention back to the room.
I rolled my eyes and threw myself to the side to dodge another vampire’s attack. I slashed my blades across the back of a vampire’s calves, ripping a scream from their throat before they fell to the ground, unable to run away as I plunged my daggers into their heart.
What felt like hours of fighting were mere minutes. The house was littered with vampire bodies, some staked through the heart with arrows, others decapitated, and a few that I had gotten up close and personal with.
A part of me wondered, would this have been easier if the vampires had the same weaknesses as they said in books?
Dump a bucket of holy water on them. Throw a cross in their direction along with some garlic.
While any help in the hunting part was welcome, I couldn’t help but smile to myself at the thought of me chasing a few certain vampires with garlic cloves.
“You look happy,” Julian commented, his eyes immediately finding the cut on my cheek. Standing half a head taller than me, my eyes came to his chiseled jawline, those pale blue eyes blinking at me with concern.
I shook my head to clear the thought. “Just thinking. We good here? I’ve got somewhere to be.”
“Now, hold on a moment.” He grabbed my arm before I could book it out of there. “We need to talk about what just happened here.”
Oh, joy. A lecture. And here I thought I’d spared myself that pain today.
“Durand, take this seriously.” Julian crossed his arms over his chest, his flak jacket not big enough to hide the bulging muscles beneath it.
Crap, I’d said that part aloud.
“You may have the abilities of a human servant, but you aren’t invincible.”
“How many times do I have to explain it? I’m not a human servant.
” My eyes narrowed as I huffed an annoyed breath.
“A human servant requires a human to be bonded to a vampire with a form of blood exchange. Since I have never bonded to a vampire, the obvious answer is I’m not a human servant, and calling me one is an insult to human servants everywhere. ”
Julian sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Your parents are human servants, so that would make you one as well.”
“Nu-uh.” I shook a finger at him. “Yes, my parents are blood bonded to my vampire dad, Antoine, but that doesn’t mean that I’m blood bonded to him by default. Besides,” my nose curled up in disgust, “that would be icky.”
“Semantics,” Julian quipped, his brows furrowing. “The point is, just because you’re… more empowered than the other hunters doesn’t mean that you can just go running in, half-assing the plan. You could have gotten seriously hurt or one of your teammates killed.”
“They’re fine.” I glanced over at my teammates, who were busy pouring gasoline on the vampires’ bodies.
Once we left, we’d light the place up, hiding any evidence of their existence to the general human population.
“From what I can see, I’m the only one who ended up bleeding.
” I pointed at the cut on my cheek, shooting a glare at Ives.
“Sorry,” Ives grunted, his shoulders bunched up to his ears.
I waved him off, not all that angry about it. With my enhanced blood, the cut would likely heal before the night was over. If I were lucky, before I arrived home and my mom caught wind of it.
“Is the lecture over so I can go home?”
Julian pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped on the screen a few times. “Yes, but don’t think that I won’t be reporting you to President West for jumping the gun… again.”
“Great. Tell him hi from me.” I wiped my blades off on a nearby dead vampire before sliding them back home.
We weren’t very far from my house, so I decided to walk it. If I stayed there much longer, Julian would try to convince me to help with clean-up, and that wasn’t my thing. Vampire slayer I was… cleaner of messes I wasn’t.
As I made the trek home, I lamented over Julian handling me with kid gloves again. One day, they’d stop underestimating me. One day, I’d be able to prove myself as more than the liability they all saw me as.
Yeah, and werewolves were just big puppies.