Chapter 26
Before I’d quit my job, I’d saved up enough money to live comfortably for half a year, but I’d been banking too hard on becoming a true Hunter and receiving a salary from the funds Carolina organized.
I’d given half of every paycheck I’d ever earned back to my family, and I wouldn’t see any of it coming back to me to support my hunting.
I’d have to find a new job again soon, possibly even crawling back to Sandia Blood Lab, but that wasn’t my priority at the moment.
Not when it felt so good to tear a line through the empty desert just a couple miles east of Cibola’s downtown, hunting down a vampire.
I could actually sense the creature. The coppery tinge of blood hung on the disturbed air, and the unnaturally fast and strong strides were like war drums announcing its presence.
It was young and bloodthirsty, fresh off another victim, and I was going to stop it before its fangs found any others.
Vampires never tired, and that night, I felt like I never would either.
I had to hunt smart, though. I couldn’t outrun it, so I had to read the land and dodge obstacles that might slow me down so I could cut it off.
My body moved like I’d practiced this choreography a thousand times before, and my arm arched with ballerina grace through the air to plunge a stake into the vampire’s chest, angling from the side to pierce the heart.
It roared like an animal as whatever curse animated its body was broken.
The creature turned to ash, crumbling slowly until it was a pile in the dirt.
I knelt down and picked out the fangs, staring at the tiny, glimmering weapons in my palm.
I didn’t need to collect them anymore. There was no one left to prove myself to.
But I’d earned these. I didn’t bother examining that whispered thought as I dropped the set of fangs into the zippered pouch on my hip. I looked at my watch. Maybe there was still someone I cared to prove something to.
It was only a ten-minute run to my destination, and I was dressed the part with leggings and a light sleeveless shirt that did little to hide my black sports bra.
Once I hit the corner of the street, I slowed to a walk.
I was just on time. I glanced to my left with a smile at the expensive sports car that passed me, pulling into a small office parking lot half a block ahead.
I didn’t hurry. Hell, I was sauntering by the time I reached Lazaro Reyes.
“Fallon Hunter.” My name was a familiar greeting now. “I hope you’re not bothering me for no reason.”
I was so fast closing the few feet of distance between us my brain could barely keep up. Lazaro could, though. His eyes widened and practically sparkled just before my fist collided with his face. He took a step back and flashed a killer’s grin.
“You got your powers.”
I took off running, despite the unfair advantage in having athletic clothes while he wore a full suit.
He was behind me anyway, closing the distance.
I turned down another street, and his skidding shoes screeched like tires behind me.
My own leaping footsteps were rattling the ground beneath me, or at least that was what it felt like.
I ran until he was close enough to touch me, and then I snapped to a halt and kicked out a foot to meet his chest. I surprised him enough that a soft groan escaped, and he reeled back a few steps.
“Still slow. That’s the best you’ve got?”
I turned, watching his every step as he moved in an arch around me. He followed me like a partner while I danced backwards, leading him to the patch of desert I’d just been hunting in, eager for privacy away from the city streets and nosey glances. Curiosity made him follow me to this new arena.
A metal fence, painted yellow, blocked the end of the road, and I jumped over the hurdle with thrilling ease.
A few more light steps landed me in a desert clearing, a perfect location to test my new skills against a worthy opponent.
Lazaro had slowed outside the fence, taking his black suit jacket off and laying it over the thick tube of metal before jumping over with the grace of a panther.
He rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt.
His dark features looked nice with the contrast. I‘d only ever seen him in all black before.
I cut my musings on Lazaro’s fashion short, then launched myself at him with all my power, pushing my leg muscles to move at my top speed. He dodged my first punch, then snatched my wrist to hold in front of his face.
“No stake, Hunter?”
With my free hand, I pulled a stake from my waistband. “I wasn’t exactly planning on killing you tonight.”
He pulled me close enough to feel his cold breath on my face. “Oh, so you’re just being a tease?”
I thrust forward into him, breaking his grasp on my arm and forcing him to block the stake aimed at the right side of his chest. I slipped around him, spinning so as not to turn my back to him, and he twisted the other way to meet me, leading with a backhanded slap aimed at my head.
I just barely stepped back from it, and the rush of air kissed across my face.
The last-minute dodge left me off balance, and Lazaro jumped on the weakness.
I fell back to the dirt with an embarrassing grunt, and Lazaro was already on top of me, his legs pinning mine, his hand splayed over my sternum, fingers spread over my collarbones.
The only reason my ego wasn’t torn to shreds was that I managed to twist my stake around just in time, pressing it to his belly.
Still, this hadn’t been a win. It had been even more of a decisive loss than when I’d fought him with no powers at all.
I growled and pounded my free hand into the sand. It wasn’t enough, and I glared at Lazaro as if it were his fault. His predatory glint slipped away. His tongue traveled across his top teeth before he settled into a cocky grin.
“What’s wrong, Hunter? Your heart isn’t in it? Don’t tell me this is the best you can do.”
But it was. The gap between my power and my unreached potential was a gaping abyss. For a moment, I feared Lazaro might be some special kind of vampire who could read my thoughts when his head tilted.
“It is? What happened?”
The energy of our fight had already disappeared.
He released me and rose like he didn’t expect me to attack, and I rolled back to my feet without any thoughts of leaping at his unguarded body language.
He already knew from this one short encounter that I hadn’t reached full Hunter strength.
I stepped back to the gate and leaned on it for support.
He didn’t come any closer, just folded his arms across his chest, relaxed and amused.
“I failed.” I brushed the dirt off my back, then flopped my ponytail around to shed some of the grainy particles from my hair.
Lazaro was the last person I should have opened up to about this.
I may as well have offered him my neck. Apparently, the throat of a half-powered Hunter wasn’t appealing.
“This is it. I’ll never get the full powers that other Hunters receive.
I was sent away, and I can never go back home. ”
“That’s disappointing.” His voice wasn’t as biting cold as it could have been. “How did you fail so spectacularly?”
“I protected Peter Fenton.”
Lazaro snorted, then waited for me to finish the punchline.
I played with my ponytail some more, shaking out as much dirt as I could.
The soft shower of tiny grains filled the space while I found the right words.
Fenton thought of Lazaro as a brother, but I still couldn’t manage to smash the images of the two entirely different men into one picture.
“The annoying bastard showed up on Hunter Land just to say hello to me. They would have killed him, but I stopped them.”
“Why the hell would you do that?” Lazaro sounded as disappointed as some of the mothers had been. So much for brotherly love. Must not have existed between vampires.
“He was my first real friend. I wouldn’t be here without him, and even if he’s a vampire…” I yanked my internal wall back up and shut my mouth. Lazaro hated me, and I hated him. We wanted to kill each other. I shouldn’t have been sharing my greatest humiliation with him.
“Starting to figure out not all of us are so bad?” He teased.
“I hope you’re not including yourself in that. You’re bad. Evil, even.”
He took it as a compliment with a grin.
“So that’s why Peter’s playing at those mind games, then. Acting like he has no idea who you are.” He’d spoken to Peter. At least he was alive, and apparently functioning, despite what had been stolen from him.
“He doesn’t. They took his memories of me and of the Hunters.”
“And you say I’m the evil one.” He came to the fence, keeping five feet of distance between us, and leaned his forearm on it. “What’s Peter without you, then? A lost little puppy? Are you planning on pouring all your sweet, precious memories back into his head?”
“I’m planning on staying away from him and letting him live his life without me. You’ll do the same, got it? This thing is between us. You and me. Not Peter, and not the Hunters.”
“We’re keeping secrets together now?” His voice fell to a seductive purr. “How soft are you going to get for me?”
I ignored whatever implications he was laying down. “I’m going to keep training on my own with this new body. With these new powers. I’ll come for you then, when I’m at my best.”
“Hunter, I have all the time in the world to wait for that to happen, but even I might get bored of this.”
“You won’t. You haven’t had so much fun in all your life.”
His head tilted with surprised delight. It felt good to finally land a verbal blow.
“It seems the feeling is mutual.”
I hopped over the yellow fence again, a mental threshold back into the real world that weighed me down. I may not have gotten all my powers, but I was stronger and faster than I’d ever been, and I’d make use of it. I had other vampires to worry about before I tried again to take out Lazaro.
“I’ll get stronger, and I’ll come for you. We’ll finish this.”
“There are more efficient ways for you to commit suicide. If you want to die by hands, though…” he shrugged.
“How ironic. I’ll make the Hunters prouder than you ever did by taking down their little black sheep.
And the cycle of revenge ends with the failed Hunter everyone wants dead. Convenient for me.”
His insult hit a sore spot, knocking me out of the present into a flash of some possible future. I was a limp, lifeless body, and Lazaro knelt on the porch of the Hunter house, leaving my corpse like a gift from a pet cat.
“You don’t expect me to be your tamed pet vampire now that your Peter’s gone, do you?
” His fingers brushed my cheek, ripping a gasp from my lungs.
I hadn’t even seen him jump the fence and close the distance.
Anger popped up like an umbrella to hide my shameful weakness.
My jaw locked, and my nostrils flared with labored breaths.
I didn’t budge, and neither did Lazaro. Inches from one another’s faces, we’d surely look like passionate lovers to any outside observer.
Only when his eyes fell to my lips did I pull away, taking large steps back until ten feet of space was between us.
“We’ll fight again, Lazaro.” It was all I could think to say. He stood so inhumanly still, frowning in the dark. I feared he might cash in the promise now and end my life right here.
“It’s a date,” he said.
After a few careful steps backwards, I turned and fled, and I could only breathe again when I was sure he hadn’t followed me. I ran until the sick grin fell off my face and I was too tired to feel so good. I ran so fast even grief couldn’t catch me.