Chapter 30
The Hope house was almost too quiet once I finished cleaning the kitchen for the night.
Nico and Subin had gone north for a romantic overnight stay away from Cibola, and Amanda and Lily were out enjoying the summer evening like normal teenagers.
I turned off the overhead lights, and the remaining glow from the under-cabinet lighting cast a lonely, melancholic vibe.
Maybe it was just the weight of all the precarious danger I’d gotten myself into, and that voice in the back of my head that sometimes sounded like Diana, warning me I couldn’t stay on the ranch any longer.
I just needed one more day before I gave thought to what I’d do next, greedy as that was.
Gabriel was the only other member of the family at home, and he wasn’t spending his evening in the garage like he usually did.
I stood in front of the couch to absorb some of the baking show he was watching, but I halted my commentary when I looked at him lounging in his recliner, his head tilted to the side and his mouth open, comfortably asleep.
I smiled, though my chest ached. Gabriel was the closest thing I ever had to a father, and I’d already begun to miss him.
I turned the lights off in the living room and paused his show.
I’d wanted to spend some quality time with him, but I was thankful I hadn’t woken him.
He deserved his rest. He deserved peace.
After years of being sweetly boring and quiet, I’d gone and jumped into a world of trouble, and I couldn’t risk dragging these innocent people I loved in with me.
I sucked in a sudden breath as something outside jerked on my senses.
Someone was out there. Vampire. I glanced once more at Gabriel, then breathed through the panic.
I’d prepared for this. Two stakes tucked in my favorite coat’s front pocket in the coat closet.
Boots pulled on and tightened with double knots.
I unlocked the door and opened it slowly, trying desperately not to make a sound.
A viciously fast lunge in my direction drove out a surprised yelp.
“Hunter.” Lazaro Reyes loomed over the threshold of the front door, as close as he could get to the protective barrier of my home. I’d never seen him so angry. He was practically radiating with the true power he’d been holding back all this time.
“No,” I told him sternly while keeping my voice down. Or was I begging? Gabriel. Papa. No. “This is my home. My family—”
His laugh was uncontrolled, and he was sickeningly more alive than ever.
“Your family? So you can come after my family? You can kill my family? But yours is off limits? I don’t think so, Hunter.
I will kill your entire worthless family.
I’ll burn your precious little home to the ground.
And then once it’s over, then I will drain you of everything you are, and you can know that all the suffering was your fault. ”
Gabriel’s presence just a room away was like an alarm blaring in my right ear.
He had to have heard the vampire yelling at his front door.
He would come and help. He was a Hope. I nearly sobbed, and the soft, swallowed sound escaped when I saw Lazaro’s feral delight.
What had I done? I’d worked so hard at hiding who I was, but I’d gotten sloppy. No, no, no…
I had to get away. I had to get Lazaro away.
I feigned a look into the house as if I might go deeper into its safety.
Then I launched myself with every ounce of strength my legs had, slamming Lazaro off balance and bouncing my momentum off his solid form, using the short window of surprise to sprint away as fast as I could away from home.
I’d barely gotten a few yards from the front door before I had to turn and dodge away from a crazed tackle.
He was uncoordinated with rage, and so I could keep up my retreat and kite him away from the home I loved.
He was allowing it, even. It gave his fire a chance to blaze hotter.
“It’s a shame you had no family home tonight to make this moment sweeter.
Though perhaps it’s for the best. I do have to make this quick.
” He flashed his watch. “There’s a celebration tonight for my soon-to-be wife.
I’ll be making her into her most perfect form.
She’ll become a vampire.” He smiled wide and wild, washing away the small relief I had from his mistaking the house for empty.
At least I’d be able to focus. Just me and Lazaro.
“How sweet. What the hell are you doing here with me, then? Can’t we settle this later?
And somewhere else?” I backed away from a few testing punches.
He could do better, but he wasn’t, and he cackled at this game.
The Hopes’ house was getting further away, and perhaps that was all the better for Lazaro.
We had nothing but open field now to fight in as we pleased. Just us in the sprawling emptiness.
“I figured killing you might add to the occasion.” He jerked his shoulder a couple of inches, and I flinched backwards several more steps at the false attack. He soaked in that show of power over me.
“Showing up with a black eye from another woman?” I slapped his wrist away before his jab connected, and I backhanded his cheekbone.
Before he could turn enough to take advantage of our closeness, I forced him away with a low thrust of a stake.
“Just have the decency to end the relationship yourself.”
“Why would I want to end it? After tonight, I’ll have everything.”
“That what you call it?” I focused on ducking and dodging the next set of attacks. The Blessings I had were barely enough to keep me out of his reach, and even still, he was drawing this out without tapping into his full strength.
“Do you even hear yourself, Hunter? You can’t even threaten to kill me. The best you can do is a black eye in an attempt to…what? Make Selena jealous?”
He pointed towards his unscathed face, and I took the opening to thrust a stake at him.
I nearly stumbled when he was gone, six feet from where he’d been standing just a second earlier.
He didn’t take advantage of my unbalance, and so I pulled my center of gravity back in and planted my feet wide.
I didn’t give any response to his weak conjectures, and it broke his control again.
“You killed two members of my family. Two vampires. All for your dead human boyfriend?” He pounced, too fast now for me to dodge, likely reaching the peak of his true speed. I swore and struggled from his grip on my shirt at the shoulder. I kept one stake low and one high, my only defense.
“I loved him! He was…he was good.” My shirt ripped at the seam, and I got a step away, though not far enough to avoid his fists aimed at my center. I did what I could to soften the ones I couldn’t dodge, but my ribs exploded with pain anyway.
“How did you do it? How did you do it?”
I punched his face again just below the eye, and it hardly fazed him. What was the point of these blows? Neither of us was aiming to finish off the other, and that frightened me more. I had to end this.
“It eats at you, doesn’t it?” I laughed viciously and spun around with a kick at his head that he just batted away.
He wasn’t even trying. “I had to live that way for four years, not knowing. I’ll never know all the details.
I’ll never understand it. You think I should give you a mercy I wasn’t afforded? ”
His left hook connected with my cheek, and I careened away. I checked the bones with a light touch, but everything was still in its right place under the sore tissue. “For someone who fancies herself the good guy, you do enjoy torture. Are you sure you don’t want me to turn you?”
“What, afraid of losing me, sweetie?” His last punch must have knocked my brain a little loose for me to spit out a pet name like that. I covered my own surprise with another flurry of punches to beat him back.
“I just want to know if you killed in cold blood. Did you have to trick them? Give up your body to do it?” He’d resorted to playing dirty now, and it felt good to have the upper hand to drive him to those lousy tactics. The verbal attacks felt just as good as every solid hit.
“The first one — Gustavo, was it? — All I had to do was walk right into his home. He didn’t even lock the doors.
” I wasn’t above laughing in Lazaro’s face as he froze, tilting his head to dig for evidence of a lie.
I took his pause as a chance to gain more space from the house, which was now a small rectangle on the horizon after our frenetic fight carried us away.
“It was so easy it was almost boring. That’s the really funny thing about you old vampires.
You think if you’ve lived 100 years, the next 100 are guaranteed.
You think nothing can touch you in your lair, even if someone got in.
It’s like you welcome it. He had no security system, no guards, no cameras.
I walked in, staked him in the leg,” I breathed and focused on Lazaro’s next set of angry punches that I dodged like I knew every step already.
“I questioned him. He said Alexander was the killer, and if I let him go, he’d help me get my justice. ”
“You felt insulted.” Was that respect from Lazaro? He’d backed off his assault.
“Because it wasn’t the truth?” Got him there, not that it was any surprise.
I took the opening to sideswipe his kneecap, and waited for his pained growl to end as he dropped into a kneel. If this was a war of attrition, he’d win. If it was a battle of strength, he’d win. The only weak point I had on my side was his emotions. Lazaro was down and unguarded.
“That’s what Alexander said, too. That Gustavo lied to save himself. It was more of a game with Alexander. He really is your cousin in that respect.”