Page 7 of Bloodhunter

Behind me, Derry snickered. “He doesn’t like when peopledisobey him.”

“He doesn’t like whenwomendisobey him,” Icorrected. “And he’s not the boss of me.”

“Actually,” she said, “he is.”

“Not in the way he wants to be.” I took the plate she handedme and lifted a slice of hot, saucy pizza. The thick cheese stretched andfinally broke, and I closed my eyes as I slid the point of the slice into mymouth. “Oh,” I mumbled. “So good.”

“You can help me in the dining room,” Kristin Hoffmanoffered. She was one of the nonrelatives Angus hired, along with Jerome. “Thetips are great tonight.”

I started on my second slice of pizza. “I’ll stay backhere.”

She paused, her bright stare flitting to my scars, thenaway. “They don’t look that bad, Trinity. And the customers love seeing youwith…” She gestured at my face. “Those, and the stakes. They love that you wearthem.”

“Thanks,” I replied, a bit dryly. “I’ll stay back here.”

I wasn’t in the mood to be stared at and whispered about.Not tonight. Not when my emotions were still too near the surface. I’d gottenused to the stares and the curiosity. I was, after all, the only survivor ofthe Thanksgiving Day Massacre, and six years wasn’t that long. People didn’tforget. They looked at me and shuddered and clutched their stomachs uneasily,understanding it could have been any one of them.

And that I’d been driven mad, for a while, by the horror ofit. Perhaps, I could almost hear them thinking, some of that madness remained.

I’d spent three months in the hospital as they’d put me backtogether.

My body was covered with scars that would never fade, butI’d lived. I’d survived with my mind intact.

Mostly.

“Loaded pizza for Miriam,” Derry told Harlan. “Take apicture of Clayton for me.” She waggled her eyebrows, and her brother sneered.

“You’re stupid,” he told her.

She laughed. “If you were a girl, you’d understand.”

Clayton Wilder belonged to Miriam. She’d told me a fewdifferent stories about how she’d come to possess him, and I didn’t believe anyof them.

But I was fascinated as hell by both of them. I held out myhand. “I’ll deliver it.”

“Hey,” Harlan protested. “She’s the best tipper in BayTown.”

“Maybe in all of Red Valley,” I agreed. “I’ll split it withyou.”

“You’re as bossy as my dad,” he said.

I shrugged. “I’m also older than you, and you have torespect your elders.”

He dropped his eyes to my body, smiling. “You don’t lookold.”

I snorted. “You are your father’s son.”

“You’re twenty-four,” Derry said. “That’s not anybody’selder. But here. Take Miriam the pizza. You’ll owe me one.”

I snatched the large box and gave her a wink.“Youare my favorite Stark.”

She preened as Harlan rolled his eyes.

“Be careful out there,” he told me. “Another human woman wasmurdered last night.” He leered at me, and curled his fingers into claws. “Byvampires.”

I frowned. That made the third woman killed in the last two weeks.The month before last one woman had been killed. The murderer was spiraling outof control.

I shuddered.