Page 75 of Bloodhunter

But he slid his phone into his pocket and began walking backthe way we’d come.

“Clayton! Where are you going?”

He didn’t stop, just strode on, his back stiff. Miriam hadcalled him home. I sighed, and hoped she’d let him call a car. It was a long,cold walk back to Bay Town.

I turned and hurried to catch up to Shane, my flashlightbobbing. Miriam and Clayton’s relationship would drive me crazy if I’d let it,so I concentrated instead on doing my job.

“This time,” Shane told me, a few minutes later, “if Amiasshows up and you throw yourself between him and my gun, I will shoot you down.”

“All right.” My voice was calm but my stomach was tossing.“I’m sorry about that, Shane.”

He just grunted.

I wouldn’t let him get to me. At least, I wouldn’t let himknowhe was getting to me. I reached down to touch Silverlight’s warm hilt and gotin front of him. “You’re going the wrong way. Follow me.”

Gray’s scent grew stronger the farther we walked, and Ibegan to wade through colorful fog to my knees. Many vampires called thosewoods home.

With any luck, we’d kill a few dozen of them that night.

And finally, the hunter’s excitement flared to life.

“There you are,” I whispered. “Welcome back.”

“Talking to yourself, Sinclair?”

“Yup.” Then, after a few minutes, I said, “I’m glad youstopped calling me baby hunter. That was annoying.”

He shrugged. “I realized you’re not a baby hunter.”

I glanced at him, surprised. “Thanks, Copas.”

“You have a lot to learn before you can call yourself a babyhunter,” he continued. “Right now you’re just a pitiful girl with a powerfulsword.”

Asshole.

Then I stiffened as the air changed. “Feel that? They’re close.If we find Gray, I need him alive.”

“Good luck with that.”

Because he was a hunter, weapons held by Shane would givethe vampires their true death, just as mine would—as long as those weapons hitthe bloodsucker’s heart. All weapons but Silverlight. She could do whatever shewanted.

It was not going to be easy keeping one of the bloodsuckersalive, especially if we were converged upon by dozens of them. In the heat ofbattle, they were all the same.

The enemy.

And it was kill or be killed.

The captain would be happier with an animated Gray, but aslong as he had proof of the vampire’s death, he’d pay up. Of course, if I hitGray with Silverlight, I wouldn’thaveproof—but with a crowd ofvampires trying to tear my head off, I wasn’t leaving her sheathed.

Oh, the complicated life of a vampire hunter.

“Regular or infecteds,” I murmured. “That is the question.”

Shane stopped walking abruptly and lifted his shotgun. “Herethey come,” he said. “Full of death for the hunters who can end them.” And hesmiled, his face shadowed with sharp hills and deep valleys in the moonlight.

I drew Silverlight and she screamed to life, lighting up thenight with a silver light that seemed to grow stronger every time she came outto play.

Then I swung her through the air as the first of thevampires converged upon us. I added my screams of rage to theirs, and thekilling began.