Page 76 of Bloodhunter

The supernaturals had predicted vampires would converge uponRed Valley—upon me—when they got a whiff of my hunter status. And there weretwo of us. Two hunters. Apparently that meant twice the number of vampires,because they seemed unending. Perhaps they thought they could overpower us bysheer numbers alone, and I began to believe they were right.

It was as if every vampire in every neighboring city haddecided to show up and party. Before everything had changed, I hadn’t even beenaware so many vampires existed—just like nearly every other regular human inthe world.

But I was no longer a regular human, and the vampires werenot shy about opening up their world to me. They were everywhere. They werecountless.

At least that was how it appeared at that moment.

Shane depleted their numbers with his shotgun, and I with mySilverlight, but they just kept coming. When he finally emptied his gun, he hadno time to reload. He slung her over his back and pulled a wicked blade fromthe holster at his side, and a long stake from his belt.

And we killed vampires.

Inside me, fear began to join the excitement and rage.Adrenalin made me faster, stronger, and angrier, but fear kept poking me in theribs, demanding to be noticed.

And there was a sound. A terrible sound.

It was a sound like no other, because it was the sound deathmade when it came to claim so many.

It wasn’t often that death visited the vampires.

It visited now.

It howled and shrieked like a demented wind filled witheerie, doomed voices, carrying judgment day in its chaotic, swirling midst.

I was not in life. I was in death.

Oh, it was dark.

I didn’t want to live there. I didn’t even want to visit.

But I was swept along, my choices taken away, and I became afighting, killing nonbeing, somehow. I didn’t fight with death. Iwasdeath.

And there was no worse feeling. No worse knowledge.

When the vampires lay empty around us, piles and piles ofthem, mouths gaping, eyes empty, body parts scattered, Silverlight dropped frommy nerveless grip and I fell with her to the ground, my breath escaping inpants and whistles, huge spurts of mad energy still churning inside me.

Shane dropped to his knees beside me, his eyes dark andshining, his horrible smile wide. He was in his element, as I should have been.

But I had seen myself, and I was hideous. I’d seen the restof my life, and it was unspeakable. I’d seen death, and she was terrifying.

Shane threw back his head and roared, so covered with bloodhe was unrecognizable, and barbaric, and brutal.

I needed his badness.

I launched myself at him, opened my mouth over his,swallowed his victory. I barely felt it when he slammed me to the ground andcovered my body with his, because all I could feel was numb horror. All I couldsee was darkness, and I was afraid it would never leave.

If I wasn’t able to fling that away, to rid myself of it, Iwould not survive it. I needed something else.

Shane gave it to me.

He understood. He’d felt it himself, back when he’d firstbecome a hunter.

I wasn’t sure why the realness of it was just now affectingme—maybe because the first time there was no real victory. I’d saved Amias andsacrificed Shane. I’d not felt the win. But this time, this time I drowned init.

He ripped off the clothes that were plastered to my body,soaked in enemy blood, and my blood, and his blood, and he hurt me with hardfingers and a demanding mouth, with fierce bites and kisses and need, and onlywhen the Foam of Aphrodite had been soaking into my flesh had I felt suchsoul-shattering lust.

I was bursting with emotions. The wind I’d been inside ofwas now inside me, and I was too small to contain it. I would explode.

I matched Shane’s crazed passion with my own, gripping,biting, clawing, trying to climb inside him as he climbed inside me.