Page 70 of Crave

We were being picked off one by one. And there was no one who could get here in time. The hair at the back of my neck rose, my fingers curling into claws. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a shadow blurring from between the trees, all hard angles and sharp, sinewy power.

I drew my dagger just in time, neatly sidestepping, allowing the vampire’s speed and momentum to carry him forward so that I opened a gash on his left forearm. He staggered back, the leather lapels of his trench coat flapping in the wind. He was tall, well over six feet with long dark hair and chiseled cheekbones. And unlike the wasted musculature and twitchy addict look most of the fighters from the lower castes had, this vampire was all hard muscle, staring me down as if he were made of stone. With a chill, I realized I recognized him from our databases. He was a suspected subordinate of Yuri, third in command to Zara, who reportedly controlled all the covens in Texas. If he was here—

I flipped the knife. First rule in a fight: show weakness and you’re dead. “Run out of underlings to do your dirty work?”

The black-haired vampire smiled coldly, revealing enormous fangs. “Maybe I like hunting for little girls lost in the woods. The thrill of a good chase stirs your blood like nothing else.”

He let his gaze slowly travel the length of my body.

Yes, your creepiness. Because every badass woman off by herself was clearly lost.

Jerk.

“Eyes are up here.” And then I hurled my dagger straight for his throat.

He dematerialized instantly, the knife passing harmlessly through him. The world around me spun, the dark cold green of the trees and clean white of the snow blurring as I hit the ground, performing a sweep kick of the area where I’d just stood.

He resolidified a split-second later. My heel caught the back of his ankle, tossing him on his leather-clad butt. Scrambling back, I drew a second dagger, the one Sofia had sent me for my last birthday.

Pro Tip: Werewolves can’t move faster than vampires, so don’t count on that saving you in a fight. Sofia had drilled that into me more times than I could count the year I’d been trapped on her ranch, forcing me to learn to fight out in the Caldwell barns first in the daylight, then at night, then blindfolded with earplugs in. Never before this moment had I been more grateful to have a former Tracer as my sire and teacher.

I felt an urgent push in the back of my mind. I shut it out, needing every bit of my concentration here in this fight if I was going to survive.

“I can’t wait to taste you.” Throwing his hair back over one shoulder, he flipped a nasty twelve-inch blade I had no interest in getting better acquainted with. “Where shall I start?”

“Jam that knife up your ass and twist.”

Laughing sadistically, he lunged, striking hard in an upper hand blow I barely had the strength to parry. I ducked back behind a tree.

“Someone wants to play.”

I hooked a finger beneath a snow-laden branch, sweeping it back in his face and buying me the second of distraction I needed to slam the heel of my hand into his chin. He snarled. I raised an eyebrow.

It. Was. On.

Snow swirled around us in an eerie white veil. We met blow for blow. Block. Parry. Thrust. I let him drive me back, inching closer and closer to the barbed wire fence where Hayden’s tracks had disappeared. His hand slipped beneath the lapel of his coat, withdrawing a small silver cylinder identical to the one I’d found discarded in the snow.

And I knew I was out of time.

We had no confirmed data on how the Project Eclipse agent worked. Did it have to be injected or inhaled? Maybe, like wolfsbane, it absorbed within seconds through the skin.

“You know what this does?”

“Nothing in the minty-fresh breath aisle, I’m guessing.”

The push came again at the back of my mind, this time more insistent.

Wait, I ordered, knowing we would get only one chance.

“How do you think we took all the others?”

“You bastard.” Sidestepping, I slashed in a sharp diagonal arc.

“Your friends can search all they want. They’ll never find you.”

“That just proves you don’t know my friends.”

Pale flecks of blue shimmered in his silver irises as he slowly inhaled. Like he got off on the smell of my fear. And loved playing with his food. “You’re going to die in the dark in a cell. Utterly forgotten and alone.”