The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(22)

I’d bent down to catch my breath when three really ugly chick vampires and one really hot-looking guy jumped smoothly down off the roof, barely making a sound when they landed right in front of us. Quickly, I moved in closer to Drew and Luke.

“Don’t turn your back on them,” Drew whispered to me.

The vampires circled around us in the darkness, stalking us, even though we knew they were there. The three of us moved to where our backs were touching. I still had my bow raised and trained on one of the ugly girl vampires.

It all happened so fast. I don’t remember much, but they rushed us with their vampire speed. None of us had time to react. With flashes and blurs they were upon us.

Once again, I was locked in the embrace of a vampire. Flashes of my mother’s murder and James’s iron grip on my arms came back to me full force. I heard myself scream. I heard Drew call my name, but I couldn’t do anything. I felt frozen in time, watching my mother die again.

“Chloe!” Drew’s voice called me. “Chloe!”

Where is he?

Everything was mashed together. Time had merged the past and the present together.

“Snap out of it!” Someone hissed into my ear. It wasn’t Drew, and it wasn’t Luke. Whoever it was, it did snap me out of it. My eyes focused, and I saw that Drew and Luke were being held in the arms of the vampire guy and one of the girls.

“Easy with her!” the guy called out to the one holding me. “Trevor wants her alive.”

She cackled in my ear. “He said alive, but he didn’t say unharmed. This little hunter has caused us a lot of grief.” She gave me a hard shake.

“I didn’t do anything to you!” I screamed at her.

“Yeah, except that your Daddy is constantly sending us on suicide missions to find you.”

I didn’t dignify that with a response. My bow had dropped when I’d been grabbed, but I still had my gun. Doing anything with that would have been a little hard, considering my backside was pressed up against her. Drew and Luke couldn’t move. One thing I had learned from training was not to get close enough to let a vampire get a hold, because they could snap a human neck in less than a second. I was scared for Drew and Luke.

I struggled in the grip of the ugly vampire chick. “Let me go, please. Let me go!”

“Oh, how cute. She's begging.”

“Leave her alone!” Luke hollered.

“Shut up, old man,” the one who held him menaced. For emphasis, he twisted Luke's arm, and I heard his bones cracking. Luke screamed like I had never heard a man scream.

“Let’s just get rid of these two and get out of here,” the chick who held Drew told the one who had me. Drew fought against her, screaming obscenities and twisting in her grip while he tried to release his arms.

The ugly vamp’s eyes suddenly flickered and lit up bright red as her blood lust took over.

“No!” I screamed and suddenly felt a hot fire awaken throughout my entire body. “Don’t touch him!”

I yanked away from the vamp with every ounce of strength I could muster and felt my right forearm snap. I screamed long and hard. The pain was excruciating, and when I screamed my whole body erupted. Literally, I became engulfed in flames. I lunged forward and threw myself at the vampire who held Drew. My screams were joined by those of the burning vampire who had held me. I didn’t dare look. The fire wasn’t hurting me at all. I veered around Drew and into the vamp who held him. Because she held Drew, she didn’t have time to do anything to defend herself when I slammed into her and locked her in a fiery embrace, my broken arm sort of hanging limply around her.

She let go of Drew. I think he had been waiting for it because he immediately grabbed his gun, then spun and shot. Two precise shots lodged into the skull of the vampire who was squeezing Luke tightly around his chest. Luke fell to the ground, his foot twisting at an odd angle when he went down.

I ran at the one who’d been shot, screaming like one of those bloody warriors from Braveheart. I hit him with such force it toppled him to the ground. Even though he was already eroding from the UV bullets, I wanted to make sure. I stood and kicked the body over and over again until Drew grabbed me away.

“Chloe, stop!”

“Where’s the other one?” I hissed. “Where is she?”

The flames still flickered and licked around my whole body.

“She ran.” Drew panted, then glanced over at Luke, who appeared to be unconscious, lying on the cold snow, and ran to him.

“No!” I concentrated as hard as I could, trying to get the flames to go away. I waved my good arm around and stomped my feet. Nothing happened. I squeezed my eyes shut and thought of only nice, cool, calming… the ocean. The waves rolled in and crashed on the shore. I felt the water dousing my feet as the surf rolled up the sand.

I opened my eyes. It had worked. The fire was gone. Not that it had been that long, but for the first time, I really, really appreciated having the gift of fire.

My arm still hurt like hell. I cradled it gently and tried to set aside the pain and thoughts of fire for the time being and ran to Luke.

He lay on the ground, with Drew on his knees hovering above him. I fell to my knees beside Drew.

“Is he okay?” I asked while silently begging god, the goddesses of our family, the angels, and anyone who would listen to help him.