The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(47)

I gave her one more chance. “I said, Take your hand off me.”

She leaned in like she wanted to tell me a secret.

“Why don’t you make me, Hunter.”

I closed my eyes and pulled in the energy in the air around me, channeling it down to my hand where I wanted to release it.

“Ow, damn it!” Vanessa screamed and jumped up out of her seat, snatching her hand off my thigh.

“Vanessa!” I exclaimed, feigning surprise, like I hadn't just burn her. “What happened? Are you all right?”

I hadn’t used fire. I had only warmed my hand, but against her cold vampire skin, it probably felt like she had been scorched. Our eyes locked. She read my silent message loud and clear: Touch me again and it will be worse.

She shook her head. “It’s nothing. I’m sorry. I haven’t eaten all day and my stomach is paining me today.” She caught Trevor’s eyes. “You know how it feels when you haven’t eaten.”

Trevor assessed the situation. I almost certain he knew she had lied.

“Alice!” he called out. His eyes held Vanessa’s. When Alice appeared, he asked, “Would you take Vanessa downstairs and assist her? Her stomach is paining her.”

Alice understood the code he spoke and nodded. “Yes, sir. Come with me, Miss Vanessa.”

Oh, my gosh! He meant for Alice to give herself to Vanessa, to give her blood. I didn’t even know there was a downstairs from the main floor. I thought we were downstairs. I wanted to get up and go after them, but I knew I couldn’t. I knew Trevor would never let me near whatever was going on. I barely touched anything else on my plate for the rest of the meal because I was so nervous.

When the meal was finally over, I felt relief wash over my body, except for needing to pee. The vampires rose and spread through the house, mingling and talking about one of the nightclubs Trevor owned—apparently one Vanessa ran for him—and how they needed to find a way to keep the hairballs out.

I didn’t know why there would be a problem with hairballs in a bar. I shrugged it off and hurried down the hall to the bathroom. Before I could turn the knob, I heard voices on the other side.

“Do you think she knows?” I recognized Constance's whispered voice.

I heard a giggle followed by Vanessa saying, “She doesn’t have a clue. I hope he drains the little bitch dry. I’m sick of her already. Even though she smells wonderful, she is a pain in the ass. I don’t know why Trevor insisted on bringing her here so early.”

“He had to. He had to make sure she was here when she turned sixteen. It would have been really taking a chance to wait until closer to her birthday,” Constance answered.

What the… What were they talking about? It had to be me.

“Yeah, I guess,” Vanessa answered. She sighed audibly. I could just see Vanessa on the other side of the door, glossing her pale lips in the mirror. “I can see that, considering she had all those Hunters around who never left her alone.”

Constance lowered her voice even more. “I’ll tell you what, if I knew I’d get away with it, I’d snag her up and keep her for myself. The ability to walk in the sunlight would make me the most powerful vampire. Trevor doesn’t deserve it. We do all the work for him anyway.”

“Shut up, Constance,” Vanessa hissed. “Talking like that will just get you killed. What if someone hears you?”

What the heck is going on?

I felt my heartbeat and my body shook violently. It wasn’t clear exactly what they had meant, but it was clear I was in trouble. Big trouble.

Constance told Vanessa she needed to shut up, that she would say whatever she wanted. I turned around and crashed right into Alice, who had been standing behind me. I had been so intent on listening to the conversation on the other side of the door, I hadn't heard her approach.

She took a step back to steady herself and looked at me with sadness in her eyes.

“Did you know about this?” I demanded in a whisper.

She took two steps back and lowered her head. I took that as my answer and balled my fists. I lurched forward, grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall. “I should kill you! How could you?”

She only shook her head a bit while tears slipped from the corners of her eyes and ran down her cheeks onto my hand. Fury washed over me and I could feel my hands getting hot. Alice winced in pain and squirmed against the wall.

“What is going on out here?”

Vanessa and Constance came out of the bathroom and saw me standing there holding Alice by her throat. I looked over my shoulder and watched them stop short, stare at me for a moment and then instinct kicked in. Before they could do anything to stop me, I ran.

I ran as fast as I could through the house and out the front door. I heard the women screaming at Trevor, “She knows! She’s running!”

They chased me out the door.

Even though I knew in the back of my mind there was no possibility I could outrun them, I kept going. When I hit the lawn, with my mind racing, I decided to take a chance and stopped. I turned around to face them, lifted my arms into the air, palms out toward them, mustered all the energy I could and forced it toward them. From each of my palms, huge bursts of fire flew forward, curling and licking as the air gave it more fuel.

Vanessa and Constance, not expecting me to have such a weapon, ran right into the flames. Their awful, screeching, banshee-like wails penetrated the air all around us. I saw more coming out the front door and bolted.