The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(61)

Not that I paid much attention because at that same time I yelled, “Go to hell, you freak,” and revved my fire again.

“I am not sorry for what is about to happen, Chloe,” Trevor shook his head, “since you insist on having it your way.”

Then he shot at me.

Time seemed suspended. I literally saw the bullet leave the barrel. I sidestepped in front of Christina and let the bullet pass. There was no time to think or try to watch every bullet, but it suddenly occurred to me that I was the only one he wanted alive, and I knew it was up to me to protect the others.

“Get behind me,” I ordered them.

“Are you crazy?” Gavin exclaimed. “You’ll die.”

“No, he wants me alive.” Yeah, so the worst that could happen was that I would be shot and not die.

Yay.

“Just do it,” Christina yelled out from behind me. “She’s right.”

Trevor advanced and fired a shot that whizzed by Gavin’s head. Quickly, Gavin fell behind me, but Drew still refused. I shook my head. I should have known he would never stand behind me.

I pushed the fire up and out. The result was probably beautiful from a distance. Droplets of fire rained down onto us like the falling tracers on the Fourth of July.

“Get back!” I screamed, meaning both Drew as well as Trevor.

“I am certain Alice escaped with you.” Trevor spread his hands. “Tell me where she is.”

He scanned the sides of the road and turned his attention back to us. No one answered him.

“I will allow you one last chance to come with me willingly, Chloe. It will spare your friends if you do.”

“Tell him where to stick it.” Christina pushed me from behind.

Before I could say anything, we were rushed by the vampires. I rushed forward too, blowing the fire out like flame throwers and screaming from a place deep down inside where I kept the rage of my mother’s death. Drew and Gavin stood on either side of me. Gunshots filled the air while they shot at Constance and Vincent. Christina stayed behind me. I wasn’t sure if her strategy was to stay hidden or if something else was going on, but it was okay. She was safe behind me.

That's when I felt it: the burning, ripping flesh when a bullet tore into my calf.

“Oh, my god!” I screamed in pain and fell to the ground.

My flames extinguished, and I lay there in pain. It felt like nothing I’d ever felt before. “I’ve been shot! He shot me!” I screamed.

Behind me, Christina shot back at him while I desperately reached for my gun. I knew I could hit him in the heart. I never missed.

“Gavin’s hit!” I heard Drew yell.

“Damn it!” Christina hollered. “I’m out of ammo.”

Finally, my hands wrapped around the handle of the gun in my waistband. God, my leg hurt. I aimed at Trevor, ready to take the shot, but before I could pull the trigger, a loud blast rocked the air, sounding above all the other gunshots, and Trevor crumpled to the ground.

Suddenly, the atmosphere was static. Silence interrupted the chaos, and every single person looked to see where the shot had come from. There, behind the open door of the Jeep, stood Alice with a shotgun still smoking in her hands. Her blank blue eyes were wide with shock and fear. Her face was pale beneath the dirt from the woods and Oscar’s blood. We watched as her fingers released the shotgun, and it fell to the ground with an anticlimactic clank. Tears slid from her eyes.

UV shotgun shells.

Everyone’s eyes were glued, unbelieving, on Trevor’s body as it convulsed and a white light attempted to eat at his body, but his aged vampire blood repelled it. I’m pretty sure, had it been one of our bullets, he wouldn’t even have noticed, but the shotgun shell held more UV than most ammo.

Vincent was the first to come back from the pause. In a flash, he had Drew’s throat in his grasp. I shot him in the head.

Drew, covered in vampire brains and blood, kicked Vincent’s falling body with his boot.

“Ugh!” he cried out. He kicked and then shot him twice in the heart. Just to be sure he was dead, Drew reached back over his shoulder and produced a wooden stake that he rammed through Vincent’s chest.

White light emanated from the holes in Vincent as he eroded. The UV wove its way through his body, eating it away. He must not have been nearly as old as Trevor.

I fell back onto the cement and wondered where Gavin was shot, having completely forgotten about Constance until Christina jumped over the top of me and slammed her body into the hard surface of the female vampire. They both tumbled to the ground.

I watched, weakly trying to get a bead on Constance, but Christina kept getting in the way. Constance was much stronger than Christina, so of course, she pinned her right away. Christina growled at her like a pit bull. “Get off me, you nasty whore!”

Instead of using her hands to force Constance off of her, she reached downward toward her thigh and pulled out a large, lethal-looking knife and slammed it into Constance’s side, sliding it right between her ribs. Constance screamed and released Christina to frantically swipe at the knife lodged in her. Christina rolled away from the crazy vampire, grabbing her knife on the way. I finally had a shot at Constance, and I took it, straight to the heart.

Christina was on her feet already and bolted toward the last vampire, who fought with Drew. Every time the vampire made a grab or tried to hit him, Drew deflected it. Christina took a flying leap at the vampire and landed on his back. She planted her blade into the side of his body, in almost the same spot on him where she’d stabbed Constance.