Page 103 of Peacemaker

Chapter Thirty-Five

The Hunter

The surviving army of vampires Trinity had raised streamed by me as they went to find a place to sleep before dawn. They hadn’t been enough. If they’d been enough, Trinity wouldn’t be on the island, waiting for the rifters to tear her apart.

I grasped Blacklight’s hilt and yanked her from her sheath, shuddering as she hissed and spat her evil and hatred. It coated and burned my flesh like sticky tar, and my rage—suppressed for so long—rose to greet it.

Blacklight struggled to attach, to take over my arm, but I’d bury the malicious bitch before I allowed that to happen. I would master her. She would not master me. Never again.

I killed seven of the vampires before they scattered and raced away.

“Don’t get too close to me, bloodsuckers,” I whispered.

They hadn’t saved her, but they were never meant to save her.

They were only meant to return.

Trinity was destined to bring them back, and she’d done that. Then they’d let her die.

The vampires were always going to use her in one way or another.

Especially Himself, that wily, powerful king of everything, lord of vampires, ruler of supernaturals. Yes, especially Himself.

And especially the master.

He raced by me, picked up Shane, then hesitated as he met my stare.

I shuddered, then stilled, and my mind quieted. There was only white noise and black shadows where I waited, eternally waited.

I could not kill Amias Sato.

He would bring her back.

He would bring her back to me.

She would not be the same. Her world would not be the same.

But he would save her. He would bring her back.

Someday.

And I slid a little deeper into my shadows, into my darkness.

I waited.