Page 13 of Slayer

The park was deserted, rides dark and silent, the faint hum of the city distant beyond the trees.

Asher walked over to one of the purple and glass units and shook the handles. Nothing happened.

He cursed and tried another one.

“Asher, it’s closed. Besides, this ride is overpriced.”

He growled, rattling the door, and then leaned his head against it, shoulders slumping for just a second.

There was movement to my right, and I snapped my head in that direction just as a… I had to admit it now, a vampire walked through a shadow and into the park. It was like a door opened in the air, and he slipped right through. He wore a silk red suit, and his blond hair was slicked back on top of his head. His eyes, though, were what had me entranced. They were silver, like rings cut from the moon. He looked like he’d just stepped out of a fancy dinner party.

The air felt colder around him, heavier.

“We missed the portal. Professor Silex said Do. Not. Miss. The. Portal. And we missed it!” Asher complained as I crouched down slowly and pulled the stake from my boot.

“Um, Asher? Another one of those drinkers is here.” I spoke low to him while I watched the vamp watch me. Why not use his lingo for these things. Drinker was an accurate term for a vampire.

Those eyes. The silver rings, they were hard to look away from.

The sound of Asher pulling his blade caused me to break my attention on the man. “That’s not a drinker,” he said. “It’s a sire.”

The man grinned, walking out of the shadows and into the lamplight.

Didn’t he say sires loved to turn hunters? I was assuming that meant what I thought it meant.

The man fiddled with two black gloves at his wrist, tightening and pulling them up. “When I smelled you, I knew I had to have you in my coven. Two baby hunters? Can you imagine the power that would give me?” he purred.

Something primal recoiled inside me.

Asher stepped in front of me protectively. “Hey, girl, get those wafers from my pack.” His voice shook a little as he ordered me.

I realized then he didn’t even know my name.

Girl.

I didn’t question him. I just moved quickly. One second, I was unzipping his backpack, and the next, I had pulled out his steel tin of rune pills or whatever they were.

He lurched forward, pack still open, and collided with the dude. Left, right, Asher stabbed air as the vamp moved like a lightning bolt to dodge him.

My heart pounded so hard I felt it in my throat.

My hands shook as I opened the tin and glanced at all the runes. Above each compartment was a word.

Ignis, Umbra, Aegis, Aeris, Ferro, Voidlock, Celestis, Ascendant.

The words felt ancient. Heavy.

“Uh, what do I do with the wafer?” I asked him.

He growled, cracking the vampire in the side of head with his elbow as the dude ducked and sprang up, punching him right in the stomach.

The air whooshed out of Asher as he stumbled backward.

“Put an Aegis Bastion wafer in my mouth. Shield-looking thing with a line through it,” he coached me through gritted teeth.

I fumbled through the Aegis wafer compartment of the tin and stopped on the one he had described. “Got it!” I pulled it out and clasped the tin shut, putting it into the back waistband of my shorts for safekeeping. Then I fisted the stake with my right hand and held the wafer between the thumb and pointer finger of my left.

I rushed forward, trying to get the wafer to him, when another shadow moved to my right.