Page 79 of Slayer

“We really gotta stop finding ourselves in these situations.” I laughed nervously. It was like every time we were together, the universe tried to kill us.

“Did you bite her ear off?” a male hunter beside Celia asked.

“Guilty.” I winced, spitting on the ground and wanting to get the taste of blood out of my mouth.

“That’s badass,” he said.

Celia pulled a walkie-talkie off her belt and began to call in the situation, her voice all business now.

“Lockdown,” a reply came.

She nodded. “Stella, Asher, it’s time to get you back to the dorm. We’re locking down for a perimeter sweep.”

She urged us to hurry as I grabbed my backpack and followed her, my heart still racing. My palms were torn up, and so was my back from the thorns.

Celia clicked something on her belt and handed me a rune wafer. “Stitch mender rune. Shower off when you get home, and burn the clothes okay?” she ordered.

I just nodded, peering down at the familiar rune, the X mark with a thick line through the middle. It was the same one Asher had taken. I tipped my head back and popped it into my mouth.

“Why does this keep happening?” Asher asked Celia. “We’ve never had attacks here before.”

Her face was drawn with lines of worry. “I wish I knew. But until it stops, we’re starting night shifts at school.”

Asher nearly tripped over his feet. “Night shifts in Veil Haven?”

He looked scared. This was the only place they felt safe, he’d once told me.

She nodded. “For now. Get some sleep,” Celia said, and then an announcement came over the speaker system playing out across campus.

“We are instituting a lockdown until morning. Students, please get to your dorm rooms or campus apartments immediately,” came Headmistress Rubina’s voice.

Celia barked some orders at her hunters while Asher lingered in front of me. “Are you okay? That was…close.”

The vampire had almost ripped my throat out, and I hadn’t been able to take her down.

“I’ll never get my hunter marks.”

He frowned. “Of course you will. You ripped her ear off. That was badass.”

“Ripping an ear off doesn’t get you marks. It’s not enough. And now with the school on night shift lockdowns, we won’t have time for practice.”

I’d be a Jane. Working in the DNA registry and making sourdough.

It wasn’t the worst life I could think of, but I wanted to be a hunter.

“Get inside please,” Celia warned, and I knew from her tone she was serious.

I waved goodbye to Asher and ducked inside with the rest of the students frantically trying to find their way.

I ran to my room, practically jumping into the adjoining bathroom, locking both doors and throwing on the shower. After I brushed my teeth and tongue for what felt like a full half hour to rid myself of vampire ear residue, I heard a bang on the door.

“Stella!” It was Harper.

“I’m getting out.” I turned off the water. I changed and threw open the door to find Luna grinning.

“You bit a vampire’s ear off!” she exclaimed with excitement.

“Are you okay?” Harper asked, eyes frantically searching me for wounds.