Page 93 of Slayer

‘Reinstate the payments or else.’

Or else she’d kill my mother. What the hell did that mean? My mother was alive? The urge to tell Celia burned in my chest. I wanted to blurt it out.

‘You can’t trust my dark secret with any hunters.’

The words from my mother’s letter echoed in my head, and I clamped my mouth shut. Confusion tangled with fear until I decided to lock it all away, just for now. I’d think it through later. Alone.

“Come on. Madison got one, but she’s badly injured. I’m taking her back to campus,” Celia told us.

Injured? My stomach dropped. “Will she be able to try again for marks?”

Madison hadn’t gotten any kills the first time. Only one now meant everything rode on this night.

Celia ignored my question. “You stay back and get your final one. Asher, can you help me with Madison?”

Asher hesitated, torn, his gaze flicking to me like he didn’t want to leave.

Celia caught it immediately. “Actually, you stay with Stella. I’ll manage.”

We stepped into the hallway, and I sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of Madison, blood streaming down her neck in dark rivulets. Derek pressed a rune wafer to her lips, murmuring instructions. Celia snapped the rune dispenser on her belt, placed a tab on her own tongue, then bent and scooped Madison up effortlessly, one arm under her legs, the other braced behind her back. She murmured something to her husband and jogged toward the stairs like Madison weighed nothing at all.

Strength wafer. Had to be. She made it look terrifyingly easy.

“Come on. A fight has broken out upstairs. It should be easy pickings for you, Stella,” Silex said, jerking his chin toward the upper level where shouts and crashes echoed over the wail of sirens.

We moved fast. Asher, Silex, Derek, and I took the stairs two at a time. When we reached the bar level, the room had been cleared of diners and staff. Tables were overturned, glass crunching underfoot. It was just us and vampires now.

“Go on,” Asher urged, pointing to a distracted vampire stalking toward a student with their back turned.

Okay. One more. One kill and then I could go home and process the fact that my mother was willingly paying a vampire twenty grand a month and might still be alive.

I sprinted forward, stake in hand. The vampire heard me at the last second and pivoted, colliding with me like a freight train. One moment, I was charging, and the next, I was airborne. The air blasted from my lungs as I crashed backward into a table, wood splintering beneath me.

“You need help, Sinclair?” Derek shouted as the vampire launched himself into the air, coming down hard toward me.

Damn it. My stake lay useless on the floor where he’d clotheslined me.

“No!” I croaked, barely managing the word as I rolled aside. He landed where I’d just been, and I scrambled up, grabbing a steak knife from a fallen place setting.

His eyes glowed red as he snarled and charged again. I caught a glimpse of Asher in my peripheral vision but forced my focus forward.

The vamp closed the distance fast. When he was close enough, I kicked hard, my boot slamming between his legs. He folded forward just like I’d hoped, and I drove the knife upward, aiming for his heart.

I missed. I knew it instantly, the blade scraping bone instead of sinking clean.

Damn.

I yanked it free and stabbed three times in rapid succession, just like Alex had taught me. This time, it worked. The vampire collapsed forward just as Asher screamed my name.

“Stella!”

I turned but too late. A massive vampire, nearly seven feet tall, seized me by the throat and lifted me up off the ground like I weighed nothing. My feet kicked uselessly as he dragged my neck toward his mouth like he was about to bite into an apple. I swung wildly, slamming my brass knuckles into the side of his face as stars burst across my vision.

Then pain, sharp and burning on my neck.

I felt him gulp.

One second, he was drinking me like a smoothie, and the next, he dropped me. My head cracked the ground hard as the vamp staggered away and retched violently. Dark blood splattered the floor.