Page 94 of Slayer

I barely had time to process the horror before Silex took the vampire’s head clean off.

Asher was at my side instantly, catching me as I crumpled. I thought he was shouting my name, but everything sounded distant, muffled.

That was when the world went dark.

I came to a few minutes later with a pounding headache, my skull throbbing in time with my heartbeat. I cracked my eyes open to find myself in Asher’s arms, cradled against his chest as we walked down Main Avenue behind the others.

He felt me stir and looked down. “You okay, Tyson?”

I groaned. “Yeah.”

“She all right, Voss?” Derek asked.

“I think so, sir,” Asher answered, his gaze drifting over my face, lingering at my lips, before a grin broke through.

“What?” I asked weakly.

“We’re getting hunter marks tomorrow.”

A surge of excitement cut through the fog in my head.

“We did it,” I managed, my voice thick.

Derek stepped closer and held out a wafer. “Stitch mender wafer. Helps with concussions, which I’m pretty sure you have right now.”

I opened my mouth, and he placed it on my tongue. As it dissolved, the pressure eased, the dizziness fading, the lights sharpening back into focus.

“I think I can walk,” I whispered to Asher.

Asher said nothing. His arms tightened around me even more, pulling me closer like he didn’t want to let me go.

I rested my head against his shoulder, breathing him in. Cologne, coffee, salt, something smoky like burnt wood.

He smelled unreal.

The warmth in my chest flared, then dimmed just as fast.

He was taken. He was Daphne’s. I wasn’t that girl.

“Asher, I want to walk,” I said more firmly.

He stopped short, looking down at me, hurt flashing across his face.

“I’m sure Daphne’s excited to hear that you’ll be getting your hunter marks tomorrow,” I added, and guilt immediately crossed his face.

He let go of me, and I slid slowly down his body until my boots met the pavement. There was a brief dizzy spell, the world tilting for half a second, but then it passed and I steadied myself, taking a few slow steps away from Asher.

The best way to avoid temptation was to remove it from your life entirely.

Asher was hot. He was kind and protective and attentive in a way that made my chest ache, but so were plenty of other guys. I needed to focus on school, not him. And it wasn’t fair to Daphne. I wouldn’t be that girl.

I took the first SkyRide car back with Celia, an injured Madison, and Silex. Madison was doing okay, conscious and in less pain.

“Great job, Stella,” Celia told me.

I smiled but it didn’t reach my eyes because my thoughts were tangled around the sire’s words, looping endlessly. ‘Reinstate the payments or else.’

Or else she’d kill my mother. How could you kill someone who was supposed to have been dead my entire life?