Page 16 of The Slayer Seduction

This woman is my mate’s friend, and she’s being hunted by a vampire in the middle of the day. He’s clearly used his abilities to manipulate her fragile mind.

“Um, sure. You too,” she says, walking past the store and giving me a curious glance.

Hmm. I will kill this vampire. It will help my blood lust, making me more rational around my mate. It will also be a great gift. I shall protect this woman that she considers her best friend until I relieve her of that spot, becoming my mate’s ultimate friend, better than best.

I trail the woman to the same cottage as the other night.

I immediately start carving a new stake.

Tonight I hunt, and tomorrow I claim my mate.

It’s the best night of my life.

Chapter 9

Iris

Igo to knock on my grandma’s door, but she answers it before I can get the third knock in.

“Iris, honey. Sweet tea?” she asks.

“Please,” I say, taking off my shoes at the front door and following her into the house.

Her home hasn’t changed since my first memories of it. We all lived under this roof up until my mom passed. Then it was just me and her. It was hard at first, but the older I got, the loss became more of a scar than an open wound.

I run my fingers over the spines of her books, wondering if there are any that might help me with what’s happening in my life. She brings us both glasses of sweet tea and we sit in her sitting room together.

She lightly drags her nails over her smooth head, before clasping her cane and looking in my direction. She’s blind, but she doesn’t miss a single fucking thing. Even without her vision she knew exactly when I was about to do some bad shit, and even now she knows something is wrong.

“Have you had any visions about me recently?”

She swallows thickly, her head turning to the side showing off her sharp features. Mamaw has always been a beautiful woman, her skin a flawless rich mahogany, and her eyes glimmering gold; my mother looked just like her.

“Mamaw, are you hiding something?” I ask.

“I don’t know, Iris, are you?”

“I’ve been having visions, dark ones, nearly impossible to decipher. I…well, I went to Izora.”

Her pissed off expression still has me shaking in my boots even as a grown woman. “You did not.”

“I didn’t know what to do!” I exclaim, standing up and walking around. “You’ve been so secretive about any visions that pertain to me and I needed more answers.”

“Let me guess, you did not get them,” she says plainly, like I got taken advantage by some average human at a circus claiming to be a fortune teller.

“I wouldn’t say that. She pulled the two of swords. She said specifically that I was blind to something in my present, something ancient.”

Her breath hitches as I pause in my pacing to stare at her. One of her tells is tapping her fingers against her cane, and she does that now before speaking.

“There has been one vision, but I refuse to believe it.”

“What is it?” I ask, approaching her, getting down on my knees against her and holding her thighs. “Please, Mamaw, these visions. I can’t sleep. I’m losing my fucking mind.”

“Now watch your damn language.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” I say quickly and her throat bobs before speaking again.

“The vision was you, carrying our coven upon your shoulders while you stepped over spots of blood. You have an ancestral burden, Iris, but I don’t know what it is.”