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Phillip’s hand touched mine and electricity raced the length of my arm. “We’re stronger as a pair than we are apart, so don’t leave my side. It’ll want to separate us to get to you.”
“I’m not a total amateur,” I balked angrily, ignoring how good his skin felt against mine. “If it was watching me, clearly I’d be its objective. Plus, I’m less trained and it’ll exploit that.”
His mouth quirked up. “You never fail to surprise me with your cleverness.” I couldn’t hide my own confident smile. “Or with how damn feisty you are in the presence of a superior.”
Smile lost. Moment lost. He was an asshole.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re not really selling yourself as a superioranythingright now.”
Phillip’s smile grew, and his eyes twinkled like we weren’t crouched and waiting for an enemy. “Fair enough. Rose and I have been friends for a long time. It doesn’t surprise me her granddaughter would be extra spicy.”
For a long time? The dude was barely thirty.
Before I could ask him to explain himself, something around the cabin moved and a waft of drying blood reached my nose. Both of us ceased moving entirely.
Another nifty ability of a Hunter was we could slow our heart to a near-lifeless beat and silence our breathing for around ten minutes—sometimes longer—to avoid detection. Vampires had excellent everything, and it took careful manipulation to go under the radar around them. We had technology on our side, but vampires were clever enough to steal most of it and recreate it.
It often came down to who was smarter and more resourceful.
By the way Phillip prepared his weapon and never let his eyes lose sight of this one, it was likely an even match. Or maybe the burden of an apprentice made him careful. Either way, I refused to be the child in need of babysitting and switched over to Hunter mode, shutting down my brain from anything that wasn’t the hunt.
As if we’d planned it, Phillip and I moved in unison. We ran side by side, dodging traps and mines. Some went off, exploding so loudly my ears rang, but I never slowed down. I never wavered in my forward trek. I never stopped. I centered myself on the chase.
Phillip grabbed me around the waist and dragged me close, but not fast enough to avoid several heavy metal arrows, which cut a burning path across my arm. With another jerk, we were torso to torso, and then he effortlessly scaled a nearby tree, ascending to the top like he wasn’t carrying a whole other person.
But I could do the same. Likely I was stronger. Females always were.
Heart slowed and mind deadly focused, I crouched on a branch beside him as he loaded the repeating adder crossbow. I didn’t even register the pain in my arm or the stream of blood trailing from upper arm to lower.
Instead, the net launcher which had been strapped to my back was already out, held at the ready, while Phillip took aim and a barrage of arrows were sent to the floor. Something tumbled to the ground, and I only had seconds before it was gone. So, I launched the net where it dropped and prayed it wouldn’t escape.
Phillip and I didn’t waste time getting to the ground.
Encased in a silver net was a woman with pale blonde hair and white eyes, whose face was the image of beauty and death. Her tight black dress rode up high enough that I felt inclined to look away, and her chest was exposed through tiny pockets of the net. But her skin was already mending where she’d been hit by Phillip’s arrows as she hissed and groaned, fighting the silver barbs around her without success.
Now Daxon’s involvement made a lot more sense. The dude was obsessed with this bombshell vampire and wanted to enslave himself to her ‘til death did they part.
And sadly, he got his wish.
“Phillip,” she growled. “I should’ve guessed it’d be you. You never fail to take down a mark.”
Phillip seemed genuinely confounded. “Anita. I thought they killed you four decades ago. What a happy little surprise this is.”
Something about the way she talked to him suggested they knew each other, but that wouldn’t make sense. If she was supposedly killed off forty years ago, he wouldn’t be old enough to warrant that sort of connection. He wouldn’t be older than thirty-five, max.
Thinking back, his earlier comment about Grams would insinuate he was older than his appearance as well. Grams retired over twenty years ago, and she didn’t spend much time outside of the house. Her life was instead dedicated to raising and training me to be a proper huntress of evil.
So, how would they know each other? Why did he talk about Grams like he’d known her for decades, from the time she was an active Hunter?
Something’s up.
The dots weren’t connecting. As far as I knew, only Shifters and vampires lived beyond the human race, never Hunters. Not us. We didn’t have that sort of genetic makeup. Grams never mentioned anyone who lived longer than others. She’d clearly aged the way any human would.
Confused, I watched Phillip and desperately worked through all the possibilities.
Anita went silent, only her hissing breath evidence she was alive. Or at least alive in terms of humans. Unless she turned to ash on the wind, it was pretty clear she hadn’t died. The silver that cut into her skin would be torture the way a hot brand was to humans, and it was the only reason she couldn’t escape. But no matter how painful, it wouldn’t kill her.
“So, what do you want with V? Who sent you?” Phillip demanded, his expression darker than I’d ever seen on him.
