The two vampires they’d met outside looked from Janine to Dante. Even in the dim light, their eyes seemed to suddenly glow.
Dante flexed his arms. “Ready when you are.”
Scar Face and Flannel approached slowly, taking up a place on either side of Dante. Scar Face reached for Dante’s arm first. His fingers were cold. His grasp firm. Flannel’s hand trembled slightly when he took Dante’s other arm.
Both vamps turned his arms to the smooth underside. As Scar Face lifted Dante’s arm to his lips, Flannel quickly mimicked his friend.
Once their noses touched Dante’s skin, the vamps bit into him simultaneously—eagerly. Their teeth tore through with brutal force. Dante threw his head back and groaned. Biting triggered something euphoric inside his brain every time.
Perhaps it did something similar for vampires. Not his blood, though. His was poisoned. And unlike a stomachache, the side effects weren’t gradual. Dante’s blood took immediate effect.
Flannel dropped first. He hit the ground with a thud.
Scar Face stopped biting and sucking all of a sudden. He lifted his head abruptly, eyes wide open. His fingers tightened around Dante’s arm. They seemed to lock up. Dante pulled his arm back. Scar Face lost his grip. Next, he lost his footing. He joined his friend convulsing on the ground.
Blood streaked down Dante’s arms.
“Vampire hunter!” the bearded vamp yelled from the table.
Nelson stood up abruptly, sending Janine crashing to the floor on her ass. Her fishnet arms spread wide, like broken wings attempting to cushion the fall.
The bearded vamp came barreling toward Dante.
Dante squeezed his fingers into fists and lifted them, ready to knock Beardie down. But the vamp wasn’t running for him, but past him—for the front door.
Dante quickly pivoted and sprinted toward him… or would have if Scar Face hadn’t grabbed his ankle. Dante tripped, but didn’t fall. The jerky movement was enough to break free from Scar Face’s sudden grasp.
Beardie left the door of the cabin open. Dante charged after him. The guy ran past the truck and Jeep.
He’d passed up the weapons, as well.
Dante dove down, grasping the hunting knife and pistol in each hand. As he did, another figure zipped by.
Nelson.
Dante dropped the knife. He jumped to his feet, both hands on the gun, and did a quick scan to pinpoint Nelson. The vamp raced down the road in the same direction Beardie had fled. By the time Dante had a chance to aim, both vamps had receded into the night.
Dante cursed.
Janine appeared by his side, breathing hard.
“Where’d they go?”
“Down the road,” Dante said, jutting his chin in the direction they’d fled. He snatched his hunting knife off the ground and thrust the hilt at Janine. “Finish the two inside. I’ll get our runners.”
Janine took the knife and turned to the cabin.
Dante rushed toward the Jeep. He jumped inside, tossed the pistol onto the passenger’s seat, and turned the key in the ignition so hard it squealed. He cranked the wheel and did a 180 in the driveway. Once turned around, Dante punched the gas.
The tires ground through snow and dirt. Twigs snapped as Dante blasted down the bumpy track. The Jeep jolted him side to side, up and down. Dante squeezed the steering wheel and drove with his nose all but touching the windshield. He kept expecting the vamps to appear in his headlights, running down the road.
Shadows appeared on both sides. Trees that kept throwing Dante off, thinking they were vampires trying to blend in with the woods.
One tree looked so human, Dante jammed on the brake and skidded over gravel only to see that the arms he thought he’d detected were really tree limbs.
“Damn it!”
He lifted his foot off the brake and pushed down on the clutch as he gave the Jeep gas.
These vamps might have a head start, but Dante had wheels. Any second now, he’d catch up to them and put the blood suckers down.
Dante shifted into second gear and floored the gas pedal.
The forest flew past his headlights. The lights reached only so far down the dark road.
Dante flicked on his brights. The dense woods only seemed to magnify around the blazing lights.
Dante shifted to third gear. The odometer jumped to thirty-five miles per hour.
Dante shifted into fourth and exceeded forty.
At this speed, he’d be hard pressed to stop in time should the vampires not jump out of the way. His arm muscles tightened when he squeezed the steering wheel. The open wounds below his biceps ached, but the blood was starting to dry on his arms.
Dante reached the public road. He cursed and skidded across gravel, turning the wheel into a spin. Dante headed back down the road. The vamps must have heard him coming and hightailed it into the forest.
Foot chase. Game on.
He zoomed down the first half of the road, slowing about halfway in. Dante shifted down to first gear and moved his head from side to side looking for tracks in the debris littered snow. All the branches and dirt made it difficult to discern footprints. If they’d kept to the ruts in the road, the Jeep had taken care of obliterating their progress down the road. Not to mention it was hard to see anything in the dark.
Dante tapped the steering wheel. If he was a vamp, at what point would he deviate from the road? Probably the moment he heard the Jeep coming after him. Now he just had to figure out how far they could have run before the Jeep started up. It wouldn’t be too far from the cabin. Dante hadn’t delayed in chasing after the runaways.
As he neared the cabin, he stopped the Jeep in the road and turned off the ignition. Dante grabbed a flashlight out of the glove box, and pocketed his keys as he stepped out of the Jeep with the gun and light.
His feet crunched over the frozen ground and dry snow as he walked along the road, beaming the light along the edges of the woods, searching for the vamps’ trail.
Damn, the dark.
Next time Dante went on a night mission, he was bringing along a pair of night vision googles.
He walked slowly up and down one side of the road, followed by the other. As time passed, the cold bit at his arms. It settled into his bones. Dante shivered. He walked faster. He retraced his steps in case he’d missed anything and that’s when he noticed two sets of footprints going off into the woods.
Dante’s heart surged in excitement.
The chase continued.
And the vamps were traveling together. That would make it so much easier to track them down and kill them both.
Dante sprinted into the woods. He wanted to keep running, but he had to continually point the flashlight at the ground and follow the tracks around trees and brush.
Deeper and deeper he went, hurrying through the forest.
The trail curved and wound its way around dense patches of wood. The frigid air iced his lungs and kept him alert. The tracks led Dante on a slanted path that suddenly arced like a frosted rainbow, curving back in the direction he’d come.
Dante picked up the pace. He had to be getting close.
He held tight to the flashlight and gun. The path straightened. The trees slid past the beam of light. Dante charged forward, faster and faster. Suddenly, Dante reached a black void. No forest. No looming trees.
Dante swung the light around, realizing it wasn’t a void—the trail had led him back to the road.
Dante needed a compass. He needed Janine.
What if they’d doubled-back and gone after her?
He raced down the road, leaving the Jeep behind him. At least if they tried to drive away in their truck, they’d be blocked in.
Soon, Dante caught sight of the square of light coming from the cabin. He paused briefly before continuing his sprint. Sweat froze against his arms and neck.
The front door was still open. He ran through it.
Scar Face and Flannel lay still on the floor, eyes open and staring in shock. Blood stains blo
ssomed across the fabric over their hearts.
“Dante?”
Dante looked up. Janine stepped out from the one room in the cabin.
“I was waiting in case they returned,” she said.
Dante nodded. If only.
“Did you get them?” Janine asked.
“No,” Dante grumbled. “They ran off into the forest. I picked up their trail, but they doubled back to the road. Probably crossed over and did the same thing on the other side. I couldn’t see a damn thing in the dark. Suckers had the advantage being able to hear the Jeep. I bet they skirted me in the woods when I drove back and hit the road running again. Damn it!” Dante kicked the wall.
Janine walked over to him and glanced at the bodies on the floor. “At least those two are down.”
Dante ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe their friends will come back. We can bed down here and wait.”
Janine glanced at the doorframe. “Those two aren’t coming back.”
“Maybe not tonight.”
Janine huffed. “I’m not holing up here for days.”
Dante nudged the tip of her boot with the toe of his. “We could find ways to keep busy while we wait—make up for the last five weeks.”
A flicker of a smile played over Janine’s lips. “Take me back to our hideaway in Fairbanks and we’ll work something out.”
Dante’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh, yeah?”
Janine’s gaze traveled down his body, lingering on his groin.
Her pointed stare was answer enough for him. Dante straightened. “Let’s get out of here.”
Janine nodded at the two dead vamps on the floor. “You want to burn the cabin down with the bodies inside first? Call it in?”
Dante shook his head. “The mission’s not complete. We’re not lighting it up or calling it in. I’ll check back in another month or so. See if our runaways wander back.”
Janine snorted and rolled her eyes. “Don’t hold your breath on that one.”
“We’ll see,” Dante said, undeterred. “I can be extremely patient when it comes to hunting vampires.”
Janine snorted again. “You? Patient.”
Dante walked over to the kerosene lantern and snuffed out the flame. The room went dark, except for the circle of light from Dante’s flashlight. He lifted it to his face and lit up his grin. “You’d be surprised.”
“Good luck with that,” Janine said. “Now let’s get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”
“Don’t tell me you’re scared?”
Janine folded her arms across her chest. “Nothing scares me.”
“Except for zombies.”
Janine laughed. Her arms relaxed. “Did you see the look on those vamps’ faces? They cleared out of here as though they were being pursued by a zombie horde.” The floorboards creaked beneath her feet.
Dante followed her outside.
Janine stopped. “Where’s the Jeep?”
“Down the road a ways.”
She cussed. “I am so ready to get out of this shithole.” Janine held out her hand. “Flashlight.”
Dante placed the flashlight in her palm. She wasted no time leading the way down the road. Darkness swallowed the cabin whole.
Shame about the two that got away. Then again, they’d put down the other two vamps. Dante’s attention shifted to Janine in her tight pants and corset top striding toward the Jeep. In another hour they’d be back at their hideaway cabin in Fairbanks. Not a bad way to end a mission. Not bad at all.
UNTIL NEXT TIME…
For more fun and thrills, don’t miss Valerie’s story.
Evil Red
Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2.6
L.A. is one tough city, especially when sharing a trailer with four thieving sisters.
Valerie's plans for a better life and Hollywood grandeur are interrupted after a fateful stabbing lands her in Anchorage, Alaska where government agents expect her to play the role of a vampire hunting La Femme Nikita.
Available at all major online book retailers.
Coming October 27, 2015
Whiteout
Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 5
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Four more fantastic freebies to download and devour:
Darkness of Light
By Stacey Marie Brown
Hope(less)
By Melissa Haag
Relentless
By Karen Lynch
Runes
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Night of the Living Dante (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 4.5) Page 2