Circle of Embers (Shadow Realms Series Book 2): A vampire hunter novel

by Kelly Carrero

  My heart clenched with regret. I should never have taken him out. It was too soon.

  If we weren’t down the end of the street from our house, I would’ve kept driving, ignoring whatever the vamps were up to.

  But we were.

  And I had a gut-wrenching feeling that they were waiting for us at our destination.

  I licked my lips, my mouth dry with fear as I tried to weigh the ramifications of leaving our father to die to save my brother. Unfortunately, the decision wasn’t easy because I knew Mason would never forgive me if I put his fears above our father’s life.

  Wasn’t that what parents were supposed to do, though? Die for their children?

  Slowing down, I switched off the headlights as we crawled along the road and came to a stop.

  I swiveled around in my seat. “You take the car. Park it down at Joe’s, and I’ll meet you there.” It was only a five-minute drive from our house to the diner, but it was usually bustling with teens rebelling against the curfew at this time of night. He should be safe.

  Face still drained of color, he shook his head. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “I love your loyalty, but you’ll just get in my way.” I sighed. “I’ll be fine. All I need is to get some demonic blood into my system, and none of them will stand a chance.”

  “What if they kill you before you get a chance to bite one?”

  “They won’t,” I said without an ounce of doubt in my mind. I was already hyped up on Mason’s blood, which would allow me to at least get close enough to do some damage. And if it came down to them biting me, it would give me the opportunity to have them exactly where I needed them.

  Mason momentarily glanced up the street before returning his gaze to mine, his eyes swirling with fear. “Maybe he’s not home. Maybe he’s up at the liquor store.”

  I nodded. “You’re right. He could be. You should stop by there on your way to Joe’s. And while you’re there, I’ll check out what’s going on here.”

  Mason opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off. “Look, I know you’re worried about me, but there’s no need to be. Every second that we stay here with me trying to convince you could mean the difference between life and death for Dad. And I know you don’t want that responsibility on your shoulders, so you need to do as I say. Go try to find dad then head to Joe’s, and let me do what I was born to do. No arguments.”

  He nodded.

  “Good.” I opened the car door, ducked around to the passenger side, and waited for Mason to get out.

  Quietly, he closed the door then looked at me, nervously bouncing on the spot as he cast glances around us. It was as if he thought we were going to be pounced on the second he let his guard down. I may not have been at my full ability, but I could still tell if someone—or something—was approaching.

  At least, I hoped I could.

  With that thought churning in my stomach, I ushered Mason to the driver’s side and waited for him to get in.

  Buckled in, he lowered the window and held out his arm. “Do you want a little more?”

  I stepped back, a bit concerned by how freely he offered me his blood. “I’m good.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I nodded then tilted my nose up, sniffing the air, my senses going into overdrive as the smell of vampires pulled on the part of me that ached to be set free. I could almost taste the power that came with it, and I had to do everything I could not to run down the street like some freak, salivating like a rabid dog as I hunted my prey. “I’ll get a chance to get some more soon enough.”

  “Be careful.”

  “You, too.”

  He raised the window and sped down the road, almost making me regret allowing him to get behind the wheel. The guy had a lead foot and hadn’t driven a day in his life.

  “Perfect time to learn,” I muttered to myself, then headed down the street, sticking to the foliage of the neighboring houses.

  Stealthily, I made my way up to the neighbor’s fence and peered over the overgrown hedge in our backyard, remembering how it once was perfectly manicured as was every part of our yard. But that had been when Mom was alive. Now the grass was overgrown, garden beds were a pile of dead plants that would’ve had my mother rolling in her grave if she could see what had become of her pride and joy.

  None of us shared that passion, and Dad sure as hell wasn’t keeping it nice in her memory.

  Everything was quiet. There was a light on in the house, and I could hear the faint noise of the TV coming from the lounge room. It appeared normal.

  I knew it was far from normal.

  The overpowering, sweet stench of the vampires only yards from me was driving me insane. They were there. Most likely watching, waiting for one of us stupid kids to come for our father.

  Well, that stupid kid was me.

  And they didn’t intimidate me.

  There was no sign of human blood, which either meant my father was safe, or they’d already taken him and I was too late to save him.

  Trying to keep my crap together and not race into the house in an attempt to quench my thirst for the good stuff, I snuck between the gap in the hedges, surprised to find my mother’s favorite white-flowered bush still blooming. I guessed we had our neighbor, old Mrs Harris, to thank for inadvertently keeping it alive, seeing as though the bush was backing onto her fence where her own prized garden lay on the other side.

  Tearing my gaze away from yet another memory of my mother, I padded across the overgrown grass that came up to my knees, searching for any sign of my father or the monsters that lay in wait.

  Hearing a faint creak of the floorboards in the kitchen, I halted, my heart rate picking up, ready for whatever was there waiting to pounce on me.

  Just when I was about to continue, the back door opened and a man dressed in a tailored suit stepped onto the back patio. He carried an air of arrogance that only came with power. His gaze settled on me as he held a badge up to me.

  In all my years, I had never encountered anyone like him. Or maybe I had but didn’t realize it.

  My mouth salivated at the sight of him. Tall, well groomed, and handsome. But that wasn’t what appealed to me.

  It was his blood.

  8

  “Vampire,” I said before I had enough sense to realize the implication of that single word.

  His whole demeanor changed in an instant. He wasn’t like the others, and I wasn’t prepared. This one was old, powerful, and something about him made my blood curdle. He was intoxicating.

  Running my tongue across my front teeth, I was reminded my fangs were a dead giveaway for what I was.

  I needed to remain in the shadows because if he suspected for a second what I was, then I was as good as dead. I really should’ve stopped someplace else for some of the good blood and torn through a few vampires in preparation for the “save Dad” mission. “What are you doing here?”

  His steely gaze narrowed in on me, and the corner of his lips turned up into a smirk. “Isn’t it obvious?” He raised a brow. “We’re here for your brother.”

  I dragged in a long breath through my nose as the smell of vampires exploded in the air surrounding me, somehow previously hidden. It was as if they appeared out of thin air.

  Slowly, I glanced from side to side, assessing my situation. There had to be at least twenty vampires surrounding me. Some were the trashy, blood junkies, and others were classy, no longer slaves to the blood. They were the ones I needed to watch out for.

  Chastising myself for being stupid enough to come here alone, I tried to figure out how I was going to walk away from this one alive.

  Then again, I was pretty sure they wouldn’t kill me without confirming I was the one they were looking for. After all, I could’ve just been one of the few who were able to control their blood lust. Then again, why would I come to the house of the hunters?

  In that moment, I knew I was doomed. All I had was my weapons and barely any idea how to use them.

  What I
needed was some vampire blood. I needed to come alive, no longer tethered to the bounds of humanity. I needed to be free.

  With all the vampires surrounding me, it shouldn’t have been that hard to get a drop of vampire blood, yet I knew it was going to be virtually impossible.

  Two blood junkies rushed me from either side, their savage fangs bared, ready to tear me limb from limb.

  I waited until the last second before I made my move, jumping, flipping backward, and landing behind them. With the precision of a hunter, I raised my blades, slashing their throats as they twisted around to face me. Blood spurted from their wounds, and just as I opened my mouth with my heart in my throat, ready to devour their evil souls, someone grabbed my ponytail, yanking my head back, making me miss the drops of blood coming my way.

  Fangs bared down on me, piercing into my throat momentarily before I spun the daggers in my hands and stabbed them into the monster behind me.

  The vampire loosened his grip on me, and I took the opportunity to twist around to face him and rip the blades through his stomach with every bit of strength I had.

  Aching for a taste of his blood, I lifted the blade toward my tongue, but before I could connect, another vampire landed beside me and kicked me in the ribs.

  I flew through the air and crashed into the timber railing on the back porch, snapping it like a twig before falling onto the decking.

  Momentarily dazed, I widened my eyes, trying to get my bearings, but all I could see was the sole of a shoe coming down on me faster than I was able to move out of the way.

  The bones in my face felt as if they were about to crumble under the weight of the head vampire, my eyes bulging as he pushed down harder.

  I thrashed my legs, trying to wrap them around him so I could throw him to the floor, but it was useless. Even with the blood of a human, I was powerless to stop him without a drop of their blood.

  It was as if I were a fledgling, absolutely no match for the power of a vampire. Especially one with so much control.

  He laughed as he looked down at me, his eyes ravenous with his desire to eat me. “You shouldn’t have come back, but that’s the thing about you humans. You foolishly care, willing to give your life at the chance of saving another. That is why you’ll die. That is why you’ll all die.”

  He pushed his foot down harder, his eyes gleaming with delight as a whimper escaped my lips, which were smooshed against the decking. It felt as if my cheekbone were cracking. “I know what you are—hunter.”

  But he had no idea what I had planned. I may not have had the strength, but I had one thing they didn’t. The desire to do whatever it takes to save those I loved.

  Clenching the dagger in my hand, I thrust it into his leg planted firmly on the decking beside me.

  The vampire didn’t flinch. Instead, he threw his head back and laughed, giving me the opportunity I needed to gain the upper hand.

  Ripping the blade out, I plunged the dagger into my thigh, letting out a strangled scream as pain shot through my leg.

  I sucked in a sharp breath, my eyes glazing over as his blood mixed with mine, sending me into the euphoric state I remembered so well. With it came the power I needed to get myself out of this mess.

  Energy buzzed within me, along with a ravenous thirst for their blood. The ache in my thigh began to subside, and the pressure of the vampire’s foot on my head became inconsequential.

  Lifting the blade, I slashed it across his achilles tendon, almost severing his foot in the process.

  Blood spurted all over me, further lighting my insatiable desire for more.

  The vampire looked down at me in shock but didn’t show an ounce of pain.

  A grin spread across my face as I watched his expression quickly turn from shock to recognition to fear.

  He knew who I was. “It’s her. She’s the one.”

  Rolling to the side, I swept my leg under his good foot and twisted up into a sitting position. As he landed beside me, I drove the blade into his heart.

  Black smoke spilled from his wound, turning the air frigid, evil, as it swirled around me, a high-pitched screech echoing through the air. A second later, it disappeared.

  My gaze darted around me, and I tried to decipher if my inbuilt vampire detection ability was working or not. Sure enough, I was alone, sitting on the back porch with what appeared to be a dead guy by my side. The only things that separated a dead vampire from a human were the teeth and the DNA structure.

  Blood pooled around the vampire’s wounds, begging me to devour him.

  I couldn’t do it. I needed to be smart.

  Climbing to my feet, I headed inside and came to an abrupt halt. The house was a mess, ransacked by the monsters. Everything was destroyed, ripping a hole in my heart as I feared the only material possession I cared about was gone.

  Racing up the stairs, I hoped the laptop my mother had bought me the week before she died hadn’t been smashed. My hopes shattered the moment I burst into my room and saw that it was, along with every other item. Walls were punched in, the plaster ripped and thrown onto the floor, exposing the beams. My drawers were pulled out, overturned, and the contents strewn across the room. The mattress was sliced from the top to the bottom and discarded amongst the rest of the mess.

  It was as if a bomb had exploded—or they’d been searching for something.

  I shook my head in disbelief as a tear slipped from my eyes, a mixture of loss, hurt, and anger swirling inside of me, each fighting for the dominant place.

  Those bastards were going to pay.

  Unable to look at the remnants of my life any longer, I spun around and was about to head into the hallway when I caught a glimpse of something shimmering under the rubble. Doing a double take, my eyes widened and my heart soared with hope when I spotted the stupid little unicorn bracelet my mother had given me when I was three.

  I’d sworn I would never take it off. Then I grew up.

  But no matter how childish it was, I could never bring myself to throw it away.

  My mother’s words drifted into my thoughts. “This unicorn will protect you always and forever.”

  At the time, I was terrified of things that went bump in the night and naïvely believed her. Now, I was the worst monster of them all. Or savior. It depended who was asking.

  I picked up the bracelet, brushed off the plaster dust, and clutched it in my hand as I left the room in search of my father.

  Doing a sweep of the upstairs rooms, I came up empty, and I had to remind myself that it didn’t mean the vampires had him. He was notorious for his drunken sleeping habits, and I needed to keep my cool and not break into full-on panic mode. Those bastards had already taken two out of the four left in my family, and I wasn’t sure I could’ve kept my shit together from ripping every single vampire and demon apart as I searched for him.

  I headed downstairs and stepped outside, taking a deep breath, trying to pick up any hint of vampires around me. All I could smell were the ones lying dead on the ground, their blood still calling to my primal needs.

  As hard as it was to ignore my cravings, I pushed on, ready to retrace my father’s steps when I halted as an idea came to me.

  Maybe it was the monster inside of me, or maybe it was my survival instincts kicking in, but either way, I knew what I needed to do.

  Ducking back inside, I raided the kitchen for a large bowl, grabbed an empty bourbon bottle from the floor, and headed back onto the porch. I set the items down, kneeled beside the head vampire, and stripped his belt from his waist.

  I tied it around his ankle then lifted his dead weight as if I were handling a small sack of potatoes. I threw the end of the belt over an exposed beam and hung him.

  Once he was secure, I positioned the bowl under him, grabbed his wrists, and lowered my mouth to his skin.

  Energy buzzed through me as the smell of his blood consumed me. I hadn’t even taken a bite, and I was already lost to the blood.

  I needed to remain in control.

&nb
sp; Steadying my breathing, I ripped into his flesh, his blood spilling into my mouth, sending me into a frenzy for more.

  I tore myself away from the blood, knowing I needed to be smart.

  The blood flowed down to his hand and dripped off his fingers into the bowl, the dark, crimson liquid with swirls of thick, black substance tantalizing the monster inside of me.

  Reminding myself why I was there, I rolled back onto my feet, stood tall, and took a few steps back, until I was halfway down the backyard and could pull myself together. There was something very different about that vampire. The scent of his blood calling to me was stronger than any other vampire I’d encounter before.

  I couldn’t help but wonder if he was one of the one’s that Lana had told me about. The vampires who could control themselves, allowing their bodies to be possessed by the demons as they infiltrated our world in their quest for dominance and power. But more importantly, the search for the one.

  Scanning the neighbor’s yards, I tried to listen for any clues as to where my father was. He would often mistake another house for our own, or more likely, was too lazy to make it all the way back after his trip to the liquor store.

  Thankfully our neighbors knew our situation and would generally let him sleep it off wherever he’d dropped, so as to not put any further stress on us kids, but now was really the time I needed someone to call me to get his ass out of there.

  Two minutes later, I was standing at the end of my street, without my drunk-ass father.

  I breathed out harshly, trying to figure out where he could’ve been. The guy was a major disappointment. But he was my disappointment, and my insistent need to save my family wouldn’t allow me to walk away.

  Even with all my super sensors in play, I couldn’t sniff him out, which was probably a good thing, because it meant he was still human. My honing abilities only applied to the vampires and demons. Still, I could’ve used some help right about now.

  Mason was out there on his own, and as much as I was sure that he would be safe hanging out with his crowd of friends, I still couldn’t help ignoring the niggling feeling in the pit of my stomach that there was something sinister at play.