Blood Moon (A Sable Hart Vampire Slayer Novel Book 5)

by Megan Hawke

  "Obey me," I said. I pushed my fingers between her index and middle finger, pulled her middle finger out of her fist. And then I yanked that finger off. "I command you to halt!"

  Momma Zuza wailed. The vampires stopped in their tracks. Cars skidded to a stop outside, followed by shouts and running feet.

  "Grab Gabe and Heidi, and go."

  Chris lifted up Gabe, and Mario picked up Heidi. They ran out the back door and vanished into the night. Men shouted for them to stop, but nothing came of it. My new vamps obeyed me and no one else. The cops couldn't shoot them, not in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

  A dozen uniformed cops rushed inside. I slipped the ring under the waistband of my skirt, and gave the boys in blue a curious look.

  "This is Momma Zuza Delveaux of Oak Cliff. She is responsible for the murders of the werewolves, and the murder of over a dozen young men and women so she could reanimate them as vampires," I said. "I hope you have enchanted handcuffs, because she is one powerful witch."

  "Don't move. You're under arrest, Sable Hart," a familiar voice said.

  I smiled at Detective Morris. His partner, looking so young and innocent with his red hair and freckled face, was behind him. Both had their weapons drawn and aimed at me.

  "Is this déjà vu?" I said. "If it is, it sucks."

  Longhouse, Parker, and Grinstead came in the back door. I scowled at them.

  "Did you watch the website?"

  "Enough," Longhouse said. He glared at Momma Zuza. "I'm surprised she's still alive."

  "Hey. I managed to capture her without killing a single mortal," I said. "Even though she deserves to die."

  "We're very impressed," Morris said. "Drop you your knees, hands behind your head with fingers intertwined. Now."

  "I don't think so. You tried to kill me last time I allowed you to capture me."

  "No one tried to kill you, Sable," Longhouse said.

  "Really? You were taking me to Lew Sterrett. Where would they put me, a vampire? The Sun Room. Nowhere else. We all know I would never leave that room. The sun would come up, and oops Sable is just a pile of dust. What a shame. Anyone want to go out for donuts?"

  Longhouse didn't have anything to say to that.

  "I will not tell you again, Sable," Detective Morris said. "Kneel with your hands behind your head."

  "You should seek help for your OCD problem, Morris," I said. "Someone better handcuff this witch, or y'all will be very sorry."

  I morphed into a bat, clutching the ring in my little claws. Men cried out and lunged for me as I flew up out of my clothes. I heard Longhouse telling them, "Don't shoot! Too dangerous!" I guess he didn't want cops shooting cops. How embarrassing would that be?

  Flying straight into Morris's face, I made the cop cry out and duck, before I flew out the front door. I don't think the cops outside even saw me fly out the door. All hell broke loose inside the house. Morris led a horde of cops out after me, but I was already lost in the darkness to their mortal eyes.

  I followed my link to my family. Chris and Mario stuck together. I led them back to Heidi's SUV before morphing back to human form. We got Heidi and Gabe stuffed into the backseat, and I drove us all back to Heidi's loft.

  "Hello, Jeric," I said. I was using Heidi's phone. "Did you watch the website?"

  "Yes. We watched."

  "My promise is fulfilled. The werewolf killer is under arrest."

  "You still need to present yourself to the packs, so we can judge whether or not you fulfilled your promise," Jeric said.

  "No, you need to get over yourself," I said. "I don't trust you. I have accomplished the necessary task, and that is that. Bye-bye."

  Heidi woke up first, about an hour after we returned to the loft. Gabe finally came around just before sunrise. I lay with him on the couch until midday, while Heidi took Chris and Mario to the bedroom. Once Gabe was strong and coherent enough to fend for himself, I joined the other vampires.

  Chapter 18

  I watched them gleefully flying around in my backyard. They liked to play a particularly sexy game of chase. Basically, Heidi was "it," but instead of her chasing Chris and Mario to tag them, the two men chased her and the one who tagged her got way more than tagged in return. Heidi invented the game, but I liked to play, too.

  What girl didn't like being chased by two buff boys?

  Though the purpose of the game was to catch Heidi for sex, it gave the new vamps lots of practice being bats. You can never have too much experience flying. They learned how to chase down a vampire in bat form, which was something we might have to do on occasion.

  Christopher Webb and Mario Acuna chose to join my growing vampire family, and help us hunt down and stake rogue vampires. Mario brought some much appreciated manly skills to the family. He was a punch out man, which if I understood correctly means he knows a lot about most aspects of construction. At thirty-five and with twenty years in construction he had lots of various skills, which was helpful since Kale was becoming scarcer and scarcer around there. While Chris, a college quarterback before his Change, possessed extraordinary athletic skills. He was fast and aggressive.

  I couldn't play. Other things needed doing, like cooking Sunday dinner for the family.

  TV news reported that Momma Zuza was attacked that afternoon in Lew Sterrett while eating lunch. A werewolf prisoner bit her, so upon the rising of the next full moon the witch would go furry and lose her ability to cast spells forever. She had two weeks, and that time would be spent in jail with her magic talent suppressed.

  Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought it fitting. Better a werewolf than a vampire, too. If she ever got out of jail the packs would deal with her. The police usually allowed them to deal with their own pretty harshly. Mortals didn't like dealing with the paranormals.

  I opened the grill and looked at the bottom of the four porterhouse steaks. Not ready to flip yet. Boy, did they smell good. One steak for each mortal of the family. The four vamps would beg a few bites, if we wanted any. I knew I wanted some.

  Dane, Sabrina, Gabe, and Desiree were inside. They were playing poker at the kitchen table. A lot of poker was played around that table.

  Heidi squealed in delight as she fell from the sky. Mario was already entangled with her. I watched their landing in the yard. The grass was still a pale tan, still dormant. It usually didn't start growing until well into May, still weeks away. They didn't appear concerned as they writhed, all hands, lips, and teeth.

  "Damn," Chris said above me. I looked up to see him squatting naked at the edge of the roof. He watched Heidi and Mario with lecherous eyes, and then looked me up and down. I wore sweats and a t-shirt, hair pulled back in a ponytail. No makeup. "You wanna?"

  "I'm cooking," I said. My phone rang. "And I'm on the phone."

  I answered, and heard a voice I didn't expect to hear again. "Sable. It's Steve Longhouse. We have vampire problems. I've already e-mailed the specifics of both cases."

  What did I say to that? Longhouse was calling me as if nothing happened.

  "Call someone who cares."

  "Come on, Sable. You care."

  "Okay, you have me there. I care. Try this…call someone who will help you," I said. "Last time I helped you, the police tried to kill me. You betrayed my trust."

  "I was just doing my job, Sable. Look, we've left you alone for the past two weeks. No one's harassed you, or tried to contact or arrest you. We made a mistake."

  True. No police came to my house to arrest me or anyone else. They knew where I lived, which was unsettling enough, though they never found my secret daytime resting place within. Since that night, neither me nor any of my vamps stay in the house during the day. Heidi had her loft, but I preferred to find an earthy resting place, six feet under. And I went to a different spot every day.

  Yeah, I was a bit paranoid.

  Chris always went with me, spending the days next to me underground. Mario came with me a few times, but mostly he liked to go to Heidi's loft and watch soaps and
other daytime TV. Who'd have thought he would like Daytime TV? Mostly, he watched Mexican telenovalas. He preferred it to spending the day holed up, since the sun didn't oppressive his senses like the rest of us. Some vamps were just naturally more immune than others.

  "You tried to kill me."

  "I know it looks bad on the surface," he said. Oh, that stunned me. Looked bad? On the surface? "But we were just doing our job. Nothing personal."

  "You're wrong. I thought it was quite personal."

  He was quiet a long moment. "Are you saying you won't help us anymore?"

  "I haven't decided. I am still slaying, but I can't trust you."

  "Sable, please. There aren't any other vampire slayers in Dallas outside of you and your family," he said.

  "Try Fort Worth. They have a few hunters I'm sure would come over to stake a vamp or two."

  "It's not like that. We need someone who can track them down and stake them. You're the only hunter in the area who does that, and that we can trust. Some of those Fort Worth hunters are crazier than your group," Longhouse said. "These two vamps are particularly murderous."

  That piqued my interest. I hated to refuse to hunt a rogue vamp.

  "Really?"

  "Danh Vu has killed three cops, and Changed another in the last week. He is hunting cops," he said. Okay, that kinda amused me. Let them see how it feels to be hunted for a change. I know I don't like it. "And Randy Nabors has been killing and reanimating strippers for the past month. We think he is creating an undead harem or something."

  "Harem?"

  "He has Changed sixteen girls that we know about."

  I paused to rub my face and stretch. Everything inside me said, "Get them! Hunt them down and stake them!" But my anger at Longhouse's betrayal still burned.

  "Maybe it's time you and your team learned to stake vampires," I said. "Or get the police to create a vampire staking team."

  "We did. The cops sent to stake Danh Vu are the three he killed outright," Longhouse said. "No one else is volunteering for the job."

  Any vampire actively hunting cops was a threat to all vampires. He would have to be dealt with fast, with violent finality. I knew it. Longhouse understood my quandary, too, I'm sure.

  "You haven't convinced me that the stripper loving vamp has broken any laws," I said. "Maybe those strippers wanted to be vampires."

  "Let's worry about Danh Vu first," Longhouse said.

  "I'll talk to the family. I'll let you know."

  I ended the call and stuffed the phone in my pocket.

  "Are we going to go after Danh Vu?" Chris said. He dropped down beside me, eyes bright with youthful excitement. "Mario and I are eager to see some action."

  "Yeah, maybe too eager." I flipped the steaks. "We'll all talk about it over dinner."

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Even though I didn't need to breath to live, it eased my tension. Longhouse and the police had tried to go it without me, and failed miserably. Good men were dead. He knew I couldn't allow more to die.

  "You think he's manipulating me, Chris?"

  "Probably. Maybe he just needs help. You know him, I don't."

  I slanted an amused look at him. "You're too nice to be a vampire."

  He smiled, showing his fangs. "But I'm very naughty in bed."

  I rolled my eyes, and then smiled. Yes he was.

  "Get dressed, Chris. After dinner we will work on your fighting technique some more," I said. I glanced at Heidi and Mario. They were twenty feet away, humping like rabbits, but they could hear every word spoken. "You and Mario are not quite ready to be thrown into battle with another vampire." I looked up into the clear night sky. My skin prickled. "Tomorrow night we hunt."

  THE END

  ~**~**~

  Please consider leaving a review on the site where you purchased this story, or comment directly to me via e-mail or FaceBook.

  You can contact me at:

  meganhawke@outlook.com

  FaceBook

  Check out these other novels by Megan Hawke:

  Hunger Within – Book 1 of the Sable Hart Vampire Slayer Series

  Dark Hunger – Book 2 of the Sable Hart Vampire Slayer Series

  Blood Hunger – Book 3 of the Sable Hart Vampire Slayer Series

  Slayer's Moon – Book 4 of the Sable Hart Vampire Slayer Series

  Blood Moon – Book 5 of the Sable Hart Vampire Slayer Series

  Author bio:

  Megan Hawke is an Urban Fantasy writer. She has a passion for vampires and kick-butt women, and loves her some witches and shifters, too. She loves nothing more than spending her free time weaving stories of paranormal adventure and mischief.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  List of other titles

  About the Author

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