Not Quite Dead (A NightHunter Novel)

by Stephanie Rowe

  He was ready for Cicatrice.

  His heart thudding slowly in his chest, he stood up. His muscles were taut, his adrenaline jacked. It was time to face his maker—

  A scent caught his attention.

  He spun toward the door, moving with lightning quickness. He went utterly still, breathing deeply of the scent that drifted through the wood. Blood. Rich, tantalizing, and tempting. A woman. No, two of them. Outside.

  A ravaging hunger and a burning lust tore through him, a need so instinctual and deep that it obliterated all thought from his mind. His incisors lengthened, and a savage need burned through him so intensely that it hurt. Their voices drifted through the closed door, faint, but easily discernible with his newly enhanced hearing. Their laughter drifted through the night, the giddy delight of youth.

  Hell. They were practically children. No more than twenty at the most.

  He closed his eyes, his muscles so taut that they were like rocks. He commanded his body to stay still. He would not prey on the innocent. Never. Leave here now. He instinctively pushed the thought toward them, reaching for their minds the way Cicatrice had done with him.

  More laughter, and he heard their footsteps on the front porch as they dared each other to approach the haunted shack.

  Hunger ate away at his self-control, and his stomach contracted with the need to feed. The scent of their blood filled his nostrils. The tangy, sweet smell of life. The void within him roared even louder, a howling wind of emptiness trying to drag what was left of his soul into it.

  He stumbled backward, the bagged stake sliding from his fingers as he fought the primal instinct building inside him.

  The doorknob rattled, and hunger roared through him.

  No! He bellowed the command, thrusting all his mental energy at them. Get away! Go home! Run!

  His words connected with their minds, and he felt their sudden fear. Their screams pulsated through him, an icy cold stab of terror that ignited an even greater need in him. A need to hunt the fleeing prey. To chase them.

  No. He would not go. His body shaking with the effort of controlling his instinct to attack them, he held himself still as their feet pounded the earth and their screams faded into the distance. Their car roared to life, and then it was gone.

  Dinner was gone.

  But the need for them wasn't.

  Their scent, their fear, and their flight had awakened a need in him that he could no longer control. Tristan knew he couldn't wait any longer, or he wouldn't be at liberty to choose. His need would make the choice for him. The next female he scented would be his. He had to make sure it was the right one.

  With a low growl, he tore open the door of the tomb and stepped out into the night, leaving the stake behind.

  It was time to feed. The hunt would have to come later.

  Chapter 9

  Something was tracking them.

  Eric kept the truck speeding forward as he watched the road behind them in the rearview mirror. "What is it?" he asked. The tires hummed on the asphalt, but his preternatural senses were on high alert. The air had become heavy with threat, with the same taint of evil that he'd felt in the graveyard where he'd found Tristan's altar.

  Another shadow flashed across the road behind them. It was too fast to discern, but it was definitely the size of a tall person, and walking upright.

  Jordyn sucked in her breath as she twisted around in her seat, staring at the road. "I can't tell," she said. "It was too quick."

  Eric flexed his hands on the steering wheel and reached out with his mind. The sudden noise was almost deafening. There were so many spirits in the air, swirling and raging. Screaming and howling. He tried to filter through them, but the cacophony was a violent mass of confused noise. "We must be near a burial ground."

  "A burial ground?" She twisted around in her seat, scanning the woods. "No, not a burial ground. We're near the site of the great harvest."

  "Harvest?" Something flashed across the road again, closer this time. It was gaining on them. "What kind of harvest?"

  "Humans. It was back in the days when the vampires were active. Before they were destroyed."

  "Well, hell." Had the bodies been left to rot and decay in that very space? Their spirits trapped forever? Swearing, he tried to sift through them, searching for something that could help.

  A shadow flashed past his window, and Jordyn gripped the seat. "It's there."

  "I know—"

  Suddenly, a man appeared in front of the truck. He slammed his hands down on the hood. Eric swore and hit the brakes. The truck skidded violently across the road as he fought to maintain control. He'd barely gotten it stopped when the man leapt up onto the hood of the truck and crouched there, like a panther about to attack.

  Jordyn went still beside him. "Oh, God," she whispered. "This is really bad."

  "You think?" The man's face was shockingly handsome, chiseled as if it were carved from stone. His hair was long and flowing around his shoulders, and his clothes were ancient, from many centuries ago. He was wearing black, fitted pants, a white ruffled shirt, and leather gloves, as if he'd been out driving his team of horses only moments ago. "I think Tristan's been at work. Is this Cicatrice?"

  "No. Cicatrice has a scarred face."

  "So, then, a lesser vampire. No problem. We got this." Energy swirled around Eric, the spirits disturbed by the vampire's presence. Eric thrust his mind outward into the night, searching for energy that would help him. Death. Destruction. Suffering. He brought the spirits together, holding them tightly in a metaphysical ball within him. It coiled through him, vibrating dangerously, seeking a foothold in his soul. "Don't get between me and him," he said softly to Jordyn. "No matter what."

  She was already digging in her bag. "I have this stake that will kill him—"

  The vampire's gaze went straight to Jordyn at her words, and his eyes glowed a bright red. She froze, her hand buried in her bag. "There's no stake in this bag," she whispered. "Someone stole it."

  The vampire's attention was riveted on Jordyn, and the muscles in his neck were flexing. His eyes were glowing with an evil that crawled over Eric's skin like poison. The creature wasn't moving. He was poised on the hood of the truck as if he were waiting for them to run, so the game could begin.

  Shit. He didn't like this. They were trapped in the truck, and he had no room to protect Jordyn. "How fast can they run?" he asked, as he moved his hand to his side and set his palm over his knife.

  "Faster than we can drive," she said. "Faster than we can see."

  "Then I guess we face him now." Pulling all the energy of the spirits closer, Eric suddenly flung open his truck door and vaulted out onto the road. "Hey!" he shouted. "Over here—"

  The vampire moved fast. Too fast. He spun toward Eric and sprang off the truck, moving so quickly he was nothing more than a blurred shadow. He hit Eric in the chest before Eric even saw him, slamming him back into the ground so hard that the asphalt cracked beneath Eric's head. The vampire grabbed him and tore into Eric's neck with his teeth. Pain shot through Eric, and he slammed his hands onto the vampire's chest, exploding his magic into the vampire.

  Green mist filled the night, and the vampire flew backward, careening through the air and skidding a hundred yards across the road. The moment it came to a halt, it bounded to its feet as quickly as Eric jumped up.

  Neither male moved. They stood immobile, facing each other down with a hundred yards of cracked pavement between them, and dark, foggy woods on either side. Eric could feel the blood oozing down his neck, and he knew the bite was bad. He was bleeding too much. He had to end this battle, now, before the blood loss became too great.

  He could sense the vampire's hunger, a craving so deep and so dark that he could feel it in his own gut. It was as if his entire body was screaming for salvation, and that Eric's blood would save him.

  Eric had known that kind of hunger before, and he knew that the survival instinct would compel the vampire to do anything to save itself, in
cluding rip his throat out and gut Jordyn. Shit. He opened his mind to the vampire, traveling over the same pathways that he used to connect with the spirits. All he got from the creature was evil. Hunger. Survival. Base emotions that left no room for anything else, like a sense of basic human values. Son of a bitch.

  They were in trouble.

  Eric began to amass his powers again, calling them to him from everywhere. He took the magic from the night. He harvested the unknown. He controlled the ethereal. He summoned it all into his body, sifting through it with rapid speed to assess what he'd harnessed—

  He heard the door of his truck open, and he swore, not daring to take his attention off the vampire as Jordyn eased out of the truck on the far side. "Jordyn, get back in the truck."

  "No." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her move to the front of the truck, her body illuminated by the headlights. She was pressed against the grill, keeping the vehicle between her and the vampire. "He's not going to stop until we're both dead."

  "I'm not in the mood to die."

  "Me either." She was holding a small turquoise bag with feathers tied to the cord around its neck.

  The vampire's attention went to Jordyn. Eric felt the moment that it focused on her. The raging hunger turned into bloodlust. Sex. Feeding.

  Possessiveness flooded Eric, jacking up his adrenaline. She's mine, you piece of shit. "Jordyn, you need to back up—"

  He didn't get to finish his warning. The vampire launched itself at Jordyn. "No way, you bastard!" Eric leapt forward at the same time, and the two bodies crashed into each other in midair. The vampire was brutally strong, its claws raking across Eric's chest, tearing his flesh to shreds as it fought to get to Jordyn. "Back off," Eric shouted as he slammed his dagger into the vampire's torso.

  The green blade flashed brightly and glittery gold flames erupted from its chest. The vampire screamed in agony, but then threw Eric aside with ridiculous ease, its strength insurmountable. It lunged for Jordyn, but she was gone. For a split second, it froze, its head turned as it scanned the night for her.

  Eric used that moment to attack. He slammed his palms together, and power exploded from them. The burst of energy hit the vampire, throwing it against the side of truck. The metal collapsed like an accordion. The vehicle skidded across the road and into the ditch as the vampire tore itself out of the side of the truck. He shot toward Eric, moving so fast he was only a blur.

  "Hold him still," Jordyn shouted from the edge of the woods, where she'd apparently gone when the vampire had targeted her.

  "Hold him still? Are you fucking kidding?" But Eric held his power and didn't attack as the vampire launched itself at him. He let the vampire crash into him. The vampire's teeth sank into Eric's neck again, and this time, he didn't throw it off. He twisted his energy around the vampire, locking it against him, using the energy as invisible bonds. The vampire convulsed and screamed, trying to pull back enough to get its teeth out of his neck, but Eric held it tight against him, not letting it back off. His arm and a thousand pounds of magical force were locked around the back of the creature's head, holding its fangs into Eric's neck.

  Because this was what he'd had planned when he woke up this morning. Find a clue about his brother, help a vampire rip his throat out, all in a good day's work.

  "Perfect!" Jordyn raced over to them, putting herself right in the damned path of danger.

  He was going to yell at her to back off, but he had no energy left to spare. He was too busy trying to hold a raging maniac in a bear hug, while keeping at least part of his neck still attached to his body.

  Jordyn tore open the small bag she'd been holding and dumped it over the vampire, chanting words in a language he didn't recognize. Violet powder dumped over them both, and he gagged as it filled his mouth and burned his eyes, because he wasn't facing enough of a challenge at the moment, right?

  "This is supposed to help him find his humanity," she shouted as she backed up.

  The vampire's teeth sank deeper, and Eric swore. "It's not working!"

  "It has to work! I used a huge amount!"

  "Well, it's not!" He was out of time. He slammed his palms into the vampire's chest, and the explosion threw the vampire back again, ripping its teeth out of his neck, and taking too much of Eric's flesh with it.

  Eric groaned and rolled onto his side, struggling to stand up as the blood poured from his neck. "Get in the truck," he gasped. "Get away. I'll keep it occupied as long as I can. Go!" He knew he couldn't defeat the vampire, but if Jordyn could get away, if he could give her time, then that was at least a heroic way to die, so yeah, that was good. He'd always had a bit of a hero complex, at least according to his brother.

  Completely ignoring his command, Jordyn held up her hand, telling him not to move, which of course, he wasn't about to do. Moving required blood to be flowing to his extremities so they could function, and that wasn't really happening at the moment. "Wait a moment," she said.

  "Because waiting for a vampire to get its strength back is such a good plan?" His legs gave out, and he went down on his knees. He bent his head, staring at the vampire as he began to summon more magic. The creature had been stunned by Eric's hit, but its fingers were twitching, so apparently, not quite dead.

  He tried to watch the vampire, but the night was spinning, and he couldn't focus. "Get out of here," he ordered Jordyn, watching the vampire as it gathered what little strength it could assimilate.

  Eric didn't have much left. One more assault, maybe, enough to give the vampire a small bruise before it finished the job.

  The vampire rolled onto its side, and then to its hands and knees. It raised its head to look at Jordyn and Eric. Blood cascaded down its face and over the front of its shirt.

  "That's my blood," Eric gritted out. "You're wasting it."

  The vampire's gaze went to Eric, but it didn't stand. It was still on its hands and knees.

  "Look at his eyes," Jordyn whispered.

  Eric noticed then that the vampire's eyes were no longer red. They were dark, hidden in the shadows of the night.

  "It worked. The shock of your blow was enough to break the hold of the vampire and let the powder work. He's fighting for his humanity now." She took a step, as if she were planning to march over there and give the vampire a high five.

  Eric grabbed her ankle. "I don't think so."

  She didn't fight him, but she put her hand on his shoulder. "You have to leave," she told the vampire. "The powder won't last long. You have to do it on your own. You have to fight it. Make the right choice now. Remember that you were once human, and you still have that inside you. Leave before you kill another innocent. Leave."

  The vampire stared at her, and this time, Eric saw that hard, sculpted face contort, as if he were in great suffering. He saw the humanity in that creature, just for a split second. Tentatively, he opened his mind to the vampire, and this time, woven among the bloodlust and the evil was something else. A thin, barely-there tendril of light, spreading out like the most fragile of filaments through the darkness "Son of a bitch," he whispered. "You're right." But even as Eric spoke, the dark red of bloodlust began to creep down the silvery filaments, eating away at that brief glimpse of humanity.

  Eric reached out with his mind, pushing barriers at the vampire, shoving metaphysical obstacles in the path of the evil, trying to help the vampire break his ties to his prey.

  The dark eyes met his, and Eric felt a sudden howl of anguish roll through his mind, a wail of human suffering so great that it was almost unfathomable. Then the vampire leapt to his feet, whirled around, and sprinted into the woods, disappearing in a whisper of movement.

  "Oh, my God," Jordyn whispered. "It worked. We did it."

  "Yeah, I'm a badass." The words slurred as Eric slumped onto the road. "I think I'm part vampire. I need blood." He thought it was a joke, but when Jordyn sucked in her breath, it occurred to him that he wasn't sure exactly how vampires were made. Something about being bitten and drained, right?
'Cause he'd been bitten, and he was pretty low on pints.

  Nah.

  He wasn't the vampire type.

  An IV bag would do just fine.

  He felt Jordyn's arms wrap around him as he fell. "Eric," she commanded, her voice distant through the haze of his mind. "We need to get to the truck. Your legs work, so use them."

  "Bossy chick," he slurred, as he tried to make his legs function. Weirdly, they didn't feel like they were attached to his body. "Totally hot."

  "I'm not bossy. You're bossy. I'm just a nice, sweet girl." She threw his arm over her shoulder and put her arm around his waist. "Now get up and get to the truck. We need to get you some help or you're going to die."

  He cracked his eyes open enough to see the truck. It was half in the ditch and at least twenty feet away. He stared at it numbly, having difficulty focusing on it. "That's too far to walk. Drive it over here to pick me up." Yeah, that sounded good. "I'm just going to sit down here." He started to sit down, but Jordyn wouldn't let him.

  "That powder won't last long," she snapped. "He'll be back. So get your butt into the damned truck so I can tell everyone what a hero you were fighting the vampire."

  "I'm a hero. Everyone knows it. You don't need to tell them." He let his head flop to the side and closed his eyes as his face wound up in her hair. The strands tickled his nose and he sighed. "You smell good," he slurred. "Like a really hot, sexy woman who wants me and kicks vampire ass. Let's have sex." He wasn't sure he'd actually said it out loud. His body was so heavy, and cold. He was really cold. It took too much effort to talk. Or think. Or breathe—

  Jordyn's breath was warm against his neck. "If you get your cute little butt to that truck," she said softly, "I promise I'll have sex with you."

  He let that thought roll around in his head for a long moment, struggling to process it and figure out what it meant, but his head felt thick. "Sex?"

  "God, you lose half your blood supply, and you become a complete idiot. I didn't realize you were such a wimp," she complained as she continued to drag him along.