The Undead Heart (#1 in the Blood Thirst Series)
Page 45
“No, you can’t,” Darian said.
“Why not?” Beck asked.
They would get to kill Elderson, and there wouldn’t be a battle. It sounded like a good deal to her.
“They reek of human blood,” Gunner said, wrinkling his nose.
“We don’t kill our vampyres, because they’re not murderers. That’s not the case with them,” Potter explained. “They kill humans to sustain their own lives. They don’t have to live on human blood, they chose to. They are monsters, Beck, and we cannot let that pass.”
She’d become so wrapped up in their own lives that she had forgotten about the countless human lives that were at risk from Elderson’s clan. Forty-five of them meant the loss of forty-five human lives every week. That would add up to nearly twenty-five hundred lives a year or almost a quarter of a million people in a century. Where the hell were they getting all those people without being noticed?
Elderson was trying to work his way backwards through his clan, but they wouldn’t let him pass. “If we die, you die,” one of them told him.
“I am your master!” Elderson yelled.
Jenny shook her head at him. “You were their master. Now you’re just the asshole that got them killed.”
“Well?” Potter asked Beck.
She wanted to take the easy way out and save her family and friends, but knew she couldn’t do it. If they allowed them to leave, then they would be responsible for every human they killed later.
“Kill them,” she said.
The hunters fell on Elderson’s clan as if they had only been waiting for her permission. Her vampyres leapt into the fight as soon as the hunters struck. She lost sight of most of her family after that. There were nearly a eighty people fighting in the yard, and it was difficult to see through the crowd.
She didn’t get to do much fighting. Every time she got close to a member of Elderson’s clan, a hunter would jump in between them. She did see Jeremy fighting, though. He was a highly skilled fighter. In another time, in another world, a world where he was human, he would have made an excellent MMA fighter. She watched as he tore his opponent’s head off with a Triangle from Mount.
She looked beside her in time to see Bev rip the head off one of the female vampyres. She knew Bev wouldn’t stay in the house. That was her girl! She was still looking at Bev when she was struck hard from behind and nearly knocked to the ground.
“What the hell?!” she yelled above the noise.
“Sorry,” Darian yelled back, springing from the ground where he had fallen after being thrown into her back.
He’d also had his left arm ripped off, but this didn’t stop him from jumping right back into the fight. Fire flashed over her skin as the hunters fell. Every time she felt her skin sear, a prayer was chanted through her head: Please God, not Richard, Potter, or the twins, not Richard, Potter or the twins. She hated to lose any of the hunters, but Richard, Potter, Seanán, and Tiarnán were her family. The crowd had thinned out considerably when she felt the fire hit her skin again.
Pain sliced through her chest and drove her to her knees. She looked across the yard in time to see Elderson drop Seanán’s head to the ground.
“NO!”she screamed.
Tiarnán ran toward Seanán, but was blown backwards before he reached him. Their bodies hit the ground at the same time. Elderson escaping into the woods was the last thing she saw before she slipped into the darkness.
***
Richard was fighting two vampyres when he saw Seanán die. Seanán was fighting two vampyres of his own when Elderson came up behind him. It was over before Richard could even shout a warning. He saw Tiarnán run toward Elderson and then fly backward through the air. It looked as if someone had thrown him, but he hadn’t been touched.
“Potter!” he yelled as he killed the vampyre he’d been fighting with.
Potter yelled back. “Right behind you!”
“Seanán!” he shouted back, ducking under the other vampyre’s fist.
Potter darted a glance at him. “What?!”
“Duck!” Richard heard Damon shout.
He crouched to the ground just as the silver sword swung through the air, chopping off the vampyre’s head. “Thanks,” Richard told him.
“Go!” Damon yelled and launched himself back into the battle.
Richard paused long enough to verify that Tiarnán still had his head, and then bolted into the woods after Elderson. He’d only ran a half a mile before Potter caught up to him.
“That motherfucker killed my son!” he yelled to Potter. “He killed Seanán!”
“Damn it! Where’s Tiarnán?” Potter asked.
“Back there, on the ground. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but he still has his head.”
“Beck?” Potter asked with concern.
“She’s alive. I can hear her heartbeat,” he said. “Jenny?”
“I don’t know. I lost sight of her when the fight started.”
He wanted to tell Potter that he was sure Jenny was fine, but he didn’t want to give him false hope. The truth was that he didn’t know who else might be dead. His focus right now was to catch and kill Royal Elderson. They chased Elderson’s scent through the woods, and out onto the street.
They were running flat out down the road, past cars in broad daylight, but he couldn’t worry about that now.
“There he is!” Potter shouted, pointing down the street toward the bridge.
They’d nearly caught up to him when it happened. Elderson jumped over the guardrail and dropped fifty feet into the water below.
“Damn it!” Richard roared, and dove in after hm.
He heard Potter hit the water a split second later. Together they searched the murky water for over an hour before swimming back to the bank under the bridge.
“I can’t see shit in this nasty ass river,” Potter said, pulling himself out of the water.
“He’s gone.”
“We’ll find him,” Potter said, putting his hand on Richards shoulder. Don’t worry.”
“You can bet your ass that I’m going to find him, and when I do, I’m going to make him wish he’d died with his brother,” Richard growled.
Potter nodded in agreement. “Let’s get back and check on the others.”
That was fine. They would go home, take care of their family, and grieve for their dead. Then he would show Elderson how it felt to become truly hunted.
To Be Continued…
We hoped you enjoyed The Undead Heart (#1 in The Blood Thirst Series)! You can check out Blood Thirst (#2 in the Blood Thirst Series).
Blood Thirst (#2 in the Blood Thirst Series)
The continuing story of Beck Jaxon and her family: The Young/Jaxon family won the battle, but Elderson escaped, again. Now, Beck and her family have to deal with the losses they suffered during the battle with Elderson’s clan.
They bury their dead and morn the loss of their family members. But there would be no rest for them. Elderson may have escaped this time, but he will be back. He wants Beck dead and will stop at nothing to make that happen.
Will Elderson succeed, or will Beck and her family finally rid the world of Royal Elderson and the evil he has unleashed for centuries?
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/254781
The Wrath of Potter (#3 in the 3 book Blood Thirst Series)
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/327518
Other books by Stephanie Jackson:
When Angels Fall
Danielle Coulter had never believed in anything except her mother, hard work and heartache. She never had time for religious fairytales. But when her mother died, Dani was forced to believe…or die.
Not only was she forced to accept that God and Lucifer are real, but also that she is the last living descent of God on Earth. An undeniable fact when the Archangel Gabriel fell to Earth to protect her.
Archangel Gabriel; banished from Heaven over four million years ago for refusing to kill his brother, Lucifer, was about to
get a second chance to re- enter Heaven. He was sent to Earth on a mission from his Father to protect the last Daughter of God; the last woman to carry the Blood of God on Earth, and kill his brother, once and for all.
Gabriel had never expected to feel anything for Dani, but he soon found himself willing to fight Heaven and Hell to keep her safe, even if it meant his own destruction.
Smashwords — When Angels Fall — A book by Stephanie Jackson
The Lamp
What can happen when you let the Genie out of the lamp? It may not be what you think.
Ellie loves her friends and antiques. She even opened her own little antique shop, Timeless Treasures, when she graduated college.
Little did she know that her love of antiques would introduce her to a supernatural being…a Jinn who possesses the most powerful object ever sent to Earth; King Solomon’s ring.
Not only did she just discover that the supernatural actually existed, but now she finds that she must make a decision as to whether or not to embark on a dangerous adventure that could cost her her very life, as just as she finds the love of her life, Matthaus. Will she make the right decision before it’s too late to stop Iblis from claiming Solomon’s ring and enslaving the world of humans for all eternity?
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291280
The Lamp eBook available through Smashwords
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