4-Ever Hunted: Vampires Rule

by Blake, Kasi

  He and his vampire accomplices popped into a dark corner of the warehouse. Summer latched onto the back of Cowboy’s shirt as they trailed behind Trick. They crept around metal shelves piled high with crates and miscellaneous boxes. No one spoke. They had to be stealthy until Dani was out of danger.

  Then they would battle the creature.

  Trick peered around the end of a shelf and found her.

  She was tied to a wooden chair near a small office. What appeared to be a torn piece of the faerie’s black robe had been stuffed into her mouth. There wasn’t a sign of the creature anywhere, but Trick knew it was nearby. He felt it deep in his gut.

  He motioned for the vampires to do their thing. They were supposed to be the distraction while he saved the girl. He had promised to return to help them finish the monster as soon as she was safe. Time to see if he could trust them.

  The vampires hurried in the opposite direction.

  He waited until he heard them making a lot of noise in another part of the warehouse before he sprang into action.

  Using more caution than he usually did, he made his way to Dani. Her eyes flooded with relief at the sight of him. Working fast, he untied her. Once the gag was out of her mouth, she started to talk. He held a finger to his lips and shook his head in warning. As soon as she was free of the ropes, he teleported her home.

  They materialized in her backyard, and that’s when the tears started to flow. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and his went around her in return. Her entire body shook like a leaf in a storm. He wasn’t sure if it was due to her experience with the Shadow Faerie or the sudden trip home. Teleportation could also make humans sick, according to Cowboy.

  For a long moment they simply held each other. She was grateful; he was scared by what he still had to do. They were both in need of comfort.

  After kissing the top of her head, he pushed her away with both hands. “You’re okay,” he said. “It won’t come after you again. I promise.”

  Wide brown eyes stared into his. “How did you... what about Scarlet? That thing threw her across the parking lot.”

  “Call the hospital for me, and find out how she’s doing. I’ll be back soon.”

  She latched onto his arm. “Where are you going?”

  “To kill the Shadow Faerie.”

  “If you go back, you’ll die.”

  He grinned, showing more confidence than he felt. “Hey, I’m the great vampire hunter. Remember? I can handle anything.”

  “Please don’t.”

  “If I let it live, it will come back after you. Is that what you want?”

  She shuddered, and her gaze went to her house. The windows were dark. “My dad is out of town, but Claudia might be able to help. They have a ton of weapons including grenades. My dad showed me the guns hidden beneath the floor in Claudia’s office and the ones behind the wall in his bedroom.”

  Trick grabbed her arm as she started for the terrace doors. “She can’t do anything but get in the way. I have a plan. Trust me. Call about Scarlet, and I’ll be back in a flash.”

  Before she could protest he kissed her firmly on the lips.

  Then he was gone.

  He returned to the warehouse to the exact same spot he had teleported from five minutes ago. Instead of finding an empty chair, he was greeted with a disturbing surprise. The vampires had been caught, both of them. There were two chairs now, and they were wrapped in weird vines that were in constant motion.

  When they saw him, Cowboy grinned.

  Summer looked grateful but stunned. “You came back.”

  “I told you I would,” Trick said.

  Cowboy nudged her with his foot. “You owe me twenty.”

  Tap... tap... tap.

  The Shadow Faerie rapped his cane against the cement floor as he headed in their direction from somewhere deep in the warehouse.

  Summer stiffened. “That thing is way more powerful than we gave it credit for. You can’t win.”

  “Thanks,” Trick said.

  “She may have a point,” Cowboy said. “Teleport us out of here. Don’t bother to untie us. Let’s just go, chairs and all.”

  Tap... tap... tap.

  “I’m not leaving,” Trick said. His hand closed over the small box in his pocket. “I’m gonna kill that thing.”

  “What’s the plan?” Summer asked. When he didn’t answer, she turned to Cowboy with frantic eyes. “He does have a plan, doesn’t he?”

  “Yeah.” Cowboy chuckled. “Not to get dead.”

  In a sing-song voice Trick called, “Come out, come out, wherever you are... you creepy bag of bones.”

  The Shadow Faerie appeared at the end of a row of metal shelves. It lifted an arm and pointed at him. The thing croaked, “Accept power.”

  Trick grinned, a genuine one this time because he had hoped the faerie would offer. “Yes.”

  “Accept power?”

  “Yes,” he repeated.

  “Agree to inherit?”

  Trick sighed. “Yes, for the millionth time.”

  Then he said the words in the exact way Cowboy had taught him. Apparently, the faerie power needed a verbal agreement. Then it would fill him to overflowing, and the Shadow Faerie could return the magic to the Faerie Realm by killing him.

  “I agree to inherit my grandfather’s power.”

  A blast of wind came out of nowhere and hit him hard, knocking him backward. He grabbed onto a sturdy shelf to keep from falling. The noisy wind ended as fast as it began. He stared down at his hands in wonder because he could feel the crazy amount of power flowing in his veins, actually feel it moving through him.

  “Now you die,” the Shadow Faerie said.

  The thing threw back his head so violently that the hood slipped off, exposing the monster’s ugly face. The Shadow Faerie clenched his fists and inhaled deeply. A horrible sound like a giant vacuum filled the air while the creature sucked on Trick’s power.

  Trick’s knees threatened to buckle. He held tighter to the shelf. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have won in a fight against the Shadow Faerie. Summer was right about that. His dream of being a great hunter and killing it was just that, a fanciful wish. No one could win against this thing without incredible power at their disposal.

  Trick pulled the box out of his jacket and flicked it open with one hand.

  Intrigued, the Shadow Faerie stopped sucking on his energy. The thing took a few steps forward. He sniffed. “Power. More power. Much more. Like it. Want it.”

  “Sorry,” Trick said. “This is for me, not you.”

  Trick plucked the Sugar Bomb from the box with trembling fingers, and the Shadow Faerie laughed.

  “Now you die,” he said. “Too much power. Foolish boy.”

  From behind Trick, Summer fired off questions in a semi-hysterical voice. “What did you just do? Are you crazy? You could have used that to kill it! What is wrong with you?”

  Cowboy cautioned her, “Wait for it.”

  The power inside of Trick intensified until he thought he might explode from the pressure alone.

  He caught sight of his reflection in a piece of metal on the shelf. His eyes glowed a brilliant hue of blue as if a flashlight was shining through them—and he felt better now, stronger.

  “Impossible,” the Shadow Faerie huffed. “You die.”

  “Not today.” Trick grinned, exposing his brand new fangs.

  A flash of last night’s activities momentarily blinded him to the present. Summer’s sharp teeth pierced his skin, and the burning pain wiped everything else from his mind. A shadow of regret lingered. He hoped he’d done the right thing. Becoming a monster hadn’t been an easy decision, but he had to keep his girls safe. At least he didn’t have the urge to kill humans, not yet at least.

  The Shadow Faerie floated a few feet above ground. With a shriek that sounded like a scalded cat, the thing flew at Trick. It flashed tiny yet sharp teeth, maybe fifty of them and the beady black eyes seemed bottomless. His stretched out
hands resembled claws.

  Trick wished he could fly.

  Before he finished the thought he was in the air. Now the playing field was truly level, and nothing could stop him. He flew at the Shadow Faerie.

  They met in mid-air and crashed into each other.

  Trick grabbed the Shadow Faerie by the front of his robe and spun him around. He threw the faerie into a metal shelf. Confidence turned to arrogance, but it felt justified this time. With the ability to fly and additional strength he would easily kill the thing.

  But how should he do it? Decapitation? Fire? What if he did to the faerie what it had wanted to do to him?

  Trick focused on the Shadow Faerie in the way Cowboy had instructed him. According to the vampire, sucking out power should come naturally to Trick. Because of the faerie blood in his veins, instinct should guide him.

  He balled his hands into fists and inhaled sharply.

  In return the Shadow Faerie inhaled, and Trick felt an immediate pull on his internal organs.

  It was like a game. Tug-of-War. Back and forth they fought for a world of dark power. Some of it seeped into Trick, and lit an unquenchable fire. His body quaked as if he was perched on a fault-line with a 10 on the Richter scale headed his way. He got a taste of unbelievable power, and it shook him to his roots. Even immortal he didn’t think he could handle the whole load, but he had traveled too far to turn back now.

  He held the Sugar Bomb in his hand and tried again. Still didn’t seem to be working the way he had pictured it. Then an idea came to him. Maybe they had called the thing a Sugar Bomb because the name had meaning, and perhaps Baxter had been trying to give him a clue by telling him it wasn’t a Jawbreaker.

  He popped it into his mouth and inhaled again.

  Immediately the strain on his organs lessened.

  The Shadow Faerie began to tremble.

  Trick inhaled again, harder.

  The Shadow Faerie collapsed as if his legs had disappeared. The thing didn’t fall forward or backward. Instead, the monster went straight down like a building collapsing from strategically placed explosives. A streak of light shot out of the faerie’s remains. The power was on its way to Trick, ready to fill him to overflowing. He stiffened, hoping he could handle it.

  Jersey Clifford appeared in front of him, taking the full brunt of the hit. The light went into the werewolf’s stomach, filling him completely. Arms outstretched, the werewolf welcomed it.

  Trick squinted against the blinding light.

  Jersey threw his head back and howled.

  Trick jumped and covered his ears.

  The face of a black werewolf imposed itself over Jersey’s for a moment; then it was gone.

  Cowboy mumbled, “Great. Now we have him to deal with.”

  Jersey turned to look at Trick once he had all the power. He wiped the corner of his mouth to catch the drool. A slight smile stretched his lips thin. “Apologies, but no vampire should have that much power. Sure, you think you’re a good guy. We all do at first, don’t we? Power corrupts. Too much of it is never a good thing.”

  Trick gestured to the robe and ashes on the concrete floor. “What about you? You have mega power now. How is that a good thing?”

  “Don’t worry about me, Mr. Donovan. Oberon is who you need to fear. You just killed his favorite pet, and he will most certainly want revenge.”

  The vines fell off Cowboy and Summer as the faerie’s enchantment died.

  She said, “I thought that ball thing was supposed to kill the first person to touch it? Being a vampire shouldn’t have saved you.”

  “Maybe he wasn’t the first to touch it,” Cowboy said with a smug smile. “Where do you think we went when we left you alone at the house?”

  Trick remembered their trip into town:

  “That guy is a vampire,” Cowboy said.

  In the middle of a busy casino, one vampire outed another. The other vampire glared at them. He either sensed or smelled they were like him, so he didn’t try to bolt. Instead, he puffed out his chest and crowded them.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “Hold this for a second,” Trick said.

  He tipped the box, and the Sugar Bomb fell into the vampire’s hand. The vampire’s eyes rolled back into his head. He turned to dust in a blink, and the ashes made a small hill on the floor.

  It happened so fast that no one noticed, not at first.

  Trick scooped the marble into the box without touching it. Even though he’d been told the Sugar Bomb would amp up his power forever, he wanted to be sure he didn’t overuse it.

  In the present, he stared at Jersey and wondered if he was going to have trouble with the werewolf now.

  “We should go, blow this town,” Cowboy said.

  Trick shook his head. He needed to understand what was happening. The faerie power was supposed to be in him. That had been the plan. Speaking to Jersey, he said, “I thought the faerie power traveled down one bloodline, my family tree. How did you get it to go into you?”

  Jersey wandered in a circle while rolling his shoulders and swinging his arms. “Your grandfather’s power was taken by someone not in the family line. Let’s call him my twin brother William. He found a loophole, and he took all the power for himself. We had a complicated relationship. You could say it killed us in the end.

  “But the king of the Fae brought us back, gave us life. He was angry with William for killing his son, and that is why he made William into a Shadow Faerie.” Jersey gestured to the pile of dust. “Oberon couldn’t think of a better way to make him pay. He turned him into a slave and me into a willing servant.”

  The more Trick heard about this Oberon character, the more frightened he became. The king of the Fae had the power to change people into Shadow Faeries. He created werewolves. What else was he capable of?

  Jersey said, “See you at school.”

  Then he disappeared.

  Trick jumped backward, startled. He pointed at the empty space Jersey had occupied seconds before. “Did you see that?” he asked the vampires. “He can do what we do.”

  Cowboy gave a weary sigh. “That little doggie has always been full of surprises. And speaking of surprises, how can you fly?”

  Trick raised an eyebrow. “You mean you can’t?”

  Cowboy’s jaw tightened. “No. We can’t fly. We’re vampires, not pigeons.”

  Summer said, “We should get some rest. It’s been a long day, and I would love to go to a spa for a few hours.”

  Rest? Trick had never felt less like resting in his entire life. If he took a handful of stimulants, drank thirty Red Bulls, and a gallon of coffee, it still wouldn’t compare to the effects of the vampire blood on his system. He felt like he’d never sleep again.

  He bounced on the balls of his feet. “Want to go to Vegas?”

  Cowboy grinned. “You know I’m always up for a bit of fun.”

  Before Trick could give it any real thought, his feet took off. He ran out the door, around the warehouse, and back inside in the amount of time it took to blink. The rush of adrenaline added to the supernatural speed he now possessed was too much for his brain to handle.

  Eyes wide, he gaped at the vampires. “Did you see that?”

  “Yeah,” Summer said in a less-than-impressed voice. “We can all do that. It’s universal.”

  Cowboy laughed. “He’s like a kid in a candy store.”

  “A dangerous kid,” Summer said.

  Trick’s mind went over endless possibilities, all the things he could do now that he was a vampire. The best thing was, his personality hadn’t been altered. He hadn’t turned into a monster. Maybe his father really had been wrong. Trick was still himself.

  An idea hit him. “Hey! Can we run to Vegas?”

  Cowboy grinned at Summer. “I am liking this kid more and more. Told you we found the perfect fourth.”

  “Third,” she reminded him. “We still need a fourth.”

  Cowboy shrugged.

  Trick used his
new vampire-speed to run around the warehouse again because his new friends were taking too long to move. If they didn’t stop talking soon, he would leave without them. He couldn’t wait to see what else he could do.

  “I think he’s getting antsy,” Cowboy said. “Let’s go.”

  On their way to Vegas, Trick spent a lot of time mentally reliving the past forty-eight hours. He thought about Scarlet’s feelings for him and the clever way they had defeated the Shadow Faerie. Mostly he thought about the night before, how he had given in to the vampires. He had agreed to become a monster to save Dani. He’d owed it to her. The Shadow Faerie wouldn’t have tried to kill her if he hadn’t gotten her involved in his mess.

  He just hoped he wouldn’t regret his decision to be turned.

  And he prayed his father really had been wrong about vampires.

  chapter twenty-seven

  Love Bites

  After a fun night in Vegas—Cowboy had talked their way into an underground poker game—Trick got home as the family was sitting down to breakfast. Instead of climbing the trellis to his bedroom window, he jumped. The vampires were right; he could do all sorts of interesting things now. Being immortal was way more fun than hunters realized. If they knew, they’d all want to join the exclusive club.

  Once inside his bedroom, he ripped the gray sweatshirt over his head, tossed it to the floor, and pulled on a black t-shirt. Then he raced down the stairs, careful to use a normal human speed. He would have to be on guard constantly against doing something that would give his new status away.

  He entered the kitchen with a happy grin while rubbing his hands together. “Good morning, family.”

  Sean and Laura looked up in surprise. Her hand froze in mid-grab as she went for a muffin while Sean lowered his newspaper to stare at his adoptive son with confusion. He was probably one of the few men still reading an actual paper instead of getting his news in digital form.

  “When did you get home?” Sean asked.

  Instead of answering the question, Trick side-tracked them with their least favorite subject. “I just wanted to say that I really appreciate you giving me time to track down information on my father. It helped. It helped a lot, and you are going to see a new Trick Donovan in the future.”