Vampire's Shade Discounted Box Set E-Book

Vivienne Neas

• Herausgeber: Vivienne Neas
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Vivianne Neas' bestselling series now bundled to get you even better value for your money.BOOK 1The Shade a Vampire has left in my family is still hunting me, making my life a restless chase.It's not only my job, I have a personal vendetta to carry out against vampires. They are the reason my sister is on a wheelchair and our mother gone. And I'm not a forgiving girl.Vampires start integrating among humans, but even with laws adapting to the new society, many problems arise. I solve them. I kill problems.In the span of less than two weeks I manage to turn my entire world upside down.This time I have been chosen to take care of some human turned into vampire, but that will not be as easy as it seemed. I have somehow gotten involved in a war against the ancients ones, too dangerous and powerful enemies to fight by myself. And before I could even think about it I find myself allied with a very unlikely team.At the end of it all, they're the ones that save me. I've been fooling myself for years.It turns out I was the rescue mission all along.BOOK 2I have managed to start a new life as instructor at the Martial Arts Academy in Westham.No more black leathers, no more silver bullets but only training clothes, or so I thought...A young woman arrives at the academy: she wants to be taught to kill vampires. And she wants me to teach her. But she doesn't know I'm half-vampire, she doesn't know about my past. This would change the peaceful life I just achieved.Ruben's death has left a shade in Sydney Cross' life, now her anger and frustration will lead her to try and pursuit the most dangerous enemies, but she is too young and inexperienced. I'm shocked when I find out Sydney's plans... somehow I have to do something, I cannot just leave her alone.BOOK 3I've always tried to stay away from police, also now that I am not a killer anymore and my life is totally legal; also now that this gorgeous-looking cop required me as a professional shooting trainer.In the middle of the night I find Joel and my sister at my door: our friend Carl is in jail in Fort Atkinson accused of murdering a young vampire-girl, and it's me that he wants to help him to get out clean.As I said, I don't mix up with police: you don't if you have a past like mine, but this time my cop student offers to help me in Carl's investigation, and I desperately need his help.I need to go there and find out what really happened, and who framed Carl and why. I'll have to look into in my ex-colleague's past, to find out if there is something dark in his story.Once Adele starts investigating, she finds out this is all too messy, Carl's adoptive parents have many things to hide, there is much more in Carl's past than he could tell, the dead vampire-girl was somehow the key, and Adele is determined to find the truth whatever the cost, and the cost could be more that some can afford.BOOK 4Two shadows in a dark alley, they look so alike they could easily be twins; I strain my senses and I smell vampire. When I'm killing my mark, a deafening scream comes out of its mouth, so I wake up. I've been haunted far too long by this nightmare, and the job at the Academy isn't helping me anymore.There's a vampire with a long list of goons chasing after me, looking to avenge his brother's death.I know this is no ordinary vampire: he's very powerful, his face has been haunting me everynight, this time I'm scared and I feel in real danger; a have a feeling this will be my time.So I'm out on the street again, ready to fight, and this time I'm the only one to blame.

Leseprobe

Vivienne Neas

Vampire's Shade Box Set - Vampire's Shade Collection

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Table of contents

Vampire’s Shade Collection - Book 1

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

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Vampire’s Shade Collection - Book 2

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Vampire’s Shade Collection - Book 3

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Vampire’s Shade Collection - Book 4

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Vampire's Shade Collection 

Box Set

Vampire's Shade

Vampire's Shade 2

Vampire's Shade 3

Vampire's Shade4

VIENNE NEAS

Blue Shelf Bookstore

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Vampire’s Shade Collection Series

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Vampire’s Shade Collection - Book 1

Chapter 1

I backed the vampire into an alley, my knife out with the blade low and threatening. It gleamed in the almost-darkness of the alley, a reminder to me and my victim that the knife had silver in it.

A black chain was looped over my shoulder, weighing me down, but I had trained like this. I could deal. I was just trying to scare the vampire with my knife. The short silver blade wasn’t good for a kill, not for a vampire. It would do in a pinch, because the silver burned their flesh – not enough, but a little – and I could work the vampire over if I wanted to, but that would get my hands dirty, and I preferred to stake them.

Or blow their heads off. I had yet to see a vampire that could bounce back from that one.

The vampire tried to dodge me and escape, but I had the upper hand. I knew about the vampire’s speed; it had underestimated mine. I was in front of it before it could get past me.

It skidded to halt, gaping at me.

In a life-and-death fight, there isn’t a lot of time for questions. You get to choose – answers or life. The vampire had made the wrong choice.

I let the chain slip off my shoulder and swung it around, sheathing the knife with my free hand. When I flicked the chain, it twisted around the vampire’s wrist and the clip snapped shut around itself. This baby was going nowhere.

Blue and red lights suddenly danced on the street at the alley entrance, and we both froze. The battle between us was one thing; neither of us wanted the police involved. I didn’t, because my work had a lot of moral pitfalls. The vampire didn’t, because when a vampire and a human were caught in an alley together, chances were the police would take the human’s side.

There was also the small technicality that I wasn’t exactly human, and I supposedly didn’t exist.

When the car had gone past and the silence of night fell around us again, I looked at my victim and smiled.

I stepped closer, looping the chain, until my body was practically right up against the vampire’s. It squirmed and tried to fight, but it had been a long run to get here, and I was fitter.

The vampire squeezed its eyes shut, and I felt a hum emanating from it. It faded so I could see the brick wall right through its chest, but the metal I’d wrapped around its wrist stopped it from dematerializing completely, and when it stopped trying to, the humming stopped, too. I was going to win this one, and it knew that.

I flipped my hair over my shoulder to get it out of the way. In the tussle, I’d lost the hairband that kept my black mass of hair out of my face.

I killed for a living, and my biggest stumbling block was keeping my long hair out of the way.

Beauty was a bitch.

I wasn’t going to cut it. It hung halfway down my back, thick and healthy. My looks were just as deadly as my skill. And I had a lot of skill.

I whipped the chain around the vampire’s other wrist, too, and tightened it, pulling its hands up together. Then I slammed a silver stake under the vampire’s ribs and wrapped my fingers tightly around the smooth finish, fingering the pattern I’d carved out around its edge.

I carried a lot of heat. I had a gun in a holster under my jacket and another tucked into my waistband at the small of my back. But guns didn’t work on vampires. Their ability to heal rapidly was a pain in the ass when it came to self-defense or hit jobs.

The vampire’s eyes were wild, wide, rolling around in their sockets. The split second before death was never pretty.

A thick black mist surrounded us, choking me, making it hard to breathe. I gritted my teeth and ignored it. It was almost like poison, the vampire’s last attempt to hold on to life, like an octopus’s ink, but I was immune.

Never underestimate your enemies.

An image of Aspen flashed through my mind, her eyes dull and lifeless. Her body was bent at an impossible angle. Around her, the furniture was upside down and out of place, like a nightmare version of our home. Nearby, bloody fangs dripping menace.

A fire inside me threatened to consume me, and I leaned against the stake, pushing it through the vampire’s flesh, forcing it into the vampire’s heart.

Killing the memories.

The vampire focused on me, questioning, its eyes draining of life already, and a flicker of recognition passed across its face. Fast reflexes, stronger than human women, immune to the mist – it knew what I was. The pain of betrayal was the last emotion it displayed before its face went slack, its eyes rolled back, and the body slumped forward.

Yeah, this one was going to haunt me. Great start to my week.

I swallowed and gasped for air. The thick stench clung to my clothes even after the mist had gone, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of darkness and death clawing at my ankles. I shuddered. Guilt was about as ugly as death itself.

I pushed the dead vampire off me, letting the body crumple to the ground. Then I wiped the stake clean on my black leather pants and zipped my jacket up halfway to conceal the gun.

The silver line of dawn was on the horizon, bleeding into the inky night air, announcing the arrival of Tuesday morning. The rising sun would take care of everything else: the blood, the body. The darkness I just couldn’t seem to get away from.

I turned and walked away, but stopped before I turned out of the alley. I bit my cheek and turned back. I had to frisk the damn thing. This part I hated the most. There was nothing as bad as playing with the dead when you were the reason they were dead in the first place.

I ignored the seed of guilt that throbbed deep down inside me. I tried to shake the image of the vampire’s face when it had realized what I was. I might have been a half-breed, at least fifty percent one of them, but genetics was as far as it went. My loyalty lay with humans.

My phone chirped in my pocket and I answered it, clamping it against my shoulder with my cheek. Small miracle I hadn’t lost it in the fight. It wouldn’t have been the first time. High tech was worth nothing if it fell out of my pocket.

“Are you coming in before dawn?” Ruben’s voice was clipped.

“I’m on my way to the office now.”

“Cutting it a bit close, aren’t you, Adele?”

“I don’t tell you how to do your job, Ruben. Let me do mine.”

My boss was a hard-ass idiot who believed he knew everything there was to know about night creatures, even though he never set foot outside his office until sunrise. He knew what the dangers were, and he wasn’t going to take the fall. He trusted everyone about the same amount, which was not at all. I liked him best when he was riled up and it was my fault.

“Just get in here to do the paperwork. I don’t want any mistakes. That damn Clemens woman was here again tonight, and I don’t want a story about you in the news.”

“Since when do journalists do nighttime visits?”

“Since you don’t have the day shift. I don’t want to start my week like this, Adele.”

Like it was my fault.

Ruben hung up the phone, and I shuddered in the silence that was left behind. Not a lot of people believed in half-breeds, and those who did wished us dead.

I shook off the feeling of foreboding that had come with the phone call, and headed downtown.

I worked as a vampire slayer for a living. I was good at what I did, and Ruben paid me well for it. It was quick work, even though it wasn’t always easy. And it wasn’t just the physical side of the business that was a problem. Every job had its emotional downside, and some people needed TV time to wind down after the daily grind. I probably needed therapy.

I worked for a thickset, sleazy man in a dirty world. Ruben Cross was about as human as they came, but his scent disgusted me. I could smell his blood, which was laced with alcohol most of the time. He was dead set on ridding the world of vampires. For him, it was a religion as much as it was racism.

From the outside, his company looked like a standard accounting firm. His after-hours advertising was directed at a few chosen individuals, a private affair among people who heard of us through word-of-mouth whispers around corners, and only a handful knew about what we did when night fell.

We weren’t exactly on the radar, and I liked it that way. My entire existence was under the radar. The unlicensed killing meant I never had to own up to anything, and we didn’t speak about a job once it was done. Vampires didn’t fall under any constitution of the existing laws. They were seen as part of society now, but those who didn’t fear them shunned them, and discrimination was everywhere. Human rights got a little blurry when the person involved wasn’t human, and the fewer questions asked, the better.

Vampires had a strange hierarchy. The ones we ended up taking out were the mundane vampires, the young ones, the ones that didn’t mean anything in the vampire world. The hit jobs were usually ordered by humans. The vampires that meant something, the powerful ones at the top of their own food chain – those, we left alone. They never had quarrels with humans, and we never ran into real killers. Still, when a cop found a body in the street, supernatural creature or not, it was going to attract attention.

The common consensus was that humans and vampires couldn’t breed. The existence of half-breeds was just a rumor; as far as most people were concerned, Aspen and I couldn’t even exist. Ruben knew what I was, but he kept me on because as a half-breed I had the ability to pull off looking completely human. I also had vampire characteristics, which gave me an advantage above the human slayers. It upped my chances of tricking the pureblood vampires and putting them down before anyone could worry about moral issues.

Betraying our own kind was a big deal, but I had a hatred for vampires that almost equaled Ruben’s. Why did I hate them? He had his reasons; I had mine. I had a strict don’t ask, don’t tell policy.

So far, it had worked for me.

When I stepped into the lobby of the office building where Ruben holed up, Carl was just coming down the stairs. He was a lot of man: muscle that made his shirt stretch tight over his arms, and thighs that threatened to pop out of his pants. But muscles were no good when they were only for show. If it came down to a life or death fight, I could have taken him easily. Muscle is worth nothing against a gun.

“Oh, you’re here too,” he said.

We didn’t often rub shoulders, not since he’d taken me out on his first kill so I could learn the ropes. He was always sarcastic about the job, calling it something a woman wouldn’t be able to do. But we both knew that within in a week I’d become better at his job than he was.

When I looked at him closely, I saw the toll the last couple of years had taken on him. He had new wrinkles. He didn’t look like the young, strapping lad who had taken me under his wing anymore. He looked worn. I wondered if the same was true for me. It was hard to stay in this line of work and look fresh at the end of the day.

“Just doing the final rounds, Carl,” I said. “I don’t feel like getting into a brawl tonight.”

“You’re in the wrong job for that,” he pointed out.

I shrugged. Carl was just a human. I didn’t know how he managed to do his job – the first night I’d seen him, he’d been quick, and that had been his only asset. Still, Ruben had kept him on, so maybe he had something going for him. Maybe he charmed the vamps to death. With his chiseled jaw and jet-black hair, he could get any woman to look twice. Maybe his icy eyes did the trick, hypnotizing the vampires into believing they shouldn’t run.

I passed him, and he tipped his shoulder so it knocked me in the arm. In the world of vampire slayers, there are no courtesies for women. I jabbed my elbow back faster than he could blink and caught him in the kidney. He made a strangled sound.

“You’d better watch your back, Adele. Sometimes humans can hold grudges too.”

“If you’re talking about yourself, I’m not exactly going to lose sleep over it. But thanks for the warning.”

He snorted and walked out into the silvery dawn.

Carl wasn’t a bad guy; I just didn’t like him. There’d been a time when we’d gotten along, but he’d gotten cocky about his kills, and somewhere along the line he’d picked up that I was a half-breed. That had made all the difference. He didn’t see me as an equal anymore.

Good thing I’d never really cared. I was good at working alone, and his smoldering looks might have worked on other females, but I didn’t have time for dating.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Ruben said when I walked into his office and dropped the ID card and keys I’d taken off the vampire on his desk.

His salt-and-pepper hair looked like he’d spent the night sticking his hands into it, and he was wearing a jersey over his shirt that I would bet hid the fact that it was creased. The smell of whiskey hung in the air, laced with the day-old smell of his cologne, and I crinkled my nose.

He picked up the ID and looked at the photo. He nodded, satisfied. “It took Carl a week, and he still couldn’t put this one down. And you do it as a quickie on the side.”

“Not my fault you’re not delegating right, Ruben,” I said. “I told you this one wasn’t going to go down easy. Some of them you have to get hot and heavy with.”

“Nothing as hot as a vampire slayer willing to get personal.” He shook his head. His amber eyes were bright, despite the fact that he looked like he could do with a year of sleep. “I wish there were more people like you on my team. Carl is good, but he’s not you, and I’ve already got your quota filled.” He leaned on his desk and intertwined his fingers. “About this journalist. You need to watch your back. She’s not letting this one go.”

“Nothing I can’t handle. You know that.”

He stretched his arms up, and his jersey pulled taut over the expanse of his body. When I glanced down, I noticed he was wearing slippers. I guessed if I’d been stuck in this office all night, I’d do something to get comfortable too.

“You’re not immortal, Adele. If anyone finds out what you are, what you’re doing is only going to count against you.”

“I’m doing what most humans are too scared to.”

“And you’re an abomination…”

I turned and walked out of the office before he could finish his sentence. He didn’t have the right to hire a killer and lecture her. He had to stay clear; I beat myself up enough without him joining in.

“You make sure you’re back here by sundown,” Ruben called after me.

I didn’t bother to answer.

Being a half-breed meant there were some rules that didn’t apply to me. My human genes had won out more often than not. I had a perfect set of blunt teeth – no fangs – and I didn’t need blood to survive, even though I could smell it and sometimes it called out to me. Sunlight was uncomfortable, but it wasn’t going to turn me into ash.

Ruben knew that, but we worked on a schedule that stretched from sunset to sunrise. He had me working all night as it was; I wasn’t going to give him a chance to put me on double duty.

Daylight was a better time to hunt vampires, if you could find where they holed up. But I had a thing about killing something helpless, even if it was a vampire. I’d seen enough of that in my life to know that everyone – everything – deserved a fighting chance, at least. I refused to slay in the daytime. Personal policy. Besides, everyone needs some downtime, and that included me.

I found my motorcycle three blocks away, in the opposite direction from my home, on the outskirts of Westham’s Business District. It was still sitting where I’d abandoned it, when the vampire had hopped a fence my motorcycle couldn’t.

I was attracted to raw power, and the MV Augusta M4CC was just that. It had a black body with smooth curves. It was an orgasm on wheels.

How had a civilian like me, with a slightly above average income, gotten her hands on something as rare as an Augusta? Vampires have resources, and I had happened to kill the right one. Who would have thought my job had perks.

The bike purred underneath me and the wind wrapped around my body as I raced down the street. The speed gave me the illusion that I was actually escaping for a change. I preferred riding to walking, not just because the Augusta was a hot piece of metal, but because the neighborhood wasn’t a great one and I was a girl who got attention.

Not that I ever had any trouble. The last man who had his hand up my thigh after I’d politely asked him to back off was still trying to figure out which way was up. Still, my ride was a reward, and after a night of kills, I wasn’t in the mood to play nice.

I turned into my street. It was another couple of blocks to my apartment building, and shadows were lurking in between trashcans and down the narrow alleys.

I twisted the throttle and ate up the distance. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the place. It was just that the threatening shadows reminded me of what could hide in them. Once you opened yourself up to the creepy-crawlies of the night, you could never really escape them again, and I wanted to be off duty at some point. I didn’t like killing after hours, and Ruben wasn’t going to pay me overtime.

A sharp scent flowed in through the air vents in my helmet and pulled my head to the right. I slowed down the bike, stopped, and backed up with my toes on the asphalt until I could almost feel the smell inside of me. I fought the urge, but it drew me.

Being a half-breed meant blood could call out to me, and I wasn’t as immune to it as I would have liked. It was a weakness I didn’t like to acknowledge.

I knew the smell of vampire, and it was sometimes my downfall that I couldn’t ignore the call if it was on the right frequency. This one had something else to it too. Something I couldn’t quite place. The draw was stronger than usual.

I switched off the bike and got off, pulled my helmet off and left it hanging on the handlebars. My hair fell into my face, and I shook my head irritably and followed my nose.

It wasn’t the safest place to leave the bike unattended, but I didn’t plan on staying very long. I looked up and down the street, but I was alone. In all-black clothing, I was camouflaged at night, but I stuck out against the silvery color of morning.

The scent pulled me, and I sniffed it out like a bloodhound. I walked into an alley that had walls reaching three stories up on either side. It ran into a dead end at the back, a chain-link fence that looked onto a dumpster. My nose prickled with the pungent smell. It was sour, and it spelled trouble.

When I moved the dumpster, a pale hand fell onto my foot, and I jumped. I wasn’t nervous as a rule, but this could be a trap as much as anything else.

I reached behind me and pulled the SIG Sauer P226 from my waistband.

I’d left my stake with the bike, and this gun wouldn’t do much damage to a vampire who could heal at will and had the force of fury behind him, but it would slow the vamp down long enough for me to get away.

I wished I had more bullets for my Smith & Wesson. The 500 packed a punch that could kill a large animal, and I had yet to meet a vampire that could hold on to its head after a good aim. The gap between life and death was only a hairline crack when you were staring down the right barrel.

The hand on my foot was limp. I pointed my gun and trailed it up a well-shaped arm. On the other end of it, I found a male vampire. Its skin was tight over its skull and almost translucent on its neck. It was unconscious, its cheeks sunken, dark circles around its closed eyes. Its skin wasn’t as pale as that of some of the older vampires I’d seen, but the dull, almost colorless appearance of its hair made it look washed out, and it had fresh puncture marks at the base of its neck. A couple of them, with the skin bruised around the bites.

This vampire was freshly turned, and had been left out here in the alley to die.

Why?

I looked around, preparing for company, but the alley around us was empty, and I couldn’t smell anyone.

A vampire didn’t become a vampire by accident. It took a lot of work – a person had to be held for a number of days and drunk from at regular intervals until there was nothing left to give. Then, the body had to mutate to survive.

Death by consumption. I smiled at my own joke.

Generally vampires bred to make more vampires. But humans were turned sometimes, too. Usually with good reason, but what that reason was remained a mystery.

After the sire had taken all that trouble to recruit this new vamp, why would it be left here to die at sunrise? Unless it had escaped…

I considered returning to the bike to get my stake. I should kill it right here; then there’d be one less vampire to deal with when the time came.

But when I looked at its face, I couldn’t do it. My values were twisted, but I had a set of rules I tried to live by. I couldn’t just turn away and shoot it point-blank.

I grabbed it by the ankles and dragged it down the alley towards the street. The sun would be heading this way soon, and even the first rays of dawn were fatal for a pureblood. It was heavier than it looked, but I was stronger than most girls because of my supernatural gifts.

Its arms flipped up, and the shirt rode up. The concrete was going to leave a hell of a graze, but if the vamp survived, it would be healed up in no time. Possibly even before it woke up, if it ever did.

I worked my way across the street, keeping an eye out for danger, but it was deserted. When I got to the other side, I kicked a closed garage door. It lifted enough on its hinges for me to work with. I worked my fingers underneath, and it rolled to the top with a groan. Clearly, no one had lived here for years. The vampire would be safe, and ready to dematerialize by sundown if another predator didn’t sniff it out first.

I shoved the body into the cold garage and slammed the door shut again without looking at it, then dusted my hands on my pants. As I walked away, I knew I was going to regret saving the vamp, but I didn’t like going after vampires who hadn’t done anything wrong.

I would get it another time.

Chapter 2

Inside my apartment, I double-locked the front door and checked the windows. It was a habit to make sure I was alone in the house. My windows were barred, but that was enough metal for me. As much as I didn’t want vampires to materialize into my home, I wanted them to be able to dematerialize back out of it.

My place was in a bad part of town. I was earning enough for something better, but the illusion of safety nauseated me. I wanted to be on guard because I had to be. I couldn’t become comfortable. It had been in a well-off neighborhood, in a lovely family home, where I’d lost my mother and had nearly lost my sister. No, thank you. I preferred to slum it.

I stripped my weapons and put them in the gun safe at the bottom of my cupboard. Then I peeled off the holster and thigh sheath and hung them up next to my leather jacket.

I showered. I had to get the acidic smell of that mist off me, and get rid of any blood that might have gotten on my skin. I killed for a living, but the idea of blood still made me sick.

The face looking back at me from the mirror was haunted. My black hair framed a too-white face. I had the classic vampire complexion. My face was smooth and flawless, but a long scar ran from my jaw down my neck and ended at the base of my collarbone. I traced it with my finger.

By the time sunlight began to fall through my bedroom window, I was ready to leave again. My hair was dry and tied up in a bun, and I was wearing grey slacks and an aqua shirt. The blue made my eyes stand out. When I was dressed in my leathers, they looked like ice. When I dressed like a normal person, there was some depth to them.

I didn’t take my bike. Instead, I took the bus to the other side of Westham, where there were flower boxes under the windows and other reminders that nocturnal life didn’t dominate everything else.

Zelda opened the door. She was the live-in nurse who helped Aspen. Her white uniform was strained by her solid frame, and her hair was pulled back against her head with no sense of imagination. One thing I could say about Zelda was that she was consistent.

“Adele,” she said, smiling when she saw me, like it was a surprise, even though no one else ever visited this early. “How are you?”

“Fine,” I answered, but Zelda shook her head.

“You should sleep more.”

I shrugged. I would if I could.

“Go on through to the kitchen,” she said. “She’s waiting for you.”

When I walked into the kitchen, I found the buttery roll-up blinds drawn against the sun. Aspen didn’t need the sun to drain the little bit of energy she had. She had more vampire in her than I did, and her skin didn’t like the touch of sunlight very much. Aspen was sitting at the counter they had lowered for her wheelchair.

“There you are,” she said when she saw me, and smiled. Her pearly white fangs showed, and the combination with her dainty face, ghostly white skin and cascading, honey-colored curls made her look like she had stepped out of a fantasy novel.

My sister and I were total opposites. I had black hair and blue eyes. She had blonde hair and hazel eyes. She was the lucky one who had our mother stare back at her when she looked in the mirror, despite her fangs, which our human mother hadn’t had. I was saddled with the looks of my deadbeat father (minus the teeth), but I didn’t want to be reminded of him every day. I was pretty, but looks could kill in a lot of different ways.

“How are you doing?” I asked, bending down to kiss her on the top of her head. I couldn’t help but notice her legs when I did. They were thin and frail from years of lack of use. Her arm, reaching across the counter for her orange juice, was thin and bony.

“You’ve lost weight again,” I said, frowning. “If you keep at it, one day there’ll be nothing left of you.” I sat down on a chair that was always there for me, and took a piece of toast.

“Already only half left,” she said, and laughed.

Her laugh danced around the kitchen like the sound of wind chimes, but I didn’t join in. I didn’t think her joke was funny. Her laughter faded when she saw my lack of humor, but her eyes, full of golden flecks, held on to the joke.

“Stop fussing over me. Tell me about your night. Did you catch any bad ones?”

I shrugged and bit off a piece of toast. I was hazy about what I did when I talked to my sister. To Aspen, I was a hero, the one who had gotten out unscathed and was now devoting my life to fighting crime, putting bad guys behind bars. I wasn’t going to talk about gruesome death with my handicapped sister – and I certainly wasn’t going to tell her that if the police got hold of me, I was probably the one who would end up behind bars. It was bad enough that she had to sit in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She didn’t have to know the gory details of how I was trying to make up for my failure to protect her.

“You don’t have to keep coming around after your shift, you know,” Aspen said when I wouldn’t answer her. “I know you’re tired. You always insist on the graveyard shift.”

Graveyard shift. Huh. The irony.

“And what am I going to do for a social life, then?” I asked, pulling a face. I didn’t know a lot of people other than Joel, my weapons specialist. The other people I met, I usually ended up killing.

“You should get yourself a boyfriend. It would be good for you to have someone take care of you for a change. I never can.”

Her words hit me like physical punches. “That’s because you don’t have to. You have enough on your plate.”

She snorted. “Like what? I sit around all day.”

“I don’t think I’d be good at dating,” I offered. It was true – men didn’t like it when women were better with guns than they were. They had a set image of what they thought women should be, and leathers and guns weren’t included. Besides, between working and training, when did I have the time? “I’m happy focusing on my job.”

“What about that guy you mentioned at work? Carl? You said he has the same shift as you. You guys ever pair up?”

I rolled my eyes. Carl was a bodybuilder with more interest in his own looks than in the work he did. He killed to impress, not to save. And he wasn’t very good at it, either. Not from where I was standing. “I prefer to work alone.”

“What about Joel?”

“I’m not dating Joel. He’s a great friend, but he’s not going to bring me flowers.”

“That’s because you wouldn’t know what to do with them.” Aspen giggled. “Honestly, Adele. You’re beautiful and interesting. It’s a shame to waste that on work.”

“What, with a scar down my neck?”

She looked down at her now-empty glass. “It’s less conspicuous than a wheelchair.”

She wasn’t making a joke this time. The cold truth hung between us, all the warmth draining out of the room. I curled my hand into a fist.

“If I hadn’t gone out to the store… If I’d been able to stop him—” I started, but she shook her head.

“Don’t, Adele. Don’t do that to yourself.” Her voice was hard, but her eyes welled up. She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” She let out a shaky breath.

When she opened her eyes again, all trace of tears was gone.

“Let me show you my art,” she said, quickly changing the subject.

I got up and followed her down the hallway into her art room. She was working on a canvas of a woodlands scene. My talented sister could work magic with oils and acrylic. She pointed out things on the canvas, telling me about it, but the atmosphere between us was still heavy. Everything had changed with her reminder about our past.

Finally, I said my goodbyes and left her house feeling worse than when I’d arrived.

My next stop was the Martial Arts Academy on Sterling Street, three blocks over. I had a meeting with the sensei every morning at nine to train in combat and self-defense. He was the only man I’d been able to find who wouldn’t treat me like a woman. He worked me into the ground, not stopping until my muscles screamed, and in hand-to-hand he always put me on my back if I didn’t defend myself like a man. It was the kind of training I needed. Hard, merciless.

We worked on fitness training first this morning, and he had me in a good sweat. I was fit and battle-ready, but he still wore me out. In hand-to-hand I went all out on him. I had pent-up frustration and anger to spare, and he was the one person who would fight back but still criticize me even when I’d won. He put me on the floor after my failed attempt to pin him, and knocked the wind out of me.

When he stood over me, his eyebrows rose. Standing up, he was shorter than I was, but from this angle he looked larger than life. He kept his head bald, and he made up for his lack of height with muscle bulk and tone.

I looked down and saw that my shirt had ridden up, exposing my stomach. I had a well-toned stomach, but a bruise was wrapped like a decoration around my ribs. It must have happened sometime after I’d ditched my bike.

“You been looking for trouble?” he asked. With my skill set, he knew I wasn’t likely to get mugged.

“Been street fighting again,” I joked. “I needed a little money on the side.”

He grinned to cover up his concern, but it was still visible when we faced off for the next round.

When we were done, I collapsed on the mat, breathing hard and sweating.

“You really went all out today,” I said. My ribs hurt every time I inhaled. I tried to breathe around the pain. Ignoring it worked most of the time.

Sensei sat down next to me, cross-legged, like he was going to meditate. “You want to tell me what those bruises are about?”

I didn’t, really, but there were times people wouldn’t let something go, and I had seen Sensei’s fighting skills. If his personality matched his methods, he wasn’t one to let go.

I shrugged. “Occupational hazard,” I finally answered. “I don’t really have a desk job.”

“I figured that,” he said. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

If he meant my life, then yes. I was in some kind of trouble every day. But that wasn’t something I could just get out of the way. He wouldn’t understand.

“No. I just went about something the wrong way. It’s complicated.”

“Yeah, it looks real complicated. Look, all I know is that you’ll still bleed, no matter how long and hard you train to fight. Watch your back, okay? I don’t want to have to fill this slot with someone else because you didn’t make it through.”

“Nice of you to care.”

I didn’t do caring and affection. Those things were dangerous, disguises that made me feel like there were no enemies to watch my back for. Trust. That was the killer. And trust and love went hand in hand.

“It would be nice for you to try, too,” he said, and got up.

Chaos averted, I told myself. It was easy to keep my cover if people didn’t probe too much. But there was warmth in the emptiness he’d left behind. Not a lot of people gave a shit, which was why I didn’t, either. I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself up off the mat, fighting the urge to try to shake off the warmth like a dog.

By noon, I was back home. I found my black chain and looped it in a figure eight over my chest and shoulders. Then I headed out for a run, pushing myself past screaming muscles and aching bones. Half an hour in the dead neighborhood.

When that was done, I hit the shower again. I finished off with a protein shake – nothing like an after-training snack that tastes like cardboard – and crawled into bed. I was aching from the injuries and the training, but the throbbing pain reminded me that I was alive, and I had to stay that way.

My fingers curled around the butt of the Glock under my pillow, and only then did I relax. Usually my enemies were dead by the time I walked away, but I never knew who I had pissed off in the process.

I kept a low profile, but luck favors the prepared.

Chapter 3

A hammering on my door pulled me out of my sleep cycle before my alarm could wake me up. I stared at the hazy numbers on the digital clock next to my bed. I’d only slept about three hours. Whoever was out there had better have a bloody good reason for waking me up.

I grabbed the Glock from under my pillow and walked to the front door. I pushed my eye against the peephole. A woman with a short red bob, wearing a power-dressing suit, was standing on the other side of my door. She must have been lost.