Page 31 of Silent Stalker
Vampire bites to the arm hurt when the biter wasn’t going out of his way to make the experience pleasant.
To complicate matters, the rest of the Lowrance brood, for some reason I couldn’t begin to fathom, opted to observe rather than help. After staking at least ten, I hissed at Ben, who twirled one of my stakes between his fingers like he was on the cheerleading squad. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing. I thought that was obvious.” Ben kept twirling the stake, which had begun glowing a soft golden color. “If you need help, I’ll help. Consider it a wedding gift. Emerick is very interested in what you’re doing. I couldn’t bereft your antique of a joy in his life. They’re so far gone you can handle them. I’m guessing the person they killed had gotten overconfident. They’re on the verge of death. Whomever did this did not plan it well. I’m thinking we have a fledgling idiot who has asked just enough questions to get himself in trouble. Carry on, Pepper. If you need help, we’ll help. While you’ve been playing with your new friends, I have been calling in for blood and assistance from other broods. I’m sure the fledgling idiot behind this expected us to handle it alone. Kennwick is sending ten, and the other broods are sending between ten and twelve each. Do try to minimize the damage you do. They’re in poor shape, and I’d rather we not lose any.”
Damn. While I understood Emerick could be ruthless in his drive to educate me on my new life as a vampire, Ben’s commentary drove home the message I would be giving them a good performance or paying for it later—and if I screwed up, I would have more death on my hands than I liked.
It was one thing to kill off a miscreant, but it was another to dispatch someone who may have endured the same sort of hell I couldn’t remember.
If I’d been in the same condition, I understood why Clarke had hesitated to say anything that might spark my memories of the incident. The idea someone would deliberately abuse others for any form of ambition infuriated me so much I lunged for the next vampire, knocked him to the ground, and pricked his upper arm with my stake. He froze, and snarling frustrated curses, I worked to embed the wooden tip deep enough to hold him in place.
“I do believe Pepper has gone from merely annoyed to truly angry, Emerick.”
Emerick sat and went to work grooming one of his massive paws, showing off his curved, pointy claws.
I released the stake, which had refused to stay in place without me driving it halfway into the vampire’s arm.
“Even if you drive the stake completely through their arms in that spot, it will be a passing pain. I realize it’s frustrating, but stake them as normal. The wounds you’re doing to their shoulders will heal, and it shouldn’t be lethal, even in their condition.”
Distant sirens drew closer, and I growled at the sound.
“They’re non-prejudiced,” Ben assured me. “They know there’s one fatality and the vampires are victims. They’ll all go to safehouses across the state as soon as you rein them in. We’ll have to go out to find new wood for your stakes, though. These will be unavailable for some time.” Ben checked on each of my victims, and at one, he crouched, murmured something, and swept the hair away from the man’s face. At first glance, I thought I’d killed the vampire, but his chest rose and fell. “I know this vampire, and his master will be grateful for his recovery. He is from Nevada.”
Vampires lived in Nevada? “That seems like a rather hostile place for vampires to live.”
As the other members of my brood expected me to contain the remaining vampires, who’d broken apart into loose clusters, most unable to put up a fight, I went to work, saving the weakest for last.
He couldn’t even stand, and he regarded me with clouded eyes. Rather than stake him, I presented my left arm and pressed it to his mouth. That he struggled to sink in his fangs bothered me even more than the battered state of his body. Even when he got a hold on me, he struggled to drink. “Emerick? He can barely drink.”
I’d never seen a vampire incapable of drawing blood from a vein, and the reality of their fate chilled me.
Emerick sighed, got up, and walked over, sitting beside me. With a sigh of his own, Ben crouched beside me, supported the vampire’s head, and held him at a better angle. “Let gravity do some of the work for him. Once he has a pint or so in him, he’ll be better off, but we’ll make sure he gets the first bottle of blood when it arrives. We expected a fight against miscreants, not this.”
Did anyone ever expect the blatant disregard for life, human or otherwise?
The question I feared loomed, demanding I ask it. I hesitated, the fear of the answer creeping in and settling deep within my bones. “Is this what happened to me, Ben? Except I got dumped into a shallow grave instead of ditched on the curb?”
“I wish I could tell you, but I just don’t know, Pepper.”
