Page 118 of Bloodhunter

Miriam was pissed.

I wrapped my arms around Clayton, but that only seemed tomake him worse. He groaned and shoved himself away from me, and as though hisfeet were trapped in tar, he struggled to reach the door.

And he struggled not to reach the door.

“Miriam,” I begged. “Please, stop.”

“I can’t. It just is, Trinity, and I can’t turn it off.”

“Then he’s dead,” I whispered.

But she was already gone.

I grabbed my cell and dropped it into my pocket, then took adeep breath and drew Silverlight from her sheath. There was nothing to do buthelp Clayton fight his way back to his mistress. I wasn’t letting him go outthere alone.

He reached the door with his gun in one hand and a blade inthe other. “Stay inside,” he ordered, his voice thick with pain.

“Not tonight, buddy.” I grabbed the doorknob and flung openthe door. “Stay behind me. I’ll get you through or die trying.”

My heart lifted, even with the bleakness of the situation. Iwas about to fight, to kill, and that excited me nearly as much as theforbidden fruit of Clayton’s beautiful body.

I would fight and forget, and maybe I’d die, but I’d takehalf of those sick ugly bastards with me.

Silverlight screamed to life in an explosion of light, and almostbefore she took my arm, she began killing.

The infecteds screamed and fell beneath her fury, but therewere so many of them, and I was distracted by Clayton. Good thing Silverlightdidn’t need me to guide her. Good thing Amias had given her to me.

I had a feeling I wouldn’t have lasted long past my“activation” without her. I might hate Amias, but it was obvious that the lifehe’d once tried to take was now precious to him.

And I was sure he had some very good reasons for that.

Clayton and I were surrounded by a mass of reeking, hungryvampires—not just hungry, but full of the special rage the infection gavethem—and they had little care for anything other than killing and eating us.

The fact that I was a hunter—that I was abloodhunter—hadattracted them and was whipping them into a frenzy. And though normal vampiresmight want to kill me, not even they would risk getting infected just to get tome.

Or so I believed, until I saw Amias cutting through thederanged infecteds like a deadly machine. He held no weapon, but his hands wereweapons. His nails, his fists, his speed, and his strength were weapons.

He couldn’t kill the infecteds, no more than Clayton couldkill them, but when they lay on the ground and struggled to repair themselves,they were the same as dead to me.

And then, I realized something shocking, something amazing,and something so logical that I knew it’d lingered on the edges of my mind,even though I hadn’t grasped it. Silverlight’s silver light was killing anyvampire it touched.

Her light was a weapon.

That silver halo shone in a wide arc, and as I swung theblade, the light reached those the sword could not. And itkilledthem.

They burst into flames, fell down, and disappeared.

She was growing in power. With each battle, she grew. Shebecame more.

My Silverlight.

And as I whirled and hacked and sliced, I lost sight ofClayton. I could only hope he would forge a path through the vampires and reachthe only person who could stop his pain. Miriam. The very person who gave it tohim.

My entire body was tingling, bursting with energy, and I sawthe deadly vampires through a haze of red as the air became stained with flyingblood and acrid with the scent of burning flesh.

I was worried about Clayton, but it was a sort of distantworry, because as I fought, my desire to kill overwhelmed all else. I was ananimal.

A feral, enraged, unthinking animal.