Page 1 of Rescued By the Vampire Assassin

Chapter 1

CONSCIOUSNESS RETURNED to Keri in agonizing fragments. Her eyelids fluttered, struggling against the weight of drugged exhaustion. A searing pain throbbed behind her eyes, pulsing in time with her racing heartbeat. She tried to lift a hand to her aching head, but her arm refused to cooperate.

Panic flared as her sluggish mind registered the cold metal biting into her wrists and ankles. She was restrained. Bound. Trapped.

Keri forced her eyes open, blinking rapidly to clear her blurred vision. Darkness pressed in around her, broken only by thin slivers of sickly light from a naked bulb swaying from the ceiling. As her pupils adjusted, the outlines of her prison came into focus — a small, dank cell with walls of rough-hewn stone. She was in a dungeon.

A dungeon?

A wave of nausea rolled through her as she tried to lift her head. The metallic tang of blood coated her tongue, mingling with the bitter aftertaste of whatever drug they'd used to subdue her. Keri swallowed hard, fighting back the urge to retch.

She inhaled deeply, immediately regretting it as the musty, damp air filled her lungs. The cell reeked of mold and decay, with an underlying coppery scent that made her stomach churn. Water dripped somewhere in the darkness, a steady plink-plink-plink that seemed to echo Keri's mounting dread.

Fragments of memory flashed through her mind.

"The latest batch is nearly ready. The concentration is higher than ever before."

"Excellent. And the human test subjects?"

"Responding as expected. The mating drive is almost impossible to resist."

The sudden ambush. Rough hands grabbing her. A sharp prick in her neck. Then... nothing.

"Shit," Keri muttered, her voice a hoarse rasp. How long had she been unconscious? Hours? Days?

She tugged at her restraints, wincing as the metal cuffs dug into her flesh. No give. Whoever had taken her wasn't taking any chances. At least she wasn’t bolted to the wall.

As the fog of unconsciousness receded, Keri tried to fight off shock, but she was shaky. This couldn’t be real, could it?

“Chrissy?” she called out, not recognizing her own voice. Her throat felt like she had been screaming. And maybe she had been.

When was the last time you saw Chrissy alive?

Alive? About a week before her death.

When was the last time you saw Chrissy?

Last night? When Chrissy rapped on the window of Keri’s eighth-floor apartment.

She hadn’t been an angel. Not with those fangs. But she had been her friend, so of course, Keri let her in.

That had been her first mistake.

“You have to help me. I was murdered,” Chrissy had said.

Disbelief warred with confusion. Keri looked down into the street. No ladder. No fire escape.

“They made me a vampire.”

That was impossible. But it hadn’t been.

“It was the Vasile family.”

At that, Keri knew that she had to be still asleep. She'd been investigating the Vasile family for months, certain they were behind a string of bizarre deaths and disappearances plaguing the city.

“This is a real vivid dream,” she had said.

And then Chrissy slapped her, and it had fucking hurt. When she went to hit her back, Chrissy blinked away, turned into mist, and then a bat.

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