Page 19 of Hunting His Vampire Mate

The awful sound of Danny’s neck snapping echoed through the alleyway.

The female vamp looked up at me and grinned, her chin coated with rivulets of thick black blood, and her eyes alight with mad glee.

A noise that I hadn’t even realized my body was capable of making tore free from my lips and I cocked my gun. It was filled with wooden bullets. If I hit the heart, I could kill the vamp and stop her from—stop her from—

I sucked in a ragged breath and fired.

I cocked the gun and did it again.

The ear-splitting crack of gunfire shattered the relative silence that had descended over the alleyway. The first bullet missed, but the second one struck her in the abdomen, blowing her backward.

Away from Danny.

She didn’t get to touch him.

She didn’t get to doanythinganymore.

She stood up without missing a beat, but I was used to that. Vamps heal so fast, it’s like magic.

I fired again, striking her in the chest and sending her staggering backward.

I had missed the heart, though.

How many times had I fired?

How many bullets did my gun have?

Why wasn’t Danny fucking moving?

Why couldn’t I think anymore?

My stomach rolled and I thought I might be sick. I sucked in another breath, and I might’ve just started screaming incoherently at any second—fuck it, I wanted to—but the other vamp abruptly materialized at my side.

Lenny, presumably.

Whoever he was, he clearly wasn’t that bright. He wasted the element of surprise by giving me a monstrous grin, filled with fangs and crazy eyes.

Without missing a beat, I turned and pressed the nose of my gun right up against his chest, directly over his heart.

Then I fired.

Thatbullet hit home.

He was a withering corpse before he even hit the ground.

“Lenny!” the female shrieked, her pale hand still pressed over her chest wound.

I spun to face her, bringing my gun back up. I still had at least one bullet left, didn’t I? The gun held six. How many times had I fired? Why wouldn’t my brain count them? Why did it stubbornly refuse to process anything at all?

And why was Danny just lying there, not moving?

Tears burned in my eyes, sudden and sharp.

The female vamp snarled at me, her face contorted with rage. Then she turned on her heel, and in a blur of speed she was gone.

The entire encounter had lasted less than a minute. With the music going, it was possible the clubgoers inside hadn’t heard the gunshots. But anyone nearby, on the streets, would have. It was late, but not that late.Someonemust have heard. Thankfully, we weren’t visible from the main street, so it would probably take at least another minute or maybe longer than thatfor anyone to show up. But anyone who heard the gunshots might have called the police. Not to mention, the three humans who had gotten away and literally run screaming from the alley would probably call the cops too, once their instinctive horror had worn off.

I couldn’t stay here.

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