Page 25 of Huntress and the Splintered Court
Something snapped hearing him talk of Gideon like that. I yanked the blade from his back with a roar. Shoving him forward, he lost his balance tumbling to the floor. I was on him before he could rise. “You will never speak of him in such a disrespectful way.”
“Your eyes?” His own going wide as they filled with fear. “What are you?”
“I’m the Alpha’s mate.” I plunged the knife under his ribs. Since I had a better angle, I didn’t have to work as hard to end him as I did with his friend. With the other vampire, I hadn’t been able to remove my knife without risking him reanimating. This death would be cleaner. I twisted and yanked, shredding his heart. The light faded from his eyes. I hated that part, but I needed to be sure he was truly gone.
On my feet, I was out the door ready to join the fight.
10
The sharp snarl of grunts and growls along with the sounds of metal hitting flesh drew me onward. The lower level was in chaos. Wolves in various stages of shifting fought off vampires who wielded silver blades. The damage they inflicted would be permanent if not handled with extreme haste. Blood was sprayed onto the once pristine walls and bodies of both wolves and vampires littered the floor, more of the latter thankfully. My knife would do little here. Seeing a discarded sword, I reached down plucking it off of a corpse and started toward the nearest vampire.
Even in their wolf form, when they didn’t hold their human awareness, the wolves seemed to know I was on their side. Whether it was Gideon’s mark or the fact that I reeked of vampire blood, the wolves made way for me to move around them.
What I was about to do went against my father’s verdict. I was not to interfere, but I couldn’t sit back and do nothing. Of course that was before he knew what Gideon was to me. That wouldn’t matter to the vampires. They’d see a hunter fighting with wolves and the entire fragile system that the hunters guarded would be in jeopardy. Of course if none of the vampires survived then there was no one to tattle.
I swung the sword in an arc severing the nearest vampire’s head. I sighed at how much easier decapitation was compared to using a knife to cut out a heart. Not giving myself more than a second to consider the ease in which I took the life, I moved on to the next.
With each life I ended, I looked for Gideon before attacking my next target. Then I heard him. He let loose a deafening roar as the sun began its ascent and the vampires retreated. Those in wolf form gave chase.
Gideon’s fierce gaze locked on me. He strolled across the floor taking in my bloodstained appearance.
“It’s not mine,” I muttered but it didn’t stop him from performing his own visual exam.
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
My brow furrowed unsure of what he meant. “What, stand with you against intruders?”
“No. Stand withwerewolvesagainstvampires. You are a huntress.”
I shook my head. “You’re wrong. I’m your mate first.”
With a growl, he yanked me to him claiming my lips not caring that we were both covered in blood and other meatier pieces of our kills.
“Get a room,” Trey muttered walking past us.
“Speaking of…” I wrinkled my nose gritting my teeth.
“What?” Gideon asked suspiciously.
“There are two bodies in ours.”
His face transformed to rage. Eyes darting around quickly, he grabbed my arm and tugged me along until we were in his office. “What happened?”
I told him how they were there looking for him and their next stop was for me. “But they found me early. Luckily, they didn’t know who the naked woman in your bed was.”
He groaned looking to the heavens. When he stared back at me his face was guilt-ridden. “Did they touch you?”
I knew what he was getting at but telling would only make matters worse. “I handled it. No damage was done to me and they’re dead.”
“They’re lucky they are.” He took me into his arms. “If I had gotten my hands on them…”
“Well you should see them before you jump to any conclusions.”
* * *
Gideon stared wide-eyedat the bodies laid across the floor in the room. The first was pretty barbaric, but I hadn’t been able to risk removing my longer blade.
“There’s something you should know,” I stated. Gideon reluctantly lifted only his eyes to me. “The second talked. Now I can’t be sure how accurate the information is, but I’m pretty sure Reed arranged this attack as a means to get me out.”
