Page 13 of Always Eros

“Oh, Thorn’s driving?” Tru asks, clearly worried.

Midnight chuckles. “No worries, kitten. I’ll take care of you.”

“Pssh,” Thorn scoffs. “You’re one of us now, kitten. Indestructible.”

Midnight growls and shoves the back of Thorn’s seat. “Little madman, fine. Kitten, never.”

Thorn chuckles and salutes Midnight before shifting into gear and tearing off down the street, the tires squealing in protest.

“Does he have to push everything to the limit?” Tru asks.

“Yes,” Midnight and I answer at the same time.

“So what happened?” I ask.

“Dimas again,” Thorn answers, taking a sharp right turn that shoves all of us from one side of the car to the other. “He called Yves and said he had intel about some vamps hanging around the tracks.”

“Do you think it’s related to our new gang friends?” Tru asks.

“We’ll find out,” Midnight answers.

We make it to that side of town quicker than we should, but that’s Thorn’s breakneck driving for you. We never worry too much about being pulled over. Partly because we can compel anyone we need to, but mostly because law enforcement leaves this area unsupervised.

It’s eerily silent as we approach, but very quickly the scent of a wounded vampire reaches me. Thorn screeches to a stop, joining the rest of our brothers. We exit the car, looking around and bracing for an attack.

“There!” Bowie shouts, pointing to a huddled figure on the ground.

We hurry over as a group to find a vampire wrapped around a mortal. Yves flips the man onto his back, and it’s immediately clear what’s happened. A large wooden stick protrudes from his chest and the mortal is very dead, his throat ripped out.

Yves kneels, gently turning the vampire’s head back and forth by the chin. The wounded vampire opens his eyes, but the cloudy gray covering them isn’t a good sign at all. He’s close to death.

“What happened to you?” Yves asks.

The vampire flinches, grabbing for the stake, but Yves calms him.

“I won’t hurt you. Who did this to you?”

“Hunter,” he mumbles, clearly in pain.

“A vampire hunter?” Syn asks. “You were attacked?”

“Cha-chased,” he answers, coughing.

Thorn pulls his phone out of his pocket. “I’m calling Viv. Maybe she can help.”

“It’s a stake in the heart,” Raphael says, his face creased with barely contained rage. “This vampire was hunted.”

“We have to try,” Thorn says. “He’s one of us.”

“Perhaps,” Raph answers. “Or maybe he’s rogue and deserved this.”

“N-n-no,” the vampire manages, his breath growing weaker. “Co-coven…dead.” He coughs, spitting up blood.

“They attacked your coven too?” Yves asks.

The man barely nods, his face a mask of pain.

“And who is this?” Bowie asks, gently trying to extract the dead man in the vampire’s clutch.

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