Page 33 of Prey

“You should be aware that there’s a stir at The Craze. Boyd and his punk friends have started inviting humans to join in their festivities. So far, it remains under control, but you know Boyd. He’s too newly turned to control his urges, as I believe you got to witness the day Tessalyn Antoinette came to see you. He has to be watched and I want you to be the one to start doing that. We have quite a long time before we begin the next phase of our plan. I want as little instances as possible before that happens.”

As if I didn’t have enough to worry about. Couldn’t he see I couldn’t even control myself?

“It’ll be done. I’ll start first thing tomorrow.”

“See that you do.”

I shut the door behind me, taking one last drag of my cigarette before dropping it to the ground and grinding it with my shoe. If I was meant to watch Boyd, at least I’d have a distraction from Tessa and maybe that would buy her a little time.

Whatever her plan was, I sure hoped it was good. Maybe if she put up some form of fight, it would help ease the guilt. Unless, of course, she figured out how to kill a vampire. Or Hunter did. Then I was in more trouble than I’d bargained for.

Chapter 15

Tessa

Five days and I was still alive. I hadn’t heard from Marko since he’d left and I wasn’t sure whether I would again. He didn’t try to communicate with me, nor I with him. From how close to death I had been, you couldn’t tell it by looking at me now. The evidence was as gone as my heart. Gone, for him. Love. He’d warned me and I thought he’d been full of shit, but the longing was proof that I was beyond help. How did I let this happen? I knew it was because of his blood, but why couldn’t I have been stronger? My anger had no bounds, except for the emotions that pulled me back to him. I was lost.

My arms held the pillow tighter as I stared toward the light shining through my window. Hunter sat at the small desk he’d pulled in from his room and now he barely left my side, day or night. All he did was research and chat with other vampire-haters who held a group. Most had never even seen a vampire. Hunter’s dilemma, or mine, made him popular extremely quickly. Why anyone believed him was beyond me. He could have been lying for all they knew, but they held firm in their interest and excitement on what he’d do to get rid of the vampire population around the area. I had a feeling they were already discussing a save the world campaign. It left me in a weird place. Although I knew vampires weren’t good, I saw their world. They had a way of life that left me interested to discover. Not all of them could be bad. They had people to feed off of. If they stuck with that, couldn’t they keep their way of life under control? They’d stayed secret this long.

“Hey, Tessa, listen to this.” Hunter spun in the chair and it took everything I had to sit up and face him. I had no will to do anything. It had been taken when Marko walked away from me. I hated that. Hated that during the heat of some induced passion, I’d taken his blood for the second time. Had I not, I wasn’t so sure this would be happening. I hated even more that he’d given it to me to begin with, but…I pushed away the thoughts as Hunter began talking.

“I just got a message from a guy I was stationed with back in two-thousand-five. He’s stationed at Fort Hood now. That’s roughly an hour away. He’s come face-to-face with a vampire. Said he and a few of the guys there have been looking into ways to kill them. They have a few ideas.” He smiled. “I knew reaching out to my old friends was bound to pay off. I got this. It’s already beginning.”

A shiver raced down my spine and Hunter frowned.

“You okay? You haven’t really said much lately.”

“I’m fine.”

I turned, already ready to lie back down when he kept talking. “Tessa, I know I’ve been around Marko, but I have to make sure. How do you know you’re in the presence of a vampire?”

“How do you know you’re in the presence of a vampire?” I repeated the question, feeling the all too familiar terror creep in. The one I had felt while underground in the midst of them all. The redhead girl came to my mind, too, and I let the two of our experiences combine as I tried to make my answer as clear as I could. My palms began to sweat and I clasped my hands together. “The fear emits a sensation like a tuning fork. It goes right from your chest, down to your stomach, leaving your pulse exploding. Once you feel the hum throughout every inch of your body, intense tingling takes over like electrical currents zapping your whole internal system. You shake uncontrollably and sound dissipates until all you can hear is the racing of your heart. When you think you can’t bear another minute, you’re left without a choice. They only show themselves the moment you let your guard down. And when they do, they bring a level of fear you never even thought could exist. That’s where they want you. That’s where you’re at when you die.”

Hunter’s eyebrows drew together and I looked down, remembering I’d been almost dead not long ago and that wasn’t necessarily how I felt. Then again, regular people wouldn’t be under the passion I had been in. They wouldn’t hold the vampire’s blood that masked the true terror.

I eased back, turning toward the window again. Vampires. For once, since I’d met Marko, I wished I could forget. I knew regardless of anyone mentioning them or not, the knowledge would always be there. The constant reminder only hurt worse at the thought. Especially since there was nothing I wanted more than to be amongst them.

“Tessa, I’m going to start making dinner. You’re going to try to eat tonight, right? I’m starting to get worried.”

“I’ll eat,” I said, quietly. Anything to make him go. I just wanted to be alone and go over what had happened. I had yet to be able to process anything. The tears were there, so ready to spill that I was going to drown if I didn’t release them soon. I’d never been a person to wallow in emotions, but this was different. The blood was finding ways to constantly refresh the pain until I wanted to scream through the torment it was putting me through. Marko didn’t even have to be here for him to find a way to make me suffer.

The door stayed open and Hunter’s footsteps led him further away. I heard myself sigh as the first tear rolled free. I didn’t sob or make a sound. I held in everything I could, minus the streams starting to run steadily over my face. Why did this have to be so hard?

Banging from the kitchen had me wiping my hand across my face. I knew Hunter wasn’t coming, but I couldn’t help myself from wanting to hide my feelings. Even as I made the tears disappear, new ones replaced them. Minutes went by while episodes of heavy, silent wracking of my chest were replaced with moments of strength. They went back and forth until I somehow managed to get control. I pushed myself to sit and watched as the sun lowered even further in the sky, until it eventually faded.

Marko would be getting up soon. Or was he already awake? I hadn’t once gotten the urge that he needed to feed. Not even the smallest tickling in my throat. That obviously meant he’d been taking care of that with other prey. They’d be dead now, put out of the misery I was forced to endure. It made me angry and I pushed myself from the bed, walking to the restroom to wash my face. As I stared at my reflection, I shook my head, hating what I saw. So weak. So…pathetically weak. I frowned, catching my thoughts. I sounded like Marko…I could feel the coldness within. His blood. It was changing me in more ways than one.

“Tessa, dinner’s ready.”

Hunter’s voice was right outside of the restroom. I took a deep breath and threw open the door. The smell of chicken didn’t appeal in the least, but he’d worked hard to make it so I’d force it down. Food was the last thing I needed. The urge to eat wasn’t there anymore. My mind revolved around one thing and I couldn’t understand it. If I was human, why did I crave blood? Was it from the changes within me from Marko’s blood dominating, or the internal call that I needed to finalize the bond?

It had to be the latter. The pull was killing me. It only made sense.

“Looks good,” I said, making myself smile. It was enough to tug at my lips and Hunter returned my expression with an even bigger one. I felt myself soften. He really was a great guy. And he’d done so much for me since Marko left me bloodied and broken—a whisper from death.

I picked up the fork and knife, cutting into the chicken. Flashes had my hands freezing. It was of a woman. One I felt I knew, but I’d never met before. What looked like an antique portrait of her face staring at me repeated, over and over, until I wasn’t afraid of seeing her anymore. I was left more curious as to why it was happening.

“You okay?” He paused in chewing and I nodded, taking a bite. As my gaze rose, I caught Hunter staring. I paused mid-bite.

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