Dark Descent (Vampire Hunter Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

me laugh.
    Which I did,
despite myself.
    “If something
changes, you’d better come knock on the door and tell me,” I ordered Lucas.
    “Not come in the
bathroom and tell you?” he teased.
    “Don’t make me
hurt you,” I shot back, pumping my fist in the air jokingly.
    Lucas was smiling
and looking at me.
    “What?” I asked,
suddenly feeling self-conscious. My hands flew to my face, which I realized was
also caked in blood. “I must look disgusting!” I exclaimed.
    “You never look
disgusting, Rory,” Lucas said softly.
    I diverted my
gaze, suddenly feeling nervous, the way I always felt when Lucas looked at me
like that.
    “I’m just glad
you’re okay,” Lucas said.
    “Me, too,” I whispered,
finally looking at him. “But I’m scared as shit about Henry. He just has to get
through this!”
    “We’re doing everything
we can,” Lucas said.
    I stood up
reluctantly. “I should go get that shower. The shock has worn off, and I’m
starting to feel a little uncomfortable, being covered in the blood of two dead
vampires.”
    “I still don’t
understand how you did it.” Lucas had a funny expression on his face.
    “I told you,
seeing Henry in that position, knowing that no one was coming to rescue us, I
just got overcome with this crazy superhuman strength.”
    “I keep thinking
about how that demon told Nicholas you were fated to become a powerful hunter,”
Lucas said. “Maybe this is the beginning of your powers? There’s a difference
between natural hunting ability and possessing strength that allows you to
overtake not one, but two vampires. Do you have any idea how strong
vampires are?”
    I shrugged.
    “And besides,”
Lucas continued, “you said Bartholomew was the one who bit Henry. How the hell
did you manage to stake him before Thomas realized what was going on? I told
you before – like that time you ran from the werewolf – that you
have an incomprehensible ability for speed.”
    “In fact,” he said
excitedly, “if you were moving that fast – which I feel certain that you
were – you might not be an accurate judge of time. Maybe Henry wasn’t
bitten for very long. I mean, I don’t want to get your hopes up, but perhaps
he’s got a better chance to recover than I initially thought.”
    “Really?” For the
first time since we’d arrived at Lucas’ apartment, I felt a glimmer of hope.
    “We still have to
be cautiously optimistic,” he warned. “And maybe I’m grasping at straws. Who
knows? But time will tell.”
    I walked back to
Lucas’ bedroom to get clothes to change into after my shower. He hadn’t been
kidding. There was hanger after hanger of black t-shirts. Black pants and dark
blue jeans were folded in a pile by the wall.
    I grabbed one of
his shirts and headed to the bathroom, locking the door behind me. Even though
Lucas had proven he could get through any locked door. I smiled.
    It felt good to
pull off my bloodied, ruined dress. I wadded it in a ball and hurled it against
the floor, imagining I was smashing it into Bartholomew’s face. But you
already did one better than that. You killed him.
    The thought sent
chills down my spine. How had I turned from an innocent, sixteen-year-old girl,
into this ? A murderer. Even if it was just vampires, monsters .
And even if they deserved it. Hell, what I did was self-defense. But it still
felt weird. I was changing yet again and I wasn’t sure what I was becoming.
    Pieces of dried
blood fell off of my face and arms as the warm water ran over my skin. I
watched them go down the drain – gone forever. The last pieces of Thomas
and Bartholomew.
    I continued
scrubbing my skin long after the blood was gone. I wanted to feel clean again. But I wasn’t sure what that would take. Finally, I turned off the water,
dried my body and pulled Lucas’ t-shirt over my head.
    Like the last one,
it looked ridiculously huge on me. But maybe I could tie a knot in the back, to
pull in some of the extra material. Then it might pass