Shifter Read Online Free Page A

wolf mid leap and tearing at the vampire. He managed to get a grip on her neck, snapping it easily, then letting go as her body started to burn to ash. He looked around for the next vampire. There were plenty to choose from, though his werewolves seemed to be handling them. Kevin threw himself at another of the previously invisible attackers.
     Again, he quickly slipped in, got a grip on the vampire’s neck and ended it. It was easy. Almost too easy. Kevin pulled back from the fight, changing back into human form and trying to think. Vampire after vampire was falling to his werewolves, but there was still no sign of Pietre. He looked around at the vampires still fighting, too, and he could see just how young they had to be. Newly made, and mostly, it seemed, from high school age kids. In fact, he thought he recognized one or two. Hadn’t they been in his classes when he was a substitute there?
    That was almost enough for him to tell his wolves to leave them, but he knew he couldn’t. They were vampires, eager to feed on humans. They had to be stopped. More came towards them, openly this time, heading down the street. Again, they seemed to be no more than kids.
    Jake was there beside him. “They’re newly turned,” he said. “My vampire side can sense that. They can’t be more than a few hours old, if that.”
    “Pietre must have turned them, one after another,” Kevin guessed. “That’s just… sick, doing that to kids.”
    Jake nodded. He’d know better than anyone. At only fourteen, Pietre had turned him. “I guess it explains why he’d teach them how to disappear,” he said. “He can’t think that they’d survive a fight with us, and even if they do, then they still won’t be powerful enough to be a problem for him.”
    “So why send them against us?” Carol asked, changing back into human form and finishing off a dark haired girl who was writhing in pain on the ground.
    “As a distraction,” Kevin guessed. “He’s obviously sent the first batches of new vampires to keep us busy.”
    “While he does what?” Carol insisted.
    One possibility came to Kevin. “He lost a lot of vampires in Marcus’ scheme. The ones who weren’t trapped in Palisor were mostly killed in the battles after that. What if he’s trying to build up his followers again, and using the school to do it? He’s sent these ones this way, then maybe he and his remaining vampires are at the school, making more like them?”
    “But that’s…” It seemed even Carol didn’t have the words for it. Maybe she was just thinking about how easily it could have happened to her if she hadn’t been a werewolf. “We have to stop them.”
    Kevin nodded. He pointed to four of the werewolves still there. “You four, stay here and protect the diner. The vampires that come this way shouldn’t be strong, but they might come out of the shadows, so stay alert. Try to help the three who are wounded too. The rest of you, come with me.”
    “Where are we going?” one of the remaining werewolves asked.
    “We need to get over to the high school,” Kevin said. “Now hurry, but stay in human form. We’ve probably shocked enough people for one day.”
    “I doubt they’re that shocked anymore,” Carol pointed out. “After all the fights there have been around Wicked between us and the vampires, I’d be surprised if even stupid humans could keep pretending we don’t exist.”
    “Carol…”
    “What?” she demanded. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t help them, did I? If you want me at the high school, or anywhere else, that’s where I’ll go.”
    Kevin shook his head. “It shouldn’t be just because I want you to do it, Carol.”
    Carol shrugged. “Do you really have time for a debate? I thought we were in a hurry.”
    They were, so Kevin started to run. The rest of the werewolves ran with him, heading for the school. He just hoped that they wouldn’t be too late. Except of course, for so many of the students Pietre had transformed,