The Hunted Read Online Free Page A

it?” I whispered.
    I looked up and frowned as Drake started down at me with a scowl.
    “You need to focus on what is at hand and not on frivolous thoughts of lust or fanciful ideas of love.”
    I shrank back and shook my head. What do you know of love anyway?
    “Do not presume to know me Vampire Queen. At any rate, you wanted to know where the brood is holding up. We are here. Can you not hear them?”
    All I could hear was silence and the beating of my own heart...and Drake’s? I had almost forgotten that the Toltec bloodline would enhance my awareness considerably. I closed my eyes very briefly and could hear breathing. Yet the breathing did not belong to either of us!
    Drake froze in front me. His large, dark head cocked to the side and his eyes closed. It was like watching a predator smelling or sensing his prey. For a second I could appreciate the danger Drake was putting himself in for me. He had initially sought out Hannah’s brood for himself and now he was helping me to destroy them. It was unfathomable.
    “You can thank me later,” he said dryly. “Right now, I have vengeance to execute and you will be useful in helping me in that regard.”
    Vengeance? Why does he want vengeance?
    I did not have time to consider the matter any further when Drake crouched forward and placed a finger upon his lips. I nodded and gathered in close behind.
    Someone...no…many were just beyond the shadows, well hidden in the thicket of trees just ahead of where we stood. Although I could feel the fledgling vampires, I had never before been able to hear their thoughts and feel their very breath as I could now. It was a thrilling sensation.
    Drake thrust a hand forward, an indication we needed to move forward and quickly. I nodded and followed as stealthily as I could. I was amazed such a big man could move so swiftly and without a whisper of a sound.
    The faster I moved, the more the ground seemed almost nonexistent beneath my feet. I blinked rapidly while my eyes adjusted to the inky blackness beneath the dense trees.
    “They are just ahead of us,” Drake whispered. “I have been here many times but now they know she is gone. I do not know how I will be greeted and I cannot guarantee your safety.”
    “You always have to be a smug bastard, don’t you? You have lived so long that you’d think...”
    A loud cracking noise curtailed my words and broke the silence of the night. Flocks of startled night birds blanketed the velvety-gray sky just above our heads.
    “Damn!” I yelped.
    Perturbed at my continued lack of silence, Drake swept me aside like so much dust in the wind. I knew if the brood had not known of our presence, they certainly did now and it was my own stupidity. Would my life as a hunter ever end? When would I ever regain any sense of normality? I had taken so much for granted, never assuming my role as Queen would ever be jeopardy. Now that life was just mist in a dream.
    “Normal? Since when has being what humans call the undead normal? You and I will never be normal . Not many people would consider a former priest turned vampire normal.” Drake hissed menacingly as he lurched forward. Before I realized what he was doing, the head of very young vampire girl rolled on the ground toward my feet. I jumped, the blood splatter barely missing my leather boots. The gore from the brutal decapitation clumped in her unkempt, blonde hair.
    “How many more?” I yelped, grabbing my dagger from its hiding place.
    “Many. Get ready.” Just as Drake spoke, a mass of growling, young and very hungry vampires descended upon us.
    “May God damn you to eternal hell!” Drake shouted as he tore heads and limbs with a ferocity I had never experienced even at my most vicious.
    The young vampires seemed to pour out of every dark crevice and corner of the underbrush. I did not have any time to catch my breath or even think. All my thoughts and actions were on automatic; pure instinct and preservation kicked in as my dagger hit