Vampires Rule

Sleepover with a Hunter

Water dripped down the sides of Jack's face. The wet rag slid halfway off his forehead to cover one eye, and he didn't have the strength to push it aside. Unfortunately, Silver got lost in his blind spot. Since sneaking him up to her bedroom, she'd been moving around nonstop, looking at everything but him. Jack shifted his weight, uncomfortable. The pillow slipped. He turned on his elbow and reached back with the other hand to fix it.

Pain ripped through his gut. He bit his lower lip to stifle a groan. Maybe it would be better if he didn't move again. Swallowing hard, he sagged against the pillow. Exhaustion tried to take him down.

Silver fluttered from one task to the next. She fed her hamster, refolded clothes, and rearranged the collection of law books on her desk. The picture of Sandra Day O'Connor hanging over the desk almost made him smile. Silver had lofty ideas. She wasn't like anyone he'd met before, but he wasn't sure yet if that was a good thing.

Jack struggled to sit up again and set off another wave of pain. It radiated from the center of his abdomen to the outer edges of his body. He gritted his teeth and kept going until his spine rested against the headboard. The rag tumbled to his lap. Completely exhausted, he let it go. His gaze dropped to the other towel, the bloody one on his bare abdomen. Curiosity tempted him to lift it, but he was afraid of what he'd see if he did.

Breathing became a chore.

"Why did you bring me here?" Jack blurted out the question as soon as it entered his head.

Silver jumped. The book she was holding flew through the air. She tried to grab it. It spun around, hit the desk and bounced off, landing on the floor.

"You're nervous," he said, faking a harmless smile to put her at ease.

"Do you blame me?" She glared at him. "I'm alone in my bedroom with a boy. My mom would freak and my dad would grab his shotgun if they had any idea you were here. On top of that, you're a vampire."

"Why are you helping me then?"

"Dumb question." She stepped closer to the bed after retrieving her book. She clutched it between her hands like a shield. "You were attacked by a werewolf while trying to save me. It was brave, what you did. No one's ever done anything like that for me. Well, maybe my parents. You're the first stranger to try to save me."

Contemplating in silence, he thought about how she'd killed the werewolf in the cemetery. In the last ten years he'd seen some amazing things, but never anything like that. Werewolves were notoriously hard to terminate. This girl had done it without breaking a sweat.

"How did you do it?" he asked. "In the cemetery, when you took care of the werewolf, how did you kill it without a weapon?"

Silver pursed her lips together. She let the silence draw out until it was beyond awkward, and he started to think she wouldn't answer him. Her shoulders finally lifted in a quick shrug and she admitted, "I sucked its soul out."

He gaped at her. Forget cute, this girl was scary as hell. He sat up straighter, focused on how great it would be to have that power. "Is it something I could learn to do?"

"No." She walked around the bed and sat next to him. "Nobody taught me how to do it. I was born with the ability. I was born to kill werewolves."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a hunter."

A hunter? "How old are you?"

"I swear you sound just like my parents. They think I'm too young to handle the life." Her jaw tightened. "I'm almost eighteen. Okay? Age is irrelevant anyway. I killed my first werewolf when I was twelve."