Page 2 of A Blade of Blood and Shadow (The Ravaged Kingdom #1)

Chapter

Two

I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in my gut as I left Julian’s shop and made my way back to the heart of the Quarter. Somehow, he’d guessed that Silas wasn’t looking for the apokropos stone, though I didn’t think he’d give up my secret.

Julian was a businessman. And although Silas was an important connection in his black-market pipeline, he had no real loyalties to anyone.

Besides, Julian didn’t have any reason to cross paths with Silas. Silas never made the drops on his own — never risked being caught trafficking vampires or their blood. He had us to do his dirty work.

I couldn’t worry about Julian now. I had work to do.

I found my score for the night in the alleyway behind one of the seedier bars in the Quarter. He was fang-deep in a skinny, fair-haired mortal, who was so weak from blood loss that he could no longer stand.

Cold, invigorating hatred thrummed in my veins as I watched the vampire feed. He was standing with his back to me — so blood drunk he didn’t seem to hear my approach as I drew a sharpened hickory stake from the leather loops sewn into my jacket.

There was nothing unfair about attacking a vampire when his back was turned — at least, not to me. Vampires were vile, ruthless monsters with superhuman speed and strength. To them, humans were little more than livestock. They didn’t care how many they killed to sate their unending thirst.

I raised my stake, aiming for the spot Silas had taught me — a strike to incapacitate, not to kill.

But before I could drive my stake home, there was a nasty squelching sound, and the vamp whipped around to face me. I froze. Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth, making his pale face seem even more corpse-like.

He released his grip on the man’s shirt, and the mortal collapsed on the filthy pavement.

For a heartbeat, we just stared at one another.

The vampire’s eyes were as red as the blood pooling along his clavicle, hooded and unfocused from a long night of feeding.

He looked dazed and annoyed for the split second it took for him to register the stake in my hand.

I saw the instant he decided to end me before resuming his meal.

I moved first, using every ounce of my preternatural speed and strength as I slammed him back into the hard brick wall. I drove my stake toward the center of his chest — aiming just to the left of his heart.

But before my stake could pierce his flesh, the vamp’s cold, strong fingers clamped around my wrist. His grip was as solid as iron, and I looked up in time to see his nostrils flare with satisfaction as he twisted my arm — hard.

My stake clattered to the ground. Pain erupted from my wrist, but I didn’t allow it to break my focus. Instead, I drove my knee up as hard as I could — connecting with his groin.

Vampires might have been immortal, but the males were still, well, male . Fury and pain flashed in his eyes, and I used my momentary advantage to sweep one leg out from under him and tackle him to the ground.

Unfortunately for me, he didn’t release his grip on my arm. Tears blurred my vision as my elbow cracked down on the pavement beside him. The vampire tried to roll, but I dropped my weight and used my free hand to draw another stake.

The vamp’s fist connected with my face, and I stifled a yelp as I heard the crunch of cartilage. Hot blood streamed into my mouth, and the vampire’s expression turned feral. My terror became a living thing as he flipped me onto my back, pinning me with his knees.

The hard pavement pressed into my spine. The vamp’s lips drew back over his teeth, revealing long white fangs.

In an instant, I was back in that wretched alley from five years before — an alley not unlike this one.

I could still smell the beer and the sick and who knew what else festering behind the dumpster — could still feel my whole body tensing as the vamp’s fangs tore into the delicate skin along the side of my neck.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the memory — the sound of fangs and teeth ravaging flesh and the vampire’s low grunts of ecstasy. He’d torn into me like a wild animal, leaving my body utterly wrecked.

I’d been nineteen years old — weak and untrained. But I wasn’t that girl anymore.

Summoning all my strength, I wedged my arm under the vampire’s shoulder and shoved with all my might. My pained grunt reverberated in my chest as I pushed and pushed.

Blood ran into my mouth, coating my teeth and pooling in the back of my throat. That wild look flashed in his eyes, and he strained against my hold.

It was now or never.

With a gurgling breath, I released the pressure on his chest, and the vampire launched himself at me — slamming right onto the end of my stake.

I gritted my teeth as bone crunched and a trickle of blood oozed down my neck. The vampire’s full weight fell onto my chest, knocking the breath right out of me.

Fighting for air, I shoved him off and clambered to my feet. Pain radiated from the center of my face, and my whole body shook as I looked him over. Cheap white shirt. Sloppy shave. My stake sticking out of his chest. Thick black blood pooled around the wound, and my heart sank.

He was dead. Useless. The miracle elixir that could make mortals nearly impervious to injury while granting them superhuman speed and strength was already hardening in the slain vamp’s veins.

Silas was going to give me so much shit for this, and there was no time to bag another tonight.

Over the distant rumble of voices on the third-floor deck of the bar, I heard the mortal’s uneven breaths. He was still alive, though he might become another vampire’s meal if he didn’t wake up before the bars closed.

For a moment, I grappled with indecision. I couldn’t just leave him here.

My mother had always told me that hunters were created by the gods to protect mortalkind from the sorts of creatures who roamed the Quarter. I wasn’t sure I believed her — wasn’t sure the gods even existed.

Most days, I felt more like a monster than anyone’s savior. Though I’d certainly saved human lives by taking vampires off the streets, that wasn’t why I hunted each night. I hunted to survive. And sometimes, I hunted for her.

Before I could think of what to do with the mortal, bright headlights flooded the filthy alley, and the throb of bass rattled my teeth. A black SUV rolled up in front of me, and I squinted in the blinding white light.

“What the fuck , Lyra?”

My heart sank, and I hurriedly wiped the blood from my mouth. I didn’t owe Vince an explanation. He was surly and mean-tempered to just about everyone, but he seemed to dislike me especially.

Maybe it was because I was only half hunter — and, as Silas never tired of reminding me, weaker than the others — or because I was female. Vince was conniving and perceptive, and I knew that he’d noticed the way Silas’s cold blue eyes scraped over me whenever we were together.

I honestly didn’t care what his reason was. There were no real friends among Silas’s hunters, and it was dangerous to forget it.

“That one’s cashed,” I grunted as I stormed around to the passenger side and flung the back door open.

I nearly gagged at the overwhelming stench of vampire blood that filled the small space — sickly sweet and a little rotten, like overripe fruit.

At least Vince and Alessio had made their quotas.

I’d barely gotten my door shut before Alessio threw the vehicle into reverse and backed out of the alleyway. One of the guys had turned the radio on to cover up the pained wheezes and moans emanating from the cargo area, but I could still hear them.

“What the fuck did you do ?” Vince bellowed as Alessio backed out onto the street. His thick tattooed neck bulged with irritation as he turned to glare at me. “We can’t drain a dead vamp!”

I swallowed down the urge to remind Vince that vampires were already dead. Without thinking, I scrubbed at the blood still dripping from my nose, and pain lanced up my face.

“Shit.” My nose was broken — not a big deal for a full-blooded hunter with their crazy-fast healing capabilities, but for me it would be at least a few days of agony.

Before I could explain what had happened, Vince whirled in his seat and smacked the side of my head so hard I saw stars. “Hey!” he shouted. “I’m talking to you!”

“It was a bad night, all right?” I snarled, glaring into his muddy brown eyes with every bit of hatred I’d been storing up these last five years.

“A bad night ?” Vince’s nostrils flared. “You had a bad night?” Raw, unchecked fury danced in his eyes, and I squared my shoulders in case he hit me again. “Thanks to your screwup, we’re down a bloodsucker, which means Si’s gonna have all our heads.”

“I’ll talk to him,” I gritted out.

“You’ll talk to him?” Vince repeated, running a thick hand over his pale shaved head.

“ Yes .”

I held his stare with enough promise of violence that he didn’t raise his hand again. He turned back around in his seat and crossed his arms with a contemptuous scoff.

Tears burned my eyes as I gingerly tried to wiggle my nose. Gods, I hoped Julian found that stone, because I didn’t think I could handle living under the same roof as Vince for much longer.

Vince had been with Silas for more than a decade, and he hadn’t been happy when I’d come along.

It was Silas who’d found nineteen-year-old me in the alley that night — battered, bruised, and nearly dead from blood loss.

I’d been in and out of consciousness for hours, and yet I’d still heard Vince trying to persuade Silas to leave me on the street to die.

Weak. Useless. Liability.

Even though Silas had trained me to be as deadly as any full-blooded hunter, Vince’s stance on me hadn’t changed. Neither of them let me forget what I was — a pitiful half human. Weaker. Slower. Inferior in every way.

I was fine with being the other hunters’ punching bag, though. It was easier to remember not to trust anyone when everyone hated your fucking guts.