Page 93 of Inhuman Nature

“And Lawrence is like your dad, and my grandad?”

“Aren’t we all such a lovely incestuous bunch,” Kit said in an overly sweet voice, clasping his hands together in front of his chest.

“Ew,” Shaun repeated.

“I vote we never talk about this ever again,” Rake said.

“Seconded,” Shaun said.

“Do I get a vote?” Kit asked. “If so, I suppose I agree. Lawrence was never the Daddy I wanted.”

Before Rake could question what exactly he meant by that, Kit wandered away, muttering to himself. Rake frowned.He could hear Kit as clearly as if he spoke right into his ear, listing all the ways he wanted to destroy Lawrence.

“I can hear things… very well,” Rake said.

“All your senses will be heightened. You’ll learn to suppress it when you don’t want to hear or see or smell everything in the vicinity,” Shaun explained.

Rake focused his hearing on the surrounding area. He followed the upstairs neighbours’ mundane conversation word for word, then tuned into someone creeping up the stairwell, their footsteps so soft he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been paying attention.

“It’s Lynette’s creation,” Kit said, walking past them in the hallway towards the front door. “The one who wassupposedto be making sure that nothing bad happened to either of you. I think we ought to let her know how shit a job she did.”

Rake sure had the urge to make that message clear. He rushed to the door, finding himself going much faster than expected. He ended up in a head-first collision with the vampire as she rounded the landing. They both fell, limbs flailing.

Shaun shouted as Rake tumbled down the stairwell. He hit the foot of the stairs with a thud, the female vampire falling on top of him.

She bared her teeth and struck out at him.

“Hey!” Kit barrelled into the vampire and threw her against the wall. The sound of what had to be snapping bones had Rake covering his ears. Shaun appeared, pulling Rake up and shoving him behind him. It was ineffectual given their size difference, but Rake appreciated the gesture. Everyone had their fangs and claws out, the female vampire righting herself and facing off against them.

“Mistress will not be happy with this,” she said.

“See how happy she is when you tell her you let this happen,” Kit said.

“I came here directly when the sun went down,” she said, indignant.

“Lawrence was herebeforesundown,” Rake said, needing to make that clear.

“Before?” Shaun asked.

“Before,” he confirmed.

“Ooh,” Kit said. “Did he get all burned up?”

“He looked like he had third-degree burns before he healed.”

“See? I couldn’t have stopped him, then,” the female vampire said. “You can cease your attack.”

“Damn,” Kit said, wind going out of his sails. He’d been ready to throw hands.

“I didn’t know how fast I was going,” Rake said. He didn’t add that he’d been livid and intended to dosomething. He just hadn’t planned quite what.

“Super speed takes a while to get used to,” Shaun said, more to the female vampire than Rake.

She studied Rake. “You were just recreated?”

“It was to save his life,” Shaun said.

“And the other human?” she asked.