Page 9 of The Tracker's Revenge

My blood ran cold as I scanned the creature and recognition dawned on me like a blanket of dread. I had seen the pulsing, black veins under sparse fur, as well as the malformed, enormous claws.

Oh, fuck!

It was a hybrid.

But how?!

Bernadetta and Stephen only had part of the Unholy Vessel in their possession. They couldn’t create hybrids. They needed the dagger, which Eric had hidden. Unless... unless I’d assumed wrong and that night at the coven temple hadn’t been the first time they’d used the damn thing.

Shit!

Rosalina stepped around a broken coffee table and trained her gun on the hybrid, a red dot appearing between the beast’s shaggy eyebrows. The hybrid growled deep in his throat, tightening his grip around the woman’s throat. She whimpered, the scent of her fear mixing with that sour smell of sickness we’d left behind in Aaron’s house.

She had to be Liliana, and it was our fault this creature was here. It was after us, not her. We had guided Bernadetta and Stephen’s notice in this direction.

“Don’t hurt her,” I begged.

“I doubt that thing will listen to reason,” Eric said, his voice a wild rumble. “Rosalina, take the shot,” he added in a quiet, cold command.

To my surprise, Rosalina didn’t hesitate. I barely had time to process Eric’s words when a blast reverberated through the small living room.

Time seemed to slow. My ears rang with the shot. My breath caught in my throat as the creature stabbed his claws in the woman’s chest just as the bullet blasted a hole between his eyes and sent him staggering backward, his victim falling with him, crashing atop a kitchen table in the next room. Wood splintered with a deafening crack as the creature’s massive weight flattened the table to the floor.

“No!” Eric and I both shouted in unison.

We hurried into the small kitchen. Eric approached cautiously, warily watching the hybrid. When the creature didn’t move, he quickly knelt by the woman, his gaze roving over her chest where the beast’s hand was buried to the wrist.

“Is she...?” I couldn’t finish the question and instead watched as dark, sour-smelling blood oozed out of the wound in her chest, pooling around the hybrid’s hand.

Carefully, Eric pulled on the creature’s arm. The clawed hand came out with a squelch. Once he’d freed her, he scooped the woman into his arms and carried her back into the living room, where he laid her gently on top of the sofa.

I followed him while Rosalina remained a few steps away from the hybrid, her gun still trained on him.

Face set in an unreadable mask, Eric peeled her eyes open and carefully looked into them. After a long moment, he closed her eyes and pulled away, stretching to his full height. He shook his head.

“H-how do you know? She’s a vampire, right? She could still be alive.”

“Trust me, Toni. I know the difference between adeaddead vampire and a not-so-dead one. The fucking beast pierced her heart.”

“Then that can’t be Liliana. It must be someone else,” I said in denial.

“It is. I recognize her from pictures.”

“God, no!” Rosalina exclaimed in a near sob. “We failed him.”

Eric pulled away from the sofa, his head lowered. “It’s not our fault. We tried. I swear that goddamn vamp and that traitor, Stephen, will pay for this.”

I pressed a fist to my mouth, panting as if I’d run a mile.

“Those fuckers,” I hissed. “I’m gonna kill them.”

Like Eric, I wanted Bernadetta Fiore and Stephen Erickson to suffer. For Liliana. For the city. But especially for Damien. I didn’t know how, but I would have my revenge. And as I exchanged a glance with Rosalina, I could tell she felt the same way.

Eric turned his attention back to the kitchen and the dead creature lying on top of the broken table. “I thought you said they’d only made one hybrid.”

“I guess I was wrong,” I said. “They must have made this one before they got to the coven temple. They were acting like they hadn’t tried it yet, but it must have been for show.”

“I wonder how many they made.” He rubbed his forehead, wearily backing away from the hideous beast.