A Shade of Vampire 13: A Turn of Tides Read Free Page B

to the brightness, my vision came into focus. I was staring at a man with cropped hair and a rugged, pockmarked face. He was sitting in a chair, about five feet away from me.
    His smell filled my nostrils. I could practically feel the beating of his heart, the rush of his blood through his veins. I tried to stand up, but thick chains held me back. I was fastened to a wall. Using all my strength, I pulled against them. They didn’t budge in the slightest.
    I cast my eyes about the room. Other than the man sitting in front of me, it was completely empty. The lighting was made only harsher by the white walls. Opposite me was a tinted glass window, and next to it in the corner was a door.
    “Who are you?” I spat, clenching my fists. It was all I could do to even speak. The hunger I felt for this human was consuming me.
    He maintained a poker face as he looked at me steadily. Slowly, he brushed aside the cuff of his right sleeve and raised his forearm to me. Etched into his tan skin was a brand I recognized. It was the same brand that my father had imprinted on his back. The brand of a hawk. The brand of the hunters…
    My eyes must have registered surprise, because he nodded slowly, giving me a knowing smile.
    “You seem to recognize this,” he said in a nasally voice, brandishing his forearm. “Which coven do you belong to?”
    I bit down on my lower lip. If these people were hunters, the last thing they needed to find out was my identity. They’d try to use me to break into The Shade, or worse.
    I kept my lips sealed, staring at him defiantly. He pulled out a gun from beneath his jacket and closed the distance between us, holding it up against my temple. “You might want to answer when spoken to, vampire. Believe me when I say the only thing keeping you from death is my curiosity, which will be quickly spent.”
    If he was going to kill me anyway, there was no point in me cooperating. When I still refused to answer, he raised the gun and brought its metal edge smashing down against my skull. The pain seared through my head, blinding me momentarily.
    He knelt down in front of me and gripped my jaw, forcing me to look into his eyes.
    “Answer me,” he growled.
    Despite the pain in my skull, I tried to force myself to think straight. Clearly, my identity was more interesting to him than he was letting on. Otherwise why didn’t he just kill me already?
    “One bullet from this gun, and it will burn you up inside. Do you really want to risk that?” A female had just entered the room. She appeared to be in her late twenties, ash-blonde hair tied up in a bun. She looked down at me with cold grey eyes as she placed a hand on the shoulder of the man.
    I glared at her, refusing to flinch beneath her gaze.
    “It seems we need to try a different approach,” she muttered to the man beneath her breath.
    The man’s eyes remained glued on me until they both opened the door and exited the room. I breathed out heavily, rubbing my injured head with my hands.
    It was clear that they wanted something from me, and they wanted it enough to not kill me yet. It was in my best interest to take my time in answering them.
    I sank back against the wall, staring at the tinted glass, through which they were likely now staring at me. Hunters . My grandfather had gone on a mission almost two decades ago to shut down the order of the hunters. But so many human kidnappings had happened since, I supposed that it was only a matter of time before they started up their cause again.
    But why would they be set up in the middle of this forest? Could they be aware of the gate nearby? If so, how would they have found out?
    The click of the door interrupted my thoughts. Three men entered the room, including the man I’d woken up to. One of them carried a ladder. He positioned it in the center of the room and began climbing upward. I stared up at the ceiling for the first time. The man loosened several hatches at all four corners of the square ceiling, then