Hunter's Rise Read Free Page B

e-mail, read it through.
     
    The boy’s name was Toby. He’d been killed a year ago.
     
    By one Alan Pulaski.
     
    “C
     
OME on, baby face.” The tall, slim blond brandished a knife as he squared off with the other man. His name was Toronto, and he was known for having a wicked temper,a wicked way with a blade and a smart mouth. He moved, graceful as a dancer, to face a man that outweighed him by a good fifty pounds and topped him by nearly six inches.
    He was built like a tank, and he stank of blood, sex and violence.
     
    That pissed Toronto off. A lot. He’d just pulled the bastard in front of him off a woman mere seconds ago. Now she struggled to live and Toronto’s partner was kneeling at her side, trying to stop the bleeding.
     
    Curling his fingers at the vampire, Toronto said, “Come on. What are you waiting for?”
     
    The vampire grinned at him, too young and too stupid to realize just how much trouble he was in.
     
    “Get out of my way, fuckhead. You don’t know what you’re messing with.”
     
    Toronto cocked a brow. The boy hadn’t been changed long. Maybe a year. He didn’t stand a chance against a were like Toronto. “
I
don’t?” Twirling his knife, he smiled. “I think it’s the other way around, kid.”
     
    “You think that knife is going to hurt me?” He flashed his fangs and gave Toronto a menacing look.
     
    Toronto wasn’t quite impressed, and he had the feeling the vampire was shocked by that. And the idiot also hadn’t given Tor’s knife much more than a cursory look. The knife
would
hurt him. It was a custom-made Keltec, one that had enough silver in the blade that it would leave any vamp or shifter all but begging for mercy. It might not
kill
him, but it would definitely hurt. Silver was a bitch.
     
    Yeah, this vamp hadn’t been around long, and nobody had bothered to teach him much, either. Toronto could teach him a thing or two. Before he ended the son of a bitch.
     
    “Actually, I don’t need the knife.” Toronto flung it off to the right with enough force that it embedded itself in the wooden wall, hilt quivering. “I’ll just use this…”
     
    He lifted a hand, watched the boy’s face as his hand shifted.
     
    Claws emerged.
     
    The vampire was every bit as uneducated as Toronto hadthought.
What in the hell is this
? Toronto wondered as he watched the vamp’s eyes all but bug out of his head in shock. It was like the vamp had never seen a werewolf before.
     
    A split second later, the young vamp panicked. It wasn’t much fun when they panicked. Still, Toronto hadn’t done it in the name of fun— or at least not entirely. He’d been looking for information, and he had gotten a little bit.
     
    Lately, more and more Hunters throughout the country were reporting incidents like this. That wasn’t good. A shitload of random, violent occurrences. Too much bloodlust, too little control. Too many who seemed to have lost all humanity— and that wasn’t how it was meant to be. Most vamps and weres had a sense of who could get through the Change intact, who couldn’t. They weren’t to be touched if they couldn’t live through it… or come through it sane.
     
    Bad things happened when monsters thought they could do whatever they wanted without fear of consequences. Like what this fucker had done. Grabbed some poor woman off the streets, assaulted her and fed.
     
    After he’d finishing dealing with the feral, he turned back and saw his partner Kel cradling the woman. The vampire had his hand, palm sliced open, over the wound in her throat in an attempt to save her life— the blood could close the wound, keep her from bleeding to death.
     
    If
she wasn’t too far gone.
     
    She wasn’t bleeding anymore, but she was too still. Too pale.
     
    “Is she going to make it?” Toronto asked.
     
    “I don’t think so.” Kel gave him a sad look. “We were too late— she’s fading too fast.”
     
    Toronto gave a short, single nod and looked away.