Something Secret This Way Comes: Secret McQueen, Book 1 Read Free Page A

answering my question, because if I so much as see fangs, I will kill you.”
    He laughed. The son of a bitch actually laughed at me. Just further proof on how young he was. No established, educated vampire would ever laugh in my face, especially not when they knew for certain who I was. They might joke behind my back, calling me “little vampire hunter” and pretending I wasn’t as scary as rumors would have them all believe. But when faced with me, a rogue vampire knew the end was near.
    I may not look like much, but I don’t have my job based on my appearances. I kill vampires, it’s what I do, and not just any five-four blonde girl could pull it off. I get why he’d laugh, because at first glance I might come across more like a damsel in distress than a killer. In most cases it worked in my favor, but it got frustrating trying to intimidate vampires who refused to take me seriously.
    In the distance I heard sirens, and I hoped to hell it meant the girl had made it to a pay phone or had at least found someone to call the police for her while she cried. And she would cry, for days most likely.
    In the meantime, if those sirens were in fact for the girl in the broken heels, I didn’t have much time to play games with Henry. Human police officers didn’t handle supernatural stuff all that well.
    The word denial comes to mind. They were always so willing to ignore the most obvious explanation in lieu of overly contrived answers which shut out the option of the irregular. Occam’s razor did not appear to apply in the case of humans, especially human police.
    “Henry, we don’t have time for this. I need you to tell me who made you, or I let that girl identify you to the police and you spend the night downtown in a cell.” This particular threat held more weight with new vampires. I didn’t think Henry would really get it, but it was worth a shot.
    “I’m not afraid of the police,” he said with a snort. In this instance he was justified in his dismissal of law enforcement, and he and I both knew it.
    Henry had a lot of cocky swagger for a new vamp, and it was beginning to narrow down the options in my mind for his sire, but I needed a name if I was going to get a warrant. Killing rogues was an awful lot like bringing down drug kingpins. It was one thing to get the lowest level thugs, but quite another to get the master sire. It’s almost impossible to find a master’s master’s master. The council and I were both looking to find the names of the old ones, the ones we suspected but dare not accuse without evidence.
    “You might want to consider the fact that all police-station cells now have windows.”
    “So?”
    “So, you’re not immune to sunlight anymore. And telling me what I want to know is going to be a hell of a lot better than waking up as nothing more than a pile of ashes.”
    Henry was starting to get bored with our conversation. His eyes were wandering and he was licking his lips. Then a dark shadow of a thought crossed over his face, stirring the inky depths of his black eyes, making them glimmer in an unpleasant way. His brows narrowed, and he turned his attention back to me, smirking.
    Henry chuckled. “He told me about you. Secret McQueen, big bad vampire hunter. He told me I shouldn’t cross you. He said that you were dangerous.” He was laughing with unrestrained scorn now, amused by his own joke. But he was also giving me clues. His direct sire was a rogue who knew me. Probably one I’d crossed before.
    “You have a wise sire, Henry, now tell me his name.”
    “No.”
    In a flash Henry went from aloof to attack, and he had my free wrist in his hand, his gaping mouth going for my throat.
    Idiot, the throat was such a clichéd move. Had he bitten into my wrist while he had the option, I might have been in trouble. The intensity of his attack did, however, manage to topple us, and his weight landed on me with hefty force once again. Henry, with his solid mass of vampire hunger,