The Longest Night: A Drake Chronicles Novella Read Free

it. Her heart sped up even as she told it not
     to. It always did that. Callahan was on his way back home; it was Sunday night after
     all, and Sunday nights were family night. Well, they called it family night but Aggie
     knew a mandatory curfew when she was on the receiving end of one.
    She kept her breaths shallow so they wouldn’t mist in the frigid air and give away
     her position. Yen had once hidden in a garbage dumpster to cover her scent so she
     could stake a vampire feeding off the homeless guys living in Central Park. A little
     frostbite was nothing. She had two stakes, Hypnos powder in her cuff, and a steel
     needle-stake in a holster under her sleeve. She was ready. She’d get him this time.
    “Not
again.
”
    Aggie whirled, stake stabbing the air. She narrowly avoided her best friend’s heart
     and pulled a muscle in her arm for her trouble. “Shit, Paige,” she snapped. “I could
     have killed you.”
    Paige didn’t look particularly concerned. She crunched through the last of her bit
     of her candy cane. Her fire-engine red hair was in two braids, woven through with
     silver tinsel. No one did Christmas spirit quite like Paige. “Who are we not-killing
     tonight?” She slid Aggie a glance, then rolled her eyes. “Never mind. As if I have
     to ask. Your nose is going to run if you stay out here much longer.”
    Aggie shoved Paige down into one of the bushes and reclaimed her position behind the
     tree. “Snow down my neck!” Paige gasped. “Snow down my neck!”
    “Serves you right. Keep an eye on that part of the forest, would you?”
    Paige sighed. “Don’t you ever get bored of this?”
    “It’s what we do. We’re hunters. And anyway, Agent Wild said we have to be prepared
     to fight in any weather.”
    “Yeah, she’s also dating one of the Drake brothers. I’d much rather be doing
that
.”
    “Whatever, so she’s not perfect.” The Drake brothers were unfairly hot. There was
     no sense in denying the obvious. “She has more vampire kills than anyone else at the
     academy. She’d have taken Callahan out by now.”
    “You know, this obsession of yours is bordering on a bad teen movie crush.”
    “Shut
up
,” Aggie said, kicking snow at her.
    “I’m just saying—”
    “No, I mean,
shut up
. He’s coming.”
    “Oh, God, here we go again.” Paige yawned and looked through her pockets for another
     candy cane. The last time she’d tried to interfere she’d nearly lost an eye. Vampire
     fangs were
pointy.
And Aggie bit. “Don’t go Mary Walker on me.”
    Mary had lived at the farmhouse before Aggie moved in. Actually, she was the reason
     there was an extra bed for Aggie. She’d been working through her issues, or whatever
     it was the counselors called not killing vampires every night, when she snapped. She’d
     managed to sneak holy water into the blood supply, and then guilt made her drive her
     car into the lake. That part Aggie never could understand.
    And she didn’t have time to think about it now.
    Callahan emerged from the treeline, silent and graceful as any woodland creature.
     He passed for human easily enough when he was in town, but stalking through the snow
     with his eyes gleaming wolf-blue, he was definitely otherworldly. He was tall, black
     haired and angular, with cheekbones that could cut through ice. The holy water scar
     across his tip of his left eyebrow did nothing to detract from his beauty.
    Aggie bent her knees slightly, getting ready to leap. She’d have preferred to be hiding
     up in the tree, but it was coated with ice and too slippery to climb. She’d make do.
     Yen always had. They’d barelyhad enough to eat, never mind fancy weapons like the ones at school. Even at ten,
     Aggie knew how to whittle branches into points and create makeshift stakes from rusty
     fence railings.
    His boots didn’t crunch in the snow. She could envy him that talent and still hate
     him.
    She forced herself to wait, to be patient. Hunter always said to