MoonBound’s battle with the now-extinct CloudStrike clan. “We all lose everything.”
Chapter 2
Two days after persuading Hunter to let him have his way, Riker stood on a ridge on the outskirts of Seattle, a cemetery at his back, and fi ttingly, a dead man at his feet.
Dead but not bleeding.
Riker had drained him of every last drop of blood—a fi ne vintage, aged about twenty-five years in the veins of a vampire hunter.
A rush of exhilaration fl ooded Riker’s body, because nothing beat the high of taking down a hunter or poacher. Both were scum, just different subspecies of scum.
Tasty scum.
He touched the tip of his tongue to a fang as he looked down on the lights of the city that had propelled vampire slavery from a local phenomenon into a worldwide passion. Seattle’s nightlife, which had exploded along with the population in the last twenty years, used to draw him; there was so much sport to be had in a thriving metropolis. But he no longer lived for fun. Couldn’t remember the last time he’d had any.
No, life now was about revenge, just as Hunter had said.
As a vampire, he ate food daily, drank blood when he had to—and sometimes, like tonight, when he didn’t.
“Hey, man, you ready to head back to the clan?”
“Not yet.” Riker looked over at the vampire standing next to him. “It’s time.”
Myne’s thick mane of pitch-black hair whipped at his temples as he shook his head. “You know I’m all for cutting through the humans like a tomahawk through snow, but—”
“But you think I’m stupid.”
The slow roll of Myne’s shoulder was a screaming Hell, yeah.
“Humans tortured you for years. Defanged you. Were going to fucking castrate you.” Riker eyed with admiration one of the few vampires who had escaped human slavery. It had been eighty years since humans
became aware of the existence of vampires, sixty since they’d enslaved them, and in that time, only a handful of lucky vampires had found freedom before the great uprising twenty years ago led to even stricter controls.
Myne was one of the few to slip the slavery noose. “You slaughtered more humans in twenty-four hours than I have in my life. You kill people every chance you get. So tell me, how am I stupid?”
“Dude, I don’t have enough fingers to count off all the ways.”
“Ass,” Riker muttered.
Myne regarded the glittering skyline in the distance, the streaking blurs from the headlights and taillights on the freeway. “You’re stupid because you plan to do this on your own. I can’t believe Hunter went along with your crazy plan.” His mocha eyes shifted to
Riker. “And how fucked up is it that I actually agree with Hunter for once? We both think you’re being an idiot. You need to rethink this.”
“I’m not scrapping the mission. There’s less risk of the clan being discovered if we do it my way.”
If Riker acted alone, authorities would waste time scouring the city’s trashy underbelly for him among the many lone vampires who lived there like cockroaches.
But the more clan members he enlisted, the greater the chance that said authorities would realize they had an organized group on their hands. And soon after, the forest, usually left alone by the government, would be crawling not just with the usual hunters but also with
Vampire Strike Force personnel—specialized law-enforcement agents whose mission it was to kill or capture every nonenslaved vampire on the planet.
Once VAST entered the picture, it wouldn’t be long before someone from MoonBound was caught and tortured into revealing the clan’s location. Although the entrances were concealed by both physical camouflage and magic put in place by the clan’s mystic-keeper, Riker knew there was no such thing as completely secure. There was always a way to breach a wall, penetrate an enemy stronghold, and locate the hidden. Just one careless clue left behind by a clan member could lead VAST to the second-largest population of free vampires in the Pacific Northwest. In the distance, a coyote yip-howled, and Myne listened, almost as if he understood the creature. He probably did. Myne had grown up with his Nez Perce tribe until he was a teen, and after that, he’d lived with animals for longer than he’d lived with people.
“What happens if you fail?” he asked.
“Then the clan goes with Plan B. Hunter’s proposal.” Which involved far more people, coordination, and risk.
“Shiiit.” Myne kicked a stone off the ridge andwatched it tumble down the rocky bank. “Let me h elp your sorry ass. With me, your insane scheme has a shot of success.”
Riker grinned. “I knew you couldn’t resist a challenge.”