If Seth had decided to return, Zach would meet him on his feet.
He squinted against the stinging snow and ice.
A shadowy figure separated itself from the dark backdrop of night. Tall. As tall as Zach, who was only a couple of inches short of seven feet. His body bracketed by wings.
A second figure joined him. Similar height. Similar wings.
Then a third. And a fourth.
Nearly a dozen in all.
How had they—?
Shit. Seth. Of course.
After the first time Zach had strayed . . . to help Seth, the ungrateful bastard . . . and been punished, Zach had learned to hide his presence from the Others, to shield his movements and elude detection. The Others had had no idea how far he had deviated from their chosen path in recent months.
Until now. Until Seth had destroyed Zach’s ability to evade their scrutiny and led them right to him.
The powerful men surrounded him.
“It appears you haven’t learned your lesson,” one pronounced.
Oh, but I have, Zach thought.
“We’ll have to be more diligent this time in our efforts to impress upon you the importance of not deviating from the path.”
He was certain they would be very diligent indeed.
Bitterness welled within him, nearly choking him in its intensity.
Little did they know their punishment, lesson, whatever they wished to call the torture they intended for him, wasn’t necessary.
Twice Zach had intervened to aid Seth and his Immortal Guardians. And all it had gotten him was a knife in the chest.
He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
If he survived what was in store for him.
Chapter One
Lisette prowled the University of North Carolina’s campus in Greensboro. Though the fall semester had only recently begun, parties abounded. Freshmen, thrilled to have left the nest and escaped their parents’ rule, got drunk off their asses and lured vampires like sugar lured ants. Male. Female. It didn’t matter. Easy prey was easy prey. And vampires tended to be lazy that way. Even when the brain damage the virus caused in humans progressed enough to drive them insane, sheer habit—she supposed—prompted the vampires to return to college campuses.
Lisette headed toward the frat houses.
Everything else might suck, but at least she wouldn’t descend into madness. Gifted ones—men and women like Lisette who had been born with extremely advanced DNA (the origins of which remained unknown)—were protected from the more corrosive aspects of the virus. They also possessed various and assorted gifts that humans and vampires didn’t. Like the telepathy that let her hear the revolting thoughts of the vampires stalking a young couple deep in their cups.
Two vamps. Two potential human victims who had no idea they were about to be fed upon by creatures who delighted in inflicting pain.
Immortal Guardians had recently taken an unprecedented step and begun attempting to recruit vampires who had not yet succumbed to the madness.
These guys didn’t fall into that category. Bad news for them. Good news for her. She really wasn’t in the mood for conversation.
Lisette raced forward so fast she blurred, little more than a breeze humans couldn’t follow with their eyes. Zipping past the young couple, she barreled into the vampires like the athletes she so loved to watch in the NFL and drove them back behind the nearest building.
The vampires hit the ground hard as she released them.
Out of sight of the humans, she drew her shoto swords.
The vamps’ eyes lit up like candles, glowing blue and green.
Her own, she knew, glowed a vibrant amber.
“Immortal Guardian,” one vampire sneered, making the title an insult.
She saluted him with a sword as the vamps drew bowie knives longer than her damned forearm.
One good thing about vampires: Most were college students who had been turned after spending most of their leisure time lounging on their asses, gaming, texting, and surfing the Internet. Few had any real skill with weapons.
Unlike Lisette, who had trained with a master swordsman.
The vampires attacked simultaneously. Shoto swords met bowie knives, swept them aside, and struck flesh. Howls of pain pierced the night. The pungent aroma of wild fury mixed with fear suffused the air, accompanied by the metallic scent of blood.
One vampire circled around behind her.
Lisette merely turned to the side and continued to swing her swords, striking metal, metal, flesh, metal, flesh, flesh, flesh. The more blood she drew, the more careless they became, at last allowing her to strike major arteries.
They dropped to their knees, spewing epithets and slavering like rabid dogs as they bled out faster than the virus that infected them could repair the damage. Weak and furious, they continued to cut the air with their weapons.
Lisette took a couple of steps backward and waited as they collapsed and drew their last breaths. It would’ve been a hard thing to watch had she not heard their twisted plans for the inebriated couple.