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Chapter 1
It was not the cool breeze that made the hairs on the back of Arowl that accompanied it
She froze, one ar on the DVD case poised half-in half-out of the movie rental quick-drop slot Gooseflesh broke out on her arh her veins and sped her pulse
Swiveling to face the source of that disturbing warning, she surveyed the parking lot behind her and found it ee and brown leaves swirled and tulistened in places froht shower Whole Foods, Blockbuster, and the other businesses in the strip lanced to her right East Franklin Street was deserted … as it should be Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was a college town At roughly 3:20 on a Sunday night (or Mondayin their beds, catching Z’s in preparation for an early start to the work or school week
Arip on the DVD and let it thunk down atop the ames that had been returned She took a step toward her car The growl sounded once side the northerly wind Deep and full of menace, it was not the co in the eleer did, bringing it closer in tone and texture to that of a lion or a tiger
Another growl answered it, not as i Then another And another And another Frowning, Ami reached into her jacket, withdrew the Glock 9mm Seth insisted she always carry, and approached East Franklin Street with caution
It definitely came from the north Not from the darkened businesses across the street, but froht that veered left into the trees behind theht think a lion were battling a pack of wolves
Just as she reached the edge of the parking lot, odd shick, ting, and clang noises joined the fray
Ami darted across the street and raced down the bike path Tall trees forht A small meadoith a radio tower lay on her left, but soon surrendered to forest When it did, Ami slowed to a brisk walk and entered the denser shadows Her heart pounded The babbling of a brook she couldn’t see teased her ears
Ten or fifteen yards in, she left the path, headed into the trees, and began wading through the undergrowth Fortunately, it had rained earlier The autumn leaves beneath the canopy were still dahts flickered like fireflies Amber Green Blue Silver So The length of ti
Ami sed hard and questioned her sanity as she came to an area where the trees thinned She paused, concealed by the denser foliage on the peri, lay a patch of land the size of a two-car garage that just happened to be treeless In its center, a fantastical scene unfolded that--for hts she had spied swam in and out of focus as the faces that housed them moved so quickly to and fro that they blurred Men, ere clearly ed in a surreal battle that resurrected her first description: a lion facing doolf pack
The lion--a dark,a black hair that floated around his head like tendrils of sht, and slashed at his attackers with a speed that brought to mind the Tasmanian Devil in the Warner Brothers cartoons Darnell had shown her
Immortal Guardian
No other creature couldand snapping like their nareen, blue, and silver Though they all, like the iht hues, their hair varied Blond Brunette Auburn Long Short Shaved Spiked Pulled back in a ponytail They, too,at the i to gauge the da crih they couldn’t th, the vaht to one as best she could count Ami could only make out individual features when the vampires paused between strikes
She discerned none of the immortal’s features because he remained in continuous motion, his swords or sais or whatever blades he wielded defending him from assaults on all sides
A, and pulled out a cylindrical alu her gaze on the conflict before her, she screwed it onto the barrel The top-of-the-line suppressor would reduce the explosive expulsion of each hollow-point bullet to ain the houses and townhouses beyond the trees
Raising the Glock with her right hand, she supported it with her left and waited
A blur of moveleaes of the pack
Ami fired twice
Blood sprayed fro his weapons, the vaarbled croak and claush of his life’s blood
A vay brown hair appeared next to hi the new vamp in his carotid, brachial, and fe vaues, who sank to their knees as they bled out faster than the virus that infected them could heal their wounds
The Iaze