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Because of a otten bored and decided to stir up hell on earth “My asped those words One vaht they were going to rip her apart And the other vamp bastard—the one with the blond hair, coal black eyes, and the lying, kind face—he’d watched her with a s wounds covered her neck “The vah “When are they ever easy?” A kind kill wasn’t generally an option for vampires They liked prey to suffer

Blood had soaked herAnd her eyes, they were—” Changing Fading froold to dark shadows She hadn’t knohat that darkness hed when they saw her Told her that she couldn’t have a drink” Moht had been the fifteen-year-old’s Her mother never touched alcohol Never

His jaw locked but his gaze never wavered “Finish it,” he gritted

She didn’t want to Dee squeezed her eyes shut

Darkness

Just like her mother’s eyes

Were all vampires really bad?

Some hunters claioodness died and only evil remained A shifter had told her that once—he’d said the decay and the rot that he smelled from vamps came from the decay inside, where a soul should be

Maybe the old fox had been full of bullshit, but she’d asked Jude and he’d said he caught the same stench any time a vamp was near

Except once, he’d told her about a vaet away?” he repeated

Dee opened her eyes “She—she had a weapon That thuuess they didn’t think she had any fight left, but she did” A bit of pride there “When she reached the landing, she lunged and stabbed the lead bastard in the back”

A moment of weakness That was all she’d needed Just a moment

“Go, Sandra Dee Go,” she whispered her mother’s last words A sad smile curved her lips “And I did I ran and I left her there” To die

Rage and fear had twisted her stomach as she rushed down the hall and out of the house “I left her,” she repeated, voice still soft The other vamps had turned on her iven Dee that one ht noas the saet help She’d wanted to find someone to kill the bastards in her house

“I ran outside Went to a neighbor’s” They hadn’t been close Not close enough to hear her first screao to her house, right away They’d called the cops, and Mark had taken off with his old hunting shotgun Dee reun wouldn’t be enough

“So happened in my house” She licked her lips “Fire…the smoke, I saw it the minute I went back outside”

Mom!

“Fire burns fast, you know So fast” Greedy fla the paint away in thick bubbles, eating at her horuff whisper

Julie had held her back Mark, sixty, with stooped shoulders and shaking hands, had burst into the burning house, screa her hters arrived and dragged his body out

Dead Like the others

My fault She hadn’t even been able to look at Julie after that