45

“ D on’t.” Wes slapped my hand away from the radio. After two hours of silence, I started to get antsy, and who could blame me? The tension between Wes and I was thicker than ever, and the cab of the Bronco felt stuffy.

“I’m sick of listening to Dad rock,” I groaned.

“I don’t care what you’re sick of. Touch my radio again, and I’ll make you wait in the truck while I clear the nest,” he warned, not taking his eyes off the road.

“You’re a horrible road trip partner.” I slipped further down into my seat. “How much further?”

“A mile, maybe.” He looked at the map on the dash and then back to the motorway. The sunset licked at the endless stretch of wet tarmac leading toward our destination. The truck roared by a police car on the side of the road, and Wes sighed.

“Do you think they’ll run the plates?” I asked him.

“If they do, it won’t take them long to find us,” he quipped, eyes trained ahead of him. “And if they do, we aren’t staying. I don’t give a shite about your little monster lover.”

“Clay will have it figured out before we get back,” I said, ignoring the venom in Wes’ voice. The silence dragged like nails on a chalkboard. “Are you really that pissed off?” I said.

“I’m not pissed off. I’m driving,” he clipped, but the muscle in his jaw tensed and his eyes wavered in their unforgiving stare.

“You can’t even look at me!” The laughter that echoed in the cab was hollow and tight. The Bronco accelerated roughly and Wes’ hand rolled tightly over the steering wheel.

“You’re an idiot, and if that was a reason for me to be pissed off, I’d never be happy,” Wes responded.

“You aren’t ever happy,” I scoffed. “We’re Hunters, Wes. We could get killed at any minute by literally anything and you choose this hill to die on?”

“We die fighting, Koen,” he corrected me. “What happens when it attacks you? You think getting close to it is safe because it looks human, but it’s not. It’s a monster just like the rest of them, and you won’t get the chance to fight because it’s going to slit your throat with its tongue in your mouth.”

I shook my head. “So be it.”

That had him looking. The fire in his eyes could have burned a hole through me.

“Let’s just get this done and you can contemplate all the ways you’re committing suicide later,” Wes snapped.

The rest of the drive was dead silent. Wes let out a few disgruntled huffs but, for the most part, he was done speaking to me. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the nest; most of the ones we cleared were shabby abandoned houses. It wasn’t until we were settled into the curb about four houses down that it became clear that the nest we were hunting was different. The house was not run down. It was pristine. Rose beds outside framed the two-story powder blue home around the side, meeting with a seven-foot fence that enclosed the entire property.

“I hate fences,” Wes groaned.

Fences meant surprises, and dangerous ones in our line of work.

“We can split—” I started to devise a plan, but Wes cut me off with a growl. “What?”

“You aren’t leaving my sight,” he warned.

“Now you’re just being stupid and overbearing. We’ve hunted hundreds of vamps. We know how to do this in our sleep but now you want to hold my hand like I’m a toddler?”

I checked the time and then looked at the still-dark and cloudy sky. We had no choice but to wait. We needed the sun to rise. Hunting a nest during peak activity hours was asking for trouble. At least if the sun was up, most of the bloodsuckers would be asleep.

“We go in the front door together ,” he insisted. “We clear the nest without fuss. There are too many eyes on us. This can’t be messy.”

“Everything about this ,” I mocked him, pointing between us and then to the house, “is messy. I’m not going in that house until you turn that frown upside down,” I teased, but the sentiment fell flat. Wes was still too angry with me to give in. “Whatever.” Exasperated and sick of his attitude, I leaned back against the passenger seat, pulling my hat down over my eyes. “Wake me up when the sun comes up.”

I could feel his gaze burning into my side, but it felt better to ignore him at the moment than hash it out in a tireless circle where he never admits he’s in the wrong.

“Get up,” Wes said before slamming his door.

I stretched out all my muscles one at a time, yawning myself awake from the cat nap, and climbed out after him. I rolled out my neck as he handed me a machete, shoving a gun into the waistband of his pants.

“I saw two vampires enter the nest just before dawn. They should be asleep by now,” he warned and shrugged into his jacket, pulling the collar up around his jaw. “Keep your guard up,” he snapped, “and try to keep your fingers out of them.”

“Low blow,” I growled, turning my hat backward and checking to make sure my own handgun was loaded before it found its home at the waist of my jeans. I followed Wes closely in a pathetic attempt to ease the tension. I didn’t want to go headfirst into a vampire nest without my head on straight, even if Wes’s wasn't.

As we approached the house, I felt sick to my stomach. Birds chirped in chorus in the trees above us, and Wes turned the doorknob to find it unlocked.

Security doesn’t matter when you’re an apex predator. Unless you make too much noise and the neighbors call the cops, or in this case the exterminators. He let the door swing open, pushing it out of his way with the tip of his machete, as he stepped into the house sideways, his back to the living space, and started to check his surroundings.

The home’s exterior fit seamlessly with the neighborhood, but the inside was different. The walls were covered in grime and the floors were littered with garbage that Wes barely avoided stepping on as he navigated the disaster of a space.

It only took a moment to realize we were too early. Two voices drifted in from the kitchen and music played from the long, darkened hallway to our left. Wes sighed and, as he turned to bark a grouchy, unnecessary order at me, a vamp charged at him from around the corner. His jaw clenched as he fought against its brute strength. They hit the wall hard, knocking the family photos from the wall, most likely deceased if a nest had taken over their home. The glass shattered, alerting the rest to our intrusion, and soon we were swarmed.

Wes clumsily fought through his first vamp as I defended myself from a smaller one rushing out of the hallway. Her ashy hair was unkempt and stuck out in every direction atop her pale, deformed face. Teeth extended down from her gums as she snarled at me. Her head cocked to the side in small, jerky movements that clicked and snapped as her blood-flooded eyes sized me up.

“Come on then,” I teased her, shifting on my feet as she charged me.

She was small but fast. Her movements were all broken and twitchy. But worst of all she was young, and she was starving. I swung my machete wide, catching her flesh and tearing it away from her bone. She snarled in pain, but it didn’t slow her down.

Her arms reached out, swiping at me. I took two steps back and swung the blade again; this time, it didn’t miss. It severed through her neck. The soft tissue of her rotting muscles broke down quickly as I used all of my strength to pop the bone and separate her head from her shoulders.

It rolled with a few sloppy thuds to the foot of another, giant-looking, vampire, whose face contorted into pure rage as he looked up at me. I didn’t have time to react as I was slammed to the ground from behind. Another female had driven her shoulder between my shoulder blades and sent me flying to the floor. Slipping in the blood that seeped from the first beast, my hands found no purchase. I slid through the ichor on my hands and knees, reaching out for something to stop on and, when I finally did, I realized my machete was gone. The vampire standing above me kicked his boot out with force, connecting with my face and splitting the skin on my cheek open. I could taste the blood on my lips as I fought to get to my feet.

The fucker had my machete.

“Shite,” I swore under my breath and moved myself backward from the weapon. I could hear Wes struggling, selfishly a little glad he was. Maybe he’d realize how stupid he’d been to go charging into a fight hot-headed. Guilt licked at my thoughts but I pushed it away. He was a big boy. He’d get himself up and out of whatever mess he’d found himself in.

The vampire whipped the machete toward me, narrowly missing my stomach as I darted to the right into the living room. My leg caught the couch, and I flipped backward roughly, hitting the floor hard, accidentally putting distance between me and the mountainous monster. He laughed, razor-sharp teeth dripping with blood and sinew as he moved toward me, ready to attack again.

“Little pig, little pig,” he chanted, shifting to the right.

He was huge, shoulders expanding across like a brick wall on his nearly six-five stature. There was no way I could beat the fucker one-on-one, even if he wasn’t holding my weapon. Without hesitation and before he could react, I slipped my gun out, grasping it firmly, and unloaded the clip into his chest.

“Ow,” he laughed, a sickening grin on his face.

The bullets had done nothing to slow him down, and the sick bastard was enjoying playing with his food.

“Hey, ugly,” Wes called out from behind him, a sharp machete rolling in his hand as the vamp looked over his shoulder. “Pick on someone your own size.”

“I don’t discriminate,” he huffed, his voice low and teasing as he continued toward me, ignoring Wes’ threat.

I had an empty clip and nowhere to run, but that wasn’t the vampire’s plan. He just wanted us to be complacent. He wanted us to believe we trapped him, that he was losing. Before I could yell out to Wes, he turned the machete on him without looking. The blade cut into Wes’ bicep, ripping both cloth and skin. The machete tore him open with no effort on the vampire’s part, who was moving in for another swing.

Wes grunted through the pain, gripping the handle tighter as the blood that sprayed down his arm made it slippery and impossible to wield. The vampire didn’t wait. He swung again and tore a line through Wes’s thigh, clean and deep. I watched my brother fall to his knees with a loud thump.

I dug in my pocket, using the brief distraction to reload my weapon as the vampire kept his back turned on me. I fired two shots into his shoulder as he raised the machete and then two in the back of his calf. The towering monster buckled under the surprise pain and teetered on his only good leg.

Wes saw the opening and pushed to his feet, blood gushing from the open gash in his thigh. A painfilled groan tore from his lips as he used whatever strength he had left to sheer off the vampire’s head. Both monster and weapon dropping to the floor noisily.

I ran toward them, kicking the head against the wall and slipping beneath Wes’s arm to hold him up. “You okay?” I asked.

“Great,” he huffed, wrapping his hand around his bicep. “Get this jacket off me.”

I helped him from it, tearing a strip off and tying off his arm and leg. “We need to get you back to—”

My suggestion is cut short by the sound of children crying, two at least. Wes tensed beside me, his eyes barely open. He was losing too much blood. We needed to get him the hell out of here.

“You have to check.” He shook his head. Both of us knew the consequences of leaving anyone in the nest alive. “I’ll get myself to the truck.” He pushed away from me and pointed to his machete on the floor.

My hands were covered in his blood. I hesitated to investigate the noise.

“Koen, go!” Wes barked, halfway out the door. I knew if he could, he would do it for me.

I rolled my shoulders back, shuffling down the hallway toward the sound. “ Please don’t be vampires,” I pressed my forehead to the door and whispered before turning the doorknob.

Two faces stared up at me from the dim lighting of the boarded-up room. All the furniture and bedding were shredded, and the lamp no longer had a shade. Tears streamed down their faces, devastation in their blood-red eyes as they realized I wasn’t there to help.

Little feet and even smaller hands, they couldn’t have been more than six or seven. Nausea rolled through me as rows of teeth snarled up at me.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled under my breath and swallowed the guilt as it formed.