Hunting Tess by Kathryn Summers (best novels to read in english .TXT) 📗

a male voice demands. Parker stalks to our little gathering and I rise to my feet to better offset our height difference. He towers well over six feet, and while I’m not considered short, I don’t like having to crane my neck so far back just to look at him.

Eliza waggles her eyebrows in my direction and I swear the girl is itching for a bruising. Yes, Parker is gorgeous, but who has time for dating? I tried it and things went horribly wrong very quickly.

“This is Samantha, Leo’s friend from school.” Caleb’s vague description drips with sarcasm. “But,” he says reluctantly, “the girl can fight.”

“She’s the one I was telling you about,” Leo interjects, descending the last two steps.

I wonder briefly what there could be to say, but follow the trajectory of both men’s gaze as it trails to the pile of weapons at my feet.

Looking down I realize the Twins are no longer hovering around the group, but rather sitting on the ledge above the sink, gazing out the window.

“She put in the order? Do you know how long it took me to collect this stuff?”

Ignoring the blatant shock of Leo’s brother’s faces, I drift toward the felines.

“That’s not good,” I hear Ben mutter under his breath.

CHAPTER 2

HIM

“There are at least eleven out there. Probably more.” Samantha stands at the kitchen sink, a stark contrast of white against the gray cabinets. Her loose flowing shirt was probably once spotless but is now streaked with grime and speckled with blood.

“Did you lead a horde of vampires here?” I ask her, crossing my arms against my chest.

I expect her to shift uncomfortably under my glower as she rejoins the group, but instead she looks me in the eye and responds with a secret smile. “Yes.”

“I hope Dmitri is out there,” her friend grins maliciously. I didn’t catch her name and don’t bother asking. She seems peppy, and the last thing I want is for another peppy girl to talk my ear off. My date with Ashley was bad enough. “I want to a chance to hit him where the sun don’t shine.”

“I already did.” Samantha grins back, just as wickedly. Leo described the girl from school as intelligent. Seeking a fight with a vampire is anything but.

“What if we wait until morning?” the guy asks. “The vampire will have to go into hiding and we can leave then.”

“They’ll just come back and this is my problem. If we want a chance to make it to the freeway, we need to take them out,” she declares. “Eliza, draw their attention. And Ben—”

“Don’t get bit.”

“Exactly. You get bit, you die. You boys coming?”

The gauntlet has been thrown, pricking my pride. Does this girl not understand how dangerous it is to fight vampires?

“Aw yeah!” Caleb whoops, his unsure demeanor now warming up to the girl. Great, they share a certain bloodlust.

“If we’re going to do this, we’re going to be smart,” I mandate, eying their weapons and wondering how well they’ll be wielded.

“I agree,” Samantha concurs, already planning ahead. “You three can cover our blind spots from the roof. We’ll take care of those on the ground.”

“That’s a terrible idea.”

Three shifters would be better in face-to-face combat. I have no idea who these people are or what they can do, and explaining why I have three dead kids in front of my house is not something I want to explain to the authorities. My job could cover it up, they’ve done so in the past with vampire attacks, but Marc would be ticked. She thinks this over for half a second. “Eliza?”

Her friend nods before responding. “I’ll be able to see more anyway.”

“Perfect. But we’ll still need archers.” Her attention returns to me and for a split second I almost ask her out. Thankfully the words don’t cross my lips before my senses make a much-needed overhaul on my brain. I only date humans who are ignorant about things that go bump in the night. Something tells me this girl has some experience. When I don’t respond, she explains, “I can shoot a crossbow but I’m as likely to hit one of us as I am a vampire.”

“All these weapons and you don’t know how to use them?”

Looking at me with expectation, I realize she is waiting for volunteers to man the roof.

“I can help out on the ground,” Leo offers, likewise looking to me for approval, pinning me and Caleb with roof duty. My eyebrows crinkle together as my stare flickers to my youngest brother.

“It would be nice to have a shifter close by,” she admits, siding with Leo as the right half of her lower lip disappears between her teeth. My stare which was once contemplative on the youngest of us turns irate. The knowledge of our kind isn’t meant as a way to impress a girl.

“Before you start pointing fingers,” she interjects, “I can smell you. And we’re wasting time.”

Breathing hard through my nose I quickly gauge the reaction of the other two newcomers finding out what we are. They don’t even bat an eye and I feel a chill go down my spine at the thought that these strangers may not be quite human.

Battling between demanding answers and knowing that the longer we wait the more time the vampires have to plan, I reluctantly return my attention to Leo. I’ll get answers after.

Because of his age Leo was the last to shift and has the least experience dealing with depraved creatures. It would be better if Caleb or myself was on the ground. I start to say so when struck with the thought that this would be good experience.

But if he gets hurt my mother will kill me.

With a swift nod I take one last look at our motley crew and send up a prayer. We’re going to need it.

After popping out the upstairs screen I swing one leg onto the tilted roof, squinting in the darkness. Light bleeds from the house into the night, highlighting the