Almost Human Read online

  I sighed. “I guess it would be nice to have back up for once. I don’t hunt with a party anymore. If I get neck deep in shit, then I have to dig out of it myself.”

  Astra clapped me on the back. “Good girl. You didn’t argue nearly as much as I thought you would. Now, let’s go get some sleep. Hopefully the children are done partying.”

  * * * *

  That afternoon Astra and I sat around discussing tonight’s party. “Okay, here’s how it’s going to go. We’re only looking for information, unless we can kill Alaric or one of his brothers. I’ll give you the signal if I go in for the kill. You need to get away as quickly as possible if I do.”

  She cut me off. “I know the drill. We signal each other so everyone escapes. The hunter who bags a vampire needs to worry about getting herself out, not her companions. This isn’t my first barbecue, Kori.”

  Sometimes I still thought of Astra as the teenager she had been before her parents were killed by vampires. She’d been bright and happy. She loved her studies and couldn’t wait to become a surgeon. She had been truly devoted to saving lives.

  When they were killed, she became a frightened woman who had seen too much. She had been alone and feeling powerless against the monsters she knew existed.

  I wished she’d go back to that happy girl I’d known before she got herself killed.

  “You should go back to school, Astra. Get out before you die. You got the vampires that killed your parents. It’s over.” My voice sounded hollow to my own ears. It was a wasted speech.

  Astra frowned at me. “I don’t think I could ever go back to a normal life. Knowing what’s out there changes you. You don’t understand. You grew up knowing all this crazy shit. I like killing vampires. I’m saving people.”

  “You’d save people being a surgeon, too.”

  She rolled her eyes and tried to be nonchalant, but I could see the tension in her body. “Can we drop this, please?”

  “No, we sure as hell can’t.” I bit out through clenched teeth.

  She jumped to her feet and walked away from me. She rotated her shoulders, as if she was trying to get the muscles to loosen up. “What’s causing this sudden concern anyway? You’ve always supported me. The more people killing vamps the better.”

  “I don’t know. I guess my sister is causing it. Hell, Pagan got turned about two months back.”

  Astra swung around to face me. “Good, God. But she was the best.”

  “Damn right. Hell, she was better than me. It didn’t save her, though. Nothing saves you. We are destined to die young. Probably slowly and as painfully as possible.”

  Astra’s eyes got so wide I thought they would pop out of her skull. “Geez, Kori, you can’t go into battle thinking like that, you’ll lose.”

  “Mindset doesn’t matter. Eventually I’ll die anyway. I can feel it. Death is close.” I had no idea where the words came from, but somehow I knew they were true.

  “Bullshit. Mindset is everything. And you can’t know you’re going to die. Precognition isn’t one of your gifts.”

  I shook myself mentally and plastered a fake smile on my face. “I’m sorry. You’re right, of course. I’m upset about Casey. I can’t believe I lost another sister to those things.”

  Casey’s twin Tahira had been kidnapped by vampires with our father when she was eight. Our father’s body had been dumped, but we’d never found Tahira. At least I knew where Casey was, and what had become of her.

  “You can take that Barbie smile off your face. I know it’s fake. And you could never look that air headed without practice.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I think I’m going to talk to my mother. Find out what the monsters look like, where they live, et cetera.”

  Astra’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dare go hunting vampires without me.”

  “I won’t. Priscilla probably doesn’t know where they live anyway. We’ll probably have to go trolling the parties or bars to find them.

  * * * *

  I knocked on the door of my mother’s large house. She was probably asleep, but too damned bad. I couldn’t sleep, so I would get the answers to my questions now.

  The door swung open so hard it bounced off the wall and almost closed again. I nudged it back open with my foot and stepped through the threshold. Dang, she must have been pissed to open the door with her magic.

  “Priscilla?” I called, and then remembered myself. “Mom?” She always hated it when I called her by her given name. She also hated it when I called her Mother. In spite of being the coldest bitch I’d ever met, she wanted me to act as if she’d been a loving parent.

  I rounded the corner and saw her coming down the stairs. She was pale and sweating. She descended slowly as if she was in pain, and she gripped the banister for dear life.

  I rushed to the foot of the stairs to help her down the last few steps. When I touched her, a shiver went down my spine. Every hair stood up on my body. Every sense I had whispered, evil. I tried to ignore it. As far as I knew there was no reason to have such a feeling.

  “Mother, are you all right?”

  She shook me off and moved away. Her lips curled back into a snarl. “I’m fine. What the hell are you doing here this early?”

  I wiped my tingling palms on my jeans. It felt like I’d dirtied them. “I…” My voice died in my throat and I had to shake myself and begin again. “I came to find out as much about the vampires that killed Casey as you can tell me. What they look like, where they live. Anything.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re so incompetent. Can’t you figure anything out for yourself?”

  Whoa, my mother was rude, but not usually this rude. There had to be something seriously wrong. She continued before I could get a word in.

  “They are three brothers. All blond. They will all be surrounding your sister, and that’s how you’ll know them. They all love her. She’s probably involved in all kinds of debauchery with them. It would certainly be like her to become a whore for the undead.”

  For a second all I could do was gape at her. “Mother, I seriously doubt that. Casey was a virgin before she met this vampire, and she’s a bit of a prude.”

  She sneered at me. “So she told you, anyway. Besides, it doesn’t matter what she was as a human. Now she has no soul. The thing that inhabits her body is nothing like her.”

  I quickly changed the subject. I didn’t need a five thousand-word lecture on things I already knew.

  “Mom, is there anything else you can tell me about them?”

  “You might want to keep your eye on the oldest. He has the long hair, his eyebrow is pierced. He fights well. I almost didn’t make it out of the battle with him. As for their location, you’ll have to scope parties or that damned bar all the freaks frequent and pray you find them.”

  She swayed and caught herself on the arm of the couch.

  “Mother, are you sure you’re all right?”

  She snarled. “I’m fine, damn it. I’m just tired. You shouldn’t have barged in here at ten in the morning. I’ve been out hunting all night.”

  I nibbled my bottom lip and turned to leave. She grabbed my arm and dug her nails into it.

  “Ouch, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

  “You kill your whore of a sister, not just the men she’s running with. Do you understand me?” She seized my face between her palms and a wave of agony rolled through my head at the sheer malice of the power I could feel coming from her. “She is no longer your sister. Don’t fail me.”

  I jerked my face out of her hands and stumbled away. I tried to shake off the heebie-jeebies and my massive, new headache. “Fine. Shit, you made your point. You didn’t have to grab me. I understand what’s going on.”

  I turned and rushed out of the house. I shut the door behind me and leaned against it. Nothing had ever gotten my powers so riled up, not even a vampire. I clawed at my skin to try and get it to stop itching.

  I knew one thing. My mother had recently been in contact with some p
owerfully evil magic. There was no other explanation. I took a deep breath and pushed myself off the door.

  She had probably killed something evil. That could leave a person feeling off for days and give them the stench of malice.

  The hair on the back of my neck stood at attention again. I was being watched. I glanced back at the house and the curtains of the guest room fell back into place.

  Then again, messing with dark magic could also leave the scent of evil on you.

  Chapter Three

  I decided to deal with one crisis at a time. Whatever dark arts my mother was screwing with could wait. Today it was time to deal with my vampire problem. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.

  Astra caressed one of her knives. “God, I’m twitchy. I need to kill a vamp already. Three parties and we haven’t hit our marks.”

  We’d decided not to kill any vamps except the ones we were looking for. Fights were, needless to say, dangerous. We could end up too injured to keep party hopping.

  Laura shrugged. “Well, they’d better be here. This is the last party my informants know about.”

  I glanced up as we rolled to a stop. I could feel my sister’s presence. Fuck. Now I had to hope she couldn’t feel mine. I tried to shield so I didn’t blow our cover before we made it inside.

  Astra leaned over the seat to look at the directions. “Which house is it? There are so many freaking cars here it could be any of them. Stupid vampire junkies.”

  I pointed to the sedate red brick house alone at the end of the cul-de-sac. “That one.”

  Astra frowned at me. “How do you know?”

  I unbuckled my seat belt and pushed open the car door. “Blood calls to blood.”

  Shutting the door, I strode toward the house. I heard someone get out of the car behind me.

  “Kori, wait. Explain that, it sounds very vampire-like to me.”

  “No, it’s a witch thing.” I thought about it for a second. “Well, I imagine vampires can do something similar. But anyway, she’s my sister, and we’ve always been close. I can feel her. I felt it when she died.”

  Astra bit her bottom lip. “Well, can you push the pause button on going to her while we formulate a plan? And can you come out of this creepy trance-hyper-focused thing you’ve got going on. It freaks me out.”

  I glanced at her and tried to smile. “Sorry. I didn’t think I would feel her this way anymore. She’s joined the ranks of the undead. A demon inhabits her body. It’s not her. So why do I still feel this soul deep connection with her?”

  I glimpsed the pity in Astra’s eyes before she could hide it. “I don’t know.”

  I shook my head. “We ready to go in?”

  “Yep. Give us the signal if you see them.”

  The hunting group approached the house, seemingly a group of drunken, rowdy college bimbos, while I snuck around back. If I went through the front door and my sister spotted me, this hunt could go to shit faster than anyone could imagine.

  I got lucky when I reached the back of the house. There was a sliding glass door that led to the kitchen, and it was wide open.

  The only lights in the place were rotating, flashing, and different colors, leaving almost everything in darkness. The room was so thick with cigarette smoke that my eyes watered. In spite of this, I kept to the darkest shadows. A vampire could see perfectly fine in this environment.

  I scoped the party, looking for my sister. When I’d blocked my presence from her, I’d also blinded myself to hers. I had to rely on my eyesight to spot her.

  Vampires brushed me constantly, their auras prickling my skin, distracting me.

  Astra danced under the beat of the thumping techno music. She was all over a hot, blond vampire. He looked eerily similar to the one I’d fought last night, except his hair was shorter.

  She was pure sex on the dance floor, and I could see the blatant hunger in the man’s eyes. A human might mistake it for a sexual heat. Luckily, Astra knew better, so when he led her from the dance floor, I knew I had nothing to worry about except finding my mark before she killed him and I had to bolt.

  There were several other couples necking on couches or against walls. Emphasis on the word “neck.” To an uninitiated human it might have looked like a lot of passionate make out sessions. I wondered how many people would die at this party tonight.

  I sighed. This was so not my sister’s scene. She would rather be at home with a good book. Even when she’d been hunting vampires, she tried to avoid the parties and would instead find them hunting in the bad parts of town.

  As if thinking of her made her appear, I spotted her on the couch. She looked incredibly uncomfortable and I couldn’t resist smiling. The blond boy next to her had his arm draped over her shoulder while he talked to a shirtless male vamp.

  I edged closer, trying to hear the conversation.

  “So, how is Pagan?” The vampire I assumed was Misha asked.

  The man chuckled and dragged a hand down his face. “Pissed at me, as always. It’s okay though, the makeup sex is amazing.”

  Casey interrupted. “Misha, I think I’m going to go to bed.”

  The smile that broke across Misha’s face almost endeared me to him. It was indulgent, but not condescending. Like he’d do anything my sister asked just to make her smile. “Okay, baby. You want me to come up?”

  “Oh, no, that’s okay. Take your time, and come up whenever you want.” And then she did something I’d never seen her do. She kissed him so deeply and passionately I almost blushed. “But I will be waiting for you,” she added, her voice in a deep, sexy tone I never thought I’d hear from my baby sister.

  She turned and flounced away from him, putting a little extra swing in her hips to make sure he noticed. It worked. He stayed tense, like any second he might jump up to follow her. When he didn’t immediately rise, I broke away from the wall to trail after her. I would have to be quick. That man would follow her in no time. The vampire talking to Misha glanced at me and a chill went down my spine. But he didn’t jump up screaming ‘witch,’ so I hoped I hadn’t been identified. He’d only seen me move. I could tell myself that all I wanted, but as I turned away from him the itch in the center of my back as his gaze tracked me wouldn’t leave.

  Another blond blocked Casey’s path and I tried to blend in with the crowd. This one I recognized. His straight hair fell to his shoulders. Light bounced off his stainless steel eyebrow ring.

  The one I’d fought in the alley. The one that had let me go. This task had officially gone sideways.

  Somehow he looked even more fearsome than he had that night, particularly looming over my petite sister. A wave of protectiveness washed over me, immediately making me want to haul off and punch him. I squeezed my eyes shut. I shouldn’t feel this need to protect her. What was wrong with me? I looked at her and still saw my sister.

  He frowned down at her. “Did you feed?”

  My sister sighed, crossed her arms, and glared right back at him. “No. I don’t like it here. These people are drug-abusing cattle.”

  He rolled his eyes. “They’re willing donors. What do you expect? Not many well-to-do people will give to vampires, not even with the current fascination today’s youth have with us. Besides, they can be so annoying.”

  “I’ll take from Misha. He’ll feed. No doubt before he comes upstairs.”

  He raked a hand through his hair. “You shouldn’t become dependent on him, Casey. Hopefully, he’ll always be there for you, but what if he’s not? You should learn to feed off humans.”

  “I’m not dependent on him, Alaric. I could feed off them if I wanted, but he’s around, and I don’t want to.”

  He stunned me by giving her the same indulgent smile Misha had given her, though this one was brotherly. He clasped her shoulders and kissed her forehead.

  He pulled back, that smile still in place, and my heart tripped. He cared about her and that gained him points. Gods, he was gorgeous when he smiled. “Fine, little sister. I’ll drop the s
ubject. I want you to be able to do things on your own.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Alaric. I’m a big, tough vampire slayer. I’ll never be dependent on anyone.”

  He nodded and slid out of her way, disappearing into the crowd of writhing bodies.

  I extricated myself from them and stepped into the hallway. My sister was on her way up the stairs at the end of the hall. I crept to the end of the stairs and watched her go into the fourth door on the left.

  I glanced around to make sure I hadn’t been noticed and crept up the stairs. I opened the door to her room and stepped inside, shutting it softly behind me.

  Casey spun and gasped. “Kori?”

  She took a step toward me and I pulled the knife from my wrist sheath. “Don’t come any closer.”

  Casey immediately took a blade from behind her back. I was surprised, but didn’t let it show. My sister usually avoided confrontation with me. Then again, she knew what would happen now if she lowered her guard. Before it was sisterly bickering, now it was life and death. “I don’t want to fight you, Kori.”

  I don’t want to fight you either. “Then don’t. You’re a corpse that doesn’t know when to lie down. Let me put you in the ground. Let me give my sister a dignified burial.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not a corpse. When you become a vampire you only die for a split second, and then your heart starts again.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Is this some bullshit line they told you to feed me, or do you actually believe it? You have all the memories of my sister, but you aren’t her. If you were, you would have killed yourself when you woke up a demon.”

  Tears welled in her eyes and I tried to harden my heart against her. I never could resist comforting her when she cried. I’d always been the protective older sister.

  “I’m not a demon. And I couldn’t take my own life when I woke up. I love Misha. If I’d killed myself over what he’d done to me, it would have broken his heart, and I could never do that.”