Angel of Darkness (The Fallen 1)

Going without blood wasn’t a possibility that night. She couldn’t afford to be pushed to the edge. Not with the hunters after her.

“Nicole.”

A shiver worked over her at his voice. Don’t look back. She wrenched open the car door and jumped inside. Her hands were shaking when she shoved the key into the ignition. Hurry.

She slammed the car into reverse, spun it around and—

Her headlights burned right on the man standing in the middle of the road.

Tall. Muscled. Dressed all in black, he should have looked like a devil. He didn’t. He looked like the best sin she’d ever seen.

And that fact terrified her. Because, until six months ago, Nicole had never sinned. Now she couldn’t seem to stop, no matter how hard she tried.

He tilted his head and his blond hair, too long, too thick, brushed against his sharp cheekbones. The man’s face was perfect. Better than any photo she’d ever seen in a magazine. Not handsome, perfect. He had strong, high cheekbones, a positively lickable square jaw, and wide, bright blue eyes. Oh, just a come-here glance from those eyes would probably be enough to seduce most women.

Good thing she wasn’t most women.

“Get out of the way!” She warned. Her foot lifted off the brake.

His lips curved slowly in a crooked half-smile that sent a chill over her.

“Move!” She yelled at him.

He stepped closer.

Her hand shoved out the driver’s-side window. She’d broken the window weeks before. “Don’t push me!” He’d already admitted to being a hunter, and she wasn’t going to sit back and let him haul her away.

This life might not be the one she would have chosen, but she wasn’t letting death take her.

Tall and sexy kept walking toward her.

Not human. She was ninety percent sure of that fact. She revved the engine and shoved down on the gas pedal.

He was headed right for her with that smile still on his face—

Okay, she was eighty percent sure. And she wasn’t going that fast. If she hit him—

Seventy percent?

Her hands tightened on the wheel.

Then he leapt into the air. Her foot pushed that gas pedal all the way to the ground and she blazed straight ahead, going as fast as she could.

One hundred percent certain.

She risked a glance in the rearview mirror. The hunter stood behind her car, staring after her with his head tilted to the side.

Thanks to her new vampire senses, she could easily see him—and the grim smile that still curved his lips as he watched her drive away.

The light streaks of dawn shot across the sky. Nicole glanced up at them, eyes narrowing. Time had nearly run out for her.

“Baby, I’m gonna rock your world.”

But luckily, she’d found a drunk frat boy just in time. Thank God for spring break and boys who wanted to walk on the wild side.

Music from the club blared into the air. So dawn was coming. Apparently, the party had barely started for the folks in that place.

And for the folks outside … Nicole ran her fingers up the frat boy’s throat. His pulse raced beneath her touch and she could almost smell his blood.

Next time, she wouldn’t go so long between feedings. The fear wouldn’t hold her back again.

The guy pressed a kiss to her cheek. A wet, rough kiss that had her hissing out a breath and shoving him back against the side of the building. Her enhanced strength could sure be handy.

“We don’t have time to waste,” she told him. She didn’t trust that hunter not to show up. He hadn’t looked like the type who would give up easily.

I should have hit him with the car.

But she’d been trying for the whole don’t-kill lifestyle. And if she’d taken out a hunter, well, hunters were like weeds. A dozen more probably would have sprung up after her.

“Baby, I’m all for fast,” her frat boy promised as his hands made a grab for her. She caught them, pushed his hands back, and pinned his wrists to the wall.

He groaned. “Oh, God, yes, I like it rough.”

He would. Nicole’s eyes squeezed shut and she pushed onto her tiptoes even as she opened her mouth over his throat. She’d try hard not to hurt him, and she would keep her control. The sharp edges of her teeth pricked his skin.

The faintest whisper of sound reached her ears. A footstep. The soft rustle of clothing.

No.

Nicole spun around and saw her nightmare walking out of the darkness.

“Get away from her,” the hunter ordered, that voice still a dark rumble that she could almost feel.

She realized her right hand still held the frat boy. Nicole let her hand fall away from him. No way would she put a human—well, a semi-innocent one anyway—in the middle of this fight. “Go back inside.”

Her college snack blinked at her. “But we were—” A few drops of blood trailed down his throat. “I thought you were gonna …”

“You thought wrong.” She stepped away from him, and her gaze turned back to the hunter. “And unless you want to die, I’d recommend that you get your butt back in that bar.”

“D-die?” The word sounded like a frog’s croak.

The hunter was closing in. She took a deep breath. Yes, vampires still breathed. Their hearts still beat. Blood still flowed in their bodies. They died when they were transformed, but that death lasted only for an instant. All those tales about stone-cold vamps were false.

“Look,” frat boy blustered, “I’m not going—”

She glanced over her shoulder. This time, she let the guy see the monster in her eyes and the sharp teeth that had been ready to rip open his throat.

“Holy shit!” Frat boy ran, nearly falling twice as he hurried back to the bar.

She shook her head. Flexed her wrists. And waited.

The hunter kept coming toward her with his slow, stalking steps. She wasn’t going to run this time. Not when the odds were better. One against one now. And she might even be able to take him. Well, she might, depending on exactly what he was.

Because, as Nicole had unfortunately discovered over the last six months, monsters were real. Demons walked the earth, vamps hunted at night, and werewolves really did howl under the light of the full moon.

Her rose-colored glasses had smashed the night a vamp attacked her in New Orleans. She’d woken to a new world, new terrors, and the understanding that everything she’d known was really a lie.

Humans weren’t at the top of the food chain in the real world. They were just prey for the Other, for all of the supernaturals who lived in the shadows and who hunted whenever they damn well wanted to hunt.