Read Darkness Rises (Immortal Guardians) for Free Online

him. This fragile, mortal woman had hunted and fought vampires for six years and survived to tell the tale? With no help from the network?
    So much had been happening in North Carolina in recent years: The uprisings. The battles. And she had hunted vampires through it all?
    “That’s impossible.”
    “Apparently not or I wouldn’t be standing here.” She frowned. “Wait. You said them .”
    “What?”
    “You said them , that I had been hunting them , not us .”
    He swore silently.
    “What are you?”
    “I have fangs. My eyes glow. I heal at an accelerated rate. And I have preternatural speed and strength. What do you think I am?” he retorted. Until he was sure she and her brother were operating independently and weren’t part of some new threat—especially not members of the mercenary group he and the others had recently defeated—he was reluctant to tell her that he was an immortal.
    He had actually once been like her brother: a gifted one , or mortal born with special abilities stemming from advanced DNA, before he had been infected with the vampiric virus. Vampires were human before they were infected and, lacking the advanced DNA, were driven insane by the brain damage it caused.
    She shook her head. “You’re different. You’re not like the others.”
    He arched a brow. “Because I didn’t try to kill you?”
    Her head continued to wag back and forth as her gaze skipped over him. “You’re different.”
    He frowned. She didn’t seem to be checking him out. She seemed to be studying him.
    Did she see something that set him apart from the others?
    “ How am I different?”
    “You tell me. ”
    Not bloody likely.
    She mimicked his frown and took another step back. “Why have you been following me?”
    She’d caught that, had she?
    Well, curiosity had driven him to watch her. And she did prove to be a very good vampire lure. He hadn’t killed this many vamps on a daily basis in quite some time.
    He should have turned her name and address over to Chris Reordon. But there was something about her. He couldn’t get her out of his head.
    Not that he would admit it.
    “You make good bait,” he stated just to rile her.
    Her face flushed with fury. “I what?”
    Damn, she was beautiful. “You make good bait. Hunting vampires has never been so easy. I just follow you and take out the dullards who can’t resist you and slink after you.”
    “You . . . I . . . Is that an insult? Are you saying only dullards would be attracted to me?” she sputtered.
    If that’s true, you’re standing before a big-ass dullard, he wanted to say. “Of course not. Only dullards would want to kill you.”
    “Oh. Well, you can’t do that. You can’t just follow me and take out any vampires who fall for my trap.”
    He shrugged. “You can’t really stop me, can you?”
    “The hell I can’t.”
    “Well, you could if you ceased hunting and left the slaying of vampires to me,” he suggested.
    She stared at him. “Seriously, what are you?”
    “What are you? ”
    “What do you mean? I’m human.”
    “Your brother isn’t.”
    The tip of one of her swords nicked him as she pressed it to his throat. “What do you know about my brother?”
    “That he’s a healer, a gifted one.”
    “I don’t know what a gifted one is, but you leave him the hell out of this,” she snarled.
    “As long as he aids you in your quest, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
    “I’m not kidding.” Her expression fierce, she pressed forward. “Stay. The hell. Away from him.”
    “If you fear for his safety, you have only yourself to blame. You led me to him.”
    Alarm and self-condemnation flitted across her pretty face.
    “It’s only a matter of time before you lead vampires to him as well,” he pointed out, “if you haven’t already.”
    “I haven’t. I’ve been careful.”
    “Are you sure? Did you know I followed you?”
     
     
    Fear suffused Krysta.
    Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
    She’d been so stupid! She’d been so