River Cast: Part Two in the Tale of Lunarmorte by Samantha Young

No!” Jaeden
shouted and threw up her hand.
    Suddenly the cold metal
disappeared from his temple, and the gun, with its sinister
silencer attached, flew past his face and into Jaeden’s waiting
hand.
    What the...
    She took aim immediately,
and shot behind Ryder as he ducked for cover. Ryder whirled to see
an abnormally thin, tall male in slacks and a striped sweater,
stumbling back against the wall. This... this was the would-be
assassin? Holy Artemis.
    The vampyre regained his
footing. A bullet wasn’t going to do much. He saw Jae make a move
towards the guy out of the corner of his eye and hissed in
disbelief. He threw out his arm, pushing her behind him more
roughly than he intended, and then turned on their attacker. The
guy threw a punch that would have sent him through the wall had he
made contact with him, but he missed having thrown too much weight
behind it. Ryder jerked to his side, grabbing a hold of his arm,
and twisted it hard enough to break it. The vamp howled. This gave
him the leverage to whip the supernatural around and grab a hold of
his head. As quick as lightning, Ryder wrenched it clean off his
neck.
    “ Yuck.” He
sighed, dropping the dismembered head on the body. He turned back
to glare at Jaeden, who stood watching him in awe. “Well, don’t you
have some explaining to do.”
     
    ***
     
    Oh crap! Why did he have
to go and ruin the moment? Here she was, trembling with shock at
the violence, and yet overwhelming admiration with the quick way
Ryder had dispatched the vampyre who had come after her. She could
tell by the way he hadn’t lingered over the kill that he was a
Hunter not because he enjoyed it, but because he was strong and
good at it. Fast, efficient.
    But noo... could he allow
her to stand and ogle him in admiration for just a few minutes.
Nope. He had to crack right to the fact that she had used her
telekinesis. And whatever friendship they had formed in the last 36
hours was going to die a sudden death when he realised she was
polluted.
    Maybe she could feign
ignorance.
    “ I think we
should get rid of the body just before dawn. We’ll put it out back
and it’ll be gone within seconds. Nice job by the way. I’ve not
quite managed the art of decapitation by bare hands but I’ll work
on that. Yes siree. Is there a technique-”
    “ Jaeden,” he
warned quietly, and took a few intimidating steps towards her.
Automatically she backed up against the wall. “Jae, is this what
you’re hiding?” He pointed to the gun she didn’t realise was still
in her hand. “How did you do that? And before you ask, yes, I mean
how did you whip the gun from his hand to yours?”
    Aw crap, her life was so
over.
    She heaved a heavy sigh
and flopped down on to the nearest bed, placing the gun gently on
the bedside table. She couldn’t look at him as she began, “I don’t
know. I can move things with my mind, I guess.”
    “ Like
Caia?”
    No, not like
Caia! She wanted to scream. Caia could do
that because she was born to do it. Half-magik, half-lykan. She
hadn’t been tortured to near death, and imbued with her torturers
gift for ‘look no hands!’
    Instead she shrugged. “I
don’t know. I think...”
    “ You think?”
He prodded gently.
    She curled her hands into
fists. She didn’t want to talk about this! How dare he force her to
talk about it? It was none of his goddess damn business!
    “ Jae?”
    “ I don’t want
to talk about it,” she clipped out.
    “ Well, you’re
going to have to cos’ I do.”
    Arrgghhh!
    Her eyes flashed up to
meet his, blazing with shame and fury. “Go to Hades,
Ryder!”
    He flinched, obviously
taken aback by the venom in her voice. “Jae-”
    “ What, are
you deaf?! I don’t want to discuss it. Not with Caia, not with my
dad, not with Lucien, and most definitely not with some two-bit
Rogue Hunter!”
    A growl that built into an
almost roar ripped out of him, and he suddenly had her by her upper
arms, shaking her like a rag doll.
    “ Let go!”