Taming the Hunted by Larisa Anderson

Chapter 1
     
    The fire leapt from the match and caught the corpse’s clothes
as the body started to burn, the smoke spiraling up in the breeze. Marian hoped he finished burning before it rained and extinguished the flickering orange and
green-tinged flames, or else the vampire would be back and causing havoc
tomorrow night. The dumpster she had hidden him in muffled the flames from
those passing the alley where she hid. Blackened smoke spiraled up into the sky
through the gaps in the battered dumpster lid. A slight shift in the
smoke-tinged wind gave away another presence behind her, and she turned,
balling her fists to defend herself, but she wasn’t fast enough to block him.
    He knocked her off her feet with one swing of his broad arm,
and she sailed through the air. Her back slammed with a teeth-rattling thud
high into the trunk of a sturdy tree along the sidewalk. She dropped onto her
belly on the branch below and wrapped her arms and legs around its thin form to
keep from falling farther. Air caught in her chest as she struggled to draw
breath through clenched teeth. Adrenalin coursed through her veins as she
fought to regain her balance. She was twenty feet above the pavement and
scrambled for a better hold, her nails ripping and stinging as they gripped the
wood.
    The vampire seemed to no longer consider her a threat and
bent to retrieve his mate from the bin with a snarl in her direction. What was
left of the blackened corpse hung in his arms as he disappeared into the fading
light, running at a speed that left a faint whiff of smoke from the dying
embers in his wake.
    Marian cursed, thinking she’d have to waste another night on
that bloodsucker. As a hunter, it was her job to go where she was needed and
kill what evil she found. Night walkers were not bad as a whole. Those who
preyed on humans, however, brought a bounty upon themselves and should expect
to be hunted.
    The sun sank lower in the sky, creating a deep orange-pink
glow over the city. If she had not been thinking of her impending fall from the
tree, she would have thought it beautiful. Instead, Marian cringed at the
thought of being stuck up there when the sun set and darkness took over. No
one, not even a hunter, liked to be in the city after night fall. Dusk and dawn
were the times she hunted, the sun keeping all but the hardest and oldest of
the night beings at bay; even those who came out in the day kept to the shadows.
She wasn’t interested in the little ones, the young and peaceful creatures.
Nightfall, however, was their time, when glowing eyes stalked from alleyways
and any creature could venture forth into the streets without fear of the light.
Those like her, who knew where to look, could see them. Worse, they recognized
her for what she was—a hunter, whose sole purpose in life was to rid the world
of their kind.
    The tree swayed as a breeze kicked its leaves. She looked at
the pavement below and closed her eyes, gulping back fear. As she clung tighter
to the branch, the bark ripping at her exposed arms, a different feeling crept
over her skin. Goose bumps lifted all over her as she sensed a being approach,
something non-human.
    The squeal of car brakes and the sharp, acrid smell of
burning rubber made her lurch. Her skin tore in small scratches and scrapes,
drawing pinpricks of blood which fell and traced along the rough, brown tree
limb. The sharp metallic tang of her blood filled her nose.
    “What are you doing up there?” a deep male voice asked from
below.
    The undertones of his words put Marian instantly on the
defensive, yet a calm settled over her, and her muscles relaxed as fog clouded
her thoughts, like someone was controlling them.
    “Killing myself apparently,” she shouted down to him as she
fought to retain her cool, recalling her training. His voice resonated deep
with such seductive undertones that his simple words settled into her as she
struggled to focus on simple facts. Her name, the city, the day and year,