To Have: Vampire Assassin League #19 by Jackie Ivie Page B

certain of the ranger supervisor’s incapacity by slamming the door again into him. The gun fell. Supervisor Craig’s nose started spouting blood from both nostrils. Red. Thick. Evie watched it coat the front of his shirt...reaching his pocket patch. He slumped down the wall. An instant thirst hit her. It raised shivers. She didn’t know if they were from revulsion or interest. Ugh.
That was true? Vampires really crave blood? Even the half-turned ones?
    She was shaking as she brought the water bottle to her mouth and sucked on it. She’d been right about the water. It tasted awful.
    “You the vampire chick?”
    Evie swallowed and lowered the bottle. “Who are you?” she asked instead.
    “We’re Hunters.
Vampire
Hunters.”
    The last guy did something to Supervisor Craig to incapacitate him. She didn’t look. She was entirely too startled and leery of her reaction to fresh blood. She kept her gaze on the asshole in charge. He looked about her age. Cocky. He carried a pretty large crossbow thing in his right hand while resting it in his left. Evie considered him for a long moment.
There was such a thing as a vampire hunter, too?
    “What did you do to them?” she asked when nobody said anything.
    “Who?”
    “The park rangers.”
    “Oh. They’ll be fine. We don’t kill humans. We only kill monsters.”
    And then he slammed a water-filled balloon onto the tabletop. It ruptured, spraying everything with mist. Evie gasped, as what felt like boiling water hit her, even through her
chador,
paining minutely before dissipating. That put a lot more emotion in her words than she meant to. “What the hell is wrong with you people?”
    “That answers that. She’s not turned yet,” one of them remarked.
    “Maybe not fully, but she’s definitely on her way. Aren’t you, sweetheart?”
    She really hated being called sweetheart. Especially by assholes. “What. Was. That.” She stretched each word out.
    “Holy Water. Effective against vampires. Super effective against real ones. Want to see what wooden stakes do next?” He gestured with his crossbow thing.
    Her heart stuttered. A pain shot through her head. She squinted against it. “Not especially,” she answered finally.
    “Oh. Don’t fret so. We’re not after you. If we were, you’d be dead already.”
    The second guy gave her that information. He was a hair shorter than the lead guy, larger through the shoulders, and had a smug smile filled with perfectly aligned white teeth.
    “We’re here for your mate.”
    “My...mate?”
    The first guy snickered. Evie moved her focus back to him. Evaluated her options. She had her water bottle. A few plastic chairs. A table. Against three assholes. And she wasn’t remotely athletic. Then again...she
had
saved herself from a rattler just this morning.
    “You’re just bait, honey.”
    Oh. Honey was almost as bad as being called sweetheart. She squeezed the bottle. Water spilled onto her fingers. She could hear it dripping onto the table, but nobody else seemed to notice. And just then a shadow darkened the portal where the end guy still held the door open. Evie caught a flash of something. An instant arc of pain hit behind her eyes again.
Holy shit
. That ache was Daron! He really did hear her! She had to mute the instant realization before the Hunters saw it. And so she started talking, using her conversationalist voice, as if she was on stage answering a question for a beauty pageant.
    “You gentlemen do realize how crazy you sound...yes?”
    Hunter Number One lifted the crossbow and aimed it right at her breast. Evie’s heart stumbled. Recovered. And started pounding away in her chest. Every muscle grew tense. Prepared. Readied. She’d never had such a reaction. She’d never faced a deadly projectile from a table length away, either.
    “Joe, what are you doing? If you kill her, we’ll lose the vampire and our patch!”
    The back Hunter guy hissed it. Evie smiled.
    “Well. I certainly hope you brought