Night Kissed (Chosen Vampire Slayer #1) - Mila Young Page 0,1
with everything I had, kicking and punching, going ballistic.
The fiend grunted like an animal as he gripped one of my arms and twisted it behind my back.
Adrenaline pushed and pushed me. I felt nothing but the desperation to escape, to help my parents. My body shuddered.
With my scream, the monster bit into my neck. Sharp fangs dug into my neck, teeth sinking into me.
It hurt so badly, I cried, pummeling my fists against him, but he was a mountain. Breathing grew harder, but I still never stopped fighting.
A strange lethargy flared over me, flooding me with an unbearable exhaustion. My knees buckled out from under me instantly, but the monster held me pressed against him, slurping and licking my blood. He drew me deeper into the dark mass feathering the edges of my vision.
Crackling electricity flared down my arms, a snap of power I didn’t understand. It came faster and hard, the hairs on my nape standing upright.
The vampire shoved me away so violently, I flew backward and slammed into a trash can. I collapsed on the ground, struggling to move from exhaustion.
The fiend’s mouth gaped open, blood dripping out as he unleashed a horrendous screech of what sounded like pain.
I trembled, my vision fading faster and faster. The alleyway tilted around me and suddenly, my world blackened.
Chapter 1
Veronica
8 Years Later
How many forensic science students could say they went to class and hunted vampires on the side? It wasn’t really kosher to brag about that sort of thing, and yet I did take pride in it. Even if I was the only person who knew.
After a long day at college, I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and stared at the face of a girl who’d foolishly structured her schedule into dense, impenetrable walls of learning and was now paying the price. At the beginning of the semester, it had seemed like the best idea not to tempt myself with breaks between classes. Ten weeks later, it felt like walking over and over into a wall of sharp bricks.
I sighed deeply, trying to ignore the darkening circles under my eyes. After a shower, I retrieved my bag and chugged down a third of my undiluted coffee as soon as I sat in the chair at the desk. The bitterness forced some life back into my sleepy brain.
“Okay.” I sucked in a deep breath. “I can totally do this.”
First, I reached over to the corner of the desk and switched on my trusty police scanner. It was an older model, like a fax machine with an antenna, and it crackled as I fiddled with the dials to get a signal. It was old but affordable and that helped as money wasn’t exactly streaming in when I lived off the small inheritance from my parents. But I made do with everything I had, and even worked at a local café over the Christmas season for extra money.
It only took about half a minute to pick up on a reliable signal. I’d gotten pretty good about finding the right channels. Satisfied, I turned the TV on too, just to cover my bases. The local news was in the midst of a story about the rash of graffiti “decorating” the downtown cityscape as of late.
“The police have said they can’t rule out occult activity as of this report,” the reporter said. She had a look of professional concern pasted onto her face.
“Well, they’d be half right,” I answered.
No breaking news flashed across the television, no intrusions of sudden, horrific, and puzzling violence.
The next thing I heard was a very loud, angry buzz. I managed to trace it back down to my ringing cell phone.
I picked it up quickly, without checking the caller ID. Every fiber in my body was prepared to turn down an invitation to a night out, no matter how hard my friends ragged on me. A dozen excuses ran through my mind as I thumbed the answer button. I’m sick. I’m studying. I accidentally microwaved a spoon and the whole thing blew up.
“Hello?”
“Veronica? Hi, it’s me.”
I paused. The voice on the other end of the line was not one I would have expected to hear at this hour. Not least because she and I were currently separated by about two thousand miles. And at least one time zone.
“Uh, hey.” I leaned back in the chair and ran my fingers through the tangled nest of my hair. “What’s up, Lian? Is everything okay?”