chapter 1

Hunting vampires, as it turned out, was very boring.

That was what Roman told himself as he forcefully bumped shoulders with the vampire he’d been tracking for the past week.

The vampire stumbled a few steps, then looked at Roman, steely gray eyes narrowed as he assessed Roman. He was pretty much the walking stereotype that was a vampire. Dressed in black, pale, with eyeshadow under his eyes to make his dark circles more prominent, and he even had on black nail polish. If Roman hadn’t been so good at finding vampires, he’d have thought he was just some emo, or someone going through a bad phase, or an idiot trying to look like a vampire, but after watching the young man who was now looking him over for an entire week, and catching his hand burning and blistering when he’d reached outside his home for a package that was on his doorstep, Roman had figured it out.

That didn’t make it any less terrifying that he had a stake up his sleeve, and vervain on his person, and that he was going to stake the stupid thing and kill it before it could get a word in.

What Roman hadn’t counted on, though, was that the vampire would laugh at him.

“Kid, you’re going to get yourself killed if you keep pulling this stupid crap. Go home.” The vampire snickered.

“... What?” Roman asked dumbly.

The vampire grabbed Roman by the front of his shirt and tugged him in close, smoothly sliding the stake from Roman’s sleeve, holding it up with a raised brow, ignoring how his fingers began to blister from the wood that had been soaked in vervain extract, “You’re not slick, and I’m much too old to fall for things like this. Leave the hunting to mummy and daddy, and go back to whatever it is teenagers in this day and age do.”

Roman’s face fell, and damn him, because he just gave the leech more fuel.

“Oh, that’s precious. Lemme guess, you and the party you’ve got in that van across the street lost your parents, and now you’ve dedicated your lives to taking out the big, bad vampires.” the vampire released him, shoving Roman with such force that he fell flat on his back, his stake landing on top of him not a second later, “Unless you’re dealing with newly turned vampires, you won’t stand a chance. Don’t get yourself killed over something so stupid.”

Roman scrambled to sit up, fear causing his chest to constrict, “I’ve killed vampires before.” He said dumbly.

“Oh, I’m sure you have, but the thing about vampires is that when we age, we become stronger, faster, and because of our experience, better at avoiding you lot. You caught me because I don’t exactly hide it, and I don’t hide it because I can handle a child coming at me with a stake. Do yourself a favor and get out of here, stop looking for us, because I may have the patience to deal with you, but others won’t.”

Roman growled and jumped to his feet, lunging for the vampire, who easily side stepped him and sent him to the ground again. Roman was going to get up again, but a hand moved to his hair, and he was slammed against an alley wall as his head was forced back, opening his eyes to see the vampire with its fangs out.

“If you drink from me, you’ll just get sick.” Roman choked out, “I drink vervain.”

The vampire looked confused for a fraction of a second, then laughed, releasing Roman, “You think I’m going to drink from you? Kill you? If I wanted you dead, your neck would have been broken five minutes ago. I’m proving to you that you aren’t half the mighty hunter that you think you are.”

“Good enough of a hunter to figure out your name is Jason Wilkes.” Roman grinned, but what the vampire said a moment later made his cockiness disappear.

“Not even close, Roman Prince.” He said as he flipped his dyed purple bangs from his face, “If you wanted to find a paper trail for me under my real name, you’d have to go back to the Revolutionary War, and even then, all you’ll find is that I worked as a bloody stable hand,” suddenly, the vampire turned on his heel, waving a hand as he walked away, “I’ll let you two nurse his wounds, he’ll be pouting for the next week at least.”

Roman wondered what the vampire meant, but when he was tackled from behind by his hunting partners, he realized the vampire had known all along exactly where everyone was and if help was coming, and had just been toying with them, and Roman didn’t know whether to be angry or impressed.

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