Branded Read Online Free PDF Page A

anything like a vampire or succubus. Just that I sit high on the hierarchy of power.
    I’m not used to being hunted.
    But that’s exactly how I felt at that moment.
    Rather than take any chances, I gathered my concentration and poured a little energy down to my right hand. Warmth spread outward from my palm and into my fingers.
    “Who’s there?”
    The crickets chirruped merrily, but I didn’t hear anything else.
    Maybe I was being paranoid. Best thing to do, if I was being stalked, would be to get in my car and drive away. I let the energy in my hand dissipate and climbed in my car.
    The time I had spent standing out in the wet air had made me sweat into my fresh shirt. I could smell the piney menthol of my deodorant activating. I had decided against cologne, since I don’t normally wear it and Fiona probably knew that, so showing up smelling extra smelly might send her the wrong message. Or, send the right message, but at the wrong time.
    I started the engine and cranked up the A/C. The initial burst of air from the vents was oven warm, but at least it was dry.
    I started to back down the driveway and that’s when the dark panel van squealed its tires as it turned into my driveway and blocked me in.
    Oh, shit.
    I glanced in my side mirror in time to see four figures pour out of the van—one from behind the wheel and three others out the sliding side door. The red gleam in their eyes and the grotesque distortion of their facial features told me I was dealing with vamps. One of the streetlights caught the gleam of one of the vamp’s fangs in case I needed to be sure.
    I immediately reached into the glove box and grabbed the wooden crucifix I kept there.
    I got out of the car and faced the vampires as they lined up alongside my car’s rear bumper. Three males and a female. Telling their ages was impossible, since they stopped aging once they turned. Their looks could only give you an estimate of how old they’d been upon turning. And that didn’t matter much either, because once you went vamp, a whole new set of rules determined how powerful you were, and physical condition was low on that hierarchy.
    “Well, kids, this isn’t really your kind of neighborhood,” I said. I kept the cross held down at my side so they could see it, but I didn’t flash it around in front of me. That kind of gesture was considered especially rude in vampire company, and so far they hadn’t officially threatened me, so Ministry law could slap me with the equivalent of a misdemeanor if the vampires wanted to press charges.
    Yep, all sorts of laws laid down based on this stuff. Otherwise, the streets would run amok with the denizens of the dark…and the light, for that matter.
    The female vampire stood on the end of their lineup farther from my car. She wore a leather half-coat and had her straw-colored hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her face was full on vamp, the usual glamour that hid her true nature pulled aside. While this usually meant the vampire wasn’t happy to see you, it didn’t qualify as a technical aggression. So I had to look at her ugly face that looked like a skull with gray shrink-wrap for skin.
    She stepped forward. “Put down the cross.”
    I slowly shook my head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I pointed with it down my driveway as if it were nothing more than an extension of my figure, casual, not facing it toward them. They all cringed back, but I wasn’t using it against them in any obvious way, so no one could cry foul. “I was headed out my drive,” I said, then lowered the cross back to my side. “But you’re blocking me.”
    “Put it down,” the female snarled. The depth of red in her eyes turned three shades darker.
    “Is this about Darius?” I asked. “Because I had a legitimate contract on him. You can’t retaliate against me for that.”
    “We can do whatever we want,” said one of the males in the middle. His lips peeled away from his fangs and I noticed some discoloration