Shifter Read Online Free PDF Page A

world faded to black and white, but his other senses were so much sharper. He shifted back, looking over to Jake. “Do you sense him?”
                “The other one?” Jake asked. He nodded.
                “Take him when I take the obvious one then,” Kevin said. He changed again, creeping forward until he was in striking range of the young man, the vampire, on the door. His muscles bunched and he leapt.
                One on one, werewolves were stronger than vampires. The problem was always finding a way to actually kill them. Tearing them apart completely might work, but generally it was a question of attacking the neck and hoping for the best. The trouble was that most vampires who saw the attack coming protected their throats instinctively. In this case though, Kevin didn’t have to worry about that. He hit the vampire in front of him perfectly, his jaws closing on its throat, killing it in silence.
                A second figure appeared, a girl who opened her mouth as if to scream a warning to the vampires inside. She didn’t get the chance. Jake hit her from the side, his smaller but still powerful jaws clamping down to end her existence.        Kevin shifted back and opened the door to the gym just a crack. What he saw inside made his stomach knot in anger.
                There were kids in the bleachers. Dozens of them, maybe more. Several classes’ worth at least. They huddled together in quiet groups, whispering to one another, or praying, or just looking terrified as they had to watch what was going on down on the basketball court. There were vampires there. Old vampires. They stood around in a half circle on the three point line, and there were students on the floor beside them. One was bent over a girl who looked to be around Briony’s age, his fangs sunk deep into her throat. Another, a female vampire, had her wrist out over the mouth of a boy who didn’t seem any older than Jake, blood dripping from it as she forced him to drink in turn.
    Pietre stood at the heart of it all, looking so ordinary. So utterly banal. The master vampire appeared to be in his early forties, and he wasn’t handsome. He wasn’t stunning. His hair was short and neatly cut, and he wore a suit that had probably cost a small fortune, but the overall effect was of the manager of some small business, not of one of the most powerful creatures of evil in the area.
                In this case, he was a manager overseeing a kind of horrific production line. One by one, the vampires there drained their victims, giving them back blood, only to move onto another student plucked from the bleachers, and another. Kevin heard a low growl beside him, looking down to see Jake there, peering under his arm at the scene.
                “We have to stop them,” Jake whispered, and for a moment Kevin could hear the pain there. The pain that came from having been changed into a monster at such a young age, and knowing that he would never, ever, be any older than he was now.
                “We will,” Kevin promised. He slipped back outside to the other werewolves. “Jake and I are going inside,” he said. “When it starts, you all have just one job, and that is to get the kids out of there.”
                “Our job is to keep you alive,” Carol countered, “not to protect a bunch of humans.”
                Kevin looked at her until she flinched. “A minute ago, you were calling me your king. I’m not that, but I am in charge here. Which means you’ll get those kids out. Or do you want Pietre to populate Wicked with an army of transformed school kid vampires?”
                He put that in so it wouldn’t just be about giving her an order, but he could see that he didn’t need to. From the moment he gave her a command, Carol was nodding, and so were the other werewolves. Again, it seemed to be enough for them that he