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“Buddy Vincent is easily fifty years old and as sweet as a kitten,” she pointed out, still smiling and thoroughly amused.

“He’s still male,” Andreas all but growled. “And he is still watching us.”

“Yeah?” Claire grabbed the front of his shirt to get his attention. “Then why don’t you stop looking at him and kiss me instead.”

With a dark gaze that promised more than kisses, Andreas did exactly what she asked.

CHAPTER

Seventeen

Kade caught the scent of freshly spilled human blood only a couple hours into the night’s patrol.

“Down that alley” he said to Brock and Chase, who both nodded their agreement in silence.

The three warriors headed off together, stealthy, weapons drawn and ready to fire, as they started down the lightless stretch of asphalt that separated two old brick buildings in the seedier part of town. The narrow strip of pavement was foul with the stench of human waste and rotting garbage. But none of that could disguise the coppery tang that emanated from the other side of a dilapidated Dumpster.

Kade reached the dead human first. It was a young female this time, savaged just as brutally as the male he and Brock had found last night. Unfortunately for her, the vampire who’d butchered her throat had also had a taste for something else. Her short skirt was shredded down the front and gory with blood. Her bright pink painted fingernails were broken, her knees scraped, as if she had tried unsuccessfully to get away from her killer.

“Jesus,” Brock muttered under his breath. “This girl is somebody’s daughter. Maybe somebody’s sister. What kind of fucking animal would do—”

Chase’s fist went up in a signal to cut the chatter. He pointed to the rooftops above their heads. Someone was up there. The crunch of a footstep traveled down to the alley on the quiet of the clear autumn night.

Was it Hunter?

This new corpse sure seemed to fit his apparent pastime.

“I’m going up,” Chase mouthed.

“Not without backup,” Kade replied, but the ex-agent was already in motion. He holstered his weapon and leapt up onto the Dumpster in silence before jumping from there to grab the bottom of a black fire escape on the building. With hardly a sound, he scaled the rickety iron steps, then vaulted up and onto the roof.

Gunfire erupted the instant Chase disappeared from view.

“Ah, shit,” Brock hissed. “That crazy motherfucker. You take the stairwell inside; I’m going up the escape after him.”

They took off via separate routes to the roof, both of them arriving within seconds to find Chase lying in a pool of his own blood, bleeding from a ferocious chest wound. He was badly hit, but breathing.

“Son of a bitch,” Kade said as he raced to the fallen warrior’s side.

“Not… him,” Chase groaned, grimacing with the effort. “Wasn’t Hunter…”

“What do you mean, it’s not Hunter?” Kade said. “Then who the hell—”

Another hail of incoming rounds ripped through the darkness from a point unseen. Metal pinged. Aged brick shattered.

Kade and Brock returned fire, shooting toward the source of the assault but seeing nothing solid to aim for. More bullets flew at them.

Brock shouted in sudden pain. “Fuck! I’m hit.”

“Goddamn it,” Kade snarled, glancing over in time to see that the big black warrior had taken a bullet to the upper biceps. It was an impairing wound, but nothing fatal. Chase, on the other hand… shit, the guy was in real bad shape.

Fury over his wounded brethren roared through Kade’s veins as he squeezed off a hellish volley of rounds. He caught a flash of movement—dark against the darkness—and saw their assailant leap to the rooftop of the adjacent building.

“Fucker’s on the move. I’m going after him.”

He left Brock to cover Chase and hauled ass after the huge vampire who was jumping from building to building like a cat. Not being Gen One, as his quarry obviously was, Kade didn’t have that kind of speed, but he had determination. He kept up, navigating the assorted clutter of ventilation systems, access doors, loose pipes and tools, and other items that had somehow found their way up to the