Guild Hunter 02 - Angels' Flight

bow and arrow!”
     
    “You’re behind the times—I switched to a crossbow last year.” It was faster, but she kinda missed her specially designed bow. Maybe she’d go back to it. “And it doesn’t even hurt.”
     
    “Says you.”
     
    She blinked. “How old are you?”
     
    “I just turned three.” Vampires counted their age from the time of their Making.
     
    Sara shook her head. “And you tried to run? Why the fuck would you do something so stupid?” His sire, Mr. Lacarre, was way past mad.
     
    “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Sounded like a good idea at the time.”
     
    Clearly, they weren’t dealing with the sharpest knife in the drawer. “Oooookay.” Her eyes met Deacon’s. Not a ripple in their night-shadow green depths, but she could’ve sworn he was holding back laughter. Biting off her own smile, she returned her attention to Rodney. “Simple question.”
     
    “Oh, good.” The vampire grinned, showing both fangs, something the old ones never did. “I don’t like hard things.”
     
    “Who cut you, Rod?”
     
    He swallowed and blinked rapidly. “Nobody.”
     
    “So you tried to decapitate yourself?”
     
    “Yeah.” He nodded, which meant Deacon was holding on very lightly. Not that it mattered. Sara had her crossbow as insurance.
     
    “Rodney.”
She put all the menace was capable of in that single word. “Don’t lie to me.”
     
    He blinked again and—oh my God—he was going to cry. Now she felt like a bully. “Come on, Rod. Why are you scared?”
     
    “Because.”
     
    “Because . . .” She thought about what would scare a vampire that bad. “Was it an
angel
?” If it had been his sire, she couldn’t do anything about it except report the bastard to the Vampire Protection Authority. However, it was also possible the attack had been orchestrated by one of Lacarre’s enemies, in which case the angel would take care of it him-self.
     
    “No.” Rodney sounded shocked enough to be telling the truth. “Of course not. The angels Make us. They don’t kill us.”
     
    And the boy was living in la-la land. “So who else scaresyou that bad?” She caught Deacon’s eyes again at that moment and found her answer in their no-longer-amused depths. “A hunter.” Or someone Rodney had mistaken for a hunter. Because real hunters didn’t kill vampires.
     
    Rodney started sniffling. “Please don’t hurt me. I didn’t do anything.”
     
    “Hey.” Sara reached out and, ignoring his flinch, patted him on the shoulder. “I’m interested in collecting my retrieval fee. I only get half if you’re dead, so it doesn’t make sense for me to kill you.”
     
    Rodney looked at her with hope a shiny gem in his eyes. “Really?”
     
    “Yep.”
     
    “What about—” Lowering his voice, he pointed at the arm around his neck.
     
    Deacon spoke for the first time. “I’m her boyfriend. I do what she says.”
     
    She stared at him, but Rodney apparently found the claim highly reassuring. “Yeah, you’re the boss,” he said to Sara. “I can tell. My Mindy, she likes to be the boss, too. She told me I should run away and, you know, we could go on, like, a cruise.”
     
    Sara pressed her finger over his lips. “Focus, Rodney. Tell me about the hunter who cut you.”
     
    “He said all you hunters hate vampires.” Rodney’s voice got very small. “I didn’t know that. I know it’s your job to track us, but I didn’t think you hated us.”
     
    “We don’t.” Sara wanted to pat him on the head. Jesus. “He was just being mean.”
     
    “You think so?”
     
    “I know so. What else did he say?”
     
    “That vampires were the scum of the earth, and that the angels were being polluted by our presence.” He made a face. “I don’t know how that could be true since the angels Make us.”
     
    Sara was so surprised by the sudden burst of sense that it took her a second to process it. “Yeah, that’s right. So he was lying. He say anything else?”
     
    “No, he just got outhis sword—”
     
    Sword?
     
    “—and tried to cut off my head.” He sat back, recital finished.
     
    “What did he look like?” Deacon asked.
     
    Rodney jumped, as if he’d forgotten the danger at his back. “I couldn’t see. He was wearing a black mask, and black everything. But he was tall. And strong.”
     
    That included half the hunters in the Guild. Sara tried to get more out of Rodney, but it was a bust. Neckleting him again, she drove to