By: Savannah Russe

CHAPTER 1

The footsteps - slow and measured, heavy and determined - hit the pavement behind me with the steady rhythm of a funeral drum. The sound alone told me they belonged to a man of considerable size and consequence. I didn't have to look back. I knew he meant trouble.

At half-past three a.m., night covered Manhattan like a shroud. A fast, hard June shower had just ended, leaving the stone buildings black with rain. As I passed, their windows stared at me with blank, empty eyes. Until the arrival of the man, only the occasional swish of a Yellow Cab's tires on the wet streets had broken the hush of the late hour. The cool air felt as sharp as a knife blade when I inhaled deeply and kept walking, my dog Jade on a leash at my side.

Glancing down, I saw Jade's body tense, her tail going straight, her ears up. The footsteps became quicker, got closer. To anyone watching, I appeared to be an ordinary young woman, taller than most and thin as death. Perhaps, as I strolled alone on the empty city streets, a mugger or a rapist had targeted me easy prey.

That thought fled as quickly as it came. Who was I kidding? Sane people invariably drew back from me, giving me a wide berth. Some ancient instinct struck dread in their very bones, telling them that I was someone - no, not some one, but some thing - to avoid. As for the crazies of New York City, even they weren't stupid: my huge malamute, looking more like a wolf than a dog, kept them away.

That meant the odds were 101 out of 99 that my stalker was a vampire hunter. If I didn't do something quickly, I was about to die.

West End Avenue intersected with my block about two hundred feet ahead of me. I broke into a run, Jade keeping up with my stride. I reached the corner, turned sharply, hugged the granite wall of an apartment building, and stopped. I turned, crouched, and quickly released Jade's chain. I readied myself to attack.

I never got the chance. The moment the man passed the wall of the building and appeared, Jade sprang so fast her body became a blur of snarling rage. With a growl that made my blood run cold, she knocked him flat, her teeth sinking deeply into his forearm. He swore loudly. The polished wooden stake he clutched in his ham hock of a hand arced up, catching the light of a streetlamp before spinning and falling into the street with a clatter.

My mind became a haze of red anger and no thought. Irrational and reacting, I raced after the lethally sharp implement, meaning to use it as a weapon of my own. I grabbed it from the asphalt. My long fingers tightened around its smoothness. I raised it high above my head and charged toward my assailant, seeing him clearly for the first time.

Fighting to push Jade off and struggling to stand, the hunter was a fearsome sight. Clad entirely in black, he was broad and solid. With no visible neck, his head appeared to sit directly on his body so thick were the muscles of his shoulders. He had a wrestler's build and an assassin's face, flat and dull and cruel. A thick silver chain wrapped diagonally like a bandolier across his wide chest. Three more stakes hung from it.

The sight of the stakes drove me toward madness. Throughout my centuries on this earth, too many of my friends had felt the piercing agony such an instrument delivered. And as a stake drove into a vampire's heart, from the vampire's lips came a last terrible scream - a heartrending animal's cry of pure terror. Then came the fierce, horrible burning: the withering of flesh and bones crumbling to dust until nothing but a fine dry ash remained.

These memories fueled my rage. My own animal nature took control of my soul. My mouth widened to show the terrible whiteness of my pointed incisors. I think I was screaming as I leapt forward, intending to drive the glistening point into the hunter's slab-like face. But as I struck, he twisted away and the stake grazed his cheek, leaving an angry streak of red. Shaking Jade from his arm at last, he gained his feet. My dog flew at his legs, her barks and snarls wild with fury. He ran then, but in the moment before he moved, his dark eyes sought mine and I felt their hatred.

I did not give chase. My chest heaving, my brain spinning, I stopped. I called Jade back and she returned to me, her mouth smeared with blood. I found her leash on the sidewalk and snapped it on. I still held the smooth, long, wooden stake in my hand as my dog and I retraced my steps and headed home.

Pennsylvania

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