Claiming the Vampire Slayer

Chapter Two: Caught

It feels so good to get out of the compound and away from Jasper and my parents. His taunts are still ringing in my ears.

"You're sure?" I ask Kim.

She nods vigorously. "I heard Jasper talking about it. There's, like, five vampires sleeping at the old fairgrounds."

I sniff when she says Jasper's name. After our little sparring session, I'd rather throat punch him than see him again.

Maybe I'll try that next time.

I grin at Kim. "Let's go, then."

I check the bag slung over my shoulder. Stakes rattle, which means I'm ready.

Kim's smile widens. Her pale skin flushes in the sunlight, and she tugs a hat lower over her forehead.

I head across the road and hop the fence, landing on the balls of my feet with one hand on the ground. I glance left and right.

"Clear!" I call back to Kim.

She lands beside me with a stake in one hand.

I straighten and check our surroundings. Rusted equipment lays on the ground, and the old Ferris wheel has half-crumbled, its pods piled in a heap.

If I was a vampire, where would I hide?

"There," Kim says, pointing her black-painted nail at the ramshackle funhouse.

Of course.

I tip my head and grin at Kim.

She matches my smile, flipping the stake around in her hand. "Let's kill some vamps."

I grab a stake from my bag and knock it against hers. "Like shooting fish in a barrel."

The funhouse door swings open on silent hinges. Good for us—bad for the vampires sleeping inside.

I asked my mother once if she felt bad for killing them in broad daylight while they slept. She slapped me, so I never asked again.

I refuse to feel guilty. They could wake at any moment and rip my throat out.

Daylight doesn't make them automatically evaporate in a puff of smoke, sadly. Then I'd just walk around with a UV light and blast them all to shit.

Since I can't, we'll do this the old-fashioned way.

Silence heavy as death grips me around the middle.

The scene fades, my mind skipping ahead.

I sit in Bree's apartment, a book on my lap.

"His name is Marcellus," she says, leaning forward. "He took this from Selene."

I read aloud. "The Sunlight Amulet is said to have the power to allow vampires to walk in the daylight without fear of death."

Bree chuckles and runs her thumb across her lip. "No more slow roasting vampires in the sun."

"You're saying that this vampire—"

"Marcellus," she interjects.

I wave a hand. "You're saying Marcellus stole the Sunlight Amulet, then...disappeared?"

Bree lifts a shoulder. "No one's seen him in two hundred years."

Two. Hundred. Years?

I knew that vampires could up and disappear, but for that long?