Sterling Silver (Sterling Hunter Series Book 1)

Chapter 21

  Tabitha was just getting out of her car, trying to staunch the thoughts whirring through her head when someone tapped her shoulder. She jumped and spun around, fist out. As if a punch to the face could stop a vampire attack. Who she found instead simultaneously made her stomach drop and her heart skip a beat.

Sebastian folded his arms and grinned, cocking his head. Tabitha sighed and grinned back, letting her trembling hands drop to her side. "Jerk. You scared me."

"Yes, because a good punch to the face would have hurt me... As if you could actually hit me," he taunted.

Tabitha smirked and lashed out in a surprise attack. She itched for a fight. Something to distract her from all she had learned today.

Her fist connected with his shoulder and pain erupted in her knuckles. He didn't even flinch. She scowled and shook the pain from her hand, glaring at him.

He smirked. "Nicely done. Now... should we go to class or do you need to go to the nurse to have that looked at?"

She rolled her eyes and gave him a nasty look. Tabitha turned her back on him and started toward the school building. He fell into step beside her. And then in the silence between them, last night came flooding back. Tabitha swallowed. Their kiss... kisses. The way she had grabbed him and planted one on him before leaving his car. The way he'd made her feel invigorated and thrilled. It had both been romantic and something she'd needed. For a moment those memories distracted her from what she had found at the Carters, and Tabitha couldn't hold herself back any longer. She needed a distraction desperately, and Sebastian seemed to be her best bet.

Sebastian opened his mouth, his face troubled but Tabitha didn't let him get a word out. She grabbed the front of his shirt, and glancing around, yanked him into the shadows behind the stairs leading into the school building. "I don't want to talk right now. I had a pretty crappy half an hour and I just need to forget," she whispered. And then she pulled him toward her and kissed him. If she couldn't fight him than she could find another way to distract herself.

Tabitha kissed him with a need and a want she couldn't explain. She wanted to get lost in him, drown in him like she had last night. Forget everything. Forget that Mr. Carter thought she was a terrifying monster, a bomb about to explode. Forget about the body counts and how Carter was terrified of her and concerned for her at the same time. Sebastian didn't fight back either. Not at first at least. He pulled her in close and kissed her with the same need and want that she had as if he couldn't get enough of her.

She grinned against his lips, her whole body melting and just before she completely lost all sense of time and space Sebastian pulled away, gasping and clutching her shoulders, essentially pinning her in place. "You went snooping in the Carters and found something you didn't like. You're not an abomination. You're amazing," he said all in a rush.

Tabitha's heart sped up in her chest. She tried to pry his hands off her, her whole body still flushed from their make-out session. "Of course you'd say that. You're a vampire. You have a killer instinct. I... I'm probably more like you than I am like the other hunters," those words came out scratchy and raw. She was more like a vampire than an actual hunter of vampires.

"Please, is it so bad to be more powerful than other hunters? To be faster, stronger and more equipped to protect yourself? Would you really want to be weak like the others?" Sebastian gave her a smile that made her feel stupid for acting the way she was. Like a little girl who couldn't handle the truth. Tabitha was stronger than that. Better than that. Sebastian was right, even if she hated to admit it. Tabitha liked the way she was. She liked how powerful she felt when she was hunting and killing a vampire. She liked how being different, being better than the others made her feel special.