Blood, Fire and Vampire Slayers: Jasper Hale love story Book #2

6: Himmler

The Shadow stumbled and crawled out of the trees, over fallen logs and driftwood with cold sand and stones crunching. He'd been singed and chased up and down the edges of towns and suburbs, through the forests and wilderness for miles. Run to exhaustion. If it weren't for a bear's den and a spell that concealed his scent, he would have been found. The bear was easier to deal with than the dragon. The shadowy hunter even suspected that the dragon was holding back; letting him escape. He glanced repeatedly at the darkened sky, still alert for any sign of it. But he was far south of Forks now and the icy sea, a relief for the burned skin on his back and shoulder, washed away all thoughts of the chase.

There was a time when fire would never have harmed him, when he would have used it against others and watched them burn. He was not a vampire, nor was he a master of magic or alchemy, but rather a wretched combination; a withering shapeshifter. A curse had brought on the deterioration of his body and his abilities and now only blood (the life of others) could sustain him. He let the waves carry him back to shore and went back up the beach where he'd left his crossbow, the bone-handled weapon he used when he had no claws of his own, and what remained of his jacket. He broke out the last of Chloe Bishop's blood - clotted and congealed - but reviving. Some strength returned when he slurped it up, but not nearly as much as a fresh kill would have provided and with each day less and less of his strength returned.

"Reinhard Himmler." He looked up and saw a blonde vampiress standing in the fringe of the forest, barely visible, but for the red on her cloak and in her eyes. "The hunter... You look like one of your victims."

"What do you want?" Himmler muttered, turning his gaze to the sea.

"I am Jane. I'm here on Aro, the head of the Volturi's, behalf." Himmler gave her a glance, not as impressed as she thought he might have been. "We can help you catch your prey, and once we have it, we can negotiate a way to split the bounty."

"No," said Himmler. "I hunt alone and I keep it all. I do not need help." Jane came closer with a coy smile.

"It must have been embarrassing, mistaking a completely different girl for your target the first time," she said. She saw Himmler's jaw flex. "That was what happened, wasn't it? Tracking skills aren't what they used to be." He ignored her, staring at the waves as she came closer. "You didn't make a mistake with the second girl. But you did it out of hunger. And to keep your focus: she looked like the unicorn too."

"I did it because I wanted to," said Himmler.

"Your strength waxes and wanes more erratically with every meal."

"I am not sharing any part of my target. And I do not need to, because I do not need a filthy vampire to help me. I kill your kind for money."

"And yet here you are, miles and miles from town. Weak and wounded, living off the blood of animals and teenage girls. You are now more like a vampire than you are a dragon... You even burn... Afraid of fire, Himmler?"

In a flash he picked up his crossbow and launched a bolt into Jane's forehead. She fell and it made him smile a little.

"That is not any fire," he snapped. "And there was never supposed to be a fire drake here. I was the most powerful of dragons. I could incinerate you and leave nothing behind. I will have that power again and I will not share it." Jane sat up, heaving a sigh.

"You know this won't work," she said, lifting a hand to where he shot her.

"I know. I just really like blondes and I wanted to put a hole in your head." She clenched her jaw and gripped the end of the bolt, but it didn't budge. Himmler picked up his other weapon, the carved bone handle with the dragon claw end bared like a sickle - sharpened, but stained with the blood of many kills. In the seams and grooves were remnants of deer, squirrel, Chloe, Melanie... and Kohana. The handle left a neat hole in the ground when he pulled it out. "I don't need you," said Himmler as Jane struggled. "You can't even avoid my crossbow." The bolt was now slick with her black blood. It was running down her face over her nose, by the crease of her right eye and her cheek and dripping from her chin onto her clothes where it burned holes in the fabric. Jane gasped when he pounced on her. Her red eyes wide, as he pressed the dragon claw to her forehead. His orange-brown eyes we're sunken with dark shadows, unfeeling, but they glittered with enjoyment as he pressed the dragon claw to her head.