Free The Vampire's Revenge by Raven Hart

scared me more than anything.
    “Have you heard what I just said?”
    “Yeah, yeah. A couple of badass bloodsuckers are going to try to bite me.”
    “Look, they know you’re the Slayer, they know your name, and they know where you live.”
    “Whatever.”
    “Do you have any idea what a prize your death would be to the vampire who killed you? Whoever could take you out would be looking to get crowned king of the vampires!” I stared at her, exasperated. The light of malevolence was so palpable in her eyes that I was beginning to think of her exactly as I thought of the humans who’d had their bodies stolen by demons. This—this Slayer thing that had taken over Connie wasn’t afraid of anything. How could you protect someone, some thing that had no fear?
    “I get it,” she said finally. “But don’t tell me; let me guess the rest. A poor slayer can’t tell the good vampires from the bad vampires without a program—or rather without you, right? Not that I have any particular reason to trust you as a judge of character.” Connie glanced at Olivia, who was chattering to someone in Gaelic. “Take her, for example. She your girlfriend?”
    I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, You’re my girlfriend. Then I remembered myself. “Yeah,” I finally said. “Something like that. So how’s your love life? Are you and Seth . . . seeing each other again?”
    “Something like that,” she mocked. “Not that it’s any of your business, vampire. Especially not since you tried to kill me.”
    She almost had a point there.
    “And I will kill you, ” Connie said with conviction. “Just as soon as this double-dead mess is cleaned up, the truce is over. I’ll kill you like I killed William. No, wait. I killed him quickly. I do believe I’ll kill you the way you tried to kill me.”
    She came closer to me, so close the tips of her breasts touched my chest. Her eyes, blazing with hatred, gazed steadily into mine. “I’m going to sink my fangs into your jugular and suck your blood drop by drop until there’s nothing left of you.” Then she wheeled and stalked away from me, back to the crime scene.
    Feeling like an empty shell already, I walked the few feet to the water’s edge and peered into its glasslike surface. The moonlight was bright, but of course I didn’t cast a shadow on the ground or a reflection in the water. It was as if I wasn’t there at all. How nice that would have been.
    I heard Olivia’s cell phone snap shut and saw that she was back at my side. “I do believe she means it,” she said.
    “Oh my, yes,” I agreed. “She does.”
    “And by the misery in your eyes, I’d say you almost want to let her do that to you,” she said.
    I said nothing, only stooped to pick up a stone from the spongy patch of ground where the sea grass gave way to the water.
    Olivia followed me to the edge of the water. “Promise me something, love. Promise me that when the time comes, you’ll fight her as hard as you can to stay alive.”
    “I’m not alive.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “I can’t promise you that,” I said, and skipped the rock across the surface of the sea. The ripple reassured me that I was really there.
    For now anyway.

 
    Five
    On the drive back to William’s, Olivia explained that she talked to some of her Irish friends who were practitioners of what she called the old magic. William had hinted that in addition to being a vampire, Olivia was also some sort of witch. I didn’t care what kind of witch as long as she and her buddies could wave a wand over this body-swapping situation and make it go away.
    “So what do they think?” I asked her as I pulled the wrecker into William’s driveway.
    “They said they’d study the problem and get back to me. While they’re doing that, Melaphia and I can put our heads together. She might know something in the voodoo realm that could help.”
    As it was nearly sunup, Melaphia was at her usual place in the kitchen, drinking coffee