Free A Killer First Date by Alyxandra Harvey

Lucy
     
    “I look stupid,” I said to Solange, who was sprawled on my bed. She rolled over to look at me, keeping her place in the book she’d been reading with her finger.
    “It’s just Nicholas.” She rolled her eyes. They were faintly bloodshot, but just enough to make her look tired, not scary.
    I grimaced at her in the mirror. I was standing in a pile of discarded clothes, wearing outfit number three—a pair of rolled-up, patched jeans and a black peasant blouse embroidered with green leaves around the neckline. “He might be your brother, Sol, but this is our first real date. You know, without vampires trying to kill us, or eat us, or otherwise horribly maim us.” I closed my eyes briefly, swearing under my breath. “I just totally jinxed it, didn’t I?”
    She nodded sympathetically. “Probably.” Her fangs poked out from under her top lip but she still looked like she was made of porcelain—someone’s morbid idea of a doll.
    I reached for my new favorite stake, an altered hairpin printed with turquoise-blue skulls. I slipped it into the embroidered purse I’d taken to wearing everywhere. It was heavy with stakes, a casing full of Hypnos powder, a pocketknife, and a bag of chocolate-covered coffee beans. Hey, survival should not be uncaffeinated.
    I looked at my reflection one more time. “I wonder if I should change back into that—” I cut myself off abruptly. “Oh my God, your brother’s making me stupid.” I resolutely turned my back on the mirror. I wasn’t that girl. And I wasn’t about to let a guy, no matter how damn hot he was, turn me into something I wasn’t.
    Solange grinned. “Hi, Lucy, welcome back.”
    I threw one of my discarded shirts at her. “We will never speak of this again.”
    “So where are you guys going, anyway?”
    “School carnival,” I said. “Why don’t you come too? You need to get out.”
    She stared at me. “Are you nuts? I’m not going to be your third wheel.”
    “So call Kieran.”
    “He’s on duty.” Translated: hunting the feral
Hel-Blar
vampires who were roaming entirely too close to Violet Hill for anyone’s liking. She pushed her black hair off her face. “Anyway, I want to work on my pottery wheel tonight.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “I’m sure.” She grabbed her knapsack, which hid an extra bottle of blood, just in case. “I should get going. Is Nicholas meeting you there?”
    “Yes.” Before I could stop it, thoughts of Nicholas made my heart stutter with excitement. Solange slid me a sidelong glance and stepped back. Vampires. They were so bloody sensitive. “I wanted to save him from my mother.”
    “She told me there was blood in the basement fridge if I was thirsty. Your mom rocks.”
    “Yeah, wait until she tells Nicholas that being the bloodsucking undead doesn’t excuse him from family dinners or safe sex.”
    Solange choked. “She wouldn’t.” Our glances met. “She totally would.”
    “Yup,” I said. “Wait.” I paused. “One more accessory.” I darted to my side table.
    She groaned. “You’re starting to scare me, Hamilton.”
    I grabbed a pendant I hadn’t been able to resist buying last week and slipped it on the chain with the Drake cameo I never took off. It was a silver heart, which was totally
not
me. Except for the words engraved in the center: Bite me.
    I grinned at Solange. “I’m armed with stakes and sarcasm.
Now
I’m ready.”
    “Is this a date or an ambush?”
    I snorted, looping my arm through hers. “What do
you
think?”

Hunter
     
    “Is that all you’ve got, Wild?”
    It might have been easier to come up with a witty retort if I weren’t lying flat on my back in the mud, the dark forest towering over me. Even worse, Spencer was the one who’d put me here. In four years of school training drills, he’d never once taken me down.
    Of course, he hadn’t been a vampire until just recently.
    He looked the same with his blond dreads and turquoise beads. His transformation was so