Free A Killer First Date by Alyxandra Harvey Page A

recent, he even still had his tan. It was just that his teeth were a little sharper and his eyes a touch more mesmerizing. But I knew better than to look directly into the eyes of a vampire, friend or not. Vampire pheromones were more complicated than that, but there was no denying they seemed to work best with eye contact.
    “Damn.” My roommate, Chloe, whistled. “Vampire blood is even better than those stupid steroid pills that give you a mustache.” She had intimate and unfortunate firsthand experience with those pills, and I still caught her checking for facial hair, tweezers in hand. Chloe’s mother had slipped them to her to avoid her getting dosed with a secret poison one of the teachers, Ms. Dailey, had been using on unsuspecting students. The poison was called Trojan Horse and it tainted weak hunters’ blood. When they eventually got drained by a stronger vampire, the vampire would be poisoned and also die. Dailey had tried to use me as a test subject after I’d “disappointed” her. There was no such thing as a simple detention at the Helios-Ra vampire hunter high school.
    “You used to suck, Spence,” Chloe added.
    “Ha-ha,” he remarked drily. Spencer might have been a classmate up until a few weeks ago, but he’d mostly focused on the new Supernatural Studies curriculum. Spells and magic fascinated him, not vampires. But when he’d been infected by a
Hel-Blar
and accidentally dosed with the Trojan Horse poison, the school doctor had opted to turn him completely instead of watching another student die in her infirmary. I’d rather have my best friend back—even as a vampire—than lying dead in the earth. I trusted him to be stronger than the monster inside. I had proof it was possible.
    So Spencer survived, the doctor was fired, and the school was still in an uproar. That last bit was partly my fault, as I’d helped take down Ms. Dailey. And I’d collaborated with a vampire against another hunter. Even when that hunter was insane, collaboration with vampires wasn’t exactly normal procedure.
    And by collaborate I mean: date.
    And, even more mortifying, he’d rescued me.
    I was pretty sure that part had nearly killed Grandpa. He still wasn’t talking to me.
    I rubbed my sore shoulder. “You’re definitely stronger,” I told Spencer.
    He winced. “Dude. Sorry. Did I hurt you?”
    I dusted off my hands. “Again.”
    “Are you sure?” His eyes glittered. “It’s not exactly a fair fight.”
    I narrowed my own very brown and human eyes back at him. “Less talk, more walk.”
    He grinned even as I tried to kick in his new pointy teeth. And he evaded me easily, which was frustrating enough that I think I might have growled. Now I knew how Lucy felt,constantly surrounded by the Drake vampire brothers. No wonder she had such a smart mouth. It was the only weapon left to us sometimes.
    Like hell.
    I had blades in the soles of my boots, Hypnos powder in the cuff of my jacket, stakes on my belt, and training in several styles of martial arts.
    But I couldn’t use any of them because this was just practice and Spencer wasn’t the enemy, whatever the school board might have to say about him.
    When I landed in a pile of decaying leaves, Spencer was suddenly behind me instead of in front of me. I threw a stake at him, blunt end out, and as he was leaning out of the way, I charged again, taking him by surprise. I hooked my leg behind his knees and strong-armed him across the throat, knocking him off his feet. He fell with more grace than he’d ever shown in his human life, even on a surfboard, where he was at his best.
    And he took me with him.
    I pushed to my feet, winded and bruised but happy. Spencer’s fangs were a little too elongated. He suddenly looked as if he was in pain. He made a strange sound and stumbled back a step, holding up a hand as if to ward me off. Chloe and I exchanged worried glances and I put more distance between us.
    “Spence, you okay?”
    He nodded, reaching for a