Free JARHARIS by Fawn Lowery Page B

conscious state in hopes of garnering her attention. But little success came of his plan. She just simply wasn’t his soul mate—a fact that he had been hoping wasn’t true since the first moment he laid eyes on her. Alas, he felt rejection well up inside him.
    He was on the verge of becoming overwhelmed with frustration, deciding that he needed to feed again in order to clear his mind, when he spied a group of five on the ground near a housing complex. He heard the loud ruckus even as he chose a place to perch and realized that one in the group was the male that he had tried to make his first victim when Selena kicked him in the ass. He perched in a tree and took assessment of the gathering.
    A solitary figure stood in a circle formed by the other four. The figure appeared to be a male—tall, very thin with extremely long arms and legs. He appeared almost emaciated. His body leaned forward from the waist, a mop of long hair hung about his head and shoulders, obscuring his face.
    The four surrounding males made charging attempts to knock him off his feet, swinging long bats and yelling orders to each other. The figure in the circle staggered and veered, almost succumbed to one blow, but regained his footing and began railing his arms at his attackers.
    “Stab the fucker, Reece!”
    “Knock him to the ground, for Pete’s sake, Merrick ! I’m not a fucking magician! I can’t stab him if you don’t do your part!”
    Jarharis realized the group had a vampire trapped and was attempting to kill him. He considered whether to become involved or merely sit and watch. So far, the group had little to show for their efforts. The creature in the circle was doing quite well in fending them off, even landing some blows of his own as he flailed his long arms at his attackers.
    Jarharis sensed that the creature was weakened from lack of blood, having been accosted by the club members before he had managed to feed. Nevertheless, he was an amiable opponent. He decided not to help the club or the vampire, but to watch instead and perhaps draw his own conclusions as to the hunters abilities. So far they had done little aside from taunting the vampire and exchanging curses with their own kind.
    “Kill the mother-fucker!”
    The female voice cut into Jarharis’s mind like a sharp razor. He jerked his head to the side, spying Selena sprinting across the grass as fast as her legs would carry her. The silver dagger she kept hidden in her boot gleamed brightly as she waved it in her right hand.
    “Don’t let him get away!”
    Crap! Of all the insane things— Jarharis hurried to lift off from the branch of the tree and bounded to the ground beneath. A moment’s thought, and he was transformed into his vampire physique. He stepped from behind the tree just in time to see Selena penetrate the circle of hunters and lunge recklessly at the vampire standing in the center. The damning blow she aimed at him missed by a mile when the creature glimpsed her charging him and simply turned out of her path. She cursed and slid on the grass, falling on her butt.
    Jarharis leapt from his hiding place and quickly closed in on the group, appearing inside the circle as Selena got to her feet and began another assault on their captive. Jarharis reached one hand out to grasp the vampire by the coat front, savagely lifting him into the air as Selena lunged in for the kill. She whisk past in a flurry of brutal stabs with the dagger, only to find herself completely out of range of the vampire. Jarharis bellowed his discord and slammed the weakened body of the vampire to the ground, holding his chest to the solid earth with one foot.
    All amount of savagery broke loose among the hunters as they rushed the poor victim in mass. One hunter positioned a wooden cross against his chest while another wildly swung a mallet, slamming its pointed end into the helpless chest. Blood spurted upward and fell to the dark clothing. The vampire cried out in anguish.
    Jarharis