Free TheBrokenOrnament by Tianna Xander Page B

insist on attacking his kind alone and filled with the false courage of alcohol? Vampires were hard enough to kill. Why did they almost always come alone and drunk off their asses? Did the alcohol help to dull their morality issues? According to the new laws, murder was murder and a vampire had rights.
    “Of course I did, you bloodsucking spawn of hell.” The man spat at him, but he was so drunk, the spittle merely dribbled down his chin, instead of leaving his person as the insult it had been meant to be. “I planned to kill you, before you killed me.”
    “Did you really?”Hunter lifted his right brow. “Should I return the favor, then?”
    “You know you’re going to. All of you vampires are the same. You live off our blood, but you can’t stand to share the Earth with us.”
    “I do not understand your skewed logic, sir, for it is you who stand armed and prepared to kill.”Hunter yanked the axe from the man’s possession and hurled it out into the ocean, certain it flew at least nine hundred feet before it splashed into the water and fell beneath the waves.
    “You know as well as I do that you don’t need any weapon, but those devil’s teeth in your mouth.”
    Hunter cocked his head to the side. He knew his eyes were glowing. A vampire’s eyes always glowed when they were in full need. That was what, no doubt, alerted his attacker to his…persuasion.
    He held the man easily as he struggled to get away. “I will tell you this once and you should consider yourself lucky that it was me you tried to kill, human. Others would not take your assault so lightly.” He leaned closer, letting his teeth slide from his gums. “The majority of my kind does not kill. It is against our laws. We do, however, have the right to defend ourselves. I would be well within my rights to rip your throat out. Even by your own laws, I have the right to defend myself against deadly force.”
    He backed the man up against the rail, wrapped his fingers not-so-gently around the man’s throat and leaned closer.
    “However, I shall endeavor to educate you on matters where you are grossly ignorant. Will you listen if the reward for good behavior is your life?” He delved into the man’s mind and pulled out his name. “Will you listen, Paul, or would you rather die?”
    Paul tried to say something, but it came out little more than a gurgle as the undeniable odor of urine filled the air.
    Great, the damned idiot just pissed himself.
    Hunter felt Paul nod weakly as he held him up off the ground, the man’s feet kicking uselessly. Nothing a human could do with their person could ever harm him. Hell, he barely felt it.
    Had he chosen to be so, Hunter could have been the scourge on mankind this idiot thought he was. However, he had chosen another path long ago. He had chosen to revere life, to allow his victims to live where others did not—even when they had no governing council and there were no real laws for his people.
    Now they had laws. They couldn’t bring people over willy-nilly. They couldn’t gather armies beneath them by changing people at will. Their laws stated that they could only bring over one person in their lifetime. Most saved that one change for a person they could call their soul mate—if they even had souls anymore.
    If that one person should expire, then their change reverted back to them. It helped to keep their population low. The council made the laws in an effort to keep them from outgrowing their food source. Though they could feed off animals, the blood wasn’t nearly as potent, nor did it cause the same rush as human blood.
    Usually, Hunter fed on animals. Even then, he never killed his prey, though it took at least ten animals to assuage his thirst. For a lack of a better way to put it, humans were more satisfying.
    “Remember this, human,”Hunter said as he lowered his head toward the other man’s neck. “I could kill you now, but I choose not to do so. Keep that in mind the next time you wish to