Free The Vampire Hunter by LISA CHILDS Page B

couldn’t go back. I couldn’t keep in touch with them.”
    Bitterness overwhelming him, he released it in a short chuckle. “But yet you’re here for your sister.”
    â€œI haven’t been there for my sister,” she said, guilt dimming the brightness of her eyes. “I haven’t seen her in twenty years…until tonight, until you put her in danger to draw me out. Why?”
    â€œYou know why.” Or at least he had been convinced she would know, but her confusion and surprise over his brother’s death seemed genuine. “For Bryan…”
    â€œBryan wouldn’t want you to hurt me,” she pointed out. Correctly.
    â€œYou’re doing this for yourself,” she said. “For revenge for something I didn’t do—for something I never could have done. I couldn’t have hurt Bryan. He was my friend.” Her voice cracked again with undeniable pain. “My best friend…”
    Liam’s head pounded, maybe from the fight with the professor. The vampire had nearly strangled the life from Liam. If not for this woman’s interference, the professor probably would have killed Liam. Despite his boot-camp training and sixteen-year career in the marines, Liam hadn’t been able to match the monster’s strength. While he’d made a point of learning everything about the secret society, he wasn’t one of them. He was a vampire hunter, but the only vampire he’d ever sought to kill was her .
    Maybe his head also pounded because of the doubt now plaguing him. What if she spoke the truth? What if she knew nothing about Bryan’s murder?
    Her body went limp beneath his, her face paling as the sky grew lighter. He could kill her easily now. He wouldn’t even need the special weapon he’d made to fire the stake into her heart. He could impale her chest with his bare hands. Then he would finally have the revenge that had driven his life for the past twenty years.
    Unless she was innocent…
    Then he would become the cold-blooded killer he’d thought he had been hunting for two decades. He would be just as much a monster as a member of the Secret Vampire Society.

Chapter Two
    Strong arms encircled Jennifer as the man carried her down the dimly lit, underground corridor. She hadn’t been carried since she’d been a child. Hadn’t been loved or protected in so many years. Since she’d become a vampiress, someone had been interested in her – so interested that he’d actually made her feel unsafe, and she’d been hiding from him as much as she’d been hiding from her sister. That man didn’t love her, though.
    This man didn’t love her, either. And he certainly didn’t intend to protect her. Liam McKiernan intended to kill her for what he thought she’d done.
    â€œWhy didn’t you just leave me for dead?” she asked, her voice raspy as her strength slowly ebbed back. “Or wouldn’t that have been good enough for you? You want the satisfaction of killing me yourself.”
    â€œIs this it?” he asked, his pale eyes squinting as he peered through the shadows.
    She glanced toward the door, in front of where he’d stopped, and nodded. “It’s my apartment.” And she had no idea why she’d let him bring her here except that she hadn’t been thinking when he’d asked where she lived. Jennifer had barely been conscious. The rising sun had weakened her physically and the news of Bryan’s death had weakened her emotionally.
    Poor Bryan…
    How could this man think that she would have murdered her best friend? She struggled against his grasp, trying to slide down his body. But he held her tight.
    â€œWhere’s your key?”
    â€œAbove the door.” What did it matter now if he knew where she lived or where she hid her key? The only way she would be able to stop him from killing her would be if she killed him first.
    He