Free Fading Darkness (Bloodmarked #1) by Alicia Deters Page B

could muster. Not
wasting any more time, I sensed him in front of me, and a windmill kick to his head
left him stunned enough for me to land a few punches on his face. My whole head
still throbbed, but I needed to hold it together long enough to end this evil
bastard’s existence.
    With my eyes healing, now opened slightly, I
grabbed for my knife, but he knocked it from my hand. I hit him again and
lunged for the blade. He kicked me in the stomach sending me a few feet out of
reach from my knife. He grabbed my ankle and threw me sideways several more
feet away. I stopped abruptly when my back came up against a tree, curling back
in an unnatural way. I heard a snap and crumpled to the ground in a heap.
    The healing process was almost as
excruciating. My vertebrae snapped back into place with equal force as the
break. The tree splintered down the middle with my impact, which was good for
me, because a few low hanging branches broke with more ease than my back.
    The vampire was coming at me again, and I
curled a hand around a broken branch and drove it, with as much force as I
could summon, into the heart of my opponent. He went down hard, but I didn’t
stick around long. Moments later, when I could feel my legs again, I stumbled
off in search of more. My body still wasn’t fully healed and screamed in agony,
but I wasn’t wasting any dark time.
    There was another one nearby. She saw me and
started backing away. I wasn’t sure what did it, whether it was the crazed look
I had, the look of a desperate madwoman, or of a senseless killer who would
stop at nothing for vengeance, but she was scared. She should be. All vampires
should fear me.
    I picked up speed, but couldn’t quite reach
full speed. The cartilage in my spine was still painfully repairing itself, and
in the process of healing, one of the nerves was struck, causing my legs to
give out midstride. I stumbled forward, nearly face planting on the hard
concrete. I rolled out of the fall as quickly as I could, my back still aching
but rapidly on the mend. I ran through more sculptures and caught up to her at
the water plaza.
    Fountains illuminated by LED lights sprayed
blue, and pink, and green, and other brightly colored water like rainbow
geysers going off at random. I splashed through an endless puddle and cut her
off, tripping her face first into one of the fountains. She rolled over, her
coal eyes meeting my emerald ones, and I kicked her bone white face, spraying
blood and water across the plaza.
    Her leg sliced across the water and swiftly
knocked my feet out from under me. I went down on my sore back, which smarted a
little, and as she sat up, I swung my leg up over me and kicked her in the head,
sending her back down. I rolled in a quick motion to my feet, and as she got to
hers I punched her hard and swiped her feet out from under her. I came down,
knife in hand, plunging it straight into her heart.
    Rising up, I noticed the charcoal sky was
turning a light shade of blue. I was so drained. The wet cold was slowly
seeping through my clothes, but all I wanted was to keep hunting. I wanted to
track down every vampire in town and deliver to them the same fate as Scott’s.
I wanted them all to pay for the bloodshed everywhere, for the all the lives
that had ever been stolen. But my body told me otherwise. My bones ached and my
muscles were fatigued, and it was going to be a long frigid walk home without
the full use of my super speed.
    Plus, I had one of those stolen lives to
deal with when I returned. I knew I would have to turn myself in. It was my
fault he was dragged into this world. His family at least deserved to know that
he died, and he wasn’t just one of those missing persons on a milk carton. They
deserved to know the real truth, even though that wouldn’t make it any easier.
They could never know exactly how he died though. Humans, as a whole, couldn’t
handle that much truth.
    †
    I hiked it for miles, and when I finally
made it to the apartment I