Prudence Read online

  “Bored with this,” I said, at the same time whipping my arm up to smash the heel of my hand into her nose.

  She dropped the bat behind her, and then fell to the ground. She didn’t move. For a second I wondered if I had killed her. I’d never killed anyone before.

  Any remorse I might have felt was eclipsed by the large bulk blocking out the street light. The other halvies were making sport of their opponents, leaving me just this one last betty.

  He was big – the biggest of the lot. And he was much faster than the others – graceful as well. Anticipation hummed inside me. He was a real fighter, an actual challenge. Smacked me a hard one on the jaw before I was ready for it – same side as the crowbar, bastard.

  I shook off the stars dancing before my eyes and came back with a few shots of my own. His head flew back, but he didn’t fall. He hit me again in the same spot. The pain made me grit my teeth and want to make him eat his own spleen. Enough of this. I caught him with two quick jabs to the stomach and then one between the eyes. He staggered backwards, then came back at me with a solid punch to my mouth. I tasted blood as I pulled my dagger out of its sheath.

  That was when what I always referred to as my “aristocratic genes” kicked in, and the vampire half of me really woke up. It was something I kept to myself, because it wasn’t a typical halvie reaction to blood, and it didn’t matter whetherit was my own or someone else’s, and it was the equivalent of flicking a switch inside me – like going from low to high. It was why blood- sharing was more of an intimate thing for halvies. It made sex incredibly intense – switching off our humanity and making us all instinct and sensation. Appetite.

  I had planned to gut him if necessary, but now… I wanted to eat this betty – and not in a sexy way. Fangs extended from my gums with the sweetest of aches, eager to pierce some flesh regardless of how diseased and disgusting it was.

  I smiled, enjoying how his eyes widened.

  Then I pounced – straight at his jugular.