Dark Hunger (A Sable Hart Vampire Slayer Novel Book 2) Read online

  DARK HUNGER

  A Sable Hart Vampire Slayer Novel

  By

  Megan Hawke

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Hawke Publishing

  Copyright 2012/2016 by Megan Hawke

  Cover by Najla Qamber Designs

  This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and locations within are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  The End

  Author Bio

  Dark Hunger

  A Sable Hart Vampire Slayer Novel

  My memorial service was at high noon. I'm sure it was scheduled to ensure I did not attend. How rude is that?

  I paused in contemplating my personal issues, eyes narrowing as I spotted a possible threat. A vampire was trailing a pair of pretty young things. The two brunettes were dressed to impress in their dance club outfits, and blissfully unaware of the danger. The vampire behind them was tall, dark-haired, and gaunt. Kinda creepy, especially for a vampire.

  "Ah, false alarm," I said as he turned into a small hole in the wall café, that I just happen to know catered to vampires. They sold cow blood to hungry vamps.

  I only hunted rogue vampires that fed on humans against their will. Any human that would willing offer up his neck to a Godforsaken vampire was an idiot, and playing with fire. Hellfire, to be exact.

  I stood in the heart of the Dallas, Texas club district called Deep Ellum, which was just across the highway from downtown. It was the local vamp community's club district, so full of mortals eager to give blood to any vamp who asked. They were called minions and thralls by vampires and mortals alike, because calling them minions was considered impolite.

  Glancing westward, I saw the big ball in the sky – Reunion Tower. It was attached to the Hyatt Regency hotel, and my parents were over there in the convention center for some kind of seventy-two hour Methodist minister pray-a-thon event. I hadn't been that close to my parents in over a week, just a few miles separated us.

  I didn't think they would appreciate their undead daughter showing up at their little religious get-together. Which kinda made me want to go over and find them.

  "It would've been so cool to speak at my own memorial," I said, my mind immediately returning to that ultimate insult. As it had all night. "The undead get no respect."

  I smiled at my joke. I really amuse myself; others, not so much. I think the world lost its sense of humor when I died.

  My family couldn't have a funeral, since I wasn't corpse-in-a-box dead. You kinda have to have a body to bury, you know. My family needed that body anyway. They're traditionalist.

  On top of that, my family was doubly insulted and embarrassed that I was Changed into a vampire, since my father was a Methodist pastor and my mother was rabidly devout. Because of media coverage, everyone knew my fate. I'd like to think my friends would still attend my memorial, despite me being a vampire.

  I noticed a young man eyeing me. He liked what he saw, too. I wasn't entirely "vamped out," but I wasn't dressed for church, either. I wore a short, pink leather jacket over a red tank top with "Zombies Stink" in white, faded jeans, and black thigh boots. Though it was the first week in October, it was still too hot for such an outfit. Unless you happen to be undead.

  I think he figured it out.

  "Hi," the young man said. He was tall and pretty. Not pretty in a good way. Almost feminine pretty. I like my men a bit courser, more rugged looking. "I'm Ricky."

  "I'm Sable," I said.

  "You're very beautiful," Ricky said. I raised a haughty brow, wanting him to get to the point. Of course, I knew what he wanted. I could smell his excitement. "Would you like to go somewhere for a bite to eat?"

  See? 'Bite to eat' was code for bloodsucking. I'd heard it a dozen times in the hour I had been in Deep Ellum that night. It was a quarter past nine.

  "I've already fed," I said. I thought about telling him I didn't feed on mortals. He wouldn't believe me. Minions never did. "Twenty minutes ago, so no thank you." When he hesitated, I gave him a shooing motion, "Bye-bye."

  My cell phone rang. I immediately forgot about him, as I started digging through my purse. How did it get so full in just a couple of weeks? I found it just before it went to voice mail. I didn't recognize the number displayed, but answered anyway.

  "Hello?"

  "Sable. Longhouse here."

  "Good evening, Sergeant Longhouse," I said.

  "Huh? Yeah, good evening," he said, sounding stressed. "Sable, we have a situation."

  "Vampire?"

  "Of course," he said. "I wouldn't bother you for...never mind. We have a pair of rogue vampires in North Park Mall."

  "Cool. Kill them," I said.

  "Not that easy," he said, not sounding like a happy camper. He rarely was when he spoke to me. "We know they are in there, but we don't know what they look like."

  What? How was that possible? The police weren't that incompetent, were they?

  "How can you trace two rogue vampires to a mall, and not know what they look like? I mean, you have to know what they look like to find and track them. Right?"

  "Well, they aren't from Dallas, and it is suspected they altered their appearance," he said. "But their car is known, and it was found in the parking lot at North Park. The engine is still hot, so they haven't been inside long."

  Malls weren't the normal hunting ground for vampires. I suspect they were there to shop. Vampires need clothes, too. But vampires were rather opportunistic.

  "So are there any other rogue vampires in Dallas that you're not telling me about?"

  The police had never called me to help. As a rule, they hate vampires even more than the general population. As a vamp, I was considered a criminal with a death sentence on my head. I also had a tendency to leave a lot of collateral damage, something they hated even more.

  But I kill every vampire I go after. No exceptions.

  "That's not the issue here," Longhouse said. "We've been following these two from El Paso, courtesy of the string of murders they left behind. The victims were mostly teenage lovers they caught...and...you know."

  I grimaced. I knew. Nothing else need be said. Rape. Torture. Murder. Rogue vampires were brutal serial killers. I hated them.

  "So, I guess this means you want me to go in and find them for you," I said. It wasn't a question. No other reason to call me.

  "If you don't mind," he said. "How quick can you get there?"

  "Are you there now?"

  "Yes."

  "You guarantee my safety?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Will the other cops there leave me alone? Or will they try to arrest or kill me?" I said. "I'm a vampire. And last I heard there were warrants out for my arrest about that whole Clive and Yuri staking earlier this week."

  Had it really been less than a week since I
killed the vampire that Changed me? Three days, to be exact. It seemed like an eternity.

  "All charges were dropped," he said.

  "Really?"

  You'd think they would've told me something that important. At least a press release so I'd catch it on the news.

  "Yes, so how soon?"

  "I'm safe?"

  "From the police," Longhouse said, becoming even more stressed by my questions. "Please, Sable. We have to hurry."

  Yeah, I saw that. If they didn't know what the vamps looked like, then they could just walk out and get away.

  "I'm on my way," I said. "Be there in ten."

  Ending the call, I hurried back to my newest ride. It was a sweet new street bike. A Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14. A 1352cc road rocket extraordinaire. It was all black, with just a little chrome. I wanted to be able to hide it unseen at night.

  In no time I was flying down Central Expressway, heading north. North Park Mall was at Central and Northwest Highway. It was an older, upscale mall. I loved it.

  My bad-ass Ninja got me there far quicker than ten minutes. But I couldn't just ride into the mall sweet as can be. The police would ID my bike. I don't care what Longhouse said, that info would go into their computer. They'd be on the lookout for me.

  Parking off property, I hurried over. I saw police patrolling the parking lot, but not Sergeant Longhouse. Didn't matter. I strode into the mall as I called him back.

  I entered through the entrance between Neiman Marcus and Tiffany & Company. My passing rated a curious look from the valet parking boys. Neiman Marcus was to my left, with Nordstrom way down at the other end of that corridor, but I really wanted to pop into Tiffany's. I was on the bottom floor.

  "I'm inside the mall," I said.

  "I didn't see you."

  "Good," I said. Right away I spotted a pair of vampires down the corridor to my right, outside the Giorgio Armani store. Man and woman. African-Americans. Attractive couple. They wore simple, middle class casual wear — Dockers and a button down shirt for him, and a flowery blue halter dress and flats for her. "Do you have any kind of description for the two vamps? Race, gender, anything will help."

  That got both of the African-American vampires' attention. Vampires had incredible hearing. They turned to regard me warily. No fear, just wariness.

  "Just that they are young Caucasian men," Longhouse said. "Both were Changed within the last month, and they were nineteen at the time."

  Baby vamps? Looked like a case of accidental Changes, therefore no Compulsions placed upon them to "be good." Or maybe the vamp that Changed them wanted them to go on a murderous rampage. Either way, it would end there.

  "Good enough," I said.

  I hung up before he could say more. I turned the phone off, and stuffed it back into the inside pocket of my jacket. I stopped and smiled upon reaching the vampire couple. They didn't return my smile.

  "Hi. Sorry about that," I said, and shrugged apologetically. "I'm looking for a pair of rogues. Young men. Late teens."

  "You're Black Heart," he said, and the other's eyes widened. I guess she hadn't figured it out yet. The stench of fear filled the air. "We haven't hurt anyone."

  "I'm not looking for you," I said. "I hunt rogue vampires. Exclusively. You're safe with me."

  He kinda bristled. Vampires can be a prickly lot. The males tend to be worse. Go figure. He probably thought I implied that I could kill him if I wanted to, and that was the only reason they were safe.

  "Why should we believe you?" she asked.

  "Am I trying to kill you?" They frowned and looked at each other. I continued in a friendlier tone, "I would leave if I were you. The mall is surrounded by police."

  Their eyes widened. Even vampires were wary of the police. I was no different.

  "So, have you seen two vamps together in here? A pair of young while males?"

  "Yes," he said. He glanced at her, and she nodded reluctantly. Vampires didn't like ratting on their own any more than teenagers. "We saw two vampires who might be your rogues, over at Footlocker. They were acting odd, but not causing trouble."

  "What do they look like? What are they wearing?"

  "Hip hop clothes," she said. "You know, everything oversized. Both had one side of their head shaved, and their long black hair brushed to the other side."

  "Lots of eyeliner, too," he said with a disapproving scowl. "And piercings."

  "Thanks," I said, and strode off down the mall.

  All my vampiric senses were on high alert. There were a lot of people in that mall. I was on the first floor, or level one. All that hot, surging blood called to me. Good thing I'd already fed. But I'd have to feed again after this.

  Finding the rogues wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I figured they'd be deep inside some store, cut off from my view as I passed. But they were out in the corridor, following a young couple walking hand-in-hand. That young couple looked like high school freshmen. I didn't like the evil leers of the rogues.

  So I cut them off in front of Banana Republic.

  "Who the hell do you... Oh, you're one of us," the taller, skinnier vampire said. He looked me over with growing interest. "Cute. Love the boots."

  "What's your name?" I asked. I prefer to know the names of the vampires I kill.

  "I'm Johnny," the shorter, stockier vampire said.

  "I'm Cody," the tall vamp said. "Who are you?"

  "They call me Black Heart, boys," I said, pleased to see by their startled reactions that they'd heard of little ole me. "You've been bad, bad boys."

  Security chose that time to show up. A pair of uniformed security officers. One looked like a chubby, curly-haired college student and the other an austere, older man. Neither was equipped to deal with mortal punks, much less a pair of undead rogues.

  "Is there a problem?" Officer Gramps said, eyeing the two vampire boys narrowly.

  Yeah, he distracted me. Dumb. I know. The next thing I knew a shopping bag of new running shoes slammed into the side of my head. Some woman screamed. Very annoying.

  Johnny was charging in after the shopping bag, eager to make short work of me. He was too confident. I knew things. Like Krav Maga. Israeli martial arts. So my left arm swung up and I pushed him to the right as I spun left. A quick kick to the side of his right knee dropped him. He screamed, mostly in anger. A broken knee would heal in a few minutes.

  Cody took a wild swing at me, a right cross. He obviously had no martial arts training. Vampires as a rule didn't need them. I blocked that punch with my left forearm, and at the same time punched him in the throat. Crushed his windpipe. Painful, but not a mortal wound for a vampire. Vampires didn't have to breathe. But it was painful and he staggered back gagging.

  I pulled my pistol. Blessed silver bullets hurt vampires. Bad. Felt like white hot coals in their bodies. Older vamps could handle it better than the newbies. My two boys were really going to hurting something awful.

  I carried a Beretta Px4 Storm. Matte black. 9mm rounds. My pistol of choice, though others in the know seemed to roll their eyes when I mentioned what I carried. Hey, I liked them. Damn gun snobs.

  "Bullets won't stop us," Johnny snarled from my right as he got to his feet. His knee was healed enough to stand, but I doubted completely mended.

  "It's loaded with sanctified silver," I said, smiling smugly. "Very painful. Debilitating to a vampire, one might say."

  "Blessed silver?" he said.

  "Hai!" Cody cried, and kicked my gun hand.

  "Ah! Shit," I said. I know. Potty mouth. I was raised better than that, but since becoming a vampire I've slipped a bit. To my surprise the pistol flew out of my hand, and straight into Johnny's belly. A second later it was in his hand, aimed at me. "Oh, that's not good."

  "Not for you," he said, and pulled the trigger.

  "Aaawww," I cried, staggering back. I was struck just above the navel. The pain was indescribable. I hated getting shot with blessed silver more than anything else. Then Cody kicked me in the chin, and kno
cked me flat on my back. "Uuuggh."

  Cody reached down, seized me by the throat and lifted me up off the floor. My feet kicked futilely in midair as he slowly pushed his thumbs into my windpipe. I guess he forgot you can't kill a vamp like that.

  "Hai!" I cried, as I smashed his hands to either side and away from my throat. At the same time I kicked straight up into his groin. Typical Krav Maga move — defend and attack at same time. A male vampire's balls are just as sensitive as a mortal's. They just recover faster. "I'm going to — "

  I was rudely interrupted by Johnny shoving my own pistol in my face. A silver bullet to the head was the worse wound of all. Most painful and took the longest to recover from. It wouldn't stop or kill me, but it would hurt for a long time.

  "Don't shoot!" I cried, eyes wide with feigned fear. I stepped back. He followed, but his aim dropped to my chest, just an inch above my heart. Another painful wound if shot there. But he was too close for his own good. I turned right suddenly, as my left hand shot up and grabbed the barrel of the pistol. I wretched it violently, twisting the barrel towards his belly. It came free, and a second later my right hand found the grip and trigger. "Idiot."

  So I shot him in the heart.

  Johnny cried out and fell down. I stepped over him, aimed for the base of his neck and pulled the trigger. His whole body went limp when I shot out his spine. Cody cried out, backpedaling. I quickly pumped two rounds into Cody's belly. Then I holstered the gun, reached down and seized Johnny's head. "Haaa-hai!"

  With all my supernatural strength, I ripped off his head. Hot blood sprayed me. Women screamed. Men shouted. I heard a couple of people starting to retch. Cody wailed and ran away.

  "You can't get away, bloodsucker!" I cried.

  I threw Johnny's head as far as I could down the corridor. The police would fetch it.

  I took off after Cody. He had problems. I don't think either of them had ever been shot with sanctified silver before. He was running all hunched over. Add to that his hip hop pants were pulled way down off his waist and trying to fall off. Cody wasn't moving very fast. Not fast enough to escape me, and I was running in heels.