Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter by Nikki Jefford Read Free Book Online

anyone. Melcher? Let me out of
here.”
    “Now!” I screamed.
    “Good luck, Aurora.”
    I expected something horrible to occur after he signed off,
but nothing happened.
    I circled the table and kept glancing at the door. Trapped
inside a windowless room with weapons that made my skin crawl. Fantastic. There
wasn’t even a clock to track the minutes dragging by. If they planned on
keeping me locked up for so long they could’ve at least put a chair inside.
    I folded my arms over my chest and looked at the two-way
mirror.
    “What’s the matter with Dracula? Can’t find his cape?” I
chuckled, but it sounded nervous.
    I walked over to the far corner of the room and leaned my
back against the wall.
    There was a hollow knock at the door across the room. It
pounded three times in succession, producing an eerie, drawn-out echo.
    I wanted to crack a joke, but something didn’t feel right.
My heart pounded its way up to my throat and I’d barely swallowed when the door
flew open. A middle-aged man in flannel was thrown in. The door slammed shut
behind him. He nearly fell on the floor, but caught himself. Long greasy hair
covered his face as he bent forward. When he righted himself, I saw that his
cheeks were sunken, lips bared over yellow teeth. He snarled and spit leaked
out the corners of his mouth.
    I stood up straight.
    The motion caught his eye. He wheezed when he saw me. His
eyes were bloodshot. His clothes looked like they hadn’t been washed in months.
    This was no vampire. This was a lunatic.
    He crossed the room, passing the weapons laid out on the
table. At least he showed no interest in those.
    I sprang to life, skirting the wall as I hustled to the exit
on the opposite side.
    “Let me out of here!” I pounded on the door. “Let me out!” I
screamed so hard my new lungs felt ready to rupture.
    The lunatic came snarling toward me. That’s what he was, not
a vampire, but a deranged madman who’d been locked in the room with me by
psychopaths. I was part of some kind of experiment. Maybe this was a test to
see how I handled stress. Maybe they wanted me as an altogether different type
of operative. They wanted to desensitize me by subjecting me to unimaginable
horrors.
    Well, I didn’t care if I passed. I just wanted out—and not
just out of that room.
    I kicked the door and walked over to the two-way mirror,
glaring so hard my temples throbbed. “Enjoying the show?”
    I turned and began circling the room, always keeping the
table between me and the madman. He kept coming at me slowly, like a zombie in
a horror film. At least he’d shown no sudden bursts of locomotion.
    We moved clockwise around the room. The space was so small
it made me dizzy, but still I moved, matching the maniac’s speed to keep him as
far from me as possible.
    My neck soon ached from constantly craning it over my
shoulder to keep track of the lunatic’s location. I suppose I had my physical
therapist to thank for being able to walk for miles on end. Unfortunately, my
pursuant showed no signs of fatigue, either.
    Round and round we went until my stomach began turning and
my vision blurred.
    It took a while for the first feelings of exhaustion to
creep inside my consciousness. A snarling, slobbering loony will keep a girl on
her toes. But hours began to feel like days, and finally, I collapsed when
rounding a corner. I hit an elbow as I landed, sending a tingle up my arm. My
pursuer came toward me at the same creepy pace. His eyes opened wider and murky
irises burned inside.
    I scrambled back to my feet and stumbled forward. I glared
into the two-way mirror.
    “Why are you doing this to me?” I screamed.
    I rushed to the table and picked up the revolver. Before
this moment I’d never even held a gun. I pointed it at the madman. His stared
back with vacant eyes, sunk inside a twisted face. “Stay where you are!”
    He looked at me, not the gun, snarled, and kept coming.
    I retreated and began sobbing when I re-entered the