Blood Hunt by Shannon K. Butcher Read Free Book Online

on her own feet. As she caught herself against the dresser, she knocked over the trinkets that sat atop it. A small crystal box shattered against the floor.
    Her feet were bare. She had nothing that would fit them anymore. If she stepped wrong, she was sure she’d cut herself.
    And she was sure she’d step wrong. Her body was no longer her own. It was this odd, alien thing that kept thwarting her every move. And the hunger was nearly unbearable.
    The only thing that dulled it was the thought of her parents lying crushed under all that stone.
    Cain hadn’t told her that part, but he hadn’t needed to. Sibyl had known it would happen all along. She’d known they’d die. That her sister, Maura, would be the cause of it. She’d seen all that in her visions. And she’d mourned for them a long time ago.
    What she hadn’t seen was herself, this gangly body and the loss of her ability.
    The future was no longer her domain. She couldn’t see it. Couldn’t gift it to others. It stretched out, bleak and unknown, as if she were some normal person.
    Without her ability, that’s exactly what she was. Normal. Nothing special.
    Sibyl couldn’t even reach Maura anymore. Not even through the doll.
    For the first time in her life, she was truly alone. Truly afraid.
     
    “You look like you’ve been run over by a truck,” said Jodi. Her blond hair was pulled up in a ponytail that stuck out through the back of a KC Royals baseball cap. Giant silver hearts swung from her earlobes.
    “Gee, thanks,” said Hope.
    The workroom of the studio was Jodi’s territory. She framed and matted all of Hope’s portraits and photographs, and the woman had an eye for the job. What had started as a friendship forged during a business management class had bloomed into a growing business for both of them. Hope snapped the pictures; Jodi took them and created art.
    Morning light streamed in, glinting off the tools lined up on Jodi’s workbench. The walls in here were covered in beautiful pieces—little instances of people’s lives that would live on for as long as the ink and paper lasted. Memories that could not be erased.
    Hope’s friend, roommate, and coworker ran her blade down the mat, making a perfect cut. “I call ’em like I see’em. No one’s going to want their picture taken by a woman who can’t even keep her eyes open. You should call it quits and take a nap.”
    “I only have one more appointment today. I’ll manage.”
    Jodi grinned, waggling her pale eyebrows. “So, where were you last night? Or should I say this morning?”
    “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
    “Try me.”
    Hope considered blurting out the truth. Sadly, she couldn’t think of a way to say it without using the word vampire , so she resisted the urge. “I met this guy and lost track of time.”
    “Uh-huh,” said Jodi, her tone disbelieving. “One has a tendency to lose track of time when one is macking on some hot guy. He was hot, right?”
    Logan’s face flashed in her mind, all perfect symmetry and stark angles. Just the thought had her fingers itching for her camera. She could take a great photo of him. Except she wasn’t sure vampires could even be photographed. Or that he was even real.
    It had taken all morning, but she had convinced herself that last night’s events were nothing more than a bizarre dream. There was no horrible monster. No beautiful Logan. All those events were simply something her mind had constructed to combat her fear of going near the Tyler building where she’d been found a decade ago.
    “Hello. Hope. Are you in there?” asked Jodi, waving her hand in front of Hope’s face. The large silver heart ring she wore caught the morning light and left little spots floating in Hope’s vision.
    “Sorry. I’m just tired.”
    Jodi took Hope by the arm and led her out of the workroom toward the stairway that led to their shared apartment upstairs. “Go to bed, girl. I’ll wake you up as soon as your one o’clock