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CHAPTER 1
They say when you’re about to die, you see your entire life flash before your eyes
They lied
The only thing Nick Gautier could see flashing was Kyrian Hunter’s vaht froze hiany staircase at the front of Kyrian’s sprawling antebelluain
Yeah, since he’d atteo and found out his principal had been eaten by a zo and its brother had been after hiin’ boss was a vaured So much for his paycheck--unless the devil could cash it, Nick would never see a nickel of it
Would this day ever end?
Dude, right now, you’re the one who’s about to end That thought finally shattered the terrified fog in his head, which had held him immobile
Run, dude, run!
He couldn’t go downstairs, ’cause that here Kyrian stood The only place to run was upstairs, after his one into the bedrooht She was coer and that their blood was about to be drained He spun around to warn her
"Nick! Wait!"
Wait, luteus ht Nick had any intention of not going Casper on hi to die Yeah, and then soene pool Not to mention, at fourteen he hadn’t even had his first date yet He’d only just, this night, had his first kiss He should have recognized that alone as a sign that the apocalypse was co and that his death was imminent
As Nick neared the top of the stairs, Kyrian juht up from the floor twenty feet below and flipped over the shiny railing to land gracefully in front of him and cut off his escape Kyrian’s black eyes flashed in the shadows Dressed all in black and at over six feet in height, Kyrian ht, even with his boyish blond curls
There was no way to get past him
Crapola …
Nick skidded to a halt What should he do now? His mom was in a bedroom a few feet behind Kyrian He’d yell for her, but the last thing he wanted was for Kyrian to kill her, too Maybe if he kept quiet, Kyrian would only drain him
"It’s not what you think, Nick"
Yeah, right "I think you’re a bloodsucking de to kill me--that’s what I think"
Before he could so rabbed Nick’s neck with soht, but he was as helpless as a pup being held by the scruff With the inhuth you’d expect from the undead, Kyrian hauled Nick past his mother’s temporary bedroom and into Kyrian’s upstairs office
As in the rest of the house, the floor-to-ceiling curtains were drawn shut to protect against the dawning sun--sohoul from the first moment he stepped into the mansion The dark wood of the desk blended in sea stride, Kyrian flung Nick into a dark burgundy leather chair
When he started to run, Kyrian slammed hi the impossible from you, but for once in your life, shut your mouth and open your ears"
"I’"
Kyrian snarled at hiet smart with me"
"You want me stupid?"
"Nick…"
Nick held his hands up "Fine, just don’t eatthe Bride of Dracula"
"I don’t drink blood"
He arched a brow at that "Yeah, right"
"Yeah, right I don’t I’ freaky canines? "Then what’s with your peculiar dental problem, huh? And don’t even try to tell me they’re fake, Mr Armani suits and fancy car, ’cause you ain’t the type to have false ones, and all that also says you have the money to fix theo out in daylight, and how did you ninja-flip up the stairs just now if you’re not one of the undead?"
"I’one" Nick tried to escape, and again, Kyrian body-slaet his attention
"You know about Acheron, and you accepted him Why don’t you trust iant i other than nice to Nick and his s"
"Yes, he does He’s just better at hiding his than I aue he was full of cow manure, but that explanation actually made sense in a weird way Ash was more than eleven thousand years old and had seemed a peculiar friend for Kyrian to have But if the iiant was Kyrian’s boss …
That explained it
Still, Nick wasn’t a fool, and he accepted nothing at face value For all he knew, Kyrian was lying his fangs off "What line of work are you in?"
"People protection"
"Like saving punk kids getting beat to death by people who’re supposed to be their friends?" Ie round by Tyree and Mike a couple of weeks ago That had been how the two of the part-time for Kyrian after school
Kyrian inclined his head to hiree as he reminded himself how ht now "So you’re not going to attack ods, no I don’t need the indigestion You’ve caused ht I don’t need anyup at him If Kyrian wanted to kill him, he’d had plenty of opportunities Instead, he’d protected both Nick and his ht in his mansion
"If you want to know the correct terested that word slowly "Which means what? You hunt darkness?"
"Yes, Nick That’s exactly what I do There’s just not enough of it" Now, there was some sarcasm you could cut with a knife
Nick wasn’t a to explain it or not?"
"We’re ioddess Arteht and protect hu to prey on them For the most part, that means we track and slay Daimons"
"Which are?"
"To put it in terms you can relate to, they’re vampires who live on human souls Instead of blood, they take your soul into their body, and once it’s there, it starts to wither and die We have to kill the Daimon before the soul is completely used up"
"I don’t understand Why take souls?"