Blood Pact

By Sharon Rose Mayes

Riley Spencer has spent most of her life doing what is normal for her: attending school, spending time with her mother, and training to hunt vampires. It was how she grew up as part of the organization and when Nick comes to town and joins her team everything changes. Now Riley and the rest of her team begin to question everything they have learned about vampires and the organization that trained them to hunt the vampires that hide in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sharon Rose Mayes
• Release date: Mar 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310310119

Sharon Rose Mayes

Sharon lives in Lufkin, Texas with her two sons. She chronicles her daily life at her personal blog Not Your Mom Blog and has been active in the blogosphere for seven years. When she is not chasing her kids and playing soccer mom she writes and dreams of all of the places she can't wait to travel.

Book preview

Blood Pact

Sharon Rose Mayes

Copyright 2013 by Sharon Rose Mayes

Smashwords Edition

Chapter 1

Riley, this is a bad idea, I said to myself as I looked around the park that just seemed to grow darker by the minute. I sighed and wondered where my team was; I had been sitting on the back of my car for what seemed like forever waiting for them to show up. We were supposed to be hunting for a group of vampires that the organization believed had been killing people in the park recently.

Checking out my surroundings, I could no longer see the sun over the trees to the west, and the soft streetlights around the park had already started to come on. The low chirping of the grasshoppers and crickets and the subtle movements of the small animals in the nearby woods were actually comforting. Because they were still making noise, I knew that there were no vampires nearby. Animals didn’t like vampires , and they would have left if one were nearby.

Where the hell is everybody? I said to myself in frustration. The organization always sent us to the same place at the same time, no exceptions . I was annoyed with myself for not talking about the mission with the rest of the team before I had come out to the park. I wondered if we were sent somewhere else at the last minute , and I didn’t get the message. I hopped off the trunk of my car and walked around to the driver side door to retrieve my cell phone so that I could check for messages or at least send a message to my teammates to see what was going on. It was hard to believe that the organization would have just forgotten to contact me or any of my teammates about our orders.

What if they did? I asked myself. I erased those thoughts from my mind because it just wasn’t possible. Not sending us out as a team would be like sentencing one of us to death if we were to run into a group of vampires.

I grew up part of the organization Spencer, Watson and Associates, just like my mother did and her father and so on all the way back to the founding of the organization. My great-great-great or even further back grandfather was one of the founders. My friends and fellow teammates , Taylor’s, Kyle’s, and Samantha’s families were also members at the beginning of the organization. My friends and fellow teammates, Taylor, Kyle, and Samantha, all had family members involved right from the beginning, too.

Shaking myself from my thoughts I noticed that the insects and small animal noise nearby had stopped. I cursed under my breath and reached for the car’s door handle. I opened my car door as fast as I was able and reached in for my katana. It was lying over on the passenger seat, but as I reached over for it , I was quickly pulled out of the car. Faster than I could blink , I was turned around and thrown back against my car. My assailant was a vampire that had about a foot on me in height and probably about a hundred pounds on me in weight with stringy brown hair that was sticking up wildly around his head.

Hey boys , look what we have here, he called out as two other vampires came up behind him. Getting out of the situation without a weapon was going to be hard. Normally, I would have had my team with me and a weapon of some sort in my hand.

Where was my team? I needed Sam armed with her guns loaded with silver bullets, or Lucas and Ben with their swords ready to cut off a vampire’s head. I also missed Taylor and Kyle. I could have certainly used them all.

I realized that I couldn’t just stand there dwelling on being alone. I looked around the giant vampire at the others. One was a blonde with slicked back hair that was around my height of 5’5 ", and the other a round one that outweighed the giant by about fifty pounds. To get out of the situation, I was going to have to think on my feet and quickly.

With all of my strength, I brought my knee up and kneed the giant vampire in the groin. Vampire or not, it still would be painful and temporarily incapacitate any male. It worked because as soon as he was doubled over in pain, I ran , hoping I would get a head start on the other two vampires. My best option was to run towards the entrance of the park and hope that my team would show up.

I could hear them cursing and snarling as they composed themselves and followed after me. As they gained on me, I decided that I would have to fight them and that I needed to find something to use as a weapon. I made a sharp turn into the woods next to the park drive and frantically started searching for anything that I could use as a stake . Available were mostly thin sticks and broken limbs that were too large for me to fight with.

Ah ha, I exclaimed as I found the perfect piece of a broken branch to use.

Hearing a twig snap behind me, I grabbed my makeshift stake and turned around just as the blonde vampire pounced in my direction. With precise movements, I aimed the stake right at his heart, and the force of his own weight drove the stake into his body. He died quickly, and the stench of his rapidly decomposing body made me gag. I ripped the stake out of the body and shoved it away before it could turn to ash all over me . As I readied myself, the other two vampires showed up, and neither of them looked happy about the death of their friend or the fact that I had run from them.

We were going to let you die quickly, but now I think we are going to have to make you suffer, snarled the taller vampire as he backed me up against a tree.

I really am sorry about the death of your friend , I said, feigning innocence as I glanced at what was left of the blonde vampire.

Let’s eat . I am hungry and tired of running, the larger vampire moaned . It was the first time he had spoken, and his words did not surprise me. As the two vampires circled around me, I tried to figure out the best way to make my next move. I hoped that maybe the larger vampire’s size would make him the best target and I would be able to catch him off balance. I kicked out at him, but my kick did not go as planned, and his size caused my kick to bounce off of him. The rebounded blow nearly sent me to the ground, and I stumbled backwards. Luckily I was able to stay on my feet.

Girly , are you going to give up? The giant vampire grinned at me as I turned to face him.

Not a chance, I replied back. I raised my stake, and I attempted to lunge at him; however, he was faster than I estimated and knocked me into the closest tree. My head hit the tree hard enough that stars clouded my vision and the bark of the tree painfully scratched my back. Gathering my bearings , I tried to reach for the stake I had dropped, but he was on me in an instant. He grabbed my neck and shoved me into the tree even harder.

Well , it seems that playtime is over, and it is time for you to die, missy, the giant vampire breathed onto my face making me flinch at his pungent breath.

Well , get it over with, I choked out. Your breath smells horrible. He did not like my insult and his grip tightened even more around my throat. His fangs extended, and I knew he was about to kill me. I decided that I wouldn’t make it easy for him and started to squirm and thrash around. I couldn’t catch a breath at all, and it was just a matter of time before I either lost consciousness or just died from the lack of oxygen. Either one would be better to me than getting my throat ripped out.

All of sudden there was a commotion in the clearing, and I could hear the other vampire grunt in pain. The giant still stood in front of me, blocking my view of the secondary battle. He looked over his shoulder as though he was trying to decide whether he should help his comrade or just kill me. He released me as we heard a cry of pain from his cohort followed by the sound of the vampire dying.

And just when the giant vampire was ripped away from my body , my vision went black, and I lost consciousness.

Chapter 2

Riley Spencer, wake up!

I could hear my mother calling me. Opening my eyes, I saw the familiar lavender walls of my bedroom come into focus. I glanced over at the window to the right of my bed, and the sun was already shining brightly outside. I was shocked that I was still alive. The last thing I remembered was the giant vampire choking me, and I had no idea how I’d gotten home . The only thing I could think was that maybe my mother knew what had happened or that my teammates would tell me at school. Maybe it was all a dream. It wouldn’t have been the first time that I had dreams that involved fighting vampires and being nearly killed.

Climbing out of bed , I looked at the mirror on the closet door. I was still dressed in the same clothing I had been wearing the night before. So much for it all just being a dream. Looking over my neck, I was relieved to find that there were no bruises or marks even though my body hurt all over. My hair though was going to need some work.

Riley? Mom called again from downstairs.

I’m up, I called back down. Just going to take a shower before I get ready and come down.

Okay, well hurry or you will be late to school, she shouted back as I entered the bathroom door. I groaned at the thought of school. I just wanted to climb back into bed and sleep all day.

To my exhausted eyes , the brightness of the nearly all white bathroom was blinding. As I turned on the water, I decided that I would talk to Sam or Taylor first to find out what had happened and why they were so late getting to the meeting spot. If they hadn’t shown up when they did though, I would be lying in the morgue this morning. Lucky for me they were there when it counted .

The hot water was invigorating as it massaged my body and woke me up fully. After scrubbing my hair and body, I decided that showers the morning after nearly getting killed were the best showers ever .

Leaving the bathroom , I sat at my dressing table and worked on my hair and makeup for school. Since it was a Friday, I simply pulled my hair back into a classic ponytail and applied light mascara and lip gloss. I dressed in a faded jean miniskirt, black t-shirt, and my black converse sneakers. After putting on a few bracelets, I was ready for the dreaded school day .

Walking down the stairs, I could hear my mother making noise in the kitchen, and this made me smile because my mother cannot cook; in our house the kitchen , is the place where take out is served and stored. So that meant that coffee and pop tarts were for breakfast.

Finally, she said as I walked through the door into the kitchen . I thought I was going to have to drag you down the stairs. I laughed at this. I love my mother more than anyone in the world. Most people think we are sisters because of the fact she is only thirty-four, but does not look a day older than twenty-five . It does not help that we are around the same height and build. We also have the same dark brown hair. Some of the members of the organization say my facial features favor my father. I couldn’t say whether or not it was true though, since I had never met him. I do know that I have his eyes ; my mother had told me several times. Her eyes are blue while mine are green.

My father disappeared or was mostly likely killed around the time I was born. No one would tell me anything about him. He and my mom were only eighteen when I was born. Multiple times I had tried to find out about him from the archives of the organization, but I had never found anything. It was like everything about him was erased. Everyone was so tightlipped about him. Even my mom kept quiet other than a passing comment here and there. When I was a kid , I wanted to know everything about him. Now I just wanted to know what the damn secret is.

My mother and I ate our