Bitten by the Vampire by Bonnie Vanak Page B

on the ground, her eyes wide with terror. Over her, Jones hovered, holding a knife to her throat.
    â€œStop. Don’t come any closer, or I’ll cut her throat.”

Chapter 12
    Mara watched in horror as Jones pressed the blade closer to the gremlin’s throat. Lucien’s eyes blazed with fury.
    â€œShe’ll die slow and painfully, unless you volunteer to replace her.” Jones’s face became an ugly mask. “You’re much greater a prize, Mara.”
    Petra’s frantic gaze sought hers. She was just a kid, who would die if Mara didn’t take her place.
    â€œI’m going to rip you to shreds for this.” Lucien quivered with rage, but did not move. A snarl tore from his throat.
    Jones was a raving lunatic. Mara held out her hands in a gesture of peace. “I’m not evil. Why have you hunted and stalked me? I never harmed anyone. All I wanted was a normal life. An ordinary college student, living like anyone else. Please, let her go.”
    Red suffused Jones’s face. “You could never be normal!”
    Stunned, she stared as lowered the knife from Petra’s throat. Her demon half noticed. Stunned, she felt white light and dark meld together.
    â€œI knew you from the Society’s records. I’ve kept track. All the time you remained in seclusion, I waited. Watched. I knew as soon as you tried to enter society, you would endanger the populace. You are the spawn of the devil.”
    Horrified, she dropped her hands. In her quest for a normal life, she had condemned herself. And this lunatic knew it, waited for the time when she’d emerge. “The Society is supposed to protect paranormal beings!”
    â€œI’m not associated with them and my mission is to free the human race of those like you. You’re a deviant, conceived in a sinful mating.” He gestured with the knife to Petra. “Like her.”
    â€œShe’s a gremlin!”
    â€œPetra was whelped from a vampire, and a gremlin father. Evil.”
    â€œNo Jones. You are the evil one.” Lucien’s quiet, controlled voice was steady as a rock, while she shook inside. How could he remain so calm, she wondered.
    â€œYou say that only because Petra’s your niece,” Jones snapped.
    â€œLucien? Petra’s your niece?” she whispered.
    He made no response, but a muscle jumped in his neck, betraying his fury.
    It made sense now. The way he protected her, spoiled her. Feared for Petra when he feared nothing. “You didn’t tell me. Why? Because you didn’t trust me?”
    â€œI was going to tell you, Mara. Tell you everything. I do trust you.” Lucien fisted his hands and she saw how badly they shook. “I did not trust my own rage at Jones.”
    He drew a deep breath. “My sister fell in love with a gremlin, an illegal mating. She and my brother-in-law died when Petra was a baby and made me her guardian. The Society warned of dire consequences if Petra misbehaved. One night I forgot to lock her in her room while I was with my lover. Petra escaped and bit a neighbor and his wife, nearly exposing our kind to the human world. The Society put a bounty on her head. She was four years old.”
    His jaw was stone, his eyes dark ice. “They agreed to lift it if I joined their force of soldiers. My assignment was to kill a Darklighter.”
    Mara’s heart hammered in her chest. “The Darklighter, the woman you told me about, the one they ordered you to destroy.”
    Anger glimmered in his eyes. “The woman the Society’s advisor ordered destroyed. One Dennis Jones.”
    â€œHe’s human!”
    â€œAnd a powerful psychic. Jones drew the attention of the Society through his work with various police departments. The Society hired him to find a rogue werewolf evading their best trackers. He found the rogue in time to save a family’s life. They decided to hire him permanently and sealed his lips against