Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) by Joyce Robles

didn’t outright kill them it put
them down long enough for the final blow, apparently not with this vampire. There was no guarantee he
was on the roof right this moment or that he hadn’t died up there from his wounds. Whatever the case
she was determined to finish him off like everyone was telling her to do. She hoped that he up there still
because her last blow combined with all the bullets he’d taken had damaged him enough to force him to
stop and heal, an ideal time to finish him.
    ‘He’s alive and kicking, don’t expect to find a corpse up there, he’s not dead.’
    "Did I ask," she asked aloud. She wasn’t sure whether or not whoever the hell this guy was
could hear her if she spoke out loud, she didn’t really care. When she reached the top of the stairs
there was another ladder to climb to reach the roof. "Fantastic," she mumbled to herself before
hesitantly putting the Beretta back in the hip holster. Going up without a gun in hand seemed like a very
bad idea, but she had a bad arm and it just so happened that she needed both arms to climb the ladder
even if that weren’t the case. She’d worry about arming herself once she was up there. She looked
down where the alley appeared almost to be a black hole, she couldn’t even see the ground. She
ignored the darkness beneath her and focused on the roof hoping that the voice wasn’t lying to her.
    Pulling herself to the top she drew the Beretta and aimed as quickly as she was on her feet. It
wasn’t dark up here, on the contrary it was lit up by moon light and street lamps. She could see
everything including her predator who stood across from her on the opposite side of the roof. He just
sat hunched on the edge of the building like he’d forgotten that someone was pursuing him. He was at
ease, like a stone gargoyle perched on the ledge, she might have placed him for a statue if he didn’t
look the way he did. She took a step forward but he didn’t budge from where he crouched.
    ‘ Just shoot him in the head. ’
    "What’s wrong with him," she realized in that second that it had been a mistake to speak. Her
monsters head turned to look at her over his shoulder, his neck creaked and snapped like that one
motion took effort. He hissed a warning that she didn’t take, she started moving toward him, at the
same time pulling the trigger on the M9. She got off three rounds before he moved, not a single one of
the bullets slowing him down. He cried out, a sharp sound like an animal gone mad, she moved but he
made no attempt to go after her. She watched as he leapt past her to the roof opposite to her right.
"Shit," she ran the distance to the edge and looked out over the distance he’d put between himself and
her, "shit!"
    ‘It’s not that far, a few meters, you can make it.’
    "That’s easy for you to say, you’re not the one who has to jump it." She moved all the way to
where her murderer had been perched and prepared herself to run and jump. She took a deep breath,
exhaled and in a burst of as much speed as she could conjure up, took off. There was a second or so
after she leapt off the ledge where she seemed to be flying through the air. She knew that she wasn’t,
that was confirmed when she came down hard on the roof that she’d thrown herself at. She tucked her
body in and took the impact as best as she could, she rolled to a stop and forced herself to her feet.
Beretta still in hand she took aim at the bastard again, "stop running and just die already!" She didn’t
hesitate this time simply shot the bastard. Again without hesitation she pulled the second Beretta and
didn’t stop shooting him until both pistols were empty and the impact of the bullets had laid him out flat.
She re-holstered both 9mm Beretta’s without reloading, and pulled the Remington from over her
shoulder. She moved toward the stiff body that she’d emptied practically thirty rounds into intent on
emptying the Remington into his head. When she was within a few feet