Page 68 of Shadow Hunter

Chris’s voice on the other end of the line sounded desperate. “Have you seen it already?”

Tiffany met his eyes, listening to Chris, whose voice was loud enough to carry.

“Seen what?” Damon asked.

Chris swore. “You’d better get to the nearest computer.”

Without hesitation, Tiffany darted to her desk, where her too-old laptop sat closed and asleep. She opened the screen and hit the power button.

“What’s going on, Chris?” Damon asked. He switched the phone to speaker.

Chris spoke at light speed, his nerves clearly getting the better of him. “There’s a viral video. You need to see it before HQ gets it taken down. Search for ‘zombie apocalypse Rochester.’”

Damon gestured to Tiffany. She typed in the search terms and hit enter.

Damon shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around what seemed to be happening. “Please tell me this isn’t what it sounds like.” His stomach twisted. He could hear Chris’s fingers flying across his keyboard in the background.

“If by ‘what it sounds like’ you mean dumbass teenagers getting video footage of the bloodsucker who’s orchestrating your virus transitioning a dead guy into an infected vamp, then, yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like.”

Adrenaline shot through Damon’s veins. “What are you talking about, Chris? We killed Caius last night.”

“We? Who’s we?” Chris rasped. “And whoever you killed last night clearly wasn’t the right vampire.”

Damon’s eyes widened. “Never mind who—”

“Found it.” Tiffany beckoned Damon. She clicked play.

The rustling sound of movement near an unsteady camera echoed from the speakers. The shaky video pointed down a dimly lit alleyway. A hooded man with his back to the camera stood over an unmoving form, a disgusting gulping sound carrying through the video.

Damon’s heart raced.

After nearly a minute of continuous feeding, the figure pulled away.

“Fuck!” Damon roared.

The camera showed what was clearly a freshly dead corpse. Fang marks marred the victim’s throat, plain as day.

“Holy—” The whispering of a teenage boy’s voice was cut off as, judging by the sounds, one of his friends clapped a hand over his mouth.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Teens and their freaking phones.

A trickle of blood ran from the man’s neck before the shadowed figure hunched over the body again. Reaching into his pocket, the faceless vamp removed a small syringe.

Tiffany mumbled under her breath. “Oh, shit.”

The shrouded figure lifted the arm of the corpse and injected the serum into the deadened vein. When it finished, the figure stood and stepped away, looming over the body. The corpse twitched, jerking to life. The dead man’s eyes snapped open. The irises glowed a pulsing red as the hooded figure disappeared into the night.

One of the teenage boys swore. The newly turned leech’s head snapped in their direction. It opened its mouth and bared its fangs. A loud hiss ripped from its throat, and with unnatural, jerky movements it scrambled into a crouched position, ready to pounce.

“Fuck! Run!” one of the boys yelled. The video blurred and jerked as footsteps pounded the ground. Seconds later the video cut abruptly to black.

Chris cleared his throat. “We are in some deep shit here, which means…”

Damon nodded. “I know.”

The Sergeant was going to call.

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