Scorned by Blood Special Edition Omnibus

As I turned the corner outside—officially off Chester’s property—a hand reached for me and I grabbed onto the accompanying wrist, twisting until the imbecile cried out.
“Damn, Amersyn. What’s got a thong stuck up your ass crack?” Simon’s nasally voice sounded, grating on my nerves. He was a hunter like me, so I tolerated him, but there was something about him I didn’t trust. He reminded me of someone I used to know and that wasn’t a good thing.
“First, that question makes absolutely no sense. Thongs are meant to go up people’s asses—uncomfortably so. Second, haven’t you learned by now? This is me in a good mood.” I bent his arm a little further before shoving him away with a bright smile plastered to my face.
His mousy brown hair was matted, and his dull blue eyes roamed over me. I scrunched my nose at the smell coming from his wrinkled clothes, assuming he hadn’t changed in days.
“I’ve been tracking a nest of ten. You want in?” Simon asked. Assumption confirmed.
Before he was finished with his sentence, I was backing up. “I’m going to have to pass.”
“Oh, come on. Derik was supposed to help me out, but he bailed last minute. I don’t want to let these vamps pass by thinking they can come back anytime.”
Simon had a point there, but I had rules—very specific ones that I lived by—and they’d never steered me wrong. Not since I learned how necessary they were.
The first rule was that I rarely worked with other hunters. It was rare to find someone who you could trust to have your back regardless of what they got out of it.
No matter the job, no matter the place, I trusted no one. A mistake I’d only made once when I first found out about hunters. I’d been naïve then. Years later, I was twenty-one, and maybe that was still young to some, but my mind was beyond that of normal humans my age after all I’d witnessed.
Simon tapped his foot and I sighed. “You know my—”
He cut me off. “Yeah, your rules. Blah, blah, blah. How do you ever expect to make waves if you don’t join up with other hunters?”
I grunted. I had no desire to make waves. I just wanted to make a dent. A dent that included five particular vampires. Three had already been turned to ash. Two remained elusive, but I was motivated enough to never give up. I knew the reward of avenging my family was waiting for me, as long as I did everything right.
I wouldn’t ever waver. I couldn’t.
“Sorry, Simon. If you’re not up for the task, give me the location and I’ll take the job for you,” I said, brushing my ebony hair out of my face as the icy wind blew around us.
Simon laughed, the stench of his cigarette breath wafting over me. “No can do. I’ll find someone else to partner with. You have yourself a good night, Amersyn.”
My skin crawled at the way he purred my name. I should have changed it long ago when I began hunting, but then I decided what I went by didn’t matter. A name was nothing without the family that gave it to you.
I sighed, thinking of my parents and baby brother. Teddy hadn’t actually been a baby—he’d only been ten months younger than me—but I’d taken my role as big sister very seriously.
Losing the three of them changed everything. Their deaths unleashed a darkness within me I’d never known possible. I should have been afraid of the rage and drive to kill, but instead, I’d reveled in the strength that the emotions provided me.
Vampires didn’t deserve to walk our earth. They were nothing but parasites that people like me lived to extinguish.