The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Part I by Jennifer Malone Wright Page A

she would tell me to go clean my room or something.
    A man’s voice, low and smooth, answered back, “Really, Felicia, you honestly think we are just going to turn around and leave?”
    He tsk’d at her like she was merely a child who had gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar. This man knew her. He called her by name and spoke to her with familiarity. I was desperate to see what was going on.
    “Trevor can’t have her!” my mother screamed at him.
    The sarcasm was clear when the man laughed and said, “Well, you should know as well as I do that what Trevor wants Trevor will get.” He paused and then casually added, “He also wants you dead.”
    I covered my mouth and stifled the urge to cry out. What the hell is going on?
    He continued to speak when my mother said nothing in return. “You messed up, Felicia. He would have let you live if you had just left and gone on with your life away from us. Instead, you chose to steal what was his. Trevor wants his child back.”
    What? My mom stole a child? That just couldn’t be the truth.
    My mother finally answered him, but she did so in a voice that was surprisingly fearless and brave. “Eli, you know he would have never been able to raise her. She is as much mine as she is his. I did not steal her; I saved her.”
    Her?
    The smooth voice continued as if her words meant nothing. “Nevertheless, we must carry out our orders. I would tell you that I’m sorry, Felicia, but I’m not. I never liked you, and I’m ecstatic I am the one who gets to kill one of the most renowned hunters to walk the Earth.”
    Fear grasped me like a cold hand around my throat. I would not just hide in my closet and let him try to kill my mother. I threw open the door and flew out of the closet to face her attackers.
    “No!”
    I think I may have actually scared them a little, because every person in the room jumped. After the initial shock, my mother’s eyes widened in disappointment and that man’s—Eli’s—lips curled up into a smile.
    I could put a face with the voice. He was about six feet tall with dark brown hair and cutting green eyes. The weird part was that he looked like he was about eighteen years old. The thought briefly passed through my head that I could take him. That thought was immediately crossed off the list when I got a good look behind him. There were about five other guys and one woman standing just outside my door.
    I bit my lip and wished I had stayed in the closet.
    “There she is!” Eli declared. “James!”
    Suddenly, James was behind me and grasping both my arms hard enough to restrain me. Really, it didn’t take much, because his hands were like iron vices. My mother lunged forward with her arms extended out toward me.
    “No!” she shouted. “You cannot have her!”
    The dark-haired man thrust his arm forward and sent her flying across the room with one hit. I struggled against James’s grip.
    “Let me go! Mom, Mom , are you ok?” I repeated over and over again.
    I was scared to death, but I wasn’t going to let them hurt my mom. I watched my mom slowly get up and brush her long dark hair away from her eyes. When I saw her eyes, I felt a rush of power. My mother looked vicious. I had never before seen such determination in her. She took two slow steps forward while Eli appeared to wait for her, and then she rushed him.
    “Mom, no!” I called out.
    But she didn’t hear me, or she ignored me. She was on him, pounding away with tight clean punches. He simply grabbed her by the back of her pajamas and yanked her off. He threw her to the ground mercilessly, and that’s when I saw my mother do something amazing: She was on her back staring up at him, and then she hopped to her feet without using her arms. Lightning fast, her hand struck out and grabbed my desk chair. She smashed it over his head.
    He threw his leg forward and sideways, knocking her feet out from under her so that she fell to the floor.
    “Now this is more like the Felicia we