Read Online The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection by Jennifer Malone Wright - Free Book Online

do
you know it's vampires doing it?”
    Drew grabbed his own water bottle and shoved
it into his back pack. “Lots of vampires cut the throats of their
victims to make it look like a murder. A murder by a human. You
ready?”
    I nodded, and we took off.
    Running through the snow sucks big time. On
my list of things I hate most about training, running in the snow
was probably in the top three. Apparently it was of the utmost
importance to learn to run in the elements, because I might have to
chase a vampire through the snow or something.
    While we ran, Drew veered off into the
trails. The snow was actually not as deep in the forest, so we
crunched over the icy layer on top of the soil. We were deep in the
forest when I began to really detest the slippery ground.
    It had become my habit to push through it
when I felt this way. I dug in and ran faster. I breathed in deep
with my nose and exhaled long with my mouth, forcing the fatigue
out of my body. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest,
pounding rapidly as the blood pulsed throughout my body.
    I dipped my head down and sped up again,
passing Drew who jumped a little bit when I did. I smiled with
triumph when I passed him, because the whole time I had been
running and training with Drew, I had never, ever passed him.
    I kept thinking about the ice melting beneath
my feet and the soles of my shoes touching the earth beneath it. My
feet felt like they were on fire.
    “Chloe…”
    I heard my name, but I didn’t stop because I
didn’t want to give him the chance to pass me again. I had the
lead.
    “Chloe!” He called again. “Stop!”
    I skidded to a halt when his shout carried
that tone I had come to know as warning. I turned to face him.
“What? What is it?”
    He only pointed. I looked down at my feet and
there were small flames flickering around my shoes.
    “What the—” I jumped back and shook one of my
feet. “Ah, what is this?” I turned quickly and stuck my foot into
one of the snow banks on the side of the trail. Nothing happened;
the flames only melted a gigantic hole where I had plunged it into
the bank.
    “ Stop it!” I screamed, shaking my foot
again. The flames immediately went out on both shoes.
    “Oh, my god. What was that?” I panted and
looked up at Drew, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring down
the trail that we had just run.
    I followed his gaze and saw why he was
staring down the trail like an idiot. The path was clear. Where I
had run, the snow was gone and the earth beneath had been
exposed.
    “Drew, how…wha…?”
    “You melted the snow, Chloe.”
    “No! My shoes were on fire!” I hollered at
him. “My. Shoes. Were. On. Fire!” I punctuated every word to make
sure he heard me.
    He turned to look at me and awe was clearly
written across his face. “I think you have the gift of fire.”
    “Whatever. I’m not even sixteen yet.”
    “It doesn’t matter. How else can you explain
what just happened? What were you thinking about?”
    I was still panting, not because I was tired,
but because I was scared. My freaking feet had caught fire. “That
the ice would melt. That I hated running in the snow.”
    He nodded knowingly. “See, it’s your
gift.”
    “I don’t know. I think it’s some kind of
freak accident.”
    “Can you do it again?”
    “I don’t think so.” More like I didn’t want
to try again.
    “Come on, try again.” He glanced all around
us, looking for something. Finally, his eyes settled on a tree. “If
you don’t want to set your shoes on fire again, do that tree.”
    “Drew, I am not setting fire to a tree.”
    “Come on.” He was practically begging. I
couldn’t stand seeing him look like that. He was usually so
confident and had this whole ‘whatever, I’m just gonna stand here
and look awesome’ attitude going on.
    “Fine.”
    I thought he might jump up and down, he
looked so excited. I adjusted my stance so that I was staring at
the tree, squinted my eyes, and thought about it