The Second Life of Bree | Page 2

NEWSPAPER HEADLINE GLARED AT ME FROM a little metal vending
machine: SEATTLE UNDER SIEGE—DEATH TOLL RISES AGAIN. I hadn‘t seen
this one yet. Some paperboy must have just restocked the machine. Lucky for him, he
was nowhere around now. Great. Riley was going to blow a gasket. I would make sure I
wasn‘t within reach when he saw this paper. Let him rip somebody else‘s arm off. I stood
in the shadow behind the corner of a shabby three story building, trying to be
inconspicuous while I waited for someone to make a decision. Not wanting to meet
anyone‘s eyes, I stared at the wall beside me instead. The ground floor of the building
housed a record shop that had long since closed; the windows, lost to weather or street
violence, were filled in with plywood. Over the top were apartments—empty, I guessed,
since the normal sounds of sleeping humans were absent. I wasn‘t surprised—the place
looked like it would collapse in a stiff wind. The buildings on the other side of the dark,
narrow street were just as wrecked. The normal scene for a night out on the town. I didn‘t
want to speak up and draw attention, but I wished somebody would decide something. I
was really thirsty, and I didn‘t care much whether we went right or left or over the roof. I
just wanted to find some unlucky people who wouldn‘t even have enough time to think
wrong place, wrong time. Unfortunately tonight Riley‘d sent me out with two of the most
useless vampires in existence. Riley never seemed to care who he sent out in hunting
groups. Or particularly bugged when sending out the wrong people together meant fewer
people coming home. Tonight I was stuck with Kevin and some blond kid whose name I
didn‘t know. They both belonged to Raoul‘s gang, so it went without saying that they
were stupid. And dangerous. But right now, mostly stupid. Instead of picking a direction
for our hunt, suddenly they were in the middle of an argument over whose favorite
superhero would be a better hunter. The nameless blond was demonstrating his case for
Spider-Man now, skittering up the brick wall of the alley while humming the cartoon
theme song. I sighed in frustration. Were we ever going to hunt? A little flicker of

movement to my left caught my eye. It was the other one Riley had sent out in this
hunting group, Diego. I didn‘t know much about him, just that he was older than most of
the others. Riley‘s right-hand man was the word. That didn‘t make me like him any more
than the other morons. Diego was looking at me. He must have heard the sigh. I looked
away. Keep your head down and your mouth shut—that was the way to stay alive in
Riley‘s crowd. ―Spider-Man is such a whiny loser,‖ Kevin called up to the blond kid. ―I‘ll
show you how a real superhero hunts.‖ He grinned wide. His teeth flashed in the glare of
a streetlight. Kevin jumped into the middle of the street just as the lights from a car
swung around to illuminate the cracked pavement with a blue-white gleam. He flexed his
arms back, then pulled them slowly together like a pro wrestler showing off. The car
came on, probably expecting him to get the hell out of the way like a normal person
would. Like he should. ―Hulk mad!‖ Kevin bellowed. ―Hulk… SMASH!‖ He leaped
forward to meet the car before it could brake, grabbed its front bumper, and flipped it
over his head so that it struck the pavement upside down with a squeal of bending metal
and shattering glass. Inside, a woman started screaming. ―Oh man,‖ Diego said, shaking
his head. He was pretty, with dark, dense, curly hair, big, wide eyes, and really full lips,
but then, who wasn‘t pretty? Even Kevin and the rest of Raoul‘s morons were pretty.
―Kevin, we‘re supposed to be laying low. Riley said—‖ “Riley said!” Kevin mimicked in
a harsh soprano. ―Get a spine, Diego. Riley‘s not here.‖ Kevin sprang over the upside-
down Honda and punched out the driver‘s side window, which had somehow stayed
intact up to that point. He fished through the shattered glass and the deflating air bag for
the driver. I turned my back and held my breath, trying my hardest to hold on to the
ability to think. I couldn‘t watch Kevin feed. I was too thirsty for that, and I really didn‘t
want to pick a fight with him. I so did not need to be on Raoul‘s hit list. The blond kid
didn‘t have the same issues. He pushed off from the bricks overhead and landed lightly
behind me. I heard him and Kevin snarling at each other, and then