Sterling Silver: (Sterling Hunter 1) Read online

  Sterling Silver

  Sterling Hunter Book #1

  By Melody Personette

  This is a work of fiction. The characters and events described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or to living persons alive or dead. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher except for brief quotations embodied in critical reviews.

  Copyright © 2019 Melody Personette

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 9781700083944

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Epilogue

  Dedication

  To Damon, Elena and Stefan, who got me through the hard times.

  Author’s Note:

  Hi! If you want updates, bonus content and sneak peeks you can join my newsletter at www.melodypersonette.com.

  Chapter One

  Tabitha's yellow combat boots splashed through a puddle as she turned the corner, leaving the alley behind. She could hear him in front of her, see his shadow turning a sharp corner. She picked up the pace. Tabitha bit her lip and grabbed one of the many stakes on her belt, letting the adrenaline feed her strength. Trusting her instincts like she had done countless times, she whipped around a corner, and into the next alley. Tabitha stopped short, plunging her stake up under the ribs, puncturing him in the heart.

  Her own chest rose and fell unsteadily as she let go of the stake and stepped back, the human-looking creature falling to his knees. The body contorted and desiccated within seconds in front of her. If Tabitha had a nickel for every time, she saw one of them shrivel up and die, she would be a very rich seventeen-year-old. She caught her breath and pulled her strawberry blond hair over a shoulder. Tabitha glanced around as she stepped back from the dead vampire.

  Rule number one of being a vampire hunter: No witnesses.

  Most people believed these creatures existed only in fiction and history. Tabitha knew different. She had grown up with a stake in her hands and hunting in her blood.

  She bent down and yanked the stake from the creature's chest. Back as an innocent and loud little ten-year-old, her father had come home with a human-sized sack over his shoulder. Her mom was out back, and he grinned mischievously at Tabitha as she ran to the door to greet him.

  “Wanna see something cool Tabby?”

  She had nodded, and his grin widened. Turned out the sack contained a desiccated vampire. Her mother hadn't been happy to find her young daughter gaping over a dead body in the living room.

  Tabitha blinked the memory away and shoved the stake into her belt. Two years. Two years since her father's death. Two years since she swore on his grave that she would carry on his legacy as the Sterling hunter. Time didn't pass fast enough. Sometimes it still felt like they had buried him yesterday instead of years ago.

  Turning on her heels, she headed out of the alley, leaving the memory of her father behind. Time to head home. That was the third vampire she'd killed tonight.

  The vampires were on the rise and as long as they gave her a distraction, a way to get her frustration out, she didn't care why they had decided to pool in the city. With each stake plunged into their hearts, Tabitha let out her irritation over the Carters who were old family friends and were kind of like royalty in the hunter community. They were like family to Tabitha. Tom Carter and his son Jonas had taken her out last week to go vampire hunting with them. It may have been two years since her father's death, but the Carters had kept their distance when it came to her hunting life.

  Suffice to say she may have caught them off guard with her viciousness. She took hunting seriously, and she got the job done. They had run into two vampires, and she hadn’t hesitated when she saw them. She had ripped and slashed them apart.

  Now Jonas avoided her at school and whenever she walked into a room at home, her mom always hung up the phone. When Tabitha asked who she'd been talking to, she said Brenda Carter but nothing else. The Carters and her mom were talking behind her back about her. Tabitha tried to remind herself that they were being tough on her because when she turned eighteen next year, she would be taking the Moirai trials, a set of tests to determine if she could enter their secret organization of vampire hunters.

  That still didn’t excuse the way they had been treating her, though.

  Tabitha scowled as she retraced her steps, navigating the labyrinth of city alleyways between and behind stores and towering businesses. Thankfully it'd stopped raining twenty minutes ago, though the rain had left her black skinny jeans and black leather jacket rather soggy. Staking three vampires in one night had left her yellow gloves with specks of blood on them.

  Tabitha stripped them off and shoved them into her jacket pockets, the early Fall air stinging her hands as she stopped at the entrance to the last alley and grabbed her bag. She'd stashed her black pea-coat in her gym bag. Now she pulled off her leather hunting jacket, unbuckled her belt of stakes and shoved them in there, pulling out her coat. Tabitha tied the gray string in a knot around her waist, buttoned up the front, zipped up her bag, and left the alley as if nothing had happened.

  When the sun came up in the morning the vampires would dry up and people would find three piles of ash around the city. They’d be swept up and forgotten. Tabitha took her phone from her pocket and glanced at the screen. Twelve thirty… she should probably head home. Her mom would be up waiting for her and had told her to be home before twelve. Whoops.

  Tabitha shoved her phone back into her pocket and frowned, heading toward the parking garage where she always left her old bright blue bug in when she went hunting. She crossed the quiet street and headed inside, searching the nearly empty garage for her car, and spotted it a few feet away.

  Tomorrow she planned to confront Jonas and ask him what the heck was wrong with him. Tell him she had had been doing her job. Killing vampires. No one said it was clean work. Hunting wasn't clean. Or at least not to Tabitha.

  Tabitha was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she didn't notice someone walking toward her until she bumped into him.

  “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry,” she gasped, jumping back, her boots squeaking. A guy–teenager maybe? –stood in front of her.

  Tabitha's fingers itched for her stake, and instinctively she reached for her waist. She'd put her stakes inside her b
ag... She could still fight off a creeper with her bare hands if she needed to. In the dim light of the parking garage, shadows shrouded his face. She could make out dirty blond hair and a tall, imposing stance and physique. Tabitha took all of him in, assessing how much of a threat he was. Her father had raised her to have a healthy amount of suspicion for everyone and anyone she crossed paths with. And to be able to defend herself against vampires and parking garage creeps alike.

  The boy held up his hands. “No, I'm sorry. I should have been watching where I was going. It's kind of late to be out, don't you think?”

  Tabitha frowned and tilted her head, her hair falling down her back. She folded her arms, her gym bag slung over a shoulder. “Yeah, it is, but I had a late-night college class. What's your excuse?”

  His lips lifted at the corners and he cocked his head too, mirroring her stance. “Touché. Nice shoes. Very bright...”

  Tabitha glanced down at her boots and then up at him. “Thanks, I guess... I'm going to go to my car now, so excuse me.”

  He raised his eyebrows and stepped aside, gesturing for her to continue. “By all means, go ahead.”

  Tabitha didn't take her eyes off him as she passed him and headed toward her car. His predatory eyes stayed on her the whole time. Tabitha kept her hand firmly grasped around her gym bag as she pulled her keys from her coat pocket and unlocked the car. She got in and locked the doors behind her. She could still feel his eyes on her back as she started the engine. Thinking some music might calm her nerves and scare the lurker off, she plugged her phone in and turned on her playlist, turning the volume up to Ear-Drum-Shattering-Level and backed out.

  But even as she backed up and headed for the exit, the guy still stood there where she'd left him, watching her with a smirk on his face and a hunter's glare in his eyes. The glare Tabitha sometimes got when she came face to face with a vampire.

  A cold shudder ran down Tabitha's spine. She hit the gas, roaring out of the parking garage and out onto the streets.

  After turning several corners and heading out of the city, she let herself relax and glanced in her rearview mirror. No creeper. Good.

  She shook herself from the chill that had settled over her, turned up the heat and her music even louder. Tabitha let the lyrics fill her brain and empty her mind of thoughts as she headed home after a good night of hunting.

  Chapter Two

  Tabitha tapped her purple lace-up boots against the ground beneath her desk, biting at a loose fingernail. Students trickled into the classroom and Tabitha kept glancing from the clock to the door, waiting for her best friend Chelsea or for Jonas to show up. Her luck seemed to have run out because she got Jonas first. Brown hair styled and glistening with gel and brown eyes glinting as he laughed with a few of his soccer buddies. He glanced at her and then away, heading to the opposite side of the classroom. As far from her as possible.

  Tabitha got to her feet, ready to confront him but then Chelsea walked in. Today she was wearing a blue capped beanie, her chestnut brown hair falling past her shoulders, a pair of skinny jeans and an oversized sweatshirt. Tabitha would have to catch Jonas later.

  Chelsea gripped her books and binders to her chest and shuffled to the back of the class, where she sat down beside Tabitha and dumped all her stuff on the desk. “Hey. Jonas still avoiding you?”

  Tabitha grinned and twirled her pencil between her fingers. If a vampire walked in right now, she could throw the little piece of wood and led with pinpoint accuracy, straight into its heart.

  “Hey. Yeah, he is, but I plan to corner him at lunch.”

  Chelsea frowned, organizing her English textbook, and several notebooks and pencils on her desk in a neat order. The textbook went in the left corner, the notebooks in the right, and her latest fantasy read in the middle.

  “Did you hear there's going to be a new student? He's in our class.”

  Tabitha raised her eyebrows and leaned her elbow against the desk, chin in hand. “Really? And how do you know it's a he?”

  She shrugged. “I saw him in the principal's office... through Mr. Michel's window.”

  Tabitha cocked an eyebrow. “So, you were spying? I'm impressed.”

  “No, I happened to be passing by, and I saw Mr. Michel talking to this guy... I didn't even get a clear look at him.”

  Tabitha shrugged. A new kid didn't really matter to her. The girls of the class would snatch him up before she could even glance at him.

  Just then, Mr. Noland strode in with his black satchel full of papers and homework. Tabitha cocked her head, watching as the new guy came in behind him wearing a fitted shirt that showed off a toned body.

  “That him?” Tabitha jerked her chin at the boy. Chelsea nodded, as she opened her book in her lap. “Yep.”

  Tabitha let the pencil drop from her hand and narrowed her eyes. He looked familiar.

  Mr. Noland cleared his throat, and the room fell silent. Unlike with the other teachers most of the high schoolers had at least a minimal amount of respect for Mr. Noland. He went easy on them. Never gave them too much homework and didn't make them read anything too crazy.

  The new guy turned to face the class as well, and Tabitha sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh my gosh,” she whispered.

  Chelsea glanced up, her eyes flickering from the boy to her. “What?”

  Tabitha's eyes locked on the guy's face. “I know him.”

  “Know him? How?”

  Tabitha couldn't take her eyes off him. How was this possible? It couldn't be a coincidence... could it? The boy's swampy green eyes scanned the room and landed on her face. They widened a fraction, but then his lips twitched as if he wasn't all that surprised to see her there. Tabitha shrank back on the inside. The guy in front of her was the weird creeper lurking by her car last night. How could he be here? Was he stalking her?

  “Remember when I said I went into the city last night?” she whispered, glancing at Chelsea. She had given her friend some excuse but having to run down there for her mom, since she had no idea about vampires.

  Chelsea nodded, her full attention now on the situation.

  “Well I bumped into him in the parking garage. Like actually bumped into him. I thought he was just some weirdo...”

  Chelsea's eyes widened. “No way.”

  “Yes way. What do I do? Do you think he remembers me?”

  Chelsea opened her mouth, but Mr. Noland cut her off. “Since Miss. Sterling and Miss. Collins' are feeling chatty today I think they would make the best first-day buddies for you, don't you think Sebastian?”

  Sebastian?

  Tabitha locked eyes with him.

  Sebastian's lips turned up in the same amused, predatory smile he had last night. “Yes, that sounds fine Mr. Noland.”

  He headed for them. Chelsea whimpered and sank lower in her seat, grabbing hold of her book as if he might swipe it from her desk. His eyes flashed with amusement.

  Tabitha scowled and straightened as all the girls – and the guys – watched him with gaping mouths as he passed them. Jessica, Nora, and Marie practically salivated when his hand skimmed Marie's desk. Tabitha didn't take her eyes off him even as he slid into the seat next to hers and glanced down at her shoes. “Nice boots. Very colorful,” he murmured.

  Tabitha made a face and turned toward the whiteboard. He leaned his elbow on his desk, and a hand cupped his chin as he scrutinized her with keen eyes. She refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her squirm even as his stare bore into her skin. Instead, she paid attention as Mr. Noland began class. First by announcing a quiz for two weeks from now and that they should start paying attention and studying a bit harder since most of the class's grades have been slipping. There weren't many high schoolers who enjoyed reading classical literature.

  Tabitha prided herself on not being one of them. She read everything from Shakespeare to Greek myths to The Brothers Grimm. Tabitha still had her eighth-grade paper on the idea of vampirism after reading The Vampyr. A theoretical paper, of course.
/>   “For the entirety of the next two weeks, we'll be reading and studying the story of Dracula by Bram Stoker written in 1897,” Mr. Noland declared.

  The class erupted into moans and groans. Tabitha grinned but it quickly melted when Sebastian chuckled. She shot him a glare. “What's so funny?”

  Sebastian shook his head of perfect dirty blond hair. He gave her a secretive smile. “Nothing... just how very... appropriate the topic is.”

  Tabitha's instincts hummed, warming up and making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  Sebastian shrugged, an amused light dancing in his eyes, as if he knew something she didn't. “Perhaps I'll tell you after school if you meet me behind the building...”

  How infuriatingly cryptic and kind of sketchy. What was up with the new guy? Suspicion crept up on her and she gave him a pointed look before facing the front of the class again.

  Chelsea raised her eyebrows and tilted her head in a silent question. Tabitha shrugged. “I'll fill you in later,” she mouthed.

  Mr. Noland clapped his hands together and beamed at the class. “Alright. Everyone's going to be splitting into pairs, but before you go grabbing your bestie’s hand you should know I will be choosing your partners for you.”

  Another collective groan and this time pure ice settled in the pit of Tabitha's stomach. This did not bode well for her. She had a fifty-fifty chance that she would either be partnered with Chelsea or Sebastian.

  Tabitha gripped her pencil like a stake as Mr. Noland made his rounds, picking out different students and paring them up.

  Her muscles tensed, a bead of sweat trailing down the back of her neck.

  Her dad had once told her how when a vampire was near him, his body would know and warn him. The hair on the back of his neck would stand on end, his body would go tense. He would start clenching his teeth without thinking, and his hands would itch for a stake.

  Tabitha had experienced those same symptoms many times in the past two years. Now though, Tabitha couldn't understand why she felt this way. She was in class and as far as she knew there weren't any vampires around.