Chapter 1: The Hunt Begins
The desert sun sank low, bleeding crimson across the endless stretch of sand and scrub, a dying light that painted Jericho Flats in shades of rust and ruin. Mara Kane stood beside her Chevy, its faded blue paint chipped from years of hard miles, and checked the chamber of her Beretta M9. The silver-tipped rounds caught the last rays—overkill for a human target, maybe, but she’d learned the hard way that not all monsters wore claws. Her fingers, calloused from a decade gripping rifles and steering wheels, moved with practiced ease, though a faint tremor betrayed her. Not fear—never fear—but the restless hum of a hunt about to break wide open.
She was 32, though the lines etched around her hazel eyes made her look older, a map of sleepless nights and battles she’d rather forget. Her dark hair, cropped short after too many close calls in Kandahar, stuck to her sweat-damp neck. The scar across her left cheek—a jagged souvenir from an IED that took half her squad—itched in the dry heat. She’d been a sniper once, Army-born, steady behind a scope until the day a mission went sideways, and the guilt of surviving drove her out. Now she chased bounties, drifters, and whispers of things that didn’t belong in the light. Jericho’s latest job was just another paycheck: a man tied to three missing locals, a shadow the townsfolk called “monster.” Mara didn’t care what he was. She’d seen enough in the dust-choked valleys of war to know evil didn’t need fangs to kill.
Her boots crunched gravel as she approached the garage on the town’s edge, a squat building of corrugated metal and peeling paint. Varkis Repairs, the sign flickered, its neon tubes buzzing like a dying insect. A single bulb glowed inside, throwing long shadows over rusted car husks and oil-stained concrete. She adjusted the silver-edged knife strapped to her thigh—custom-forged by a paranoid ex-Marine she’d met in Tucson—and rolled her shoulders, feeling the weight of the day settle into her bones. The air was thick with the tang of gasoline and something sharper, metallic, like blood left to dry. Her gut twisted, a soldier’s instinct honed by years of ambushes, but she pushed it down. Doubt got you killed.
The door creaked as she shouldered it open, her Beretta steady in a two-hand grip. The garage was a cave of shadows, tools glinting faintly on pegboards, the air heavy with oil and dust. At the far end, a figure hunched over a motorcycle, broad shoulders shifting under a worn leather jacket, dark hair tied back in a loose knot. His hands moved with a mechanic’s precision, tightening a bolt, oblivious—or pretending to be—to her entrance. Mara’s pulse kicked up, not from nerves but from the thrill of the chase locking into place. She’d tracked him for two days,
piecing together rumors from barflies and a grainy photo from a gas station clerk. This was him.
“Hands where I can see ‘em, drifter,” she called, voice cutting through the stillness like a blade.
The man straightened, slow and deliberate, as if he’d been waiting for her all along. He turned, and damn if he didn’t look carved from the desert itself—tall, lean, muscular, with a face sharp as flint and eyes grey like storm clouds rolling in. A faint smirk tugged at his lips, dry and knowing, and Mara’s grip tightened on the gun. He wiped his hands on a rag, casual as if she wasn’t aiming silver at his heart, and she caught the faintest glint of something in his gaze—amusement, maybe, or exhaustion.
“You’re a long way from home, bounty hunter,” he said, his voice low and rough, like tires grinding gravel. It carried an edge, an accent she couldn’t place—old, worn smooth by time.
“Step out slowly,” she ordered, keeping her stance wide, boots planted. “Name’s Mara Kane. I’ve got a warrant for your ass—dead or alive. Your pick.”
He chuckled, a sound that slithered down her spine, raising hairs she didn’t want to acknowledge. “Silas Varkis. And you’re wasting your time. I haven’t killed anyone who didn’t deserve it.”
“Tell that to the families in Jericho.” She edged closer, her eyes tracing him—six-foot-two, maybe more, lean muscle under that jacket, movements too fluid for a man who should’ve been nervous. Not human, her gut screamed, and she trusted it. She’d seen things since leaving the Army—creatures in the shadows of border towns, eyes glowing in the dark. The silver wasn’t just for show.
Silas tilted his head, studying her with those gray eyes, piercing in a way that felt like he was peeling back her skin. “You’re not like the others who’ve come sniffing around. They shook. You don’t.”
“Flattery won’t save you.” She cocked the hammer, the click loud in the quiet. “Last chance.”
He lunged.
It was a blur—faster than any human had a right to be, a streak of shadow and intent. Her shot went wide, shattering a windshield in a spray of glass, and then he was on her. One hand gripped her wrist, twisting the gun free with bone-crushing strength; the other pinned her throat against the wall, cold fingers pressing just shy of choking. She smelled him—leather, iron, something ancient—and saw it up close: fangs glinting in the dim light, sharp and real. Vampire. Her heart slammed, but she didn’t panic. Panic was for rookies, and she’d survived worse.
Silas Varkis wasn’t what she’d expected. Four hundred years, give or take—he’d lost count somewhere after the witch hunts drove him from Europe. He’d been a blacksmith once, in a village long turned to dust, until a blood-starved night changed him. Immortality was a curse he wore like a threadbare coat, clinging to it out of spite more than desire. America’s deserts suited him—empty, unforgiving, a place to hide from the past. Jericho was just another stop, fixing cars to pass the time, until the whispers started. Missing people, bloodless bodies. Not his work, but he knew who’s it was. The Crimson Veil had tracked him again, their cult older than his own cursed life, and now this hunter had stumbled into their game.
“You’re good,” he murmured, breath cold against her ear, his grip unrelenting. “But not good enough.”