Killers by Megan Duffey (self help books to read .TXT) 📖

guess being that’s her deadliest killing object. Most people prefer guns. He himself didn’t like using guns, although he never head to. He could take someone’s head of in a second if he needed to.

Mason came to stand beside her, “I think he’d feel more comfortable if you would put your knifes away.” Very much so.

“Its not my job to make him comfortable Mase, and its not yours either. So stop being so tenderhearted.” She said still holding the knife.

Michael smiled. “Hmm, feisty are we?” Most people would go off guard with his outrageous flirting. But not Aria, he soon learned. She didn’t even smile, to his surprise.

“Stop avoiding the subject. Did you find anything?” She said tightening her fist around the knife. Michael didn’t think she was in such a good mood. Maybe it was best not to mess with her, no matter how pretty she was…well. At least for today.

“Actually, I did find something. The vampires aren’t going missing, their being turned.” Michael said going over to the couch and sitting down. He gestured for Aria and Mason to sit down. Mason sat on the other side opposite of him. Aria stood up, declining his offer. She hated “bloodsuckers.” That word always seemed to hurt when someone called him that, but he had grown use to it, over the time of his immortal life.

“That can’t be true. The vampires are disappearing…” Mason said furrowing his brow, deep in though.

“Actually, Mrs. Night found one of the bodies. She’s in the middle of the Change though, it would be wrong of you to interfere with it. Its already bad enough going through it without a maker.”

“But what about the other bodies? Where did they go?” Aria asked eying Michael with a death stare. Being under her gaze made him quite uncomfortable. For some reason those dark blue eyes of hers, seemed to be looking through him. Something else that made Michael interested in the beautiful girl.

“Aria, don’t you think you should tell McCray? He’d be mad if you didn’t…and you haven’t exactly been on his good side lately…” Mason said looking at her worriedly.

“The hell with McCray. He’d send more Warriors, and they’d just try to take over our work. I don’t like to be ordered around.” She said fumbling with the ring on her finger.

“Aria--” Mason began but she held up a hand to stop him. “I said no, Mason.” Her voice had a finality to it, and Mason shut his mouth and leaned back in the black leather chair. She must be the leader of the two.

“You two are an odd pair. Aren’t you Warriors suppose to be in large groups?” Michael asked amusingly. The Warriors he’d seen had always had about four or five--sometimes more than that--in a group.

“Aria likes to work alone. She doesn’t play well with others.” Mason said frowning at her.

“I can work with others, Mason.” She said sliding the ring back onto her finger. Michael could see the silver of the ring glistening, he wondered why a Warrior had a ring. Most didn’t wear them. But he was beginning to see that Aria wasn’t a normal Warrior. Neither was Mason.

“Aria, you punched Tyler in the face the last time we were in groups.” He said accusingly, crossing his arms. Michael looked from one to the other, trying to hide a smile.

“Hey, he shouldn’t have been so controlling. I had explained to him I’d be the one leading the group…he just didn’t listen,” and knowing what he was going to say next, Aria spoke again, “and I said sorry to him. He only had so stay in the hospital for a little while.” Michael was beginning to like Aria even more.

“Remind me not to mess with you, Aria. You seem to be quite a dangerous girl.” He smiled at her.

“Oh you won’t have to be reminded. You’ll learn.” Mason said a grin on his face.

“But aren’t you going back?” Michael asked looking at Aria as she grinned.

“As much as I hate to say it, we might need your help, vampire.” She said sighing and holding up her hand, as Mason started to protest. Michael stared at her in shock.

“It might help your case too. I might not kill you, when you help us.” When? She was quite sure of herself. But then again with all those knifes, he didn’t think she should be underestimated.

Chapter Four

　It wasn’t as if Aria had a choice. It was her duty to protect the humans--no matter how much she hated how much she had to sacrifice for her job. Aria liked her job--most of the time. She got to fight and kill creatures from hell, and by doing so making the world a better place. But she had her own dreams too. Aria wanted to go on vacation--for once in her life, she wanted to own a house, get a normal job--but she couldn’t. Mason had said he wanted the same things, and Aria had thought about running away a few times, but it wasn’t the smartest idea either. The Warriors would probably drag her right back--although she could probably kill them.

Michael had allowed them to stay in the upstairs guestrooms, which was a surprise. Aria wouldn’t want deadly Warriors sleeping in her house, especially if she was a bloodsucker. That’d just be stupid. But Michael had a confidence that she’d never seen a vamp have. Of course all vamps had that smart ass thing about them, but Michael’s confidence was more real. Like he actually knew that he could rip your head off, and she wasn’t doubting he could. She’d just kill him first before he got the chance.

Aria jumped out of bed, still in a little black spaghetti strap shirt and her black shorts to match. Warriors almost always wore black--quite depressing really. But Aria knew she looked good in black, hell she looked good in what ever color she was wearing. It really didn’t matter. She shut the door behind her and crept down the stairs and into the kitchen. She really wanted some coffee, and the last time she’d had it was when she’d had to go early in the morning to take care of a ghost problem a week ago. Humans were so skittish. One ghost couldn’t do that much damage, all the damn thing did was knock over a few pictures. But still, she’d taken care of it. Looking around the kitchen she spotted the coffeemaker that was currently on and running. Going through the cabinets she finally spotted a few mugs. She randomly picked one that said “Fangtastic”. She’d seen these mugs in the club she’d found Michael at. While she poured the hot liquid into the mug she heard footsteps behind her. Knowing that it was Michael, her relaxed mood went to alert. Dumping milk and sugar into the mug she said, “You can’t sneak up on me.”

“You probably have one of your knifes on you.” Michael said pulling out a stool and drinking a red liquid--Aria knew what it was even before she saw it. Blood. Vampires might need it to survive, but from her point of view it was just disgusting.

“It’d be wise not to mess with me then.” Aria threatened, sipping her coffee that she had loaded with sugar. She put so much sugar into it, it barely passed as coffee. She heard footsteps on the stairs, and was grateful that he had came. She might’ve killed Michael a few seconds before he came down, Aria has a very short temper.

“Hey Mase,” Aria said going to sit at the table with him. His hair was a mess and he had bags under his eyes, which meant he probably stayed up on that damned computer.

“Did you stay up on that computer all night?” Aria asked worriedly. Usually if he hadn’t stayed up on his computer, he’d have these horrible dreams. Sometimes Aria did too…just even worse.

“Yes, and lost a whole night’s sleep because of it, but I did find something.”

“What?” Michael asked from across the room.

Aria glared at him, but Mason politely said, “A list of missing persons in this area. Most of them are being turned and disappearing, but I found a string of murders committed, all meeting their deaths by a bite mark.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that their the bloodsuckers we’re looking for, Mase.” Aria said running her hands through her messy black hair.

“There was a witness though, and I tracked her address.” Mason said grinning. Aria should’ve known Mason would find something useful. This was very, very useful too, if they could talk to the witness, perhaps she could describe the appearance of the vampire who’d started this mess.

“You don’t think this is a trap? A vampire would use compulsion on a human to make them forget. So even if by chance we did find the witness--you probably wouldn’t get much out of them.” Michael said matter-of-factly.

“There’s ways around your stupid mind tricks, believe it or not.” Aria said washing her empty cup and dropping it into the sink--a little to hard. Hopefully it hadn’t broken.

“Mason hurry up and get ready, you too bloodsucker.” Aria said stopping to clean up the rest of her mess she’d made with the coffee.

“By the way, nice pajamas, they fit you perfectly.” Michael flirted, giving her a huge grin. Aria would not fall for his vampire charm of course.

“In your dreams, jack ass.” She said sighing and gracefully exiting the kitchen to go upstairs. She heard Michael laughing on her way up. Was he laughing at me? She thought entering her room and pulling on a pair of dark jeans and a black spaghetti strap--which she usually always wore. Being a Warrior, you didn’t have time to shop and buy the newest fashions of the season. She pulled her dark hair into a pony tail, her hair brushing the back of her neck. After putting on her black high-heeled boots and putting one of her knives into it, she closed the door and went downstairs. Mason wasn’t in the room, so he was still getting ready.

“Well don’t you look nice. Planning to use your own charm on the witness?” Michael said from the couch, he had his feet sitting on the table in front of him. His brown hair was still kind of messy, and Aria thought that was probably the way it stayed, no matter how much he brushed it.

“I don’t need charm to get my answers.” Aria said pulling out her knife, and flashing a dangerous grin. Indeed she didn’t need her looks to get answers, she could use violence. It worked just as easily.

“Aria, can I borrow a knife? I don’t know where mine went.” Mason said coming down the stairs in his gear. His blonde hair messy, which meant he had rushed out of the room. Aria didn’t like it when he took too much time to get ready.

“And you wonder why you always end up getting hurt.” Aria muttered lifting her shirt a little and pulling out one of her knives. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Michael staring at her--or her lifted shirt. She wasn’t showing anything, but it didn’t stop him from peeking. After retrieving the knife she threw it to Mason, who caught it sloppily. Someone needed more training, she thought. “Okay, lets go.”

“How long is the drive?” She asked getting into her car. She wanted to take Michael’s but his only had