The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Author: Carissa Broadbent
- Language: English
- Genre: Dark Fantasy Horror
- Format: PDF/e Pub
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
It started as practice. Just a little game, a little exercise. Something I
needed to prove to myself. I wasn’t sure when it had evolved into sport
—my shameful, secret rebellion.
Some might find it stupid for me, a human, to hunt at night, when I was
at a considerable disadvantage compared to my prey. But the night was
when they acted, and so it was when I did, too.
I pressed to the wall, the dagger clenched tight in my hands. The night
was warm, the kind when the sun’s heat clung to the steamy humidity of the
air long after sunset. The smell hung in a thick, rotten cloud—rancid food
from the trash in the alleys, yes, but also decaying meat and sour blood. The
vampires didn’t care to clean up after themselves here, in the human
districts of the House of Night.
Humans were supposed to be safe here, within the walls of the kingdom
—citizens, if inferior ones, weaker than the Nightborn in every way. But
that second truth too often rendered the first irrelevant.
The man was a Hiaj, his wings tucked in close to his back. Apparently
he wasn’t much of a magic user, because he didn’t spirit them away for
easier hunting. Or maybe he just enjoyed the effect that they had on his
prey. Some of them were showy like that. They liked to be feared.
From the rooftop, I watched the man stalk his target—a little boy,
perhaps ten, though small from obvious malnourishment. The boy was in
the fenced-in dirt yard of a clay house, bouncing a ball against the dust over
and over again, oblivious to death creeping up on him.
It was so, so stupid for this boy to be out at night alone. But then again,
I knew better than anyone how growing up in constant danger could wear
upon a person. Maybe this family had kept their children inside after dark
every single day of the last ten years. It only took one lapse, one distracted
mother who forgot to call him back, one grumpy child who wasn’t ready to
come inside for dinner. Just one night in a lifetime.
It happened so often.
But it wouldn’t happen tonight.
When the vampire moved, so did I.
I dropped from the rooftop down to the cobblestones. I was quiet, but
vampire hearing was impeccable. The man turned, greeting me with icy
eyes and a curled lip that revealed a glint of sharp ivory.
Did he recognize me? Sometimes they did. I didn’t give this one the
chance.
It was practically routine, by now. A system I’d honed to perfection on
hundreds of nights just like this one.
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