Stephenie Meyer - The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

THE NEWSPAPER HEADLINE GLARED AT ME FROM a little metal vending machine: SEATTLE UNDER SIEGEDEATH TOLL RISES AGAIN. I hadnt 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 wasnt within reach when he saw this paper. Let him rip somebody elses 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 anyones 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 apartmentsempty, I guessed, since the normal sounds of sleeping humans were absent. I wasnt surprisedthe 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 didnt want to speak up and draw attention, but I wished somebody would decide something. I was really thirsty, and I didnt care much whether we went right or left or over the roof. I just wanted to find some unlucky people who wouldnt even have enough time to think wrong place, wrong time.

Unfortunately tonight Rileyd 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 didnt know. They both belonged to Raouls 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 didnt know much about him, just that he was older than most of the others. Rileys right-hand man was the word. That didnt 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 shutthat was the way to stay alive in Rileys crowd.

Spider-Man is such a whiny loser, Kevin called up to the blond kid. Ill 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 wasnt pretty? Even Kevin and the rest of Raouls morons were pretty. Kevin, were supposed to be laying low. Riley said

Riley said! Kevin mimicked in a harsh soprano. Get a spine, Diego. Rileys not here.

Kevin sprang over the upside-down Honda and punched out the drivers 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.