BooksBarbecue
Back When Villains Rise
Chapters (52)
  1. Copyright
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Read More from the Market of Monsters Series
  50. More Books from HMH Teen
  51. About the Author
  52. Connect with HMH on Social Media

Vampire blood was highly prized—a sip a day kept death away, or so the saying went. It wasn’t quite true. You couldn’t become immortal from drinking their blood. But you could delay aging. A small amount every day for years built up in your system, and you’d age slower and slower over time. There was anecdotal evidence of people living to two hundred years with vampire blood.

Nita didn’t put much stock in nonscientifically tested rumors, but most people did, and vampire blood was a booming industry. A vampire at full health could heal its body for up to a week when blood was being constantly drained from it before it died. If you occasionally fed it? Well, it could be in your blood-draining factory forever. Plenty of blood for you to live an extra century, and plenty of blood to sell online.

Her mother hadn’t drained any vampires Nita knew of. Too much of a time commitment, too much of a hassle to feed. But Nita had dissected and packaged more than a few for sale, since eating their flesh was said to have a milder but similar effect. Probably from the residual blood in it.

Nita crossed the room and checked on her container. Filling up nicely. Plenty of extra cash when this was over. If she was going to capture a vampire anyway, and needed to keep it weak, she might as well earn a bit of money off it as well. She certainly wasn’t going to just throw the blood out. What a waste that would be.

Zebra-stripes grunted on the bed, trying to speak through his gag, and Nita went over to him and looked down at him as she shed her disguise. Off came the gray wig, and she tightened her skin back up until she looked like herself again.

Zebra-stripes’ eyes widened in recognition, and Nita smiled down at him. “We meet again.”

His eyes narrowed.

Nita sat down on a chair beside the bed. “Don’t worry, I’ll take the gag off soon. I just wanted to make it clear how things were going to go here first.”

He glared.

“See, I really just wanted to murder you at first. I’m not really the forgive-and-forget type. But then I realized that you probably have a lot of answers that I need, and I have a lot of questions. So here’s the deal: answer my questions, and I’ll let you go.”

He snorted and rolled his eyes.