She stands in the center of the room over the top of a small black cauldron that sits atop an old wooden table.
“You have it?”
Instead of responding to my question, she lifts a funnel and begins pouring a brown liquid into a vial. Then, once it’s full, she corks it and turns around. “I do.”
“You’re sure?”
“As sure as I can be without testing it on someone. But if you’d rather waste more time—”
“No.” I reach for it and turn to Jack. “Feel like bating a witch?”
“Ready when you are.”
Turning to Jane, I stick the vial in my pocket. “Call Josiah, Grey, and Paloma. Get the pack set up like we planned. We need to make sure we’re prepared as soon as Heather shows up.”
“Will do.” She leaves the room, taking the steps two at a time and disappearing upstairs.
“Don’t waste that,” Agatha warns. “I can make more now that I know how, but it’s not a quick process. We only get one shot at this.”
“I’ve got it.” Then, I head for the stairs. “It’s time to pay an old friend a visit.”
“Elijah, so nice to see you,” Stella greets from the porch of her house. Jack stands beside me, hands curled into fists at his sides. Her white eyes shift to him, and she cocks her head to the side in interest. “And who might this be?”
“Stella,” I greet, voice taut with barely leashed anger. I thought I would be able to keep a somewhat level head, but it’s proving to be a hell of a lot more difficult than I considered. “This is Jack Keller.”
Her eyes widen briefly before somber sadness takes over her look of surprise. “I was so sorry to hear about Delaney’s passing. She spoke of you often.”
“I’m sure you were,” Jack replies dryly. “Was that before or after you had a hand in her death?”
I watch my old friend carefully, searching for any hint that she knows what he’s talking about. Stella’s too fucking smart to not see this coming, so when she takes a step back into her warded house, I know we’re right.
And it takes everything in me not to blur forward and find a way into that fucking house to tear her apart. “You set Rainey up,” I say darkly.
“Rainey is the puzzle board, Elijah. With her, the other pieces fall into place.”
“What other pieces?”
She grins at me, sadistic and wild and so unlike the woman I once knew. “You shall see.”
“Not if we kill you first,” Jack growls.
“I assume you already saw my hunter ward, which would explain why you have not tried to do so just yet. Neither you nor Elijah can enter this house without my blessing, and I assure you—you will not get one.”
“You have to leave sometime,” Jack growls.
Meanwhile, as much as I wish to rip Stella apart, I know that we need her to find Rainey—or rather Heather. But as soon as we do, there will be no more use for her. “I assume you know how to get into contact with Heather?”
Stella nods.
“Tell her I want to talk. Tonight at eleven. Tell her to come alone and to meet me in the house where I have the box.”
“I will deliver your message,” Stella says. “But I must warn you, if you are trying to save your hunter, she’s already gone.”
“Fuck if she is.” Jack lunges forward, and I grip his biceps to keep him from getting himself killed by trying to enter her house.
“We want to give her the box.”
At my words, she crosses both arms. “You seem awfully composed, Elijah,” she comments, amused. “Is it possible you didn’t love the hunter as much as I thought you did? I figured you’d be much more volatile.”
I grin, the action savage and layered with the threat of violence. “It is taking everything in me to keep myself from forcing my way into your house and ripping your fucking head off, Stella. I should have never saved you—I should have let you burn. But don’t worry. Letting you live won’t be a mistake I intend on making again. Deliver my message, and get the fuck out of Billings if you want to survive to see the next solstice.” I release Jack and turn, heading back toward my car and getting inside before I can do something stupid with all the rage burning inside my chest.
White knuckles grip my steering wheel, visible proof of the control I’m fighting so hard to maintain. If Rainey is gone—
“She is lying,” Jack says as he gets into my car. “About Rainey, right?”
“She better fucking be.”
9
Elijah
The house is dark, silent, but I can sense someone lurking beneath the quiet. Another presence that’s familiar and yet completely alien.
The cure weighs heavily in my pocket, the plan ingrained in my mind as I creep further and further into the house. If this fails—I shake my head.
It can’t fail.
Tarnley, Bronywyn, Cole, Josiah, Grey, Willa, Jack, and Jane are lurking just on the outside of the perimeter while seven shifters have taken up residence just inside the secret tunnels. I unlocked the door to the den so they are prepared to burst in at any moment should it become necessary.
We don’t even know if she got our message. But if Stella didn’t deliver it, I’ll be sure to kill her myself. I’m sure Bronywyn can break the spell on the wards long enough to get me inside her house.
“Heather?” I call out as I move down the hall toward the study, flipping on lights as I go.
No answer.
Behind me, a wolf howls, so I spin on my heel and race back toward the den. Another wolf yelps, the tortured sound sending shivers down my spine. “Heather!” I roar as I burst into the den.
Rainey stands before me—but not Rainey—as evidenced by the black swirling in her eyes and the sadistic smile on her blood-splattered face.
Crimson drips from her hands. It coats the white T-shirt she wears as she stands in the center of the seven shifters Josiah sent down here.
“Not very fair to tell me I have to come alone if you don’t plan on honoring that same rule.”
I glare at her, but I don’t reply.
If I do, the words will do nothing but start a fight I’m honestly not sure I can win.
“Let me talk to Rainey.”
“Don’t you have a present for me? You do owe me after killing my friends outside the club.”
“After I talk to Rainey.”
“That wasn’t part of the deal. See you later, lover.” She grins and tries to blur away, but thanks to Bronywyn’s wards, she’s trapped—for now.
Magic pulses through the room, bouncing off the silver like a ricochet. She opens her eyes and pins me with a glare.
“What’s a matter? Witch got your magic?”
“What. Did. You. Do?” She spits out each word as she takes a step toward me.
“Just wanted to ensure you couldn’t leave until I was ready.” I blur toward her, but she waves a hand, sending me flying back into the wall. The lights around me pop, glass exploding as each light goes out and plunges us into darkness.
“Heather!” I bellow as I get back to my feet and blur out of the room down the hall. I know exactly where she’s headed, and I’ll be damned if she gets away with killing shifters and taking the fucking box.
No answer.
I step into the study and scan the dimly lit room. She’s facing the vault, back to me, hands raised as she studies them. A whimper leaves her lips, and hope surges in my chest. “Rainey?” I take a chance and call out her name, urging her to fight back against Heather if she’s still in there. I need to know—need a sign that she’s not gone for good. That there’s still something left to fight for.
She spins, and panicked brown eyes meet mine. “Elijah?” Her voice is like a breath of relief to me. “I don’t understand.” Tears stream down her cheeks. “How did I get here?”
“It’s okay, love.” My steps are cautious, calculated, as I walk further into the study.
“Why am I covered with blood, Elijah?”
“It’s not your fault,
Rainey.”
“Why?!” she roars, and the lights ahead explode, glass shards raining down on the two of us. The room descends into darkness.
Her strangled sob rips through the room and guts me. “What did I do?” Voice barely above a whisper, I take another step toward her.
“You didn’t do anything. Where are you?”
“Stay away from me, Elijah.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“She will kill you if you don’t.” Her tone is sharper now. “I can feel her slithering inside of me, begging me to rip your fucking head off.”
“You won’t.” She doesn’t speak, and I can no longer hear her breathing. “Rainey?” No answer. “Rainey?”
My heart thunders, panic swirling in my stomach as I reach into my pocket and withdraw my cell phone. Quickly, I activate the flashlight and scan the room in front of me. Rainey is no longer where she was, so I turn.
She’s there. Directly behind me. Eyes so black I can see my reflection. And when she smiles, blood spills from her mouth. “Hello, lover.” She raises a palm and slams it into my chest. My ears ring, my teeth slamming together as I impact with the bookshelf.
Wood crunches.
Books fall around me as I drop to the floor.
She blurs in front of me—at a speed no human or hunter should possess.
“Who am I talking to now?” I ask, getting to my feet and letting my arm fall to the side to make sure the vial with the cure is not broken.
She cocks her head to the side. “I thought we connected, Elijah. After all, two weeks ago, you were welcoming me back to the land of the living with one hell of a fuck.”
“Not you,” I growl, clenching my hands at my sides. My phone fell a few feet to my right, its flashlight sending shadows across the wall.
“Oh, but you enjoyed it, didn’t you?” She steps closer, sauntering toward me in a way that makes my skin crawl.
“It wasn’t you I enjoyed,” I snap back.
“No? You didn’t love the way I bit you? The way I let you take me that way? I very much doubt your hunter would have been up for that kind of action. She was too busy wallowing in her own pathetic grief.”
“Get the fuck out of her,” I growl.
“You know,” she says, reaching down into her boot—Rainey’s boot—and withdrawing a silver blade. “I’ve spent the last two weeks inside your girlfriend, gathering more power than I know what to do with. I’ve also learned to adapt—to talk like her, to think like her. I rather think I’ll enjoy being Rainey Astor: Homicide Detective and feared Hunter. At least until I can get into my own skin and burn this one.”
“You’ll never be her.”
“Sure I will. I’ve already taken care of her pathetic partner, his wife. All that’s left are you, little Janey, and good old Paloma Reynolds. Though, I very much doubt she’d notice much of a change.”
“Rainey?” I call. “If you’re in there, now is the time to come out.”
Heather smiles. “Rainey’s not in right now.” She flings the blade toward me.
I spin to the side as it impales the wood behind me. I blur toward her, hand on her throat, and slam her into the wall. She coughs, and the wood behind her gives out.
Feet slam into my gut and send me back. Then, she lifts a hand and slams me into the ceiling above. I fall back to the floor, landing on shards of glass that embed in my body. Wincing, I get to my feet again.
Bloodlust calls to me, blinding me to the bond I have with Rainey.
Though, this isn’t Rainey anymore.
Heather smiles. “I do hate having to put you down. You were one hell of a fuck. But after what you did at the club and what you’re doing now? I don’t think I have much use for you.”
The edges of my vision begin to transform to red haze as I stare at the woman trying to take away the woman I love—my mate.
And I can’t kill her because doing so would mean killing Rainey.
Glass crunches, and she whirls on Tarnley. “Nice try.” She waves her palm and sends my friend flying back out of the room. I use her distraction to my advantage and blur toward her, wrapping my arm around her throat as I drag her back to the wall.
Not wanting to repeat my earlier mistake, I lift my leg and pin hers to the wall as I use my free hand to get the cure.
Heather laughs. “If you wanted to get handsy, Elijah, all you had to do was ask.”
I hold up the vial with the swirling liquid, and her eyes widen. “That only works on vampires.”
Popping the cap, I chuckle darkly. “Consider this a new product. See, we took yours and made it better. Drink up.” I press it to her lips but she clamps down, not allowing any of it to get inside her mouth.
I go to readjust, and she slams her face into mine. I stumble back, and she pounces, pinning me to the ground. With a snap of her fingers, the vial is now in her hand. She presses her other palm to my throat. Magic pulses around me as she releases her energy. It surrounds us, separating us from the outside world and keeping me firmly in place.
Red droplets fly out of the vial and hover just above my face.
If she gets that inside of me, it’s over.
I won’t have what it will take to fight her off—to save Rainey.
“Elijah!” Jane screams my name, but I keep my focus on the woman above me.
“I’m so sorry, Rainey,” I whisper. For a brief moment, Heather’s eyes clear. But when she blinks again, they’re back to black.
“Nice try.”
I clamp my mouth shut and fight against her hold, bucking and kicking my legs out in a desperate attempt to get free.
She moves her index finger in a circle, and the drops rotate in the air, faster, faster, until she snaps her fingers. They fall toward me, but instead of going into my mouth, they burn my eyes.
Fire explodes in my veins, surging through me and erasing the very DNA in my body.
Heather laughs, the evil sound chilling me to the core as the cure works its way through me—altering me irrevocably.
I roar.
“Elijah!” Bronywyn screams.
Power blasts through the forcefield and sends Heather flying off of me. Tarnley is at my side in an instant. He throws me over his shoulder and blurs out of the house. I can see a group behind us, but as the world around me begins to fade, only one face comes to mind.
And her panicked brown eyes give me hope even as everything else falls apart.
10
Heather
That asshole. I growl to myself as I step back into the safe house, no box in tow. “Ugh!” I scream and sling magic into the glasses arranged neatly in the nearest cabinet. They explode and rain down onto the floor, a waterfall of shards.
“Heather? What happened?” Stella comes toward me, her fear evident in the taut lines of her aged face. It makes me sick.
“You sent me into a trap; that’s what happened.”
Her eyes widen, a panicked mouse about to be devoured by a lion. “I never would have sent you into a trap.”
“You should have seen it coming. Seems you underestimated this vampire.” I groan and take a seat, stripping off the blood-stained leather jacket and ripping the damp cotton of my shirt over my head. “The vampire is becoming particularly annoying. We may have to get rid of him and find another way to get the box.”
“Kill Elijah? I thought you only needed Rainey.”
I glare at her. “Got a soft spot for him, do you?”
“He saved my life once,” she says, and I shake my head.
“So did that bitch Jane—or whatever she’s calling herself these days. She saved my life then drove a dagger into my heart.” I reach into my boot and withdraw a blade. Using it, I start to scrape the crusted blood out from beneath my fingernails.
“What will you have me do?”
“I believe we need to have a conversation about where your loyalties lie.”
Stella’s eyes widen again, this time almost comically as she backs away from me and hits th
e counter opposite. “My loyalties lie with you, Your Majesty.” She attempts to bow, and I shake my head in anger.
“Your Majesty? See, that’s what you say to me to redirect my attention.” I move toward her. “Is it possible, little witch, that you mean to do the same thing to me?” Reaching her, I trace the blade of my dagger over her throat. “Drive a dagger into my heart? Or do you have something else in mind? Something that will finish the job this time?”
“I mean you no harm,” she says, her voice steadier than I would have thought it’d be. It amuses me—the way this little mouse tries to stand up for herself.
That amusement makes me almost consider letting her live.
But I’ve been betrayed before.
And I’m far too smart to allow it to happen again.
“I fear your time has run out.” I lift the blade and start to bring it down when a gust of wind fills the kitchen of Stella’s cabin.
I spin, ready to fight off whoever is here, and find myself staring at a fae with hair the color of fire. She watches me, curiously, cheeks red. “I have been searching for you, Rainey.”
Interesting. “Apparently, you didn’t get the memo. Rainey is no longer in charge.”
“You’re Heather then?”
“I am.”
She lets out a breath. “Then I am not too late.”
“Who exactly are you?”
“My name is Aoife, and I’m here to make you a proposition.”
Intrigued, I study her with a new curiosity. “A fae in Billings who wants to make a deal with me. Can’t say that’s not a first.” I glance back at Stella. “Don’t even think of going anywhere.”
“Never, Your Majesty.” She bows. “As I told you, my loyalties lie with you. I only ask for another chance to prove it.”
“Kill the vampire, and you might convince me.”
She swallows hard. “Very well.”
“Not yet.” The fae holds up her hand.
“Excuse me?”
Blood Cure: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (Vampire Huntress Chronicles Book 3) Page 6