“Fearghas is a fae who lives here in Billings. I’ve spent some time around him. He’s a good man.”
“So because you fucked this fae, we’re supposed to trust your judgment?”
The two bouncers start to move, but Eira holds up a hand. Jack’s words are met with an icy glare that I swear drops the temperature in the room to negatives as Eira chooses her words carefully, each one laced with a warning. “I have never fucked Fearghas—as you so eloquently put it. I have, however, spent time in his company as an acquaintance. If anyone is to keep Rainey safe while she tracks Heather, it is him. I know you do not know me, Hunter, and I recognize your emotions are high at the moment, but I would greatly appreciate it if you refrained from speaking to me that way again.”
Jack swallows hard and nods. “I apologize.”
Smart man.
“Great, now that we have all of this out of the way,” Agatha states, taking a seat in a high-backed leather chair as Delaney flies over to the desk. “How about we figure out just what we’re going to do about tracking Rainey?”
“We are not going to do anything. Jack and I will find Rainey. I know where to start,” I tell him. “We leave in five.” Turning to Eira, I say, “Can I speak with you? In private?”
She smiles and pushes to her feet, following me out into the sunlight. “How do you feel?” She asks curiously. “The cure is something you’ve been seeking. Now that you have it, is it everything you thought it would be?”
“You can tell?”
“I can sense your change. I didn’t expect it to turn you into a hunter.”
“It would have killed me. Aoife showed up and saved me. I’m not entirely sure how she did it.”
“After what I saw Heather do, I assume Aoife’s power resides in nature—in life. It would make sense that she could alter your basic biology. After all, from the smallest sprig of grass to the largest mammal, we all come from the same.”
“I hadn’t considered that.”
“You’ve been rather preoccupied,” she replies knowingly as her bouncer opens the back door of her Navigator. “Call me if you are in need of anything. I will help you stop Heather.”
“You can’t risk being spotted by the council.” I found Eira tucked away in a cell, broken, bruised. As we escaped, she killed one of the council members who’d spend years raping and brutalizing her. Despite the fact that the fucker deserved a much worse fate, Eira became a target to the others.
Since then, she’s had to stay under their radar, keeping herself surrounded by immortals who would die to protect her.
“I’ve hidden long enough,” she adds softly. “Now is not the time to remain in the shadows. If we are to stop her, we must use the light.” Stretching up on her tiptoes, she kisses my cheek softly and climbs into the car.
I watch her leave before turning back into the house to prepare for my own hunt. I will scour the city, tearing the entire fucking place apart, until I find her. And when I do, I’ll force her to see reason—to see logic.
Even knowing I’m in for one hell of an argument, I can’t wipe the smile from my face.
Rainey.
My hunter.
My love.
She’s back.
15
Rainey
My sister’s gym should bring me some comfort, and instead, it seems to act as a highlighter coloring all the things I’ve lost.
“This place is interesting,” Fearghas says as he releases me and moves farther into the room.
“It was my sister’s.” I walk to the wall where the weapons are stored and press my hand to the panel. It slides away, and I don’t hesitate before grabbing the ruby-encrusted blade my sister preferred.
Seems fitting to gut the bitch who is responsible for her death with the very blade Delaney was carrying the night she died. Setting it aside, I reach for a leather thigh sheath hanging to the left of the blades and strap it onto my thigh. Then, I slide the blade inside and grab a smaller silver dagger, tucking that one away inside my boot.
“You are preparing for war,” he says with a knowing nod.
“That’s what this is, Fearghas.” I reach over and press another panel. It slides away, revealing my sister’s collection of firearms. Grabbing a sawed-off shotgun and a box of silver-packed shells, I face him. “I’m going to kill this bitch.”
“What will you have me do?”
“When we find her, you’re going to take me inside, and we can leave when she’s dead.”
“You don’t wish for my help fighting her?”
Closing the panels, I shove the shotgun, shells, and a handful of other small weapons into my bag before facing him. “I don’t want anyone else dying at her hands.”
“You can sideline everyone else, but you will not sideline me. This is not a battle I will sit out of. Unless you’re forgetting it was my kind who brought this war to the human world, to begin with. We granted Heather her power in the beginning.”
“Yes, and without her, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have met Elijah. So the last thing I plan on doing is blaming you for it. She’s killed three of the people I love, and Stella was responsible for the death of another. There’s no way in hell the killing blow won’t be dealt at my hands.”
“If you go up against her alone, you won’t survive,” he insists. “Your pride is going to get you killed.”
“So you’ve mentioned.”
“Why does it matter to you whether you’re the one to put her down? Shouldn’t it only matter that she falls?”
“Heather is mine,” I growl.
“Because you feel as though you need to prove yourself.”
I don’t immediately reply because I know he’s right.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
At his exasperated tone, I spin around and pin him with a stare I hoped would knock him back a few steps. It did not. Arrogant fae. “Why does that bother you? If the job gets done, what does it matter if I survive?”
His cheeks redden, and he crosses his arms. “I am not like my brothers and sisters, Hunter. Nor am I like you. I have no disregard for life. The loss of yours would hit the people around you harder than you realize.”
“We just met, and I’m already in love with someone else,” I shoot back, my attempt to knock him off his pedestal met with a wide grin.
“I assure you, my fondness for you is nothing more than innocent. In case you were wondering, I have my eyes on another.”
“A siren perhaps?” I ask, my attempt to change the subject.
It works.
That grin spreads. “Eira is magnificent, is she not?”
“Why haven’t you moved in on her?”
His smile falters, his expression darkening. “She has suffered greatly over her life. I will not force myself into her life.”
“I just meant, maybe tell her how you feel.”
“Like you did your vampire?”
His words gut me because I hear the accusation in them. “If I face Elijah, I won’t be able to walk away without him.”
“And why should you?”
“Because he will die if I don’t.”
“You know this to be a fact? The fae king—”
“Enough about the fucking fae king! If he were as powerful and all-knowing as you seem to believe he is, then his ass would be here fighting with us. Not hiding away in another dimension like some fucking coward.”
“The fae king cannot risk his life. He is irreplaceable.”
“Really? Because I’m starting to think you assholes are a dime a dozen.”
“Do not pretend to know about that which you don’t,” Fearghas warns.
I shut my eyes tightly for a moment before opening them and taking a deep breath. “Yes. I have been warned. Aoife told me he would suffer greatly if he stood beside me. That he will try and be my shield. I can’t lose him too.”
“Perhaps you should start putting more faith in those around you.”
As soon as he finishes sp
eaking, someone bangs on the door. I whip around, blade already in hand, ready for a fight.
“Rainey!” Elijah’s voice sends a shiver straight through me, shooting through my veins like electricity. “Dammit, Rainey! Open the fucking door! I can hear your heart.”
I choke on a sob, covering my mouth with a shaking hand.
“Please, open the door.” His broken voice breaks my heart, the pain turning my cracked soul into mush.
Before I can do as he demands, I turn to Fearghas. “Get me out of here.”
“You should open the door.”
I glare up at him. “No. Get me the fuck out of here.”
A muscle in his jaw twitches, and I wonder briefly whether or not I may have to face Elijah in order to get the hell out of here. Finally, he takes my hand.
Something—or, more accurately, someone—rams the steel-enforced door, and I wince. The force of the impact is loud enough that I can hear the crack from in here.
“Are you sure?” Fearghas asks, and I nod.
We disappear as Elijah screams my name, rematerializing in the living room of an elaborately decorated penthouse apartment.
“Where are we?”
“My place,” Fearghas snaps, letting go of my hand and walking into his kitchen to retrieve a bottle of liquor from the corner. “Brandy?”
“No, thanks. I know you don’t understand why I need to do this alone—”
Fearghas throws his head back and barks out a laugh. “Please, Hunter. I’ve been alive longer than humans have walked this earth. I know all about needing to prove one’s self.”
“Thank you.”
He levels green eyes on me. “Don’t thank me, lass. I said I understood the need, not that it isn’t a stupid fucking decision. Which it is,” he adds, pouring two fingers into a crystal glass.
“Elijah won’t stop until Heather’s dead. And she’ll kill him.”
“She might. But your hunter won’t stop looking for you either.”
“Jack?”
Fearghas’s brow furrows. “Jack? I thought it was Elijah you fancied?”
“It is. You said ‘hunter.’”
“Yes, Elijah is no longer a vampire, or did you miss that tiny detail when you were busy fighting the urge to open the door?”
“Elijah’s not a—” I trail off. “The cure.”
“Cure?”
“Heather force-fed him the cure the last time they were in the same room. I thought it had killed him. How did it not? It’s supposed to strip magic, right? And he was a born vampire with witch blood—”
“It should have killed him,” Fearghas agrees. “Seems fate stepped in and spared his life. Perhaps it was because even as fickle a bitch as fate can be, she realizes you cannot do this alone.”
Rubbing my palm to my chest right between my breasts, I try to ignore the truth of his words and the way they make me feel empty inside. I know that Elijah searched for the cure before, that it was his main reason for coming to Billings.
But knowing he’s no longer a vampire—that the cure did work…
It stiffens my resolve, and I know there’s no damn way I can let him anywhere near Heather. Hunters can take hits, but not in the same way a vampire can.
As a hunter, he’s at even more risk than before.
I needed to know Elijah was alive and well, that he was still breathing despite what Heather did to him. Now that I know that, I can put my concern at ease and focus on my revenge.
I’ll be damned if I drag anyone else down with me.
She’s taken Ramirez.
She’s taken Kamie.
She’s taken Jane.
She’s taken Aoife.
But she can’t have any fucking body else.
They are mine to protect, and if the fae think I am the key to bringing her down, then the survival of those I love is the lock. Without them safe, there’s not a damn thing I can do because losing anyone else will kill me.
“Are there any churches nearby?” I ask, and Fearghas sets his glass down to study me curiously.
“Churches? Are you serious? You want to go to church?”
I don’t elaborate, only glare at him. “Are there any or not?”
“There are.”
“Take me.”
He looks rather taken aback by my question but thankfully leaves it the hell alone. Either because he understands my need to get right with God before walking into what might be my death—or he realizes that if he keeps questioning me I’m going to bury my boot in his ass.
“Which denomination would you like?”
“Lutheran.”
With a nod, he crosses the apartment and takes my hand. “Breaking into a church on a Thursday night. This is a first for me.”
“Just go, please.”
The church is empty, the pews a bright red fabric bathed in the soft light of a few nightlights scattered through the worship hall. Thankfully, Fearghas didn’t argue when I told him to leave me, to come back in a few hours.
I need this time to get my head right. After all, until late last night, I’d shared it with a psychopathic witch.
It’s been years since I’ve been in a church. The last time had been for Delaney’s funeral. I can still remember it like it was yesterday, my fingers brushing the soft knit fabric of the seats as I walked down the aisle, nearly choking on tears.
Ramirez had stood beside me, fingers threaded through mine, a constant reassurance that I wasn’t alone.
Jane had been on my other side, her arm wrapped around my waist as she held me up. They were the only reason I stood straight that day, the only reason I didn’t fucking crumble to the carpet and just die right then and there.
And now both are gone.
Stolen away just as Delaney was.
My chest tightens, the pain overwhelming me as the force of everything I’ve faced—seen—over the last few weeks hits me like a fucking freight train.
I crumble to my knees in front of the altar.
I’ve always had faith.
Always believed in God, and even after everything, I still do. I still believe He has a plan because if I don’t—then what is the purpose of anything?
I’ve been knocked down.
Beaten.
Bruised.
Shattered.
But I’ve also had victories. Taken bad people off the streets—human and supernatural alike. I’ve won battles despite losing the war every time I had to go to a new crime scene.
If there’s no divine reason for any of it—
Tears flow freely now, slipping down my cheeks as I tuck my legs beneath me and stare up at the cross etched in glass.
And for the first time in years, I fold my hands and start to pray.
16
Elijah
“Where to now?” Jack asks as we leave Rainey’s apartment for the second time that night. Since she disappeared from her sister’s gym, I can only imagine she’s using the fae as her own, personal taxi service.
And it pisses me the fuck off.
It should be me with her, helping her, preparing for what will undoubtedly be the biggest battle any of us have ever fought.
“To the precinct, I guess. I can’t think of anywhere else—”
“I can.”
Jack and I both spin toward the new presence, weapons drawn. The man stands behind us, his dark hair slicked back from his face. The arrogant set to his mouth when he grins at us tells me all I need to know.
“Fearghas?”
“Elijah,” he greets, nodding his head. “I assume you’re Jack?”
“Yeah. How the fuck do you know?”
“Rainey spoke about you both.”
“You’d damn well better have a reason for being here,” I growl. “I may not have killed a fae—yet—but there’s always time for firsts.”
“I’ve come to take you to Rainey.”
Hope surges through my chest, making me feel alive for the first time in days. “She wants to see me?”
Fe
arghas shrugs. “To be honest, I don’t think she knows what she wants. I do, however, know how dangerous a distraction can be when facing a stronger opponent. And you, Hunter, are a massive distraction for her.”
“She doesn’t know you’re here?” Jack asks, and Fearhgas shakes his head.
“I believe she offered to shove a boot up my ass if I didn’t stop talking about what a poor choice it was for her to run into a fight on her own. Therefore, I stopped talking and decided to act.” He claps his hands and rubs them together. “Shall we?”
I step toward him.
“You sure this is a good idea?” Jack asks, gripping my arm.
A few days ago, I would have ripped it off had he dared to touch me. Funny how some things change. “It will be fine. I’ll meet you back here.”
“Sweet,” Fearghas mutters. “Let’s go. I imagine you’re going to have a hell of a time convincing her not to get herself killed, and we don’t have much of it left.”
With a nod at Jack, I step closer to the fae who clasps a hand on my shoulder.
“Ta-ta, Hunter,” he says to Jack a millisecond before we disappear.
We materialize in the center of a dim room. Soft sobs fill my ears, and I peer down the narrow aisle to a woman sitting on the floor, staring up at a cross. I know without a doubt it’s Rainey. She calls to me, beckons me forward even without the intense bloodlust.
After a glance behind me, I confirm that Fearghas is gone, so I take a step closer.
She jumps to her feet and spins, blade at the ready, eyes red and full of tears. “Elijah?” she chokes out. The blade shakes as her shoulders slump forward beneath the weight of her pain. It’s palpable—her agony—and it’s killing me.
I walk slowly, inching forward while fighting the urge to run to her. All the while, she remains still, unmoving.
As soon as I’m a mere two feet in front of her, I stop, taking in the caramel flecks in her dark eyes. Her bottom lip quivers, and the fingers of her free hand flex as if she wants to reach for me as badly as I want her.
Blood Cure: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (Vampire Huntress Chronicles Book 3) Page 10