Blood Cure: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (Vampire Huntress Chronicles Book 3)

by Jessica Wayne

I’m unable to move, hell I can barely breathe, as she crosses the distance and trails her fingers up my chest.

  “I wouldn’t be too flattered,” I shoot back.

  “Oh, but I am. That you would go through so much trouble to defend what we did. You know, I’ve been unable to think of anything but your cock for days now. The way your body felt pressed against me.” She shivers. “Talk about a walking wet dream.”

  “What the hell do you want?”

  “Buy me time, Elijah. I’m almost there,” Rainey whispers.

  “We have some things to discuss, you and I,” Heather coos at the same time.

  “Fine. Then talk.”

  She laughs. “Oh, not here. This place is about to be swarming with police.” She pops some bubblegum. “Let’s get going, shall we?”

  “You called the police? Why?”

  “Are you really that stupid? Please, tell me you’re not just a pretty face. Eternity will get boring if you are.”

  Her words chill me to my core, and fear surges through me, making my stomach churn—my blood ice.

  “Rainey is going to rot in a cell. Or at least until someone kills her. Which, I imagine will not take too long. I hear prisoners still don’t take too kindly to being imprisoned with officers.”

  No longer worried that Heather will know we attempted to dupe her, I yell, “Get the hell out of the area, Rainey!”

  But I’m too late. Three police cruisers blow past us, turning into the drive that will take them straight to Rainey.

  “I love you, and I swear I will come for you,” she says moments before the sirens are heard through her line.

  “Fearghas, get her!”

  “Fearghas won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon, lover. I imagine he had enough in him for one more jump. At least for a while.” She wraps slender fingers around my forearm. “Now, how about we go have that conversation?”

  I materialize in a cell and immediately lunge forward toward Heather, who’s standing just on the other side of the bars. “Let me the hell out, Heather.”

  “Oh, okay. Sure. Why not?” She steps toward the gate and rolls her eyes. “I’ll never understand why people demand that from behind bars. As though I would go through all the effort to capture you only to let you out because you asked. Ridiculous.”

  “What the hell do you want with me?”

  “As I told you,” she says, sitting in a seat situated just out of reach. “We have things to discuss, you and I.”

  “What would those be?”

  “I have a proposition for you. Consider it a half-truce between the two of us.”

  “I’m not interested in a truce.”

  “You might be interested in this one since it involves you keeping your head.” When I don’t immediately respond, she grins at me. “See, I told you.”

  “What is it?”

  “You tell me where my book is and where they’re keeping my bones. I know neither of them is in your house anymore, so don’t even bother.”

  “There’s no chance of that happening,” I shoot back.

  “You sure about that?”

  I don’t even bother replying.

  “You will give me what belongs to me. It’s not even like you lot can use it. It’s mine, and I want it back.”

  “Then go have a conversation with Rainey. I’m sure she’d love to meet face-to-face.”

  Pursing her lips, she glares past me at the wall. “I am not a woman who does not get what she wants, Elijah. And the best part? I’m patient. You and I have an eternity together, and I plan to spend every single moment of it enjoying myself as repayment for the shit I put up with being locked in that box.”

  “Eternity? The way I see it, without an adrenaline rush, I’ll be dying in a good forty years or so.”

  When she smiles at me, it lacks all warmth and reminds me more of a walking corpse than a dangerous witch. “There will be no rest for you, Hunter. I have so many plans for the two of us. So many plans.” She looks me up and down in a way that makes my skin crawl.

  “Care to fill me in on what that means?”

  “In addition to my items, you will give me the next hundred years of your immortal life. You will be mine, a pet to do with what I wish.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I meant what I said before. I can’t stop thinking of you, and no matter how many pathetic warlocks, hunters, or shifters I’ve bedded over the last few days, nothing curbs my craving for you. You outmatch my previous lovers by a long shot, and I want to fuck until it’s out of my system. I feel a hundred years is more than fair a bargain.”

  I gape at her, the chill turning to frost as I contemplate what the hell she just suggested. “I would rather die a thousand times over than lay one finger on you.”

  She glares at me, previous amusement gone. “You might think differently if I still looked like your hunter whore.”

  “No, I really wouldn’t. It’s not Rainey’s body I’m interested in. It’s her soul, her heart. Your soul is nothing but shadows, and your heart?” I laugh darkly. “It’s not even your own.”

  Pushing to her feet, she shakes her head. “You’ll think differently after some time.”

  “Rainey will find a way to get out of the situation she’s in, and when she does, she’s coming for you.”

  Heather turns to me, her sinister grin somehow even more bothersome than what she wants to do with me. “I’m counting on it. After all, how will you watch her die if she’s locked in a cell?”

  33

  Rainey

  Being loaded into the back of a cop car is pretty much the last thing I expected to happen today. A coroner’s van, sure, but a cop car?

  Steel handcuffs pin me to the table, but they’re all for show. I could break them with a flick of my wrist, and I’ve considered it more than once. However, I know the likeliness of me making it out of this precinct alive or without having to kill any of my former co-workers is incredibly low.

  Still, the thought of Heather with Elijah. Adrenaline surges through my veins, and my hands begin to shake with the force of the fight brewing. Knowing he’s in danger is enough to push me into a full-on frenzy, so as the edges of my vision begin to fade, I do my best to focus on one problem at a time.

  And right now, being trapped behind bars would be a huge-ass problem I’d like to avoid.

  The door opens, and Paloma walks in, followed by two detectives I went through the academy with.

  “Astor,” Paloma greets tightly.

  “Captain. Can I ask what this is about?”

  “I think you know.” She takes a seat and gestures to Detective Antonioli Garland, his dark hair slicked back the way he’s worn it since the day we met. “You know Detective Garland and Detective Fine.” She gestures to the only other female detective in the precinct—and pretty much the only person here who has never really cared much for me.

  “Detectives,” I reply tightly.

  “Where have you been?” Garland asks, tossing a file on the table, a move I pulled more times than I can count when I was working.

  “Salem,” I reply tightly. “My family has some property there, and I was checking in on things before I sell it.”

  “Salem? Would that be the Astor property?”

  “Obviously,” I say to Fine.

  “Funny, we sent some locals there, and they said the place was not only empty—but half-burned to the ground.”

  “Which is why I’m looking to sell it. It’s been in my family for generations, but after my grandmother died onsite, I haven’t wanted to go back.”

  “It’s been quite a few years since she died, hasn’t it?” Garland questions.

  “It has. But as you know, I lost my sister two years ago, and it wasn’t until recently that I decided it was time to start letting go.”

  “Recently, huh?” Fine shakes her head. Arrogant bitch. “How recently? Would that be before or after you started receiving strange emails from a D Astor?” She opens the manila folder on the table, an
d I stare down at the emails Delaney had sent to me after she died.

  Now I’m guessing she had my grandmother send them for her. Either that, or she’s damn good at using her beak to type.

  “Stalker,” I reply. “I actually believed they might be behind who was trying to kill me a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to unearth anything.”

  “Of course not.” Fine lifts the email, and I find myself staring down at an image of Ramirez, throat slit open, pale, lying on his mattress, his hand outstretched toward his gun. My heart rate increases, and my breathing grows ragged as a lump forms in my throat.

  “Any particular reason you feel like showing this to me?” I demand, glaring up at her.

  “I would have thought you’re fairly familiar with it already.”

  “I saw him after he was killed. Captain Reynolds was there.”

  “She was, and so was your boyfriend, Elijah Hawthorne, right? Funny how he shows up, and now you’ve supposedly got someone trying to kill you, and your partner ends up dead.” She flips the image, and Ramirez is replaced with Kamie.

  My stomach churns as the memory I’m stuck with comes to mind. I can still hear her scream, feel the warmth of the blood on my hands, even though it wasn’t me who wielded the blade.

  I glare up at her. She’s always been a bitch, but this is an entirely new low even for her. “What the fuck is the purpose of this?”

  “We know you were in the area the night they died.” She flips the picture of Kamie over, and I’m gifted with the sight of me strolling past an ATM camera.

  “I saw him the night he died,” I tell her. “They had me over for dinner, so the fact that I was walking down the street is not that much of a surprise now, is it?”

  Paloma sighs. “This is hard for all of us, Rainey. But you have to see where we’re coming from.”

  “I get it, but I didn’t kill him. Ramirez was one of my best friends; he was my partner. The last thing I would have wanted was him dead!” I yell, emotion cracking my voice. Instead of shoving it down like I normally would, I let it come to the surface so the two in this room who think I might have killed him can see.

  “You know the game too well, Rainey.” Fine sneers at me. “But I’ll break you. Let’s give her some time, shall we?” Paloma stands, and they start to leave. Garland stops and turns back to me.

  “We just want to clear this up, Rainey. Help us figure out what happened.”

  “If I knew, I would have already hunted them down and dragged their asses in.”

  He swallows hard and nods, shutting the door behind them.

  “Rainey?” a voice whispers into the com still in my ear. So that he knows I can hear him, I clear my throat. But since I know the detectives are more than likely watching from the other side of the one-way mirror, I don’t risk any other tells.

  “I’m assuming you can hear me but can’t talk. If this is a shitty time for Fearghas to pop in and get you out, you might want to make a sound.”

  I clear my throat for the second time.

  “Noted. We’ll stand by.”

  He goes silent a moment longer, and I clench my fists together to avoid saying fuck it and just ripping the cuffs off.

  What the hell would they do about it?

  After all, they’re humans, and I’m not. Returning to this world, to this job, means nothing if Elijah doesn’t survive.

  I take a deep breath then another, trying to calm the brewing rage in my veins.

  “Ready for your get out of jail free card?” Fearghas asks, and I jump.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Getting you out. Paloma called. But we only have about five more seconds.”

  Without hesitating, I yank my wrists apart, breaking the chains and tossing them to the table before taking Fearghas’s hand.

  We materialize inside the living room of his penthouse. Jack, Willa, Jane, my grandmother, Josiah, Cole, and Henry all stand the moment they see us.

  “I’m so sorry, Rainey,” Jane offers, but I shake my head.

  “There’s nothing to be sorry about because we’re going to get him back.” Marching into the kitchen, I grab a mug and fill it with coffee from the carafe already brewed. “Now, where the hell is she? Anyone have any idea?”

  No one says a thing.

  “If you’re looking for me to snap, I’m getting damned close. So someone better hit me with a better idea before I shred this entire fucking city, looking for him.”

  “He may not even be in Billings,” Fearghas offers. “Aoife may not have been able to get to faerie, but she can still dematerialize like the rest of us, which means Heather can too.”

  The mug shatters on the wall behind him, and he jumps as scalding hot coffee drips down the muted grey.

  “If you don’t offer me a reasonable solution, I’m going to lose my temper.” Hazy black invades my vision, blocking out the edges of it until all I can see is the way my hands are shaking. All I can feel is the helpless panic settling in at the thought of what Heather could be doing to Elijah.

  Of what she could be making him do.

  “We know that she wants the book, right?” Willa offers, taking a step forward. “What if we use it to draw her out?”

  “Because it worked so well before?” Tarnley snaps. “She saw us coming from a mile away and used it to grab Elijah. Who’s to say she falls for it a second time?”

  An idea begins to take shape, and I turn to Bronywyn. “Do you know where the witches are holed up?”

  She crosses her arms. “I do.”

  “Can you take me to them?”

  “Any particular reason for this request?”

  “That’s for me to discuss when we get there.”

  She glares at me, and for a moment, I wonder whether or not I’m about to have an argument on my hands. Regardless, I have no intention of not getting my way.

  “I can.”

  “Great. Then let’s go.”

  “Rainey—” My grandmother starts, but I glare at her.

  “Elijah is mine to find. He comes first. I don’t give a shit else about any of this if I don’t have him, am I clear?”

  Begrudgingly, she nods. “I only meant to warn you to tread carefully. You have yet to learn how to control your new power, and there’s no telling who else Heather has managed to corrupt in the past few days. Seems she is hell-bent on starting a war. Don’t find yourself in the center of it unprepared.”

  Glass bottles on the top shelf of the large library shatter at once, sending shards and liquid in all directions as I glare at her. “I’m more than prepared.”

  She hands me a vial. “Then take this just in case.”

  “This is the tonic?”

  She nods. “You have to get her blood, Rainey. Without it, the potion won’t work.”

  “How long does it take once it has her blood?”

  “It’s instant. But I would really appreciate being looped in on this. The more bodies present during the fight, the more likely it is we will succeed.”

  “I understand. I will call Fearghas the second I get everything figured out. Where’s the book? Her bones?”

  “You’re planning on carting them around Billings while we look for her?”

  “I can’t very well use them as a bargaining tool if they aren’t on me,” I shoot back at my grandmother. “She won’t fall for false promises—today proved that.”

  Begrudgingly, she turns away and hands me a duffel. I try to ignore the way the bones clatter together within the fabric. Then, she hands me a leather satchel containing the book. “Those are all we have, Rainey. Don’t give them up unless you can kill her with the same blow.”

  “I won’t. Let’s go,” I add, turning toward Bronywyn.

  “Rainey?”

  Turning around once again, I face Jane. She smiles softly at me and reaches out to clasp my biceps. “We’ll get him back.”

  “I know we will,” I reply quickly. “Because there’s no other option.” />
  34

  Rainey

  Adrenaline pumping heavily, I step into the front door of an aged house on the outskirts of town. Magic pulsates through me as I move through the threshold, letting me know the place was heavily spelled, and if they didn’t want me to be here, I wouldn’t be.

  Immediately to my right, women in various states of dress line the stairwell and balcony above. They stare down at me, and I can sense their fear—their nerves—from where I stand beside Bronywyn.

  “Bronywyn, it is lovely to see you.” A woman wearing a long golden skirt and billowy white shirt steps toward us from the bottom of the staircase. Dark hair piled atop her head, her golden gaze travels from the witch to me. “And you must be Elijah’s hunter,” she says softly, reaching forward to take my hand in hers. “You are such a gift to him.”

  I swallow hard, fear gripping my throat and making it near impossible to breathe. “He’s why we’re here.”

  Her expression darkens, and she closes her eyes as magic so potent I can nearly see it rushes from her and fills the air around us. “He’s been taken.”

  “Yes,” I confirm.

  Her eyes snap open. “You must get to him quickly.”

  “Why?”

  “Elijah is in grave danger.”

  “We know, Farah,” Bronywyn coos and moves forward to try to calm the woman. “Can we speak in private?”

  “Anything you say to me can be said in front of them.”

  “No offense, but I don’t know any of you, I won’t put Elijah at risk to avoid insulting you and your friends,” I retort.

  “And I won’t speak to you without them present. These women have been through a lot and are here of their own volition. But anyone here has sworn an oath to me and me alone. They will not and are not able to assist Heather as long as they choose to reside within my walls.”

  I glance to Bronywyn for confirmation, and she nods. Even as uneasy as I am, I know we’re running out of time. So I choose to trust the witch who brought me here, and if there is a problem, I’ll deal with it then.

  “We need to get him back, and in order to draw Heather out, I need your help.”