I could see the veins throbbing in every leaf, the grass pressing up through the forest floor. It was something special to witness, something I couldn’t avoid admiring as I navigated my way through the woods at full speed, curving around trees and leaping over rocks and branches, dodging bushes and evading steep hills.
By the time I reached the opposite side of the copse of trees, I was under the spell of my immortality again. Like with Roman’s blood, nature had restored me. There was more to this new existence than I ever imagined.
An old horse barn was planted in the middle of a field that the woods opened to. It was the only place the golden girl could be hiding. There was nothing else for as far as I could see, and the distinct heat and thrum of warm bodies shined hazily through the outer walls of the structure.
Tall grass reached my waist and tickled my arms as I cut through the field. The clouds parted, and the moon peeked out for a moment, dabbling light over the barn’s roof. The wind kicked up suddenly, and something crashed inside.
A girl cried out, her voice cutting off sharply.
My Glock was in my hand before I reached the open double doors. The aisle between the stalls was empty, but through the wooden doors, I could see skinny girls slumped in every corner, their heartbeats lagging miserably inside their brittle ribcages, shoulders and chins drooping forward and swaying in time with their shallow breaths.
I found Mandy first. She was in a stall with the two girls from the pawn-shop alley. From the steady rhythm of her heart, I knew before entering the enclosure that she hadn’t woken from her dart nap, but I had to try.
The green vest was gone, and a long tee shirt had been left in its place. Her hair was littered with straw from the barn floor, and when I reached for her, Fishnets growled and pounced on me, nearly missing in her drug-addled condition. A chain attached to a collar around her neck rattled.
“I’m a friend,” I said, shrugging her off. I touched Mandy’s check and pushed her hair out of her eyes.
“You’re a filthy bloodsucker,” Fishnets hissed at me.
“That, too.” I shook Mandy’s shoulder, trying to rouse her, and was rewarded with a small moan. The cut above her eyebrow was scabbed over, and her lip was still bruised on one side. But I didn’t find any new damage. The chain and collar around her neck would be problematic. For all of the girls, I thought, taking in Mandy’s two stall mates.
“What do you want with her?” the girl with the bruised face asked. She sat with her back to the corner, her arms wrapped around her knees, her entire body shivering uncontrollably.
“I want to get her out of here,” I said. “I want to get all of you out of here. Blood Vice is raiding the farmhouse right now.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Fishnets said. Her eyes focused on something behind me, and she cowered in her own corner of the stall. “We’ll be dead before they get here.”
Musical laughter sent a jolt of electricity up my spine. I turned and stumbled over the straw, wedging myself into the one remaining nook of the makeshift cell as the girl in the gold dress joined us. Blood coated her pale chin, staining her doll-like face, and when she smiled at me, the viscous red liquid seeped from between her teeth.
Scarlett wasn’t what I had expected. I’d wanted her to look like Cruella De Vil. Something obvious. But I guess if all villains came with scary costumes, then they wouldn’t last long.
The petite girl before me looked younger than Mandy. With her soft curls and glossy eyes, they could have been sisters. Though Scarlett possessed a measure of poise that spoke of another era. Her dainty hands were folded over the front of her gold dress, and a matching ribbon adorned her hair. If only she’d retained the manners of that era, too.
Abducting young girls, hooking them on heroin, and then turning them into beasts so they could take more abuse was not a very respectable way to make a living. It would’ve been easy to assume that Raphael was the head of this snake. He’d been three times Scarlett’s size and a force that knew no limits. I was proof enough of that. So I’d been unconvinced when Mandy had said the sister was the brains.
Staring into Scarlett’s cold eyes made me a believer. I understood now. Raphael had been nothing more than a skillful instrument. The innocent-looking girl radiated pure evil.
“You’re not one of mine,” she cooed sweetly. “But I smell Roman on you. How is my little pet?”
Something in the way she said it rubbed me wrong, stabbed at some nagging little knot of jealousy coiling in my gut. I lifted my Glock and fired.
The surprise that broke the civil façade of her face was satisfying, though it didn’t last long. Her brow creased, and her eyebrows lifted into an angry mass as she launched herself at me, knocking the gun out of my hand. Blood spurted from a wound in her upper arm, and I inwardly groaned as I considered the possibility that my Glock hadn’t actually survived the van incident. At least, not completely.
The two conscious girls in the stall with us scrambled to the opposite side, squealing and clutching at each other. Their chains rattled as they strained against their collars.
Scarlett’s fingers pinched around my arms, digging into my skin as she threw my back against the straw floor. I tried to sit up, but she was too strong. Much stronger than her brother had been.
“Whose are you, vampling?” She spat the word at me as if it were an insult. Her fangs extended, and blood from her last meal dripped onto my cheek. “I will find out for myself!”
She dipped her face into the crook of my neck and sank her teeth into my flesh on the opposite side from where Raphael had. The mirrored gesture sent a thrill of terror through me.
This couldn’t be happening. I was a vampire now. Wasn’t there some rule against this? I cursed Roman for denying me so much crucial information. Then I cursed myself for not listening. Again. This was some cruel joke the universe was playing on me. Killing me a second time, the exact same way, for the exact same reason.
Scarlett pulled away with a shriek. She fell on her elbows and crawled backward away from me. “My Raphael,” she choked out the word and reached up to grasp her throat as if she couldn’t breathe.
I was busy catching my own breath. I searched the straw, groping for my gun and wondering what good it would do me if I couldn’t get a clean shot off. I was betting if I put it right in her face it would get the job done.
“My Raphael,” Scarlett sobbed again. “Why didn’t he tell me he’d set his sights on such a lovely scion? I would have made a good auntie.” She sat up in the straw and opened her arms to me. “I could still make a good auntie.”
“Ugh.” My disgust knew no limits, and I soon discovered that neither did Scarlett’s ego.
“You will mind your tongue girl,” she hissed. “A bastard scion will not be tolerated by House Lilith.”
“I hear they don’t tolerate you too well either.” My fingers curled around the Glock. I wondered if I could lift it before she pounced on me again. She was so fast.
Behind her, Mandy stirred. Her chains rattled as she rolled over, drawing Scarlett’s attention. Her mouth curved up in an evil grin. “You want this one, don’t you?” she said, nodding over her shoulder. “I can smell her on you. I suppose she’s pretty in her own way.”
I lifted the Glock and pointed it at Scarlett’s face, trying to math my way through the adjustment needed to hit my mark. She was only a few feet away. But Mandy was right there. I couldn’t screw this up. Before I’d finished the thought, Mandy’s chain was around Scarlett’s neck.
“How’s this for pretty?” Mandy growled. The chain was still attached to the collar at her neck, but she’d taken up a section farther down, likely to keep her head from being ripped clean off once Scarlett freed herself.
Any time now, I thought, the barrel of my gun following the little terror’s face. Some part of this felt all wrong. She was just a child. Or rather, she looked just like a child. The blood coating her face and the hatred saturating her eyes gave her away, though. My stomach churn
ed as I tried to sever the connection between how she appeared and what she really was.
“Mandy! Get out of the way,” I yelled, bringing my other hand up to steady my weapon. My neck burned, and my blood eye, or whatever Roman had called it, was going spotty.
Mandy’s head jerked up, and she bared her teeth at me. “You get out of the way!”
I stood, and stumbled back against the stall wall, blinking to clear my vision and my mind. Scarlett’s fingers dug under the chain at her throat. She gurgled helplessly and reached for me. Help, she mouthed. Her eyes locked onto mine, and I was once again confronted with the fact that she looked like an average little girl in her Sunday best. Her legs kicked up the hem of her dress, revealing white tights and black Mary Janes. The anger in her expression slipped away, and tears welled in her eyes. Her mouth trembled and she let out a soft sob.
My gun was suddenly trained on Mandy, my finger tightening on the trigger. I couldn’t let her strangle this innocent child. I had to do something. I had to save her.
Mandy seemed to notice the change in me, and she tucked herself closer behind Scarlett. “Snap out of it!” she shouted. “This little bitch is worth ten of Raphael.”
Scarlett’s act slipped at the mention of her brother. It broke her spell enough that I was able to control my aim again, drawing it back to her face. She stamped her glossy shoes on the barn floor and let out a frustrated shriek as her fangs extended again. Then she ripped the chain away from her throat as if it had been nothing. Or maybe it had been a test to see if I was delusional enough to fall for her wounded doe act.
Mandy gasped and fell forward as Scarlett looped her arm around the chain attached to her collar. The motion dragged Mandy across the floor. She clawed at the straw, trying to prevent Scarlett from reeling her in. But it was as if she were nothing more than a tug-a-long child’s toy.
“I’m going to enjoy sucking you dry,” Scarlett purred to Mandy and gave me a taunting smile.
The gun shook in my hands. I was still afraid I’d hit Mandy, even at this range, and my window was getting smaller and smaller. I panted, trying to steel my nerves before it was too late. I remembered Will in the warehouse basement, and how I’d hesitated. The shame burned through me, and I finally felt my hands steady. I pulled the trigger.
Scarlett gasped and moved across the stall in a flash of gold, just barely missing my shot as it blasted a hole through the barn wall. Mandy grunted at the sudden slack in her chain and took a rasping breath. The relief was premature. Scarlett’s shock was quickly replaced by rage. She growled and took up Mandy’s chain again, whipping it sharply before I could get off another shot. Mandy was wrenched into the air, before being hurled across the stall, right into me.
We hit the wooden wall with a sickening crack. All the air left my lungs, and wood splintered around my head. Mandy made a strangled noise. I looked down to find the collar at her throat had twisted and halfway popped open. The lock was just barely in place, a small corner of metal digging into the side of her throat. Blood trickled down her neck as she tried to pull the collar away from her flesh.
I gasped and slipped my fingers under the metal band, using all my strength to pry it the rest of the way open. The metal groaned and squeaked, and then she was free. Her skin was raw, and she sounded hoarse, but she was breathing.
“Get her,” she whispered, her eyes darting in the direction Scarlett had fled.
I stood and stumbled out of the stall, taking aim down the aisle of the barn. I fired once again, but the bullet ricocheted off a stall door to Scarlett’s left. Still, she paused and turned to glare at me.
“I don’t think Raphael meant to make a scion out of you at all.” She tilted her chin in the air and sniffed at me.
“I know he didn’t,” I said, taking a careful step toward her. “That’s why I didn’t lose any sleep when he dropped dead.”
Scarlett’s glossy eyes welled, and her mouth fell open. I took the opportunity to fire another round. This one ripped the bow right out of her hair. I was so close. Just one more step and I’d have her.
Thick arms wrapped around me, pinning mine to my sides, and Roman’s irate voice rumbled in my ear. “Jenna! You can’t!”
I screamed. The Glock fired into the floor between our feet. His mouth was still moving right next to my ear, but I couldn’t hear him anymore.
Scarlett grinned from the back entrance of the barn, unshed tears still sparkling in her eyes. It wasn’t a pleasant look. It was a promise that we’d meet again. She gripped her arm where I’d nicked her, and blood oozed through her fingers. It dripped onto her shiny, gold dress and dotted the barn floor.
If I could put another round in her, I was sure she’d drop like a sack of potatoes. But that wouldn’t be happening as long as Roman was playing knight in shining armor.
“Over here!” someone shouted from outside. “Surround the barn!”
Scarlett winked at me, and then she was gone.
Chapter Twenty-one
Tears burned my eyes, and my vision blurred as I dropped my gun and ripped away from Roman. In that moment, I was sure I’d never hated anymore more. He was a coward. How could he let someone like Scarlett go free? How could he let her live? The things she’d done were unacceptable.
Roman returned my glare as if he had every right to. “Go wait in my car,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Or what?” I shouted at him. “I don’t work for you—and I’m not entirely confident you work at all. Aren’t you supposed to stop killer vampires? What was it you said your job was? To ‘put them down?’” I made air quotes as I repeated his words back to him.
“That is what I do.”
“When you let a murderous queen bee slip right through your fingers, I’m sure you can understand my confusion.”
“You don’t get it,” Roman said, the angles of his face razor sharp from his rage. “And this isn’t the time or place to explain. Go wait in my car.”
“Or what?” I said again, biting the words off even harder than he had. My bloodlust was just begging for a reason. Push me, I thought. I fucking dare you.
“Who’s this?” The dark-haired woman I’d seen with Roman at the abandoned warehouse broke away from the pack of uniformed officers. She crossed her rifle in front of her chest and rested the barrel in her opposite hand as she looked me over, a neutral expression frozen on her face. I couldn’t tell if she was jealous or hungry or just plain curious. Or a vampire.
The logical answer hit me between the eyes, as I understood why Roman had tried to usher me back to his car. She could tell what I was. Her perfect poker face was clue enough.
Roman gave me a berating glare, as if to say I told you so. “Local vamp that reported the tip,” he answered flatly. “She works with a wolf who helped us track down the brothel.”
“Hmm.” The woman cocked her head at me and smiled. It didn’t reach her emerald eyes. “Good job.”
A bony shoulder nudged mine, and I glanced down to find Mandy. She tugged at the hem of the tee shirt she wore, pulling it down over her crotch with an annoyed frown. The gash in her neck had already begun to crust over.
I reached up to feel my own neck where Scarlett had taken a bite out of me. My skin was tacky with blood, and the marks she’d left ached and burned. I felt dirty and couldn’t wait to get home to take a bath in rubbing alcohol.
“Can I borrow your phone?” Mandy asked, eyeing the officers surrounding us.
I made a pained face as I reached into the front pocket of my jeans where I’d kept the backup flip phone. It was in pieces. I hadn’t checked it since the van incident.
“Here, use mine,” Roman said, handing her his sleek military model. Mandy mumbled her thanks and stepped away from us as she made her call.
My blood vision had died down, and I finally saw the barn in color—the pale woodwork stained with bloody handprints, the yellow straw, the rusted hinges on the stall doors. The officers dressed in black as they rushed in and out, casting
sideways glances at the huddled mass of girls accumulating in the aisle of the barn. Casting sideways glances at me.
Roman took his phone back as Mandy returned, and then he grabbed my arm. “I’m going to take them home, Vanessa,” he said to the dark-haired woman still loitering near us.
“I’m staying.” Mandy hugged herself and gave me a tired smile. “The rehab center that helped me out is sending a bus to gather the girls—what’s left of them anyway. They’ve offered to take them in. I want to see them off.”
“Good luck.” I nodded and gave her an awkward hug. She was tense in my arms, but she returned the gesture the best she could.
“Thanks for everything,” she whispered, her voice cracking as Roman directed me toward the exit.
I paused and bent over to retrieve my Glock from the barn floor. Roman gave me a nervous frown as I tucked it back in my holster.
“Don’t worry. As much as I’d love to, I’m not going to use this on you.”
“Thank goodness,” he said. “I’d be worried for the safety of my people.”
My cheeks flared at the jab, but I didn’t bother explaining that my firearm was damaged. I didn’t say anything else as we cut through the tree line that ran between the field and the property the farmhouse sat on. I stumbled through the dark, not seeing half as well now that my blood vision was gone. Roman caught my arm twice, keeping me upright, and I grumbled at him for his efforts.
We cut across the meadow and the ditch, and then loaded into the SUV without a word. I still hated him. I still wanted to know why he’d stopped me from taking the shot. I wanted to know a lot, but I’d be damned if I was going to ask him anything. I folded my arms and glared out my window as Roman turned the SUV around and headed down the gravel road in the direction we’d come.
We made it all the way back to I-44 before he finally broke the silence.
“Scarlett must be taken alive.” He shot a weary glance at me. “We can’t just execute a member of royalty. That’s not how House Lilith operates.”
Blood Vice Page 18