The Undead Heart (#1 in the Blood Thirst Series)

by Stephanie Jackson

  “What happened?” Leso asked.

  Beck told him about the confrontation in the living room and what Richard had done.

  After she finished, Leso said, “I’ve never liked that uppity little snot, or his bitch of a wife.”

  Beck asked again, “So, why do they want to stay?”

  “Elderson’s clan killed the Barrett clan while Jonathon and Gabryel were away on holiday. Two of the clan were Jonathon and Gabryel’s sons. They know that they have no chance of defeating Elderson on their own. They’re not willing to give up their chance for revenge just because we had a fight,” Richard explained.

  “I didn’t know that. That’s sad.” She couldn’t imagine what they had gone through. “You should try and make peace with them.”

  “I absolutely will not. I can sympathize with what happened to them, that’s why I allowed them to stay. What I will not do is allow him to stand in my wife’s house and talk to her like she is a piece of rubbish,” he said firmly. “And he’s a bit of a coward. Trust me, he would not have spoken that way to Potter had he not thought he had a room full of vampyres to back him up. If I hadn’t come in when I did, Potter would have killed him.”

  Beck shook her head. “Potter wouldn’t have done that.”

  “O’ ye of little faith,” Richard said. “If Jonathon had so much as twitched in your direction, his head would be lying on your living room floor right now.”

  “You don’t know the Potter we know,” Leso said. “When pushed too far, he is absolutely lethal. You’ve never seen him kill.”

  “He’s deadly,” Richard agreed. She just didn’t think of Potter as being dangerous.

  Leso got out of the car at the hotel. “Tell Bev that I love her, and that I’ll find some way to deal with this better next month.”

  Beck nodded. “Come home soon. I know she misses you.”

  “As soon as I can,” he said and walked away.

  “I feel sorry for them. They just found each other, and they have to be apart already.”

  Richard sighed. “I went through the same thing with you.”

  “It wasn’t the same thing, though. You weren’t uncontrollable like he was.”

  “He’ll be fine. It will pass.” She was glad she wouldn’t have to go through that anymore.

  ***

  When they pulled into the driveway, all of the hunters and vampyres were gathered in the front yard, including Jonathon and Gabryel. Richard stopped the car at the edge of the woods.

  “What’s going on?” she asked with fear, as Potter came jogging across the yard toward them.

  “I think we’re about to find out,” Richard replied, getting out of the car.

  Potter was waiting when she got out. She could feel anticipation, excitement, and fear drifting from across the yard. Bruce and Harley came to join the three of them.

  “Well?” Richard asked, walking with Potter towards the house. “They’re willing to accept you, but only if you agree to a challenge,” Potter said.

  “A challenge?” Richard asked. “They want you to fight one of the hunters,” Bruce elaborated. “What?,” Beck sputtered. “Why?”

  “Hush, Beck,” Richard said. “You did not just tell me to hush,” she said, instantly pissed. “Sorry, but please, let me deal with this.” She was still put out, but said, “Fine.”

  “Will the fight be to the death?” he asked calmly. “No. We can’t afford to lose anyone. The fight will end when one of you taps out,” Potter explained.

  Outraged, Beck couldn’t hold her tongue. “So what? He has to be jumped in like he’s joining a gang?!”

  “Beck, please,” Richard implored. “No, he’s not going to be jumped in, Beck. He only has to fight one hunter,” Potter said. “Don’t worry. They’ve seen Richard kill before, but they’ve never really seen him fight.”

  Richard started taking off his shoes. “Which one?” he asked. “They wanted me to do it, but I said no. Then they wanted Damon to do it, but he doesn’t have a problem with you being a hunter, so he refused to do it, as well. They finally settled on Gunner,” Potter said quietly, as to not be overheard.

  She was shocked. “Gunner! He’s huge! Are you crazy? That’s not fair!” she whispered furiously.

  “Beck, stop it!” Richard insisted. “But this is insane!”

  “Harley, take her over there,” Richard instructed, indicating a place near Jenny. Harley reached out to take her arm.

  “I wish you would touch me! I dare you!” she challenged Harley.

  Harley dropped his hand, and she marched across the yard to stand next to Jenny.

  Gunner stepped out into the yard as Richard approached. “Now he’ll get what’s coming to him,” Gabryel said in a stage whisper.

  Beck made a move toward her, but Jenny grabbed her arm. “Don’t.”

  She got a hold of herself, and stared ahead at Richard. Gunner struck first, landing a sharp blow to Richard’s shoulder. She heard it crack and winced. Richard danced a little away from him. He spun on his heel and delivered a perfect spinning back kick to Gunner’s chest, shattering his ribcage and throwing him backward.

  Gunner recovered quickly and jumped at Richard. Richard sidestepped, but Gunner’s fist collided with his jaw, cracking it to the side. Richard jumped away and used his hand to push his jaw back into place. The fight was moving slower than she had expected. Gunner attempted to lunge at Richard again. Richard did what she’d seen Potter do to Jeremy.

  He ducked under the launch and drove his shoulder into Gunner’s ribcage, sending him into the air. He reached up, grabbed Gunner’s ankle, and whipped him with bone-shattering force into the ground. Potter had said that the hunters had never seen Richard fight. She thought they must have forgotten what happened with Jonathon yesterday, but now she understood. That hadn’t been a fight, it had been a beating. This was a fight.

  Gunner popped back up and swung his huge fist at Richard, catching him in the bicep. She heard Richard’s arm crunch, but he never flinched. He drove his other fist into Gunner’s stomach, driving him backwards. Richard kicked out and broke Gunner’s knee backward with a wet pop, crumpling him to the ground. He didn’t allow Gunner to regain his feet. He jumped on him, driving both knees into Gunner’s chest, breaking his sternum with what sounded like a gunshot.

  Before Gunner could recover, Richard had spun and had him in a perfect hip lock. She heard Gunner’s hip pop out of its socket. Gunner screamed, reached out his hand, and struck the ground twice. He had tapped out. It was over. Richard released him and sprang back to his feet. She was about to run over to him when she heard Gabryel running her mouth.

  “He never would’ve beaten that big one,” she said bitterly. Beck would have let it go, but the woman didn’t know when to shut up. “You saw that, didn’t you? That Potter was too much of a coward to fight him.”

  That was it! She’d heard to all the shit she was going to listen to come out of this bitch’s mouth. All the hunters had rushed out to Gunner, and there was no one between her and Gabryel.

  She walked over, grabbed Gabryel by the arm, and spun her around to face her. She punched Gabryel in the face, following through with her elbow. She grabbed Gabryel’s hair on both sides and used it to jerk her forward and down, ramming her knee hard into her face.

  She threw her back and was about to kick her when she felt a sharp blow to her back. She both felt and heard her shoulder blade crack. What the hell! She spun in time to see Jonathon’s fist coming at her, but not in time to duck. He struck her in the cheek bone, crushing it, and sending her flying backwards. She jumped back to her feet when she hit the porch.

  That asshole had actually hit her! She looked toward the people in the yard. They were all busy congratulating Richard or tending to Gunner, who was still on the ground for some reason. No one seemed to have noticed what had just happened except for Jenny, who was standing there, open-mouthed, with shock. When she looked back at Jonathon, he was advancing on her again.

  She cou
ld feel his emotions and finally understood that he was insane. He would kill her if he could. She jumped and kicked him away. He was faster than she expected and managed to kick her in the stomach. She couldn’t breathe but managed to kick him backwards again. It was all happening very fast, like someone had hit the fast forward button. She shot a quick look around and saw that Gabryel had a sick, evil smile on her face. She was just as insane as her husband!

  He was coming at her again when Jenny screamed, “Potter!” In an instant, two hunters, Bane and Aohngus, grabbed hold of Jonathon.

  “What happened?” Potter asked roughly, standing next to Jenny. Beck was now surrounded by the hunters and her family. Richard was at her side, but she didn’t know how he’d gotten there. She was stunned speechless by what had just happened. She glanced at Jenny and saw that Jenny was even more stunned than she was.

  “What’s wrong, Little One? What happened?” Richard asked, putting his arm around her.

  “She struck my wife, and I demand something be done about it,” Jonathon spat.

  If she had been speechless before, then she had now been struck dumb.

  “Did he speak to you?” Richard asked her.

  She managed to shake her head.

  “He hit her,” Jenny managed to squeak out.

  Seanán snatched Jonathon backward out of Aohngus and Bane’s hands, and threw him to the ground where he and Tiarnán preceded to brutally stomp on him. Bane and Aohngus pulled them off and stood Jonathon back up. Richard and Potter looked mildly confused, as if they had not understood what Jenny had said.

  “What did you say, honey?” Potter asked Jenny. “I said, he hit her.”

  “He hit who? Gabryel?” Richard asked, looking over to where Gabryel stood.

  “No. Beck hit Gabryel. Jonathon hit Beck,” Jenny explained.

  Beck felt Richard stiffen beside her.

  Jonathon yelled, sounding genuinely outraged, “I did not. That is a lie!”

  “Did he touch you, Beck?” Richard asked. She couldn’t find her voice. Richard shook her gently.

  “Beck?”

  She finally answered him. “Yes…he hit me in the back, stomach, and in the face.”

  “Are you insane?” Potter asked Jonathon. Gabryel screamed, “She’s lying!”

  “He is insane, literally insane, and so is she,” Beck said, pointing at Gabryel.

  Potter stepped forward towards Jonathon.

  Without looking at him, Richard said, “No, Potter.”

  Beck looked at Harley and Bruce. Neither of them were smiling at the moment.

  “Let him go,” Richard told Aohngus and Bane.

  They released him and stepped away. She could feel Richard’s anger crawling over her skin.

  “What are you going to do about your woman? ” Jonathon asked Richard.

  Damon whistled. “Damn, boy! You’re just stuck on stupid.”

  “You put your hands on Beck, and you want to know what I’m going to do about her?”

  “If you’re not going to anything about her, then we will be leaving,” Jonathon spat.

  “No. You won’t,” Richard said and lunged forward.

  There was a ripping sound, and Jonathon’s head fell to the ground. Gabryel screamed and tried to launch herself at Richard.

  Saphira snatched Gabryel back, tore her head off, and tossed it on the ground next to Jonathon’s. “I never liked that bitch,” Saphira said, shrugging.

  “You killed him,” Beck said quietly to Richard. “He hit you. Of course I killed him, Beck.” Potter pouted. “You should have let me kill him.”

  “You can kill the next man that hits me,” Beck said, watching the hunters pick up the pieces of the Barrett’s and carry them away.

  Richard was not amused. “There better not be a next one.”

  “Were you serious about them being insane?” Jenny asked. “Yes.”

  “How could Leso have missed that?” Daryl asked. “I missed it, too. He kept a tight rein on his emotions. I think when I hit Gabryel, I made his control slip.”

  “Why did you hit Gabryel?” Richard asked, picking her up and setting her on the porch.

  “She was running her mouth again,” Jenny said.

  “She did a lot of that,” Rita said. “I guess she thought no one would ever do anything about it.”

  Jenny smiled. “She thought wrong.”

  “What got into Tiarnán and Seanán?” Beck asked.

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Ever since you jumped on them about the car and their fighting, they kind of think of you as their surrogate mother,” Potter explained. “When Jenny said that Jonathon hit you, I guess they snapped.”

  Beck asked, “Their surrogate mother?”

  “Yeah. They’ve been as good as gold since you got onto them. I’ve yelled at them hundreds of times, but I guess they needed a woman’s touch,” Potter smiled.

  She hadn’t wanted kids, but if it would make them behave, she guessed she didn’t mind.

  “They were only sixteen when they lost their parents and barely seventeen when they became hunters,” Potter explained.

  “How did they lose their parents?” she asked.

  “Vampyre attack. That’s why they were so willing to become hunters.”

  “That’s horrible,” she said, and then looked at Richard. “Can you build an addition onto the house?”

  “I guess. Why?”

  “Well, if we’re going to be parents, then our children are going to need a room.”

  ***

  “Are you serious about taking in Seanán and Tiarnán?” he asked her that night as they lay in bed.

  He’d never even considered having children, and now she wanted him to be a father to two buck-wild, super-human teenagers?

  “Yes, I’m serious. They’re just kids, and they need a family.”

  “I thought you said you didn’t want children.”

  “I didn’t, but this is different. They’re already here, and they need us.”

  “I don’t know how to be a father, Beck.” He’d never had a father to show him what a father was supposed to be.

  “I don’t know how to be a mother, either, but I imagine we’ll figure it out. How long will it take you to build their room?”

  “I can have that done in a day. We’ll have to get them new furniture, though. They’ve broken most of theirs.”

  “We can take one of the moving vans in the morning and get everything we need.”

  He sighed. “You know they’re probably going to tear up the house, don’t you?”

  “If they do, then they are going to have to fix it.”

  “They don’t know how to fix things like that.”

  “That’s what you’re for, to teach them how to do things like that,” she explained.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?”

  “No, but I’ll find out soon enough,” she replied sleepily. She was asleep within a few seconds. He didn’t know how to feel about this. In just a few days, he had gotten Beck back, found out she had become a hunter, beat the hell out of Potter, became a hunter himself, killed a vampyre, and now he was to become a father. It was a lot to process.

  What was he supposed to do with two teenagers? He didn’t even really remember being a teenager himself. And these were not normal teenagers. These teenagers could quite literally tear the house out from under their feet. He hoped she knew what she was doing, because he didn’t have a clue.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Early the next morning found them pulling out of the driveway in two moving vans, Richard and her in one, and Potter and Jenny in the other.

  “How much stuff are you planning to get?” Richard asked. “I just thought it would be easier to put all of the building supplies in one van and the furniture in the other. When we get to Lowe’s, you and Potter can get what you need, and me and Jenny can go buy furniture.”

&nbs
p; When they pulled into Lowe’s, she kissed him and jumped into the other van with Jenny.

  “Where to?” Jenny asked.

  “I want to get the furniture first.”

  She bought two full-sized beds, two dressers, two chest of drawers, two nightstands, and two recliners. She felt a little bad watching two dock-loaders struggle to lift it all into the back of the truck. She knew she could have loaded it all by herself without breaking a sweat. When they were done, she gave them a big tip and got back into the truck. Jenny asked, “Are we ready to go home?”

  “Not yet. I want to go to Wal-Mart first.”

  “What are we getting at Wal-Mart?” Jenny asked, turning the big van onto the street.

  “I just want to pick up some things for the boys.”

  “It’s really nice of you to take them in like this.” Beck shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”

  “It will be a big deal to them.”

  “Has Potter told them yet?”

  “No. He wants to let you surprise them.”

  “What if they don’t want to move in with us?” she asked nervously.

  Jenny giggled. “Trust me, they will. All they talk about is Beck this and Beck that. You made quite an impression on them.”

  “I’ve only talked to them a couple of times, and the last time I yelled at them.”

  “They’re going to love you, don’t worry.”

  “I can’t help it. What if I mess this up?”

  “You’re not going to mess this up. You’re going to do fine, Beck.”

  They pulled into Wal-Mart’s parking lot a few minutes later. She picked out summer clothes that she thought would fit them; most of them loose enough to fight in without ripping, socks and underwear, sheets, comforters, and pillows for their beds. She picked out several posters of MMA fighters for their walls. She got a plasma T.V. for their room, an X-box 360, and all the games she thought they would like. She also got them a nice stereo system and two laptop computers.

  “You’re going to spoil them,” Jenny smiled.

  “No I’m not,” she replied as she picked out the biggest trampoline they had. They paid for everything up front, but had to drive around back to get some of the larger items loaded into the van.