The Dresdan Coven Trilogy

by Amber Ella Monroe

  The gunfire continued. They would have to stop and reload soon. Oh, yes. One of these motherfuckers would pay for the bullet still lodged in his gut.

  Vicq flashed himself to the outside of the door. “Are we done yet?”

  The trackers swung around in the direction of his voice, frantically reloading their weapons.

  Vicq rushed one of them and grabbed him by the throat, lifting his feet off the ground. The redhead’s eyes threatened to burst from his sockets and he opened fire.

  Several more bullets joined the one already in Vicq’s side. Blood leaked from his midsection and his cells worked to dispel the bullets and close the wounds. Vicq clutched his fingers tighter around the shooter’s voice box. The tracker’s neck snapped and his head lolled forward. Vicq tossed the lifeless body over the rails behind him into the dark, murky waters below.

  He stepped over the threshold into the home again. “Anyone else care for a swim?”

  His rage intensified. The lights flickered, dimmed, and then went out. He lunged at the men and jerked one of their weapons by the barrel of the gun. Shots fired and missed his toes by a hair. He tossed the gun across the room where it skidded out of reach.

  He positioned the shivering male’s body in front of his own and glared at the other man, who pointed the gun toward Vicq and his hostage. “Go ahead. Pump him with bullets. He’ll die tonight anyway.”

  “Where is she?” The gunman’s finger shook on the trigger.

  “Why should that concern you?” Vicq squeezed the back of his captive’s head for a firmer grip.

  “Shoot him,” the captive yelled through clenched teeth.

  “I can’t!” The gunman leveled his weapon and then shook his head in frustration. “I don’t have a clear shot!”

  “Pitiful.” Vicq laughed. “You have ten seconds to tell me why you came here. “Diez…”

  He clawed the captive’s neck with a fingernail. A scream curdled in the man’s throat as the blood dripped down Vicq’s fingers. “Nueve…ocho…”

  “Shoot him, you idiot!” The tracker writhed in Vicq’s grasp.

  Vicq bent his head, eyeing the gushing blood and the open wound in the man’s neck. “Lots of memories reside in the blood, you know. I can take information willingly—,” his eyes shot to the gunman, “—or unwillingly.”

  The gunman began to back away and leveled his weapon again. “I’m sorry, John. I can’t let him do that.” He blinked. “You know the rules.”

  The gunman opened fire.

  The captive never got what would have been his last words past his lips. No.

  The bastard had killed his colleague to keep his memories hidden. Protocol. How clever. How stupid.

  The shooter turned and hightailed it down the docks.

  Vicq allowed the bullet-riddled and lifeless body to drop from his hand to the ground. He teleported in front of the escaping gunman and stopped him in his tracks. After grabbing him, Vicq carried the struggling male back to the cabin of the boat.

  He bashed the human male’s head against the metal frame of the door on the way inside. “That was a dirty thing you did, traitor. You killed your partner in crime.”

  “Vicq!”

  At the sound of her call, Vicq’s head jerked to the tub where Elaina hid.

  The traitor turned his head in her direction, too, but Vicq grabbed the gunman’s chin, forcing his attention away from Elaina.

  “Please. They only want her. Just hand her over and you are free to go.”

  “You’re telling me what I am free to do?” Vicq laughed. “Idiota. What do they want with her?”

  “We know about her infection. They won’t hurt her.” The male held up his hands. “Please…”

  “Mentiroso!” He shook the male hard. “You lie! What will they do with her after they have the specimen?”

  “K-keep her. What do you care? You need human blood. She is of no use to you now.”

  “You’re wrong,” he growled.

  The gunman’s heart beat in panic. His breath labored and his body quivered. District 5 had come for her. Probably knew all along that her blood was infused with the vampire agent and that she was on the verge of transformation. Now that they knew where to find her, they’d be back, but Vicq wasn’t going to give them the head start they needed.

  The gunman’s eyes widened in realization only moments before Vicq’s teeth sank into the thick jugular pulsing with life. He feasted on the gunman’s blood. The memories of his meal repulsed him. District 5 was a grimy organization, now hiring scum of the earth to do their dirty work. This man—a rapist, and murderer—would die tonight.

  Before the criminal’s last breath exited his body, Vicq extracted his fangs. The gunman’s eyelids fell shut. The body slumped over. The pulse within the neck ceased. The sound of the heartbeat became slower until it finally stopped altogether.

  “Get me out from under here!” The little tiny voice belonged to Elaina.

  Vicq used his telekinesis to raise the tub from over her without moving. “Grab your shit. Let’s go!”

  He didn’t have to tell her twice. Elaina’s gaze swept over what was left of her home only once before she grabbed the duffle bags and stuffed them with the rest her things.

  Vicq tossed the bodies into the river while she worked. Some of her neighbors peeked outside with terror in their eyes, cell phones gripped in their palms. It would only be a matter of time before the cops swarmed this place.

  “We gotta go.” Elaina darted past him with her bags in tow.

  They rushed from the houseboat, never looking back.

  Chapter 6

  The sirens blared from all directions as they threw baggage in the back seat of the Tahoe. They made haste to the main highway, away from the authorities. Elaina drove with Vicq grimacing next to her in the passenger seat.

  She would never be able to return, to the houseboat or the new life she’d started for herself. She’d made one call, District 5 had caught on, and now they were on her tail. They wouldn’t let her rest until the odds were in their favor. She’d heard the tracker—they wanted her blood.

  Not only that, but the cops would be after her made-up alias. What had gone down back at the houseboat would be dubbed a crime scene. Concrete evidence could be at the bottom of the lake. It wouldn’t take long for the bodies to float to the surface and be discovered. Then she’d be wanted for questioning...or murder. Or maybe they’d see the vampire bite on one of the victim’s necks. And to keep the findings from the public, the cops would sweep the details under the rug. District 5 would paint the Dresdan as animals, further proving their claim that they needed to be destroyed. The government would continue to fund their immoral research and experiments in the name of protecting humans. As a result, the case would be handed over to the District.

  District 5 had their own way of covering up the mess they’d made. Their involvement would never make it to national headlines. That included paying off investigators with inside connections to ensure evidence and files were promptly destroyed. That’s how it had all unfolded in the past. Before. When she’d been a tracker.

  Minutes passed before Elaina’s pulse slowed and her erratic breathing subsided. “I’m running on a quarter tank of gas. We’ll need to stop.” She glanced into her rearview mirror and saw nothing but darkness. That was a relief. No cops or District trackers were after them—yet. They would be though—soon.

  “How long should that last us? An hour?”

  She nodded. “We’ll need to get rid of the Tahoe soon.”

  Vicq slipped his hand inside his leather cloak. “Yes, but keep driving.”

  Elaina turned her head just in time to see another painful flinch etched onto his face. Usually, it only took him seconds to heal, but one of the bullets must have hit a major artery. “You’re still hurt?” The SUV swerved off the road as she focused on him instead of it.

  “Watch the road. You’re driving.”

  “You need more blood, don’t you?” Her finge
rs gripped the steering wheel tighter. She’d stop and feed him if she had to. “The bullet’s lodged inside, isn’t it?”

  “Elaina, just drive.” Vicq’s fingers dug into the seat. “I can endure this for at least an hour until we reach cover.”

  She looked ahead in the darkness at the interstate signs. “No, you can’t. I’m gonna stop at the next rest station.”

  “Go thirty more miles. We’ll ditch the SUV and catch a ride to a hotel.”

  Dresdan were difficult to kill. Similar to humans, but with more effort, they could be destroyed one of two ways—shoot them in the head or destroy a major artery. One ensured instant death. The other was slow and torturous, draining whatever life force they had from their veins.

  “Look at you, Vicq. Why don’t you just teleport and get help from your coven and then tell me where to meet you. I’ll follow. I promise.”

  “I’m not leaving you!”

  His lips were set in a grim line against his teeth. There was no mistaking that he was in pain. The familiar smell of singed vampire flesh filled her nostrils with each breath.

  After tugging on her seatbelt, Elaina pressed the gas pedal harder and kept her eyes on the dark path before them.

  “You’re trying to get yourself killed one way or the other, aren’t you?”

  “I should’ve been dead months ago, Vicq.” She squeezed the steering wheel hard, her palm on fire against the leather.

  “I’m trying to keep you alive. Isn’t that what you want now? To remain human?”

  “You won’t succeed if you become a dead vampire carcass in my passenger seat.”

  The grin disappeared from Vicq’s face. “Just drive and don’t stop until you see the eighty-ninth mile marker.”

  A dead Dresdan was what she had thought Vicq had become. Was he so invincible that he could escape death, once, twice...three times? Damn! He’d told her more than once that he had been bitten and made by an old, powerful vampire, but she’d had no idea that he was this resistant to death.

  “How’d you escape? When you were caught, one of your coven members came to me. She said you were sentenced to die by Master Russo because you betrayed the Court.”

  He frowned. “I’m not the one who betrayed the Court.”

  Several years before she and Vicq ever met, he and a group of other Dresdan had removed themselves from Russo’s leadership. Even before Vicq had become a prime District target, he’d been wanted by the Dresdan Master for breaking other laws within his coven.

  “Then what happened to you?”

  “After I was caught, Soldiers took me in to receive judgement from Master Russo. I was sentenced to be executed as soon as I arrived before him.” He leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. “The execution failed. My Master sentenced me to starvation and then exposure to the sun. They estimated it would take three weeks to get rid of me. One day for every decade following my creation.”

  “So they wanted you to burn slowly?” Elaina cringed as a visual came to her of the District’s use of UV rays to interrogate captured Dresdan.

  He nodded. “They didn’t expect a male victim held for blood to unlock my shackles.”

  “A human helped you? How did a human come to be in a Dresdan cell?”

  “He was being kept as a Blood Slave. The cells were so overrun, they had nowhere to put them all. They could have also thrown him in to taunt me. He was a clever human. He’d made a key from a piece of scrapped wire. Instead of using it to unlock the prison doors, he unlocked my shackles.” Vicq rubbed his wrists as if he were still bound by chains. He chuckled. “I guess he knew he could break free but wouldn’t get very far. He needed help, and I needed his.”

  “If you escaped together, then how did you get the Dresdan to believe you had burned to death?”

  “I threw a Fledging in the cell under the sun, after draining him, of course. We escaped during daylight.” Vicq lowered his head to gaze at her. “The human who helped me to escape had a price. He told me he’d gotten caught up with some District 5 recruits and decided to bail before being inducted. But before he could escape, his group was captured by our kind and kept for blood. Now...he is our kind.”

  Elaina gasped. “You turned him?”

  “He’d been bitten by the time we made it through the gates, so the change was forthcoming. But it wasn’t me who turned him. That happened later at my coven,” Vicq said. “We thought we killed all who saw us attempting escape. It wasn’t that easy getting out of the prison and into broad daylight where no Fledgling would venture. I could barely withstand the sun, but I knew if I wanted to escape I’d have to dance with death first. It’s a good thing I’m a very good dancer.”

  She smiled. “You’re still cocky. What was the price the guy gave you for helping you escape?”

  “That one day we would infiltrate District 5 research labs in search of his twin sister. She escaped death by Dresdan the day they were captured, but he believed that she was forced into District 5.”

  “Have you found her?”

  “She’s tried to contact him, so we know she’s there, but we can’t get to her.” Vicq frowned. “The perimeter of the compound is heavily guarded. Their lasers are engineered to detect our movement, even when invisible. The only way to get in is to have inside knowledge about how they operate. We’ve been in contact with other District 5 members like you who want out and are willing to help us. Some, we never heard from again after a couple meetings. Others were discovered and murdered by District members. We have plans underway but are waiting for the right moment to do the most damage.”

  “So you needed more help?”

  “Yes. But more importantly...we needed evidence and inside knowledge.”

  Elaina nodded and focused on the highway once again. “You’ve always known I have the inside knowledge.”

  Chapter 7

  The rest stop sign couldn’t have come soon enough. With Vicq fidgeting on the passenger seat and the blood slowly leaking from his ruptured side, it was enough to send her stress level soaring. He needed more blood than what he’d taken from the tracker back at the houseboat to heal. It would’ve been easier for him to teleport to his coven to recuperate, but he’d always been one stubborn Dresdan.

  Less than a half hour after Vicq had busted the tire on the Tahoe to make it appear as if they had encountered a flat, three truckers passed them before one stopped to answer their hitchhikers sign. The trucker, a big, burly man with a Santa beard, was too friendly, asking too many questions. Elaina let Vicq do the talking. He’d always been a smooth talker, but at least it worked on this man, who seemed to want to talk forever about his travels.

  The trucker dropped them off at a quaint bed and breakfast miles from the interstate. Just before he drove off, Vicq wiped most of his memory clean and sent him off with a sizable chunk of cash. They checked into a room with no problems. There had been nothing on the news or the trucker’s radio about the shootout at the houseboat. As she’d thought, the attack had more than likely been kept hush-hush from the public.

  Elaina hadn’t eaten since lunch. Although the complimentary popcorn and chilled bottled water waiting on the kitchenette counter wouldn’t put a dent in her appetite, it had her stomach grumbling thinking about what she could eat. Vicq made a show of checking the outside perimeter before retrieving a steak knife from one of the drawers. His tanned skin had turned a murky gray, indicating that his blood levels were low. He should have been healed by now, but his body simply didn’t have the energy.

  Vicq took the knife with him to the bathroom where he discarded his shirt. Darkened older blood curdled around the wound, but the bright, blackened liquid still leaked from the injury.

  “Did you get hit in the artery?”

  “No, but close. My body’s just too weak to purge this last bullet.” He poised the knife over the wound.

  Elaina grimaced and turned her head. She’d seen injuries like Vicq’s before, but the self-inflicted cut he was preparing to ma
ke in his gut sent her stomach rolling in revulsion. How many more bullets would he take for her? He’d already escaped death numerous times before.

  The bullet clanked and bounced against the tile floor just before landing near the shower. Vicq pressed a towel to the wound and dropped the bloody knife on the counter next to him.

  “I need to sleep.” His eyes fluttered closed and he rested the back of his head on the wall.

  “Vicq.” Elaina knelt next to him and attempted to the pull the blood-soaked towel from his middle to see the damage. “When will it stop?”

  “I just need to rest.” He cupped his hand over hers. “Keep pressure on it.”

  Panic shot through her veins and her heart sped up. His hand became lax over hers, and his eyelids were completely closed. She rose to her feet and shook him. “Vicq!”

  He took her by the waist and lowered her to straddle his thighs. His eyes opened. The deep hazel had turned pale. “Elaina.” His colorless lips stretched across his teeth in a forced smile. “You know how this works already.” His fingers caressed the back of her neck, and she brought her forehead down to meet his cold, clammy one.

  “Sometimes you sleep and I never know when you’ll wake again.” Dresdan slumbered to regain strength in the absence of blood, but they didn’t rise and shine like humans. When they willed themselves to sleep to recover, it sometimes took days before they rose again.

  He chuckled. “Are you referring to that time when I slumbered after I saved you from your traitorous posse?” His lips brushed softly against hers. “Don’t worry. For you, I’ll rise.”

  She parted her own in invitation and their lips meshed together. Pressing her fingers to his bare chest, she reveled in the sweet taste of him. He thrust his tongue against hers, devouring her. His fingers dragged softly through her hair in a gentle caress. She didn’t want to pull away, but he rendered her breathless.

  “What if you don’t wake up?” She asked as his fingers traced her hairline.