Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1)

by Jenny Allen

  “No.” Chance spoke up before Lilith could. “That will just look like we’re running and it won’t paint you in a very good light. We need a solid explanation that’s plausible to humans. We need to be rightly seen as victims, not suspects.”

  “Well I’m not roughing you up if that’s what you’re asking.” Cohen’s laugh was strained and forced. He was beyond stressed, trying to think of some perfect answer.

  “You have enough evidence to prove I was a victim. The entire station saw me roughed up on more than one occasion and you had Chance in holding which clears him for at least part of all this.”

  When Cohen glanced at her, the look was not entirely friendly. “You look like you just stepped out of the spa. No one is going to believe you just survived a few brutal attacks.”

  “That’s why god invented makeup and acting.” Lilith flashed a smile that might have looked confident but she knew she was grasping at straws. “Look, the FBI will only stay involved as long as they think there is an active threat. You leak the attack on Goditha, and then leak the explosion at Phipps Bend and the bodies there. There is a cop in the forensics lab, Jenkins, he’s on our payroll. Have him confirm DNA from all three scenes. I’ll hand you paperwork that proves Goditha, Duncan and Miriah were all connected. Hell, you can even throw in the Hotel fire. There is proof that we stayed there. You did go there to question us after all. Call it an extreme terrorist group. Jenkins can prove they are all related and that the perpetrators are dead. Threat eliminated. The FBI will be satisfied and go home. Hell you might even get a promotion out of the deal.”

  Cohen’s face brightened but his mouth was still pinched in a thin, skeptical line. “And what about you two?”

  Lilith glanced back at Chance and couldn’t help but smile a tiny bit. “We will look and play the part of victims. We will stay long enough to have Miriah’s body released to us and then we’ll fly back to New York to bury her and Malachi in the family plot. Just like normal, grieving relatives.”

  Cohen simply nodded and relaxed for a minute. Then something else occurred to him. “And what about your father?”

  “We need to keep him out of this. His aversion to sunlight is too inconvenient. No one has seen him but you and I don’t think the FBI will really want to spend the man-hours looking into a closed case. Contrary to pop culture, not all FBI agents want to know every single angle of every case. If we didn’t have a way to close the case beyond any doubt, then I’d worry. The truth is they never really want to butt in an investigation. I know from first-hand experience.”

  Cohen glanced over at her like he was truly seeing her for the first time and chuckled. Lilith just stared at him completely confused. “What’s so funny?”

  “600 years of assassinating your family, eluding law enforcement, bypassing security measures, torture and mayhem and that superhuman monster was outsmarted by you. His biggest mistake was underestimating you.”

  Lilith felt a flush creep over her cheeks and looked away out the car window. “It was all luck. Hell I almost died several times. All I’ve done is fight to survive, Andrew. I’m not some superhero in black latex.”

  “Well we can all dream.” Lilith caught Cohen’s grin seconds before she felt the animosity in the back of the car reach a fevered pitch. Cohen must have felt it too. His hands white-knuckled the steering wheel and his grin turned into a grimace. It’s hard to be subtle in a car full of empaths.

  “Since we’re all confined to a car, how about you explain this shit a little more.” Chance’s voice was about as friendly as the holes he was staring into Cohen’s head.

  “What shit? I already told you about Coffee.”

  “Your blood and how it works, how your hair and eyes seem to change color. That shit.”

  “Or we can discuss how we are gonna get Gregor out of the city, during the day.” Cohen caught Chance’s eyes in the rearview mirror with a commanding look. It was the first time Lilith had ever really seen that expression on him. Chance’s train of thought was similar to hers. She wanted to know what else she could expect, and part of her was impressed that Chance had noticed the tiny fluxuations. On the other hand, Cohen was right. They had bigger concerns than Cohen’s parlor tricks.

  “Gregor has a small emergency jet. I’ll call Timothy, fill him in and he can fly down here to retrieve Gregor. We’ll have to move him though. I think avoiding breaking any more laws like, say, sneaking into a police lot to bust a possible suspect out of the trunk of a cop’s car, is a good idea.” Chance leaned back in the seat and fished out his cell phone to start making calls.

  “Right.” Lilith’s brain started going into overdrive, trying to figure out the best solution. “We’ll stop somewhere close to the airport, any hotel will do. Chance can go in and get a room since you’re mostly shirtless and I’m a little more memorable in this button-up men’s shirt and police track pants. We’ll move Gregor in as fast as possible and Chance can fill Timothy in on his location. Gregor should be safe until he gets there. We also need to stop at a drug store.”

  Cohen glanced over in confusion. “What the hell for?”

  “Supplies.” Lilith flashed a smile back at Chance and then over at Cohen. “What are a couple victims without their bruises and bandages? Never really thought I’d be putting my artistic talents to work this way, but then again, I never really thought I’d be covering the trail of a 600 year old serial killer either.”

  There was a rush of excitement in the car that felt contagious, but deep in her gut, Lilith knew that everything in her life was changing painfully. Dark things awaited her in New York even if she managed to keep them all out of the FBI’s claws.

  Chapter 26

  Lilith stepped outside of the police station into the weak evening sunlight. The FBI agents were satisfied and Chance was grabbing the rental car from the impound lot. Gregor was safely in his hotel room and he’d eventually grab a flight back to New York even though it sounded like he planned on staying longer than she thought. Ashcroft was nothing more than ash in a crumbling building. Everything was done, settled, finished. So why didn’t she feel any better?

  The weight of all the deaths, all the people she’d lost, made her feel impossibly heavy. Miriah, Malachi, Duncan, Coffee, Humphries, Whitmore, Alvarez. That was a long list of casualties. Of all of them, she felt her partner’s death the most. Tears burned her eyes every time she thought of returning to New York without him. For years he’d always been there, backing her up at active crime scenes, forwarding her files, working the angles and wrestling in suspects, but it was more than that. She’d miss his Spanish flecked voice chirping from her Bluetooth every night with his Don Juan bravado and those awkward blind dates that masqueraded as family dinners at his house. She’d sit through one of those every night if it meant getting him back. He was one of her closest friends and she didn’t have that many to speak of. It’s easy to forget just how important someone is in your life until they’re gone.

  A siren sounded close by, catching her attention and dragging her out of her morose thoughts. The sound echoed around the buildings making it impossible to pinpoint. Lilith looked up and down the vacant streets, but the only thing she saw were autumn leaves blowing in the light wind. Odd. The other day she’d stood in this same spot when Cohen had released her and the streets had been full of people. She dug in her pocket for her phone to check the time, but there was nothing there. What the hell? Where the hell was her phone? She must have lost it somewhere along the way. Great. Another errand to run when she got home. The thought set her teeth on edge. There weren’t many things she hated more than standing in some never ending line waiting on a random jackass with gel-spiked hair and a Bluetooth blinking in his ear to try and get her to sell her soul for another two years.

  The siren kept getting louder but she still couldn’t see even the glimmer of flashing lights. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she strolled past the station. All the stores were locked up tight, huge chains wrapped around every door. Who the h
ell uses big ass chains to lock a glass door? The clouds above were darkening along with her mood and making the sunlight more and more faint. The darkness seemed to be closing around her, suffocating her. Something felt wrong. The sudden crack of thunder made her nearly jump out of her skin. There was a bad storm coming, fast.

  Lightning split the sky, bleaching the whole street in blinding white light. Maybe that’s why all the stores were locked up. Perhaps this approaching storm had already hit the news and people were hiding in their homes, waiting it out. Funny, why wouldn’t the cops have mentioned it then? Lilith stepped out into the middle of the vacant street, staring up at the dark heavy clouds. A drop hit her cheek. She wiped at it but it felt different than she expected, thicker, stickier. When she glanced down at her palm, there was a red smear across it.

  The skies ripped open, flooding the streets in dark red rain. The smell of blood made her choke as she ran for the cover of an alley. A lone bare light bulb beside a green door provided the only light as the storm clouds blocked out the sun. Lilith’s heart was beating like a caged rabbit’s. What the hell was happening? Was this some kind of trippy side effect from Cohen’s blood? Lilith peeked out of the alley and watched as blood rushed down the streets, gurgling at the storm drains. It was so surreal, like a scene in some horror movie.

  The sick scratching of metal on metal had her jumping around to face the end of the alley. It was the same sound, the sound she’d heard in that alley in New York. She glanced at the lone light bulb above the familiar green door, the door to the Italian place where she’d met Gregor. This couldn’t be Cohen’s blood could it? She had to be dreaming. “Wake up”, she kept screaming to herself. “Wake up now!” The metal screeching sounded again like it was grating up her spine. To hell with this! If it was a dream she couldn’t be hurt and she was fucking tired of being scared.

  With determined purpose, Lilith stalked to the end of the alley. She bent down to peek behind the dumpster, her nerves fraying into pieces despite her new-found bravado. Arms grabbed her from behind and she spun around screaming. Her fist flew out blindly, striking Chance right in the jaw.

  “Damn, woman. Cohen wasn’t kidding about your right hook.” Chance rubbed at the side of his face.

  “Oh, shit.” Lilith leapt forward full of apologies. “I’m so sorry! Are you okay? Damnit, I didn’t mean to…”

  “I’ll live. What the hell are you doing down here? I heard you screaming.” There was a slight irritation etched into his handsome face, but mostly she saw amusement and concern.

  “I ran down here to get out of the rain and then I heard something at the end of the alley, so I was investigating.”

  “You always do that when you hear some creepy ass sound? Personally, I head the opposite direction, but to each their own.” Chance’s magnetic smile made her feel warm down to her toes, chasing away all the ominous feelings. He paused, his smile turning into a deep frown that brought all the fear right back. “Wait. What rain?” He looked genuinely confused and he certainly wasn’t wet with water or covered in blood. His auburn flecked hair was bone dry. Lilith glanced down at her palm, the one with the blood smear, there was nothing there. Weak sunlight filled the alleyway from the lightly overcast sky. What the hell was happening to her?

  “I thought…” The words died in her throat. What exactly could she say that wouldn’t get her locked in a padded cell? She closed her eyes and turned back to Chance. “Never mind. Did you get the car?” She opened her eyes and her heart nearly stopped. She stared right into Ashcroft’s black beady eyes. Her whole body screamed for her to run but she couldn’t move. She just stood there with words caught in her throat.

  “Aww There it is…. That fear.” His eyes rolled in his head as he breathed in deep. “Yours is most exquisite.” His thin lips stretched into a gruesome smile, his mouth covered in blood. His breath smelled like death. Lilith’s heart threatened to beat right out of her chest as her eyes hesitantly glanced down at his feet.

  Chance lay there, lifeless, blood pouring from a huge wound in his neck, the flesh torn and ragged. Tears sprung to her eyes as she squeezed them shut. Please let this be some trippy ass vision or a nightmare or anything that wasn’t real. She opened her eyes again, but nothing changed. Ashcroft still stood inched from her, hovering over Chance’s lifeless body. Her whole world narrowed to that one view, Chance…dead. It was as if Ashcroft lost all his power over her in that one second. Nothing mattered anymore. There was nothing left to fight for.

  Ashcroft wrapped his steely hand around her throat and pulled her closer. She barely managed to pull her eyes away from Chance. “Oh don’t give up so easy my dear. It’s not any fun if you simply resign yourself to your fate.” He leaned closer, his breath curling over her skin, making her feel sick. “I wouldn’t want you to die too quickly. Not like your partner. Alvarez was his name?”

  That brought fresh tears to her eyes. Ashcroft threw her down to the ground, her bones rattling against the hard concrete…floor? Lilith pulled herself to her knees and looked around the room. Pipes hung low from the ceiling, large barrels lined the wall, a boiler in one corner. The Phipps Bend basement? She had to be dreaming. “Dammit, Lilith. Wake the fuck up!”

  Ashcroft glided across the floor to stand behind Alvarez. Her partner was bound with chains, kneeling on the cold concrete. Lilith glanced around to see Miriah’s mutilated corpse clinging to Malachi’s body in some macabre embrace. Duncan’s wild eyes looked out lifelessly from beside them. His chained arms were gnawed to the bone and bits of his own flesh hung from his open mouth. Coffee was collapsed beside the trio, his enormous torso just a hollowed out husk with glistening intestines dangling down to the floor. Lilith got to her hands and knees as she choked on the dry heaves, the bile rising in her throat with a searing pain.

  “You will never be free of me. You will never be free of them!” His lithe arm gestured grandly to the grotesque row of corpses. All the people she’d failed. “I want you to see this.” His laugh made her skin crawl as more bile burned its way up her throat. Ashcroft’s boney hand slid smoothly under Alvarez’s chin. Her partner was dripping with cold fear, his eyes flickering wildly around the room, but he was oddly silently. Her eyes caught on rough stitches around his lips. He’d sewn his mouth shut. Her stomach churned violently and she doubled over, wretching up everything in her stomach.

  “You didn’t get to see last time. I want you to witness every last second of your partner’s life.”

  “No!” Lilith screamed the word and it ricocheted all over the empty room. She tried to scramble closer, to grab at Ashcroft, but her ankle was chained, keeping her just out of reach. Tears welled in her eyes as her fists pounded against the concrete. “No! You’re dead! This whole place is gone!” Her throat was raw with screaming, tears and bile.

  Ashcroft just kept laughing as the straight razor slowly pressed against Alvarez’s neck. Her partner tried to scream, but the stitches pulled at his lips. Tears cascaded down his round cheeks as his eyes focused on her. Lilith screamed and scratched at the floor like a wild animal, desperate to stop him. Dream or not, she needed to stop him.

  “You let them all die to save you, your father and that man of yours. You sacrificed your partner. YOU let him die. Was it worth it? Do you have everything you wanted? I’m sure his lovely wife and daughters disagree with your decision making.” Ashcroft’s words seemed to sear themselves into her skin, like some hideous tattoo that would always be there. It was her fault. She let them die.

  The razor dug into Alvarez’s skin, blood welling up instantly. “To think, this man…” Ashcroft caressed a boney hand over Alvarez’s thick cheek as he bent down to whisper the words near his ear. His beady, black eyes stayed on her, full of amusement. “This man will never see his beloved wife again. He will never again kiss her goodnight, never embrace his children, and never see his new grandchildren. And for what? So you could free your bastard of a father? Was it worth it?” Ashcroft laughed again as the razor dug its w
ay across in painfully slow motion.

  Lilith’s heart felt like it was near to bursting, as tears flooded down her cheeks. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from Alvarez’s. He stared at her expectantly and she felt the failure on her like a twenty ton weight, crushing the life out of her. She crumbled under the guilt, almost paralyzed by it. Her hands clawed uselessly at the concrete, her nails scratching and cracking. Alvarez screamed, the stitches tearing through his skin, leaving his mouth a mass of torn flesh. Hot blood spurted across her face as Ashcroft whipped the blade through her partner’s throat.

  “No!” Lilith woke up screaming as she fought her way out of her bed and scrambled into a corner. Her cold, clammy skin was covered in goose bumps and her whole body shook. She looked around the room and found little comfort in the plush carpet and red drapes. She was safe at home in her New York apartment. Ashcroft was dead, Chance was alive, and her father was safely tucked away in a hotel room in Tennessee working with Cohen. She still fought to breathe as she pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them.

  All the bloody images were burned into her mind. Every time she closed her eyes, it was all she could see. Lilith just stayed there, curled in the corner of her room, tears streaming down her face, her whole body shaking. She may have not been directly responsible for Miriah or Malachi’s death, but the others were all on her. If she’d done things differently, they might all be alive. Ashcroft may have been the one with the knife, but it was her actions that set the stage.

  * * *

  Lilith stepped out of the cab and just stared up at the full moon hanging ominously over the graveyard. The crisp autumn chill bit at her skin through her long black dress and matching coat Somehow she didn’t think the cold air was the sole reason for the spine-tingling chills making her shake. . In a few days it would be Halloween, but she already felt spooked. She looked across the eerie gravestones with tears welling in her eyes. Alvarez was really dead. It was three days since her nightmare and she still couldn’t shake the look on his face in her dream. He expected her to save him.