by Jenn Windrow
Once everything was in place I picked up the ring and placed it back on my finger. Within seconds he was standing in front of me. He eyed us suspiciously.
“It smells like sex in here.”
So much for hiding the evidence.
Chapter Thirty-Four
It had been two weeks since I fought Delano and walked out with my life. Two weeks of changes and decisions and growth. Reaper and I still trained and hunted every night, because Eddie still needed to be fed. Nathan and I spent our time together watching cheesy movies and reminiscing about the old days. And Julian and I, well, we spent our evenings naked and happy.
Eddie and I had come to an understanding. I didn’t kill humans and Caleb would allow me to come visit the queen. On those visits, Eddie would be in control. He tried to get me to agree to call him Vlad, but I still liked Eddie.
I contacted Coleman and agreed to help him on some of his more difficult cases, but he hadn’t called yet. Caleb and I came to an agreement, five years off my sentence and I helped the other Assassins when needed. He tried to get me to agree to being less difficult, but I refused.
Every night, when my day was done, and it was just Nathan and I, we hunted for one vampire in particular.
Because, a promise is a promise.
Twenty-four hours ago, I found him and now it was time that he paid for his crimes.
I stood outside in the cool night air and waited for Reaper. The Chevelle turned the corner and Reaper pulled up beside me. “Ready?” he called through the open window.
I slid into the seat next to him, leaned forward and punched an address into the GPS unit. “That’s where we’re headed tonight.”
“You have a lead?”
“A hot one.” I settled back in my seat. “Now let’s get going.”
Reaper and I sat in our usual silence while he followed the directions. Instead of being two people without anything to say, we were two people who enjoyed the fact that we didn’t need to fill up the silence with nonsense chatter.
The landscape became familiar and I wondered if Reaper noticed that he’d been here before? The knowledge of what was going to come made me grin.
Reaper stopped the car in front of the same dilapidated house where we found the first nest, right next to Julian’s car. He cut the engine. “Care to explain?”
He recognized the house, but then again who could forget. I didn’t answer. Instead, I got out of the car and stood by the hood. He followed and stood next to me. I whistled and Julian, in his wolf form came through the front door, passed us by and walked into the woods.
“Your boyfriend?”
I watched the wolf disappear behind the trees. “Yep.” I reached into my boot and pulled out two stakes. I tossed one to him and he caught it without a problem. “You’re going to need this.”
Then I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a black silk scarf. “Bend down.”
He took one look at the fabric, held up his hands, and began to back away. “No way.”
“Trust me, it’s worth it,” I teased.
He sighed and then stepped forward. “Fine.”
Before Reaper and I battled for our lives I would never have attempted this, but things were so much easier between us that I enjoyed being able to tease him.
He eyed me for a moment before following my direction. Then I tied the scarf around his head, making sure his eyes were covered nice and tight.
He picked at the edge of his blindfold. “Is this necessary?”
“You don’t want to spoil the surprise, do you?”
I wrapped one hand around his upper arm and folded my fingers around his. We took slow steps and I guided him through all the potholes and loose boards on the front steps. I opened the creaky front door and pulled him over the threshold. A quick look let me know that his surprise was still subdued and where I had left him. Thanks to my guard wolf.
The vampire chained to the radiator looked frozen. Probably because there was a stake lodged in his chest cavity, and one wrong move and his life would be over. His clothes were torn and covered with blood; I might have been a little rough when I found him. His eyes widened when he saw me walk in. It had been just over twenty-four hours since I captured him and left him. I’m sure he was wondering what I had in store for him.
I positioned Reaper so he was standing right in front of him, and pulled the scarf away from his eyes.
His heartbeat sped up at the sight of the vampire who murdered his family. The monster responsible for all his pain and anger and suffering. “You caught him?” His voice barely above a whisper.
“I never break a promise.”
Reaper stalked over to the hog-tied vampire, stake in his hand, knuckles blanching as he crushed the wood. His breath slowed and he swallowed. He knelt in front of him, noses almost touching. “Do you remember me? Do you remember the pregnant woman you killed?”
The vampire looked at him, back at me, and then at Reaper again. I saw the fear flitter through his eyes the moment he recognized the man in front of him. The moment he realized his fate.
“You ready to kill this undead asshole?” Reaper growled.
Eddie wanted to jump forward and stake the vampire, but this wasn’t my kill. It was Reaper’s.
His chance for revenge. His chance to cleanse his soul. His chance to move on. I shook my head nice and slow, and walked next to him. I touched the stake in his hand. “Not me.” I pointed to his chest. “You.”
Reaper met my eye for a brief moment before he smiled. The first true smile I’d ever seen grace his lips. He walked over to the vampire, a little more spring in his step than I was used to. He leaned forward and I heard the words he whispered. “This is for you, Lorelie, and our baby.” His arm pulled back and the stake went straight through the vampire’s heart, clinking as it hit the metal of the radiator at his back.
We stood together as the vampire burned away, his body ending up as a pile of ash. Reaper walked over and slid his foot through the pile, scattering it across the room. The only sign of anger he let crack through his tough guy persona. Then he turned and walked back out into the night.
I followed him to the car, noticing that Julian had left. Reaper cranked the engine and we drove away from the house that started us along this path. I’m not sure what I expected to happen after I gave him the one thing in the world he wanted, but it wasn’t the suffocating silence that we drove back to my place in.
Silence that allowed me to reflect. In less than a week, I'd gained a roommate, a maybe boyfriend, and Reaper and I had entered a new place in our usually strained relationship. In other words I'd gained an odd sort of family. Something I hadn't had in so many years.
Not since the day Andre and I escaped from Xavier and gone our separate ways. And even though my twin brother wasn't dead, at least I didn't think he was, his absence in my life left a gaping hole that I had only begun to fill.
With these new additions to my life, I've realized I would do absolutely anything to protect them. The people I cared about. The people I loved. The people that made me feel that I was more than a bloodthirsty monster that caused nothing but pain to those around me.
In other words they were mine to protect, but no one was safe until I got rid of Delano and all of his protégées. And I needed Vlad to do that, something I had come to terms with since Delano disappeared. Because, as much as I liked to pretend it wasn’t so, the vampire and I were one in the same, always had been. I just couldn’t deny the fact anymore.
Reaper pulled in front of my apartment, and without a word I opened my door and stepped out. I was almost to my front door when the window rolled down and Reaper yelled my name.
I turned to look. He leaned over the seat, one hand perched on the window frame.
“You’re not half bad for a blood sucker.” And for once his words didn’t carry a hint of sarcasm. In fact, I detected a hint of respect. Just a hint.
Acknowledgments
This book is the first book I had ever
written. It’s my baby. The world that I love to write in, characters who I adore. To see it finally published, I can’t even put into words what that means.
As always, there are so many people who helped get this book out to my readers.
James, there were so many highs and lows with this book. From the my very first writing group, to the many rejections and the many contest wins, but you never let me quit, even on the worst days. Love you!
Sage and Syndee never give up and never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Nothing is unobtainable. I think I’ve more than proved that to you with this crazy journey.
To the READerlicious girls, Brinda Berry, Kelly Crawley, Christina Delay, Kathleen Groger, Susan McCauley, Abbie Roads, Jennifer Savalli, Carol Michell Storey, NK Whitaker, and Sandy Wright, this book is the reason I met all of you, no wonder it’s so special to me because you guys are too.
To all the vampire authors out there that made me fall in love with the genre, without all your amazing stories, I would never have been inspired to write this story.
About the Author
Jenn Windrow loves characters who have a pinch of spunk, a dash of attitude, and a large dollop of sex appeal. Top it all off with a huge heaping helping of snark, and you've got the ingredients for the kind of fast paced stories she loves to read and write. Home is a suburb of it's-so-hot-my-shoes-have-melted-to-the-pavement Phoenix. Where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and a slew of animals that seem to keep following her home, at least that's what she claims.
Find out more about Jenn and her books at:
www.jennwindrow.com
Also by Jenn Windrow
The Redeeming Cupid Series
Struck By Eros
Pierced By Venom
Pricked By thorns
The Alexis Black Novels
Evil’s Unlikely Assassin
Evil’s Ultimate Huntress
Evil’s Ultimate Huntress
Coming October 2018
Chapter One
My nightly vampire hunts used to be all wham-bam-thank you-ma’am, but lately they’ve been more can-you-keep-up bitch? Two months ago, I nearly killed Delano Melazi, an ancient bloodsucker hell-bent on eradicating the human race. But I failed. And ever since, he’s been trying to return the favor. One pointy toothed motherfucker at a time.
Now it’s up to me and my rag-tag duo of merry misfits to send those bloodsuckers to an ashy grave. Not because I liked it, it was my job. In order to satisfy my do-it-or-die contract with Caleb, the angel of attitude, I had to hunt and kill one supernatural creature every night for fifty years. To keep my inner vampire fed and happy. To keep me from becoming a blood thirty monster. To keep me from ending up as a pile of ash on the ground.
Lately the screw-with-me serum Delano was injecting into his evil army of the undead was screwing with my quota.
His latest kill-Alexis weapon, a vampire armed with dripping fangs and a serious case of undead halitosis, had me pinned against a chain link fence. Hands firmly planted on my breasts. Fangs snapping at my neck. I wasn’t sure which pissed me off more.
Nathan, my own personal punk-rock poltergeist, bound to me by a platinum wedding band I had worn since the day I killed him, huffed and puffed from his safe spot on the swing. “You about done getting felt up by that tosser?”
“Happy to switch places.” I dodged the vampire’s teeth aiming for my jugular.
I head-butted the Dracula wanna-be trying to turn me into a chew toy. He stumbled backwards, giving me time to sweep my hand through the early November snow and find my stake. I grabbed the ultimate vampire killing tool and wedged it between us. Pressed the pointy tip against his ribcage, and pushed, using all my she-vamp strength. Half a second later, I heard the satisfying pop of the stake breaking through the bone and straight into Chester the Molester’s heart.
Flames sparked from the left side of his chest where his heart had been before I had shish-kabobbed it. Slowly burned through his flesh and bone, lighting up the playground. Within moments the ground and most of my clothes were covered in ash.
I dusted off my leather pants, and assessed our situation. Not good. At least ten new vampires were lining up to take their dead buddy’s place.
“Reaper?” I yelled for my too-human, too-stubborn, vampire hating partner. Another fun bi-product of Caleb’s contract.
“He’s tossing a wanker over at the see-saw.” Nathan called over the sound of the approaching lynch mob.
I really hoped that was some sort of British slang for “fighting a vampire,” but with Nathan who knew.
There was no time to ask. Two vampires broke away from the pack, running over for a meet-and-greet. I borrowed a bit of super-speed from my inner beast, the unwanted soul that hijacked my body. I named him Eddie, but everyone else called him Vlad, the father of all vampires. I lunged to the left, and skidded past the first couple. But my maneuver put me in the path of two more. They slapped their weapons against their palms like they were rival gangs in a 1950s movie.
These guys had cliché down to a cheesy vampire film.
They were too close and too quick. I slammed into their legs, hoping to knock them on their asses, but they didn’t fall. Grabbing my arms, they pulled me to my knees. One placed his hand on the top of my head and forced me to watch the rest of the fang and clueless gang forming a half-circle in front of me.
Most of the vampires who surrounded me looked like new vamps, two or three days past their first meal. Skin still semi-human looking. A little bit of rose in their not-yet-sunken-in cheeks. Fangs pointy, but not quite something to write to their makers about.
Then there were the puss-filled sores, a lovely side-effect of the serum their sire injected into their system to keep me and Eddie from being able to detect them. Typical of what we had been encountering since Delano decided to expedite his war for his fucked-up revenge and the complete annihilation of anyone with a beating pulse.
But there was one vampire standing in the center of them all, a Grandpa compared to the rest. Skin the color of marshmallows, eyes almost solid black, and an impressive set of fangs hanging over his bottom lip. His clothes were a cross between drunken pirate and frat boy. Tight jeans, and a red and black coat with lots of blingy buckles and buttons.
No sores covering his skin. This one made Eddie angry.
Tonight’s main course.
My blood lust kicked into hyper drive.
He swung a massive machete with some serious rust spots in a figure eight in front of him. I guess I was supposed to be intimidated.
No chance. I still hadn’t let my inner killing machine of his leash. And oh, how Eddie loved to maim and destroy.
“I don’t know why everyone in the vampire society is so afraid of you.” Captain Pirate Pants sounded so confident. How cute.
“Come on over and I’ll show you.” I snapped my own impressive set of fangs at him.
He smiled, all teeth and serial killer like. “Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Dressed like a pirate, what am I supposed to think?”
Ask a stupid question... Eddie spoke up from his cozy corner in my mind.
Captain pirate pants rushed forward and wrapped his hand around my neck, giving it a nice tight squeeze. Guess I poked a fang hole. “Too bad Delano wants you alive.” He licked my cheek, leaving a trail of slime.
I dry heaved.
He pointed his rusty-ass machete into the center of my throat. For a second I wondered when my last tetanus shot was. Oh, yeah, they didn’t have those back in the 1800’s when I was born.
“I might be scared.” Total lie. “If you hadn’t just told me that you’re not allowed to kill me.”
“When Delano tortures you, you’ll wish I had staked you.” He tried for a menacing grin, but ended up looking constipated, which was more frightening than his words
“I’ve already tangled with your boss once, he barely survived.” Neither had I, but I didn’t mention that. Those memories were
safely buried below a load of guilt and shame.
He pushed the machete deeper into my neck, drawing a bit of blood. It ran down my cleavage, staining my favorite tank top. “He’s ready for you this time, now that he knows Vlad’s soul inhabits you.”
Delano sure picked a chatty Cathy if he was planning a covert operation.
“Alexis, are you going to kill this prat soon?” Nathan sounded like he was getting impatient for me to remove his ring and send him on his free-from-Alexis hour at the local tits-and-ass club.
I yawned, his blade dug a little deeper. “Are you about done boring the fangs off me?” The two goons holding me down gave my arms a turbo twist. Vampires were so touchy.
Captain Pirate Pants pointed to their no-window van in the parking lot. “Take her away, lock her up tight. If you need to subdue her, use the poison.”
Oh great, we’ve moved on to the abduction part of the evening. Not the first time Delano had tried this trick.
Are you finally ready to kill these monstrosities? Eddie’s blood lust was about to consume us both. My fangs grew. Molten lava rushed through my veins. The branded angel wings on my hip burned.
I now looked and felt like the monster who resided in my soul.
Maybe I like being manhandled by goons.
About as much as I like being stuck in your body.
Trust me, having you playing invasion of the body snatcher isn’t a joy for me either.
I groaned at the reminder that unless we killed Caleb, the asshole angel who stuffed Eddie into my body, we were stuck together until my sign-or-die contract was up. Only forty-one years, thirty weeks, and four days left. And that was a reduced sentence.
I cracked my knuckles and rolled my shoulders, stretching like Raja my Bengal cat after a long afternoon nap. Ready to school some blood suckers in the proper way to abduct and kill?