Burning Days (The Firsts Book 17)

by C. L. Quinn

  “Come make love to me, Jack.”

  “I can’t. It wouldn’t be right, although at this moment there isn’t anything I want more. Unless it’s to be free to be with you. But that won’t ever happen.”

  He noticed the drink placed safely in the sand and wondered how she’d done that, then looked at her.

  “Thank you for giving me a glimpse of heaven. Enjoy the rest of your vacation and have a safe journey home. I won’t bother you again.”

  “Jack.”

  Ife grabbed his hand, and he tried to pull it free, but her grip was too strong. Too strong for him to pull away?

  “Please, please, bother me.”

  “If I didn’t have nobility beat into me, I might. It isn’t fair to you. Ife, you’ve been an unexpected joy.”

  He tugged at his hand again, surprised at her resistance, then saw her face as she let go.

  “I’ll find you, you know. We’ll be together again.”

  “I wish we could, but my life isn’t my own. Goodbye, beautiful naked lady. You’re one of the brightest spots in my life.”

  While he didn’t break into an all-out run, Jack hurried as he made his way up the beach because each step took him away from her, and if he wasn’t careful, he’d turn around and race back to lay her on the sand and fuck her hard until they both saw the stars.

  Left behind, Ife nearly gave in to her desires and brought Jack back to her. If she’d pushed, she knew he couldn’t have said no. He wanted to be with her as much as she wanted him to be.

  It was clear something was happening in his life that he felt was out of his control. He felt endangered? And that anyone near him would be in trouble too? His pain was powerful and reached out to her, where she absorbed the sharp edges that kept them apart.

  She needed to convince him to confide in her. First blood talents, especially hers as one of the chosen, could do a great deal to help him, whatever the problem was.

  Daylight would arrive soon, so for now, Jack was on his own.

  “May the universe guide and protect you,” Ife whispered before she used air-displacement to hurry home.

  Tomorrow night she would go into town and see if she could find him. Her need for a blood meal had grown great, but the idea of drinking from a stranger didn’t appeal at all. She had decided to introduce Jack to her nature under compulsion. Her entire body quivered at the thought of feeding while he was buried in her.

  “When the day burns away, Jack, I will come for you.”

  IN AN OLD BARN OUTSIDE OF TOWN

  Saul looked around their temporary dwelling. A shithole to be sure, but it was isolated and safe. It would only be for a few more days anyway, just long enough to finish his dastardly plan.

  He grinned and reached for another big hunk of meat. He’d already had his blood meal, and Billie had brought a banquet from the closest restaurant. It was imperative to his plans that she remain unseen. Two days from now, he’d push through his clever revenge scenario and take the four members of his family that remained home to the mountains.

  Hunters. Fucking assholes who knew nothing about vampires and thought they knew everything.

  “Today beginneth lesson the first.”

  Lifting a pitcher of a local ale he liked, he downed it in one long gulp.

  Billie watched, amazed. “Even with my vampire skills, I can’t do that.”

  “You’re still new. Abilities develop with time, my love. Bring me some more of that steak. I seem to be insatiable tonight.”

  “It’s cause you nearly got those hunters. Fuck, Saul, I still can’t believe they killed Jonah, Chloe, and Loren. I wish you’d gutted them.”

  “Ah, my plan is so much richer. Life is dirty and hard, you’ll get that by your fifth decade, but there are moments…” Saul ran his fingertips through his beard. “…of pure genius. You see, I learned something tonight about those hunters, something that will make my revenge for the death of our family so sweet, it will ache. Now, that steak please?”

  Four

  “So what are we going to do about this?”

  Ben perched on a countertop watching Stacey slice bread to make sandwiches for the team.

  Sanquinetta lounged at the one big table they used in their break room, surrounded by Jack, Jimbo, Plato, Bullwhip, Kurt, and Barkley. For this, Elias had brought in their entire hunting group.

  Elias stood, resting against the wall near the door.

  No one answered. Stacey continued to prepare food, Sanquinetta shook her head silently, Plato kept glancing at his fone, then up to Jack and Elias.

  He had to break the silence.

  “Is there anything we can do?”

  Elias cleared his throat. “I have watchers on every team for the surrounding northwestern states keeping an eye and ear out. They’ll let us know if they come across anything. We’ll interrogate any vamp we discover to see what they might know. Other than that, capturing these beasts and hopefully stopping them before they do any damage, no, we can’t do anything. That’s why all resources must go to finding them.”

  Sanquinetta nodded. “I’ve checked vid feeds from every business near that shitty bar and they aren’t on any of them, motherfuck us all.”

  “Whelp!” Ben stood up on the countertop towering over everyone and clapped his hands. “We canvas, we stalk, we ask, we search every nook and cranny, old house and outbuilding during daylight. We find those bloodsuckers, we fry them. Damn, I wish artificial UV worked on them.”

  Jack stood in solidarity with his brother, although at a significantly lower position. “All right, then. We’re burning up the day, so let’s get going.”

  The director for most of their missions, Sanquinetta pushed back her seat and moved to the exit. “I’ll draw up territories and maps for each team, which will consist of no less than three. Remember, daylight is your friend. If you find them, if you can’t kill them, get outside. This is likely going to be fast and dirty.”

  Grabbing one of Stacey’s sandwiches, and Stacey to help with the maps and research, Sanquinetta blew from the room.

  Elias hadn’t moved from where he rested against the wall, his eyes on his sons. Plato and the other hunters nodded, did thumbs up, and left the room to prepare weapons.

  Ben, still standing on the countertop, looked first to Jack and then to his father. “Dad…”

  “Stop, Ben. There’s nothing to say now, plenty to do.”

  Elias finally pushed away from the wall, and walked into the room, his hands clenched in front of him.

  “I will not allow my sons to be outed by a fang. We stop him, that’s all there is to it. San will set up the plan and we go.”

  “We’ll do this.” Jack agreed, because he couldn’t imagine allowing anything to happen to Ben, and he didn’t want to think about disappointing his father.

  “Fine. Go get your gear. I’ll be on this hunt as well.”

  That was a surprise. At sixty-three, Elias rarely hunted anymore, logic dictating that this kind of activity is best left to the young and strong. Jack would have protested, but he’d learned as a young boy that it was never successful to argue with anything Elias decided. Elias didn’t compromise and he never changed his mind.

  “Then we suit up. Ben, get the fuck off there, you look like a frat boy.”

  “I would have liked that. Drinking to excess, screwing a different pretty girl every week, having rousing battles with the guys. Oh, wait, I already live that life.”

  The jump down was easy, Ben landing on his feet to follow Jack from the room.

  They didn’t see Elias walk deeper into the room, facing the microwave. When he leaned on it, a sigh of frustration and worry escaped, but seconds later, his face hard set, emotion invisible, he turned to gear up as well.

  The day had been crazy from beginning to end.

  Since most of the population of Oregon had moved to the Skyscraper Cities that had exploded over the past forty years, there were a lot of abandoned old buildings in Florence. Searching abandoned p
laces that may have sleeping vampires was perhaps the most dangerous thing they could ever do.

  Odds were, the buildings were unoccupied, but they could always expect that at any time, they might find their quarry. Then it was on.

  Even with the odds in the favor of no action, searching building to building all day was exhausting.

  Sanquinetta crashed on a big ancient plush sofa when she, Bullwhip, and Jimbo arrived back at HQ.

  “Fuck me,” she expelled, two handguns, two daggers, and a tazer dropped carelessly on the floor.

  “Hear from anyone else?” Bullwhip, just as spent, took on the task of securing ice-cold drinks, alcoholic of course, to take the edge off rattled nerves. He handed Jimbo his favorite, a simple off-brand beer, and Sanquinetta a dark cherry wine, heavily chilled.

  “Nothing.” One word was almost too much for her as she moaned and immersed herself in the pleasure and sweet taste of her favorite wine. “Thank you,” came out a few moments later.

  When the door squeaked open again ten minutes later, Jack led Ben and Kurt through, then collapsed beside Sanquinetta.

  Her eyes lifted to Jack’s, well aware that Team 2 had the same results as Team 1 had. Nothing. Elias, Barkley, and Plato hadn’t returned yet.

  Bullwhip had already dropped into a tufted chair, but he rose to bring two dark ales to the brothers and an old-style soda called Mountain Dew to Kurt.

  Finally, Jack rolled his head toward Sanquinetta.

  “No word from Dad or the others?”

  The glass of wine to her lips, she let him know she hadn’t. And that she was as concerned as he was.

  “Nothing to worry about. Elias is one of the best hunters I’ve ever seen.”

  “Before those two injuries and his age sidelined him, yeah. But he’s been in mission support for eight years, San.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Her acknowledgement came out as she sighed and sipped.

  Another thirty minutes passed with no contact from Elias’s team.

  “The sun’s dropping,” Ben commented.

  While they could have all gone home and rested, they wouldn’t until they knew every hunter was safe.

  “We need to go find them. We should be using personal trackers.”

  “Ben, we’ve tried them. They can be hacked and the vamps can find us as easily as we can. If they don’t show soon, we’ll coms them.”

  Coms were generally not used with this type of recon. If a chirp were to be heard in a silent building with vamps present, it may put the hunters in immediate danger. In this case, Sanquinetta would make a unilateral decision to ring in.

  Twenty minutes later, she finished off her third glass of wine. “I’m contacting them.”

  The moment she reached for her coms unit, the door burst open and a laughing pair of hunters surged in. Both carried their daggers, Elias laughing so hard he nearly bent in half. He and Plato glanced around the room as he stood and tucked his dagger back into its sheath. Barkley followed them in, his face sober, rolling his eyes.

  Elias noticed. “What?” he barked.

  Jack, lounging on the sofa, Sanquinetta’s long slim legs lying across his, looked from his father to Plato.

  “You’re late, to start with. And also, what’s the gag?”

  Elias Remington lifted his eyebrows. “Late? On time, I’d say. And we were trading hunter stories. I’ve missed being in the field. This guy is a kick. The shit he’s pulled would have aged me twice as fast.”

  A modest man with an incredible résumé, Plato, his naturally pale Nordic skin flushed, grinned. “He’s exaggerating.”

  “No, you’re quite the wild man, and that is exactly what we need out there. Sorry, we just let loose on the ride back and started swapping war stories. Perhaps we were remiss in not calling in. I assume no luck for any team?”

  “No luck for any team,” Jack parroted.

  “All right then. Well, listen, we rest and begin again tomorrow. I know I am going to collapse as soon as I get upstairs. Good work. Anytime we all make it back okay is a victory. Rest well.”

  With a last laugh and a hand on Plato’s arm in camaraderie, Elias left the room. He kept apartments above these offices so that at any time, someone was here to protect them.

  Ben hopped off the counter he’d hopped up on again.

  “Okay, I guess we’re done. It’s nine o’clock. Anyone else hungrier than shit?”

  A round of tired “yes” and “fuck yeahs” meant that all the worn-out hunters would be getting dinner, and they knew where they’d end up.

  An old friend of the hunters ran a local diner that catered to the few discriminating palates that still lived in this area. He’d brought unique entrees from five-star establishments around the world, and charged a pretty penny for it. Except to the hunters, who he granted special discounts.

  The Northern Sun was busy when they arrived, but Quesh found a table for the hungry hunters within fifteen minutes of arrival. Located near the rear of the dining room, they appreciated the full view in front, egress in all directions, and no one to their backs. Strategic planning never stopped.

  “No menus tonight? The usuals?” Quesh asked, noticing the condition of the group.

  Everyone moaned yes, and Quesh nodded in affirmation as he made his way toward the kitchen.

  Quesh had been aware of vampire existence for the past six years since one had taken his daughter. Rescued by Bullwhip before she had been badly injured or worse, the girl had left for college the next week as planned. Quesh had made it clear he would be forever grateful to hunters for their service, and now served as yet another cog in their machine. Trained as a watcher, he kept an eye out for any unusual behavior that might indicate the presence of a vampire.

  Conversation lagged until one of the wait-staff brought each hunter the drink of their choice. The alcohol, cool, wet, a friend to most hunters who liked a liquor-softened world, refreshed them enough to enjoy an on-the-house appetizer tray put together for eight famished soldiers.

  Sliding a nut-filled parfait into her mouth, Sanquinetta groaned. “Is there anything finer than chocolate? Okay, we’ve covered over a quarter of the map. We’ll continue tomorrow morning. All hands.”

  “That doesn’t leave much time for dancing,” Jimbo barked.

  “Dance on your down time, soldier.”

  “What down time?”

  “Welcome to the life, Jimmy.”

  Snickering laughs went around the table as the generous tray of snacks became emptier and emptier.

  Sanquinetta turned to Jack. “So have you seen your hot babe again?”

  Hot babe. Normally, that description wouldn’t have bothered him, but it was uncomfortably odd to hear Ife described in that way, true though it was.

  “My beautiful new friend and I are finished.”

  She tried not to be pleased, she really did. “I’m sorry, Jack.”

  “So am I, but after last night, I can’t be near anyone.”

  “True. Except fellow hunters.” Bite your tongue, girl!

  “Not even hunters. It would out you guys too.”

  “We can take care of ourselves.”

  “No you can’t. This could turn into them hunting us.”

  “It could.”

  Two of Quesh’s waitress’s brought out three trays with eight meals prepared exactly as each hunter usually liked them.

  All conversation ceased as silverware, unwrapped with speed, dug into diverse meals, the smells enough to drive already needy appetites.

  Jack tucked a forkful of garlic potatoes into his mouth as he glanced toward a woman entering the restaurant. The fork stilled, he watched her scan the room, ice-blue eyes land on him.

  Ife? What the hell was Ife doing here?

  He glanced at his crew, all still voraciously attacking their meals, and slid from his seat, he thought unnoticed.

  Crossing the room quickly, his eyes moving over the other diners for anyone who might take special notice of him as he reached Ife. Everyone
seemed to be engaged with their meals and companions.

  As soon as he let his gaze land on Ife, her hair pulled into a high ponytail, a flirty short skirt and tee shirt showing a body he’d committed to memory, his heartbeat quickened.

  “I told you I’d find you,” she commented, and lifted up on tiptoes to kiss his lips, a butterfly touch that got to him.

  “How? Ife, why are you here?”

  “I told you. We’re not finished.”

  Taking her arm, Jack led her into a currently unoccupied private dining space.

  “Yes, we are. I was serious. It’s a risk for you to be seen with me.”

  Ife stiffened. “But not the people you are currently with?” She’d seen the striking caramel-skinned woman by his side.

  “Beautiful lady, they are all like me. Friends, family. My brother, Ben, is one of them. We’re in the same highly hazardous business. I know you don’t know me well, you have no reason to trust me, but you have to. Ife, how the hell did you know where to find me?”

  She couldn’t tell him the truth; that her empathic first blood talent had connected them, and over these short distances, it had led her to him.

  “Actually, happenstance. Donovan told me that this was the finest food in this area, so I’ve come for dinner. When I saw you, I just played through. And Jack, I do trust you, but I ask you, can you trust me and let me know why we can’t see each other?”

  Sure, because I’m a vampire hunter, except that now the vampires have turned the tables and they’re hunting me and my brother. They eat people, so you might want to keep your distance from me.

  “What I do is classified, I really can’t. You understand that I hate this, but I won’t risk you getting hurt. You can tell I want to be with you, right?”

  Yes, she could. Ife smiled, her fingers lingering at the tail of his tee shirt. “I actually really do.”

  She continued to lift the shirt, and as her hands curved against his heated skin, he knew he shouldn’t let her, but he didn’t move or say a word.

  Pressing closer, Jack couldn’t make himself stop Ife as her hand glided along his chest, lower, lower still, then wondered how she had somehow unsnapped his jeans, slid down the zipper, and pushed back the top so that her fingertips grazed along his pubic area just above his cock.