Burning Days (The Firsts Book 17)

by C. L. Quinn

  With calculated charm, she tilted her head and lifted a sandaled foot to tap his calf. “I just settled in here, and I’m looking for someone to hang with. It’s lonely in a new town, right? It can be tough to make new friends. I gotta say, you look friendly.”

  He wasn’t about to turn her down. The man should know better, but she’d already sent his libido into high gear. Most men couldn’t see past full breasts exposed in tiny white tees. Hell, they made her horny.

  As expected, he forced himself to look up from her nipples into her eyes.

  Easing into it, Billie leaned close, eye contact solid, and pushed her will.

  “Ben, you will follow me out of this store to my car.”

  She took a bottle of top shelf Irish whisky, walked up to the clerk and caught his gaze too. It took a few seconds to get him to look up from her chest. “I’m taking this whisky. You will purge the camera from this shop immediately and if anyone asks you if you’ve seen this man, tell them you haven’t seen him. Tell them nobody’s been in tonight. Thank you, lovie. Come Ben.”

  Oh, fuck, she loved compulsion, almost as much as she loved sex.

  At her car, a nondescript ancient thing Saul chose so no one would notice them, she popped open the bottle of whisky and handed it to Ben.

  “Get in and start drinking. Darling, you’re going to need it.”

  An hour and a half later, she pulled up to an old farmhouse that still smelled like horseshit to her.

  “Okay, Ben, hop out.”

  Reaching for the bottle of whisky, which was close to empty, she laughed. “Oh, shit. I mean get out if you can.”

  Saul, Hazel, Jamie, and Jeffro came out of the house at almost the same time.

  Saul’s eyes moved over the drunk human trying to rise from the passenger side of Billie’s car.

  “Aw, my beautiful temptress, success. No complications?”

  “None. He likes breasts. I’m sure he likes pussy.”

  “No cameras? You were careful.”

  “Saul, that old place had old-style vids, nothing connected to the net. I had the guy wipe them. The dude won’t even remember we were there.”

  “Perfect.”

  Pausing as she helped Ben from the car, she glanced up at Saul. “You’re not gonna kill him are you? He’s prime vampire meat, Saul, and he’ll have excellent hunter intel.”

  God, she hated if Saul was going to kill this guy to avenge the other three he and his friends had killed. He was just so fucking sexy and they could use some new blood. So to speak.

  “No sweetcheeks, of course not. You know I’m not a violent man.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “We’re going to change him.”

  “Good!”

  “Don’t get too excited. After we change him, I’m going to send him back to his brother.”

  Saul stepped close to Ben, who stood quietly, weaving. He put his hands on either side of Ben’s head and smoothed his hair down, petting him like he was a child.

  “Then, if I’m right, his brother is going to kill him.”

  Five

  Ife was ready. After a healthy number of glasses of MoonShine, she carried another into her bedroom and woke Jack again.

  It was nearing daylight and time to send Jack home. Their discussion had lasted for two hours and she was exhausted, heartsick, shocked, confused, and in need of blood.

  Jack had been her intended blood meal when he arrived earlier, but the whole vampire hunter thing had eclipsed her plans and now, in desperate need of blood nutrition, and with so much to deal with, she had to feed. She knew it meant blood draw and sex, she was certain she couldn’t feed from Jack without sexual contact, and then she would have to do a complete memory purge.

  What a fucked-up night!

  “Jack, I’m going to feed now. Just let things happen naturally and don’t be afraid.”

  It wasn’t uncommon in a situation like this where the blood donor wasn’t read in for the donor to be frightened and she saw fear in Jack’s eyes. Compulsion didn’t eliminate basic emotions and she could tell he had an idea what she meant when she said she was going to feed.

  Moving above him, Ife lifted his hair back and nuzzled along his jawline, then dropped below it to his neck, her tongue traced a sensuous line from his ear to his throat. She could feel Jack beginning to respond already to the erotic component of a vampire feed.

  “It is very sexy,” she whispered as she bit, fast, the puncture so quick, she didn’t think he would even notice, and realized how true that was when he reached for her.

  “Let me inside you,” he barked, his voice raw as his emotions.

  Ife pulled away from his neck and used vampire level speed to undress him, and when he was naked beneath her, she went back to the blood draw and let him do everything else.

  Instantly, Jack pushed up inside her and began the ancient rhythm that brought two bodies together, the anthropological drive to mate and connect sexually, as he thrust into her, the pleasure extreme due to the blood draw as she sucked and tongued his neck, making part of him a part of her. Sensual, sexual, driven, he pounded upward as she pushed down, faster as she drew his blood faster, an explosion of sensation like nothing he’d ever experienced, even with her.

  Lights flickered overhead, an auroral blaze of color as they both came with such force, they nearly rocked off the bed.

  Ife drew back, licked the wounds so they would seal invisibly in very little time, so she could leave him no visual evidence that a vampire had fed on him.

  Chances were this was the last time they would be together. The bitter taste of a final goodbye stinging as she lifted from the bed, Ife issued a command that would end with him walking out of her life.

  “Jack, get dressed.”

  Twenty minutes later, she had him at the edge of the balcony, cleaned up, no blood, holding his face, eyes locked to eyes.

  “You’ve been such a pleasure, Jack Remington. You’ve surprised me in many ways and showed me that I am capable of loving. For now, go home and sleep well. Jack, the only thing you will remember about tonight is that you came here, we made love, you broke up with me, and we are finished. Go safely now, Jack. Namasté. Peace go with you.”

  As expected, he turned and walked down the steps. Ife watched him until she couldn’t see him anymore, then dropped down. She didn’t cry, but moisture welled. Letting him go when he was in danger was the hardest part, but the next hardest part was bringing in more vampires to assess the hunters and see what needed to be done to resolve the problem.

  Vampire hunters could not be allowed to continue killing vampires.

  Lifting her fone from the floor beside her, she dialed a 2 digit number and waited.

  “Ife! Hey, how’s the vacay?”

  “It’s been wonderful until tonight. Cairine, how would your father handle a group of vampire hunters?”

  At Jack’s home

  He needed to wake, but his body refused. Somewhere in his mind, something didn’t seem right. For a second, he wondered if he was having a stroke, but finally, he got his eyes to stay open and his mind to work.

  Sitting up seemed to ache, but once he was on his feet, a little unsteadily at first, he made his way to his French doors and opened them to appreciate the morning air. Was it later than he thought?

  Jack looked for his fone and realized he hadn’t brought it into his room with him. Padding into his stark living room, he found it on the one piece of furniture in the room, a used sofa Buzzkill had given him.

  Lifting it, he started to scroll through several messages when someone pounded on the front door.

  What the hell?

  Slowly making it to the door, he released the automatic locks with six words and when the door swung open, Sanquinetta, Buzzkill, and Plato zoomed in.

  “What the fuck’s going on?” Jack asked, arms out in question.

  Plato answered. “We couldn’t reach you, we were worried. Jack, you’re naked.”

  “Oh, yeah, I just got
up. Sorry. I’ll be right back.”

  “Don’t hurry on my account.”

  “Ha, ha, San. I’ll be right back.”

  Seconds later Jack reappeared with loose fitting sweat pants and a crumpled tee. “Now what’s the deal?”

  “You’re late. We couldn’t reach you. We were afraid something happened to you.”

  “I just forgot to set my alarm and I left my fone out here. Sorry to freak you out. I’m late, though, I get that.”

  “Jack, we can’t reach Ben either. Barkley, Kurt, and Jimbo went to his apartment and he isn’t there. He didn’t come in this morning either.”

  “He isn’t answering his fone?”

  “No. Any idea where he might be?”

  “Fuck, no.”

  The implication scared the hell out of him.

  Did they have him? Was Ben in the hands of vampires?

  “You’ve checked anywhere else he might be?”

  Plato nodded. “Everywhere. He frequently has breakfast at Sammy’s Egg Palace, and he’s not there. Sometimes he gets coffee at Grounders, but they haven’t seen him. I don’t know where else he’d go, but he was supposed to be in this morning just like the rest of us. Ben doesn’t just no-show, Jack, you know it.”

  This was as bad as it got. A missing hunter when they knew what might have happened.

  “Son of a bitch! We’ll find him.”

  “Elias is already back at HQ on vid feeds. Stacey’s taken a second monitor and is doing the same thing. Kurt’s stayed in Ben’s neighborhood to canvas and see if anyone has seen him or if he shows up. We need to get out and do the same thing. Someone may have seen him or the vampire…something. Unless you have any other ideas?”

  “No. San, is his car still in the garage?”

  “It is.”

  Jack knew now. He knew it…the vampire had his brother.

  Standing stone still, he stared out at the ocean, but he didn’t see the rushing water or the blue sky.

  “I’ll get my keys,” he said, colder than he’d ever been, the air around him still. Walking into the kitchen, he reached for the bundle of keys and fobs on a ring lying on the table, and turned to join the others. Passing by a half filled bottle of whisky, his hand shot out, he grabbed the bottle, and hurled it against the wall so hard, it splintered into thousands of raining shards.

  Expressionless, he walked to his front door.

  “Let’s go.”

  Mounting his bike, he looked down at the tiny silver cross, a symbol of a successful vampire hunt. But this time things hadn’t gone right. This time, they were going to lose one of their own.

  He’d failed Ben.

  In a farmhouse basement

  “Just kill me…just fucking kill me!”

  Ben, chained to a wall, spat at Saul, who had squatted in front of him as he sat sprawled on a dirt floor.

  Easily able to avoid getting hit with Ben’s spittle, Saul had moved to the side. “Not in the plan, Hunter. You won’t listen to me, you won’t believe me, but I’m not a killer. It doesn’t mean you won’t be killed anyway, but that is up to your brother. You see, you assholes think you know what a vampire is, and I doubt I can convince you different, but when your people get you back, and I promise they will, well, they’ll have something to decide, won’t they?”

  “They’ll do it, they’ll end my suffering. Each and every one of us knows what we want if somehow one of us gets changed. None of us will live as a murderous monster.”

  “And there you have it. So, Ben Remington, brother of Jack, son of Elias, grandson of Bartholomew, this is going to happen. You will be vampire within 5 to 7 days. Good luck with that.”

  Saul stood and walked to a table just beyond the reach of the chains.

  “Billie, I know you like this a-hole hunter, but you keep away from him, you hear me? He’s going to be dangerous as he converts, you remember what it’s like. But he’s going to try to entice you, and he will likely hurt you if you give in, so, promise me. No contact beyond this table.”

  “I promise, Saul. I love my life, I’m certainly not interested in ending it. These guys do know how to kill a vampire.”

  “They do, and you are far too lovely to lose, my dear.”

  “When are you going to start?”

  “No time like the present. I just want to strip off this shirt. I rather like it and bloodstains can be a bitch to remove.”

  Unbuttoning his burgundy shirt, Saul hung it over the back of a chair and walked toward Ben, who had pushed into a standing position.

  Billie watched Saul’s strong back as he flexed his hands. “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

  “I’ll fight you every step of the way.”

  “Game on. Compulsion will keep you quiet for a while, but once you have enough of my blood in you, once it begins the conversion, I’ll have no more power over you. Please remember, though, Mr. Remington, that an older vampire is always stronger than a newer one, much like a child isn’t as strong as an adult. I’m three hundred years old, I’ve got a few on you, boy. I don’t plan to hurt you, but you might want to understand, the process of conversion, the vampire virus that will remake you, it has to tear down your human DNA first. This will be painful and there is nothing I can do to change that. Now.”

  Saul walked up to Ben, held his head still, forced his eyes to his, and said, “Sit down and drink.”

  Ben did as commanded, all the while terrified inside, aware he would be a monster when this was finished, that he would want to kill and drink from humans, even his own family, and that he would have to be killed. His life was over.

  At Donovan’s house on the beach

  Cairine sat, still, quiet, immersed in the crashing waves, the motion of water, the beauty of sea and sky she’d missed.

  Ife brought a tray of goodies and some of her considerable stash of MoonShine.

  “Oh, my friend, I’ve missed the ocean. I hadn’t realized how much until this moment.”

  “I know. When Donovan offered me this house, I couldn’t say yes quick enough. Up until last night when I found out Jack’s secret, I was having the most restful, glorious vacation. I lounged and enjoyed good music, the sound of the ocean, good food, and then the best sex of my life when that man suddenly intruded on my beach one night. I can’t believe this, Cari.”

  “It doesn’t surprise me. Now that I think about it, someone mentioned a few years ago that they thought some humans might have gotten wind of the existence of vampires and that there might be some trouble. I haven’t heard anything since then, but I guess now we know. Something wicked this way comes.”

  “And how. Like I told you, these are good people, not evil vampire-murdering assholes. Jack explained that vampires are people who have been supernaturally changed into monsters who crave and eat human blood. He believes, all of his hunters believe, that vampires have to be killed to protect the public. He has no idea that a vampire is only what he truly is. A bad, mean person will be a bad, mean vampire, and a kind, good person will be a kind, good vampire. They kill vampires when they find them, period, because they think it is a noble cause.”

  “Whew. What a freaking mess.”

  “Did you tell Eras?”

  “Oh, hell, no. He wouldn’t have let me come alone, and I wanted him to stay with our daughter.”

  “You think the two of us can handle this by ourselves?”

  “They’re only human. I’m kidding, but yes, I think so. First, though, we need to captivate your Jack and, without compulsion, show him what we are and prove to him that we are not killers.”

  “I agree. It will help that there are two of us. Once we gain their trust, we can move forward to find out how far this reaches and slowly begin to shut down the entire hunting party system.”

  “We’ll then bring in Xavier’s vampire justice team to deal with the vampires who are killing to feed. First bloods will be able to root out those who are hurting people. It’s become his mission.”

  “I t
hink we should bring Jack in tonight. I believe that he and his brother are in danger from a rogue vampire group.”

  “Okay, let’s go get him.”

  “I don’t know exactly where he is. We never got to the point where we exchanged addresses.”

  “You exchanged other things, yeah?”

  Ife smiled. “Did we ever. I was falling for him, Cari, before this went to shit. I do have his phone number.”

  “Text him and ask him to come right away, then join me. We can catch up. I still haven’t heard the entire story of what happened with the caves in Brazil.”

  “It’s astounding. Okay, let me send this.”

  At Hunter HQ

  “We have searched every local feed during non-daylight hours and there isn’t anything at all. Nothing of the vampire that took your images, nothing unusual, no Ben. You men did a good job of staying away from any cameras, so now there is no record of where you’ve been. Kurt just checked in. Not one person in Ben’s entire neighborhood or anywhere between there and here have seen him. He’s disappeared.”

  Elias watched Jack nearly explode.

  “God damn it, Dad. What can we do?”

  “We keep searching, we have other hunters search, we don’t stop. I’ve already engaged all of our watchers for three states, so they’re out there covering as much territory as possible, our eyes and ears. If they hear or see anything that might be a lead, or even suspect something, they’ll call into me at once.”

  “I can’t believe this is happening. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have let him out of my sight once I knew we were endangered.”

  “We didn’t act quickly enough to pull you out of the field. No, son, it’s entirely on me. I trusted that we would have time to fix this. I was wrong.”

  Sitting on the counter like Ben often did, Sanquinetta slammed her fist down. “Stop the blame game. Everyone made a bad call. It happens. Now we figure out how to find Ben and bring him home. Stop complaining and get back to it.”