Karma’s Revenge
Teresa Gabelman
Karma’s Revenge
Copyright 2018 Teresa Gabelman
All rights reserved. The right of Teresa Gabelman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This is a work of fiction and any resemblance between the characters and persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Gabelman, Teresa (2018-5-30). Karma’s Revenge
Editor: Hot Tree Editing
Cover: Rebel Book Design
Created with Vellum
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Also by Teresa Gabelman
Acknowledgments
To Bad Girls everywhere….this is for you!
Holly Roberts & Theresa Hissong, you both are amazing and I love you! Thank you so much for approaching me last year at RT about being involved with some Bad Girl action. It has been a blast! I would do anything with and for you both!
To my readers/friends, thank you for always sticking by my side. You are my rock and you are the reason I do what I do. Without your support it wouldn’t be worth it. Donna Bossert you are the best as always. Thank you for everything! Becky Johnson and the ladies at Hot Tree Editing, couldn’t do this without you! My ARC team and Warriorettes, thank you for being amazing! Hugs and tons of love!
Chapter 1
The room pulsed with music, each thump matching her heartbeat. She stood at the edge of the dance floor, her eyes scanning the crowd of bodies grinding and jumping to the beat with no care to what was going on around them. But she was different. She may be dressed like them, but that’s where the similarities stopped. Her short black hair was styled in a wedge cut that came to sharp points at the sides of her face. Her makeup was staged for the emo look that was in fashion with dark eyeshadow, black lipstick, fake lashes, and “two shades lighter than her skin tone” foundation. Dressed in all leather, her skirt up to her thighs, and boots to her knees, her leather jacket hid the tool of her trade, one she was newly forced into.
Someone knocked into her, causing her drink to splash, a drink that hadn’t touched her lips. Her whole façade was just that… a façade. When the crowd parted, her gaze followed in that direction. Her target was here.
She kept herself calm to observe. It was hard to remain calm, patient. Her fingers itched to reach over her shoulders and retrieve what was hidden. The music faded, her heartbeat actually slowed, and her vision zeroed in on the vampire who would tonight die by her hands.
He was tall and had the paleness that all vampires possessed, as well as the arrogant swagger. His sunglasses protected his eyes from the flashing lights of the dance floor. Even though they could walk in sunlight, they still had sensitivity to light sources. She watched as he made his way to exactly where she planned for him to be.
The table in the far corner was perfect for what was to come.
“Hey, babe.” A guy flashed into her line of vision, the smell of alcohol radiating off him. “I’ve been watching you and I think we could—”
“Get lost.”
“Bitch!” He cursed at her, then moved on to his next victim.
As soon as the guy moved, her focus returned to her target. Knowing the time had come, she moved, her pace slow as she squeezed through the crowd, her eyes never swaying from the vampire. He may have thought he was fooling everyone, but not her. She knew exactly who and what he was. She slowed when a waitress appeared at his table, then was relieved when he sent her away with a shake of his head.
Of course he wouldn’t order anything; Maloney’s didn’t offer blood. As always, her heartbeat picked up, her blood rushing through her veins, but that was good. She wanted him to want her. He would be able to scent what he thought was fear. He would be wrong. Anticipation instead thrummed through her.
She finally made it to the corner table, satisfied with the low lighting that was key. Everything about this night had been planned down to timing, and his time was almost over.
Standing across the table from where he sat, raw hatred flowed through her body. It took huge amounts of patience to not fly across the table and attack, but she was too good for that. She would play him like he and his kind played others.
He had taken off his sunglasses because the corner table was dark, which he may think served his purpose, but he would be wrong. A slow grin spread across her face at that thought. He stared at her. He had no pupils, just endless, soulless black.
“Savior?” She did her best not to spit out the name that was in such opposition to what this evil thing was. He was definitely no savior.
“No.” He shook his head slowly, his gaze following her. His lips moved into what most would call a smile, but she knew there wasn’t anything friendly about this predator.
“Then there must be a mistake.” She turned to leave knowing he would stop her. It was always the same. Once again it wasn’t Savior. The disappointment was staggering, but she hid that well. This one would die, but her quest would continue. She was tired and wanted it to be over, yet it never was. Still she had to play the game.
“Wait!”
She hadn’t even taken a step before he called her back. And she knew what was coming next.
“I can give you anything Savior does, cheaper and…” He looked her up and down. “…in a much more pleasurable way.”
His words and sleazy appraisal of her body made her nauseous. He was handsome, no doubt. But that was their allure. They were like a worm on a hook and humans were the fish. She may have been a fish at one time in her life, but not now. She was a shark, and this bastard was about to feel her bite.
“I was told Savior would be meeting me?” She made herself sound and look nervous, as if not trusting him. “I’m not comfortable with this situation, this change of plans,” she lied; the other times had been the same. Play the game. She just needed to play the game to get the end result she was looking for.
“Come, let’s talk.” He started to get up, but she knew that would make her mission impossible. She also knew her chances of survival if her mission didn’t go as planned would be zero. She could not leave this bar.
She stopped him by sitting down. The bench was curved around the table, but she made sure she stayed on the edge… for now. “We can talk here.”
“Fine.” He leaned into the cushion of the bench. “You know my price.”
“Which I feel is a little high,” she replied quickly, trying to sound nervous. In truth, she wasn’t nervous at all. If it went bad, she died. Simple. No one would miss her. She was exhausted and honestly, the only thing that would be left unfinished was that bastard, Savior, would still be walking the earth.
“Take it or leave it,” the vampire replied, leaning back as if he didn’t have a care in the world. And at the moment, he probably didn’t, but she was about to change that.
“So after, you know…” She didn’t want to sound too informed. “…I will be free of illness?”
“Of course.” He gave her a smile that she didn’t trust.
“And I will survive.” Again
, she knew the answers to these questions, but she needed to hear them from his lying sack of shit’s mouth.
“You may even become older than me.” He leaned in toward her.
“And how old is that?” She frowned, her eyes on his lips that concealed the fangs she knew were just waiting to drain her life away.
“Let’s just say I’ve been around for a very long time.” His gaze shifted away from her to observe the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary. But he was missing one thing. Her. She was what was out of the ordinary and he would soon discover his mistake. His eyes snapped back to hers, the blackness taking on a reddish tint. “Do you have the money?”
This was it. This was where her stomach knotted up. Her throat swelled from nerves and shit got real. With a quick glance around at the crowd, she checked no one was paying them any attention as they sat in the dark corner booth.
“I do,” she finally said, her fingers itching to reach over her shoulder. “But I’m not exchanging it here.”
“Then where do you suggest?”
She nodded toward the bathroom, then scooted out from behind the table.
As she stood, she waited for him, but he remained seated, staring at her. Her fear tripled. Did he know? Was he on to her? Stop it! She kept her gaze on him as thoughts flew through her mind. A smile spread across his lips exposing his needle-sharp fangs.
“Perfect.” His voice was silky smooth, but she knew it was a smokescreen to the monster inside, just like her. As soon as he stood, she passed him, leading the way to the bathroom. She knew this place inside and out. It was a shady place, which was perfect. No one would think twice of a woman and a man going into the restroom together. Hell, just for the short time they had been sitting at the table, the men’s restroom had been used for a quick fuck.
Knocking on the door, she listened and then proceeded inside. The odor of piss hit her first, then the smell of sex and God only knew what else had her eyes watering. She heard the door lock, then smiled. It was time. This was what she had worked for. Sad but true. For over a year, she had gone over this moment in her mind thousands of times, trained for it, prayed for it, and now reality was about to ensue once again. He may not be her main target, but the bastard was almost as evil as who she sought.
“Do you think that a public place is going to save you?” His voice turned from pleasant to the piece of shit she knew he was. She reached into her jacket slowly, grasping her lifeline.
She turned slowly, the smile still on her face, her salvation hidden in the palm of her hand. “I think I can ask you the same thing.”
His laughter was sinister, not humorous as if she just told the funniest joke he’d ever heard. Or maybe, just maybe, he did find it humorous. She was, in fact, a small female, just a human with a stash of money that he thought he could easily take. She knew he figured he could kill her, shove her in a stall for someone to find, but he figured wrong.
He may be a vampire, strong and with an inbred need to kill, but she had something he didn’t have. Revenge. The need for bloodthirsty revenge.
“How many unsuspecting people do you bring into bathroom stalls?” she asked, her eyebrow cocked as she watched him closely.
“This was your idea.” He mimicked her gesture. She knew the bright light of the bathroom bothered him, but he hadn’t put on his sunglasses. She also knew he didn’t want to show weakness. She knew them all, every single weakness these lowlife, dead assholes possessed, and she played on every one of them.
“Oh, so it was,” she replied, happy her voice sounded strong and maybe even a little flippant. Her insides were a tangled mass of nerves, but that was normal. “What can you tell me about Savior?”
His eyes narrowed, the reddish tint now flaming with anger. That was the only color against his paleness. These vampires looked dead and were easy to tell them apart. Supposedly, they were upstanding citizens now, protected by her own government. What she wanted to know was who protected her sister from these upstanding pieces of shit. No one, that’s who.
Even with witnesses, evidence that would put the Pope in prison, justice had not been served. No, that was left to her, and she was one step closer.
When he didn’t answer her, she shrugged. “Not the answer I’m looking for.” The tube in her hand grew warm as if a reminder that someone was on her side. “So what were you going to do, vampire? Take my money, kill me, shove me in a stall, or is that what they call copycatting? Did you have something different in mind other than the Savior way?”
He took a step closer, his gaze shooting hatred and an evil she could feel. “No, little girl.” His hiss filled the room. She watched as his fangs grew over his bottom lip. “I’m going to fuck you, take your money, fuck you again until you know exactly who is running the show, and then kill you.”
“Think I’ll pass,” she said after pretending to think about it for a minute. “Plus I heard you vampires have… little dicks.”
And that was what spurred the action. He rushed her, his mouth open in rage, the gleaming fangs poised for blood. With a flip of her wrist, holy water arched in the air, cutting across his face. His agonizing scream was shrill, and his long-fingered hands flew to his face. Reaching behind her, she grabbed her weapon, her grip finding it easily. Before she could pull it out all the way, his hand shot out and gripped her throat while his other hand stayed on his burning flesh. Holy shit, it was even smoking.
How in the hell her government thought they were upstanding citizens when God’s water burned their flesh was beyond her.
“You will pay for that.” A sour-smelling ooze seeped from his wound, dripping on her skin. It burned like hellfire, making her fight even harder to pull her weapon while struggling to breathe. His grip tightened as he whipped her around like a rag doll. He smashed her against the wall before bending her over backward as her head slammed into the sink. With everything she had, she brought her knee up, praying to make contact, and when his grip loosened, she knew her prayer had been answered. Knocking his grip completely off her throat, she was able to pull her weapon free as she gasped and wheezed for air, the sharp point of the blade finding its mark quickly.
“Die, you bastard.” She pushed even harder, the blade coming to a stop at the hilt. “In the name of my sister, die!”
He fell backward on the floor withering, making those godawful sounds only dying vampires made. In victorious silence, she stood over him, watching every agonizing moment until persistent pounding on the door broke her focus.
“Go to the women’s!” she shouted, turning to rinse her arm where his nasty goo had bled on her. “Can’t anyone get fucked in peace around here, goddammit?”
“Hey, my bad!” a man’s drunken voice shouted over the loud music from behind the door. “If he doesn’t satisfy, come to the bar and find me. I got a big dick!”
“Sure ya do.” She rolled her eyes as she mumbled.
Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed the asshole was finally dead. Grabbing some paper towels, she put her foot on his chest. She then reached down, wrapped the towels around the hilt of her short sword, and pulled. The noise it made as the blade slid out made her gag. Cleaning her sword quickly, knowing that time was running out, she managed to drag the dead bastard into one of the stalls and shove him against the corner between the stall wall and toilet.
Her eyes watered as she remembered seeing pictures of her sister when she was found, but she managed to push them away. Now was not the time. Using her foot, she wedged him in the best she could with a few kicks to the face and chest, then arranged his feet so not to be noticed right away.
With her blade, she expertly carved the letter K into his forehead. She stood for only a second before turning and locking the stall door, then stepped on the toilet and heaved herself over the top, locking the asshole inside.
There wasn’t much of a mess, which was good. She glanced at herself in the mirror not looking too closely, afraid of what she might see. She adjusted her wig, then headed toward
the door. The drunk idiot from earlier must have taken her advice and gone to the women’s.
The music still pumped as hard and fast as her heartbeat. She smoothed her shirt down just in case she was being watched, then walked toward the exit. She knew the exchange in the bathroom only took minutes, but she felt like she had been in there for hours. Paranoia was always an aftereffect until she got to the safety of her home. And the more vampires she killed, the chances of being caught tripled.
She had heard whispers of the one they called the Slayer of Vampires, but when she sank her blade into their dead hearts, she was Sophia Karma Deluce.
Chapter 2
If one more asshole bumped into him, Axel Walker was going to lose his shit. He hated these bars, but most of his damn life was spent in them. Axel leaned against a pole at the edge of the dance floor, his eyes scanning the area. He glanced at his phone again, but the picture was a blur.
Someone bounced into him almost knocking the phone out of his hand, but he caught it. Ready to let loose with some foul words and maybe a few punches, he realized it was a woman who was giving a backward glance of invitation as she walked away. On any other day, he would have taken her up on it. She was gorgeous with long black hair, a nice ass, and legs that didn’t stop.
Not tonight.
Spotting a woman leading a man into the men’s restroom didn’t shock him. That shit was done all the time. Axel had actually made a few trips into that same bathroom himself with a more-than-willing lady. A rare grin slipped across his lips but faded quickly when he noticed the man was a vampire. That in itself wasn’t unusual, but his target was the Slayer of Vampires. His target was a woman, and that was about all he knew since she either changed her appearance or there was more than one of them. But this didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. It just could be that his luck was on tonight and this wasn’t just a coincidence. Patience was on his side because he never failed. No matter how long it took him, he always got his target. He always made his payday.
Karma's Revenge (A Bad Girls Novel) Page 1