Bad Blood (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 3)

by Nikki Jefford

  My relationships were complicated. Noel, Valerie and I played for the same team, which gave me a sense of loyalty toward my sister hunters even if they were two of the worst back-stabbers on the face of the planet. We had a blood blond, like family, and as with family, I couldn’t choose who I shared blood type with.

  That night, I dreamed Dante and I were in bed together. In the dream, I couldn’t see him so much as sense him. I kept expecting him to tug at my pajama pants. Instead he nestled against me, murmuring “toasty” in a feminine voice. I was too tired to make sense of it. I snuggled against him, instead.

  Starting class at ten had the added benefit of not requiring an alarm clock to shock me awake. With enough time I could rise naturally.

  As my mind booted up, I became aware that I wasn’t alone. Sometime during the night, I’d acquired a red-headed bedmate. She had her back to me, hair spilling over my pillow, tickling my nose.

  I sat up. The blanket lifted with me, revealing Valerie beneath the bed sheets wearing only black lace panties and a matching bra. I suppose I should count myself lucky she left those on.

  “Valerie, what are you doing in my bed?”

  She groaned in response.

  I scooted to the edge of the mattress and got out. Valerie groaned again when the covers slid with me.

  I grabbed a fresh change of clothes from the dresser and walked out, shutting the door behind me. I showered, dressed, and headed down the stairs determined to enjoy what I could of the morning—alone.

  I had just started to read next week’s English assignment when I heard the stairs creak. So much for solitude. Valerie emerged shortly after, stumbling down the hallway, now dressed in her shorts and tank from the night before. She held a hand to her head and groaned.

  “Is that toast?” she asked, looking at my plate.

  “Yes.”

  “Can I have some?”

  “Help yourself.” I scooted away from the table.

  Valerie stuck a couple pieces of toast in the toaster before dropping into a chair at the head of the table and slumping down.

  “Too much rum?” I asked.

  “Oh my god, don’t even say that word.” Valerie folded her arms over the table and laid her head down.

  I rested my back against the counter.

  “What were you doing in my bed?” I asked.

  “It got cold down here. You left me with only a thin blanket and no pillows.”

  “You looked so peaceful. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

  “Luckily I crawled into bed with you and not Noel.” Valerie said. “I don’t sleep with just anyone.”

  The toaster clicked off. Valerie dragged her ass off the chair and grabbed each piece, tossing them onto a plate.

  She looked in the fridge

  “Got any Strawberry jam?”

  “Nope, blueberry.”

  “Guess I’ll have butter. Tell me you have coffee.”

  “We do, but you’ll have to make it yourself.”

  Valerie grumbled. “Can’t you?”

  “Nope, don’t know how. I’m a tea drinker,” I said, lifting my mug.

  Valerie began searching the cabinets until she found Noel’s coffee stash. She didn’t sit down with her toast until she’d brewed a cup.

  Between sips she said, “Tonight I’m putting way less rum in our drinks.”

  “Tonight I’m spending time with my mom.”

  “Your mom?” Valerie asked in disgust.

  The time had come to check out her French teacher. I hadn’t planned on sharing my suspicions with anyone. If it turned out to be nothing, I didn’t want to sound paranoid. Then again, on the off chance that something happened to me, it would be good for at least one person to know where I’d gone and why. Could I trust Valerie with my thoughts?

  I looked at her. She glared back.

  Probably not, but what the hell?

  “I’m tagging along to her French lesson.”

  “Wow, you two really know how to have fun,” Valerie said as she chewed her toast.

  “I want to make sure her teacher isn’t a vampire.”

  Valerie stopped chewing only long enough to ask, “Why would her teacher be a vampire?”

  “Because the teacher before her was in an accident and the replacement is a young, blonde, French woman.”

  “So?”

  Did I have to spell it out?

  “What if it’s Giselle?” I asked. “What if she followed us here and is keeping tabs on me through my family?”

  Valerie stopped chewing. “Are you for real? That chick was unconscious. Never saw us. No one knew us in Sitka, and we didn’t use our real names. There’s no way she could have tracked us down unless Jared tipped her off.”

  My jaw tightened. I hadn’t considered that. “You think Jared would tell her who we are?”

  Valerie shrugged. “He failed to take us down, so maybe he put his darling daughter on our tail.”

  “But he was trying to kill her.”

  “And then he tried to kill us,” Valerie said. “He probably wants us all dead. If Giselle takes us out, he only has to go after one vampire rather than two hunters.”

  I clutched my chest. “Oh my god, what am I going to do?”

  Valerie got up and went to her purse. “Take my gun.” She pulled out the pistol from the bottom of her purse and handed it to me.

  I felt oddly touched. I guess I wasn’t the only one committed to my teammates.

  “Thank you, Valerie.”

  “Just make sure to return it to me. If you don’t get killed first, that is.”

  “As always, I appreciate your vote of confidence,” I said sarcastically.

  Valerie lifted her chin. “One can never be too prepared.”

  My thoughts exactly.

  I ended up confiding in my mom, as well. It would be safer, and less distracting, if Grandma stayed home. Mom told Gran that class had been canceled and that she and I were going to have some mother-daughter time on the town, instead.

  “I’ve always worried about you,” Mom said after she picked me up at my place. “I never thought my life or your grandma’s would be in jeopardy.”

  “This is most likely nothing,” I answered. “I just want to make sure.”

  “You said you saved this girl in Sitka?” Mom asked as she drove.

  “That’s right.”

  “So maybe she wants to thank you.”

  I snorted. “Fat chance.”

  “I don’t understand why she’d have any desire to hurt you.”

  “Because she was a target. Her entire family was, and our team leader took them all out. Everyone except for her. She’s not going to want to thank me. She’s going to want to avenge her family.”

  Mom’s forehead wrinkled. “If she was a target why did you disobey orders?”

  “Because she had nothing to do with the murder we were investigating.” I ground my teeth together. This was way too hard to explain. If I told my mom about Jared, she’d worry more than she already did and go to Melcher for sure. “And I had no reason to believe she’d ever track me down. She never saw me. Plus I was undercover.”

  “You wore a disguise?”

  “No, but the point is, she never set eyes on me. She was unconscious.”

  We weren’t at the learning center yet, and stress had already set in. I should probably work on my breathing so I would walk in with a clear head.

  “But why would you disobey orders?” Mom asked.

  “Because I hate to kill! Okay? Is that reason good enough for you?” My brain felt like it had exploded. Why couldn’t anyone understand my moral dilemma? It was as if I was screaming so loud no one could hear what I was saying. We were all living inside the scream. Along the way, everyone had gone deaf and stopped covering their ears.

  The car went completely silent. I felt bad for yelling, but I hadn’t been able to keep it in any longer. Mom would say something in a moment. Some mumbo jumbo about regret and having no choice, words that
would both annoy me and trigger guilt.

  Mom inhaled sharply. “This is never what I wanted for you, Aurora.”

  So predictable. I folded my arms.

  “I had two choices: watch you die or give you a chance to live. I made the right decision, the only decision. Any mother would do the same.”

  Mom sounded less guilty and more defiant this time. She really had changed.

  “One day, when you have children of your own, you’ll understand.”

  Her words cut me. My arms dropped. A stab of pain ached inside my chest. I had no desire for children now, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t someday. It was yet another decision stolen from me. I felt as if I didn’t have ownership over my own body.

  Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes. Mom was angry and watching the road, so she didn’t see.

  I wanted to tell her I’d never have children, to say it out loud, to hear it for myself. I wanted to make her feel bad for the terrible thing she’d just said. I tried to, but every time I did, the words wouldn’t form, like they’d choke me if I said them.

  Mom sighed. “Honey, I don’t want to fight. You are such an amazing young woman. So strong and brave. I don’t want you to spend your whole life regretting the past.”

  A mother’s words of wisdom. Maybe she should become a motivational speaker.

  I blinked back my tears, focusing instead on a passing car full of kids. Oh how the universe mocked me. I looked away from them.

  “I don’t regret the past, I just don’t like to kill.”

  “Maybe you should try thinking of it as saving lives. Isn’t that what Agent Melcher says?”

  “Melcher’s full of shit.”

  “Aurora…” Mom looked over her shoulder before changing lanes.

  “It’s the truth.”

  “And what about me?” she asked, an angry quiver in her voice. “Do you think I’m full of shit, too?”

  “Of course not. You’re my mother. You care about me, unlike Melcher, who only sees me as government property.”

  Mom put on the blinker and entered the turn lane at the next intersection. Once we’d stopped, she looked at me. “I’m sure he cares about you, honey. He wants you to be strong and healthy.”

  Strong so I could kill vampires. It all came back to killing. I didn’t mention this again. I’d brought it up too many times to count. Sometimes the best answer was no answer.

  The light took forever to change. When I looked over, Mom rubbed her lips together, expression somber. “What’s your plan?”

  “I’m gonna go in and check it out. It’s probably not her, but just to be sure.”

  “I’ll go in with you.”

  “No way,” I said. “You’re staying in the car with the doors locked.”

  “But how will you know who she is?”

  “If it’s Giselle, I’ll recognize her. I might not have ever looked into her eyes, but I hauled her skinny carcass down three flights of stairs. And if I don’t see her, I’ll ask for Madame Vasser and meet a woman I’ve never seen before, which is what I expect to happen tonight.”

  “Better safe than sorry,” Mom said.

  I nodded. “Exactly.”

  “What will you do if it’s Giselle?”

  “I’ll do what I’ve been trained to—kill.”

  Mom chewed on her lower lip.

  “No one threatens my family,” I added.

  “Madame Vasser never threatened me or your grandma.”

  “If it’s Giselle, her very presence is a threat.”

  The arrow turned green. Mom drove.

  “You’d think I would have noticed if she was a vampire,” Mom said, “especially since I’m one of the few people aware they exist.”

  Mom: Vamp Detector. Just what I didn’t need to be worrying about, but I might as well get as much information from her as I could in case the teacher turned out to be a vindictive bloodsucker.

  “Tell me everything you can about your teacher. Did she have a temper? Did you ever see her with anyone else? Any noticeable defects? Right handed? Left handed?”

  “Oh, okay, let me think,” Mom said, sitting forward in her seat. She moved her hands to the top of the steering wheel. “She never lost her temper, but she did get this angry look in her eye whenever one of us pronounced a word wrong, or if someone walked in even a minute late.”

  Strictand punctual? Sounded like a killer vampire to me.

  “She always struck me as a bit cold,” Mom continued. “It didn’t occur to me that she could be a vampire. I thought it was because she’s French. I wish I could tell you more, but that’s about it. I’ve never seen her interacting with anyone before or after class.”

  “Has she ever asked you any personal questions, like if you have a daughter?”

  Mom shook her head. “No. She sticks to the lesson plans.”

  I didn’t want to believe Giselle had tracked me down. It seemed impossible unless, as Valerie suggested, Jared tipped her off. I still had a hard time believing that one, but when my mom talked about the teacher, a clear image formed in my head of Giselle.

  You’re being paranoid, I told myself. No doubt about it.

  I wondered if Giselle knew about vampire hunters, or if I could get her to somehow bite me first if she turned out to be the teacher.

  “Here we are,” Mom said, flicking on her blinker. She turned into the career center’s parking lot. It was only about a fourth full. “Where should I park?”

  “Just drop me off up front, and I’ll find you.”

  “You have your phone, right?” Mom asked.

  “Yeah, I have my phone.” And a gun. No problem.

  Mom drove up to the curb. I turned to her. “Remember, lock the doors and don’t open up for anyone, but me.”

  Mom frowned. “What if you don’t come back out?”

  “If I’m not out in the next half hour, call Dante.”

  Mom’s forehead wrinkled. “Shouldn’t we call him now?”

  “No. Not until I check it out.”

  “Okay, well, be careful,” she called after me as I exited the vehicle.

  “Lock the doors,” I said over my shoulder.

  Once outside, I headed for the building’s entrance. There were multiple sets of glass doors leading inside. On the phone earlier, Mom had explained which room their French lessons took place in. I took a right after entering the building, followed by a left. I walked halfway down the hall and took a final left into room 138. The door was propped open.

  “Bonjour,” a stocky forty-something brunette sang out when I called in.

  “Bonjour,” I replied flatly.

  “Je m’appelle Susan. Et vous?”

  “Aurora.”

  Her smile extended like an animated clown. “C’est jolie.”

  “Thanks,” I said, in no mood to banter around in French. “I need to speak with Madame Vasser. Is she here?”

  “Non. Elle n’est pas arrivée.”

  Wasn’t going to drop the French, was she?

  “I guess I’ll wait,” I said, taking a seat near the back.

  “Rachael, mon amie! Comment ça va?” Susan called out enthusiastically to the next woman who entered the room.

  I kept my backpack, with the gun inside, in my lap and my eye on the door. The lesson was supposed to begin at eight p.m. It was three minutes to eight. Where was this anal teacher? I suppressed a sigh. I just wanted to get a quick look at her and be on my way. I had my own studying to do. Waking up to Valerie had wrecked my day’s schedule.

  At exactly eight o’clock, the room got quiet all of the sudden. Students began exchanging looks.

  “Où est Madame Vasser?” Susan asked.

  The man beside her shrugged.

  I drummed my nails over the desk I’d selected. A guy looked over at me, and I stopped.

  Five minutes later, we all turned in our seats when a grey-haired woman entered the room. Her clogs tapped the floor heavily as she made her way to the front of the room. She stopped when she�
��d reached the center front.

  “Bonjour,” she said.

  “Bonjour,” the room echoed. Everyone, but me. Where was Blondie?

  “My name is Madame Ellis. I am taking over for Madame Vasser.”

  “Will Madame Vasser be back?” a guy in the front row asked.

  “No. From now on, I will be your French instructor.”

  “Third one in two months,” someone muttered beside me.

  “What happened to Madame Vasser?” Susan asked, dropping the French.

  I shoved aside my dismay at the teacher’s failure to appear. At least her students were asking the questions for me.

  “I don’t know,” the replacement instructor said. “But if you don’t mind, I’d like to get started.”

  That was my cue to leave. The teacher wasn’t here. There wasn’t any reason to keep my mom waiting in the car, worrying. I slid my butt to the edge of the seat, prepared to lift up and leave as inconspicuously as I could.

  “Aurora Sky,” the instructor called out suddenly.

  I froze in place. She’d caught me trying to sneak out. I felt momentarily disorientated.

  Wait a minute. This wasn’t one of my classes, and I’d never seen this teacher before in my life. How did she know my name?

  “Is there an Aurora Sky here?” she asked.

  The room filled with blank stares. Students began looking around. I joined them. Was this a trick? If I raised my hand would a sniper take me out?

  “Hey, didn’t you say your name was Aurora?” a woman asked.

  Good old wants-to-speak-French Susan. And she asked loud enough for everyone, including Madame Ellis, to hear.

  “Yeah,” I said. “That’s me.”

  The instructor walked toward me. I tensed. What if she was working with Giselle? Should I pull the gun out? Before I could decide, Madame Ellis produced a white envelope and held it out to me.

  “Madame Vasser wanted you to have this.”

  Students turned in their seats to stare at me.

  “Who is she?” someone whispered.

  I stood up, took the envelope from the woman’s outstretched hand, and left the room. Once I’d entered the hallway, I quickly looked in either direction in case Giselle had waited for me to come out, but other than two adults conversing in front of a classroom, the hall was empty. I hustled along the corridor.