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

by Nikki Jefford

  Giselle instinctively crouched into combat position. Her expression never changed, as though she’d patiently waited and expected an attack all along. From there, everything happened quickly. Valerie flew at Giselle. Giselle jabbed the knife forward. A second later, a blood-curdling scream filled the house. It was hard to tell who’d made the ghastly noise, but it sounded unfortunately familiar. My worst fear was confirmed when Valerie fell to the ground clutching her lower abdomen, screaming.

  Blood soaked through her shirt, spreading across the fabric at an alarming rate.

  I jumped up to help her, but a soft “click” made me pause. I slowly turned my head. Giselle had swapped the knife for the gun, taking the safety back off. She aimed at my head.

  “Don’t move another inch.”

  I froze.

  Before Giselle could say anything more, Valerie began screaming.

  “She stabbed me! The bitch stabbed me!”

  Giselle had also threatened to cut out Valerie’s tongue. Maybe she ought to tone it down before the vampire made good on her threat. At least she hadn’t struck her in the heart. Still, it was sickening to see how quickly blood was spreading across Valerie’s shirt at the abdomen, staining the edges of her fingers where she clutched the wound.

  The screaming suddenly stopped.

  Valerie’s face turned white. She looked directly at me.

  “I don’t want to die,” she said in a pitiful voice.

  I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I turned my focus to Giselle, instead. There wasn’t a trace of humanity in the cool gaze she leveled at me. Her lips remained firmly pressed together. She hadn’t gotten a drop of blood on her white blouse or blond hair.

  “Do you want me to kill Jared and Melcher?” I demanded.

  She said she wanted them handed over, but she didn’t specify whether she wanted them delivered dead or alive.

  “You will bring them to me alive,” Giselle said.

  “And how am I supposed to do that?”

  Giselle trained her cold gaze on me. “I don’t care how. Once you’ve captured them, contact me. I will text you the number.”

  As if I’d be texting her anytime soon, not with mission impossible hanging over my head. Jared might not even be in the state. And Melcher… mission quadruple impossible.

  “The darkness,” Valerie gasped suddenly. “It’s coming for me.”

  I glanced her way, thinking that if she felt well enough to be dramatic, her injury must not be as bad as it looked. Valerie’s lashes fluttered. Her lids closed.

  “Valerie?”

  There was no answer.

  “Valerie!” I yelled.

  When she made no movement, I shook my arm at Giselle. “I need to call her an ambulance. Now!”

  “Will you deliver Jared and Melcher to me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very well,” Giselle said, clicking the safety on her gun and holstering it beneath her blouse. “Take all the time you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

  I thought I caught the barest hint of a smile on Giselle’s lips. More of a twitch. As though she was being generous or making an attempt at humor. Vampires all seemed to think time was a big joke.

  I didn’t have time. Valerie was bleeding out, and Dante would need his next shot of the antidote in less than a month. Thank God he’d just gotten juiced up three days ago. Obviously Giselle hadn’t bitten him, or she wouldn’t be standing in front of me now.

  “I want to speak to Dante,” I said.

  For all I knew, Giselle had lied, and Dante was already dead. My stomach tightened. Valerie needed immediate medical attention, but I had to know Dante was all right before Giselle walked out.

  She stared at me for a moment before saying, “That can be arranged.”

  With that, she turned and walked out. I considered tackling her from behind, but what would that do? Valerie might die in the meantime, and Dante would be as good as dead if I took down the one vampire who knew where he was. So I let Giselle go and ran for my phone. It was still on the bottom stair beside Valerie’s purse.

  I opened my emergency contact list. In addition to the cleaners, we were given a number to call an ambulance if any of us were ever critically wounded in battle.

  I dialed the number, got out the words “stab wound,” and gave the operator my home address. Once the call was made, I ran back down the hall, dropping my phone on the kitchen counter as I grabbed the towel hanging in front of the oven. I ran to the living room and fell to my knees beside Valerie.

  The front of her shirt was stained red. I moved Valerie’s limp hand from her abdomen and pressed the kitchen towel against the wound, applying firm pressure with both hands.

  “Valerie?” I whispered.

  Her lashes didn’t even flutter.

  “Help is on the way.”

  I felt her chest rise and fall ever so slightly under my hands. Blood soaked through the towel. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my own breathing, imagining I could transfer my breath to Valerie and buy her more time.

  The ambulance seemed to take forever. Finally, I heard a siren wailing in the distance, coming closer until it was right outside the house. The sound abruptly cut off. The paramedics didn’t bother knocking. Three of them rushed in with a stretcher and first aid kit.

  “I’ll take it from here,” a woman said, crouching with the kit beside me.

  She had the lid flipped open instantly, pulling out gauze and bandages. Two young men set a stretcher on the floor beside her. All three wore matching navy pants and light blue linen tops.

  The woman bent over Valerie and moved the saturated towel to her chest, uncovering the wound. Blood pooled on top of Valerie’s shirt. At the sight of the blood, my heart sped up. Saliva gathered in my mouth. I looked away, but it had nothing to do with nausea.

  “We need to get her on base right away, she’s already lost too much blood,” the woman said to her comrades.

  One man went to Valerie’s head, the other her feet.

  “On three. One. Two. Three.”

  Once they had Valerie on the stretcher, the men lifted her in unison.

  The nice thing about agency paramedics was they didn’t ask a lot of questions. They didn’t even say goodbye on their way out.

  The female led the way, opening the front door for the men and shutting it behind them, which was a good thing since my hands were covered in blood.

  I walked in a daze to the kitchen sink. I felt lightheaded, weak, and so terribly hungry. When I looked at the blood on my hands, it promised rejuvenation if only I’d take a lick.

  Valerie’s blood, I reminded myself, and turned the faucet on.

  I watched a steady stream of red run down the sink. What a waste.

  I was too exhausted to worry about my craving—one of the worst in memory. I chalked it up to stress.

  My phone vibrated and rang on the counter four feet away.

  Dante, I thought, hope rising in my chest. All I wanted was to hear his voice and know he was okay. I quickly dried off my hands and answered, but it was Melcher.

  “Aurora, it’s Agent Melcher,” he said calmly. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  I pressed the phone against my ear, unable to speak. What was I supposed to say? I couldn’t tell Melcher that Giselle wanted him in exchange for Dante. It would make sense to mention Jared. He killed her family. She’d want to get to him for obvious reasons, but Melcher would alert Jared. How could I expect to get anywhere near him after that?

  Why did Giselle have to go and stab Valerie? And why did Evil Red have to go and attack the Mad Madame?

  I hadn’t had time to think anything through.

  “Aurora?” Melcher pressed.

  I let out the breath I’d been holding. “Yeah, I’m here. Giselle found me.”

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No, but she stabbed Valerie.”

  “Where is Giselle now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I’ve sent a car to p
ick you up. It will be there in fifteen minutes.”

  Let me guess? A black sedan?

  I gripped my phone tight. I didn’t want to be whisked away to the base. I wanted to find Dante. I wanted to make sure Valerie was okay. I wanted to take both Giselle and Jared down, to say nothing of the Mystery Man, if that’s who Melcher was—the one pulling all the strings.

  “We’ll talk soon,” Melcher said before ending the call.

  I lowered the phone from my ear, took long strides down the hall, and gathered my dress in my hands as I ran up the stairs. There was no time to waste.

  I gave the bathroom only a passing glance. No time for a shower.

  Before I reached my room, I had the dress pulled over my head and my underwear around my ankles. I stepped out of my undergarments, took four steps to the dresser, and grabbed the first fresh pair of underwear my hand came into contact with. Once in place, I pulled on a pair of blue jeans and white tank top.

  I did a quick check at the bathroom mirror. My makeup from that night still looked good except for several dots of mascara below my eyes. Ack, and Fane had seen me this way earlier that morning. I scowled into the mirror for thinking of that at such a moment.

  After removing the mascara marks with a wet tissue, I gave my long black hair a quick brush through.

  With my remaining five minutes, I called Fane.

  “How did it go?” he asked.

  The words tumbled out of me all at once.

  “Giselle found me. She kidnapped Dante and stabbed Valerie. She wants me to bring her Jared and Melcher, which is complete madness. But if I don’t do it, she’ll kill Dante. She didn’t say that, but what else would she do with him?”

  “Wait a minute, slow down,” Fane said.

  “I don’t have time to slow down! Melcher is sending a car for me. It will be here any minute.”

  “When did you see Giselle?” Fane asked.

  “After you left, she showed up. Valerie came back first. She said Dante had texted her to meet at my place, but it must have been Giselle. She held us at gunpoint and said she had Dante and Gavin.”

  I didn’t know how close Fane was to Gavin, but they had teamed up to ditch a couple of dead vampires at the dump on my behalf once upon a time. Then again, according to Noel, the last time the vamps were in contact, Gavin had taunted Fane about taking up where he left off with Valerie. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Fane was unlikely to give two shits about what became of Dante or Gavin.

  A surge of anger twisted in my gut.

  “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. It’s not your problem,” I suddenly snapped.

  “Hey,” Fane replied. “I meant what I said earlier. I’m here to help you.”

  Yeah, me. Not Dante. What would motivate him to do that?

  He inhaled. “I should have stayed.”

  “You can’t guard me around the clock.”

  “Can’t I?”

  Fane’s words hung in the air.

  I breathed into the phone wordlessly until I heard a car pull in the driveway.

  “I have to go,” I said. “They’ve come for me.”

  18

  Partners

  Agent Melcher wasn’t inside his office when his secretary told me to go in and wait.

  I sat on the edge of a chair. Melcher’s office didn’t exactly put me at ease.

  The room had always been too bland for my taste. There were no windows and no décor besides a simple wooden cross nailed to the wall. The metal file cabinets behind Melcher’s desk looked as if they’d been around as long as the base had been in operation.

  There were no papers on Agent Crist’s old desk—only a stapler, pen cup, calculator, and an old Dell computer. I wondered when Melcher would replace Crist. More than that, I wondered what had happened to her.

  Jared had killed her, I was sure. I didn’t even need to know why. The man was clearly capable of killing anyone for any reason.

  What I wanted to know is what had provoked the situation.

  Now that Crist was dead, I couldn’t help painting a heroic picture of her. It was more of a fantasy than a theory, one in which Crist became suspicious of the agency’s recruiting methods and, after meeting Jared, their top recruiter, began digging around. Her sharp words and bitter scowl had all been a cover as she worked tirelessly to get to the truth. And when she found it, Jared silenced her for good.

  Poor Agent Crist, I couldn’t imagine Jared went easy on her.

  Melcher finally arrived, wearing black slacks with a tucked in dress shirt. He closed the door, shutting me in with him.

  I had never been alone with Melcher. The first time we met inside the hospital room, Crist was with him. After that, there were always other teammates gathered inside his office: Dante, Valerie, and Noel. Now that it was just me sitting in a chair across from him, I realized how much I missed everyone. Their absence became a tight ache inside my chest.

  If only Dante was standing against the wall in a slight slouch, knee bent, with a lop-sided grin on his lips.

  If only Noel sat beside me, head bent sullenly, half-hidden by her hoodie.

  I even missed the scowl on Valerie’s lips when Melcher announced our assignments. There was little sense in feeling sentimental now that she had reverted back to blackmailing and vicious threats. A tiger really couldn’t change her stripes.

  Everything had changed. Dante had gone from a questionable mentor to a spirited partner to someone I kissed. Fane had complicated things by waltzing back into my life and claiming he should have never pulled back. It was a lot harder to push him away after he stepped in and helped me out of a hairy situation with Henry. What would Henry have done if he found out I really was a vampire hunter? I’d been drugged. He could have easily disposed of me. I hadn’t had time to think about it with each surmountable crisis crashing down.

  I couldn’t get Dante back on my own, and the man in front of me certainly wasn’t going to help. Melcher probably had a rule against negotiating with vampires.

  He took a seat and stared at me across the desk. “Tell me everything that happened.”

  Everything? Fat chance.

  If Melcher refused to be candid with me, he could forget about getting the full story.

  I had a greater appreciation for Noel’s deliberate omissions and Valerie’s attempts to manipulate the man.

  I took a deep breath. “Earlier this morning, Giselle Morrel showed up at my house. As soon as I opened the door, she had a gun pointed at me. She forced Valerie and me into the living room.”

  “What was Miss Ward doing there?” Melcher asked.

  My chair groaned when I shifted my weight to the right.

  “She received a text from Dante telling her to meet at my place.”

  Melcher leaned forward. “And where is Dante?”

  “Giselle has him.” My throat constricted.

  Melcher frowned. “How did she manage that?”

  “I don’t know.” And I didn’t like the way Melcher asked so disapprovingly, like Dante had somehow messed up—like we all had. The only reason any of us were in this mess was because of him.

  “When’s the last time you saw Dante?”

  “Last night, at Diederick’s tasting. He escorted me downstairs before heading to the third floor to do his undercover work.”

  “What happened with your mission?” Melcher asked next. “The cleaners never received a call.”

  Was Melcher for real? Dante had been kidnapped and Valerie stabbed, but he wanted to know why I hadn’t completed a stupid assignment?

  I liked Selene. I never wanted to kill her, and I wasn’t sorry I hadn’t gotten the chance.

  I straightened my back. “I never saw Selene.”

  “Why did you leave before Dante?”

  I tried glaring at Melcher, but I could never pull it off as naturally as Valerie.

  “Henry was harassing me about Marcus’ death. He’s been hired to investigate, and he thinks I had something to do with
it.”

  Melcher’s frown deepened. “He approached you at the party about this?”

  I nodded.

  Melcher sat back in his chair, hands clasped together, looking off towards the wall.

  “I’ll have another agent take care of him.” His head bobbed as if he was checking off a problem with his chin.

  “Anyway, it was a little hard to maintain cover when a vampire was standing around accusing me of being a vampire hunter in the middle of a vampire party. So I left.”

  “He put you in a rough spot,” Melcher conceded.

  My handler had no idea. Henry had put me in a rough spot, all right. One that ended with Fane’s face between my legs.

  I shifted to the left side of the chair. I needed to think about something else.

  “How is Valerie?” I asked.

  “She’s still unconscious, but she’ll make it through. Now, let’s get back to Miss Morrel. What did she want?”

  “Jared.” My lips pulled back as I said his name.

  “I figured as much,” Melcher said. “What exactly did she propose?”

  “That I deliver Jared in exchange for Dante.” I didn’t mention Gavin. I figured Melcher wouldn’t care about the vampire, and neither did I. Gavin was on his own. Maybe he would even convince Giselle to release him when she realized he was one of her own. If she grabbed Dante at the party, she might believe he, too, was a vampire since that’s what he was posing as.

  Melcher twisted his lips from side to side. “We can make this work to our advantage.”

  I sat up. “How?”

  As long as I got Dante back alive, I didn’t care whose advantage the situation worked towards.

  Melcher lips curved up on one side. “We’ll give her Jared. We couldn’t ask for a better opportunity. Once we have her location, Jared can send Miss Morrel’s soul into the great beyond where it rightfully belongs.” Melcher rubbed his hands together. “I’ll call off all the informants I put on her. I’ve already wasted too many resources on Giselle.” Melcher reached for the receiver on his desk phone, lifting it in one quick motion to his ear. “Hello, Mandy. Send in Agents Parker and Hicks.”