Blood Warrior (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #4) Read online

  Drew shrugged like he didn’t care. I was pretty sure he really didn’t, though. Those two had been going at it practically since birth and I didn’t foresee that ending anytime soon. I, on the other hand, did care. I cared a lot. I didn’t want Gavin to be unhappy. I just wished that he would find someone for himself that he liked as much as he liked me.

  Our connection was a strange one. I can’t even describe the way I feel when it comes to Gavin. I love him, but not love, love. With Gavin, it just feels like we know each other inside and out. I wanted him in my life, but at the same time it’s weird when he does things like glare at me because of my relationship with Drew.

  Lately we had this unspoken agreement going on where he just deals with it and I try not to flaunt it around in front of him. I guess that agreement was no longer active.

  Ugh. Oh well. No more feeling sorry for myself, it was time to go walk the streets of New Orleans and kill us some vampires.

  ***

  We met Sarah outside the mansion on Royal Street. She had about ten people with her, both males and females, who were all dressed in black clothing or dark camouflage. I had to agree, these were the best kinds of clothes. My own outfit consisted of black cargo pants, black long sleeved tee, even though it was freaking hotter than Hades outside, and my black combat boots.

  Cliché, I realize, but I know I looked super cute and if Christina ever taught me anything it is that you can be a good fighter, but if you look good while you’re doing it, that makes it epic.

  Really though, I just wanted to look good for Drew, I didn’t care about any of that other stuff. I was excited to get out there and whomp on some vampires too. I had a lot of frustration I needed to get out.

  Both groups silently merged and we began to search the streets.

  Together we had a lot of people, so I wasn’t really afraid of anything happening to any of us, I think the sheer number of our group gave me, and everyone else, a false sense of security. It had only been about ten minutes into our search when we were ambushed by soldiers pledged to the Vampire Council.

  I crept along the cracked and broken sidewalks quietly, keeping my ears open for any sign of danger. I was near the rear of the pack and it wasn’t easy listening for other footsteps with nearly twenty people creeping along beside me.

  We passed an alley and after a quick inspection of it, we moved on. We had been sticking to the sidewalks, close to the walls where we were underneath the galleries and safe from overhead attacks. But, even those precautionary measures didn’t stop the attack.

  Behind me lingered two of Sarah’s men. One guy’s name was Travis and I couldn’t remember the name of the other one. After we passed the alley a gunshot sounded from behind me, followed by an ear piercing scream. I spun, guns up and at the ready, just in time to see the guys whose name I couldn’t remember, pushed back by the impact of the bullet.

  Instead of running to his friend, Travis headed for the alley, where the shot had come from. I followed Travis, passing him just as we hit the opening. Two soldiers were bolting for the other end of the alley.

  Nice, their plan was to pick us off one by one. Awesome.

  I picked up speed, determined to catch them before they got too far away. I heard the sound of more boots hitting the pavement behind me and I knew a few of the others had followed. It didn’t take long for me to catch them. I was not quite vampire fast, but faster than a full blooded human.

  I rammed into one of the soldiers backs at full force. His gun flew out of his grip and his knees went out from underneath him, taking us both down to the ground. Mid-fall, I swung the gun in my left hand up and over. Honestly, I didn’t think it would work, but I managed to nail the other guy in the back of the neck.

  By the time we hit the ground, someone had already shot the soldier I’d hit with my gun. The one beneath me grabbed hold of my arm and rolled me over until he was on top of me. The rough pavement scraped against my skin and I dropped the gun in my right hand.

  The soldier grunted as he easily pinned me beneath him. One of his hands pushed down into my left bicep and the other slid up to the base of my throat and squeezed.

  I looked into the man’s eyes as he choked me and saw that he was enjoying it. Below his eye, his dragon tattoo stretched as a smile spread across his face. This just pissed me off even more.

  I wasn’t scared. That’s the thing with knowing you have your own back up. I let the heat swirl inside of me and then pushed it outward. I couldn’t wait to see this jerk off go up in flames. If it wasn’t me who he killed, it would have been someone else that he got his murderous jollies from. This wasn’t a guy who was forced into what he was doing, he did it because he wanted to.

  Whoosh.

  Not just my hand, but my whole body erupted. The soldier screamed, practically flying backward as he tried to get away from me. He stumbled on a chunk of raised cement, landing on his back.

  Whoever was behind me in the alley now had a clear shot and took it. The bullet hit him in the head and he dropped the rest of the way to the ground, a splatter of blood following him down.

  I closed my eyes and extinguished myself.

  “What in the hell was that?” Travis stood about six feet away, mouth open and eyes wide with shock.

  Drew, Gavin and Christina stood beside him and the others from the group were lingering at the opening of the alley.

  I turned away, leaving him to stare at me with his mouth hanging open, and snatched my gun up from the alley floor. “I can light myself on fire,” I told him. “Thanks for that.” I indicated the dead soldiers and then dusted off my jeans. “Let’s move, these can’t be the only ones waiting for us.”

  Travis shut his mouth, but followed along after me. He probably didn’t even know how to start that conversation and I didn’t offer any more explanation for him.

  Within two hours, we had three more incidents involving soldiers and two fights with vampires. Luckily, we didn’t lose anyone else.

  Sarah had decided to leave the guy who died earlier where he was. She was going to come back later in the daytime with a crew and then give him a burial. “We are going to take him out to the swamp. It’s where he’s from and where he would like to be laid to rest,” she explained. “I feel bad leaving him, but we can’t stop a mission every time we lose someone.”

  I understood that. This was war and casualties were a part of war. At least she was going to come back and get him. I admired her for wanting to give him what he wanted in death, while trying to give life to the rest of the world.

  Before I knew it, we were hunched over across the street from the Le Pavillon Hotel. The Vampire Council had set up shop in the historical building which sat on the outskirts of the French Quarter.

  The hotel was well lit and had plenty of traffic. Vampires, soldiers and the pledged could all be seen entering and exiting the building.

  I sat crouched against the shadows, holding both my guns, ready to fire if I had to, when suddenly a shiny black limousine pulled up to the front entrance. I turned to Drew who was directly to my right and made a face that clearly said “what the heck?’

  He shrugged that he didn’t know and faced the hotel again to see who in the world would be arriving at the Vampire Council headquarters in a freaking limo.

  The driver slid out from behind the wheel. When he turned toward us, I saw his dragon tattoo clearly illuminated in the light of the gas torches. He rounded the car to the side facing the hotel and leaned down to open the door. He rose, grasping the delicate hand of a pale blonde woman, who was dressed in a pin-up style pencil dress.

  I’d know that pasty skin and shimmering mane anywhere. Dahlia.

  Her hair fell over her bare shoulder, the tendrils standing out against the black of her dress. The driver released her hand and she wiped it on her skirt as if he had a severe case of cooties and she didn’t want to catch it.

  “This is either really lucky or just a big pain in our asses,” Drew whispered.

 
As if she had heard him, Dahlia’s back straightened and tilted her head to the side. We all crouched lower, waiting for her to spot us as she turned and scanned the general area we were hiding in.

  After a moment, she shook her head as if she may have imagined something and carefully ascended the steps into the lobby of the hotel.

  “Let’s go,” Luke whispered. “It’s too dangerous here right now.”

  We followed along with Sarah and Anthony leading the way again. I didn’t pay attention to where we were going because I was too shocked to really care. Dude, Dahlia being here was a total game changer. Sure, I still wanted to find Korina, but killing Dahlia was really, really high on my to-do list.

  Before I realized it, we had walked several blocks and were at a park that was situated along the river. The nasty brown Mississippi didn’t look quite so ugly at night. The moon provided a gentle glow that rested lightly upon the slowly moving waters.

  We gathered close to the water and Anthony pointed at a docked river boat. It was the kind of vessel that I’d only seen in pictures and movies. The interior of the boat was lit up and I spotted a few slight movements from the inside.

  “That river boat,” Anthony began, “belongs to Korina. It is one of her financial endeavors that she has acquired over the years.”

  Luke squinted his eyes. “Financial endeavors?”

  Anthony nodded. “We vampires also have need for currency, which means that we must have businesses and investments. Korina purchased this river boat for exactly those purposes. People were hired to run the business so that she did not need to do it. The manager does all the work and deposits the profits into an account for her every month.”

  On closer inspection, I could see the words “Korina Korina” scrawled on the back. Yup, that was definitely her boat. “Do you think she’s there?” I wondered aloud.

  “It is possible,” Anthony replied, also staring out over the waters. “Absolutely worth investigating.”

  I adjusted my bow over my shoulder. “Well, let’s do it. We are running out of time.”

  As a group we trekked down to the dock, creeping quietly over the wooden structure and hoping that none of the boards would creak beneath our feet.

  Surprisingly, no one was guarding the river boat. I suppose that was the difference between Korina and the Vampire Council, she wasn’t worried about the humans, she was just living her life.

  We had divided into teams of three as we boarded. I was with Drew and Luke. Anthony had been teamed with Gavin and Sarah. It was strange because I’d originally thought that we were going to have a problem between Anthony and Sarah, but they seemed to really be getting along good.

  Drew, Luke and I rounded deck of the boat, glancing in the windows as we passed them. Near the other end of the vessel we finally found signs of life on the inside. I leaned up against one of the panels between the windows so that I could peek in.

  Two vampires sat on a Victorian era couch, near a bar that ran the width of the interior. Both were men and each of them held a drink in their hand. They both had on slacks and white button up shirts. One of them had a blazer on over the shirt, but his tie was loose, like a business man who was relaxing after a hard day at the office.

  I glanced up at Drew, who was looking in from the other side of the window. He pointed his gun toward the vampires and then held the forefinger of his free hand to his lips to signal that we proceed in silence.

  We moved on, finding the entrance just around the corner. I closed my eyes, then opened them again and pushed open the swinging door as quietly as I possibly could.

  Neither of the vampires noticed us enter, they were deep in conversation about which was better, the blood of human males or females.

  Yeah, I wanted to vomit.

  As luck would have it, when we entered, we came in behind them. As I carefully stepped toward them with Drew and Luke on either side of me, I tightened my grip on my gun. We made it to the back of the couch and that was when one of them finally sensed us.

  “You smell that?” no jacket asked the other one.

  The vamp with the jacket raised his nose to the air and sniffed. “Humans … and they are very…”

  Before he could get another word in, I cut off his sentence by jumping up over the back of the couch and wrapping my arm around his neck in a headlock. Drew’s action was synchronized with mine. The barrels of both our guns were pressed against each of their heads.

  “These bullets have rounds of UV light in them,” I hissed. “If you make a move, I am going to pump you full of it. Got it?”

  Each of the vampire’s sat unmoving, except to speak. “What is it that you want?” the one I held onto asked in a low voice.

  Luke stepped in front of them, both his guns trained onto their hearts. “Is a woman named Korina on this boat?”

  No jacket, whom Drew held down, bared his fangs and let out a low growl. “Why would we tell you that?”

  Luke nodded. “So she is, then.”

  No jacket shook his head. “I didn’t say that.”

  “No, but you also did not say that she wasn’t. You also could have denied knowing what I speak of at all. You chose your words wrong.”

  No jacket threw the f-bomb around in a couple of creative ways and then struggled against Drew. Obviously, vampires are much stronger, so when the vamp reached up and grabbed Drew by the shirt and flipped him over the top of the couch, Drew fired. A loud crack echoed throughout the cabin and the bullet lodged into the vampire’s forehead. No jacket slumped back into the couch, bleeding from the hole in his head as the UV light started to eat his brains away.

  Drew had landed on the delicate coffee table in front of the couch. His body fell into it with so much force that the table splintered and broke in half.

  “You all right?” I asked him.

  He groaned and picked himself up from the remains of the broken table. “Yeah, but that gun shot just told everyone on this boat we are in here.” He brushed at his jeans.

  He was right, we didn’t have much time now and we were so close to Korina. I tightened my grip on my gun, pressing the barrel even harder into the side of the vampires head. “Tell us where she is, right now!”

  He just spread his lips into a grin and rolled his eyes up toward Luke. “I will never tell you.”

  Luke sighed and turned, he paced the length of the couch a couple of times before he turned back, raised his gun and pulled the trigger. His round hit the vampire in the knee cap.

  “Son of a bit…”

  “Where is she?” Luke yelled.”

  “Up yours,” the vampire yelled back, and he was promptly rewarded for his good behavior by Luke shooting him in his foot.

  “You’re insane!” the vampire screamed.

  Luke raised his eyebrows and flashed the vamp his own grin. “Maybe, now you will tell me where she is.”

  I was totally in shock. I had never, ever seen Luke act this way. He was a good Hunter, for sure, but I never thought I would see him basically torture someone. I couldn’t decide if I liked it or if it scared me.

  This time the vampire got creative with his answer and spit across the table in Luke’s direction, to which Luke shot him in the other knee cap and then stared up into the air as if he were bored. “I can do this all day,” he told the vampire, “but you, on the other hand, this UV light in these rounds is going to kill you pretty soon anyway, so you may as well end your life by doing something for the greater good and tell us where Korina is.”

  A few of Sarah’s people, as well as Oscar and Alice, came running into the cabin. “What the hell is going on here?” Oscar demanded. “You guys all right?”

  “We’re fine,” Luke told him. “But, this guy isn’t.”

  “Screw off!”

  Just then, Sarah and her team burst in. “I heard shots,” she hollered, then took a moment to assess the situation. “We didn’t find anything in our area, but it looks like you may have something.”

  Luke glared at the
vampire. “Yes, we have, but persuading him to talk is another story.”

  Oscar stepped forward, brushing his blond hair out of his eyes. “I’ll do it.”

  With a click, Luke dropped his clip, pulled a new one from his back pocket and slammed it up into the gun. “You sure?”

  Oscar nodded, “It’ll work.” He moved slowly toward the vampire. “Tell us where Korina is.” His voice was soft and gentle, like the soothing waves of a surf rolling up a beach.

  The vampire squirmed under my grasp and tried to turn his head to the side. “Stop it,” he moaned.

  Sarah moved around the couch until she was next to me. I still had him in a firm headlock, ready to fire if things went bad. “What is he doing?” she whispered.

  “Oscar is a Siren.”

  I glanced over at her and saw that she was looking at me with question in her eyes. So I explained. “When he speaks, he can sorta hypnotize people and make them do things.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “It doesn’t seem to be working on this one.”

  I shrugged. “It might be because he’s a vampire. The structure of his brain may not be like humans.”

  “Tell me where to find Korina,” Oscar tried again.

  Again, he struggled against me as he consciously fought the pull of Oscar’s voice. “She is … she…”

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “I don’t think it’s going to work. Maybe we should just shoot him again.”

  “There shall be no need for that,” a feminine voice called from the entrance.

  The entire group spun, guns up and trigger fingers ready.

  There she was.

  Somehow, I expected Korina to look like she had in the photo. But, I guess that I didn’t account for vampires changing with the eras. Instead of a crisp white gown, she wore blue jeans and a white camisole tank top. Outside her jeans were knee length, flat soled boots made of fashionable black leather. Her curly hair was much longer than I thought it would be, it hung down her back, in shining, dark brown waves.

  Aside from her looks, none of us could help but notice that her right hand was tightly gripping my brother, Zander’s hair. “Step away from my associate,” she ordered.