Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter (20 page)

Dante turned onto a secluded road leading into dense
woods. He followed a set of tire tracks through the snow. They led to a small
cabin with smoke drifting from its chimney. The windows were dark.

“Brrr!” I cried when I got out of the Jeep. “If this Ivo
doesn’t kill me, the cold certainly will.”

Dante grinned. “The great thing about Fairbanks is it
doesn’t matter whether it’s twenty below or minus seventy. It all feels the
same: damn cold.” Dante tapped out a rhythm once he reached the cabin door.

A bolt slid back. A young woman with heavy eyeliner opened
the door. She nodded for us to come in. Dante slipped in with Tommy, and I
followed close behind. The woman shut the door as soon as I was through.

“Took you long enough,” she said. “Hopefully there’s still a
party to go to.”

Dante raised a brow. “It’s two thirty—Ivo’s just getting
started.”

“Hi, Tommy.” The women’s voice softened when she talked to
the retriever. She scratched him behind the ears.

“Aurora Sky, meet Janine.”

“Latest recruit?” Janine asked Dante.

“Roger that.”

“Is this her first time in the field?”

“She’ll do great,” he said.

Janine walked over to a small square table. Dante tossed a
duffel bag on top. As Janine turned up the flame on the gas lamp, shadows
stretched and leapt across the sparse room to the wood beams overhead.

I hovered by the doorway a moment before walking over to the
wood stove. Tommy followed me and curled into a ball on the ground beside the
hearth. The backs of my legs started to prickle as I watched Dante pull knives
out of his bag and set them on the tabletop. I turned myself slowly, evenly,
like a piece of corn on the cob rotating over the flames.

The cabin was one open room with a small kitchen. There was
a twin bed against the wall near the fire covered in a patchwork quilt.

“I thought you were going to wait until Renard was back in
town and do one clean sweep,” Janine said.

“Nah, we’ll catch up to him next time.”

“Who’s Renard?” I asked.

“A real nasty,” Janine said.

“As bad as this Ivo character?”

“Worse.”

“Worse than Ivo?” Dante asked in disbelief.

“Even the junkies avoid him.”

I was definitely not getting the romanticized version of
vampires here. Surely they weren’t all rabid nut jobs and psycho killers? The
Mouseketeers didn’t seem to think so.

“Sky, let’s get you a weapon.”

“Dagger,” Janine suggested.

“Perfect.”

“Lift up your pant leg,” Janine ordered.

I pulled up the right leg of my jeans. Janine wrapped a leg
holster around my calf and stuck a dagger into the sheath. I wrapped my fingers
around the hilt and took it back out. My stomach tied into knots when I held it
in front of my face.

“You’ll be fine,” Dante said, slapping me on the back.
“Let’s go party. Tommy, stay.”

I returned the knife back to its holster, covering it with my
pant leg.

Janine sat in the front seat of the Jeep and navigated Dante
to a house party on the edge of town. The windows on the house were all boarded
up. Only four cars lined the curb.

Janine sounded uneasy when she spoke. “I thought there’d be
more people here tonight.”

“Aurora, what’s your cell number?” Dante asked.

I recited my number and Dante dialed it into his own phone.
My phone began to ring seconds later.

Dante hung up. “There, now you have mine. Okay. Let’s go
over this real quick. Janine and I are going to make an appearance, but head
out before the rest of Ivo’s guests leave. For Janine’s safety, we don’t want
any witnesses placing her as one of the last people at the party. Sky, you’ll
stay, pretend to get wasted, and take out Ivo. Get him to take you somewhere
secluded—shouldn’t be too difficult. If you can take out Patrick, too, even
better. If not, have him bite you, and I’ll finish the job. Call my cell when
the junkies have cleared out.”

Janine’s safety? He was worried about
Janine’s
safety?

I leaned forward. “So basically you’re going to abandon me
here?”

Dante looked over his seat. “It’s the best play, Sky. No
more white rooms. You know what to do. Now lose the scarf unless you want to
use it to mop up blood.”

I unwrapped the scarf slowly and set it on the empty seat
beside me. A chill slid down my spine. I shuddered involuntarily.

“Remember,” Dante said. “I’m Peter and you’re Wendy. It’s
safer if they don’t know our real names.”

Peter, as in Peter Pan. Pretty fitting, really. Dante was
like a boy who never grew up. At least he wasn’t calling himself Van Helsing
and me Buffy. Might not go over too well with the undead crowd.

I slipped out of the car as Dante grabbed a case of bottled
beer out of the trunk and slung it under an arm. He put his other arm around
Janine. She held a second case of beer in her free hand. We walked to the front
porch, and Dante pounded on the door.

“Get the door!” someone yelled from inside.

The door opened a crack, and a scrawny young man with a
pierced nose, brow, and ears peered out. His face muscles relaxed when he saw
Janine. “Oh, hey, Janine, come in.”

“Hey, Thomas.”

As Thomas held the door open for us I noticed raw bite marks
on his wrist. A wave of nausea rolled over me. I tensed my jaw to quell it.

The front door led into the living room. A pale young man
sat on a torn-up couch. He looked like skin and bone beneath his ratty T-shirt.
He was leaning against a slightly older man in slacks. The groomed man didn’t
pay attention to us as he licked a drop of blood from the corner of his lip.

“Janine,” Dante chided in a booming voice. “I thought you
said this thing was going to be classy.”

Nice way to call attention to us, Dante.

The man narrowed his eyes. “Who’s this?”

Janine sauntered in and plopped down on the other side of
the couch. “Patrick, Peter. Peter, Patrick. Peter’s visiting from Anchorage.
He’s a smart ass. I mentioned him, remember?”

“And who is this fresh peach?”

I couldn’t locate the owner of the voice at first. It was
deep and far away, as though coming from an overhead speaker.

“His friend’s ex. She just got dumped and wanted to get out
of town.” Janine batted her lashes. “Stay away from her, Ivo. She’s new to all
this.”

“Fresh blood.” Ivo laughed.

I located him in a corner in a midnight-blue button-down
shirt. A silver pendant with a Celtic symbol drew the eye to the dark wiry hair
below his throat. Stubble covered his chin and cheeks. It was odd to assign an
age to a vampire, but if Ivo were mortal, I’d place him around thirty. He was
seated on a large armchair with worn upholstery. A girl with black cropped hair
sat in his lap like a limp doll.

My skin crawled.

“Did we arrive late?” Dante asked, looking around. “Jeanie
told me this place was going to be buzzing.”

Ivo shrugged lazily and looked me over. “Some folks thought
it was too cold. Only the brave came out.”

 Dante pulled a cap off a beer bottle with his bare hand.
“Well, we didn’t drive all this way for nothing. Beer anyone?”

The girl on Ivo’s lap stood. “I’ll have one. Thanks.”

Dante handed her the beer and began opening another.
“Wendy?”

I knew I was supposed to pretend to get drunk, but I wasn’t
much of a beer drinker. Heck, I wasn’t much of a drinker at all excluding my
solo New Year’s Eve celebration and pre-sex binge. God, did I know how to have
a good time or what?

“I bet Wendy wants something stronger,” Ivo said.

I forced a smile. “Yes, you read my mind.”

He seemed to like that I said this.

“Why don’t you come back with me to the kitchen?”

“Lead the way.”

The kitchen was as grimy as the living room. The linoleum
was discolored and a section was missing in front of the fridge.

“Wendy, Wendy, Wendy,” Ivo said as he looked through a
cabinet. “What would my Wendy want? Ah.” A bottle slid across the shelf like a
claw over plywood. Ivo pulled out a bottle of tequila and handed it to me.

I unscrewed the cap and took a swig from the bottle. I
welcomed the burn down my throat. I took a second swig then held the bottle out
to Ivo. “You want a sip?”

His eyes glittered. “Not yet.”

I felt that odd pull of revulsion when he looked at me.

Ivo leaned against the counter. “Poor little Wendy, lost her
boyfriend.”

Laughter trickled from my lips. I quickly covered it with
another swig of tequila. Quite the opposite, Ivo. I had a boyfriend who was
really into me.

Ivo’s earlier playmate walked in with a half-empty beer
bottle. I couldn’t read her expression. She was most likely too out of it to
form a thought, let alone expression. “Ivo, are you coming back out soon?”

Ivo grimaced.

“Why don’t you go home, Casey? I’ve had enough of you.”

Ivo might have been able to walk and talk, but he was no
less despicable than the rabies vampire I’d killed during orientation.

Casey blinked at him a couple times, turned and left the
kitchen.

I set the bottle of tequila down on the counter. “I should
check on my friends.”

Ivo followed me to the living room. Dante was sitting on the
arm of the armchair, bottle of beer in hand, smirking at Patrick as the latter
glowered at him.

“So Peter, you want your blood sucked out?” Patrick said.

“Truth be told, I’d like to suck a little blood myself, but
I can’t—human and all. No, I like to
watch
.”

My lips curled. Sure, Dante was a great actor, but I could
swear he was enjoying himself.

“Or do you not suck women’s blood?” Dante taunted.

Patrick’s fists tightened. I willed him to get up and sock
Dante in the jaw so we could get this damn assignment over with together. But just
as quickly his shoulders relaxed, and he called Janine over.

Janine approached the couch and stood in front of Patrick. I
couldn’t see her expression with her back to me.

“Very well, you want to watch me suck your girlfriend’s
blood?” Patrick sneered. “Is that what turns you on?”

He grasped Janine by the wrist and twisted her arm as he
pulled her closer.

I forgot to breathe.

Dante sounded as cool as glacial ice. “On the neck.”

Patrick released Janine’s wrist and guided her to his lap.
The human boys watched without expression. Patrick’s mouth widened as he closed
in on Janine’s neck. Dante leaned forward. I turned and hurried back into the
kitchen.

Ivo followed behind me. I guzzled down the tequila. Sure,
brilliant way to cure the sick pit inside my stomach—dose it with
esophagus-burning alcohol. I coughed.

Pretend to get drunk, Aurora. Don’t get drunk!

The vampire chuckled. “You’re such a pretty young thing,
Wendy. Not like the trash Patrick drags in from the gutters.”

I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. The floor went out
of focus.

When Ivo’s lips opened over his teeth in a grotesque smile,
I noticed that each tooth had been sharpened to a point. I almost retched.

“Do you think they’re done?” I asked abruptly.

Ivo didn’t answer. When I returned to the living room, Dante
and Janine were gone. The two boys were smoking in a corner. Patrick sat in the
same spot on the couch drinking a beer.

My jaw dropped. “Where did Janine and Peter go?”

Patrick looked over my shoulder at Ivo and smiled slowly.
“They wanted some time alone.”

“They left?” I knew this was part of the plan, but they
didn’t even say goodbye.

“The night’s still young,” Ivo said behind my back. “Matter
of fact, it’s always night in Fairbanks this time of the year.” He laughed softly.
“I’ll take you wherever you need to go, but you don’t want to go just yet, do
you?”

“I guess not.”

Ivo stepped closer. “You came for something, didn’t you,
Wendy?”

“Yes,” I said in a voice so soft it was barely audible.

He inhaled my neck. Cold fingers ran through my hair. His
arm snaked around my waist as he leaned in.

I pulled away. “Not here. I…don’t want an audience.”

Ivo looked me over and chuckled. “Follow me.”

He led me down the dark hall to a bedroom in back.

There was a barricade of splintered wood against the outside
of his windowpane. The floorboards were scuffed and creaky. A mattress sat in
the middle of the room without a frame or blankets.

Homey
.

Ivo closed the door behind him and circled me. “So Wendy’s wandered
into Never Never Land seeking answers…or something else?”

So the Pan reference wasn’t lost on him.

“Has Wendy been bitten before?” he prodded.

“Once.”

“Such a lovely thing, our Wendy. I bet your blood is sweet.”
Ivo swooped up to me. “I want to drink. Every. Last. Drop.”

He opened his mouth so wide, I feared he’d snap off my neck.
I recoiled. When he tried again, I pulled my arm back and rammed my fist in his
face. Pain splintered across my knuckles. I twisted my hips to add torque to
the blow. Ivo grunted in surprise. He put a hand to his face, but when he
looked up, he smiled.

“Well, well. Wendy’s a feisty thing. I don’t get many live
ones these days. Youth today is so dark and disturbed. They’ve given up. Takes
the fun out of it. Come on, Wendy, let’s teach you to fly.”

Ivo grabbed my shoulders and tossed me across the room. I
hit a set of drawers and landed on the floorboards. Ivo hauled me up by the
neck and threw me so hard over his bed that I flipped and fell over the other
side with a tremendous
whack
.

I tried to stand. My arms shook underneath me. Warm blood
tickled from my lip, and I noticed Ivo’s eyes shine. He dropped to his knees
and loomed over me.

“Where are your friends now, Wendy? They’ve abandoned you.
Soon they’ll go out into the world and live out their useless little lives.
They’ll grow up, age. But you, Wendy, you’ll never grow old.”