Blood & Tears (Jane #3)

Blood

&

Tears

(A Jane novella #3)

By

Samantha Warren

© 2011 Samantha Warren

Smashwords Edition

The following story is a work of
fiction and all names and characters are strictly the creation of
the author.

All rights reserved. This
publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any manner
without expressed written consent from Samantha Warren.

Cover Art © 2011 Samantha
Warren

Model courtesy of AshleyShyD on
Deviantart.com

Knife/Rose courtesy of
DawnAllynnStock on Deviantart.com

ONE

"Ready?"

"Baby, I'm always
ready."

"Getting cocky in your old age, I
see."

"No, I just had a magnificent
teacher." I grinned at Felipe as the men behind us grumbled and
rolled their eyes. No matter how much the men moaned, though, I
knew they would do anything to protect me.

Ronin, the vampire priest who
lived in the sanctuary with Felipe and I, had taken up position at
the back of the group. He was a lover by nature, not a fighter,
always the first to lend a helping hand to those in need. He also
refused to let his flock (aka: anyone with a beating heart) go into
battle without proper spiritual protection. When I first arrived at
the sanctuary, he'd simply been a priest preaching to the masses
three nights a week at the cathedral located above the vampire
enclave. But when Father Bellini put out the call six months ago
for an elite team of vampire hunters, Ronin had stepped up without
hesitation, and he became our steadfast rock, holding the rest of
us psychotic killers together, both mentally and
spiritually.

The human male between us and
Ronin was Jax, a six-foot blond mass of muscle. He had no qualms
about being part of the trained killing force. Years before, he had
been a professional American football player. Then his younger
brother was turned into a vampire. Jax accepted his brother's new
future—after nearly killing the boy in a fit of uncontrolled
terror. Jax didn't like to talk about that night, but I heard from
Felipe that Jax's brother handed him the very stake Jax almost
thrust through his heart. Finally realizing his brother was no
threat to him or his family, Jax embraced their new future and
together they joined a very profitable security force. But Jax
craved action and as he was so big, he most often was requested by
extremely wealthy businessmen who really didn't need that much
protection. So when word went around the security forces of a less
lucrative, but more exciting position, he jumped on it.

Guarding the back were Ado and
Benton. Ado very nearly self-destructed after the death of his
former partner, Victoria. Together, they were sent to the States to
find the cause of a rash of freshly turned vampires. She had been
kidnapped while he was asleep, which eventually led to her death by
Felipe's hand. Ado, distraught and emotionally ruined, went AWOL.
Such an act was intolerable in the vampire community and he would
have been destroyed if not for the intervention by Felipe and
Father Bellini. Together, they hunted Ado down and brought him back
from the brink of oblivion. The defeated vampire found a new
purpose on the team—hunting down Victoria's kidnappers.

Benton was the other human of the
six-person group. His introduction into vampire society was less
pleasant than the rest of us, though none of us on the team had a
happy-go-lucky life to begin with. Losing Steven definitely isn't
my idea of a fun time, but my heart goes out to Benton. He was
fifteen when he met his first vampire, a scrawny, pale runaway.
Having spent a week away from home, Benton was wandering an alley
behind some restaurants well after dark, hoping to find some edible
food that had been tossed away. The young goth wannabe, clothed in
a ripped and stained black shirt and too-tight black pants, was
buried halfway in a trashcan when he heard a throat clearing behind
him. He stood up, terrified, thinking he'd been caught by a police
officer. Instead, he gazed upon a pale man dressed in a dark suit.
The man advanced on him, knocking him into unconsciousness, and
Benton spent the next two years chained in the rogue vampire's
basement with two other boys as unwilling food. When the man was
destroyed, Benton and his companions were given their freedom and
Benton pledged his life to his savior—Ado. He'd been forced to
remain behind when Ado and Victoria went to the U.S. and he was
convinced he could have helped to save Victoria from her horrid
fate had he been allowed to go.

Felipe flipped a switch on a
hand-held transceiver attached to his belt. An answering burst of
static came back a second later and he nodded to the group. He
began counting down from three on his fingers and I hefted my M249
light machine gun, leveling it at the door. As his last finger
ticked down, Felipe stepped in front of the metal door and kicked
it, blowing it clean off its hinges and into the dark interior of
the building.

I stepped just inside, standing in
the small circle of light afforded by the entrance, and laid down a
pattern of fire, covering the entire room from left to right, top
to bottom. When my weapon clicked empty, Felipe yanked me out of
the door and Jax stepped in, wielding a grenade launcher. It
thunked three times as he pointed at the other three corners of the
building, then he ducked back outside the door. We waited along the
walls for the fire to clear before stepping into the
interior.

Felipe lit two flares and tossed
them at opposite ends of the room. He entered first, shotgun raised
and ready, and I followed him in. Half a dozen bodies lay strewn
about the space, tossed from the cots they had been sleeping on. I
felt a slight twinge of guilt as I saw them, some blown into
pieces, some still squirming as their bodies burned, struggling to
hang on to the last bits of life. Then flashes of Victoria's
writhing body and the body-wracking sobs of her sister Donna, my
best female friend, flitted through my mind and I moved in with
purpose, slitting the throats of those still alive, ending their
suffering.

We heard the quiet pops of a
weapon and an angry howl echoed from a door on the opposite side of
the room. It burst open and two vampires, one bleeding profusely
and spitting obscenities, stumbled into the room, where the wounded
one collapsed. Ado and Benton were right on their tail, Ado with a
stake in hand as he advanced on the uninjured vampire. The rogue
turned on my teammate and I moved toward them. A hand on my arm
stopped my advance. I looked up at Felipe and he shook his head
gently. For a moment, I was confused. Ado needed our help. I looked
over at the grappling vampires and only then did I see the look in
Ado's eye—a fierce, burning hatred that threatened to consume
everything in the room. It had not been there in
training.

I took an unconscious step back,
searching for Felipe's strength. He held me close as Ado battled
his opponent. The evil vampire tore at Ado, trying to tear the
stake from his attacker's grasp. But Ado had been a vampire for
many centuries and he had a lot of practice at taking out
newly-converted rogue vampires. Within moments, he had the doomed
man pinned, knees on his arms as the creature howled in anger and
despair. The sneer that crept across Ado's face made me gasp and I
turned away, unable to watch him deal the death blow that I knew
would not satiate his lust for blood. As the rogue vampire's curses
turned to screams of pain, I buried my face in Felipe's chest. He
covered my ears with his hands and leaned down to kiss my forehead.
Through his arms, I could see Ronin praying over the wounded
vampire as he removed its head with a swift swipe of his deadly
sword of justice.

When we were sure all the bodies
had stopped twitching, I headed outside with Ronin, Jax, and
Benton. Six humans were dead, along with two vampires—the exact
count our informer had promised. I climbed in the back seat of one
of our SUVs, taking several deep breaths. Jax opened the door to
toss his gear in beside me as we felt the explosions shake the
vehicle. I turned, looking out the thickly tinted windows at the
smoke billowing up behind us. Felipe and Ado made quite the pair,
striding confidently from the flaming structure, weapons over the
shoulders, looking very much like extremely sexy actors on a movie
screen. I let my eyes linger on the duo before turning around in my
seat. Jax gave me a knowing grin and took his place in the front on
the passenger side.

Felipe climbed into the driver's
seat and looked at us. "You guys good?"

I nodded, looking out the window
at the building. It had been completely engulfed in fire and was
quickly burning to the ground. We had disabled the fire alarm and
it was far enough away from other buildings that hours would pass
before anyone called the fire department, if they ever did. We
would be settled comfortably back in the vampire sanctuary beneath
the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore by then, all evidence of our
involvement reduced to mere ashes. As the vehicle began to move, I
settled into the seat, trying not to think too much about what had
just happened. The gentle rocking of the SUV soothed me and I dozed
as we made the trek back to our home.

The rocking motion changed ever so
slightly and I started awake. My sudden twitching nearly had me
falling to the ground and I had to wrap my arms tightly around
Felipe's neck to steady myself. We were back at the enclave and he
was lifting me from the SUV. I'd slept the entire way home. He set
me down and slipped an arm around my waist.

"You ok?" His gentle smile was
infectious and I felt the corners of my lips reaching
skyward.

"I didn't think I'd sleep that
hard.”

“You haven't been sleeping well
lately. You needed the rest.”

I nodded, resting my head on his
chest. “When's the debriefing?" Debriefings were a requirement
after any action taken by those trained at the
sanctuary.

"In an hour. We have time to get
cleaned up."

I nodded, my brain still slightly
fuzzy from the unexpected sleep. Felipe left me at the door to my
room—my deceased husband's room—and headed to get himself
straightened up. I shut the door behind me and walked to the bed.
Taking off my combat boots, the boots I'd bought during my first
couple days here, I settled onto the bed, sinking into the
mattress. I needed a shower badly, but for a few minutes, I just
wanted to relax and forget about everything that had just happened.
My eyes wandered to my nightstand—the black digital clock that
Annie had gotten me, a lamp that wasn't switched on, and Steven's
journal. It'd been more six months since I lost Steven, but every
now and then, the pain seemed as fresh as the first time I opened
my eyes without him. I brushed my fingers over the leather. The
journal held a ton of information, and Steven's last words to
me.

I sighed, leaning back on the bed.
Steven was my love, my life. He'd been the first one who I knew
really, truly cared about me. Losing him hurt, and it was hard for
me to move on. Felipe wasn't Steven, but he was special in his own
right. Since the first time I met him, we had a connection. I was
thankful much of our time was taken up with training and
information sessions. I still wasn't ready to focus on our
relationship and figure out where I wanted it to go, or didn't want
it to go. He was being patient with me, more patient than almost
anyone else would be, but I knew that wouldn't last long, and I
also knew I didn't want to lose him.

Groaning, I rolled to a sitting
position. The physical aches I'd experienced my first weeks of
intense training were not there, but my soul cried out nonetheless.
Taking a life is never easy. It never should be easy. Felipe said
it would get easier, but I knew what he meant was that dealing with
it would get easier. I would find a way to lock it down and bury it
deep like he had. But for now, my only solution was a nice, hot
shower. I picked out some clean clothes—a black t-shirt and a pair
of jeans, my usual attire—and trudged to the shower.

I could hear the water running in
the bathroom next door and a small smile crept across my lips,
thinking of Felipe's perfectly toned muscles glistening beneath the
soap. I laughed at myself and turned on the shower. Shedding my
grimy, sweaty, blood-stained clothing, I stepped into the warmth,
letting it wash over me and heal the mental hurts of the day. I
spent much longer than I should have getting clean and I was still
getting ready when Felipe knocked on my door.