Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) (19 page)

“You loved me once.”

“I never loved you, Henriette
.”

The house fell silent. I wanted them to continue talking. Conversation was the only thing preventing violence. Suddenly steps began running toward me. I
laid flat on the floor. As if that would do any good. But before the person could reach me I heard a cry of alarm, followed by a struggle. Something fell to the floor.

Ignoring the voice inside my head telling me to stay the hell down, I lifted my head just over the sofa’s back and caught a glimpse of Jared struggling to get a hold on
the woman squirming in his hands.

“Andre!” she screamed.

Jared’s mouth opened so wide I thought he would bite her. His lips pulled back in an animalistic snarl.

Henriette’s shoulders sagged
after shouting Andre’s name. Jared wrapped his arms around her neck.

My breath caught.

I didn’t close my eyes in time.

In one swift motion, Jared twisted Henriette’s neck as though it were
no more than a plastic cap on a bottle of Dr. Pepper, but instead of the
phish
sound, it was followed by a
snap
.

13

The Mexican food from earlier rose up in my throat. I clamped a hand over my mouth and hit the ground behind the sofa.

I was too sick to worry about the sound I made. Besides, Jared couldn’t hear me over the thump of Henriette’
s body landing on the floor. Once she’d fallen, I heard footsteps hurrying to the living room from across the room.

“What is going on?” a man cried. Andre, presumably.
“Xavier,” he said next, pronouncing the name as though seeing a ghost. I expected them to pick back up in French, but they didn’t.

“Hello,
brother
.”

“How can this be
, Xavier? I thought you’d been hanged.”

Jared began laughing then stopped abruptly. “While you sat back and did nothing to
help me.”

“What could I have possibly done?
Stormed the La Force? Don’t look at me like I’m to blame. You got yourself in that mess, Xavier. How many times did I warn you to be more cautious?”

“You know what I think?” Jare
d said. “I think you all couldn’t wait to be rid of me.”

“How did you find us?”

“I have connections now.”

In the silence that followed
, I realized I hadn’t breathed in a long time. I held it until the talking resumed.

“What have you done to Henriette?”

“I delivered the same fate she left to me.”

“You should not have done that,
Xavier. Henriette wasn’t responsible for your actions. None of us were. You have no one to blame for your capture but yourself.”

“Ah, but you see, I didn’t remain in captivity
, and where were all of you when I got out?” When Andre didn’t answer, Jared said, “Have you enjoyed fucking my wife over the last two centuries?”

“
She thought you were dead. We all did.”

Oh fuck
, I thought.
Jared’s a vampire.

Their conversation faded from my mind.

What was a vampire doing working for a vampire hunting unit of the government? Melcher hated vampires. Did he know? He had to know! How could he not know? Which brought me back to my first question. Why was a vampire working with the government?

Laughter interrupted my thoughts. It was male, but not Jared’s.

“Arrogant as always. You really believe you can take me on, Xavier? I should remind you I’ve been around much longer than anyone in this family.”

“Which means you should die before me,” Jared
said.

My body finally spra
ng into action. I scuttled on hands and knees back to the dining table as the first fist smacked skin. The living room erupted into a chorus of angry shouts and loud thumps.

I’ve never crawled so fast in my life. I was like a crab making tracks across
the scorching sand. Once I’d passed under the table, I didn’t care about stealth. I jumped to my feet and ran for the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Valerie stood at the
top. “What the hell is going on down there?” she demanded.

“Jared!” I gasped, barely able to get enough air in my lungs to speak. “He’s a vampire.”

“What?”

“He’s a fucking vampire!
This is a personal vendetta. He already killed the woman. Now he’s fighting with the man.”

“Fuck!” Valerie said. “What do we do?”

I looked down the hall. “Did you knock out the girl?”

“Of course I did!”

“Okay, okay.” I shook my hands in front of me trying to think. “We have to get the kids out of here.”

Valerie dropped her arms.
“Are you crazy?”

“If we don’t, Jared will kill them.”

“So not my problem.”

“Valerie
…”

“How the hell are we supposed to get two full
-grown teenagers out of this house…from the top story, no less?”

Valerie was right. There was no way we could do it in time. It would take two of us per body. We had to at least try.

“We hide the boy and get the girl.” Valerie’s mouth opened to protest. I didn’t let her. “We carry the girl down the way we came. You take her legs. I’ll take her arms. Then we come back for the boy. Once they’re both out front I’ll enter the garage through the side door, find Etienne’s car, and get the doors open. Once I open the garage door we need to get them inside the vehicle fast. After that we blast out of here.”

“And go wh
ere? We’re on a fucking island!”

“Can we please concentrate on getting out of this house alive and then worry about that?” I felt ready to snap. There wasn’t any time to argue.

“What if Jared gets up here before we have time to get them out?” Valerie demanded.

“We’ll just have to hope Andre keeps him preoccupied long enough.” Or better yet, w
ins the fight. I wasn’t willing to wait and find out.

Valerie followed me into Etienne’s room without another word. While I flipped his bed cover aside,
she opened the closet door. “Too obvious,” she said.

I crouched on my knees to get a look under the bed, but it was barely half a foot off the ground.

“There’s a bathroom over here,” Valerie said.

“We’ll put him in the tub, just in case.
”

Valerie grabbed Etienne by the shoulders. I took his feet and led the way to the bathroom. We laid him in the tub and pulled the shower curtain
closed.

I pocketed Etienne’s car keys as we passed his dresser on the way out. Valerie led the way to
Giselle’s room at the far end of the hall.

We entered a room with pink walls. Unlike Etienne’s room, every available surface had been put to use. The dresser had an army of fairies holding wands, sitting on flowers, an
d dangling in flight from stands. Stuffed animals filled an entire shelf above the fairies.

Valerie caught my eye as I looked around. She rolled hers then nodded at the four poster bed with
a pink comforter.

I’d been expecting someone younger, but the girl lying unconscious looked
the same age as us. Her blonde hair fanned out across the pillow. Two swords were mounted and crossed above the headboard. They looked odd against the pink wall.

Valerie went to
the head of the bed. I tried not to get annoyed at her defiance of my plan—I’d told her to get the girl’s legs. Even in a situation like this, Valerie felt the need to be stubborn. There wasn’t any time to worry about it. It didn’t matter anyway.

I grabbed her legs and we pulled her off the bed. The girl had on a pair of pink cotton shorts and a white tank top.
We’d almost reached the door when a gunshot ripped through the house.

Valerie dropped
Giselle. I wasn’t able to do much good holding on to her legs. The girl’s head hit the floor. At least she landed on the carpet.

Valerie and I looked at each other.

The shot was followed by yelling. No one was dead. Yet.

“We have to get out of here,” Valerie said. Before I could open my mouth she added, “Now.”

I looked down. “We have to help them first.”

“Are you insane? If we
waste any more time none of us are making it out of here. Do you think Jared’s just going to let us go back home now that we know his little secret?”

“He doesn’t know we know.”

Valerie made no move to take the girl’s arms. Instead, she took a step toward me. “You saw the way he manhandled me earlier. I don’t think he ever had any intention of bringing us back alive. He’ll probably tell Melcher we died in combat. He’s going to kill us and drink from us. Well, me anyway. He won’t be able to drink from you, but he sure as hell isn’t going to leave a witness standing around. You know I’m right. He’s been watching us like a wolf watches mice from the moment we left town. Melcher will have no reason to doubt his story.”

“We can’t just leave them.”

Valerie took a step toward the door. “Fine, it’s your funeral. I’m out of here.”

Before she could take another step, a second shot rang out. This one wasn’t followed by angry shouts. It wasn’t followed by an
ything but silence. I dropped Giselle’s legs. From the look on Valerie’s face, I’d say her heart momentarily stopped, too.

There was no way to know who the last vamp standing was. Either way we were in deep shit. If Andre had offed Jared, he’d have no problem taking care of the human sidekicks. He might even drink
from us. If we were lucky he’d go for me first…before he shot us both, hacked up the pieces, and tossed them in the bay.

Seriously, how could Valerie read shit like that for entertainment?

I looked at Valerie’s coat pocket. The one with the gun. She shook her head. I didn’t know whether that meant she didn’t have the gun, didn’t know how to use it, or didn’t want to use it.

There was no time to get the girl out, but I couldn’t leave h
er helpless on the floor in case Jared was the victor of the fight below. I squatted, grabbed her ankles, and dragged her toward the bathroom.

Valerie
didn’t assist, but thankfully she didn’t flee either.

I pulled
Giselle into the bathroom, leaving her on the floor. I didn’t have the strength to get her inside the bathtub. I looked at the inner doorknob. Sure enough, there was a push down lock on the brass knob for securing the room from the inside. I pressed it down.

As I moved back into the bedroom, I began pulling the bathroom door closed behind me.

“Someone’s coming up the stairs,” Valerie said, her words ending in a low hiss.

I stopped and listened for footsteps. I heard Jared’s voice instead. “Oh girls, where are you?”

I looked at Valerie. She put two fingers to her lips. Quiet? No shit! What did she think I was going to do? Call out, “In here?”