Redemption (Jane #4)

(A Jane novella)

© 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

The world spun as I tried to
stand. At least it remained blurry instead of fading completely to
black. I realized after a couple seconds that standing wasn't going
to be an option. The most I could muster was rolling to my side. My
cheek rested against the rough pavement and I could smell blood--my
blood. A quick glance to the side told me that a lot of it lay on
the ground under me and the sight set my stomach pulsing.

I coughed and more blood
splattered the blacktop. I placed my right hand on the tarred
surface and pushed, giving myself enough leverage to bring my left
elbow underneath me. I balanced there, fighting against the
nauseating twirl of the planet. A few deep breaths later and I had
my digestive system under control. Turning my head slowly, I
surveyed the scene.

Several feet away, I could see
two vampires I didn't recognize. Both were laying on the pavement.
One, a female, looked like her neck was broken. She stared at me,
eyes and mouth wide, but didn't move. I couldn't tell if she was
dead or alive from that distance. The male was missing an arm and a
leg. He lay on his back, his remaining hand pressed to his chest. I
could see blood dripping down his side to join the ever-growing
pool beneath him. His chest rose and fell in jagged breaths while
his lips moved. If he was saying anything coherent, I was too far
away to hear him.

A familiar boot off to my left
drew my gaze. I cringed as I recognized the man attached to
it--Jax. He was on his side, his back to me, unmoving. With his
armor, I couldn't tell if he was still breathing. A quick glance
around showed no others from my team, so I made it my goal to help
Jax if I could. Using what little strength I had, I pulled myself
forward, grunting with the effort. Something below my ribcage but
above my hips felt wrong and my legs wouldn't work properly. I've
never been one for biology and I pushed aside thoughts of permanent
disability while reminding myself that vampires can heal better
than any other species on the planet.

After several agonizingly
painful minutes, I'd dragged myself the ten feet to Jax. His eyes
were closed, his face covered in blood. I leaned in close, sending
up a silent prayer. I almost cried aloud when I heard the faint,
gasping breaths echoing from his partially opened mouth. Shoving my
hand up under his body armor, I felt around for the cause of his
incapacitated state and found it quickly. In his chest, just under
his arm where the armor stops to allow freedom of movement, was a
hole. After a bit more searching, I found the accompanying exit
wound.

As I reached for the first aid
kit on my belt, I heard a roar behind me. I jerked my head around,
cursing inwardly as the world tilted and my stomach heaved. My left
arm gave out and I landed heavily on my back, gasping for air while
I fought the urge to vomit all over myself. I turned my head to the
right, toward the growling sound that continued unabated. Felipe
lay pinned beneath our Humvee, his muscles bulging as he attempted
to push the vehicle off his lower extremities. My gaze was drawn to
his left, though, where a blood-covered female vampire stalked
toward him, her lips curled into a vicious snarl, makeshift stake
in hand.

My nostrils flared and my eyes
burned with tears that were sure to shed. Donna. Her clothes were
in tatters, her hair a mess. I could barely recognize her through
the dirt and blood stains on her face, neck, and arms, but it was
most definitely Donna--the bubbly, dog-grooming fashionista who had
been my first friend at the sanctuary. And she was heading toward
my boyfriend with a very sharp, very deadly piece of wood.

"Noooo." The voice sounded
hoarse, pained, and unfamiliar, but I knew it was mine. My body
moved before I thought to move, trying to draw itself toward the
fallen vampire. I reached out a hand, clawing at the black stones,
pulling myself forward. Felipe turned his head from the Hummer,
seeing the oncoming attacker, then tilted his head as far as it
would go. His dark eyes landed on mine, terrified. My heart seized.
For the year that I'd known Felipe, I'd never seen him afraid of
anything, much less death. But this was different, so
different.

I opened my mouth to cry out,
to plead with Donna for mercy, to tell Felipe that I loved him. The
words never came. An unexpected pain blossomed across the back of
my head, spidering out across my skull. The horrible agony was
followed by an uncontrollable urge to yack. As my breakfast finally
freed itself, my vision blurred, shrinking until all I could see
were Felipe's eyes, dark and pleading. Then they were gone.

After the death of Ado, the
mood in our group of vampire hunters changed. Drastically. It was
no longer just about doing our job and hunting down rogue vampires.
It was about revenge. We didn't want to just find and kill Felipe's
murderer; we wanted to inflict as much pain on him as possible. In
the months since that horrible, fateful day, we had taken down
eight covens of freshly-turned vampires and their snacks. But it
wasn't enough. More kept popping up. When we started, there had
been sixteen in our district. After taking out the eight, we still
had twelve confirmed locations to deal with.

"This isn't effing working!"
Felipe paced the debriefing room after our most recent slaughter.
"We have to do more. We need help."

Father Bellini sat in a chair,
staring at Felipe silently while the vampire raged. The rest of the
team had left, seeking to avoid the verbal slaughter that was about
to occur, but I stayed, hoping to keep the two frustrated men from
killing each other on sanctuary grounds.

"And what do you suggest,
Felipe? We are pulling all our resources, doing the best we can.
We've found and handled three of Conrad's accomplices. We are
making progress."

Felipe scoffed. "Handled? They
sit locked in rooms in the sanctuary, fed, clothed, entertained.
They need to be punished. Harshly, so others are afraid to cave to
Conrad's false promises."

"You know we can't do that. We
need them for information, and it is not our way to inflict cruelty
on those who have done wrong. We are not like them."

"No, we're not like them. So
we sit here every day
talking
, hoping
that
will
prevent others from being turned and dying." Felipe stormed out,
the door slamming so hard I felt the chair beneath me shake.

Father Bellini sighed and
placed his elbows on the table, resting his forehead in his hands.
I sat silently, not having any idea what to say or how to help.
This was so far beyond anything I'd ever experienced before. Since
the crackdown on the unapproved vampires began, the hunter teams
had taken down more than three dozen covens. But we'd suffered our
fair share of casualties, too. An entire team in Russia had been
wiped out. They'd received false information and went into a job
expecting ten vampires. They met three times that many, including
two of the older rogues we'd been hunting. One human made it back
to his sanctuary, but he died of his wounds a day later.

The Americans had four teams
dealing with more than two dozen covens. Like ours, their teams
were made up of four vampires and two humans each. They had lost
half their humans and a third of their vampires trying to take out
the rogues and their offspring. Several reports stated that the new
vampires had been trained and given weapons powerful enough to take
down even a seasoned vampire. I thanked the stars that I had ended
up in an Italian sanctuary and not in America when I was
turned.

"I just don't know what else
to do, Jane." Father Bellini's voice made me jump. I'd gotten lost
in my own thoughts and forgotten he was there. I turned to look at
him, opened my mouth, and snapped it shut again, shrugging.

He scratched his chin,
thinking. "We need help. I think..." Bellini sighed, shaking his
head, his forehead creased. "I think I need to talk to the
Pope."

That made me sit up straight.
The Pope? Bellini had access to the Pope? He saw my expression and
a weary chuckle escaped his lips. "Yes, Jane. I know the Pope. He's
really quite a nice man. And he has access to more... powerful
weapons, I guess you could say."

"What kind of weapons?" I
couldn't imagine anything more powerful than vampires. Well, I
could, but I sure as hell didn't want to meet them.

He just shook his head again,
sinking back into his thoughts. I bit my lip and waited a few more
minutes. When he didn't stir, I got up and wandered down the hall.
Felipe wasn't in his bedroom, the dining room, or the lounge, so I
headed to the gym. By the time I got there, he'd almost pulverized
one of the punching bags. Sand trails lined the floor, showing the
erratic path the bag had taken after his multiple kicks and
punches. I leaned against the wall and watched his muscled, sweaty
form until the bag broke, fabric and what little was left of the
sand tumbling across the black mats to land in a lumpy heap.

Felipe snarled at the
mutilated bag and turned, looking for something else to punch. When
his eyes settled on me, I raised my eyebrow in a just-you-try-it
way, which brought a faint smile to his hard face. His signature
smirk had hidden away since Ado's death, only appearing on special
occasions, and only when we were alone. The most I usually got was
a faint curl of the lips paired with a strange, deep sadness in his
dark eyes.

He walked over to the boxing
ring to pick up a towel he'd draped over the ropes. I followed him,
taking the towel from his hands, and stood before him, carefully
wiping every drop of glistening sweat from his bare neck, chest,
and arms. It was horribly tedious work and I didn't enjoy a bit of
it--if you believe that, I have an oceanside beach house on prime
real estate in Idaho I'll sell you.

When I finished, he grabbed
the towel from me and tossed it to the floor, pulling me in close
to him. His skin was warm and still a bit moist. The scent of his
sweat mingled with the cologne he'd put on that day, forming a
strange combination of nauseating wonderfulness. I leaned into him,
resting my cheek on his shoulder and wrapped my arms around his
waist. He propped his chin on my head, sighing audibly.

We stood like that, quiet and
safe, for a good ten minutes. That's one of the things about
vampires. They don't have to move if they don't want to. I've
stayed in the same damn position for over seven hours once. Hurt
like hell when I finally moved, but it was worth the pain.

Felipe's heavy sigh brought me
out of the contented zone of nothingness I had drifted into. I
looked up, searching for his beautiful eyes. He gazed down at me, a
faint, sad smile pulling at the corners of his lips.

"Let's go watch a movie or
something. I need mindless entertainment."

I bit my lip, failing
miserably to suppress a grin as I wiggled my eyebrows at him.

"Not that type of mindless
entertainment, you dirty little girl." He pinched my side, making
me squeal. I swatted him away and he laughed. "Come on. Let's go
find a movie."

On the way to the lounge, I
sent Annie a text and invited her and Jax to join us. They arrived
while I was standing in front of the shelves and shelves of DVDs.
Finding the one I wanted, I pulled it from its home and turned to
face the group with a grin on my face. It'd been a long time since
I'd watched that movie, and if Felipe wanted mindless
entertainment, I'd be sure he got it.

"Alright! A woman after my own
heart!" Jax began clapping in excitement and earned a playful smack
from Annie.

"Is that the movie you're
always gushing about? The 'best of the worst'?" Felipe looked at
me, eyebrow raised in concern at the comic on the green cover.

"You bet it is."

I spun from him and popped the
DVD in. As the beginning credits rolled, Felipe's grumbling was
stifled by my pointy elbow. "No groaning during
Tank
Girl
!"

For the next hour and a half,
Felipe's exaggerated groans alternated with muted laughter as
Annie, Jax, and I quoted our favorite parts--pretty much the entire
movie. Puh puh puh pow! He even joined us in a horribly tone-def
rendition of Coltrane's
Let's Do It
. When the final credits
began, Felipe disentangled himself from me and stretched.