Bad Blood (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 3) (36 page)

On the other hand, I might turn into a rabid vampire.

I tried to remember everything Melcher told me during orientation. He said I had been injected with a small amount of all the vampire diseases. Would that make me some kind of mutant vampire?

I was willing to take the risk.

First, I had to talk to Dante. It was clearer than ever that we weren’t meant to be together. We wanted entirely different things out of life. Dante was content to work as an assassin. He once told me it was the best job ever.

And I was about to become the very creature Dante hunted.

My heart steadily dropped with each step I took upstairs. Soon, I might never see Dante again. He was more to me than a big brother. He was a friend I loved dearly. I didn’t want to walk away forever. This was exactly why immortality sucked.

I grasped the handrail along the stairs, suddenly lightheaded.

How was I supposed to survive if I turned? Where would I live? I couldn’t stay with family. Nor could I stay with Fane and Joss. I had too much pride for that.

How would I support myself?

I didn’t have a degree or any skills besides vampire hunting.

Was that why Selene had been with that jerk at the party? I was beginning to understand her motives a little more. I didn’t want to be a kept vampire. No way. Better a government slave with a stipend than Fane and Joss’ charge, if Joss would even allow that. Fane would say it was to help me—he already said he wasn’t leaving me alone again. I couldn’t live like that. I just couldn’t.

I needed to hang on a little longer. Get a degree. Choose a career. Save up until I found a way to be independent. I couldn’t throw my life away on a whim.

More telling still was the relief that set in when I realized this. I’d get to spend more time with my family and Dante.

Fane would be disappointed, but that was too damn bad. This was my life. I had to consider the consequences.

I made it the rest of the way upstairs, heading to my bedroom to change. I checked my phone first, but there were no messages.

I wrinkled my nose. What the heck happened to Dante?

Where are you
?
I texted him.

I waited. After several minutes of standing in my room in a formal dress, staring at a silent phone screen, I did the old fashioned thing
and called Dante. After multiple rings, it went to voicemail.

I ought to change, but all I could do was pace in front of my bed.

Something was wrong. If Dante had gotten held up for some reason, he would have called me, unless he couldn’t. Had he been drugged, too? Or had too much to drink and passed out? Or gone home with one of the wine girls?

Not a chance.

My stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten any of the toast Fane warmed up.

I should change and go to Dante’s house. It was about a twenty minute walk away if I hustled. I pulled a pair of jeans out of the dresser, but before I could put them on, the front door opened and slammed shut.

I left it unlocked, expecting Dante at any minute, but I couldn’t picture him slamming it like that.

Maybe Valerie had come back to kill me. With Dante MIA, I really wasn’t in the mood.

I stormed out of my room to the landing on the stairs and looked down. Sure enough, Valerie had reappeared in the foyer, arms crossed, a menacing scowl on her lips.

“Now what?” I demanded.

“I only came back because Dante texted me and said to meet here and I want to see his face when I tell him you’ve been screwing a vampire behind his back.”

Thank goodness. Dante was okay and on his way. An hour ago, Valerie’s words would have caused me anxiety, but now I felt nothing but relief.

I made my way down the stairs. I really wanted to change, but first Valerie and I needed to get something straight.

“That’s not what happened. If you shut up for one second, I’ll tell you what went down at the party. I’ll tell both of you.”

Fane had walked in, bit me, bit his tongue, and saved the day. Like he said, Dante should be thanking him, not plotting his demise.

I glanced at my phone and frowned. “Why did Dante text you, but not me?”

“Do I look like I care?” Valerie snapped.

I folded my arms. Valerie folded hers.

“Want to know what happened?” I asked.

“Not really.”

Too bad.

“While you and Dante were off getting private tours and sucking blood, Henry drugged me. He was going to have a vampire bite me to see whether or not I was a vampire hunter. Thank goodness Fane was at the party and stepped in, or I wouldn’t be standing here now.”

Valerie’s arms remained crossed.

“Then why did he spend the night?”

“Because I passed out, and he was worried about me,” I said.

Valerie’s eyes flashed. If anything, she looked angrier than before.

“You and Fane are finished. If Dante doesn’t take care of him, I will.”

That’s it. I’d had about enough of Valerie’s idle threats. That’s all they were. She liked to talk the talk, but that was as far as it went. Dante was right. Deep down, she must be very insecure. Well, I wasn’t.

“Over my dead body,” I said, lifting on the balls of my feet.

“Oh, really? I find that very interesting. I’m sure Dante will, too.”

I glared at Valerie. She glared back. We stood, arms crossed, waiting in the foyer in silence for Dante.

Three minutes later, we heard a car pull up on the street.

“You’re in deep shit, Aurora,” Valerie said.

I waited for Dante to get to the door and knock. I wasn’t exactly eager to throw it open and have him hug me in front of Valerie.

The knock was light, more of a tap.

Valerie glared at me. “Go ahead and open it.”

I inhaled and opened the door. Daylight seeped in around a petite figure with long blond hair. She held a gun pointed at my face.

There’d been many occasions for my life to flash before my eyes, but I was usually too busy cussing, struggling, and resisting imminent death to give my sorry existence much thought. None of those things compared to the cold fear that gripped my heart as I stared down the barrel of a revolver.

Everything I still hoped to achieve in life took off like paper airplanes with nowhere to go, but down, crashing nose first to the floor after a brief flight in time.

17

I expected the gun to fire at any moment. When it didn’t, I took a step back.

“What is it?” Valerie demanded. I didn’t see her face, but she must have seen mine.

The blonde we’d rescued in Sitka stepped inside slowly. Giselle. She wore an off-white button-up blouse, airy and slightly ruffled. Her lips were stained burgundy, the deepest red, set off by creamy white skin. Her golden locks fell in thick wavy strands that stopped just below her breasts.

She glanced at Valerie, but kept her gun pointed at me. Her expression was neutral, grayish-blue eyes sharp and attentive.

“Stand next to your friend,” she commanded.

I expected her to sound more French, but she spoke with only the barest hint of an accent. Maybe like Fane she’d adapted to the English language over time.

I backed up beside Valerie wordlessly.

“Take her purse and set it on the bottom stair.”

Valerie scowled. “I don’t think so.”

Giselle pulled back the safety on the gun. It clicked into place.

“Just give me your purse,” I said.

When Valerie made no movement, I took it off her shoulder and set it on the step. Valerie glared, but didn’t stop me.

“And your phone,” Giselle said to me. “Put that on the stair as well.”

I did as she asked, wordlessly.

Giselle reached back for the front door handle, closing us inside together.

“Is there somewhere more comfortable we can sit and have a conversation?” she asked.

“Conversation.” That sounded a heck of a lot better than “prepare to die.”

I nodded. “There’s a living room down the hall.”

“You first,” Giselle said. “And you,” she added, pointing her gun at Valerie.

“Only if you lower that god-damn gun,” Valerie said.

She didn’t lower it. “I will shoot you,” she said.

“Let’s find out what she wants,” I said under my breath to Valerie.

“Fine,” Valerie said. “But only because I’m curious. I guess I can wait five minutes before I take this scrawny bitch down.”

I braced myself for a gun-shot, but Giselle merely stared back with bottomless blue eyes that lacked any kind of emotion. My biggest concern was that Dante would show up and get us all killed with his heroics.

Or maybe he’s already dea
d
, a voice said from the depths of my skull.

There’s no way he would have left the party last night without finding out what had become of me. He hadn’t called, texted—nothing. Valerie said he’d texted her, but he would have contacted me first. Something was very wrong.

I needed to get Giselle’s gun and find out what was going on.

I led the way back to the living room, glancing quickly into the kitchen for a knife laying on the counter. No such luck. There’d be plenty of time for Giselle to shoot me in the back if I were to rush in and go for the knife drawer.

I continued to the living room empty-handed. I took a seat on the couch, hoping that if I looked relaxed, Giselle would relax too. Valerie narrowed her eyes at me as she walked in and plopped into an armchair. She folded her arms across her chest, lower lip jutted out as she looked at Giselle.

Giselle took a stance roughly eight feet in front of us, finger still on the trigger. She’d chosen me as her primary target, meaning I’d be the first one down if Valerie suddenly lunged for her.

“We didn’t get a chance to meet properly in Sitka. I am Giselle Morrel, and you are Aurora Sky and Valerie Ward. You broke into my house, and now my entire family is dead.”

“You are aware that you’d be dead, too, if it weren’t for us,” Valerie said.

I might have been mistaken, but I could have sworn I heard something that sounded close to unease in Valerie’s voice. That made me more nervous than I already felt.

Giselle leveled her gaze at me. “Where is Xavier?”

“We don’t know any Xavier,” Valerie said with a huff.

“Jared,” I said.

“Yes, Jared,” Giselle confirmed. “Where is he?”

Valerie’s shoulders leaned forward. “Listen, G. If we knew where Jared was, he’d be dead.”

“You want him dead?” Giselle asked.

Valerie huffed. “Isn’t that what I just said?”

Giselle lowered the gun an inch.

“Why?”

Valerie straightened her shoulders. “Because he’s the world’s biggest asshole.”

“He tried to kill us in Sitka,” I said. If it was possible to get on Giselle’s good side, that ought to help. We had a common enemy. She shouldn’t be pointing her gun at us.

I looked down the hall as far as I could see, still wondering if Dante might be okay after all and suddenly show up.