Blood Debt (The Blood Sisters Book 2) (14 page)

“What—.”
Jessica started the
words
but was cut off
as Amanda placed her palm against Jessica’s forehead. Pain, a gentle hum pulsed
out against her hand and Jessica felt the way it moved through her body,
through her brain as if looking for something.

Jessica
pushed her back. “Get off of me! Keep your damn hands off of me, you—you
freak.”

“I know
you’re afraid,”
Amanda’s
voice was soft
as she knelt beside her sister. “But you’re going to let me touch you. You
don’t have any choice here. Trust me, Jess. Trust me.” Amanda’s hand returned
to Jessica’s forehead and inside, Jessica quaked. Amanda had trouble holding
herself up and her back rounded under the strain. She wrapped her free hand
around her
wrist
and kept the intensity
up. Kept everything moving in the right direction and then gasped like she
found something. Gasped like she knew exactly what it was she had to do.

Jessica
peered at her sister and wanted to ask a question, but Amanda kept interrupting
her whenever she wanted to say something. “I’m sorry,” Amanda mumbled.

She
pushed against Amanda to get her away, but Amanda grabbed her arm with a
powerful grip. “You can’t get away.”

“Don’t do
this to me,” Jessica begged. “Let me finish the job. Let me—you don’t know what
she’s going to do to me. You can’t know the torture. The pain?” Tears filled
Jessica’s eyes.

In
response, Amanda’s chin warbled. “I know. I only know too clearly, Jess.
We’re—I’m going to save you.” And then a jolt shot out from Amanda that was so
powerful, Jessica was pushed back; flattened on her back.

Consciousness
ebbed and flowed. Jessica fought to hold onto herself as the ceiling dragged
by. She realized it wasn’t the ceiling that was moving, it was her. Amanda had
Jessica by the ankles and was dragging her through the church, toward the
basement steps.

“No!”
Jessica clawed at the rug, desperate to grab onto something as the door to the
basement was opened. To do that, Amanda had to let her go. Jessica took that
moment to scamper onto her feet and charge away.

Amanda
responded fast, hooking her arms around Jessica’s middle and picked her up like
a screaming petulant child. “No!” Jessica clawed at the door frame, it rocked
Amanda off balance and they both tumbled down the stairs. They landed in a pile
at the bottom and everything was dark. Only the light from a giant window
caused a faint glow, but off in the corner, Jessica saw the outline of a cage.
A scary, confining looking cage.

Was that
for her? Was that what Amanda was planning on doing?

Jessica
raced to her feet first, and like a
crab
scurried
up the stairs. Her heart was pounding, but why was she so afraid? She was a
warrior, always had been. She could defeat some passive healer if she wanted
to. Jessica Blood could do anything she set her mind on, so why run when she
could face her sister and just kill her.

Kill her.

Kill
Amanda Blood? The thought turned her veins ice cold.

“Jessie!”
Amanda cried out, pain in her voice. Jessica yelped as Amanda’s power yanked
her like a grappling hook and flung Jessica back onto the hard basement floor.
Her back knocked some sort of kneeling bench out of the way and Jessica slid
right into the light of the giant window.

The gleam
of light shining on her burnt Jessica’s face, charring her flesh. She screamed
and her back arched as her body
spazzed
in a fully-
fledged
seizure. Powerless to
keep her limbs calm, powerless to keep anything steady, Jessica contorted in
pain with no hope for survival.

Amanda
scooped up her sister and as one carried a lover, she carried Jessica over
toward the cage. “I’m sorry, Jessie, but it’s for your own good. You’ll see
that soon.” Amanda latched the door shut as outside, gunfire erupted.

She
doubted that. Caged like a rat, Jessica gripped the bars of her cage, her jaw
grinding tight.

T
he night
was going to be a long one, Duncan guaranteed it. With a job to do, he threw
the double wide doors of the church open and ran into the drizzle. Feet pounded
down the marble steps as he headed to the sidewalk. Not alone, Mike followed
closely behind. Tonight they’d have no choice but to be a dynamic duo.

 
The roar of motorcycles drew Duncan’s
attention to the left corner of the church. More bright lights coming from the
right put him in a tight pickle. Demons charged at them from both sides and
would try to box them in. If they didn’t get this just right, both
Bloods
were screwed, and come hell or high
water, Duncan was going to buy them more time.

“We’re
going to need to split up,” Mike said, the M-4 slung across his shoulder.
Things were about to get messy and fast.

Duncan
slipped a toothpick into his mouth and gave it a spin. Time to test his luck.
“We’re only two men, but we have to give Amanda more time.”

Mike was
cool as a cumber. He had a faith that Duncan just didn’t have in lots of
things. “Let the traps do their work and pick them off as they come. Whatever
is left, if we can lead them away from the church and out of town before the
police get involved, all the better. What we don’t need on our hands are dead
coppers.”

His words
reminded Duncan they were still wanted fugitives and his conscience twanged.
That was going to come back to bite them on the ass, one way or another. As if
they needed
any more
problems now that
they had a legion of demons descending onto their location.

Mike
escaped down the alley between the church and the soup kitchen, which luckily
for them was cleared out, but still, the church was in
a well
populated residential area. People were going to notice what
was going on and casualties weren’t just a possibility.

More like
a probability.

Duncan’s
chest tightened as he went left around the church. The rain was cold and the
wind around the corner snapped at his cheeks. It wasn’t
an ideal
spot for a demon war, but if Duncan had the ability to
change the location, he’d move it right off the map.

Straight
into hell.

The light
swinging above the intersection blinked a steady yellow as the wind picked up.
Crunchy brown leaves rolled by like tumbleweeds against the pavement as Duncan
squatted down behind some bushes. He took aim, steadying his hand, and waited
for what was coming.

A deep
slow breath kept his jitters under wraps, but with Mike gone, Duncan’s own
thoughts tormented him. Images of Jessica in the church flashed through his
mind. Nothing about that girl was familiar. How she walked, talked. Even the
way she tossed her head; it was all different. What if she was gone forever?

His heart
panged. Duncan needed to stop over thinking. Stop feeling. Needed to just focus
on the demons, because thinking of Jessica never did anything but distract him.
Blowing out a breath, Duncan squatted—and waited.

The
gang’s bikes
wailed
closer, their
headlights traveling single file toward the church. When the back tires of the
first Harley hit the rubber tube they had strung across the road, Duncan
slammed the button on the hidden control box. Boom, like a surprise sprinkler
the tube exploded with holy water.

Bikes
skidded to the ground as the demons’ skin was dissolved, making it easy for
Duncan to pick them off one by one. The bikes fell like dominos, but the riders
in back had enough advance warning and took off down opposing side streets—some
going the way Mike had gone. He hoped the old coot wouldn’t be taken by
surprise.

Time to
get the stragglers; Duncan strolled into the street to finish what he started.
Demons’ contorted in pain, as their flesh was melted off their bodies; it was
easy to exterminate them like vermin.
 
Hell, Duncan didn’t even feel bad about it.

Felt
pretty bad when he took an elbow to the back of the
head,
though.

Almost
losing his footing, Duncan
leaned
forward.
Catching himself on his forward foot, he spun, his elbow high and his shotgun
swinging. He clipped the demon foot soldier under the jaw and with an overhand
grip, sent the butt of his gun crashing into the demon’s gut.

His
leather jacket flapping, the demon fell into a puddle of holy water. The
blessed water drizzled down all around them. The demon hissed as his flesh
sizzled in the pattern of Swiss cheese. If this was the type of brainy demons
leading the charge, Duncan thought the night might be easier than he thought.

Flipping
the shotgun around in his hand, he leveled the demons head. Brain matter, for
what it was worth, splattered up, and what was left of the maggots that
encased
their brains withered in the puddles
against the pavement.

Duncan
smirked. Job well
done
, grandpop would be
proud. Seized from behind, he scowled. Well, this wasn’t how it was supposed to
go. A guttural gasp escaped him as someone pinned his arms back so deep his
shoulder blades touched. A demon to the front ripped the shotgun out of
Duncan’s hands and readied a shot that would clear as day kill both him and his
demon captor.

“Hey!”
Screamed the demon holding him steady, but Duncan didn’t give either of the
SOBs the chance to kill him. He bent his knees and shot out, kicking the demon
in front of him. The demon was thrown back and the
shotgun
fired wide, up into the air.

The
thrust of the kick sent the demon behind him falling
backward
and Duncan crashed right back on top of him. He flipped
over to his feet, losing his leather jacket in the process of getting free. The
demon struggled to stand, but Duncan wrapped his jacket around the beast’s
smarmy little face. A quick
one-two
punch
to what was probably the nose subdued him.

The other demon was up and advancing.
Duncan
pushed the demon wrapped in his jacket toward the one charging. They both fell
and Duncan lunged for his shotgun, no thought in his mind other than getting
the job done. He slid through the puddle on his knees. Soaking wet in tight
jeans never felt good, but dead felt worse.

Chest
heaving for air, Duncan fired into both of them and paused to take a quick
reload. Homes that had been dark were now brightly lit.

Crap.
People were waking up. It wouldn’t be long now before a call was placed to
police or before an innocent person got hurt in this mess.

At one of
the homes, a woman stood by her door with her hair done up in curlers. Her blue
robe was faded and her double chin was splattered in pimples. She gasped and
pointed at something. Duncan pivoted on his feet to glance behind him and saw…a
woman. No, a girl on the cusp of becoming one. Not more than seventeen.

A swollen
black eye and a busted lip, she shuffled toward Duncan wearing nothing but a
V-neck white t-shirt. Soaking wet from the rain, it was clear she wasn’t
wearing a bra. Blood dripped from beneath the shirt. Hair short and brown, it
made Duncan think of Meg.

Son-of-a-bitch.

He raced
to her and took her by the arms before her legs gave out. Her fingers were
bloodied; the fingernails had been torn clear off. The bastards tortured her
and for what? “I’ll get you inside. Get you some help.” Where would Duncan take
her? Into the church where Amanda and Jessica warred against each other?

 
Not exactly safe.

She
gagged and shook her head. Tears flying from her eyes. “Sent me as a message. A
reminder.”

Duncan’s
heart pounded, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking, even though the answer
was obvious. “Who?”

“Vain.
The man with a scary face.” She doubled over, grabbing her stomach tight and
her face twisted in pain. “There’s something…They put something inside of me.”

Vain.
Duncan’s chest tightened just at the thought of her. “I have a friend who can
help.” Duncan bent over to address her. He cupped her face. “You just have to
hold on a little longer, all right? The church…” His mind flashed to Meg, the
conversation with his grandfather.

“Meggie’s gone, boy. She ran off, but I
think she’s in trouble. Can you find her? Can you—.”

Duncan
rushed off to find her. Rushed off to save her. Had been middle of the night
when he left the Bloods, all to save his baby sister. Now a girl who might as
well have been
Meg
squirmed in pain. He
had to help her.

Had to.

He made a
move to pick her up, but she swatted him away. “Too late,” she groaned and fell
over to the ground. Rolling over, she lifted her t-shirt and Duncan could see
her skin expanding out and then back down. Whatever was happening, it was going
to be bad. Violent.

“What’d
they do to you, girl?” Duncan stroked her forehead, but even that made her rear
in pain.

“New
drug…said it…will help their cause.” The young woman gritted her teeth, her
pupils filled with blood and her iris turned black. “Run. Get back. I’m going
to…” her body started to twitch, spasm uncontrollably.

Go or stay,
that was his choice. Duncan whispered through a clenched jaw. “I’m sorry. They
sent you to me because…”
You look like
Meg. You look just like my kid sister
.

“Go!” She
screamed, her hands twitching.

Her words
spurred him on. He took cover across the street and hid in an old stairwell
leading to a basement apartment when the boom went off. A mighty explosion
ripped her apart and sent her guts flying everywhere.

Vaughn
did it again, but
this time,
it was much
worse.

That son-of-a-bitch
needed to pay. Needed to be dead already.

The
approaching sound of a police siren wailing moved Duncan on.
Otherwise,
he might have
hidden
there forever. So he raced out of his
spot and the glow from the woman’s remains drew him closer. Covered in blood
and guts, a yellow glowing box looked as if it were made of gold, blinking on
and off. Was that the bomb? Was that what made her explode like that?

Duncan
grabbed his hair, pushing the intense emotion back, but it wouldn’t go. Kept
picturing Meg, and this girl, plus all the others he failed, just like Jessica.
So torn up in his own private hell, time escaped him until the sound of a
charging car startled him.

Turning
on his foot, Duncan’s eyes were blinded by headlights.

It wasn’t
a car. Damnit, it was a bus.

Duncan
jumped back toward the curb to avoid the charging vehicle, but Vain, standing
in the open doorway, threw a rope around his neck and pulled him forward.
Duncan gasped for breath, the tips of his boots etching a line across the
street as his body was propelled forward straight toward the metal siding of
the bus.

“Surprise,
lover,” Vain hissed at him.

He caught
the door jamb with his hand and threw a punch toward Vain with the other. The
bus was coasting along too fast as the wheel was cranked for a left turn. Tree
branches crashed into the siding of the bus as brakes squealed, but the bus
didn’t slow down enough. Duncan lost his footing.

Damn it,
he was going to fall. No matter how much he centered himself, Duncan slipped.
His foot edging off the slippery step. He grabbed Vain’s collar and took bitch
with him.

She
yelped as they tumbled
backward
down a
hill and into total darkness. Losing his shotgun and jacket in the same night
was disappointing and a bad omen. Duncan couldn’t lose anything else. Flat on
his back, Vain hovered over Duncan and punched him square against the jaw and
jabbed right against his ribs.

“I
finally have you right where I want you.” Her lip curled.

Duncan
groaned, grabbed Vain’s
dread
locks and
pummeled her face with his free fist. When he was done, his hand throbbed and
his knuckles were bloody. Vain’s face contorted as Duncan pulled her overhead,
and flipped her by that ugly mop of hair.

No one
ever said Duncan was above a girly
catfight
.

Vain
crashed back-first into a tree and fell to the ground. Shaking her head, she
crawled away as if the world was spinning. “Catch me if you can, Duncan!”

She ran
off, but Duncan wasn’t going to let her get away. She needed to pa
y for what she did. Pay with her life. “You
stop!” Duncan ran, chasing after her through the trees even though he could
barely see in the darkness. He pushed the branches away that scratched at his
face. “I’m going to get you, Vain!”

Duncan
broke into a gallop down a ravine when his foot tripped a wire. It snared tight
around his boot. Ugh, Duncan fell
backward
and hit his head on a rock while something dragged him further into the woods.
Well, if luck wasn’t on his side tonight…He let his emotions get the better of
him. How much he hated Vain and what she had done to Meg, all those girls….