Blood Debt (The Blood Sisters Book 2) (20 page)

“Your
business is coming under new management. I’m taking the girls.”
Vain
nodded her head and Vaughn’s demons
stepped out from the darkness. They seized Vaughn on all sides.

“What is
the meaning…. I’m your boss! I’m in charge here! Vain!”

“Jasper
is right about one thing,” Vain licked Vaughn’s lips. “I can’t sit by and watch
you blow up perfectly good merchandise. They’re better off with me.”

Anger and
fear mingled in his eyes. Vaughn bared his teeth and screamed. “Damn you,
Vain!”

The demons
assaulted Vaughn from all sides. They kicked him, punched him, and he fell,
covering his head, as a force twenty demons strong wailed on him. Sad really,
how easy it was.

Wistful,
Vain titled her head. “Sorry, Vaughn. On the run like this, you’re no longer
useful.” She blew him a kiss as he gurgled on his own blood. “Your boys, they
want that little bit of fun that my girls can give them.”

Hannah
cowered
as Vain approached. “Please, don’t hurt
me.” She sobbed and tried to crawl away, but the handcuffs made that hard.

From her
belt, Vain took a key and unlocked Hannah’s wrists. “We’ll get you off the
drugs, Hannah. Get you some clothes. I’ll teach you how to be strong.”

The young
girl rubbed her wrists and sat on the floor. “Just let me go…please.”

Vain
touched her face, tilting it to the side. “So pretty. You have potential.
You’re going to be a good girl.
Very
good
for business. Trust me, Hannah. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll call me
momma.”

The phone
rang and rang but no one answered. Couldn’t be good.

Gwen
turned from the
office
but froze when she
saw Mike step across the threshold. “Mike,”
Her
lips formed an O. Here she’d thought they were doing a great job of avoiding
each other since the big speech, “what are you doing here?”

Her curt
tone cut with accusation. Inwardly, Gwen cringed, but on the outside, she
couldn’t soften her stance. Just couldn’t, if she did…well, that’s how they
ended up in this mess, wasn’t it?

Hands on
his hips, Gwen saw the ever present fury in his eyes. That drive and intensity
were
one of the reasons she had fallen in love
with him in the first place.

“I
thought everything was going to come out. So why did you lie?” Mike’s tone
demanded a response. “Why did you lie to them?”

“It was
necessary.” The words tasted bitter and Gwen found she couldn’t look him in the
eye. Hadn’t they caused enough grief?

“Necessary?”
Mike repeated with narrow eyes. “For who? You or them? Sure as hell wasn’t
our—.”

Gwen held
up her hands to keep him quiet, her eyes squeezed shut. Her sorrow wasn’t for
display. Just being with him was too much, too painful. To hear it vocalized in
such a way, it might’ve destroyed her for good. “What would you have me tell
them? The truth? They know enough about what happened. Just…the circumstances
are changed.”

Mike
shook his head and had an incredulous glint in his eye. It was one Gwen was
used to, even before their indiscretion. “If they need to know? It’ll come out
at the worst possible time just like it always does. Don’t you know that? I’d
thought of all the lessons, that one would’ve been the most obvious.”

Lessons?
Gwent didn’t need a lesson in pain. “I couldn’t tell them. The burden of it
destroyed us. Destroyed Jacob and everything he worked so hard to build.” Gwen
squeezed her eyes shut and felt a strong wave of grief at the thought of her
dear brother. Lost, gone because of her. The trouble his girls went through,
because of her.

Did no
one, not even Mike, understand the burden she carried? “I couldn’t have it
wreck the girls any more than it has. Their destiny has been laced with our
mistakes for too long, Michael.”

His eyes
were warm and compassionate, but Gwen didn’t deserve either. She didn’t deserve
his kindness. Didn’t want it, either. Being hated was easier. “It’s already shaped
them, but it doesn’t all have to be bad. What they’ve been doing, purging the
world of demons—.”

“Undoing
our mistakes you mean?” Gwen tilted her head. “Our weaknesses are slowly
destroying the world. Reshaping it. Now it’s going to be up to them to fix it.
I’ll do my best to help them, to find a way to fix all of it, but they can’t
know.”

“About
our son?” Mike asked with a shaking breath and Gwen stared at him with her
mouth wide. Couldn’t believe, after
all,
this
time, how dare he even invoke his existence. “You’ve never said it. Never
talked about him. Not since that day he was taken into the underworld.”

And had
his blood consumed by Lourdes, giving her physical shape—cursing the Blood
family to continue what his blood started—or to end it, one way or another. The
Blood family was the answer. Always had been and would be to the end.

“It’s
like for
you, he
never happened. Never
existed.”

The pain
filled her heart each waking moment. From the moment she woke up, from the
moment she went to sleep, the grief for her son never left her. She carried
him,
nurtured
him, loved him.

But it
was a mistake. From the very beginning.

“We
failed the world,” Gwen’s lip quivered. “So yes, I don’t want to talk about it.
Want to forget what it was like to hold him. When we knew what he was, we
should’ve killed him. Killed our baby boy before this could happen to the
world! Don’t stare at me Michael Mortenson like I’m a monster because—.”

Mike’s
mouth fell open and he backed up like she was a vile monster. “You loved him. I
loved him. We were trying our best to keep him safe. He was a baby; we couldn’t
have just—.”

Idealist,
wasn’t he? Even still. Why was it only she who saw what needed to be done? Why
did people always stare at her like she was a heartless beast? “
Instead,
look at the death, Michael. Look at
how the world has changed. The demons, the drugs? The girls sold into slavery.
It’s all on us because I defied fate and gave birth to that boy knowing full
well what would happen.”

Mike
shook his head. “Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Just give up? If we did that,
doesn’t that make us as bad as the demons?”

“No!”
Gwen waved her hands at him. “Jacob pledged to protect us and look what
happened. It’s all around us. If we took it all back, all of it, he’d be alive.
The world would be a safer place. I might have loved our son, Michael, but I
always knew letting him live was wrong.” She leaned against the desk and
squeezed her eyes shut. “I always knew, one day, we’d lose.”

The tears
in Mike’s eyes were ripe. “We’ve never been able to agree on this so maybe it’s
best if we never speak of it again.”

Like she
brought it up? “All that matters is that the girls know they are the answer to
stopping Lourdes. When the time comes, they’ll do it. I know they will.”

Mike eyes
couldn’t stop their accusing daggers. “And if they find out our secret? Don’t
you think that’ll make them a little angry?”

“They
won’t find out. I swore I’d take this secret to the grave and I will. The only
people left who know are you and I. Unless you tell them.” Her tone was almost
a dare.

“And
Lourdes,
” Mike muttered the name like a curse.
“I’m just surprised she didn’t tell Jessica before now. What do you think her
plan is?”

“I don’t
know.” That answer was perhaps scariest of them all.

“I’ll
leave. It’s best if you don’t follow.” Mike turned, but Gwen didn’t want him to
go. Not really.
 
She spent time after
time watching him walk away. Today was just one more time where she had
something to say and she didn’t say it.

Gwen let
him go. As she always did.

Gwen
lingered alone in her thoughts. Wondering about her boy. What he would’ve been
like, if he had been allowed to grow past infancy.

“In these
moments,” Gwen mumbled to herself, “Jacob, I miss you most of all.”

Everything
they gave to protect that baby, see him to
term,
and Gwen lost him anyway. That kind of heartbreak changed everything. Gwen had
never been the same. Never taken another lover. Never felt the warm embrace of
touch again and by God, it was better that way.

Gwen
wiped her face.
Hopefully,
no one would
be able to tell how upset she was. For better or worse, she left the office for
the sanctuary. There she saw Mike again talking to her girls. Authoritative, he
stood with his hands clasped in front of him and from the way he shifted his
weight to each leg, Gwen’s alarms went off.

Jessica’s
face was frigid and it was a look of controlled passion Gwen had seen many
times before. Well, something had awoken her, but it wouldn’t be anything Gwen
would be happy about. She was sure of it.

Amanda
had a pleading look on her face. When she saw Gwen, her face lit up. It
lightened her heart to see that girl again. God, she loved her. More than she
had any right to, knowing what it was they were racing toward.

Gwen
should’ve kept her distance, meant to, but one looks at Amana’s face crumbled
all of her
resolve
.

Amanda
pushed back Jessica and Mike. “Aunt Gwen, Duncan’s been captured. I followed
the trail he took during the fight. Vain took him and I know where she took
him.”

Gwen
glanced between Jessica and Mike. “I don’t know who this Vain is…”

“It’s a
personal matter,” Amanda said with a deep inhale. “We owe him our lives. More
than once. We need to go after him.”

Absurd. Gwen
nearly laughed. “The queen of the underworld is busy trying to escape from the
underworld and you want to launch a rescue?”

Amanda’s
nose crinkled. “I told you she wouldn’t be happy about this. But, Aunt Gwen…”

“Don’t
Aunt Gwen me, Amanda Blood.” Gwen’s lips pursed together and her harsh voice
lashed out. “We have a mission, nothing—.”

“Nothing
else matters but the mission?” Jessica stepped forward. Her eyes lit with a
fire they didn’t have earlier. “I’m through putting the mission first. No
matter what Duncan’s business is with this Vain, I won’t leave him to die.
We’re going after him with or without you.”

Gwen was
used to Amanda wanting to save people, but Jessica? “You’ve been through hell
in the last few days. It’s no wonder you want to give up. It’s been
relentless
. Year after year of demons, of
fighting off
—.”

Jessica’s
eyebrow arched. Gwen had seen that look a hundred times. It only meant her
heels were digging in deeper. “Giving up? I’m not giving up. I’m going after a
friend. That’s fighting, not throwing in the towel, Aunt Gwen.” She gazed at
Mike. “I was hoping you’d come with us. I know Duncan trusts you.”

Mike’s
eyes were soft. Gwen couldn’t believe it, he supported Jessica on this. “We’re
going to need Duncan. He’s a fighter. A warrior.”

“Then he
can handle himself!” Gwen argued. When Mike opened his mouth to argue she held
up her hand. “Just wait a second! I got us in this mess because of…
love.
You might call Duncan a friend,
but isn’t it really more than that, Jessica? Aren’t you and Duncan—.”

“So what
if we are? I’m not you. He’s not Mike. Our future doesn’t have to be your
future. We’re wasting time. Either you’re coming with us, or we’ll set out on
our own.”

This is
where they were?
Jessica
would leave and
go after Duncan? A man she hadn’t seen or trusted in two years? “Well,” Gwen’s
eyes narrowed. “I must say I’m disappointed in you, Jessica. More than I could
ever say. I never thought you would turn your back on the world.”

“You’ve
been telling me that since you took custody of us.” Jessica’s eyes were ripe
with betrayal. “I wasn’t fast enough, didn’t fight hard enough, coddled Amanda
too much. I’m not going to let you talk me out of this. We’re going.”

Stung by
her niece’s words, Gwen couldn’t find any words. She was hard on the girls, yes.
But what choice did she have? Their lives were dangerous. The demons were
always coming. She needed to fix it and the girls had to be strong. Their
preparation hadn’t been an option, but for Jessica to feel like Gwen wasn’t on
her side…

Mike
stepped forward and spoke with a level voice. “Gwen and I will check into our
sources. Make sure everything is all right in the underworld. If there’s
trouble…
If we call, will you answer?”

Jessica
solemnly nodded. “Absolutely.” She shook Mike’s offered hand.

“Then
that’s all we can ask. God speed, girls.”

Amanda
turned to follow Jessica’s lead out of the church. Gwen hated to just see her
go. Shouting out to her, Gwen cupped her mouth. “She’ll get you killed. Amanda,
your sister’s head isn’t right.”

She
turned with a sweet smile on her face. “I know, Aunt Gwen. I can feel it, see
it, but I’ll get her through it. The best thing for her is to rescue Duncan.
Face her demons.”

Gwen’s
heart sunk as Amanda left. Sighing she blamed Mike. “This is all your fault.
You could’ve taken my side.”

“It’s
been a long time since I’ve taken your side even when you’re wrong, Genevieve.
What Duncan did for Amanda in Jessica’s absence, he deserves our help.”

“And when
the world fades into total darkness because Jessica and Amanda are nowhere to
be found? What then?”

Mike
snorted. “You never know anything but gloom, do you?”

“Something
is wrong, Mike. I can feel it in my bones.” Gwen stopped short of grabbing him
to give him a shake, but she really wanted to. “We’re going to need those girls
and they’ll be nowhere to be found.”

“Jessica
said she’d answer if we called.”

Gwen
shook her head with a sly smirk. “You have a thing or two to learn about
Jessica Blood.”

“And you
have a thing or two to learn about Amanda Blood.” Mike crossed his arms and
gazed out the window. “She’s not the frail small girl she was once. Amanda can
stand up to Jessica.”

“Oh.”
Gwen couldn’t keep the amused tone to herself. “Well, sounds like my niece has
a new fan.”

“An
appreciation. A respect. Something you should consider trying.”

Maybe
Gwen was going about things the wrong way. Wouldn’t be the first time.