Blood Lust (The Blood Sisters Book 1) (2 page)

“It’ll
get better,” Jessica whispered to the kids and shut the door. It had to, right?
Those kids…

Both
fury and bile rose in her and Jessica marched into the living room. There was a
stench in the air she couldn’t qualify. Amanda sat on the sofa with Nancy. In
tight black jeans and a tank top, she was almost a skeleton. What hair she had
hung like straw around her face and her eyes bulged from what must’ve been
malnutrition.

From
the way she moved on the sofa, rocking back and forth, it was clear Nancy
hadn’t had a hit in a while.

Good.
Jessica could use that to her advantage.

“Can
you even take care of your children?” Fire raged beneath Jessica’s skin. Her
parents were gone. They were dead and buried, had been since she was ten years
old, yet this lifeless sack of flesh got to just throw it all away? How was
that fair?

“Don’t
judge me.” Nancy’s voice droned. The skin stretched thin across her jaw and
large teeth. “I want to get clean. I want to…”

Jessica
sighed and crossed her arms. Amanda sat still, stroking Nancy’s hand in a way
that gave Jessica chills.

How
could she bring herself to touch such filth? “Can I talk to you for a minute,
please?” Jessica bugged her eyes to get her point across.

Amanda
smiled. “I’ll be right back, okay?” She rose and followed Jessica down the
hall. “Jess, I know—.”

“Do
you?” Jessica stomped her foot and pointed to the kids’ bedroom. “Look in
there. Just look and you tell me that worthless shit deserves them. Are they
even going to school? Go ahead and look, Amanda, just look.”

“I
don’t need to look.” Amanda’s voice was calm as tears rose in her eyes. “I can
feel it all. I see the green haze that has fallen over this place. The
hopelessness. The despair. The inner pain,” Amanda nodded her head, “it’s
strongest in that room.”

Jessica’s
stomach sank.

“But
she loves them. If we can clean this town…”

“That’s
a big if, and a big risk, Mandy.” Jessica shook her head. “Can you heal Nancy?”

“I
can’t make her gain weight. I can’t put her mind right, not until she’s off the
drugs.” Amanda glanced back down the hall. “If you spook her, she won’t take us
to the demons’ clubhouse. We can find the suppliers in town, but their hidden
base of operations?” She shook her head. “That’s on you, sister.”

Tell
me something I don’t already know thought Jessica. She crossed her arms and
marched into the living room. Nancy shuddered and turned her head. Jessica
squatted in front of her to make eye contact. “For your kids, I’m going to help
you. Tonight I’m going to take you to work. I’ll watch from outside. Make sure
you’re safe.”

Nancy
quivered. “I don’t want to go back. Branger, he scares me. He gave me drugs for
working for free, but I—it’s not worth the risk. I won’t go back there. I
won’t!”

“He’ll
come,” Jessica said with power, “and he’ll gut you. Kill you like a fish, and
your daughters? He’ll take them. They’ll be strung out, like you, and sold to
the highest bidder. Is that what you want?”

Nancy’s
face scrunched up and she cried. Her eyes searched for Amanda, but before
Amanda could step forward, Jessica snatched Nancy’s arm. Her
wide-eyed
expression, made it clear she was
afraid to yank it away.

“Do
this for me and we’ll protect you. Take you and your kids, get you settled somewhere
else. You get me?”

Nancy
wouldn’t look at Jessica, but Amanda nodded. “It’s the only way, Nancy. If you
can’t trust her, trust me.”

That’s
why Jessica called Amanda the closer. With words like that, Jessica didn’t
really need any enemies, but it worked. It almost always did and Nancy nodded.
She wiped the tears from her face.

“My
kids, they haven’t eaten dinner. Maybe not even breakfast.” Nancy blubbered and
twisted her fingers together. Shame sunk her features. “This isn’t what I
wanted for my life. It…”

“Then
get it back. Put it in order. We start tonight.” Jessica grabbed Amanda’s hand
and pulled her to the corner. Amanda nearly tripped and yelped as she struggled
to keep up.

“Geesh,
Jessica!”

“Stay
here. Take care of these kids. Get them something good to eat. Then give them
what they need. I saw some storybooks in the corner of their room.”

Amanda
smiled. “And they say you don’t care about people.”

Jessica
snorted with a shake of her head. “Don’t answer the door for anyone. We’ll be
as fast as we can be. When we get back, you have to be ready to move. This town
needs a cleansing worse than I’ve ever seen. If we’re going to exorcise this
place, you’ll need your strength.”

Amanda’s
eyes revolved back to darkness in a way they usually didn’t. “The demon drugs
are spreading a lot faster here than I expected. It’s usually a big city thing,
but now? It’s everywhere, Jess.”

Jessica
knew that and she was going to stop it, one way or another. Cleanse this town,
move onto the next, and hopefully steer clear of any demons who might want a
piece of the Blood sisters.

****

Demons.

Jessica’s
lip snarled as she sat in her car and cut the headlights. The demon clubhouse,
The Gypsy Curse,
was hidden, away from
town. An old abandoned building that, if Jessica didn’t miss her guess, used to
be a wood. Smoke poured out of the chimney. Jessica peered through the old,
foggy windows at the demons hovering around a bar.

 
“Get in there,” Jessica ordered while keeping
her eyes forward, studying as much of the landscape she could. “Do your job and
then I’ll take you home. Amanda and I will come here after we move you and the
kids. We’ll deal with this place and clean this town.”

It
was only then that she allowed herself to look at Nancy for the first time
since they had left the apartment. Jessica sure as hell didn’t like what she
saw, a pitiful woman who barely clung to
life
.
Barely, and Nancy didn’t even know it. She was so close to the
edge,
but was oblivious to how near she danced
to the ledge. It made Jessica want to pound the steering wheel.

Nancy
snorted. “Here I thought you didn’t care, but you do, don’t you?”

Yeah,
Jessica was a bleeding heart alright. She rested her wrist on the steering
wheel as if she might peel out at any moment. “Just get inside, do your job,
and don’t rouse suspicion.” Jessica could do that part all on her own. “We’ll
get you out of here as soon as we can. Just don’t mess this up.”

Nancy
hobbled over toward the front entrance and the coast, for the most part, was
clear. These demons weren’t expecting company. Jessica used that to her
advantage. Once Nancy was inside, Jessica snuck around the property to check it
out.

The
wilderness surrounding the clubhouse was withered and brittle. It smelled of
rotting leaves and all around the area, nature was dying. Demons had a way of
infecting a land, like leeches, sucking the
life
from the Earth. This area had been
infected
a long time.

Too
long.

Jessica’s
jaw was tight as she crept around the back. There was a set of wooden stairs
that led up to a second level porch. It didn’t exactly look stable, the wood
was aged and felt coarse when she rested a hand on the railing.
The place
could really use a fresh coat of
paint. If it wasn’t for Nancy inside, Jessica could just set fire to the place
and call it a day, but when there was one
human…
there were usually more.

She
peered inside the window and saw she wasn’t wrong. Inside was a stage where
underage girls danced around poles. Jessica squeezed her eyes shut and ducked
beneath the window before she was spotted.

Underage
girls stolen from their parents. Jessica wasn’t sure which she hated more, the
corrupting of young girls, or the drugs that flowed from demons. Maybe she just
hated it all, but to see those young girls, it made her see red.

To
help the girls, Jessica would shut the place down.
Otherwise,
they’d never be free. Not really. The drugs would keep
them on a shorter leash than the ones they wore around their neck and rape, —
well rape was just par for the course.

Time
to chart a new one.

Jessica
slid around the side of the clubhouse and came to an old soda pop cooler. She
lifted the lid and her lip twisted into a smile. Bingo. Just what she was
looking for:

 
ammunition and guns.

Jessica
stashed a few guns in the waistband of her jeans and pocketed the shotgun
shells. Now all she could do was wait for Nancy’s shift to end and get her out
of there.

Waiting
was the hard part.

Jessica
kicked the front door to Nancy’s apartment open with Nancy draped over her
back. The unconscious woman moaned, the aroma of rotten eggs escaped her mouth.
Jessica secured the door and heard the shuffling of feet behind her.

“Into
your room, kids!” Amanda’s voice was urgent, but Jessica just made her way into
the bathroom and ignored everything else. The bathtub was slick with grime and
corners of the room were littered with the carcasses of cockroaches.

Jessica
scrunched her nose and did her best to ignore that. She placed Nancy into the
tub and turned the cold shower on full blast. The water pelted Nancy in the
face, but still, she barely shuddered. Barely breathed.

“Nancy,”
Jessica gritted her teeth. Couldn’t she have stayed away from the drugs for a
few more hours? Given them the time to do what they needed to do?

Jessica
slapped Nancy’s face. Nancy’s head snapped to the side, but she barely
flinched. She hadn’t felt it. Angry, Jessica bent over and gripped her cheeks,
pulling her mouth open “Fight for your children, you son of a—”

Water
poured from the shower into Nancy’s mouth. Her eyes opened as she gagged and
Jessica saw the green mist from the demon’s essence wafting from her eyes and
around her cheeks. It was strong, overpowering her soul.

They
didn’t have long.

Nancy
gagged again and her skin went pale. Jessica turned the shower off and rolled
Nancy onto her side so she wouldn’t choke on her puke.

“What
happened?” Amanda rushed in.

Jessica
turned her head toward the door. Amanda’s face was ripe with worry. “Your
friend here couldn’t stay away. Not even for a few hours. I thought we were
going to lose her. We still might.”

Amanda
stepped up close beside her and they watched as Nancy wretched into the basin.
“I can….” Nancy’s voice warbled, “explain…”

“Can
you heal her?” Jessica asked listlessly.

Amanda’s
eyes widened with disbelief. “You know the answer to that. I can’t take away
her desire for the drugs. I can’t reach into the underworld and find her soul.
I can’t make her put her life right, Jessica.” Amanda bit her lip and her eyes
were eternally sad.

Jessica
felt it too. She bent over the basin and her eyes darkened.

Nancy
pushed her finger into Jessica’s face. “Don’t you judge me! Don’t!”

“Why
not?” Jessica’s brow furrowed together in condemnation. “You leave your kids
here to go score, right? How often did you leave them alone while they slept?
Why the hell shouldn’t someone tell you to knock it off? Huh?” Jessica resisted
the urge to punch her and stormed off, but Nancy’s
sob
followed her.

“Easy,”
Amanda’s voice was soft as she tried to console Nancy. “She’s on your side. I
know you can’t tell, I know she can be harsh, but she wants to help you. You
just have to be willing to accept her brand of help.”

Her
brand of help. Like Jessica’s help was so different than everyone else’s? Maybe
if Nancy hadn’t been babied or coddled all her life…Jessica sighed and slipped
inside the bedroom. The blond kids sat on their beds with books on their laps.
The covers were rumpled and torn.

They
both gazed up at Jessica in their mismatched clothes that were too small and
frayed around the edges. Jessica had half a mind to take them out of this place
right now, but as much as she hated Nancy, she hated the foster system even
more.

“Your
mom’s sick. I’m going to help get her better, okay? So you both can get better
too,” Jessica cupped the youngest face, “I promise. Now, did you guys have
enough to eat?”

The
older one grinned. “We had cheeseburgers and pie. Then she got
us
cake.”

Of
course she did, Jessica sighed. Amanda’s sweet tooth was legendary.

“I
know this place, well, it could be better. We’re going to move you tonight. Why
don’t you pick a few of your favorite things and get ready, okay?”

The
girls paused. They stared at each other and then at Jessica. She knew there
wasn’t much here, but there must be something… Jessica glanced down and saw
their hands tightly clasped, holding onto each other for dear life.

Jessica
bent down in front of them and touched the elect’s hair. “I know how you feel.
I have a sister too. And don’t you stop, okay? Don’t stop taking care of each
other. Sometimes it’s all you have.” Jessica shrugged. “Sometimes.”

The
girls’ mouths were set tight. Jessica didn’t know what they were thinking, but
a second later a ruckus outside drew her attention, the sound of wood
splintering. It could only be the front door. Jessica ran for the shut bedroom
door and before she could peer outside, the rapid sound of
gunfire
erupted.

Amanda
was out there alone. And she was trapped in the bedroom with some hapless kids.

The
girls in the room were crying and Jessica’s insides screamed to protect them.
“Quickly,” Jessica whispered, “quietly!” She led them over to a closet hanging
with previously pretty princess dresses. The pink satin cloth was ripped and
stained. Once, they had been elegant play clothes, now they were abandoned,
like happy times left behind. Memories eroded like chocolate stains sliding to
jeweled tulle.

Pushing
the dresses to the side, Jessica helped them squat. “Not a peep. Not a peep until
I come back.”

“What
if you don’t come back?” The older girl asked.

Then
God
help
them. Such sweet little faces.
Jessica wouldn’t see them sold into the trade. Not while she was still
breathing.

Jessica
pushed the door open enough to peek through it with one eye. The sofa and walls
were covered
with
bullet holes and the
front door was cracked in half, swaying on its hinges. No signs of demons.

That
wasn’t good.

She
left the confines of the bedroom and nearly tripped over Nancy’s body. A bullet
had torn through her shoulder, but it didn’t look that bad. In fact, the bullet
was spiraling out of her flesh as if Amanda had been healing her wound…but was
interrupted.

Where
was Amanda now?

Jessica
clenched her jaw, “Mandy!” She called and looked around as Nancy grabbed her
wrist.

“They
took her,” Nancy whispered. “They got her.”

Jessica’s
heart skipped a beat and she glanced back at the bedroom door where the kids
were. Her heart was torn in two, but there was only one person she was loyal
to. “I’ll call for help. Get you an ambulance. Police for your kids. Your
problems, they’re going to be brought into the light.”

She
struggled to pull away as Nancy clung to her ankle. “Please, my babies, you
can’t leave my babies alone in there!”

There
were no easy choices, but Jessica would call the police. Get them here. Demons
had wanted Amanda almost all her life. She couldn’t let them win. Jessica
couldn’t let Amanda fall prey.

So
no matter how much Jessica worried about those kids or how much she loathed her
actions, she left. For Jessica, there was no other choice. It was time for
Nancy to stand on her own.