Bound in Blood 1 Clandestine (27 page)

His eyes were open and staring. He wasn’t dead though not
yet. Thoughts of her mother lying helpless in her hospital bed
flashed before her eyes and that was the only encouragement she
needed.
She pressed the tip of the blade to his chest. She would have
to get through the ribs and penetrate the heart. The blow to his
back must have been close. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so
debilitated. As she broke the skin Andre spoke.
“This won’t bring her back,” Andre choked. His whole
body shook with the effort to speak but his voice wasn’t much
above a whisper.
It took everything Emily had not to bludgeon him to death.
“Maybe not,but it will make me feel better.” She pushed the
blade in another inch. André gasped and tried to swipe at the hilt.
The effort was pointless. His strength had dwindled enough that
Emily didn’t even budge her position. “Kill me if you must but
my work is already in effect.” He coughed and a trickle of blood
ran out of the corner of his mouth. “Lina and I have made a
faction of soldiers to deal with this miserable little town. You
won’t-” His words were cut off with another bout of coughing.
He retched a fountain of blood that pooled around his head thick
and viscous. It didn’t
at all
look human.
Emily swallowed back nausea at the sight of the blood. She
reached up to tuck hair behind her ear that had escaped the pony
tail earlier and left a wet track down her jaw. She hoped absently
that it wasn’t blood. “Where is this Lina? What about the
newborns?”
“They will come to you soon enough,” Andre sputtered. He
attempted to sneer at her but it was just sickening with all the
blood. If it was even possible, his face had gone even more of a
fish belly white giving it the pallor of chalk. It looked as though
if she blew air at him he would turn to dust and disappear.
“Tell me and I’ll make this quick.” She put more pressure
on the hilt to emphasize her point.
The dying vampire sighed causing blood to gurgle in his
throat. “Never.” He closed his eyes for a second before regaining
focus on her. “Your mother wanted…”
Emily never found out what her mother wanted. Her name
on his lips was the final straw for Emily and she drove the knife
home strong and true. Andre was still staring at her, but he no
longer saw her. Emily Jameson had just killed another vampire.
Not just any vampire, she had managed to cut the thread of life
from a head vampire. She fell back on the floor, leaning back on
her hands with a sigh of relief.
There was only a moment of calm before the room erupted
again. The fallen slayers as well as Sebastian were free from
Andre’s spell now that he was gone. Sebastian jumped up and
ran to her, while the others came back to life more slowly and
disoriented.
“Are you alright?” Sebastian asked with concern. He
offered her a hand up and she took it.
She wiped her blood stained hands on her pants with
disgust. “Yeah,just peachy, how about you?” Despite her
exhaustion, her voice sounded falsely perky and upbeat. If it
wasn’t for the carnage at her feet it would have seemed as
though everything were normal.
“Honestly? A little bummed that you stole the glory and got
Andre, but whatever.” An approving smile tugged at his lips,
spreading into an actual grin.
Emily stared at him incredulous for about five seconds
before breaking into a smile herself. “Why Mr. Sebastian? Are
you actually smiling? Apparently I should kill head vampires
more often.”
“Don’t let it go to your head Jameson.” Just like that,
Sebastian’s mask was back on. Even through the guarded facade,
his gorgeous eyes still shown with pride. “Good work and I’m
sorry about your…”
Emily waved off his sympathy. “Don’t worry about it. It is
what it is.” She was really good at hiding her true emotion.
Emily wasn’t about to let Sebastian or anyone else know how
much Andre’s confession had really gotten to her. She did plan
however, to let Sam know what she thought on the subject. For
the moment her emotions were in check. It felt like ice had
crystallized around Emily’s heart keeping her whole. Any
minute reality would set in and shatter the sharp shards of ice
that were stabbing into her soul, tearing her already formed
wound wide open.
“Bass? What happened?” Kyle was still trying to drag
himself to his feet.
With a dramatic flourish of his arm Sebastian gestured at
Emily. “Well, it would appear that Emily stole the show and did
our job.” He bowed to her… actually bowed.
Emilygiggled embarrassed. “Stop it.”
“Way to go Em,” Tyler said proudly. He brushed the hair
out of his face as he watched Andre’s dead form lying broken on
the floor. “That is frickin awesome.”
Ivy stared at Emily as though she had never seen her before.
The normally rude girl had bruises on her face and some definite
swelling. Emily could tell Ivy was amazed. It was kind of
satisfying to show the other girl up. Maybe now she wouldn’t
treat Emily with such hatred, probably not though.
Before they could leave for the compound Sebastian said
they had to take care of business at the house. As a team, they
collected the bodies of Andre and Charles and hauled them to the
back yard. The seasoned slayers explained to Emily and Tyler
that the old ones took longer to turn to dust. It would happen
eventually,but that wasn’t good enough. In matters of the
supernatural, time was of the essence. They couldn’t afford to
take the chance an unsuspecting human stumbled across the
bodies before they vanished. That would cause an epic uproar
that wouldn’t be easily dealt with.
Once they were in a pile Kyle lit a match and set them on
fire. Emily had never seen a fire blaze up as quickly as that one
had. One second they were looking at a pile of
really dead
vampires and the next into the bright flames of a bon fire.
Within just a few minutes, the bodies were turned to ash
that would leave nothing behind but a scorch mark in the grass.
Sebastian and Tyler gathered rock from the flower beds to put
around the fires circle. If anyone ever came back here, all they
would think was that the people that lived in the house had
weenie roasts in the summer.
The fire had been bitter sweet. It had symbolized the close
of a horrible event. With that closure, came the mark of the
beginning of more death to come. It didn’t smell bad, weirdly
enough. It actually just smelled like any other bon fire. Emily
supposed that was for the best. It wouldn’t pay to have neighbors
come to investigate why the odor of burning flesh was in the air.
When they left, they did so together. No one spoke and that
was okay. They were all preoccupied with what had happened
and with grief for their fallen brother. It wasn’t awkward though.
For the first time in a long time Emily felt like she was in the
right place with her life. So with her new family, she went home.

The day after the raid went by in a blur, thanks to Emily
sleeping through half of it. When she woke up she still felt
crappy, but rested.

Aside from muscle fatigue her body was in good condition.
Who would have thought a person could escape multiple
vampire attacks with only minimal soreness? She might not be
like the average vampire slayer, but at least she healed like one.

Alexander had decided there must have been something
wrong with the summoning process. Emily clearly had displayed
slayer characteristics during the raid and her extra abilities
proved she was not a regular human. He vowed to help her track
her history and get to the bottom of things. Little did he know,
Emily was a very relentless person when it came to such
important things. She planned to hold him to every square inch
of his promise.

After a bit of searching, she found everyone in the kitchen
conferring about the prior day's events. Alexander, Sebastian and
Ivy were sitting around one of the tables eating sandwiches.
Apparently the only food a big tough vampire slayer knew how
to make was bread with meat and cheese.

Kyle and Tyler were standing by one of the long counters
engaging Beth Thomas in what looked like nothing more than
flirty banter. She was shy and awkward, but looked interested.
The poor girl had been through a lot and was probably very
confused. Beth would be returned home in a day or so and
therefore, put back into reality. Would Alexander alter Beth's
memory, removing all traces of her life being threatened? It
might be the best thing, allowing Beth a semblance of normalcy
to her life. No human needed nightmares about being almost
bled to death by an undead creature of the night.

Emily was still confused for crap’s sake and she was smack
dab in the center of this mess. The big Gothic house where they
had taken down Andre would be a prominent fixture in her own
dreams for quite some time. She wondered absently what Sam
was going to think about her recent revelations and
accomplishments. At this point she honestly didn't care.
Nevertheless, she didn’t want to hurt him. He obviously didn’t
want her in this life and with good reason, blamed it for her
mother’s death. Either way, being deceived her whole life had
left her with a bitter taste.

Calling Lucy was going to have to be a priority in the near
future too. Emily had seen five missed calls and several text
from Lucy just before falling asleep. She was freaking out over
Emily’s last text. Understandably, Lucy was confused and panic
mode had set in. Emily didn't know the rules surrounding
humans gaining knowledge about the Underworld, but would be
breaking those rules where Lucy was concerned. She was
Emily’s best friend and she knew she could trust her with this.
After all, hadn’t Lucy already confided that she was connected to
the paranormal world?

It was intriguing to think that Lucy could be psychic. Was it
coincidental that they were both friends with supernatural
powers or had they been drawn together for a reason? It scared
her to think that Luce might be fated to join her in this world.
Lucy was definitely strong enough, probably stronger than
Emily. She definitely had more fighting skills. Karate had been a
normal part of Lucy’s upbringing. Given Lucy's disability,
George thought self defense was necessary for Emily to protect
herself.

The two groups were planning and flirting, while in deep in
conversation. They knew that Lina's counter attack with the
Newborns was sure to come soon. Now that Andre was dead, the
female vampire wouldn’t rest until his killer was brought down
with as many others, as she could manage. Andre had said that
their goal was to demolish this town. The reason why was still a
mystery; what was so important about Lakeview?

Emily and Tyler’s training was going to
need to begin
immediately to utilize their powers. Emily was excited to bone
up on her skills in anticipation of becoming a weapon of mass
destruction.

Emily's other priority was figuring out what was going on
with her and Sebastian. Admittedly, it was a small in comparison
to the problem currently plaguing their town, but it was a
problem none the less. He was so infuriating and yet endearing.
They had a connection even if neither one of them knew what
that was. She hated that she cared when Sebastian thought, no
one had ever mattered in that way. Sure, she cared about Lucy
and what happened to her but it wasn’t the same. This was a raw,
borderline obsession that she needed to get a handle on. If she
was a crush, it was the last thing she needed when her life was
growing more complicated by the minute.

In a nutshell, Emily found out she is apparently a powerful
vampire slayer hailing from a family of hunters. Life as she
knew it wasn’t at all the way things worked, she had a heart
gripping crush on someone she didn’t even fully know if she
wanted. Her best friend was some kind of psychic. Her
secondary best friend was hot, holding mystical powers to aid in
the cause of killing the undead. Not to mention, a newly formed
army of vampires were attacking her town with the objective of
taking her life. Yet again, just another day in the life.

What the future had in store was a mystery. Emily was
scared, confused and oddly a little excited. It wasn’t the thought
of killing the vampires that excited her, but the idea of being part
of something bigger. It was up to her and the other slayers to
save Lakeview before more innocents were killed or changed
into the walking dead. She was going to have to figure out
school and her job, but that was okay. The fight against the evil
that lurked in the shadows of her town was more important. She
might not have a lot of ties in Lakeview, but she would defend it
until the bitter end or die trying.

Having lived in the same rainy town within Washington
State her entire life, she loves life regardless of what it may
bring. Though Nicole was initially born with her eyesight, she is
now completely blind. Despite the odds, she has overcome
adversity and doesn't allow anything to get in her way. Writing
has always been a passion of hers throughout her life and this
books stands as a testament to her determination. Look out
world, Nicole Rae is here to stay!