Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter (32 page)

“Hi there,” a woman with platinum blond hair said. “I
haven’t seen you before. I’m Rachel.”

“Hey. My name’s Aurora.”

The woman smiled. “Well, Aurora, it’s nice of you to join us.”

People certainly knew how to mingle here.

“Let me know if anyone bothers you.”

“Um, thanks.” Was this woman a vampire? I didn’t see any
bite marks on her neck. Vampires really ought to stick out more.

“Don’t mention it.” Rachel smiled and walked out of the
kitchen.

I followed her out and leaned against a wall overlooking the
living room. Now me, I wasn’t a mingler. I was more of the type to stand
nervously in the corner thinking about how I didn’t know anyone.

“Hi there.” A man in his late twenties joined my side. Like
all the other males partying at the palace, he wasn’t bad to look at. “Are you
friends with Marcus?”

“We just met.”

“Same here. I’m William, by the way.”

“Aurora.”

“That’s a pretty name.” He smiled and tilted his head toward
the living room. “My girlfriend goes way back with Marcus…centuries back.”

I turned and looked at him closer. “Your girlfriend’s a
vampire?” Was it Rachel? How many inter-species couples were there at this
thing? Maybe dating Fane wasn’t such a big whoop after all—apparently, everyone
was doing it. I scanned the women in the crowd. “I haven’t met any lady vamps.”

William chuckled. “No, you don’t come across too many fanged
females. Quite the pity.”

“How long have you been together?”

“About a year.”

“And you’re not worried about what will happen when you get
older and she doesn’t?”

William smirked. “How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“Shouldn’t someone your age be living in the now rather than
worrying about the future?”

“It’s never too soon to think about the future.”

“Life’s short. It could end at any moment.”

I glanced into the living room. My eyes rested on Marcus.
“Or it could go on and on.”

William followed the direction of my eyes. “For the chosen.
As for the rest, what does it matter when they die?”

I shrugged. Sounded sort of dark.

“Would you like to meet your first lady vampire?”

“Sure.”

“She’s outside having a smoke. Do you smoke, Aurora?”

“No.”

“Ah, of course not, you’ve got your future to think about.”

I guessed it wasn’t Rachel, then, because she was standing
beside a telescope at the window with another blond woman.

“Do you have a coat?” William asked.

I shook my head. “I left it in the car.”

“Then we won’t stay outside long.”

William hurried me along the front path. “She’s smoking by
the street,” he said. “House rules.”

I rubbed my arms. At least I was wearing a long-sleeved
shirt. “You know, maybe I should meet her when she comes back inside. That’s
the trouble with being human,” I attempted to joke. “We’re susceptible to the
cold.”

“She’s right up here,” William said. “Hey, Wendy,” he
called. “Where are you?”

The name set an alarm off in my head. Before I had a chance
to panic, William turned and looked directly at me. “There you are.”

 25

Stupid, stupid, stupid
. How could I be so
stupid? Sure, let’s follow the stranger outside to the secluded street. And
seriously? Who really wanted to meet a female vampire when there were so many hotties
posturing like statues inside the palace—that place where there were actual
people to shout out to for help?

A rusted Buick idled on the road. Two doors opened up front
and a couple of scuzzbuckets stepped out.

“This her?” one asked.

William nodded. “We’ve found ourselves an assassin, boys.”

I turned to run, but William grabbed me by the hair and
yanked back. My entire head felt like it’d been whacked against a wall. Tears
leaked out the sides of my eyes. I kneed him in the groin. Did that work on vampires?
Thankfully yes. He grunted and let go of my hair.

One of William’s henchmen wrapped his arms around me from
behind. I stomped on his foot. He shouted. The third one smacked me across the
face so hard I fell back and landed on the ground.

Two of them grabbed me and dragged me to the car while a
third opened the back door. I was shoved inside. A scuzz got on either side of
me. William jumped into the driver’s seat.

I looked from side to side. “So which one of you is Renard?”

William laughed from up front. “I’m Renard.”

“Of course you are,” I said bitterly.

“You’re not the only one who can come up with a phony name,
Wendy
.”

“How did you know who I was?”

“Your friend Janine was very forthcoming…once I broke both
her arms.”

I tightened my hands into fists. “You’re disgusting!”

“
I’m
disgusting?” Renard asked. “What do you call
what you did to Ivo and Patrick?”

“Justice.”

“Hmm. Justice. And that is what’s coming to you, Aurora
Sky.”

If I weren’t so focused on my impending death, I would have
told him to bring it. Death was one thing. It could come swiftly; I knew from
experience. A drawn-out torturous death was another matter altogether.

If I weren’t squeezed in so tight between the two thugs, I
might be able to reach under my jeans for my knife.

“You know, I think I left my purse at the party, so if I
could just pop back in and retrieve it then meet you fellows back here.”

“Funny,” Renard said. “Thomas told me the boy was the funny
one. When is Dante showing up?”

“He’s not.”

The vampire to my left grabbed me by the throat. I choked as
his hands squeezed.

Renard looked in the rearview mirror. “Wait until we get her
to the shack.
Then
we’ll see to it she starts talking.”

Shack? No! I’d rather die at the palace than inside a shack.
Hell, I’d rather die behind the wheel of a car.

Renard drove down Minnesota Boulevard.
There
weren’t many vehicles out, but a few. I looked over at a group of high school
boys cruising beside us. Couldn’t they see a kidnapping was in progress? They
looked over briefly then sped ahead of us.

Unlike Thomas, I wasn’t hooded. There was no need to hood
me. Why had Dante covered Thomas’s eyes to begin with? He probably hadn’t made
the decision to off him at that point. Unlike my situation. No mystery there. I’d
be tortured, interrogated, and killed. At least the blood suckers wouldn’t get
a drop out of me.

The shack turned out to be a foreclosed house in a dark
neighborhood. A realty sign was posted in the front lawn. The garage door had
been left open. Renard pulled in. James got out and pulled me with him. The
other vampire quickly joined us and grabbed my other arm.

Renard led us into the house through a connecting door
inside the garage. It was cold and empty inside. Renard turned an overhead
light on inside the hardwood living room and stepped in the center.

Switch plates were missing from the outlets. Beyond Renard’s
shoulder, I could see into a kitchen. It was missing all its appliances, as
though the previous owners took everything they could with them besides the
actual house.

“So this is a vampire hunter,” Renard said, looking me over
as he paced.

“She just looks like a girl,” the vamp on my right said.

“She is just a girl.”

I glared at him.

“A girl with very bad blood.”

Renard stopped in front of me. “You think my kind shouldn’t
walk the earth, but the way I see it, you’re the atrocity. We’ve been around
for centuries. How long have you genetically altered freaks been around? Couple
decades? You were created in a lab. We,” he said, stretching out his arms, “are
the chosen ones selected by nature to live for all eternity.”

Renard smacked a fist into his hand. “Now, when is your
freak friend going to show up at Marcus’s party?”

“I told you, he’s not.”

Renard glanced at his cohorts. “Aurora, you’ve probably been
wondering exactly what happened to Janine. We’ll show you…starting with your
arms.”

Renard’s goons closed in on me before I could reach for the
dagger. They each took an arm in a bone crushing twist.

“Wait!” I shouted.

I needed to stall. I needed my arms back so I could grab my
knife.

“Yes?” Renard said.

“I—I don’t know exactly when he’s coming. He likes to make a
late appearance.”

Luckily, Dante was safe in Kotzebue with his run-of-the-mill
rabid vampire. Kind of missed those kind right now.

“What’s the plan, Renard?” James asked.

“Greg and I will head back to the party to get the boy.
You’ll stay here and guard her until we return.”

 “And what should I do with her while I wait? Break every
bone in her body?” James’s grip tightened on my arm.

“No, I have a better idea. Bring her here, boys.”

They each gripped an arm and dragged me over to Renard.

“If her blood is toxic to us perhaps our blood is poisonous
to her.”

We have the same blood, you fool!
I felt like
spitting the words at him, but that was classified. Renard looked more intent
on brutality than information. At least that much was going for me. He didn’t
want to interrogate me —just rough me up. Lucky me.

Renard pulled out a knife.

Damn, that was my move.

Renard stepped toward me. “Then again, we could just slit
her throat.”

The eyes of his cronies lit up like ghoulish orbs in their
sockets.

“Do it, Renard!” James yelled. “Gut her like a harpy.”

I thrashed under their grip until I saw the flash of the
knife’s blade just under my eyes. My body seized up in terror.

“You’ll have to excuse my associates. They have no
imagination.” Renard sliced open his wrist in one swift movement, grabbed me by
the back of the head, and thrust his bleeding arm inside my mouth.

My instinct was to bite him in self-defense. I did so
without thinking. When I bit down, I heard him laugh and, too late, felt the
first gush of blood spurt inside my mouth. I gagged in an effort not to
swallow, but the blood was already trickling down my throat.

Renard retracted his wrist and opened his mouth over mine.
He covered my lips in a wet, grotesque kiss before pushing me backward. The
room turned over as I fell. I couldn’t move to brace myself. I was locked up,
as unbending as a pine tree crashing to the ground.

My tailbone connected with the hardwood. Pain shot through
my pelvis. My heart burst into a rapid succession of pattering, as though
trying to punch its way out of my chest. I opened my mouth to gasp, but nothing
came out. Fear. Adrenaline. They powered my performance. It needed to be
convincing.

Every part of me shook: my arms, my legs, my hands, my feet.

No one said anything for several minutes.

When the shaking showed no sign of subsiding, James turned
to Renard and asked, “Can we kill her now?”

“No.” Renard never took his eyes off me. “We leave her like
this.”

“Squirming on the floor?”

Renard’s eyes widened like a sinister grin over his face.
“Suffering. We’ll give the boy a preview of what’s in store for him—a little
taste of their own medicine.”

I made sure to keep my body in a fit of motion. My tailbone
throbbed from when I’d landed against the floor. Moving around didn’t help any.

Renard watched, rapt, for several minutes before bending
down by my side. I couldn’t see what he was up to with my head back, eyes on
the ceiling.

Then I saw his hand reach over my face toward my neck. He
grasped a fistful of my scarf and yanked, causing the fabric to tighten around
my neck then succumb to his brute force.

Renard straightened up and held the scarf up in one hand.
“Got myself a trophy, boys.” He wound it around his neck and tossed one end of
the scarf over his shoulder. “What do you think?”