Read Don't Kill Dinner (The Rules Trilogy) Online
Authors: Jennifer Martinez
When I walked into the house I heard a strange noise from the den. I walked in to find Arthur sprawled out on the couch watching the news. I tried to bury my excitement of a job well done as I plopped down next to him and snuggled into his strong, perfect chest. “What happened?” I asked while looking into the amazing sapphire pools that were his eyes.
“A human went crazy on some rapist, slit his throat and carved rapist and con into his chest,” he responded deep in thought.
“Well good for them,” I replied. “If it’s true he deserved it and they deserve a medal.” He looked at me slightly shocked but more confused. After a minute he asked, “Do you really think he deserved to die in his underwear in an alley? What if they had he wrong guy? Is human life that trivial to you?” I could see where this was going and I had to put a stop to it quick. I grabbed his face and kissed him lightly before responding, “Of course not Arthur, but what if they got it right? What if he was a murdering rapist and a con man. What if he raped the killer’s girlfriend and left her for dead in that same alley. You know how flawed the justice system is. What if he came after me. You would have done the same thing.” As our foreheads touched I knew I had won that argument. We spent the rest of the evening cuddled on the couch watching Harry Potter before we finally headed up to bed.
As I lay
in bed in the arms of my best friend and lover I contemplated what I was doing. Going against the very rules I was meant to uphold and lying to my soul mate about it. Something we promised never to do. It had to be done though. No one else was going to take control of this city and maybe, just maybe, if the Sirens saw someone taking a forced hand on the city they would leave. Finally convinced that I was doing what was best for my coven and my city I fell into a restless sleep.
Two days later I knew for sure I got away scott free with the rapist. It was a human vigilante and all of the families of his victims were being investigated. I wasn’t worried because all of them were innocent but I still felt bad they had to have their time wasted. Arthur was becoming his normal fun loving self and I was beyond happy to have him back. I loved him so much, I knew I could never live without him. We spent our days walking around the city and enjoying the sights and sounds. Our nights were spent enjoying each others company. I tried to keep my killings down to a minimum but it seemed that the effects were wearing off much quicker than before. Thankfully there was no lack of scum in the city.
Out weekly strategy meetings with the coven were going well. The sirens were still a real threat and we had to do something. I was happy that I was still involved in the strategy part even if I still wasn’t on the list for the raid. Don’t get me wrong, I was still pissed but I was trying to look at the glass half full.
After strategy, I would work with Aurel on my immunity to the siren song. I hadn’t lost to him yet but he had come close to getting me a time or two so I still had work to be done. I had to learn how to close off my mind. Apparently one of Aurel’s talents was the ability to break into the mind of any creature, making him extremely valuable to the coven.
As the weeks past, the lessons and the strategies continued. It’s amazing how the mind and body work. I was stronger even without the blood. It took the entire two months before the raid but I was finally granted permission to join Arthur’s team. I had finally and gloriously repelled Aurel and entered his mind instead, thank you pedo I drained the night before. With our mental bond Arthur and I were able to communicate silently which would be a necessity for this mission.
We sent sentinels in to scout the place the night before the raid. In the last two months the number of sirens had doubled to at least one hundred. It was even better for our plan. With the added numbers the mass mentality would reign and they would be easier to subdue and conquer
. It still baffled me that they thought a large group of them could take over and thrive in a single city. They would kill everyone in no time and that was not going to happen on our watch.
The morning of the raid there was a tangible excitement in the air at the Harrison house. As we donned our black Kevlar shirts and black cargo pants the excitement continued to grow. We were both jumpy with the anticipation of the raid. I slipped my sai into their holsters on my thigh and my dagger into its rightful place in my boots and we were ready to go.
When we arrived at mission control we split into our groups and prepped for go. Arthur and I were on the roof squad. There were no fire escapes so we had to jump onto the roof. One stumble or hard landing and our location would be compromised. We reviewed the plan with all of the teams and grabbed the rest of our gear from the white van bearing the name “Heartfelt Condolences and Flowers.”
I couldn’t think of a more perfect van for the mission. There are only two ways to kill a Siren; beheading it or stabbing it through the heart with bronze. The ground teams gathered their guns and bronze ammo while the roof squad all grabbed blades. I don’t care who you are, jumping thirty feet in the air with a semi-automatic gun strapped to your back never ended well, but a blade could travel the distance with minimum discomfort. I grabbed a pair of bronze katana from the back of the van and tested them out while we waited for the rest of the groups to get into position.
The five teams were set. Arthur and I with the rest of the Roof squad would go in first. Once we broke the windows the ground teams would enter forcing the Sirens to the one remaining door that led to their imminent demise. Everyone was in their places and it was go time. The six members of the roof team made the leap to the gravel filled roof of the old warehouse. We silently walked to the windows in the center of the roof and waited for the signal from Saber, the ops guy.
He gave us the final go ahead, we broke the windows and were on our way down. The sirens immediately started their song but we were all immune. The world slowed as I grabbed my katana blades from across my back and started killing the trespassers. It rem
inded me of the instant replay on Call of Duty, where all the killings move in slow motion and you get to see the fear on the faces of the dying. It didn’t take long for the Sirens to notice the other two teams converging on their pod and they made the run for the only unguarded door. As they ran we continued to take them out. The Kevlar shirts the roof team wore kept us safe from the rainbow of bronze bullets piercing the crowd and taking out the sirens. I continued to plow through the Sirens headed for the door with my katanas acting as extensions of my arms. I loved my blades and it showed when it came time to fight.
Once the last siren made it through the door and into the grasp of the final two teams it was up to us to run a sweep of the building. I replaced my katanas behind my back and prepped my sai for any surprises. It took a little over an hour to run the sweep of the warehouse with the sixteen vampires from in breach teams. We found nothing unusual
, which was unusual in and of itself. As the last of the breach teams left the warehouse I felt the pull. There was something in the warehouse, we just didn’t find it.
I grabbed Arthur by the wrist before he walked back into the parking lot and told him there was something in the building through our mental bond. I walked back to the center of the warehouse where we had first dropped in, closed my eyes and took a deep breath. At first I could feel Arthur’s presence but I was quickly able to tune him out. There were humans in the building, a lot of them. I focused my attention on their heartbeats.
There were wooden crates stacked throughout the warehouse. I started walking, with my eyes still closed, trying to get a better feel for the pulses caressing my skin.
I stopped in front of one large crate where the pulse seemed the strongest. I opened my eyes and sent Arthur a message that I had found them. We surveyed the crate for a point of entry and once we f
ound it we entered. There were three sirens guarding the humans. Once they were dispatched it was time to save the people.
The people
were filthy and crammed in a basement under the warehouse. The crate hid the stairway leading to it, which was why we hadn’t seen it before. Looked like we found out how the sirens were feeding without the whole world knowing about them, they were trafficking humans for consumption. This batch looked to be from somewhere near India or Asia.
It took some time but we were finally able to convince the scared humans that it was safe to leave the basement and that we would not harm them. Once they all filed out of the basement w
e could get a true count. There were over two hundred humans being hoarded in the warehouse. Arthur got on the phone with Saber who put a call in to a vampire that worked for the PITF to get these poor humans a safe home and a good meal. Once the PITF arrived and took the people to safety we were left to finish out the job by incineration.
Once the s
irens bodies were touched by fire they would evaporate. This made fire the easiest method of containment. We left the arson team to finish their job and headed to Port of Call to celebrate a job well done.
In the time that followed the raid on the Siren warehouse, life returned back to normal. The paranoms were no longer on high alert and we were able to lull back into our happy normal lives. Neither Arthur or I had real jobs but with his family fortune we never had to worry about bills. We were living the good life. We visited Brittany in LA, took a trip to see the cherry blossom festival in DC and even spent Christmas in Florida with my family. I was still killing people but I had mastered hiding the bodies. The basement from the warehouse was still intact and the sirens had thought ahead enough to add a separate air flow system. I would lead my meals to the warehouse consume them and leave the bodies in the basement.
The streets of New Orleans had never looked nicer. Crime was down and the city was cleaner. The mysterious disappearances of the scum of the city had led to a rejuvenation of sorts. It was nice to know that I was doing good for my city. I had learned to control my powers and had been able to blend in nicely with the rest of the vampire community.
After a particularly rough week I went out for a
run. It had been about three weeks since my last kill and I was beginning to feel lethargic. When I left the house Arthur was in the library reading. I headed down to the overpass to see if anyone new had come to town worth eating. I found a wonderful specimen of carjacker and led him to my private dining room by the docks. He was nothing too special but tasted fine anyways. After I finished sucking the last drip of blood from his body I opened the hatch to the basement and dropped him in.
When I turned around I was caught. Arthur stood behind me with his eyes filled with disgust and heartbreak and his mouth hung open in shock.
“This isn’t… I mean… just hear me out.” I studdered through my shock and my own disappointment.
“This isn’t what,” he replied with a poisonous tint to his voice “please Kenna, explain to me why I just saw you kill a human and toss them into a mass grave.”
I walked forward and tried to hold his hand but he pulled away. “He was a carjacker. I saw him trying to steal someone’s car. I stopped him before he could hurt them but how could I let him live?” I asked. “He would have done it again. I did the city a favor right? Now he can’t hurt anyone again.”
I dropped my head in shame. Hearing the words come out of my mouth sounded pathetic. I can’t believe I let myself get into this
mess. All he could say was, “How many. How many people have you killed for the greater good?” I could hear the seething hatred in his voice and it killed me. This was why I never told him. I knew he would react this way. I just shook my head and looked at the floor. There was no way I could look him in the eyes. He hated me and I knew it. I had lost the only reason I had left to live.
I collapsed onto the ash and rubble ridden floor and began to cry. Without meaning to or wanting to I spilled my guts to the only person who truly cared about me. I told him about how I didn’t remember the first consumption but I felt different. I told him about dragon lady when my anger got the best of me. The rapist who tried to attack me
, and the others I’d killed. I told him about the power and how I only wanted it to do good for my coven, for him. Without the power we wouldn’t have found the humans in the jail cell turned grave below us. I could only hope my soul mate would forgive me. I was broken and damaged but I was not beyond saving. I could quit if it meant I didn’t lose Arthur.
He looked at me shook his head and turned his back to walk away. After I had spilled my guts he turned his back. I was destroyed. I had no reason to live anymore. Without him I was just as useful as the rubble I lay on top of. After
what seemed like hours he finally came back and looked at me. I could hear the strain in his voice as he said, “I can’t trust you anymore. I still love you but you will have to fight like hell to earn what you lost today.” He picked me up and hugged me in an embrace that could heal the world. He did still love me. I would never do anything to upset him again. The pain in his eyes was like a dagger to my heart. I could never put him through that much agony again.