by SM Reine
“Bullshit!” The tiny vampire cries and leaps across the space between them, toppling the chair backward and pinning the terrified vampire to the floor. “I run the only V V Inn, you disgrace of a vampire.” Cecil’s face collapses in horror. “Perhaps you should have done your research better, asshole.”
Without warning Dria plunges her hand straight into his chest and tears out the vampire’s bloody heart. A scream starts from Cecil but abruptly cuts off when his heart leaves his body. Dria tosses the organ over her shoulder and pulls up her skirt. She extracts a hunting knife strapped to her inner thigh.
My stomach revolts at the horror before me and I swallow bile, hoping I don’t hurl. In a smooth practiced move, Dria severs Cecil’s head from his body and lays it a few feet from his body. Removing the heart first prevented any arterial spray, but her right hand is coated with red all the way up her forearm.
I may be a werewolf, but I’ve never killed a vampire, or anyone else for that matter— animals I’ve hunted while a wolf don’t count as murder in my eyes.
Holy shit. Just exactly what have I gotten myself into with this woman?
She calmly wipes her blade and sullied hand on the dead vampire’s suit jacket before glancing my way. “Well, crap. I hadn’t intended to kill the bastard so quickly tonight. That was until I heard what he called this place—then all my best intentions went out the window.” She sighs once, the sound tired and bone-weary, striding toward the desk.
Dria picks up the phone, while I stare at the wet, sloppy heart at my feet, and dials a number. In a moment whomever she’s calling picks up. “Rafe honey, I’m going to need you here after all. We’ve got quite a mess to clean up.”
Chapter Thirteen
Dria hangs up the phone and focuses her keen gaze on me. “Well, Jon, do you have the courage to eat the heart of your enemy or do you plan on staring at it for a while?”
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. She wants me to eat his freakin’ heart?
“Yes, Jon. That’s exactly what I want you to do. When you kill a vamp you have an opportunity to ingest some of his or her power. Eating his heart will be the best route for a werewolf. As a vampire, I’d drink his blood—drain him dry if I were looking for the power boost.” Her nose curls up in disgust. “Which I’m not. This bastard smells ripe with all kinds of crazy and addiction. I’ll never be that hungry again, thank you very much.”
The fresh blood from the recent kill fills my head, as the disgusting suggestion to devour his heart twists my gut. In wolf form I’ve eaten an animal’s internal organs without a second’s pause. Why does the thought of complying with her suggestion leave me disgusted?
Maybe because the bastard was human at one point? After all, you’d never eat a wolf, would you?
“That would depend on how hungry you were.” Her cold eyes offer no reassurances. “You may not ever be that hungry, Jon. It’s a different time we live in than just one hundred years ago.” Her stare hardens and her mouth thins into a firm line. “Do it. Now.”
I lower my muzzle to the warm organ. The smell of blood and slaughtered flesh fills my head and constricts my throat.
“Don’t let the thoughts linger in your mind and take hold. This is not a life or death decision. This is an alpha protecting those weaker than him—growing stronger to keep doing so.”
I close my eyes, clamp my nostrils closed, and gulp down the heart in one bite, not bothering to chew. The slick mass slides to my stomach, sitting like a hard weight in my middle.
I open my eyes to see her watching me, perhaps wondering if I’ll puke it up and make an ass out of myself.
“Good. The power surge will hit you as it digests. Gross, I know, but one day you’ll thank me for it.”
Somehow I seriously doubt that, but I keep my thoughts locked down tight, trying to avoid what she called my projecting.
Her head tilts to the side as her stare intensifies. “Good. You’re getting better at calming your thoughts.” She walks to my side and kneels. “We’re going to have a rough couple of hours ahead of us, are you going to be able to handle it? Before you agree, let me tell you what’s going to happen.” Her hand reaches out and stokes my fur. “I can’t ‘cure’ a vampire of their addiction.” Her gaze drifts to the wall as her rhythmic petting soothes my jittery stomach. “There is a way I could alter their thoughts… but it won’t change their long term addiction in the end. This means the worst cases will have to die—here, tonight.”
She stands, her comforting touch vanishes, leaving me with a feeling of coldness in its absence.
“It won’t be pretty. It may haunt your nightmares for years. But there is no other choice.” She pats me once on the head. “I won’t think less of you if you need to go to the car.”
A low growl rumbles in my throat. I will not be hightailing it out of here because things turn difficult. I knew going in this wasn’t going to be easy. If I’m honest with myself, there was really no other way to end the evil that resides in this house. But if I’d known I was going to have to eat a heart I might have balked at joining her.
Dria’s lip turns up at one corner. “Okay, wolfman, you made your decision. If you change your mind later I won’t hold it against you. Cold-blooded killing isn’t for everyone, but I promise to make things quick.”
Her delicate nose wrinkles as she glances back at the headless corpse. “Dammit. I will have to take a sip from him to ensure the killing is done swiftly.” Showing none of the hesitation or inner turmoil I faced a few moments ago, she daintily leans over the body and dips two fingers in the pooling blood. She pops the stained digits into her mouth and licks them clean, her face twisting at the tainted taste.
“Ugh. I’ve definitely tasted better, that’s for sure.”
Dria rises and sits again on the vacant chair. She closes her eyes and in a moment her face appears relaxed and serene. After a few heart beats, she opens her eyes, catching me staring at her.
“His blood is in all the wolves here. Their blood is in all of the visiting vampires. It couldn’t have been more perfect for what I need to do. I can twist the connection to suit my plans without ever having met the addicts.” She glances at her watch. “Come, let’s get this over with. Rafe will be here soon and I’d rather have this part behind us when he arrives.”
She opens the office door, revealing a shocked Tara huddled in the hallway. “Something is different,” she says, the fear leaving her voice as she ventures to stand. “My mind is starting to clear.”
Dria nods. “Yes. The nightmare is over for your pack. Go to where Cecil imprisoned your alphas and free them. Give them the drink that restores their blood and strength.” Tara nods, her eyes as big as saucers. “How many ‘guests’ came to the house tonight?”
“Five.”
“Good. Gather every wolf you encounter to the large building out back. We’ll be there when we can.”
“What about the wolves upstairs already with vampires?”
Dria reaches out a hand and places it on Tara’s arm. Instantly the woman quiets. “Don’t you worry. I’ll get them out.”
Tara scurries toward the back of the house. Dria watches her leave and strides toward the front entrance. Her high heels ring out across the wood with each step. In a moment we’re in the main foyer, facing the first room Tara showed us. The lounge contains one vampire mingling with three wolves. Wolves that look like they are waking from a long sleep.
“Jon, take them outside and return to me.”
The Weres look to me, and I swing my head to the front door. Without a word they move as one to the exit. The man sitting in the room is the one Cecil called Nathaniel last week, the one who tasted Raine against her will while the others watched.
Curiously, he doesn’t move and doesn’t speak as I herd the Weres outside. I pause on the threshold, the retreating Weres safely in front of me, and glance back to see what Dria will do.
“Close your eyes, Jon.”
Before I have a chance to process the request, and d
ecide to follow her command or ignore it, Nathaniel’s head explodes, showering the room in blood and bits of gore. Horror and shock roll through me as I stare at the redheaded vampire.
Oh my God. What is this woman I’ve pledged myself to? Is she simply a vampire or something more? What is this unleashed power Dria wields?
“I told you not to look.” She turns to face me. A calm detachment on her face. “Four more to go. Why don’t you go grab your clothes from the car and assist me as a man? It will be easier for you to help the Weres upstairs.”
Without giving her a gesture of understanding, I race out the door, feeling as if the hounds of hell were on my heels. I never imagined a vampire could do such a thing to another of its kind and wonder why no one has mentioned it. Granted, we didn’t talk about vampires a lot in Manitoba, but surely if all of them could kill like that there’d be fewer vampires in the world, right?
The heat of the night wraps around me as I crouch next to the rented car. The hushed crying and whispers of the wolves standing nearby reach me, pulling me out of my thoughts to the here and now.
I reach for the physical change, picturing my human form in my mind. Flesh dissolves around me as the bones and muscles re-knit in a wash of energy so fast that I’m returned to man in the blink of an eye.
I rise from the gravel and open the back door, withdrawing the bag and grabbing my clothes with a speed I’ve never possessed. I slide the T-shirt over my head, then pull on jeans, apprehensive to face not only what waits for me inside the blood brothel, but to come to grips with exactly how I’m managing to move and change form as fast as I am.
It’s the vampire heart, you twit. Guess you’re digesting it faster than you’d bargained for.
My stomach clenches at the thought, the urge to hurl and dispel the vampire heart raging through my system.
“Who are you and what’s going on?”
I turn and see the three wolves from inside, huddled next to each other a dozen feet away.
“I’m friends with Raine and came to help.” Firming my resolve as I quiet my gut and return to the house. “Go care for your alphas. It will all be over soon.”
I march up the steps, the picture of the exploding vampire head front and center in my thoughts. Will she kill them all the same way? Without even a fight? Is there honor in a battle that isn’t fought but obliterated like a nuclear bomb?
Our government didn’t stand and debate for years when they dropped the bomb on Japan, now did they? The only choice is usually the hardest to make.
Dria waits for me in the foyer, her head angled toward the stairs and what awaits us above. “Next time I tell you to close your eyes, listen.”
I move to stand before her, meeting her green gaze without flinching. “If you can handle it, then so can I.”
A sad smile curves her mouth. “You never forget your first massacre.” Compassion spikes in her eyes for an instant before vanishing. “It will haunt you forever. I would have liked to spare you the pain.”
“Being an alpha means I don’t get to wear blinders when times are tough, right?”
“Yes, Jon.”
“Well then, it’s about time I face the world with my eyes wide open.”
She nods and places a foot on the first stair. “There will be days you regret this decision. But, I understand.” Dria looks over her shoulder and there’s a sadness on her face. “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”
Chapter Fourteen
The next five minutes shake the very foundation of my sanity. At each occupied bedroom we encounter, Dria has me usher the victimized Were out the door and down the hall, while the previously feasting vampire sits utterly still. Once the Were passes, she closes the door, leaving it slightly ajar, and stands in the hall while the wet splatter of the addicted vampire’s head explodes in the room beyond.
It would all seem surreal and out of a movie if I wasn’t smelling the gore and seeing the blood on the red stained walls when a door happens to swing open. By the third one the gorge in my stomach tries to force its way up my throat. I can’t do this. I can’t sit by and watch this mindless killing.
Dria’s cooler hand rests on my arm as we travel toward the last room in the hall. “Steady, Jon. You can do this. Only one more to handle.”
“Don’t you mean ‘slaughter’?” I try and pull my arm out of her grasp, but she holds firm. “For God’s sake, you’re not even giving them a chance to fight.”
She leans in, her voice whispering near my ear. “Like they did to the wolves, Jon? These vampires captured their minds and held them captive while they raped and used them for their own twisted needs.” Her breath tickles my neck and I shudder, torn between loathing and vengeance. “Revenge is never pretty and often leaves you empty. Focus on the lives we’re saving and you’ll get through this.”
A quiet calmness fills me, but my soul screams. It seems wrong to kill anyone without a fight.
Dria releases my arm and stares into my eyes. “It is—in a perfect world. But ours is far from perfect. Remember what they told you happened to the daughter of the alphas?” I nod. “Save your mercy for children like her and do the hard task that needs to be done in her honor.”
She’s right, I know. But I never signed up for heartless, cold-blooded slaughter. I never dreamed her plan would include the quick execution of everyone responsible.
What did you think would happen? That the vampires would all promise not to abuse Weres again and everyone would be magically set free?
My own naiveté chokes me. Good God, what an idiot I am. I shake my head, trying to clear the bloody images from my mind. Worry creeps in when I realize who we haven’t freed from these upstairs rooms. “We haven’t come across Raine, yet.”
The vampire’s face takes on a faraway look. “Does she have short dark brown hair, skinny as a rail, and soulful blue eyes?”
In my mind’s eye I think of the young Were, the woman who was able to resist Cecil’s compulsion thanks to a spark between us, the dimple near her upturned mouth and the twinkle in her eyes. “Yeah, that sounds a little like Raine.”
“Well then, you’ll get your wish.” She motions down the hall. “I’m pretty sure she’s on the other side of the last door on the right.”
“How do you know that?”
She moves stealthily down the carpet toward the last room. “That’s a story for another day, wolfman.”
Dria eases to one side of the door. Her green eyes seek out mine as her body tenses. “It’s not going well in there. We need to get in there quick—it may already be too late.”
Without another word from the vamped-out killer, she kicks open the door. The second man who attacked me last week, Thomas, lies naked on his side, his body wrapped around the unmoving form of Raine.
Another rush of adrenaline floods my body, promising a wicked crash when the danger is finally past. Fire surges through me with the desire to rip and tear the leech limb from limb. Raine’s eyes are closed and her pale skin almost glows in the half-light of the bedroom.
“You’re too late,” Thomas calls from the bed. “I heard your... exterminating techniques a few minutes ago and knew my fate was sealed.”
Dria steps into the room, her eyes locked on the vamp with the bloody mouth and not the ripped out throat of Raine on the bed. My God, we might be too late. The urge to rush forward and save her compels me forward, but the strong arm of the redheaded vampire bars my passage.
“Why kill her?” Dria asks. “She did nothing to you.”
He ignores her and asks a question of his own, “I felt you in my mind, didn’t I? I’ve never felt the presence of another vampire in my awareness. You were hard to miss.”
My senses strain toward the girl on the bed. Is she truly gone or can we save her? I try and listen for her heart beat, but can’t discern anything over my own pounding pulse.
“Shh...” Dria says, and the man on the bed goes silent. There’s a frown on her face when she turns to me. “Jon, check to se
e if she still lives.”
I stride past the redhead, watching Thomas the whole time. Will he leap on me and rip out my throat when I approach?
Once I reach the side of the bed I place two fingers on Raine’s wrist, hoping for a response. Nothing. I lean down and rest my head on her chest, hoping, straining for some sign of life. Pain wells and grabs my heart, like it’s being crushed in my chest. She’s well and truly gone.
Anger and pain over her loss battle inside me. I want nothing more than to rip apart the vampire who did this to her, to feast on his flesh, and gorge on his blackened heart. As the muscles in my shoulders bunch and I prepare to leap, one thought holds me back. I judged Dria just moments ago, and yet I’m ready to do the same damn thing—kill and destroy an enemy who hasn’t even lifted a finger toward me. Why is it he hasn’t moved? What the hell is she doing to him? Reining in my primal urges for vengeance takes every ounce of will power and strength I gained from eating Cecil’s heart.
“Why?” I ask him, my voice harsh with the devastation of losing Raine. “You hear us coming and you still didn’t try and flee? You went after her instead.”
The vampire stares at me silently, not moving a muscle, not twitching an eye. It’s like he’s frozen.
“What he has to say doesn’t matter, Jon.” Dria says. “If she’s gone I can’t bring her back and nothing he could add would make you feel better—it will probably make you feel worse.” A hand lands on my shoulder, the touch light and reassuring. “Would you like to end him or shall I?”
Disgust coils in my gut and bile rises up my throat. I shake my head, afraid to speak and spew the hatred coiling inside me. I pull the limp form of Raine away from him, picking her up in my arms, and cover her nakedness with the bed sheet. Cradling her lifeless form to my chest, I turn and leave, letting my actions answer for me.
Halfway down the hall I hear the door close behind Dria and the distinct splatter I’ve come to recognize in the last few minutes as the quick and final death of another vampire.
