E.V.I.E.: 13 Slayers, 13 Missions

by Lexi C. Foss

  “And the girl dies,” Pennington said as my vision began to blur. I settled my composure and reached deep within my training. My opponent was larger and supernaturally strong. He was distracted, and I needed to use that to my advantage. Instead of pulling my weight against him, I needed to shift forward and strike against his strength. I couldn’t match the power in his arms, but I could hit at a vulnerable spot. This depended upon him having a vulnerable spot. I also needed to face the one fact that had up until this point in my life had been a thing of far-fetched tales and nightmares.

  He was a vampire.

  It might be an exercise in frivolity, but I knew if I didn’t do something, I would die. With a swift jerk forward, I brought my arms down on his forearms which dislodged his hold on me while simultaneously twisting my hips and plowing my foot into his knee, which like a normal man’s knee crunched with a bone-chilling crack. I dropped to the floor, gasping and rolled away.

  Smith struck at the same moment, dusting the other man in the room. When I jumped to my feet to prepare for another attack from Pennington, I watched in horror as his knee shifted back into place and a wicked grin crossed his face.

  “Well done, Miss Bashir,” he said, clapping his hands with condescension. I looked over his shoulder to see a woman helping my mother off the floor. Her bright red hair was her noticeable feature, but the strange glow of her tattoos caught my attention.

  My eyes darted back to Smith, as I took in the situation. My body tensed. “It was a test,” I muttered.

  “The danger was very real,” Smith said, nodding to the two dust piles in the room. “Pennington is a boss in the area. He was able to provide a couple of rogues for the demonstration. This is Jane, one of our recruiters. We wanted you to know what you were going up against when you join E.V.I.E. Frankly, you hesitated for too long. Had it been a real vampire attack. You would be dead.”

  Smith’s example was something I’d never forget. From that day forward, keeping my senses on high alert became a priority. E.V.I.E. taught me the things I needed to know to kill vampires. I already knew how to kill; they just supplemented my training with the specifics of countering a foe that was going to be faster than me, with supernatural healing powers. I’d completed many contracts for the organization before moving back to London and leaving the hunt behind. My door was always open to E.V.I.E.

  After returning to London, I met Baron Jasper Eden at an event that my father had taken me to as his plus one because his latest mistress had left him. He paraded me around the room as the newest eligible female for the British peerage. I hated it and swore I’d never attend another one of the events. Jasper seemed as miserable as I had been, and we bonded over that fact while stealing a bottle of Lagavulin from the bartender and hiding out in a gazebo in the manor’s garden.

  I knew he was a vampire the moment I saw him. Something about how their skin flawlessly stretches around the edges of their jawlines. But Jasper was different. Instead of the dark, broody temperament that I’d come to associate with the bloodsuckers, he seemed joyful and a little bit ridiculous at times. Somehow, he knew what I was, too. Once we got it out in the open, a sort of friendship formed if I dared to call it that. It thrilled my father that a Baron was calling on me, but Dad didn’t realize how dangerous Jasper was. Also, I’d never give my heart to a vampire. Not ever again.

  Entering my home, I held my stick in my hand. The smell of fresh coffee alerted me to someone’s presence. The last time I’d talked to my father, he had no plans to return to London for the upcoming season. Slowly, I made my way through the house clearing each room, when I peeked into the kitchen, I saw James Smith sitting at my kitchen table with a tablet, his gun, and a cup of coffee. I didn’t let down my guard.

  “Smith,” I said acknowledging him.

  “No test this time, Samarie,” he said in his gruff tone.

  “Forgive me if I don’t believe you.” My relationship with the E.V.I.E. recruiter was always tenuous. He wasn’t the kind of man to show emotion. His lack of it disturbed me. It didn’t matter, he’d trained me to kill vampires and to do it effectively.

  He didn’t lift his eyes from his tablet as I completed my check of the house. I found nothing out of place. When I returned to the kitchen, he was pouring a second cup of coffee. He crossed the room with his signature confident gait, then sat the second cup down across from him.

  I hated it, but Jasper was right. If Smith was here, then E.V.I.E. needed me.

  “Your cabinets are filled with too much tea and not enough coffee,” he grumbled.

  “You realize that you are in England, right?” I smirked as I took a sip of the coffee. It wasn’t just regular coffee either. Father always made coffee by mixing the grounds with sugar then pouring hot water over it. After letting it sit, the grounds would sink to the bottom and allow you to drink the sweet beverage without encountering the grounds. However, it was too gritty for me. I preferred mine to be rich and from Costa Rica, which is what Smith had found in the cabinets. It paid to be an ambassador’s kid because I had friends who were also from other countries. I got legal imports of things I couldn’t get anywhere in London via my friends.

  “Unfortunately, yes. We are restarting the office in London. We don’t have a building yet, but I need you on a mission immediately,” he replied. Smith was always about business. The bad boy routine with the lack of emotion. It had to be tiresome for him. I knew it was. I’d seen it in his eyes a time or two.

  “Are there any other slayers involved?” I asked. The last thing I needed was to piss of a slayer who already had eyes on a mark and was waiting for the payout.

  “No. Everyone else is engaged at the moment.” He took three photos from his leather jacket pocket. “These two went missing this past weekend at an underground dance party. This one went missing Wednesday night. Same type of venue. These parties move around and tend to be in the warehouse district. There are some old buildings within the city that could host them, but you will have to determine where they are and when they happen. We don’t have anyone on the inside. The cops usually get tipped off and bust up the parties, but sometimes they can go on for several days.”

  “How do you know it’s a vampire?” I asked.

  He tapped on his tablet, and my phone beeped. He nodded toward it. I opened the video and watched the third woman from Wednesday night dancing at a party with a man whose face was hidden. Just before the video ended, he turned his face toward the camera. His hood covered his eyes, but his teeth gleamed in the flashing lights. They weren’t fakes or implants. Once you’ve seen the real thing, it was easier to tell. Real vampire teeth had sharper points than the prosthetics and stick-on ones that you could buy for costumes.

  “Yes, I see.”

  “I dug back over the last month, and there have been two dozen missing young men and women with no bodies showing up or any trace being found. The vamp is either turning them or keeping the hostages as blood slaves,” he said.

  “Leads?”

  “Peerage.”

  “How do you know that?” The peerage of Britain had always held the most active and prolific vampires like Jasper. I wasn’t sure of his kill record, and I didn’t want to know. But I knew that those who still existed were part of the upper class and royalty. They liked their money and position and rarely did anything to draw the attention of E.V.I.E.’s slayers.

  Eradicating Vampirc Influence Everywhere. The vampire assassins covered the globe responding to threats as they arose. Sometimes we were hired by government entities to search and destroy. Sometimes a private individual would offer up a bounty on a particular head. We didn’t care who was paying. The suckers had to die.

  “Anything specific?”

  “No. Talk to Baron Eden. He will accompany you to the events of the season. Together, you should be able to find the culprit.”

  “Does it have to be Eden?” I asked.

  “He is the only vampire on our trust list here. He is your friend, if I am not mistake
n. And he is a Baron.”

  “Just a baron,” I commented. Barons were the bottom of the peerage ladder. “Alright. If you do get any info on where they next party will be…”

  “As soon as I get it, I’ll forward it to you,” he interrupted me.

  “Bottom line?” I asked.

  Rarely did we not kill a target, but occasionally, the directive was more complicated.

  “Dust it,” he snarled.

  “My pleasure,” I replied.

  He finished his coffee and refused a second cup. Then, he left without saying another word. Smith had always been thorough. I should have asked him how Jasper already knew we were going to be working together, but I’d turned on business mode and let it go. It wouldn’t be long before the Baron of Edenton would be ringing my number.

  3

  The Rumors

  JASPER

  Her scent lingered in my nose. That sweet smell of human blood and feminine skin. Samarie was a delicacy that I could never taste. It didn’t stop me from wanting it, but I knew that the moment I stuck my fangs in her, she would dust me.

  I’d followed her home, knowing that she would get the word from E.V.I.E. soon to contact me. I wanted to be close.

  Across the park from her building, I watched the lights in her windows turn on and off. She’d gone through each room. I wondered if she was that thorough every time she went home. Or perhaps I had spooked her.

  A figure moved in the kitchen window, and I realized why she was checking the apartment. James Smith casually walked around in her home like he owned it. The trainer for E.V.I.E. was well-known to be a self-absorbed prick, but he knew his job and knew it well, which meant that I steered clear of him. I’d received word that they would need my assistance through another member of the organization.

  I took a seat in the park as the sun started to fade. It wasn’t long before I saw Jude’s striding gait step out of the building and head toward the nearest Underground station. He paused and swiveled his head to me. Instead of tensing up, I forced myself to lounge back on the bench and give him a slight wave. He knew me, and I knew him. I just hoped he continued on his way. After the hard stare, he did.

  My attention turned back to the building where I saw her in the kitchen. I could only see her head from this angle, but I knew from her stance and location, that she was at the sink. My informant hadn’t given me any details about this mission, only that I’d been called upon to help Samarie. I’d do whatever I had to do to get close to her again.

  After our initial meeting, we’d become friends. I kept it in that zone until I felt like she was ready. When I made my move, she’d kissed me back. For one glorious second, she was mine. Her soft lips had parted granting me entry, but she jerked away as if she had been in a dream, which she forced herself out of. I hadn’t used any power to enthrall her. She wanted me.

  The phone calls stopped. Meeting after her sessions at the studio for dinner stopped. She cut me off, but that lingering desire burned inside of me. I knew the consequences of going after a trained E.V.I.E. slayer, so I backed off. When my contact called me, my hope renewed that I would finally get my chance with this incredible woman.

  When my phone vibrated in my pocket, I sighed. I would do whatever it took to get her back into my life and into my bed. That was the ultimate goal. I wanted to use everything I knew about seduction and desire to drive her over the edge again and again. Until her body was shaking with ecstasy under mine, I would not be satisfied.

  “Hello,” I said, waiting for her voice.

  “First of all, I don’t want you to even mention the fact that you were right. Secondly, this is business. If you cross that line, I dust you. Got it?”

  “Harsh, Sam.”

  “Don’t, Jasper. Just don’t. I have a job to do, and you will not distract me from it. Are we clear?” Even her rejections made me hard.

  I’d play this game with her for now. At some point, she would break, and when she did, I’d show her what she was missing.

  “We are clear. I’m at your disposal,” I replied.

  “I have no doubt that you haven’t left the neighborhood, so why don’t you come up?”

  She’d barely gotten the words out of her mouth when I dashed across the shadows into the doorway of her building. I pressed the buttons to buzz her flat. She hung up the phone and buzzed me through without speaking.

  I checked my appearance in the mirrored walls of the elevator. After I was turned, I didn’t feel the need to change my style. Preppy, clean cut, strait-laced heir to a small estate. But my wants and desires turned dark. Beside the need for blood, I needed the sweaty, writhing body of a pleasured woman beneath me. Once I’d met Samarie Bashir, I knew that no other woman could satiate that hunger. I’d tried, and it simply did not work. She was the ultimate goal, and I wouldn’t stop until I won.

  Before I could knock on the door, she opened it. She’d changed into a pair of jeans and loose t-shirt. Her feet were bare, and her long hair hung down past her shoulders. To my displeasure, she held a stake in her hand. The kind that could kill me in an instant. Although she wasn’t Christian, a cross was carved into the stake, which meant a priest had made it, blessed it, and doused it in holy water before presenting it to her. I eyed it carefully.

  “What’s that for?” I asked.

  “To remind you who I am and what I can do to you,” she replied.

  I held open the collar of my polo and moved it down over my heart to show the bare skin there. “Go ahead. If you think I’m here to hurt you, then do it. But you know that I’m not. I think you know that I would never harm you.”

  She took a deep breath, then motioned to the interior. I walked through the threshold of the flat without a verbal invitation. I’d been here before and once you invited a vampire inside, there were no takebacks.

  The décor hadn’t changed since I’d been here last. Her father had decorated most of the house, so that he could entertain diplomatic guests. An alcove in the receiving room held a bronze statue of a cat, the goddess Bastet. The ancient artifact was a part of a larger collection that Samarie’s father owned and had on loan to the British Museum which owned the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts outside of Cairo.

  “Where is Bastet?” I asked. Her Egyptian Mau cat had always greeted me when I had visited before. I think we had an understanding, predator to predator.

  “She’s hiding because Jude was here. She doesn’t like unknown visitors. Would you like some coffee or tea?” she asked.

  “Coffee would be great,” I said. She headed toward the kitchen.

  “You can have a seat.”

  “I’d rather follow you.”

  “I’d rather you take a seat.”

  I sighed. “You don’t have to make this difficult. I know the boundaries. I won’t cross them. Just relax a little.”

  “When there is a vampire hunting down men and women systematically in my city, I will not relax. Frankly, it could be you.” She was right. It could have been me, but it wasn’t. Hunting down prey wasn’t nearly as fun as having them come to you crawling on their knees begging to be bled.

  Her voice trailed down the hallway, and I allowed her to go without complicating the problem, for now. I’d just agreed to my death by saying I wouldn’t push the limits. I’d just have to make her crawl and beg, too.

  She reappeared with a pleasant smile and two cups of coffee. She handed the darker one to me and took a seat on the ivory upholstered settee across the room. I took her cue and sat down in a matching chair opposite of her.

  “What do you know about the case?” I asked.

  “You seemed to know about it before I did.”

  I sighed. This wasn’t going be easy. Her tone rebuked me with every breath. “Actually, I was told that there was a job. That’s it.”

  She set her cup down on a glass table between us and leaned back. The dimmed lights created shadows around her curves, and I couldn’t help but to follow every line from top to bottom. She lee
red at me, but I wasn’t going to apologize for admiring her.

  “One of your friends is kidnapping humans from raves and underground parties in the city. No bodies.”

  I sat my coffee down and crossed one leg over the other, ankle to knee. “I have very few friends. None of whom are vampires. And those parties draw a very distinct crowd of the young and middle aged. Drugs run rampant, and overdoses are common. It’s a very dark scene.”

  “By tomorrow, we will have a lead on the next party. You and I will attend and track down this vamp. He’s gotten used to taking people with no consequences. He will think he’s winning, and it will give us an advantage.”

  I studied her face in the warm lighting. Her dark eyes sparkled with light, but I was drawn to her lips. I’d tasted them once, and it wasn’t enough. She cleared her throat.

  “I’ve never been to a rave. It should be fun.” I picked up my coffee but continued to study her undeterred. I’d been watching her from afar for months. I feared that her connection to me would bring trouble into her life, but it never had. Perhaps, I had used it as an excuse to stay close to her.

  “Jasper, this isn’t going to work if you continue to look at me like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like I’m a piece of meat!”

  “You are a strong red wine with a scotch chaser. I don’t want to eat you. I want to drink you.”

  She stood up in a fury. “You are out! Get out!”

  I didn’t move. “I paid you a compliment. Your response should be a word of thanks.”

  “No. You will focus on catching this vampire, because whether I like it or not, you have the peerage connections that I don’t. I can’t get into their inner circle without my father in town, so that leaves you. I’m not happy about it, but I will work around it. Now, you need to go.” She walked to the door and opened it.

  I sat my unfinished coffee down and walked toward her, keying my senses on her heart rate which increased with every step I took toward her. With the swiftness supplied by my vampire reflexes, I slammed the door, then pressed her into the back of it. She’d made her move, too. The tip of her stake was now aligned with my heart.