by Jill Cooper
YA S E R I E S D R E A M S L AY E R
T H E R E W I N D S E R I E S
A D U LT D Y S TO P I A N S E R I E S
T H E B L O O D S I S T E R S
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Contents
Ready for more?
1: Jessica Blood
2: Jessica
Lourdes, Queen of the Underworld
3: Jessica
4: Amanda Blood
5: Jessica
6: Duncan Jasper
7: Jessica
8: Jessica
9: Vaughn
10: Jessica
11: Jessica
12: Jessica
13: Duncan Jasper
14: Jessica
15: Vaughn
16: Jessica
17: Jessica
18: Amanda
19: Jessica
20: Jessica
21: Amanda
22: Jessica
23: Gwen Blood
24: Duncan
25: Jessica
26: Amanda
27: Jessica
28: Amanda
29: Duncan
30: Amanda
31: Jessica
32: Duncan
Epilogue
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1: Jessica Blood
“Miss, can I get some more coffee? Miss?”
Jessica paused at the counter and resisted giving an eye-roll. She held many dirty jobs in the past, killing demons was her specialty, but working at a greasy spoon? Being forced to wear the frilly waitress uniform had to be just about the worst thing that had ever happened to her.
After that whole, finding your parents murdered thing.
Still, she donned her blue waitress uniform, tied back her long red curls, and got to work. Without this gig, there were no leads. Without leads, you just couldn’t take down a demonic crime syndicate, could you?
“Miss?”
The jackass’s voice rose, so Jessica grabbed the coffee pot and plastered on a fake smile. She gritted her teeth as she warmed his cup. “One lukewarm cup of strong, day old coffee, coming right up.”
The old man chuckled. Kind enough, Jessica guessed, but with a cottage cheese face. He wore a plaid shirt, as if he had just come in from the farm.
“You’re really working on earning your tip today.”
“Oh, you have no idea.” Tips, Jessica snorted. Twenty-five cents weren’t a tip, but she couldn’t complain. Her demeanor wasn’t cut out for this line of work. Having to deal with people and serving up cheeseburger platters with a side of platitudes?
No thanks.
Jessica was more at home chasing evil, saving people, but that’s why she was here wasn’t it? She was working a case. As far as covers went waitressing pretty much blew.
The front door opened, and a guy entered who could barely keep upright. He crashed in to the magazine rack at the front and collapsed onto a booth. His outfit said it all; a strung-out junkie with long black hair and a face full of piercings. His high-tops were soiled with thick mud and his jeans were splattered with something.
Jessica didn’t want to make any guesses about what it might be.
All eyes were on him as he threw himself into a corner booth, his arms hugging his body tightly, as if he had a chill, like something deep within him was missing. Most likely something was missing; his soul. Demon drugs had fractured it, a new victim for the underworld.
He might be the break she was looking for. Jessica pulled the pencil out from behind her ear and walked over to him. His legs stretched out under the seat jittering back and forth as he gazed out the window at the hardware store. In its window hung a ‘Going out of business’ sign
The town was changing, and not for the better. Not on its own. Something was gutting this place and Jessica was going to stop it. Or at the very least, slow it down. Beggars couldn’t be choosers in her line of work. When it came to demons, you took what you could get.
Jessica flipped his coffee cup right side up and started to pour him a coffee, but he shook his head. “I don’t want coffee. Just pie.”
“Trust me, you need coffee.”
His eyes were some of the most strung-out eyes she had ever seen. It stilled her heart for a moment as she poured his coffee. Just as a doctor isn’t supposed to be attached to his patients, Jessica wasn’t supposed to feel pity. She was in town to do a job; she couldn’t go around saving everyone.
Didn’t mean she didn’t want to.
“I can’t…” he hung his head. “I can’t afford coffee and pie.”
“Two for one special,” Jessica flashed a smile. “You buy pie; you get coffee for free.”
“Just like that?” His eyes were grateful but unsure.
Jessica nodded. “Yup. So drink up, okay? Get your head right.”
He hunkered forward and took the cup with both hands. They shook as he lifted it to his mouth. His sip was followed by a sigh. The way he closed his eyes and took in the aroma, he might as well have asked for a private room. “I can’t remember the last time I had something warm. Thanks.”
“So,” Jessica leaned down, her hands on the tabletop, “you know where I can get some quality stuff? You know, like the kind you’re on right now?”
He jerked upward and his hand lifted. “I thought you were pretty, but your face…”
Jessica touched the scar that traveled down her left cheek. A long dagger cut was responsible for that, a long time ago. Since then, Jessica favored distance from her enemies. “You’re a real charmer.” She rolled her eyes and started away.
“Branger,” he said and sunk lower in the booth. “He has stuff that’ll make your toes curl, man.” He chuckled with his head thrown back, staring up at the lights. “Even the lights move, even the lights…”
This was the moment when she was going to get the information she was desperate to have. “Where can I find this Branger?”
“I’m going to call the police.” Chuck, the owner shouted from behind the counter, ruining Jessica’s big moment. “That guy shouldn’t be here and you shouldn’t be talking to him.”
Her skin crawled. She had come so close. Sigh…As bosses went, Jessica had had better.
She leaned down and whispered to the man in the booth, who was barely older than a kid. “You’re flushing your life away, for what? So some low-level can get a grip on you? Everyone here?”
He kicked back and forth, his head rolling to the side. “I need more money. I need another fix. Do you have any? You got any money?”
Useless. Hopeless. Jessica wished she could say she didn’t care about guys like this, but in truth, she was angry, frustrated.
She grunted and thought to smack some sense into him when… “Marie!” Chuck yelled with his hands on his hips. “There are other customers, get back to work!”
So she got a job under a name that wasn’t her own, big deal. If Chuck, or anyone, saw the length of her rap sheet, of all the things she had been accused of, Jessica would never get a job. Truth was, Jessica had done most of the things she was accused of. People just couldn’t know why.
They couldn’t know what she did. Couldn’t understand the war that was being waged under their nose. She didn’t exactly wear her rap sheet with pride, but it was what it was. There were more important things at stake.
One of those things walked through the door.
Amanda Blood, Jessica’s younger sister by two years. She had delicate features like a pixie with golden-red hair that rested on her shoulders. She almost always wore a soft, flowing dress, today
was no exception.
With a wave and a smile, Amanda bounced in. She said hello to the regulars like she always did. Twenty-one years old, but most day she didn’t act older than sixteen. Jessica wanted to protect that innocence and shake it clear out of her at the same time. Things would be easier if Amanda would harden, just a little, but Jessica loved that sweetness about her.
Hell, Jessica needed that sweetness.
Amanda took a seat at the counter. “Marie, hey.” She paused when saying Jessica’s cover name ever so slightly. She let her book bag fall by her bare feet. Amanda didn’t believe in shoes, like adults didn’t believe in Santa. It messed with her gift, or so she said. Jessica learned long ago not to question it.
Their eyes followed each other as Jessica slipped behind the counter. Chuck huffed, “Could you please, please, tell her to put on a pair of shoes. Otherwise, she has to go!” And then he was on his way. Jessica slipped the cash register open to pay for the coffee she gave away.
She was a liar and a thief most of the time. It felt weird to do something nice for someone. A good sort of weird, that tingled and traveled up her body, but Jessica thought she could get used to it.
Amanda watched but didn’t say anything. The glint in her eye said everything and Jessica squarely decided to ignore it.
“Shouldn’t you be at ‘group’?” Jessica grabbed a cloth to wipe down the surface of the counter.
Amanda bounced slightly as she spun the small vase with one dead rose. The petals were brittle and about to fall. “I got thrown out.” She studied the flower.
Thrown out? “That was supposed to be your cover? How else are you going to get close to—”
“That’s why I did it, silly.” Amanda arched her eyebrows. “Nancy finally saw me as one of her kind. A friend. And she agreed to meet with us. She just has to find a babysitter, so I said, we’d come to her. You’ve always been great with kids.”
Jessica’s face twitched. It always did that when she thought of spending time with kids. “You know my bedside manner is better—”
“With demons? Killing things? Really, don’t you think it’s time you branch out?” Amanda’s nose scrunched up. Her hand hovered above the flower.
A ball of light and power grew from her hand. Before Jessica could stop her, the brittle flower was basked in Amanda’s glow. The flower grew tall, and what was once hard, became soft. What was once gray was now red. The petals spun together and like a dancer, the rose twirled in delight.
With happiness, Amanda smiled, but Jessica had to stop herself from slapping her. “You’re attracting attention to us. Again.” She took the vase from Amanda and stashed it under the counter.
Amanda sighed, her shoulders rounding. “C’mon, Jess. It’s just a little beauty. You know the things in this town—”
Were withering and dying faster than they should. “Doesn’t mean I want the demons to realize we’re here before we get a chance to run them out.”
They had already been in this town too long.
The farmer guy twitched beside Amanda as he lifted his cup of coffee. “You guys sure use the word ‘demons’ a lot.”
Jessica started. She forgot that guy was there. That was the power Amanda had over her, always distracting her. “It’s just code for men. Scummy, bad men.”
He laughed as he took a loud slurp of his coffee. “Your coffee needs work, but damn if you’re not funny.”
Amanda sucked in a laugh and covered her mouth. “That’s probably the best thing I’ve heard all day.”
Jessica couldn’t help a smirk as she wiped down the counter. For a sister, Amanda was pretty good and generally her laughter cured all of Jessica’s problems.
“She wants to kick the habit. She just needs some help. A push. Please, Jessica.” Amanda said.
It wasn’t like they had a lot of options. Jessica took off her apron and wadded it into a ball. From the tip jar she took the measly tips she was owed for the week, plus an extra twenty. “I hope we never have to see this place again.”
Amanda just shrugged as she stood up from the bar stool. “It’s not so bad. For a demon infected back hole, that is.”
That was Amanda, always able to see the upside.
On the way out, Jessica paused at the booth were the junkie was laid out. His head was thrown back, hands lax around his coffee cup. He must have fallen asleep, but with the sound of a police siren growing closer, it was time for Jessica to exit stage left. She tugged on Amanda’s hand.
But she had seen the look on Amanda’s face before. The slow spread of sadness and desperation, as she took in the junkie’s form. “The police are coming,” Jessica whispered. “They can help him. You don’t have time.”
To heal him. To save him. Life could be a real bitch for an empath.
Amanda shook her head, her curls bouncing. “No one can, Jessie. His soul is etched and stretched over the booth, and street clear to the boundaries of this city. It’s twisted and crumbled like a dry cookie. It smells of sulfur and is begging for something we can’t give him any longer.”
In other words, he was dead. Souls being ripped apart by demon drugs, Jessica had seen it before, but never so close.
****
.
Nancy’s apartment was a study of squalor. Buzzing flies around stacks of old pizza boxes, and a torn, battered sofa. Dishes piled in the sink, left caked with food so long, it was dehydrated and brittle. The place smelled of urine and the rugs were covered in old newspaper and assorted trash.
Just to be here, to be in this place, brought out a level of anger that Jessica had trouble controlling. She walked through the small apartment and opened the bedroom door to the kids’ room just enough to peek inside.
They couldn’t have been older than eight and six. Their clothing was stained, their faces unwashed. They sat coloring on mattresses with no sheets. Jessica had half a mind to call social services.
But only half a mind. If she did, she might lose her only lead. Jessica needed Nancy to get her close enough to Branger so she could kill him. Without that, more families would end up like this. More children would stare at Jessica with haunting, vacant eyes.
“It’ll get better,” Jessica whispered to the kids and shut the door. It had to, right? Those kids…
Both fury and bile rose in her and Jessica marched into the living room. There was a stench in the air she couldn’t qualify. Amanda sat on the sofa with Nancy. In tight black jeans and a tank top, she was almost a skeleton. What hair she had hung like straw around her face and her eyes bulged from what must’ve been malnutrition.
From the way she moved on the sofa, rocking back and forth, it was clear Nancy hadn’t had a hit in a while.
Good. Jessica could use that to her advantage.
“Can you even take care of your children?” Fire raged beneath Jessica’s skin. Her parents were gone. They were dead and buried, had been since she was ten years old, yet this lifeless sack of flesh got to just throw it all away? How was that fair?
“Don’t judge me.” Nancy’s voice droned. The skin stretched thin across her jaw and large teeth. “I want to get clean. I want to…”
Jessica sighed and crossed her arms. Amanda sat still, stroking Nancy’s hand in a way that gave Jessica chills.
How could she bring herself to touch such filth? “Can I talk to you for a minute, please?” Jessica bugged her eyes to get her point across.
Amanda smiled. “I’ll be right back, okay?” She rose and followed Jessica down the hall. “Jess, I know—.”
“Do you?” Jessica stomped her foot and pointed to the kids’ bedroom. “Look in there. Just look and you tell me that worthless shit deserves them. Are they even going to school? Go ahead and look, Amanda, just look.”
“I don’t need to look.” Amanda’s voice was calm as tears rose in her eyes. “I can feel it all. I see the green haze that has fallen over this place. The hopelessness. The despair. The inner pain,” Amanda nodded her head, “it’s strongest in that room.
”
Jessica’s stomach sank.
“But she loves them. If we can clean this town…”
“That’s a big if, and a big risk, Mandy.” Jessica shook her head. “Can you heal Nancy?”
“I can’t make her gain weight. I can’t put her mind right, not until she’s off the drugs.” Amanda glanced back down the hall. “If you spook her, she won’t take us to the demons’ clubhouse. We can find the suppliers in town, but their hidden base of operations?” She shook her head. “That’s on you, sister.”
Tell me something I don’t already know thought Jessica. She crossed her arms and marched into the living room. Nancy shuddered and turned her head. Jessica squatted in front of her to make eye contact. “For your kids, I’m going to help you. Tonight I’m going to take you to work. I’ll watch from outside. Make sure you’re safe.”
Nancy quivered. “I don’t want to go back. Branger, he scares me. He gave me drugs for working for free, but I—it’s not worth the risk. I won’t go back there. I won’t!”
“He’ll come,” Jessica said with power, “and he’ll gut you. Kill you like a fish, and your daughters? He’ll take them. They’ll be strung out, like you, and sold to the highest bidder. Is that what you want?”
Nancy’s face scrunched up and she cried. Her eyes searched for Amanda, but before Amanda could step forward, Jessica snatched Nancy’s arm. Her wide-eyed expression, made it clear she was afraid to yank it away.
“Do this for me and we’ll protect you. Take you and your kids, get you settled somewhere else. You get me?”
Nancy wouldn’t look at Jessica, but Amanda nodded. “It’s the only way, Nancy. If you can’t trust her, trust me.”
That’s why Jessica called Amanda the closer. With words like that, Jessica didn’t really need any enemies, but it worked. It almost always did and Nancy nodded. She wiped the tears from her face.
“My kids, they haven’t eaten dinner. Maybe not even breakfast.” Nancy blubbered and twisted her fingers together. Shame sunk her features. “This isn’t what I wanted for my life. It…”
