Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye

by Jade, Imari

  Arguing with her boss over Alesandro’s faults wasn’t getting either of them anywhere. “Let’s not argue. What can we do to stop the end of the world?”

  Collena raised her cup of coffee again. “It’s simple. We have to find the best person in the world and the worst person in the world in five days and get them together. Or, you have to screw Lucifer and get him to change his mind.”

  Isabella frowned. Either way she was screwed.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sweat poured from every pore in Isabella’s body as she chased Moldavi through the deserted streets. She ran swiftly, body moving in fluid motion like melting chocolate—never changing the pace. Jet-black curls plastered themselves to her neck and face, blinding her vision, but not enough to hinder her mission. Isabella tracked Moldavi for a little over an hour. He led her on a merry chase through stinking sewers, rat infested alleys, and the seamier streets of eastern New Orleans. He could not get rid of her that easy for she had his scent embedded in her memory. There was no place on Earth or below it he could hide from her.

  Moldavi disappeared around a corner but Isabella was hot on his tail. He was quick and lithe and as far as she could tell he was oblivious to the cold. It being night made no difference.

  The black outfit she wore drew heat and clung to her like a second skin. She would not give up no matter how long and hard they ran. She could not give up because she was programmed to seek and destroy all vampires.

  Moldavi turned another corner. Isabella followed and then came to a screeching halt. It was a trap.

  She slowed the beat of her heart until it beat human in every aspect. She pushed back the hair that sagged against her, tucking it behind her ears. Four against one. She smiled. She had been up against those odds before.

  “Well, if it isn’t Isabella Denning, Vanquisher babe,” Bruno Broussard, Moldavi’s right hand flunky said. He stepped towards her.

  Isabella had her gun aimed at his chest and cocked before he could complete the movement.

  “I told you she was fast,” Moldavi said. “She chased me for over an hour without stopping.”

  “She’s a mere girl and no match for the four of us,” one of the others said. He was blonde and built like a MAC truck.

  Isabella frowned. “I’ve wiped stuff mightier than you off my shoes.”

  The others laughed. Her hands did not shake and she controlled the revolver like it was a part of her.

  “You said she had a sexy voice, Moldavi. You weren’t kidding,” the blonde continued.

  “Keep it in your pants, Alfred,” Moldavi said to the man. “We’re not here for that.”

  “Why are you here?” Isabella asked. She checked out the area while the men continued to joke and sprout testosterone. It was a dead end with no place to hide. She guessed they would have to deal with her.

  “You’re here, Miss Denning, because you are about to die. You’ve been a thorn in my side for several years now, not to mention the walking mountain partner of yours.”

  “Leave Ernie out of this. This is between you and me.” She took the gun off of Bruno and leveled it at Moldavi’s chest.

  “You know bullets can’t kill me.” He lunged at her.

  Isabella pulled the trigger. The bullet torpedoed from the barrel of the gun, striking Moldavi squarely in the heart. Moldavi stopped in his tracks and looked at her questionably before he disintegrated before her and the others.

  “Not unless the bullets are made of silver and laced with holy water and garlic.”

  The other three looked a bit shocked. Bruno stepped forward. “Let’s get her. It’s still three against one. We can split the bounty.”

  The last of their group, a lanky, dark-haired Italian tried to rush her. Isabella, gun still in hand, stepped aside and caught him with a glancing blow against his head He went down on one knee but managed to take her down with him. The gun flew out of her hand and slid into the middle of the street.

  The Italian punched her in the face and got to his feet. The blow landed just under her eye. The pain riveted through her head, stunning her a little. Isabella kicked him squarely in the crotch and he went down to the ground. Isabella managed to get to her knees, and with the graceful movements of a cat, she pulled a hawthorn stake from the back of her pants, raised it and stabbed him in the chest, sending him back to hell before he could recover from the kick.

  Isabella jumped to her feet only to find Bruno and Alfred surrounding her. She replaced the stake.

  “You’re still outnumbered,” Bruno said to her. He stripped out of his shirt.

  Isabella looked him over. He had a broad muscular chest and rippling abs. His arms were like two solid logs of wood. She could appreciate a beautiful body even though its owner wanted to tear her apart.

  Alfred was at her back. Isabella sensed his movements even though she could not see him. He grabbed her, pinning her arms behind her. Bruno charged her with his head bowed, running it into her mid-section.

  Isabella let out an anguished breath. Her entire body felt like it had been run over by a train. She knew she had to reduce the odds. It was impossible for her to do battle without the use of her hands. So she did the only thing she could do, she raised her head and slammed the back of it into Alfred’s face…a feat that would have been impossible had she not been nearly six feet tall.

  “Damn,” Alfred shouted as he released her. He grabbed his bloody nose.

  Bruno laughed and charged her again. This time Isabella was ready for him. She jumped to the side, cupped her hands together, raised them and cuffed him behind the neck. The brute hit the ground face first, scraping the skin on the street.

  He howled. “Get her, Alfred.”

  Isabella stood poised and ready. Alfred ran at her with bare fists, striking her in the face. She felt her skin rip just below her eye. Blood trickled down her face. She raised her arm to block Alfred’s next blow. She spun around and kicked him on the right side of his temple with the heel of her boot. Alfred convulsed and slid down to the ground. Isabella pulled out her stake and stabbed him in the chest, reducing their numbers to one. She turned and found Bruno before her, fangs bared.

  “It’s only you and me now, bitch,” he said.

  Isabella knew his strength increased with his metamorphism. His brow bulged from the rest of his face and his teeth were jagged and sharp.

  She had battled with vampires before. They were all arrogant and didn’t care about anything. The blood of the beast ran through their veins, blinding them to anything except the kill. It was the same bloodlust she tried to control within herself all her life.

  Bruno slapped Isabella, sending her flying against the side of a deserted building. She recovered, got up, shook off the pain and flew at him with a kick to his midsection. Bruno tumbled backwards over some boxes of trash giving Isabella enough time to retrieve her gun from the streets. She had it aimed and cocked by the time he regained his footing.

  “Say hello to Lucifer for me. Tell him I’m working on the challenge he gave me.” She squeezed the trigger. The bullet sailed through the air and struck Bruno in the heart.

  His body twitched. The skin peeled from his skeleton and then the skeleton dissolved into dust. Isabella lowered her gun. Her entire body ached and fresh blood flowed from the cut beneath her eye. She took a few deep breaths and then replaced the gun in the shoulder holster.

  Isabella turned and walked to the corner, eyes scanning for other signs of life. She had been lucky this time. Moldavi was one of the finest assassins in the Cajun Cartel. King Adjatay would not be pleased to learn that four of his men failed again. What the fuck did it matter to her anyway what he thought? Why didn’t the damn world end already?

  * * * *

  “Word out on the street is Isabella had a run in with four of Adjatay’s people earlier,” Joshua Petre said to Ernie.

  Ernie looked over at the slick-haired Brit who sat across from him. He showed no reaction to what the man had said. A show of concern was a sign of
weakness. He removed the dark sunglasses from his face. The brightness of the room made his pupils dilate.

  “What other words have been passed?” he asked.

  “Not much. I’m only concerned about Isabella.”

  Ernie absorbed Joshua’s statement. It was a little past nine and his partner was nearly an hour late for work. He wasn’t going to panic. Isabella had been in tough spots before and she always managed to get through it.

  “Don’t you think we should call and see if she’s all right?” Joshua asked. He was now on his feet, pacing around Ernie’s office like a nervous expectant father in a maternity waiting room.

  “No.”

  Joshua stopped abruptly in front of Ernie’s desk and looked him squarely in the eyes. “Have you no concern for your partner’s well-being?”

  Ernie stared back at him with such intensity that Joshua stepped back quickly from the desk. “She can handle herself.”

  “Did I interrupt something?”

  Both men looked up and found Isabella standing in the door.

  Joshua rushed over to greet her. “We were worried about you,” he said, leading her into the office. “We thought Adjatay’s men killed you.”

  “They tried,” Isabella said, stepping past Joshua and sitting down in a seat. “Although you can see they didn’t succeed.”

  Ernie relaxed and sat down again, though his nervousness didn’t show in his demeanor or on his face. “Looks like you forgot to duck again.”

  Isabella raised her hand up to the swollen area beneath her eye. It felt tender but the bleeding had stopped. In a few hours it would only be a memory to her and also wouldn’t leave a scar.

  Amazing, Ernie thought.

  Joshua turned to her. “Nice to see you in one piece.”

  “I’m touched, Joshua,” she teased. “You were concerned.”

  The tall British man mumbled something and then hurried out of the room.

  “You embarrassed the man, Bella.”

  “So, like you’ve never,” Isabella said to him.

  Ernie chuckled. “Every chance I get. He stopped laughing. “Okay, are you going to tell me what happened?”

  Isabella stretched out her legs. “Nothing much to tell. I didn’t know until it was too late, it was a trap. Moldavi had three of his friends waiting for me on a dead-end street.”

  “So, it was a setup?”

  “That’s what a trap is, Ernie. You should have seen them. One of them was as big as a wall.” She unconsciously rubbed her fist with her other hand.

  “Did they kick your precious brown behind?” Ernie teased.

  “They tried to,” she admitted. “But…”

  “But you’re here and they aren’t any more.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Moldavi?”

  “Dust, like the others,” she replied.

  “Adjatay is not going to like that you’ve killed four of his men, not to mention one of his favorites.”

  Isabella rose and stretched again. “He’ll get over it. Right now I need a strong cup of coffee and massive quantities of sugary, powered doughnuts.”

  Ernie stood up. “You fix the coffee and I’ll get the doughnuts. Afterward we need to talk about all this other shit that’s been going on, including the angel in the cemetery.”

  “Funny you should mention it. It turned out to be Lucifer.”

  “You really need to work on the sarcasm, Bella. It doesn’t fit with your runway model image.”

  “Neither do fang bites, scratches, and gunshot wounds.” She walked out of his office.

  * * * *

  Isabella tossed and turned in her bed. One minute she felt so cold she pulled the covers up to her neck. The next minute she felt hot and she kicked them off again.

  “Maybe you need to get an electric blanket,” someone said to her. “You know the kind with dual controls.”

  Isabella opened her eye in the dark room. The moonlight shining through the window was the only light she had. Above her floated a female apparition. The form was cloudy but Isabella could make her out clearly.

  “Hello,” it said to her.

  “Hello,” Isabella replied. “Why are you here?” She didn’t know why she’d asked because she already knew the answer.

  Every now and then, since she was a child, spirits who died horribly came to her to help them find their way to their final resting place. Then there were some, like Marie, who stopped by to be sociable or to warn her about something. It was a gift she sometimes wished she didn’t have.

  “I’m lost,” the spirit said. “Are you the Vanquisher?”

  “Yes,” Isabella answered. “How do you know this?”

  “I don’t know,” the spirit replied.

  “Can you float over here to the right? My neck is starting to cramp.”

  The spirit did as Isabella asked.

  “What is your name?”

  “Nicole Johnson,” the spirit answered as it lowered itself to the floor. “Am I dead?”

  “Yes,” Isabella answered. She didn’t like to lie if she didn’t have to.

  “Oh.”

  “What is the last thing you remember, Nicole?”

  Nicole didn’t respond at first. “I was in a car, driving home from work and it was raining hard. I don’t remember much of anything else except a bright light.”

  Isabella tried to recall any recent automobile fatalities.

  “What is the date?” Nicole asked.

  “It’s December 27, 2012.”

  “Oh,” Nicole said again. “I think I’ve been lost for a long time.”

  “How long?” Isabella asked. Sometimes it was harder to help them if they had been dead a very long time.

  “A couple of months,” Nicole answered. “I can remember being alive in January.”

  Eleven months, Isabella thought. She could do it easily. “Where have you been all this time?”

  “Wandering, I guess. I remember waking up and something led me to you.”

  Okay, enough of the chitchat, Isabella thought. She slid off the bed. “It’s time to go, Nicole. Close your eyes and listen to my words.” Isabella walked over to her dresser and picked up a black candle and lit it.

  “From this time until then, yesterday and tomorrow, ever and forever, this world and the other, open your arms and take this lost soul Nichole Johnson to her final resting place.”

  The spirit began to fade.

  “Relax, Nicole and enter the kingdom of eternal sleep.”

  The spirit continued to fade.

  “Thank you, Vanquisher,” Isabella heard as the last remnants of Nicole Johnson disappeared from her room. Isabella blew out the candle, crawled back into her bed, and went back to sleep. A link in her brain opened several seconds later. Isabella sighed. Someone was trying to get in touch with her.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Isabella walked around the Cajun Cartel Council Chamber amazed by how elegant the place was. She’d been summoned there by her father and Alesandro for a meeting. She foolishly came even though she knew how the other council members felt about her. Not that she really cared but she never liked to put herself in unnecessary danger.

  Lucius, Alesandro’s wolf appeared in the chamber and walked over to her. He bowed. “Nice to see you again, Miss Denning.”

  Isabella rolled her eyes over the handsome black man, checking for signs of animosity hidden beneath the charming smile, and found none. “Same to you,” she said, trying not to show much emotion.

  “Your father and the others should be here shortly. Don’t be nervous. Nothing is going to happen to you.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. You don’t have a contract on your head.”

  Lucius shifted nervously. “King Adjatay lifted the contract months ago.”

  Isabella chuckled. “Apparently not everyone listened. Someone tried to take me out a couple of hours before I came here. I believe they were some of Adjatay’s people.”

  Lucius smiled weakly. “I’ll see tha
t the word gets spread to leave you alone.”

  Lucius was the leader of a powerful wolf pack in New Orleans, as well as one of Alesandro’s closest friends. Both of the men made her very uncomfortable by the way they stared at her with puppy dog eyes, when she knew they could tear her apart with an order from their king.

  “Thank you, but it won’t really matter if the world ends in three days.”

  She and PAK spent most of the evening searching databases, trying to find information they could use to find the two creatures Lucifer spoke of. So far they found some who could fit the bill but no one totally good or evil.

  “Have faith, Miss Denning. You will think of something. I kind of like the place and don’t want to see it destroyed.”

  “To be fair you have an out.”

  “You mean the Otherworld?”

  Isabella nodded. “You, the wolves, Alesandro and his gang can pack up and leave anytime you get good and ready and go home.”

  Lucius continued staring at her. “You think either Darius or Alesandro would leave you behind if we chose to leave?”

  “They won’t have much choice since I refuse to step foot in the place.”

  “But it is your home,” Lucius replied.

  Isabella refused to argue with him. She’d be dead the moment she set foot there and he knew this. It was better to die on Earth among friends.

  The door of the chamber opened before she had a chance to reply. Her father and his best friend, Zolin Alta entered, deep in conversation.

  Darius was tall and muscular. He wore his dark brown hair shaved at both sides. He and his daughter shared, not only the same blood, but the same silver/grey eyes.

  Zolin, an Aztec, looked surprisingly tanned for a vampire. He’d cut his long golden hair into a shorter more stylish fashion. She sighed. The man was simply breathtaking with cool blue eyes and a very muscular build.

  Too bad the bloodsucker was crazy. Most of the time, Zolin still lived in the past where it was acceptable in his kingdom to perform human sacrifices. Alesandro and Darius kept a pretty tight rein on him to make sure he behaved, but she never allowed herself to be alone with him for one minute. Anyway, it really didn’t matter because in three days she’d be history.