Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2)

by Jefford, Nikki

  He took my earlobe between his teeth and bit down. What started out as a pinch turned into excruciating pain as his teeth pressed through my skin. What if he tried to tear off my entire earlobe? I shrieked so loud I was convinced I would have shattered the glass door on the china hutch if it weren’t already broken.

  Greasy Guy fell to the floor convulsing, but Silver Tongue didn’t notice. He released my earlobe and covered his own ears while I screamed, then leaned back in to bite my neck. I never saw him convulse.

  “Motherfucker!” Valerie screamed right before she plunged her dagger in Silver Tongue’s back.

  He fell forward, nearly taking me down with him.

  Valerie held on tight to her knife. Once Silver Tongue hit the floor face first, she pushed him onto his back with the heel of her boot. He looked dead, but that didn’t stop Valerie from kicking him in the side.

  The greasy-haired guy twitched on the floor. His eyes widened as Valerie went for him next.

  “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” she yelled, once she finished him off.

  She had a shiner around her left eye.

  Even though it hurt, the smile was worth it. “Better cancel that date, Val. You don’t look so hot.”

  2

  This Is Not a Date

  After calling in the cleaners, Valerie and I jostled for a place in front of the vampires’ bathroom mirror.

  “Fuck!” Valerie said, placing a finger on the skin swelling around her eye.

  At least she hadn’t been bit.

  I pulled out what I hoped was a clean towel from the cabinet and wet the corner. I wiped the blood off both sides of my neck. Now that the bites were cleaned up, they looked like red ring marks burned onto my skin. I kept an iridescent midnight blue scarf tucked inside my pocket. I pulled it out now and wrapped it around my neck. It was dark enough to hide bite marks, lightweight enough to stuff inside a purse or pocket.

  I looked at Valerie’s reflection in the mirror, briefly wondering what happened to her to end up working for the agents. Even if I could bring myself to ask, I doubt she’d answer.

  Before heading out, I threw the towel I’d used on top of Silver Tongue’s body for the cleaners to dispose of.

  By the time we made it on base, Dante and Noel had beaten us back. Valerie and I flashed our passes one last time before heading down the hallway for Agent Melcher and Crist’s office. The agents were seated at their desks. Noel sat hunched over in a chair inspecting the ends of her hair. Dante leaned against the wall, one foot propped up. He wore a knit sweater over khakis. It gave him a churchy look with the exception of the bear claw hanging from his neck.

  Dante began applauding the moment Valerie and I entered.

  “Bravo, ladies, bravo.” He clapped louder.

  Crist cleared her throat. “That’s enough, Dante.”

  Valerie rewarded Dante with a full-on voluptuous smile. Her eye had started to swell shut on the drive over, but there wasn’t a smudge around her glossed lips.

  “Took down all three by myself.”

  Ah-hem.

  “I wasn’t exactly sitting there reading the Sunday funnies,” I said.

  “I can see that,” Dante said, pushing away from the wall and coming to my side. He ran his fingers along my hairline, stopping at my temple. “Looks like they tried to take off your ear.”

  I shot Valerie a look of triumph. That’s right, you vampire stealing strumpet. We vampire hunters stick together.

  “Back to business,” Crist said. “Valerie, Aurora—report.”

  “I knew the moment I saw the pizza boxes in their trash bin,” I said at the same time Valerie launched into her account of taking down the vamps single-handedly.

  We glared at each other.

  “Good work, team,” Melcher said. “The community and law enforcement officials might not be aware of it, but justice has been served.”

  Crist nodded her agreement.

  “Aurora, Valerie, well done,” Melcher said in a way that didn’t invite response.

  He looked the same as he always did: trim hair cut like a choir boy’s, wrinkle-free suit, and a smug smile.

  “Now I want you all to rest up. Unless we have an emergency on our hands, I’m keeping you off assignment for the rest of the month.”

  “Off assignment,” Dante repeated, pulling away from me.

  My skin prickled in the last place his fingers had touched.

  “I thought after this you were putting us back on assignment.”

  Melcher stared across his desk. “It’s not up for debate, Dante.”

  Dante might’ve been a loose cannon, but he also knew when to roll with the punches. His mouth stretched into a wide grin. “Guess I no longer have an excuse for avoiding my term paper.”

  Melcher opened a drawer on his desk. “That reminds me. Aurora, Valerie, you need to stay home the rest of the week. Your bruises would draw too much attention.”

  Melcher leaned across the desk, holding out two slips of paper. I took mine and read over it quickly.

  Great, another doctor’s note.

  Valerie glared at her note. Hopefully hers said “herpes.”

  “I’ll drive you home,” Dante said to me, looking sideways at Valerie.

  “Thanks.”

  “Aurora, we’d like to talk to you a moment before you go,” Melcher said.

  Noel’s eyes met mine for the first time since I’d walked in. She’d gotten off her chair and headed to the door. She shot me a thin-lipped smile. “See you at school.”

  “Next week,” I replied, holding up my doctor’s note.

  “Right,” Noel said, grimacing. “Sorry.”

  “I’ll be waiting in the hall,” Dante said. He was the last to leave the room.

  Melcher gave me the friendly fatherly smile once Dante closed the door. He leaned forward on his arms. “How are you feeling, Aurora?”

  I looked him in the eyes. “Great.”

  “Have you had any more…cravings?”

  I knew what Melcher was getting at. The last time they patched me up I’d asked point-blank, “Am I turning into a vampire?”

  Melcher said blood cravings were one of the nasty side effects of the virus cocktail the government had pumped through my veins while I was on death’s door.

  “No.” The lie came out with such conviction, Melcher dropped it at once.

  “Good work, Sky,” he said, straightening up. “We are extremely impressed by your commitment to duty.”

  Even Crist nodded her agreement. The pinch-faced woman wasn’t my biggest fan. She wasn’t really anyone’s fan besides Melcher’s.

  I wondered if they ever did the nasty. Gross. So did not want to know. My mind had done that a lot since the transfusion—tossed sick and twisted thoughts inside my head like an erotic dinner salad. Besides, it wouldn’t surprise me if Melcher was celibate or something, like a monk. Probably even flogged himself at night out of sexual frustration. Again…gross!

  I took a step backwards.

  “Is that all?”

  “Take some time off,” Melcher said. “You’ve earned it.”

  Take some time off? What the fuck? I had a little over three months until graduation and all this time off wasn’t exactly impressing my teachers. I once dreamed of going to college at Notre Dame. Now I just wanted to get my damn high school diploma before some vamp did me in. My list of goals had changed dramatically in the last couple weeks. At the top: graduate from high school.

  When I walked out of the agents’ office, I saw that Dante hadn’t wandered far. He leaned against the secretary’s desk fingering his precious bear claw with one hand while using his other hand to make a stabbing motion. The woman behind the desk didn’t so much as crack a smile. She sat ramrod straight, bun at the nape of her neck, dressed in camouflage.

  “Hey,” I said.

  Dante turned. His widening grin was enough to get a smile out of me.

  “Ready to roll?” he asked.

  “Let’s blow this joint.”
/>
  Dante straightened up. “Nice chatting, Steph.”

  “Stephanie,” the secretary replied gruffly.

  I bumped shoulders with Dante as we headed down the sterile hallway.

  “I take it you didn’t score digits.”

  Dante laughed. “Negative.” He leaned in closer. “Everything A-ok with agents Mulder and Scully?”

  I snort-laughed. That’s what I loved about Dante. It was hard to take life too seriously with him nearby.

  “All good,” I replied. “Melcher’s impressed with how I’m holding up.”

  “Well, he should be. You conquered the mountain, battled Goliath, and came out on top.” Dante stopped abruptly and placed a hand on his chest. “My protégé. I’m so proud.”

  I gave him a playful smack. “Get over yourself.”

  Beatings and bitings aside, it gave me comfort to end the evening by climbing into Dante’s Jeep rather than back into the vixen-mobile.

  Dante started her up. “Hey, you hungry? Let’s get something to eat.”

  I wasn’t hungry, but I didn’t want to go home either. Dad was still MIA, and a week ago mom stopped getting dressed altogether. I wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to get home and watch her mope around in her bathrobe and slippers.

  I fastened my seatbelt. “Why not?”

  “Great, I have a wicked craving for pizza.”

  “Of course you do,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  Dante’s eyes darted from the road to his speedometer. He braked at the deserted four-way stop. Even Dante knew enough to respect the speed limit on base.

  “Lady luck,” Dante said cheerfully. “Even with the odds in my favor, you get the vamp house and get paired with Red. I bet she’s a ball of fire in action.”

  “Hey! Don’t forget my warning about Valerie.”

  “Right, no hooking up.” Dante shot me a sly look. “Red’s not my color anyway.”

  If he wanted me to ask what color did it for him, I wasn’t taking the bait.

  Dante chuckled softly when I made no comment and drove more or less responsibly to Moose’s Tooth.

  “I look like shit,” I said, glancing in his review mirror.

  “You look good to me,” Dante said.

  I bee-lined it for the women’s restroom while he got us a table. Like my old friends at Denali High, the Mousekeeters, I never left home without concealer.

  Valerie wasn’t the only one with a shiner. I dabbed a pale shade of liquid concealer around my left eye then touched up with powder. I couldn’t do anything about my ear. God, it looked kinky with teeth marks practically piercing the lobe. Is that how Silver Tongue got his piercings?

  I started for the door then turned around. At the bottom of my purse I dug out a tube of red lipstick. If I couldn’t cover my bruises completely, maybe I could divert attention to my mouth. I grabbed a square of tissue paper out of the stall and blotted my lips then finger brushed my long black hair over my ears. There. Halfway decent.

  Dante had already nabbed us a booth by the time I came out. He whistled as I approached the table. “You clean up good, Sky.”

  “Thanks,” I said, sliding into the bench across from him.

  Dante didn’t look at me long; his eyes were already devouring the laminated menu.

  “I’m hungry,” he said.

  “You’re always hungry.” I countered.

  Dante didn’t look up from the menu. “And you’re never hungry.”

  “Dante . . .” I started then stopped.

  Dante lowered his menu. “What?”

  “Never mind.”

  “What?”

  When I didn’t answer, he leaned forward with a goofy face. “Sky, what?”

  I grabbed my set of silverware and unwrapped the napkin around it.

  “Have you ever noticed that food no longer has any taste?” I stared at my silverware as I spoke.

  Dante started to laugh then stopped when he saw my face.

  “You’re serious?”

  I nodded.

  “That’s not the only thing. I feel a lot more sensitive to sun. Like the other day it cleared up and . . . I don’t know. It made me feel sick.”

  “Jesus, Sky. You sound paranoid.”

  “Maybe.” I shrugged.

  “Anything else?”

  Our eyes locked. I could feel my cheeks heating.

  Dante leaned forward when I didn’t answer.

  Hell would freeze over before I told him how sexual I’d been feeling—my head was in the gutter pretty much twenty-four seven. It felt like a scratch that needed itching.

  I focused on the bear claw around Dante’s neck rather than his face.

  It didn’t help that I felt gypped losing my virginity to jock-boy Scott Stevens. At least I didn’t have to pass him in the hallway anymore.

  Only one person, or vampire rather, knew how to get my blood pumping: Francesco “Fane” Danado.

  I hadn’t seen him since my abduction when Noel had taken a risk and called him for help. He and Noel walked in right after I finished off Renard’s cohort James. If they hadn’t patched me up, I would have bled to death. While I recovered, Fane went after the last of my captors. But Anchorage’s most popular undead socialite, Marcus, had already taken care of them. The man’s upscale parties were strictly no kill zones…unless, of course, Marcus did the killing.

  I’d decided to turn a blind eye on that. For one thing, Marcus had killed vampires, not humans. And he spared me and Fane from having to get our hands bloody. But Fane did have to dispose of the bodies at the dump with the help of Noel’s favorite vamps, Henry and Gavin.

  Fane hadn’t been too happy about that, which surprised me. I assumed a vampire would be used to that sort of thing.

  But no, he was a kisser not a killer.

  Not that I’d received so much as a goodbye kiss.

  The last night I stayed over we slept separately then talked half the night. Fane knew I’d lied about hooking up with Dante, and he understood why. I was a vampire hunter. He was a vampire. We could never be together.

  He accused me of being a vampire created to kill her own kind. I vehemently denied this. How could a person not know they were dead?

  “We’ll see,” Fane had said.

  As long as I took the antidote every month I would remain human. Melcher said they had already started testing a yearly injection and were working on a five-year antidote. I had no doubt the scientists would come up with a stronger failsafe.

  I was still lost in Aurora land when our waitress walked up to the table.

  “Do you know what you want?”

  Dante set his menu down. “I’ll have a pitcher of your IPA, the mozzarella breadsticks, and a large chicken ranch pizza. No garlic.”

  No garlic? Sounded like I wasn’t the only one with sensitivities.

  The waitress turned to me. “And for you?”

  “The raspberry vinaigrette salad, and we’ll take the breadsticks without the cheese.”

  Dante groaned after our waitress left. “Sky, you’re killing me. I still do have taste buds, you know?”

  “Well, there will be plenty of cheese on your pizza. I’m sure you’ll live.”

  “Barely.”

  Dante cheered up as soon as his beer arrived. “Want some?” he asked after filling his pint glass.

  “I’m eighteen.”

  “Didn’t the agents upgrade your ID?”

  I laughed. “I’m sure this isn’t what they had in mind.”

  “Come on, Sky,” Dante said, tapping the table with his fingers. “Live a little. Besides, you earned it.”

  I shook my head, smiling. “I’ll pass on the mud water.”

  Dante gulped the mud water down happily. The pint was nearly empty before he set it on the table.

  “Look, you have nothing to worry about,” he said, leaning over the table. “There’s an adjustment period after the transfusion. Our bodies aren’t the same. We’re…”

  “I know,” I said with a roll of
my eyes. “Super human.”

  Dante laughed. “That’s right.”

  He poured himself another glass of beer. My salad arrived shortly after, but the breadsticks took longer. My plate was nearly clean when the heaping pile of warm, doughy bread arrived.

  Since food had lost a lot of its taste, I often focused on texture and temperature. I liked the warmth in my mouth as I chewed.

  Dante practically moaned, devouring his first breadstick within seconds. He grabbed another breadstick and held it up, shaking it in front of my face. “How can you not taste this doughy goodness?”

  The breadstick flopped around as he waved it.

  “Dante?”

  A pretty blonde in a sporty ski jacket stood at the edge of our table. Dante’s lips were still curved into a gigantic smile.

  “Hi, Ashley.”

  I waited for Dante to explain who Ashley was. He didn’t. From the way she glared at me, there had to be a history between them.

  She stared pointedly at me, but Dante didn’t get the hint.

  “Are you ready for tomorrow’s exam?” she finally asked.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “How did you do on last week’s paper?”

  “Pretty decent.”

  Ashley stood at the end of our table for several beats. When it was clear Dante wasn’t going to engage her in mindless chitchat she finally said, “Well, enjoy your dinner.”

  “See you in class,” he said, completely oblivious.

  I hoped Ashley was going rather than coming, but she took a seat at a corner table with an older couple—facing me. Great, cause I so enjoyed being glared at while I ate.

  In the time it took Miss Frowny to get to her table, Dante had already devoured his second breadstick and moved on to his third.

  “Ex-girlfriend?” I asked.

  “Ashley?” Dante asked, surprised. “She’s engaged to an art major.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “Then why the evil eye?”

  “Evil...oh, I’ve taken her best friend out on a couple dates.”

  I raised both brows. “She’s not going to be happy when she hears you were spotted with another woman.”

  Dante chewed a couple more times then swallowed. “We’re not a couple. Besides, if Christine isn’t comfortable with me having female friends then she’s with the wrong guy.”