Karma's Vengeance (Vampire Huntress Saga Book 1)

by Christina Escue

  “Sounds like a plan,” Aleyn said and nodded toward the van. “Let’s load up and you can show us where the hotel is before you head out.”

  “Just follow us,” Dylan said as he straddled his bike. He really hoped Karma’s plan worked.

  Karma revved her bike as they waited for everyone to load into the van. When they took off, she started talking into the headset in her helmet. “As soon as they pull into the hotel you head to Harrison’s like we planned. I will double back and see if he follows you. If he does, I’ll make my way to Harrison’s through the woods on foot. This will work, Dylan. I know it will.”

  “I sent Harrison a text letting him know you will probably be approaching from the woods and to let his men know.”

  “Thanks. I would hate to miss the fun because I had to kill some of Harrison’s vampire.”

  ****

  The van pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and everyone except Demetri exited. Karma watched from the edge of the forest until Demetri climbed out of the van, looked around, and started off in the direction she and Dylan had gone a few seconds earlier.

  “He’s following you.” Karma whispered into her headset. “I’m cutting through the woods to Harrison’s. See you when you get there.”

  “Be careful, Karma. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, Dylan.”

  Karma ran full speed until she reached Harrison’s house. Once she was there, she gathered all the vampire and sent them in to opposite direction from where Dylan and Demetri were coming. If Demetri caught their scent, he might not come close enough to the house to overhear her and Dylan talking, and then their plan would be for naught.

  When Dylan pulled into the driveway, she opened the garage and he pulled his bike inside. They would go back in Harrison’s truck, so Demetri wouldn’t see her lack of bike.

  Once inside the house, they waited for Demetri to arrive before they started talking.

  “Still no sign of Harrison,” Dylan said when they knew Demetri was in ear shot.

  “Dylan, he’s strong, probably the strongest vampire I know. He may have killed Vincent by now, and just biding his time before returning to you to protect you. Remember what he said before we left?”

  “I remember,” Dylan answered with a grin. “He told us if there were ever a time he didn’t return, we needed to go to the warehouse on Cambridge and look in the lockers on the second floor. There we’d find all the information we needed to bring down a certain member of the Senate. Do you think we should go?”

  “I think it’d be best if we went back to the hotel, got a room, then went later tonight after everyone is sleeping.”

  “Alright. Let’s head back to the hotel. I could use a couple hours of rest anyway.”

  “Me too. Let’s take the truck so we can talk,” Karma suggested.

  They headed to the garage and Karma knew the moment that Demetri left.

  “He gone?” Dylan asked.

  “Yep. He just left. Let’s head back and get the others. I think it’s time we spring our trap.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Are you sure about this?” Aleyn asked as they pulled the van to a stop in front of the warehouse.

  “I am one hundred percent sure about this,” Karma told him. “Now let’s go in and see what he’s up to.”

  “We’re right behind you,” Constance told her as they all crawled out of the van.

  “Wait. He isn’t alone.” Langley told them and sniffed the air. “He has about ten vampire with him.”

  “That’s Harrison and his vampire. They are around back blocking the back exit to keep him from escaping that way,” Dylan told them.

  “Okay, then lead the way,” Langley motioned for them to proceed into the building.

  “Guess he didn’t realize the door wasn’t locked,” Karma said sarcastically. and pointed at the steel door he had ripped off its hinges.

  “Guess not,” Dylan grinned as they silently entered the building and went up the stairs.

  Demetri was frantically looking through the rows of lockers when they reached the second floor. He paused for a second to shake his head and growl in frustration before he started down a different row.

  “Looking for something?” Karma asked loudly.

  Demetri stopped in mid stride and turned to face them.

  “Wh…what are you doing here?” He stammered nervously.

  “We could ask you the same thing. What are you looking for, Demetri?” Ramsey asked with a cold stare.

  “Nothing,” he stammered quietly.

  “Bullshit,” Karma spat out. “We know you overheard us talking, Demetri. We made sure you did. There’s nothing here to find. There never was anything here to find.”

  “You bitch. You set me up,” Demetri growled and flung himself at Karma.

  Karma knocked him back with a punch to the nose.

  “Damn right I did you lying little weasel. You have been behind all of this, and I knew this was the only way to stop you.”

  Demetri jumped to his feel and moved to attack Karma again, but she was faster than him. Before he was completely to his feet, she’d pulled a silver dagger from her boot and threw it at him, stabbing him straight through the heart with it. His screams of agony echoed through the building as the silver penetrated his blood stream.

  “Why silver?” Eduardo asked.

  “I didn’t want to kill him, and silver won’t. It only makes a vampire wish for death,” Karma grinned as she walked over to where Demetri lay on the ground and straddled him. She pulled another silver dagger from her boot, grabbed one of his hands, and laid it on the floor. Then she stabbed the dagger through it, pinning him to the floor. She yanked the dagger out of his chest and did the same thing to the other hand.

  “Where’s Vincent?” She asked calmly.

  “Go to hell, bitch,” Demetri spat in her face.

  “Didn’t you learn anything when I was interrogating that vampire back at the compound? Didn’t you learn that it’s easier just to tell me what you know?” She asked and when he remained silent, she just shook her head. “Guess you’re more stupid than I originally thought.”

  “Karma, wait,” Harrison said as he entered the room. “We need him alive.”

  “Oh, I’m not going to kill him,” Karma said as a wicked grin crossed her face. “But you’d be surprised what you can live through.”

  She drew a small silver knife from her belt and slid it down Demetri’s arm, cutting him from wrist to elbow. “Tell us what we want to know, and I’ll stop.”

  He just lay there, screaming in agony, refusing to tell them what they wanted to know.

  “Fine. Have it your way,” Karma took her knife, and slowly cut his other arm from wrist to elbow. The other cut was already healing, but the holes in his hands were still oozing because the silver was keeping them open. “Wanna talk yet?”

  “Bitch!” He snapped at her neck with his fangs, but he couldn’t reach her. The silver through his hands was starting to make him weak.

  “Good. We get to play some more,” Karma grinned and flipped the pouch on her belt open.

  “This will be fun,” she pulled out a small silver flask and unscrewed the top. She held it over the open wounds on his hands and let a drop of the contents land in each. As soon as it hit, his hands started sizzling and he screamed in agony.

  “Holy water,” Ramsey said with a smile. “She’s damn good at interrogation.”

  “Like scary good,” Constance said from beside him. “Remind me not to cross her.”

  “Ditto,” Langley said from the other side.

  “Hell, I say we put her in charge of interrogation once everything is in place,” Eduardo said with a chuckle. “Vampire will confess without being questioned once word spreads about her.”

  “She’s kinda scary,” Dristen said and Holbrook nodded his agreement.

  “I think he’s had enough for now.” Karma said as she hopped off Demetri.

  “What makes you say
that?” Dylan asked curiously.

  “He passed out,” she answered and pointed to where Demetri lay unconscious on the floor. “I have some silver cord in my bag we can tie him up with. We need to get out of here though. I looked at his phone and he sent a mass text to like sixty vampire just before we arrived. They’ll probably be here soon.”

  “Let’s go then,” Harrison said, and Karma nodded.

  “Silver doesn’t effect Halflings like it does full-bloods, so Dylan and I will tie him up and make sure he stays unconscious in the van. Harrison, you drive the van. I want to go to your house. Your panic room will be the perfect place to hold him.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Harrison said, and led everyone from the room as Karma and Dylan tied Demetri up.

  “Vincent was one of the ones he sent that text to,” Karma said quietly, and Dylan grinned.

  “It’s all coming together,” Dylan said as he picked Demetri up. “Now we just have to wait.”

  ****

  “Karma, may I talk to you for a minute?” Harrison asked as he stepped out on the front porch.

  “Sure.” Karma said and slid to one side of the bench, so he could sit beside her.

  “What you did back at the warehouse was both amazing and terrifying. Where did you learn torture skills like that?”

  “The Huntresses,” Karma answered.

  “Nevaeh’s group?” He asked and looked to where Nevaeh was standing talking on the phone.

  “Yes. Why?”

  “You just seemed like you were in a kind of trance while you were doing it. Like that’s all you were focused on, yet you were interacting with everyone else, too. How can you be so focused yet know what’s going on around you, too?”

  “I don’t know. Never really thought about it. I’ve just always been able to focus on lots of things at one.”

  “It’s a skill that will save your life in battle.”

  “It’s a skill that already has,” she told him and stood up. “Now, I’m going to see if Demetri is awake. I need to know where Vincent is.”

  “I’ll come with you. I want to watch you in action again. Maybe I’ll learn a thing or two.”

  Harrison followed Karma into the house and straight to the underground safe room.

  “He awake yet?” Karma asked the vampire Harrison told to keep an eye on Demetri.

  “Yeah. He’s been yelling for about five minutes now.”

  “What’s he saying?” Harrison asked.

  “They will kill you all,” the vampire answered. “I don’t know who they are, but from what I’ve heard you can handle anything,” he looked pointedly at Karma.

  “I don’t know about anything, but I can handle myself pretty well,” Karma answered and winked at the vampire. “Open the door. I think it’s time for me to have a little chat with our guest.”

  “You got it,” the vampire answered and keyed in the code to open the door. “I’m Michael, by the way.”

  “Nice to meet you, Michael,” Karma winked at him again before stepping through the door. “Hello, Demetri.”

  “You stay the hell away from me,” he stammered when she entered the room. “You’re a sadistic bitch and I have nothing to say to you.”

  “Oh, now you’ve hurt my feelings,” Karma taunted him as he backed himself into a corner. “Is that anyway to talk to your pawn’s daughter?”

  “What are you talking about?” Demetri asked while looking frantically over Karma’s shoulder, trying to figure out if he could escape or not.

  “Don’t even think about trying to escape. You wouldn’t make it to the door,” Karma told him as she kept walking toward him. “I know you ordered Vincent to murder my family. I know you have had every Halfling born in the past two hundred years killed because you feared the prophecy. I know you would have had me killed, too, but the Senate was watching me because they thought I was the one. How am I doing so far?”

  “Who told you all that?”

  “I did,” Harrison said from the door. “Vincent told me part of it when he tried to recruit me for your little army. What he didn’t know is that you’re on my shit list.”

  “Harrison, you’re alive,” Demetri said with a smile on his face. “Keep this crazy woman away from me.”

  “Now why would I do that? She is my future daughter-in-law, after all,” Harrison walked up beside Karma and kissed her forehead. “Welcome to the family.”

  “Daughter-in-law? How is that possible?” Demetri asked as he looked from Karma to Harrison and back again.

  “Because I am his son,” Dylan said as he stepped through the door.

  Demetri looked like he was going to puke as he looked between the three of them.

  “I think we should let that information sink in for a bit then come back and see if he’s ready to have that chat,” Karma said and started backing out of the room.

  “Wait,” Demetri laid a hand on her arm to stop her and she hissed at him through her teeth.

  “Do not touch me,” she told him through clenched teeth. She could feel her fangs prickling, wanting to elongate and sink into his arm.

  “Vincent killed your family on his own and against my orders. Everything else you said was true though. I have been working with Vincent for several years trying to perfect this serum, but we can still only get it to work for short periods of time. We wanted you with us because he had hoped a little Halfling blood would make it work and you were the only Halfling we knew about.”

  “So, you wanted to use me as a pawn too. Good to know,” Karma said and started out of the room again. This time when Demetri reached for her, she flashed her fangs at him and hissed again. “Do not touch me.”

  “I need you to understand where I’m coming from. I only wanted to control humans, so the vampire could come out of hiding,” Demetri pleaded with her.

  “Bullshit. You want to control humans because you somehow believe vampire are superior to humans. You think they are weak and beneath you. What I don’t understand is why you hired the Huntresses when you think so little of humans,” Karma snapped at him.

  “I had to keep up appearances and the Huntresses were an easy way of doing that, and getting what I wanted. They destroyed many vampire for me because they thought they were protecting humans. They were just pawns in my game, too.”

  “You son of a bitch,” Nevaeh said from the doorway.

  Demetri grinned at Nevaeh, but the grin fell from his face when she pulled a silver knife from her belt and slowly walked into the room.

  “You think Karma is a bitch? Well, I taught her everything she knows,” Demetri’s screams echoed around the room as Nevaeh carved symbols into his skin. “Did you forget that my people are of Amazonian descent?”

  “Oh hell,” Harrison said with a grin. “No wonder they’re the best at hunting vampire.”

  “Nevaeh, we need him awake for a little while longer. I need some more information, but I promise you, when the time comes you will get the pleasure of killing him,” Karma told her.

  “That’s all I ask,” Nevaeh responded and walked from the room.

  “Tell me where Vincent is,” Karma demanded as soon as Nevaeh was gone.

  “Go to hell.”

  “I’m sure I will someday, but not today. Now, tell me where Vincent is.”

  Demetri didn’t respond so Karma decided it was time to get rough.

  “Tell me where Vincent is or I’m going to call Nevaeh back in here. If you think what I did to you at the warehouse was torture, you’ll be in for a surprise. That was a walk in the park on a crisp autumn day compared to what she will do to you. Now, tell me where Vincent is.”

  Demetri looked back at the door, checking to see if Nevaeh was still there.

  “He was in Maine at a research lab there, but he’s probably on his way here now,” he answered quickly.

  “Good. I hope he is on his way here. I want to slowly kill him in front of you while Nevaeh plays with you,” she grinned at Demetri once more and backed out of the room.
After the door was shut, she turned to the others. “I doubt Vincent will come for him, but I could be wrong. Make sure everyone knows to stay alert, and I will keep my senses attuned so I will know when he gets here. If he isn’t here in three days, we hunt.”

  “I’ll put everyone on alert. Why don’t you get some rest for now? It’s only been a few hours since he sent that text and if Vincent was in Maine, like he says, then there’s no way he will be here yet,” Harrison said, and Karma nodded.

  “I’m not sure Vincent was in Maine, but I am sure that’s where Demetri thinks he was. I’ll rest for a couple of hours though because I need to be alert,” Karma turned to Dylan. “Will you join me?”

  “Always,” Dylan said and grabbed her hand.

  “We’ll be back in a few hours,” he told Harrison and pulled Karma up the stairs and into the bedroom on the top floor of the house.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Karma, Dylan, there’s a group of vampire approaching from the East,” Jackson said after he knocked on the door of the room they were sleeping in.

  “Shit,” Karma said as she jumped out of bed and grabbed her weapons belt. She was up and ready for battle in less than a minute. Dylan was right beside her when she opened the door and walked out of the room.

  “They’re still about a mile away, but our scouts reported they are heading this way,” Harrison informed them when they made it to the kitchen.

  “How do they know where we’re at?” Karma asked him.

  “They were all created by Demetri, so he can call them to him,” Aleyn told them as he stepped in from the back porch. “There are about fifty of them coming. I don’t see that we will have a problem, but you never know.”

  “Vincent isn’t with them,” Karma said with a sigh. “I was hoping he would be, so we could end this.”

  “He’ll show up soon enough,” Ramsey said as he stepped through the door, too. “They are less than half a mile away now, but they aren’t moving at top speed. Some of our scouts are behind them, following them in so they can take pick them off easily. The ones coming aren’t very observant, because they have passed both scouting stations and haven’t seen the vampire at either.”