Burning Days (The Firsts Book 17)

by C. L. Quinn

  “I’m coming.”

  “But…”

  The fone went dead. Seconds later, Saul blew in on the air, a dark blanket wrapped around him, completely swaddled, his head covered.

  “No, Saul…”

  “Let me near him.”

  Pushing Plato back, Saul leaned over Jack, a hand on his forehead.

  “He’s bad,” was all he said as he used his fangs to tear open his wrist.

  “Drink, damn’t!” he told the unconscious Jack, forcing blood into his mouth. Jack didn’t respond. Seconds passed that felt like an eternity.

  “Saul?” Sanquinetta already knew, cold dread spreading through her rigid body, she could tell that Jack wasn’t responding to the vampire blood meant to help him heal. She asked her question. “Is it too late?”

  Saul, still forcing his blood into Jack’s mouth, shook his head. “It might be. His only chance now would be…”

  His eyes locked on Sanquinetta’s, the unspoken truth clear to both of them.

  Saul had brutally forced Ben to convert. Gods, he didn’t want to do that to Jack as well. But if he didn’t, Jack was going to die. He saw in Sanquinetta’s eyes the moment she decided. Of course, she loved Jack, even Saul had seen that, so she would have chosen nothing else.

  “Save him Saul. Save him.”

  Plato grabbed Saul’s arm. “Do it. He’d want it.”

  “It still might not work.”

  “Take the chance.”

  The sun now skirted through the towers, the ultraviolet light streaming onto the blanket too inadequate to protect Saul, so he lifted Jack in his arms, and when the blanket began to slide away, he just ran faster, making it to the shelter of the stairwell in their building as the damaging light penetrated his skin, burns forming instantly.

  All that mattered to him now was beginning a conversion that might save this man that he himself had come to care about. His relationship with Jack was complicated. Steeped in mutual respect, both trying to accept transgressions on the other’s part, working together for an honorable goal, they actually did like each other. Their humor and ideas matched well, and once in a while, they found themselves lockstepping to decisions about individuals and how to proceed on certain issues.

  Once back in the room, he laid Jack on his bed, tore his shirt away, and lay beside him, his own wrist, nearly healed, torn open again, the vicious act of conversion began again.

  Forcing blood, making an unconscious man take it down was inhumane, but the only way to begin the blood change. The only way this man would survive wounds meant to kill. Wounds that were even now doing exactly that.

  Sanquinetta and Plato hurried in twenty minutes later, locked the door, and joined them on the bed.

  “Saul?”

  He looked into her moisture-filled eyes. “He isn’t taking it in on his own yet. Until he does, his body will not begin the change. I’ll continue until he’s gone. I won’t give up.”

  “I know you won’t. Is there anything you need from us?”

  “If he starts to take the blood, if he rouses, then yes, I’ll need heavy restraints. That new thin chain that has the tensile strength of eighty chains, that’s what we need. If you can get it.”

  “I can get anything.”

  “Then wait by my side until I know the outcome. Do you have any idea who did this?”

  “A vampire, obviously. And it was personal. If he had wanted to kill one of us, a gun would have been quicker and more efficient. But he wanted us to know it was vampire, and that he needed to tear out his throat. No, we don’t know who it was, but as important, why it was. Now, we have another mission in Kansas City.”

  Near Jack’s feet, Plato nodded.

  “We have to find and kill the bastard who did this.”

  “That’s right, and we begin tonight, whether Jack…”

  Sanquinetta didn’t finish. Sitting quietly at his side, she watched as a sorrowful Saul tried to save Jack.

  “Plato, we’re all deadly tired, but we have a threat on our doorstep. Get some sleep and I’ll wake you in three hours to take a shift.”

  His eyes still on Jack, Plato finally looked up and agreed. “Three hours of shut-eye. Luxury. Wake me if you need me.” He tugged on Jack’s foot. “Pull out of this, dude. You still owe me sixty dollars and two dinners.”

  After crawling onto his bed, Plato was out almost at once, succumbing to exhaustion and stress.

  Saul watched Jack, worried that he hadn’t begun to recover enough to drink. It wasn’t a good sign.

  Sanquinetta crawled up on the opposite side of the bed, watching the process.

  “What happens when a conversion begins? We really don’t know a lot of the details.”

  “It’s unbelievably painful. The vampire virus responsible for the conversion from human to vampire is unforgiving. It tears you apart and rebuilds you, replacing much of the original human DNA with that of vampire. It requires a lot of vampire blood to begin the change and when it does, then it requires more blood to feed the change. It’s unrelenting for up to a week, sometimes longer, depending on the individual.”

  “Huh.” Sliding her fingers along Jack’s side, her eyes stayed on Saul’s. “And you. How old are you, Saul? What’s your story?”

  “I am slightly over three hundred, so I am not so young, yet for a vampire, not so old. For most of my years, I have been alone. It suited me. You learn, though, after three centuries, that it is relationships, people you love, who love you back, that make it all worth the inherent pain and joy that comes with living.”

  Quiet, her eyes moist again, Sanquinetta’s hand moved to Saul’s. “I’m sorry, for the pain our group caused for you. It’s been a strange life, and we truly thought we were protecting people. I’m glad you gave us a second chance. And thank you for helping Jack. However this turns out, you have been here for us since you came back and decided to help.”

  “I know that, which is why I am surprised that you accepted the truth as easily as you have. It shows how good you all are inside. Your hard road isn’t over yet, and your reward of a hunter-free life is far away. Yet you stay positive and grateful. The family I was building in Canada have already adjusted to my absence.”

  “Saul, you have a family here now too. You’re a part of our little cult of crazies, and that makes you family. Don’t forget that.”

  Squeezing her warm hand, they were so engaged with each other, when Jack suddenly gasped, Saul smiled and forced his head back down.

  “Is he all right?”

  “It means he’s beginning to respond. Yes, I think he’s going to be.”

  Dedicated to Jack now, Saul saw his eyes flutter open and then close. When it happened again, he caught his gaze. “Drink, take the blood, Jack.”

  Compulsion would make Jack do as needed, but it wouldn’t work the next time. Once conversion started, compulsion didn’t work. That’s why he still had to know how Xavier, Ife, and Cari could freeze and compel a vampire. Jack’s beautiful woman had promised to tell him someday.

  Up on her knees, Sanquinetta watched, her breath held, as Jack lifted a hand to press Saul’s wrist to his mouth and started to drink. It seemed bizarre to her that she found it repulsive and intriguing at the same time. In the end, it meant she wouldn’t have to say goodbye to Jack, and for that, she would be grateful forever to this extraordinarily sexy vampire who had come into their lives.

  Saul glanced up from Jack to Sanquinetta and smiled, a tickle in his chest when she smiled back with just as much joy. This felt right, the sharing, the protecting, being with these people. Perhaps he had finally found his place after all.

  That night in a pub six blocks away

  “Crazy shit, isn’t it?”

  “You kill the motherfucker?”

  “Well, fuck, yeah. Ripped his throat out. Human trash thinks it’s gonna end us? Hunters groups. Fuck them all, they’ll find out.”

  “We should take those meals-on-wheels and show them real power. Fuck, we should reveal our
selves to all the stupid creatures.”

  Buck leaned back and beckoned the waitress to their table. “Four more cartons of ale. Quick.”

  Compelled, she went immediately to fill his demand.

  He turned back to his companion. “D.J., that hasn’t exactly turned out well for vampires in the past. We don’t do that. It’s kind of understood.”

  “But how cool would it be to have a house full of them as slaves, and they all know what we are, but can’t do anything about it? We’d be gods.”

  “We’re not gods. Don’t go there. Yeah, we feed, we fuck, we have a good time. If the occasional human doesn’t make it through rough play, well, no big loss. But we have to live with them. They’re the majority of life on the planet.”

  “We should change a whole lot of them, then we’d become the majority.”

  Buck stared at his newest make for a full minute before he rolled his eyes and poured himself a drink, draining the last carton of beer on the table. “You are one dumbass vampire, Deej. I don’t know what I was thinking. Here, let’s see you kill a whole carton of this beer.”

  Already forgetting about what Buck had said, D.J. left his mug behind and started to chug the beer right from the carton.

  He didn’t know that Buck had decided right there tonight that this particular new make was shit. D.J. would be beheaded by morning.

  What he needed were four men in Texas who he would hire, the biggest baddest-assed vampires he’d ever seen. No one would win over them, no one ever had. They actually scared the shit out of him, but he needed apocalyptic fighters, and that four fit the description.

  It was time to get rid of human hunters once and for all. He’d known they existed for a lot of decades, and as long as they didn’t get close to him and his, he didn’t give a shit.

  Two weeks ago, though, hunters had sent one of his closest makes to her death. A beautiful vampire, a great lay, quite possibly his all-time favorite, and she was dead now.

  Okay, yeah, she was rough, liked to lick ‘em to death, kill ‘em slowly, so she did kill many of her blood meals. Even though he discouraged it, a lot of the young vamps really enjoyed it.

  Who was he to judge? His past could tear paint off walls. So, for now, he’d send for the Four Horsemen and let hell rain down.

  One week later at Hunter HQ

  “How are you feeling tonight, Jack? Funky, I bet, without a shower for a week and all that yucky blood all over you.”

  His expression stormy, he barked, “You think?”

  Moving closer than Saul said she should, Sanquinetta pushed a bottle of water to him. “You’re still alive, you asshole. Saul says you’re almost finished, so you get to come off the chains tomorrow.”

  “I know it. Fuck, San, I know it, I just can’t wrap my head around this. I’m a fucking vampire.”

  “Yeah, buddy, you are. I watched him turn you into one and you know I’d do it again. And Jack, you would have done it for me or Plato too. Saul saved your life. At some point, you’re going to thank him.”

  “No. Fuck. Yeah. Probably. Just, get me out of this basement. I can’t believe we thought it was going to be okay to keep Ben down here. This place smells like ass.”

  “So do you. Look, my friend, one more day. Now, I have to go. Saul made arrangements for that computer tech to meet with us. Damn, I hope she works out. That would take so much off my back.”

  “You meeting upstairs?”

  “Yeah, in twenty minutes.”

  “Let me come.”

  “Nope. Saul is God when it comes to you right now. He says you stay, you fucking stay. There’s the remote, watch some vids.”

  Upstairs, Sanquinetta couldn’t stop smiling. Jack was his old crusty self again, arguing with her instead of glaring at her like he wanted to eat her. Literally, eat her.

  Now, she hoped to add another member to the team who could help them find, identify, and purge hunters and research disappearances or mysterious deaths for Xavier’s team which was still searching for any rogues.

  Except, she thought, for the rogue in Kansas City. She was saving that asshole for her own team here. When Jack was up and running again, they were going to revisit that city, find the motherfucker who nearly killed Jack and fry him with extreme prejudice.

  “San, may I present Ms. Evaleigh. No last name.”

  Beside Saul stood a very pretty young woman who looked like she’d walked off a vidscreen. Her hair was to her waist, but twisted into a long complicated braid and held in place by multiple colorful clips. She wore a short top that exposed flat abs, a skirt that showed off gorgeous legs and feet tucked into knee high boots. A tattoo around her right wrist looked like a charm bracelet, the left covered with a pale green vine that eventually left the wrist to travel up her arm and curl around it until it reached her shoulder. A silver star tattoo highlighted huge blue eyes that reminded San of Ife’s.

  And attitude. The girl oozed attitude.

  “Yeah, so, this vamp told me you had work for me? Long term stuff?”

  “We do. Please, sit down and let’s go over specifics.”

  While Sanquinetta had been sizing up Evaleigh, she realized that Evaleigh had been sizing her up too. In both instances, it appeared that the two women had already decided that the other was cool.

  It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

  At Donovan’s beach house

  “So, I’ve been sleeping here. There are two other rooms. Choose whichever you prefer.”

  Jack shot a glance to Saul, who was being gracious, had offered to share this vampire protected beach house with him, and tried to be gracious back. He failed.

  “Yeah, well, my house is a fireball for vampires, so I guess this will have to work. I’ll take the one on the bottom floor.”

  “Fine. Look, we have a tough go of it here. You know I changed you at the request of your companions. I apologize if it isn’t what you would have chosen. Jack, I saved your life because we all thought you were worth saving.”

  He knew that. He even agreed with the decision. It still took everything he had to accept that he was actually a fucking vampire. For the rest of his life, which apparently was a much longer one now, he would have to drink blood, fuck that, and live in the dark. He grinned bitterly; like that was going to be much of an adjustment. Entering the bedroom that he thought Cari had used when she was here, he pitched his small pack. None of his clothes fit anymore, so he wore jeans and a tee shirt loaned by Saul.

  Walking to the mirror that lined one wall, he stared at the new and…improved?...Jack. His muscles had never been more impressive, his thighs thicker, arms fuller, chest wider. Yeah, he was pretty fucking buff, and apparently going to stay that way without effort. All good. He’d stay young and handsome without aging. Yeah, definitely good.

  But at what price?

  Walking to the doors that opened out onto a private balcony, he looked out at the sea, too dark tonight to see much.

  This did, however, solve the problem of whether he would be willing to convert to be with Ife. There wasn’t any barrier anymore to their relationship. His heart beat hard as he thought about the woman who had changed his life.

  He wanted her, had never stopped. Maybe this was all providence, maybe the vampire in Kansas City had done him a favor.

  But he was still going to fucking kill the motherfucker before he left to find out if Ife still wanted him.

  Twelve

  “Ife, it’s all coming together now. I know we’ve worked our asses off, but oh, Gods, is it worth it!”

  “It is. Scottie, between you and Crezia, Mother Earth is smiling on our endeavors here. I started that massive compost dump thirty years ago and hoped it would help heal some of the damage left by corporations using the land for palm oil back then. I can’t believe how healthy it is now. More diversity than I could have imagined.”

  “I think we deserve a big party tonight.”

  “Set it up.”

  “Why don’t you come this time
? Ever since you got back from your vacation, you’ve spent too much time alone in the forest.”

  “I’m trying to re-bond with the land.”

  “Yeah, but something else is bothering you. Crezia and I have felt it from that first day. You need to open up to someone. Why not me? I’m a spectacular listener.”

  “You are.” Ife walked away to consider what she wanted to say. At moments, what happened with Jack felt surreal. “I met someone in Oregon.”

  “You told us that.”

  “But I didn’t tell you that I think he might be a mate for me.”

  Scottie whistled low. “No, you did not tell us that. So now, details, lady. Why would you hesitate to tell us? Isn’t that a great thing?”

  “Normally, yes. But Jack is a vampire hunter.”

  “What?”

  “He’s a vampire hunter. Well, was. It’s so convoluted, I never took the time to tell you guys, but Cari and I had to call Xavier in to help mediate the situation. Between vampire hunters running down rogue vampires, people were dying. Vampires, humans…it was terrible.”

  “Oh, Ife, what a shitty vacation. Why didn’t you ever tell us?”

  “I didn’t know what to think about it. I still don’t. I don’t know how Jack could ever fit into my life. He’s a human who has hunted and killed vampires all his life. His brother was forcibly changed by a vengeful vampire, everything he’s ever believed has now been challenged, and even though we care for each other, he told me he doesn’t know if he could ever convert. How would he ever fit into my life? And he’s doing a critically necessary job now in destroying that which he believed, that his family believed, from birth. Ben is his brother.”

  “Ben? The guy you left with Olivia in Vegas?”

  “That’s the one. He was a vampire hunter too.”

  “Well holy shit!”

  “Olivia has the perfect place for a new vampire to learn about his skills and our world. I knew he’d thrive there and he has.”