Find Me When the Sun Goes Down (Forged Bloodlines #3)

by Lisa Olsen

  “Is this about last night?” I lowered my voice. “Rob, I’m so sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable.”

  “That’s not it,” he insisted, but I wasn’t so sure. The thought of Rob not being around made me feel something akin to panic.

  “If I’d known it would make you want to leave, I never would have agreed to it in the first place. We don’t have to ever do that again if it makes you feel better. How did you used to get blood from Jakob?”

  “I drank from him, same as you.”

  “Then…”

  “I told you, something’s come up,” he interrupted. “I need to deal with it before I can come back to you. With you, rather.”

  The timing was a little suspect to me, but I tried to take him at his word. “I hope it’s not anything too bad.”

  “Nothing I can’t handle,” he shrugged with his usual stoicism.

  “Does that mean you can’t watch over Ellie anymore either?”

  “She’ll be fine long as you keep an eye on her until she gets the hang of feeding. I’ll stay long enough for her papers to come through. She can crash at my place for as long as she needs to.”

  “It sounds like you’ve got it all worked out.”

  “Don’t look now, bitty-vamp is on the move, yeah?”

  I looked up to see Ellie slipping out the door with the dark haired guy right behind her. “Uh oh, we’d better make sure she does okay.” I felt like the biggest peeping Tom, watching her lead him into a nearby alley, especially when her head bent to his neck.

  The scent of fresh blood was enough to bring my fangs out, and it took all I had in me not to join her in the feast. I needed to feed too, especially after giving some of my blood to Rob, but damned if I wouldn’t stick to the promise I’d given Bishop about not feeding from guys after failing him so miserably the night before.

  Instead I held my breath against the delectable aroma, taking hold of his wrist to concentrate on the throb of his heart. When it started to slow, I laid a hand on her shoulder. “Ellie, that’s enough.” She gave no sign of hearing me, and no sign of slowing. “Ellie, you have to stop,” I said louder, grabbing hold of her wrist.

  She wrenched her mouth away with a whimper, breathing raggedly as she fought the urges I knew were nearly overwhelming. “Good girl, I knew you could do it,” I praised her, even though I was pretty sure she wouldn’t have stopped on her own until he was dead.

  Pricking my own thumb to seal the wounds at his throat, the better to remove the temptation, I allowed myself the tiny pleasure of sucking the spilled blood from my own finger before I took hold of her shoulders. “Now pull yourself together, you’re not done here. You have to compel him to forget about this.”

  “Right,” her head wobbled. “Right.” Sucking in a deep breath, she somehow centered herself. When she turned to catch hold of his will, I could see my Ellie in her eyes again, not the bloodthirsty killer. Soon enough the guy was on his way, weaker, but not too much worse for wear, with no memory of the attack. As promised, we stopped at a lolly shop and I bought her a sack of Jelly Babies as big as her head.

  Glancing at the time, I knew I had to get back to Bishop; we were more than overdue for a talk. With a promise to stop by and see Ellie the next night, I left them to walk back to my car, only after getting a promise from Rob that I’d definitely see him before he left for whatever he had to go take care of.

  I know I can be naïve sometimes, but in the mood I was in, I wasn’t particularly mindful of my surroundings. Lost in deep thought going over how to approach Bishop, I didn’t take much notice of anything, until I found myself being pulled into the narrow space between two buildings. The first thought that seized hold of me was panic, and a yelp of fear squeezed out of me when I felt my back press up against the dirty bricks.

  Right on its heels was a healthy dose of empowerment though. The realization that whoever thought I’d make an easy target was in for a nasty surprise brought a smile to my lips. I hauled my attacker off of me and shoved him against the side of the adjoining building in the blink of an eye.

  “Ow… Okay, I guess I deserved that,” he groaned. My eyes widened in recognition as I found myself staring at my blonde watcher.

  “You… What are you doing here?” I demanded, keeping him pinned against the building.

  “I wanted to continue our chat, but with fewer ears around,” he replied casually, as if I didn’t have my hand wrapped around his throat. “You’re a hard lady to get alone, you know that?”

  “Why do you want to get me alone?” My head swiveled to one side and then the other, keeping him in my sights while checking out our surroundings, to make sure we were alone.

  “Relax, I’m not going to hurt you.”

  I snorted at that. “Big words when I could crush your windpipe with two fingers.”

  He cleared his throat, and a wiggle of movement caught my eye. There was a steel-tipped wooden bolt pressing just under my rib cage, aimed straight for my heart. “Not before I could return the favor.”

  “That’s supposed to make me relax?” I blurted out, freezing in place.

  “I’m only trying to show you there’s always a use for skill and finesse over age and brawn.” He tucked away the arrow, his hands coming up in a supplicating gesture. “But like I said, I’m not here to hurt you.”

  He had me there. Whatever his game, he could have led with the stake and had me exactly where he wanted me. I let go of him, keeping my back to the entrance of the narrow alley. “Who are you?”

  “You can call me Carter.” He dropped his arms when I let him go.

  “Is that your name?” Somehow I didn’t think so.

  “It’ll do for now.”

  “You killed him, didn’t you?” I could easily see how he’d taken down a vampire like Jasper without breaking a sweat.

  “I kill a lot of people,” he grinned. “You’ll have to give me more to go on than that.”

  “Jasper. The description of the killer matches you perfectly. Why did you do that?”

  His head canted to one side like a dog who can’t figure out which hand is holding the treats. “I thought you’d be happy about it.”

  Not that I was particularly bloodthirsty, but he was right. It was hard to drum up any sympathy for Jasper’s death. “I can’t think of a guy I’d rather see dead and gone, but nobody else seemed to care much one way or the other. Why did you kill him? Did he wrong you?”

  “Every day of his miserable existence,” he replied, his face hardening. “Him and everyone like him. That’s why I had to stop him, and why I want you to help me.”

  “Help you? What are you talking about?”

  “Come on, Anja, I know you feel the same way about vamps who abuse their power and make the weak suffer. Nobody gives a damn about it unless it breaks one of their precious laws. I’ve been doing the work they don’t have the balls to do.”

  All of a sudden I understood he hadn’t meant only humans when he said he’d killed a lot of people. “You’re him, you’re the hunter.”

  “That’s me, sunshine, at your service,” he winked, smiling broadly.

  “But… you’re a vampire.” As far as I knew Bishop had never even considered the thought that they might be up against another vampire. No wonder they’d run into so many dead ends. “How could you kill your own kind?”

  “Better to ask what gives them the right to prey on humankind.”

  “Don’t you? Prey on humans? I mean, you drink human blood same as any vampire, right?”

  “I don’t kill humans, and neither do you. Not if you can help it.”

  My eyes narrowed. “How did you know that?”

  “I did some checking on you.”

  A ribbon of panic flared. How much did he know about me? He’d mentioned something about age and brawn, so that was a fair indication he had no idea how old I really was or my true parentage. At least I hoped not. “Sorry, but how do you even know who I am at all?”

  “When a powerful vampi
re comes into the territory where I’m hunting, it’s a matter of self preservation to know these things.”

  I opened my mouth to dispute that label, but snapped it shut before I contradicted my reputation. “You’re barking up the wrong tree. I could never do what you do.”

  “But you already have. You took out Kursik and Serena Vinter in the West. I heard you talking about Jasper’s girl. I know you were plotting to help her, and you were two steps away from ending him on that dance floor.”

  “I wasn’t going to kill him. I just wanted him to stop hurting her.”

  “And now he has,” Carter replied, the corner of his mouth tilting up. “Permanently.”

  “I still don’t see what you think I can do. I’m not an assassin. Those other incidents were… special circumstances.” I’d never killed another vampire before, regardless of my taking credit for it. “I wouldn’t last two days on the hunt.”

  “I can teach you the skills. It’s the humanity I can’t find in any other vampire, and I’ve been looking for a while. Think about it, a vampire hunter with your speed and strength… With you by my side we’d be unstoppable.” His smile was radiant, convinced in the brilliance of his plan. Too bad he didn’t know me as well as he thought.

  “If you know all about me, then you know who my boyfriend is, right? Chief in charge of the people trying to kill you right now? What’s to stop me from going back to him and telling him all about you? Or are you going to kill me too if I don’t become the Robin to your Batman?”

  “Of course not, I told you, I don’t want to hurt you. We’re kindred, you and me. Besides, you won’t tell him we talked.”

  “Won’t I?” I snorted.

  “No,” he replied with easy confidence. “Because you know what I’m doing is right.”

  I admit, there was a part of me that was impressed by his brand of vigilante justice. How many times had I begged Bishop to do something about the rampant cruelty in the vampire world, only to have him shrug my objections away? But I couldn’t condone fighting violence with violence. “I understand you think you’re doing the right thing. But you don’t have the right to decide who lives and dies. Nobody does.”

  “The Order seems to think they do.”

  “That’s different, they’re upholding the law.” As much as I hated to see them enforce it, I could understand the need for it on some level. Left unchecked, rampant vampire breeding could soon overwhelm a population, and then we’d be left with utter chaos. And while I’d broken the law in helping Ellie escape, I hadn’t done it by hurting anyone. That had to count for something.

  “Are they? Ask your boyfriend why he’s coming after me.”

  “It’s his job.”

  “Is it? I’ve done nothing against vampire law. The Order should be thanking me for cleaning up the city. The fewer violent human deaths there are at the hands of vampires, the less chance of discovery. I am safeguarding the law.”

  That brought me up short. What laws had he broken? As I understood it, he hadn’t exposed the existence of vampires to the humans, and there wasn’t any law against killing other vampires as long as it was kept private.

  “So why are they so hot to stop me? I’ll tell you why. The Order’s been corrupted by politics. The bigwigs don’t like that I’m taking down their cronies, that’s the only crime they care about.”

  Was that true? “Vampire law or not, it’s wrong to kill people and vampires are people too.”

  “Since when is it wrong to kill a killer? Regular government does it all the time. I just save time and tax payers’ money by cutting out the middle man,” he grinned.

  “Would you kill me then? I’ve killed before.”

  Carter sobered, his head slowly shaking from side to side. “No, you’re different, you’re not like them. Do you know how rare that is? Especially for someone your age.”

  “My age,” I nodded. “Look, I’m sorry, but I can’t be one of your caped crusaders. I can’t be responsible for any more deaths. It’s too slippery of a slope to figure out where it ends.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, I think we could have made quite a team. Though, I always preferred the Avengers myself,” he grinned.

  I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling back; now was not the time to start debating the pros and cons of DC versus Marvel. “I’m sorry too, but I can’t be a party to any violence.”

  But what if you could do it without violence? The devil on my shoulder asked. Or was it the angel? With my ability to compel vampires, I could stop them, without any bloodshed. Carter could identify and subdue the worst offenders, then I could work my magic on them without anyone having to die. But that would mean revealing my ability to him. And could I trust it to work on every vampire we encountered? There was still so much I didn’t know. And Bishop… there was no way he’d allow it, me working with a hunter.

  Bishop.

  “I have to go. I have to get back before I’m missed.”

  “He’s got you on a short leash, doesn’t he?” Carter leaned forward, partially blocking my way.

  “Bishop cares about me, he just wants to keep me safe. From you, actually.”

  “Well then, you’d better run along and tell him there’s no danger in that.” He stepped back and I paused, conflicted. I had no idea what I was going to tell Bishop — there were so many things I’d learned in the past twenty-four hours, my head was ready to explode.

  Carter must have sensed that hesitation because he regained his confident grin. “Don’t worry. Even if you tell him we met today, you can’t tell him anything of value. You don’t know where I live or how I operate. You don’t even know if Carter’s my real name.”

  He had a point. But I could tell Bishop what he looked like, and more importantly, that they were searching for a vampire. “I have to go…” I murmured, not really sure what I would do as I stepped out of the alley to get my bearings again.

  I felt the tickle of his breath at my ear a split second before he spoke. “If you change your mind, leave word for me at the Moon & Sixpence. Gotta love the names of the bars over here, don’t ya? See you later, sunshine.” By the time I turned my head, he was gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  By the time I got back to the mansion, I’d pretty much decided to tell Bishop everything about Carter. Regardless of whether or not I thought the hunter was doing the right thing, Bishop had the right to know about it. Plus, I needed a way to segue into the main topic at hand… my breaking the law in helping Ellie, and last but not least, my disturbing new ability. No, not new — if it was new I could face him with a heck of a lot less trepidation, knowing his feelings for me were rooted in reality.

  Unfortunately, before I could find Bishop, someone else found me instead. Winter cut me off almost the instant I stepped into the mansion. He must have been waiting for me to return. “I must have a word with you, Miss Gudrun.”

  “Now is really not a good time, Doc.” I sidestepped him, but he shifted with me, reminding me he was no ordinary doctor, but a member of the Order and not to be brushed off so easily.

  “I must insist.”

  “What’s this about?” I asked, darting a look over my shoulder to the hall where people lounged in plain sight.

  “Perhaps a more private venue might be warranted,” he said, with an intensity to his gaze that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

  “Sure, I know just the place.” Not wanting to take him up to my room, I led him to what I’d started to think of as my parlor. Closing the doors, I waited for him to begin the conversation, but he shifted nervously from one foot to the other, his long fingers steepled together as he searched for the right words to begin. “What is it? I really do have some other stuff to take care of,” I prompted irritably.

  “Yes… well, the thing is, I wanted to speak to you about the anomalies I found in your blood.”

  I’d completely forgotten about the tests he ran and worry settled into the pit of my stomach. Had he found something
bad in my blood? “What is it? Did you find something left over from the drug?” What if I wasn’t out of the woods after all?

  “No, that’s not what I’m referring to,” he waved my concerns off. “I’m speaking of the anomalies, the antigens… surely you know what I’m talking about.” Winter gave me a direct look, waiting for me to admit to something.

  “I surely don’t,” I shook my head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Miss Gudrun, really. I know…”

  “You know what?”

  “I know you’re not who you claim to be.”

  “What?” The knot of worry in my stomach swelled to the size of a grapefruit and didn’t stop there.

  “Your blood clearly contains signs of vaccinations given in the latter half of the twentieth century. You can’t have been turned more than fifty years ago, tops.”

  “What?” I repeated stupidly. It was a good thing I didn’t need to breathe, because I wasn’t capable of functioning on even the basest levels. Betrayed by my own blood? Had Bishop known about this? Why hadn’t he told me so? Did that mean Jenessa already knew about me too?

  Winter continued as if I’d confirmed his suspicions. “What I can’t figure out is why your blood tests so positive to support your claim. Have you found a way to boost your natural abilities? Because such a thing would be of great value to the Order.”

  He thought I was on vampire steroids of some kind. No wonder he hadn’t gone running to Angel to expose me, he wanted my secret. “Of course it would,” I managed to squeak out, my mind flying in a hundred directions at once, seizing upon and discarding every kind of plan from bribery to murder before it hit me. I knew exactly what to do.

  “I knew it was only a matter of time before someone found me out,” I nodded, edging closer to him. “I can tell you how to duplicate it.”

  “Excellent.” His eyes lit with pleasure, and Winter leaned forward in anticipation.

  “Listen to what I’m about to tell you very carefully.” My voice dropped conspiratorially. I focused my will on him, which was easier since he was already giving me his absolute undivided attention. “You can never tell anyone what you found out about me, do you understand?”