Barbie- The Vampire Hunter Boxset

by Lucinda Dark

  Esperanza paused in her stirring, and without looking at me, she spoke. "Depends on what you're willing to do."

  What was I willing to do? I asked myself. The danger was real. The threat to not just my life, but Barbie's and possibly Torin's as well was indisputable. Even if I called it quits and walked away, where would that leave us. Where would that leave Barbie and I? I couldn't erase my memories any more than I could erase the growing emotion at Barbie's nearness. There was no fucking way I could just walk the fuck away and pretend like what she was doing wasn't going to get her killed. Demons. Vampires. It didn't matter. There was no walking away from this.

  "What I have to," I finally said. "Whatever it takes to keep them alive."

  A small smirk appeared at the corner of the old woman's lips. "Good." She cracked open a jar and dropped what looked like round green meatballs into the mixture. The meatballs themselves smelled like a combination of fruit and grass, but when put into the mix, it changed. I peeked over her shoulder wincing when they melted, the liquid bubbling up and turning the same shit green color as the balls. "Unfortunately," she finally said, "that might not be enough. Humans are fragile."

  "Is there a way for a human to compete with a vampire ... or anything like it?"

  "Good question," she replied. "It's possible, but not without sacrifice."

  "I'm willing." I'd never been more fucking willing for anything else. I'd do what she deemed necessary if it would make me useful. I needed to be useful. I couldn't stand the weakness of my humanity, no matter that it hadn't bothered me before I knew about supernaturals. I'd gone from thinking I was at the top of the food chain to realizing I was nothing but practically helpless in the face of the creatures that Barbie faced, the creature that Torin was. Perhaps had I not grown up with him, I wouldn't have been as shocked. As it was, though, it was hard to equate the child he'd been to the creature I knew him to be now. Why? Why the hell had he been my friend at all?

  "I'd think on it some more," Esperanza finally decided. "I will do my own research, but when you're ready, come back and we'll go from there."

  I nodded realizing that was as good as I would get from her for now. It was enough that she thought there might be an opportunity to be better, to grow stronger. That was something I needed, something I craved. And with that thought, I realized I couldn't be pissed at Barbie. She had wanted the same thing. That was why she'd allowed the demon to possess her. I knew that in my soul. She wanted that same power I sought.

  The more I thought, the more Esperanza poured her seemingly random ass shit into the pot. The stench grew fouler, rising from the pot on the stove until I couldn't bear to be anywhere near the damn thing. I felt like I was fucking choking on the putrid air of the kitchen. Torin stepped into the kitchen, pausing in the doorway. He didn't even bat an eyelash at the searing noxious odor that cloaked the room. With a glance at me, he nodded to the hallway in a silent gesture. I knew what that meant. The time had come.

  I left Esperanza to her brew and followed after him.

  The tension in the air was palpable. It seeped between my pores and choked my throat. Our gazes clashed as we stepped into the room adjoining the kitchen. When we came to a collective stop, we stood across from each other. I was stiff, my muscles taut and achy. Torin’s hands were balled into tight fists, his nostrils flaring. It was uncomfortable, but I waited him out.

  Minutes went by until his lips parted and he spoke in a low, stilted tone. "Why … didn't you tell me?" It was his first demand, his first accusation. And from his tone, it wouldn't be the last.

  "I didn't know," I answered honestly. "I didn't think it was anything more than her attitude," I continued. "I didn't put two and two together until that woman"—I stopped and gestured to the empty doorway where Esperanza moved beyond, carrying a new bottle filled with the liquid she'd been brewing as she strode past the threshold towards the hall, her cane back in one hand—"mentioned it."

  Torin held my gaze for another split moment before he turned and moved to one of the chairs that decorated the small sitting room. Silently, he sank into the chair and sucked in a deep breath as he bent over and shoved the strands of his hair hanging in his face back with a rough palm. "I trusted her with you," Torin said quietly. "This isn't good."

  It might have hurt less had he used all of his supernatural strength to punch me through a wall. The air was knocked from my chest, nonetheless. "I'm sorry..." And I was. I was so fucking sorry that I hadn't seen it.

  Torin shook his head, not daring to look up again. "It's—I shouldn't blame you," he said. "Barbie didn't say shit when she should've." We both went quiet and, somehow, I found the strength to move. I strode across the room to a chair opposite his and sat down, leaning over and resting my elbows on my knees, keeping my head up as I watched him carefully. "She's...her personality," Torin started again, "it's probably a result of what happened to her family."

  I swallowed roughly, guilt eating away at my insides. Seeing her entire family slaughtered in a single night. Of course, that was why she acted the way she did. What the hell had I been thinking? She didn't act like it bothered her, but there were signs. The touching was one. Her avoidance of being touched by strangers was no coincidence. It couldn't be. Torin was right. It was a fucking coping mechanism. I could only imagine what the hell kind of fucked up issues she dealt with on a regular basis without the demon. With the demon...

  Power. It was all about power. She was still thinking of her revenge. Vengeance was a strong thing. I knew it. I stared at the man I'd known for nearly my entire life and saw him for what he was. Tired. Exhausted. Completely fucking wrecked by a tiny blonde woman who liked her swords as much as she liked her fucking sarcasm. We were a mess, the two of us. All because of her.

  "When do you think it happened?" I asked.

  Torin didn't have to guess at what I was referring to. His head lifted and he leaned back as if he needed the comfort the chair offered, not just its legs to sit upon. "Probably when Rachel attacked her," he answered, looking off to the side, his jaw working. "It probably jumped from Rachel to her. I should've thought of that, but I'd been..."

  "So what now then?" I prompted when he let the sentence drop, never finishing it. "What do we do about it now?"

  "There isn't much we can do if she's signed a contract. Demonic contracts can't be broken," he replied.

  "How much do you know about demons?"

  Torin looked at me, his lips turning down as he thought the question over. "Not much," he admitted. "But from what little I do know they're extremely powerful. The power Barbie would exhibit is barely a fraction of their true potential. That's why they're locked away. They haven't been allowed to roam Earth for thousands of years."

  "Then how is one able to possess her?" It made no sense to me. How could she be possessed if a demon wasn't actually there?

  "They physically can't be on Earth," Torin corrected. "That doesn't mean they can't project their spirits. Barbie has to be incredibly strong to be able to carry one around without being obvious about it, though I suppose we already knew that."

  "Yeah." We'd known. I didn't think there was a woman stronger than her. If there was, I hadn't met them and I wasn't sure I wanted to.

  "Contracts are usually short-term and one way demons ensure that their victims fall prey to their clutches is by sucking the life out of them over a period of time. A demon's victim usually gets weaker, not stronger as Barbie has. If she's been carrying this demon for months then either she's more than human herself or she made a different type of contract altogether," Torin said.

  "We won't know until she wakes up," I concluded.

  He nodded and grunted as he got to his feet. "No, we won't," he agreed. Torin walked to the doorway that led into the hall and stopped, looking back at me. "We have to keep a careful eye on her for the foreseeable future."

  I sucked in a heavy breath as I moved up alongside him and held out my fist. "Understood."

  Torin looked from my fist to my f
ace before he, too, lifted his arm and bumped his fist with mine in a way we'd done since childhood. It was a promise, an oath between us that we wouldn't let anything happen to her. Even if that meant we had to protect her from herself. And knowing Barbie, that was definitely a possibility.

  Chapter 13

  Barbie

  The first thing I noticed when I woke was the absence of pain. It was ... startling as well as relieving. The second thing was the strange ceiling over me. A rusty looking fan dangled from what looked to be an arching room, the blades spinning so slowly that it did very little to actually circulate air. Instead, all it seemed to be accomplishing was releasing a small rainfall of dust on my face.

  I coughed and then that cough turned into a sneeze. Covering my nose and mouth with a hand, I sneezed a total of two more times before I sat up and froze. Three people stood in the room with me. Two I knew well, and one I didn't recall at all. Torin and Maverick took up sentinel positions next to each other just inside the room. Maverick stared at me with dark eyes, a frown fixed on his face. Torin's arms were crossed over his chest, but his eyes were no less turbulent.

  "Where—" My voice rasped out of my throat, low and hoarse. I blinked as a glass of water was shoved under my nose by the third person in the room. Hesitantly, I took it from the old woman and gently put it to my lips as I stared at her over the rim. The water was cool against my throat and it helped to clear the gruffness from my voice when I tried to speak again. "So..." I started, looking awkwardly from Maverick to Torin and back. I sucked in a breath and sat up straighter.

  Torin was the first to speak. "We know about the demon."

  I tensed all over again, lowering the glass and setting it on the nightstand at my side. Silence stretched throughout the room. My gaze kept darting to the woman who sat at the end of the bed, her wrinkled hands folded in her lap, a cane leaning against the baseboard. "I'm sorry, who are you?" I asked, unable to stop myself.

  Tilting her head to the side, she spoke. "My name is Esperanza,"

  "She's a witch," Torin answered. "I asked for her help when you passed out. Are you going to say anything?"

  "Thank you?" I tried.

  His eyes narrowed, but it was Maverick who spoke next. "You should have told us," he said darkly, lifting his arms and folding them across the broad expanse of his chest until he mirrored Torin's stance.

  "I was going to," I said defensively. "I wanted to wait until Torin came back from—"

  "You've been possessed by a demon for months, Barbie," Maverick interrupted. "Far longer than Torin has been gone. You should have told us when it happened."

  He had me there. I clenched my fists in the bedsheets.

  "How did it happen?" Torin asked.

  I lifted my head and met his gaze, but I couldn't hold it for long. Defensive though I felt, they had had a right to know and I had chosen to keep it a secret. Why? Because it was uncomfortable. Because I didn't know how to tell them. Because I knew they'd be pissed. Because I knew it would change things. But none of that really mattered now, did it?

  I darted a glance to the woman. I didn't know how much I could say with her in the room. And as if she heard my thoughts, she got up off the bed, retrieved her cane and went to the doorway. Stopping long enough to put up a gnarled hand on each of the guys’ arms. My eyebrows shot up when they both lowered their arms. It was as if she had cast a spell over them. Their tension drained away. Each of them looked to her for a moment and then she was pulling away and leaving the room, closing the door behind her.

  "Alright," Torin sighed, striding forward until he came to the side of the bed and took a seat in the waiting chair. "Talk. We need to know everything."

  Now that the woman was gone, there was no reason not to give them the information they demanded. "The demon was in the amulet that Rachel wore the night she attacked us," I started. "When I broke it, I ... I somehow got a piece stuck in my palm and when I passed out, she spoke to me."

  "The demon did?" Torin clarified.

  I nodded.

  "Is it still in your palm?" Maverick asked. I nodded again and lifted the hand in question, turning it over so he could see the marking. "How the fuck did I not notice that?" He strode forward and reached out until he cupped my hand in his grasp to stare at the marking. I nearly jerked my arm away when a zing of heat moved through me. He paused, his eyes darting up to mine. "Sorry." He released me just as quickly.

  "It's fine," I assured him, but I tucked my hand away anyway, holding it under one leg as the desire to touch him more resurfaced. The pain was gone, but the need—the craving—was still there. Touch. Desire. Sex. Sweat began to form at the small of my back.

  "What happened next?" Torin prompted.

  "The demon's spirit was in the amulet and when she spoke to me, we ... came to an agreement," I said.

  "Is there a way to remove the demon?" Maverick asked.

  I shook my head. "Not that I've found."

  "So, you've been looking?" I turned my gaze to Torin as he leaned forward and spoke again, starting at just how close he actually was.

  "The contract I signed with her states that I can't have her exorcised," I admitted. "But that doesn't say anything about me killing her on my own. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do that yet."

  "You likely won't." Torin sat back again with another sigh.

  "Your faith in my abilities is astounding," I said tartly.

  "I'm not trying to be insulting, Barbie," he replied. "Demons are dangerous creatures. What you've done is fucking irresponsible." I blinked as the curse slipped from his lips. While Maverick sprinkled curses into his language as though it were going out of style, Torin so rarely cursed that when he did, it made me pause.

  "I need the power," I said. "She claims to know things, information she's picked up in the spirit channels—"

  "Of course she would claim that," Torin snapped. "She's a demon. Demons lie and cheat and steal. They do whatever they can to get you to sign a contract. It's a wonder she hasn't sucked the life out of you."

  "She couldn't very well get what she wants if she did," I retorted.

  "And what does she want, hmmm?" he countered, green eyes flashing red. "Your soul perhaps?"

  "A body," I replied tartly.

  "What?" Maverick looked between us for a moment before his gaze settled on me. "What the hell does that mean?" he demanded.

  "She's stuck with me," I answered. "With her amulet shattered, she can't possess anyone else. Her spirit was centered squarely on that piece of crap—"

  I thought it was rather fashionable, myself, Satrina's voice drifted through my head.

  I paused.

  "What is it?" Torin asked, his gaze sharpening on my sudden silence.

  I shook my head and grimaced. "Nothing."

  His eyes narrowed. "She spoke to you, didn't she?" he asked. "What did she say?"

  "Nothing, she didn't—"

  Tell him I like his forwardness, Satrina replied. But there really is no way to get rid of me.

  I winced and debated on refusing her, but in the end, I relayed the message. Torin's frown deepened. "What does she want with your body?" he asked.

  "A portal to Earth."

  Shocked silence met my answer. "You've got to be fucking kidding me," Maverick breathed, staring down at me as his eyebrows inched upwards.

  "It's not what it sounds like," I replied. "She can't exactly come back to Earth through me, but she can"—I hesitated—"enjoy it."

  Maverick spun and stalked across the room, muttering under his breath as if he couldn't fucking make sense of my words.

  "And what about the power?" Torin said, drawing my attention.

  "What about it?" I asked, careful to keep my tone even.

  He tilted his head my way and scowled. "Don't play with me, Barbie," he warned. "I know enough and what I don't know, Esperanza does."

  "That reminds me," I said, "who is she?"

  "She's a … friend of the family," he replied with a shake of
his head. "Don't change the subject."

  I released a breath. "What do you want to know?"

  "Esperanza said that the reason for your..." he paused and gestured to me, "condition is because the power of the demon was building up inside you. She managed to help you release it—"

  "How?" I asked sharply, cutting him off. If there was a way for me to relieve the pain of so much power other than what Satrina had suggested, I'd take it. I heard delicate laughter echo in my mind as a response.

  "A potion of some sort," Maverick answered, turning back to the both of us.

  "It's not a permanent fix," Torin said.

  "But if it can work for—"

  "She said that the demon would have given you other methods, especially if she wanted to keep your body."

  I pressed my lips together. No fucking way. The laughter in my head grew louder and I had to actually work to keep the effect it was having on me from showing up in my expression. I wanted to roll my eyes. I wanted to drop into my soul and punch the stupid slut in the face.

  "You have to tell us, Barbie," Torin pressed.

  I shook my head. "No, it's not a possibility."

  "Why the hell not?" Maverick demanded. He practically seethed as he stood at the end of the bed, leaning over and closing his hands over the bars of the white iron footboard, his knuckles blanched.

  "It's complicated," I said, turning my face away.

  Bullshit, Satrina replied. It's not complicated at all. The old crone may have helped to stave off the worst of the side effects, but you really should tell them, darling. I'm sure it won't be a problem for them. They're young and virile. If you're concerned about your inexperience… I could feel the grin she gave me. I can—

  "No," I snapped. I wasn't completely inexperienced either, I wanted to tell her. I'd had sex before. Once.

  "Well, then what kind of demon is it?" Maverick asked. "Maybe we can research something."

  I hesitated. If I told them, would they know what "methods" Satrina had given me to release the power? I looked at Torin. He stared back at me, unbending. "You have to give us something," he said.