Her face flushed and within seconds, her temples pounded. The temptation to shift the gears and reclaim her keys thrived in her head, but she didn’t want to damage her car nor did she want to end up without a working vehicle. Fight him? What chance did she have after tomorrow night? The vamp juice in her veins would be gone, leaving her with mortal strength. And she sure as hell would take the last vial of Kyle’s blood just to get her car back. If she fought him now it would dwindle the bit of energy she was saving for meeting the two who destroyed Kyle. The fucking vamp had won the battle before it began, and he knew it.
Silence filled the car. Katie thought about his words while she stared out the window. Continuously he’d preached about control. Control emotions. Control this. Control that. She wanted to scream shut the fuck up Mr. Control and punch the bloody hell out of him. His repeated words were as worse as the many blows she took to her face after Kyle told her time and time again to study and watch his movements. She persevered with pain and determination until she learned to avoid each swing at her. The lessons she learned never came with ease.
An odd feeling stirred in her gut. The vamp constantly annoyed her with his lectures, yet his intentions were to help and keep her safe. He was a teacher once, like Kyle. Maybe this was his way of testing her. He had something she wanted desperately. What would she do?
Grinning, she realized her answer. She’d do nothing. What a painless way to pass her test.
Riker parked in a spot near the second main entrance of the hospital. Katie’s temper cooled yet she remained silent as they headed for the sliding glass doors. Her attention shifted from the issue with her car to Jules upon seeing her best friend’s hurried steps create distance between them. Katie couldn’t feel happier for Jules now that she could return to Joe, yet neither of them was out of danger yet. They had to remain alert.
“Slow down,” Katie said.
“This could have waited until after sunrise,” Riker said, walking next to her.
Katie sealed her lips together, holding back her response. Daylight would’ve been a better time to visit since the immortals had to hide from the sun. However, Jules needed to see her boyfriend, needed to know he lived and breathed and they could continue their lives together. Katie would feel the same if it were Kyle and she walked in Jules’s shoes. Understanding that love and longing, Katie wouldn’t hold her friend back.
The doors swooshed open and Jules darted inside. Katie quickened her steps and reached the doors as they started to close. They paused, then jerked open.
Jules stood in front of a desk talking to an attendant. The older woman behind the counter stood with her head down. Katie hurried to meet up with Jules.
“Find him?” she asked.
Jules tapped her hand on the counter. “She’s checking.”
The older woman, Martha according to the tag above her left breast, lifted her gaze from the computer. “I don’t see anyone here by that name, dear.”
“Did a couple of ambulances show up here within the last half hour?” Katie asked.
Martha nodded. “Sure did. Two gurneys came through, but I didn’t see if they were male, female, young, or old.”
“And you checked his name?” Jules asked.
“Yes, dear. Nothing came up.”
Katie twisted to Riker and found his eyes slightly tinted. “Third floor. One was male, the other female.”
“How do you know?” Katie asked.
“Sorry to have bothered you. We weren’t here,” he told Martha.
She turned her attention back to her computer.
Riker tugged on Katie’s arm. She grabbed Jules’s hand and they followed Riker as he led them past the waiting area. “I saw her memory. A nurse yelled at the EMTs to bring them to the third floor. I assume the human with long dark hair laying on the gurney was female.”
“What about Joe?” Jules asked.
They stopped in a wide hall with six elevators. Riker pressed the button with the arrow pointing up. When he didn’t answer or look at Jules, Katie suspected the vampire held grim information.
“Did you see Joe?” Jules asked.
A ding from behind shifted their attention to one of the elevators. Riker again said nothing and walked straight toward the opening doors. The three of them quickly filled the mildew smelling box. Riker hit the button for three, forcing the doors to close.
“Did you see Joe?” Jules persisted.
The vamp stared straight ahead.
Katie placed her hand on Jules’s shoulder. “He won’t answer.”
“Why?” Jules asked softly, her eyes widening as if she suspected something bad.
“I don’t know. Let’s see what’s going on.”
The elevator dinged upon reaching the third floor. Before the doors fully opened, Jules stepped out and then stopped in the middle of the hall. She turned her head to the left, then right.
“This way,” Katie said, spotting the desk first.
Jules strode toward the circular counter. Three female doctors stood behind it, one holding a paper, another holding a folder and the third chatting on the phone. Their white coats distinguished them from the nurses dressed in green they’d passed earlier.
“Excuse me,” Jules said to the doctor holding the paper. “I’m looking for my boyfriend, Joe Kirpatrick. He came in a little while ago with another person.”
“Did you check with the front–?”
“You will tell us where he is,” Riker said, stealing the doctor’s gaze.
“Excuse…” Staring directly at Riker, her words died along with her growing irritation from the interruption.
“Take us to the room.”
She placed the paper inside a folder, then closed it. “I’ll be right back,” she said to the other two.
The doctor walked around the desk with her hands hidden in her coat pockets. Her forward gaze had a zombie look, but her movements were regular. She passed Jules and strode past the elevators until the hall ended. Then, the doctor turned the corner and continued. Jules followed closely behind the doctor while Katie walked several feet back with Riker next to her. At the end of the hall, a pair of large stainless steel doors met them.
A bleak feeling rose within Katie as the doctor strode past the pair of doors. She considered telling Jules to slow down, but doubted her friend would listen. Jules caught one of the swinging doors as it came toward her and stepped into the room. When Katie couldn’t see her any longer, she sprinted to catch up.
Katie entered the room and watched the doctor stride forward on autopilot, obeying Riker’s command without stopping. Jules had halted in the middle with her gaze aimed to the right side. Blood and a strong antiseptic odor nearly made Katie want to gag. She followed Jules’s line of sight and saw an abundance of towels with a red coating stacked in a pile on the floor, next to the long sink along the back wall. A metal cart stood near the rectangular basin. The instruments on the shelves appeared cleaned.
“Come on.” Katie gently nudged her friend forward.
They walked side-by-side to another set of doors similar to the ones they’d previously stepped past. They pushed the pair open and entered a large room where the doctor waited at the end of a gurney. The scent of blood was stronger. Katie found the source from one glance at the covered body on the wheeled stretcher.
“Oh, God.” Jules ran to the head of the body and tugged the sheet back. “No. No!”
Katie hurried to catch Jules as she crumbled in total hysteria.
“No…” Jules cried.
Katie grabbed Jules’s arms and lifted her into a hug. “Shh. I’m here for you.”
A floodgate of tears burst free from Jules. Katie held her tightly; hoping her love and support would offer some comfort. Yet, she knew it did little at all to ease the suffering from losing a lover. She hated to see her friend go through such agony.
Jules’s cries and groans of sorrow refreshed Katie’s memory of her own loss. Slowly, the whole in Katie’s heart widened. She mour
ned for Kyle, for Joe, for her friend suffering in her arms. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Katie’s immortal lover should be at home, loving her tenderly under the moonlit sky. Jules and Joe should be together, laughing and sharing. So much joy and happiness was gone. It wasn’t fair.
Adding to Katie’s dismay, guilt plagued her. Katie had planned to save lives, not end them. She’d spoken to Joe less than four hours ago. Though he sounded weak, he lived and breathed. Now, Jules faced a dead man. How did her plan jump the tracks? Wherever the failure occurred, the responsibility laid with Katie. And Riker and Jules thought she was a war leader. What a joke. What kind of war leader killed good, honest working people? Not a good one.
“We should check the other victim,” Riker said as he stepped around her.
Katie caught movement from the corner of her eye. The doctor no longer stood in the room and the door swung close.
“I suggest we go now.”
Katie blinked and a few tears fell from her eyes. “We need a few minutes.”
Riker stiffened. “He was dead on arrival, according to the doctor.”
Jules lifted her head from Katie’s shoulder. She wiped her eyes as she inhaled shuddering breaths. “What does that mean?” She directed her gaze at the covered body on the gurney.
“I think it means he was already dead when they brought him here,” Katie said, then looked to Riker for confirmation. He gave a single nod.
The information helped little. It merely indicated he’d died at the orchard or on the way to the hospital.
Riker extended his arm. “Shall we go?”
Jules took a step closer to Joe’s body. “Can I stay for a few minutes?” She placed her hand on the tarp covering him.
“Third door on the left. Room 3133.” Riker stepped forward and gently grabbed Katie’s arm. “Let’s go.”
Part of Katie wanted to stay with Jules to console her, but Riker nudged her toward the door. As she walked next to him, she peered back and found Jules peeking under the cover at his head.
“Come on.” He tightened his grip, then pushed the door open for her.
Katie strode past the clean up area before reaching the hall they’d come from. Riker was a step away. When she paused, he pointed in the direction of the rooms. “3133.”
“Do you think she’ll have any memories?” Katie asked softly as strolled down the hall.
“Doubtful, but I need to make sure.”
His need to make sure implied if she did, the memories wouldn’t be in her head for much longer.
Slowly and quietly, Katie pushed the door open. She walked in to find a young woman sleeping on the bed. Small tubes connected bags of blood and a clear liquid to her arm. Her pale skin and cracked lips raised alarm bells. They’d fed from her.
Katie stopped on the side of her bed while Riker stood back. He lifted the spiral notebook from the inbox at the end of her bed.
“They fed from her.” Katie twisted to look back at him.
He flipped through page after page, scanning each one quickly. “Blood loss. Signs of rape. Bruises on her body, most located on her breasts.”
Katie peered closer at her neck and saw several hickies–evidence the vamps had fed from her neck too. The poor girl had suffered greatly.
“She was unconscious when she arrived.” Riker dropped the binder back into the plastic inbox with a clank. “I’ll need to wake her.”
Katie took a step back. Bruises surrounded the young woman’s wrists. Dear lord, they’d tied her up.
Swallowing, Katie shook her head. Fury burned in her veins while she stared at the innocent female. She couldn’t fathom what she’d gone through, tied down, raped and chewed on. How horrible. How grotesque. How inhuman. She probably had wondered why. Maybe the vamps had erased her memories early so she wouldn’t realize the torture she was going through. However, these vamps were cold-blooded killers who viewed humans as food. Katie suspected they would’ve wanted the poor girl to know what they were doing to her. Evil fucks.
Katie wanted to destroy them, chop off their heads and burn them until nothing remained. Her hatred grew along with her need for revenge. They’d destroyed a good vampire, one who wanted to help others and live in peace with humans. Brandon and his friend ended Joe’s life and ruined another, two others including Jules’s. They didn’t care who they hurt. They had no morals, no feelings, not a fucking inch of humanity in their immortal bodies. They wanted human blood and would take it as they pleased. Someone needed to stop the greedy bloodsuckers, and not just Brandon and his friend.
“What do you want to do?” Riker asked.
Katie met his gaze. “I want to sever their heads and hack them into pieces for the crows.”
A grin slowly appeared on his face. “Can you do it?”
She breathed deeply. Kyle’s blood was dwindling. If she exerted too much energy during the day, she could end up with very little left at night. Yet, with or without the full vampire strength she wouldn’t let Brandon and his partner survive another full night.
“Of course,” she replied confidently.
“Revenge for Kyle,” he said with a certain dryness in his tone.
She lowered her gaze to the female lying on the bed. The woman had done nothing to deserve the torture inflicted upon her. Vampires like Brandon and his partner took countless lives each night, plucking humans like petals from a flower and then filling up on their blood. How could she live day-to-day knowing cruel vampires were roaming the earth and feeding off innocent women, children and men?
“No…” Katie shook her head. “It’s more than that now.”
She lifted her eyes to find a slight curl to Riker’s lips. “Do you believe now, Ms. Dillinger?”
Without asking for specifics, she understood the question. Did she believe the prophecy from an ancient vampire who gave false predictions? Was she, a mere human, their destined war leader? Could she best vampires?
“I know what my purpose is now. The man stripped from me taught me a great deal. I’ll fight, but on my own terms.”
He chuckled. “Is there any other way?”
She ignored his snicker and looked away from him. While she understood her journey ahead, she still hesitated to believe Hector’s prophecy. Pushing aside the ramblings of an old vampire, Katie knew with all certainty too many human lives were at risk every night. Andy and Jules believed in vampires, but most didn’t. She couldn’t educate everyone about vamps, but she could train people how to fight. And from there, she’d determine her next steps. Maybe she would teach them about the Order and the vamps out to rule the world. Maybe.
First, she needed to prepare for her rendezvous with Brandon and his partner.
24
Jules pushed the hotel room door open. Dragging her feet over the carpet, she passed the sitting area and headed toward the room with the beds. Her appearance and movements resembled that of zombie. In the car, Katie had twisted to check on her friend. Jules’s glazed and puffy eyes had stared at her, as if Jules were looking through Katie. Without any doubt, Jules was in a state of shock. Who could blame her?
Katie followed her friend to the first bed. She stayed close by in case Jules collapsed. Jules stopped near the edge and robotically removed her shoes. Her purse slid off her arm and dropped on the floor.
“Can I get you some water or anything?” Katie asked.
Jules stayed mute as she tugged the tight covers, loosening them from the bed. Katie longed to help her friend and wished she could take all the pain away, but she could do nothing. Only time would heal. Still silent, Jules slipped under the blankets. She turned onto her side, then closed her eyes.
Katie waited a minute to ensure Jules was okay, then returned the small living area in the main room. She sat on one end of the sofa and kicked off her shoes while Riker clicked the deadbolt on the door into place. The vamp hadn’t said much on the way home other than informing her he’d successfully cleaned the minds of the doctors who’d seen them while Katie had stayed
with the victim. Riker hadn’t needed to touch the victim’s memories. Brandon or his partner had completely taken the last couple of days from her mind. Bastards. While Katie was glad she couldn’t remember what had happened to her, the fact remained they’d raped and fed from her as if she were nothing but a toy to use. The thought boiled Katie’s blood. She wanted more than revenge. No one should suffer the way Jules did or the young female in the hospital. No one.
Riker strolled into the room. He paused briefly in front of the television.
“Good idea,” she said softly upon hearing the electrical whine of power generating.
They’d spent an hour at the hospital and hadn’t heard a peep from Andy. No news had to be good news. Yet, she wondered if the police had released any information about the orchard, or had Brandon and his partner successfully covered up everything.
Riker held the volume button, increasing the sound. Upon reaching a reasonable level that wouldn’t wake Jules, he stepped back from the television. The vamp remained silent as he took a seat at the other end of the sofa, leaving a cushion of space between him and Katie.
“You should rest,” Riker said as he stretched out his legs in front of him.
Rest? She mentally chuckled. She found it difficult to rest when two vampires were in town, wiping minds and sucking on innocent people. They were leeches, parasites that didn’t deserve to exist. And humans had no defense. How could she sleep knowing they could kill in a second’s notice?
“If you don’t take it easy, you will put your life in danger. The vamp blood in your system won’t last forever.”
The reminder was one she didn’t need to hear. Katie suspected the signs of withdraw might start the following evening, which was when she needed to fight Brandon and his partner. Given the amount of stress and her increased anxiety, odds were high the cramps, headaches, or nausea part of the withdraw process could appear sooner. If such were the case, she’d have to suffer through and hope the discomfort wouldn’t distract her from severing a few heads.
“Duly noted,” Katie said. “But if I need to recharge, I still have one vial left.” The last bit of Kyle’s blood would ensure she’d have enough energy to fight. She disliked the idea of consuming it, but she would to guarantee her victory.
Immortal Revenge Page 25
