Violet Abyss (A Blushing Death Novel Book 7)

by Suzanne M. Sabol

  “What if they just ditch his phone?” Brittany asked, her voice sharp with panic.

  “Why would they?” I asked. “Most of them are old, and most old vampires shy away from new tech. Plus, no one knows we have a hacker or two that can track the tech. It should be a relatively safe bet.”

  “Right,” Jade agreed, still typing on the keyboard. “Kurt and I’ll dig and see what we can find on this Chalice of Isis.”

  “Thanks,” I sighed, feeling a weight lift from my shoulders. Just having her help made everything seem less dire.

  “I’ll get back to you when I know something.”

  I nodded, taking a deep, steadying breath. Now that one problem was off my plate, my mind raced in new directions.

  “Hey, don’t worry,” Jade said so confident in herself and Kurt that the tension in the entire room lifted. “We’ll find this thing and get Ev back.”

  Jade hung up the video chat and I ushered Brittany up to her room with some chamomile tea, one of Caroline’s best feel-good resources. After she was gone and out of hearing range, I turned to the two men I loved more than my own life for answers.

  “So, Konyam is going to kill Ev the moment we turn that cup over. Maybe sooner. We need a plan to get him out.”

  “Agreed,” Patrick said. “He gains nothing from keeping Everett alive. In fact, he loses face and his hold on power decreases the longer our wolf is in his care.”

  The harsh buzz of Patrick’s phone filled the silence in the kitchen and he grimaced at the name appearing on the screen.

  “Good Evening, Isidro,” Patrick almost snarled across the line. I, however, audibly groaned and rolled my eyes.

  “There’s been another murder,” Isidro cooed.

  Having accentuated hearing was great. It meant I never had to ask any questions. I heard EVERYTHING.

  “That is not our concern,” Patrick answered. “We have other pressures at the moment. Another body is the responsibility of the Territorial Liege.”

  “Wait!” I whispered. Patrick raised a single eyebrow at me in question. “I need something to do while we plan. If Isidro gives us the info we need about Konyam’s house, I’ll go see what I can do about the body.”

  “I’ll go with her,” Dean whispered.

  Patrick nodded, and Isidro, probably hearing the entire exchange said, “Thank you.” The line went dead and Patrick slipped the phone back into the inside breast jacket pocket.

  “Why us? What’s his game?” I asked, suddenly feeling exhausted. I propped my ass against the bar stool and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Isidro has his own agenda. His is a much longer and farther-reaching plot than we know. I don’t believe he is a stalwart Konyam supporter but he is also not an avid defender of our family either. I believe his intension is to play both ends against the middle and see who will ultimately prevail.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” I huffed.

  “Better that alternative than to have Isidro actively working against us. At least this way, one player is off the board.”

  “Come on, baby,” Dean growled. “You’re vibrating with anxiety. Pat will get the info and we’ll go look at a body.” He clasped my hand in his and I shoved off the barstool. I still had to change out of this ridiculous evening gown and get suited up for battle. I couldn’t say why going to look at a body made me feel better, but it did.

  I glanced over my shoulder at Patrick who was watching my ass sashay out of the room. “I want him out . . . soon.”

  “I promise you, we will do our best to retrieve our Everett.”

  Chapter 21

  “What if I can’t get him out?” I whispered, the lights from the dash throwing a soft glow against my hands. Stroking Gladi made me feel better and the gentle hum of her magic against my fingers gave me the distinct impression that she liked it too.

  The air around me bristled as Dean stiffened beside me in the driver’s seat. “We’ll get him out,” he almost snapped.

  Glancing over at him, his jaw was set in a hard line and his grip was so tight on the steering wheel I was sure it would snap off the column at any minute. What the hell? Did he think I couldn’t handle it? “I convinced him to come to Ohio. He’s my responsibility.” I couldn’t disguise the huff of anger and fear that made my tone sharp. Turning away from Dean, I peered out the passenger-side window.

  “He’s mine too.”

  “I know. But I promised him in Vegas I would look after him and I’m not doing a very good job.”

  He sighed, a deep, audible breath, and I couldn’t figure out why it sounded so . . . defeated.

  We were silent for what seemed like forever. I’d never felt uncomfortable with Dean, especially in silence, but at that moment, I needed to fill it. “So, do you think Brittany knows that Ev likes her? And I mean likes her likes her?”

  A smile turned up the corner of his mouth and the tension left him in a warm wave of mischief. “Don’t know.”

  “Does he know that she likes him?”

  “Nope.”

  “Oh, this could be fun.” I couldn’t hide the smile that spread across my face. I would find him. If not because I promised him, then because Brittany and Ev deserved a chance to see what could come of it.

  He turned into a parking lot off of Magazine Street and slid into a parking spot along the tree line. “Could we have parked further away?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

  “Yes,” was all Dean said as he plucked the keys from the ignition and got out of the SUV.

  I did the same and followed his lead. Making our way across the deserted thoroughfare, we jogged across the full city block of open green space that butted up against the Audubon Zoo parking lot. Once we hit pavement and weren’t necessarily visible from the street, I said, “I’d say this was a trap but Isidro sounded shaken on the phone. Plus, he seems the type to play with his food before eating it.”

  “Mmmm,” Dean agreed, slowing his pace to a cautious trot.

  “How did he even know about this body? It’s in the zoo and after midnight, for crying out loud. It’s not like it would be visible to the public. Not like the others.”

  “Good question.”

  We hit the brick pavers of the entryway and Dean stopped, glaring at the entrance. I strode up beside him and saw what he did. “So,” I said with a small smile turning up my lips. “How do we get in, Kemosabi?”

  “Up and over,” he answered with a smirk.

  The entrance was a long structure with a slanted roof of what looked to me like 24-feet deep, sloping down at a 40-degree angle from the sign that read AUDUBON ZOO. Behind the sign, lush greenery and lighting created a barrier between us and the main zoo. Standing between two palm trees, I glanced from Dean to the top of the sign that we would have to clear. I wonder what sound my body would make slamming into the sign and then the pavement when I didn’t make it?

  “You don’t even know what’s up there? Not really.”

  “Well,” he said, rubbing his chin and pursing his lips in deep thought, “you can find out for me.”

  “Ha-ha.”

  “Ready?” he asked, stepping up to the edge of the entrance and cupping his hands like a stirrup.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “Nope,” he said, grinning at me like an idiot. “Let’s go. Hop to.”

  I sighed out a heavy breath and glanced at his hands. There were plants up there, so it clearly had a bottom. I didn’t think he could toss me clear over, but . . .

  “How are you going over?” I asked, suddenly skeptical of his brilliant plan.

  “I’ll get over, don’t you worry about me.” He winked at me.

  “I’ll get you for this,” I whispered through clenched teeth as I backed up a few feet to get a running start.


  “And your little dog too,” he finished with a playful grin.

  I ignored him, which was all I could do as my heart thundered in my chest. I really hoped I didn’t have to hold on to anything to keep my ass off the ground because my hands were sweating like a pig. If my life depended on my grip, I was toast.

  Jumping a couple of times to shake out the tension, I took off at a dead sprint toward Dean. I caught his cupped hands with my heel and gasped as he propelled me up and over the crest of the sign. There was a second where my stomach plummeted to the bottom of my feet as the feeling of being weightless made my muscles clench. I swung my arms and legs, trying to find purchase with something solid and then realized the solid was coming up on me way too fast. “Shit!” I hissed and hit metal casings, hard-packed dirt, and surprisingly pointy, jabbing plants. You’d think that the greenery would’ve softened the fall. Not so much.

  “You okay, baby?” he called up to me.

  “You’re in so much trouble,” I groaned as I sat up and stretched out my back. I’d be sporting a pretty good bruise in the morning. Several probably.

  “Why?” he asked, suddenly kneeling beside me.

  “How the . . .?”

  “I climbed the palm tree and hopped over.”

  “Hell, I could’ve done that!” Probably.

  “Yeah, but I never get to toss you anymore.”

  I glared at him and got to my feet, unsteady and wobbling, as I tried not to trip on the potted plants giving the entrance to the zoo a jungle appearance. I moved to the edge and Dean swatted me on the ass. Ignoring his playfulness, I hopped down onto the mesh netting over the walkway past the ticketing booth then flipped down to the ground like a trapeze artist from the net. Dean followed me down and landed beside me without a sound.

  “So, where’s this body?” I asked as I started on the pathway to the zoo.

  “No idea. Isidro said we couldn’t miss it.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Dunno.”

  So, with no other information than, ‘we couldn’t miss it’, Dean and I started down the main path with only his nose to lead us. A surprising number of vampire scents branched off of the main entrance after we rounded the fountain. It took us a good 30 minutes before the stench of fear and blood decided our path. Water, algae, and animal dung filled my nose temporarily eliminating everything else. Dean kept a steady pace, making his way around an exhibit building that was locked after hours. As we came around the edge and stepped onto a wooden catwalk over the water of a large dark pond, I flicked the flashlight on my phone on and took a good look around.

  Water was there. I knew it. I could smell it. I couldn’t see it though. The entire surface of the pond was covered with some bright green algae that made the surface appear more like AstroTurf than a man-made lake. “I don’t know if that’s cool or disgusting. All I know is, I sure as shit wouldn’t go in, no matter how much you paid me,” I said, turning up my nose at the slime-covered water.

  “Good thing, too, since there are alligators in there,” Dean said, pointing at the slow ripple of green as one swam in a wide circle.

  “They don’t normally do that, do they?” I asked, pointing to the now three alligators circling in the water.

  “No, they don’t.” He grabbed my wrist and pointed the phone and the flashlight up until we saw why the alligators were swimming in circles. Strung up by the neck like a piñata from a tree, about 25 feet above the water’s surface, was our vampire. Dangling from a branch a few inches thick, he had no arms and no legs. And now that I knew what I was looking for, I could hear the steady drip, drip, drip of his blood as it hit the slime-covered water.

  The vampire opened his eyes wide, staring and pleading with us.

  “Huh,” Dean snorted. “Never thought I’d see that.”

  “He’s still alive,” I almost hissed. “How’d they get him up there?”

  “Dunno, but he can tell us who did.” Dean walked back and forth on the platform, evaluating the tree and the rope dangling over the water.

  “What do we do with him?”

  “Cut ‘im down,” he answered simply, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. I glanced down at the water and the circling alligators.

  “They look kinda hungry. I’m not going in there and neither are you,” I said, and it was an order. I didn’t care who or what he was. Dean wasn’t going to swim with hungry alligators. “First dragons and now alligators. Fuck this shit,” I mumbled.

  He turned and raised an eyebrow at me. I crossed my arms over my chest and squared my shoulders. “Don’t give me that alpha bullshit. You’re not going in there. Figure out some other way.”

  He chuckled softly, the rumble vibrating his hard chest. “I could climb the tree,” he offered, glancing over the water at the cypress.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “It’s not like we’re gonna strangle him by tugging on that rope around his neck. But, um.” I hesitated, my mind going back to the night I scampered up the tree outside the mansion. I’d ripped my hose, scratched up my legs, gotten blisters on my hands, and once inside, I’d had to kill a vampire to keep him from raping me. “I’ve, ah, had a bad experience climbing trees so that’s on you.”

  “Pat told me about that,” Dean said, and his tone was suddenly sharper with an edge that told me Patrick hadn’t held anything back. Dean stroked his thumb across my cheekbone and I couldn’t help but lean into his touch. He pressed his hot, full lips against mine and then squeezed my ass. There was possession in his touch and it sent my blood racing through my body with a white-hot need.

  With that distraction firmly in place, Dean took off down the walkway at a good clip and when I started to follow, he shouted back at me, “Stay put.”

  “Like that ever works,” I snorted, running faster to catch up and slipping my phone in my back pocket.

  “I’ll need your eyes on him and probably to keep him calm. Please?”

  I slowed, knowing it was a bullshit reason, he just wanted to keep me safe on the ground. But maybe he was right, I could see better from below than he could from the tree. I stopped and crossed my arms in mock protest.

  “Thank you,” he said and took off again.

  I turned back and kept the vampire in my sight line, as well as the tree he dangled from.

  Dean got to the tree and jumped, grabbing the first steady limb. Once he had a hold, that bastard shimmied up that tree like a panther. I probably would’ve fallen out of the damned thing like a sack of potatoes. Grace wasn’t a virtue I possessed. Dean climbed out onto the same limb the vampire dangled from, inching his way out over the water and I gripped the railing a bit tighter.

  “Are you sure that can hold your weight?” I called.

  Dean was a good 270 of dense muscle. I couldn’t tell how much the middle portion of the vampire weighed, clearly less than that with his arms and legs, but it had to be another 100 or 150.

  “No choice,” he grunted as he inched his way out. “Nothing else’s close enough.”

  A sharp crack rang out and Dean froze. Below him, the alligators circled, snapped, and chomped, their heads rising up and out of the water. In my head, I heard the tic-toc-tic-toc of the clock from the crocodile in Peter Pan which wasn’t helpful.

  The wind changed, and I caught the scent of a cat on the breeze. I was pretty sure the tiger and jaguar enclosures were just down the path but this smelled really close. Dean started inching out again and I turned my focus up toward the man I loved precariously perched on a cracking limb and the dangling vampire. I gripped the railing harder, anxiety making my stomach twist and my hands sweat.

  “Dahlia!” Dean bellowed in a panic.

  I turned, but not fast enough.

  Chapter 22

  A blur of speed swept by me in the dark and something or
someone hit me hard across my shoulder. As I spun from the blow, my hip slammed into the wood railing. And before I could stop the momentum, I twisted through the turn and was over the side and plummeting toward the water’s surface. I reached for anything to grab but I was too far away from the walkway to stop my fall.

  Crashing into the cold water, I felt the algae slide over my exposed skin in a slimy caress that made me gag. As I did, water and algae went up my nose and in my mouth. I thrashed at the feel of it against my face, drawing the attention of all the alligators swimming below Dean. My clothes soaked with water, weighing me down until I sunk into an inky blackness of murky water. I flailed for a minute, panicking about being in the water and knowing there were hungry fucking alligators headed my way. I swam, reaching desperately for the surface as my lungs burned from lack of oxygen and the swamp water that I’d breathed in by accident. As I burst through the surface, I coughed, gasped, and basically tried not to die.

  “Dahlia! Ah, shit!” Dean hissed from the branch above.

  I turned, treading water as I peered up into the darkness. The limb snapped with Dean on it. He and the vampire plunged into the water in a big . . . noisy . . . splash.

  “Dean?” I called when he didn’t come up right away.

  One of the alligators swam to the bobbing vampire, who could do nothing but scream a strangled, harsh cry as the alligator caught him. Sinking his teeth into the vampire’s dead flesh, the gator drug him down below the surface, happy with its meal. A second alligator was already headed toward me with another right behind it.

  “Fuck,” I shouted as I turned back toward the platform and started to swim for my life.

  Loud splashing and a grunt seemed to echo against the enclosure, and I chanced a glance over my shoulder. Dean had popped up and grabbed the second bastard by the tail.