Blood Sacrifice (The Blood Sisters Book 3) (10 page)

BOOK: Blood Sacrifice (The Blood Sisters Book 3)
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Hannah
didn’t doubt it, but she hoped she wouldn’t be around long enough to find out.

 

Chapter Thirteen: Jessica

 

The
Wild Aces Casino was Jessica’s new prison. Unable to sit still, she
paced
in the small room they had secured her
in. Chewing on her thumbnail, Jessica peered into the corner of the room.

Video
cameras.

They
were probably watching her. Maybe she should give them a little show. At least
she could make it interesting.

She
drew her attention to the horizontal mirror at the back of the room. They were
probably watching her every move, studying her. If Jessica was lucky they were
going to handle her themselves. If unlucky, they were going to call the police.

She
couldn’t count on luck. It had never been on her side before.

Jessica
ran her hands along the metal table. If only Amanda was there. They separated
them, which was the smart thing to do, for the casino, but Jessica hated
everything about it. She wanted nothing more than to check on Amanda. She had
been in a bad way out on the casino floor.

Bad
way? Worst way. So how was she now? How was Amanda coping?

Save
Amanda. Keep going. What choice did Jessica have?

The
door opened and Jessica stood straight as a security guard entered. Looked like
a nice enough guy with
kempt
brown hair.
He wore a serious scowl on his face though, as he gestured to the chair. “Sit
down.”

“I
need to know how my…friend is.” Jessica crossed her arms and her hips pivoted
to the side.

“She’s
fine. Now, sit.” His eyes narrowed.

“Fine?
What does that mean? Listen, she’s sick, so if you don’t mind…” Jessica pushed
past him, but he grabbed her by the arms and forced her into a chair.

A
tough guy, huh? Jessica could work with that.

“Get
out of that chair and we’re really going to have a problem.” He slid out the
chair on the other side of the table and sat down. “Want to tell me what
business you have in Vegas, Ms. Blood?”

Her
reputation preceded her it seemed. Jessica’s ass wiggled in the chair. “Oh you
know, the same as everyone else. Little buffet, little gambling. Lots of ass
kicking. Should I start with yours? How’s my sister?” No need to keep up the
pretense if he knew who they were.

The
security guard laughed. “The two of you are trouble. That much is easy to see,
but you’re the one who grabbed my fellow officer’s gun. So why don’t you tell
me why you did that. Do we need to call the cops? You’re wanted in connection
with a murder over five states away. Some massacre at a hospital. I’m sure
they’d love to get their hands on you.”

She
sighed. He referred to Ron Wax breaking out of the psych ward and everything
went to shit for Amanda and Duncan. All of which, Jessica wasn’t even around
for. She always got blamed for things that weren’t her fault. “Technically,”
Jessica bit her fingernail, “it’s my car that’s wanted in connection with a
murder. I was in Hell at the time.”

The
security guard did a double take and Jessica couldn’t suppress her smile. “Or
the underworld,” Jessica said, “It’s hard to keep it all straight, isn’t it?”

“You
screw with a casino like this? We’ll make your life hell. You think you’ve been
there, well you haven’t. So now answer the damn question or we’ll ride you
straight out of town, sweetheart. If I have to call my boss and have him come
down here, you’re going to regret it.”

“My
sister’s sick,” Jessica said lightly, quietly. Just the words put a lump in her
throat. “I just wanted to get her out of your casino as fast as I could.”

“So,
what, drawing a gun is easier for you than calling an ambulance? Asking for help?”

Jessica
threw her arm on the back of her chair as she leaned back. “You’ve seen my rap
sheet. I’m guessing you only know that because you’ve already called the cops.
Is that right? They’re on their way to pick us up?”

Her
stomach sickened at the thought.

“Bingo.
And you’re not leaving this room until they get here.” He grabbed her wrist and
swung his handcuffs around on a finger.

Jessica
tugged her wrist, her heart pounded. “Get your mitts off me, you baboon!”

No
matter how she resisted, he handcuffed Jessica’s wrist to the table leg. “Might
want to think of an insanity plea. You’re not playing with a
full
deck, sister.”

As
if she didn’t know that? She snarled and yanked on her wrist to test out the
handcuffs. Yup, they were still metal and they still worked really well. “Stay
away from my sister. Just leave her alone. Let her go.”

“Leave
her alone?” The security guard stood and pushed his chair in. “Honey, she’s
more messed up than you are. Way more messed up.”

Damn
it, what did that mean? How bad was Amanda?

Once
he was gone, Jessica crouched down to her knees and yanked her wrist as hard as
she could, with both hands. She had to get free. She just had to.

 

Chapter Fourteen: Amanda

 

The
twisted grottos of the underworld were
dank
and covered in a red, unnatural moss. Inside the hollow caverns, screams of
torment echoed. It's what nightmares are made of and Amanda couldn’t stop the
flashing visions of it invading her mind.

She
gripped her hair and leaned on the metal table she sat at. The security room
she was locked in seemed foreign and make
believe
.
It was the underworld that seemed real, even with its twisted screams,
something about it called her. Warmth and comforting.

It
wanted Amanda to enter its dark embrace.

“Please,”
Amanda shook her head with a groan, “make it stop. Make it go away.” She sobbed
and the more time she spent with the visions of the underworld, the more the
stain of Lourdes crept up her arm. It spread like a slow poison over her
shoulder. Burning like lava, she groaned with a clatter of her teeth.

Amanda
gripped her shoulder and just begged for it to stop. Begged that it’d all be a
bad dream.

I
just want to be a person. I just want this all to go away.

Her
cries unleashed a power surge in her brain. Her mind rushed through the
underworld caverns until she reached a sad man with an overgrown beard. His
green eyes haunted with torment like Jessica’s because he was their father.
Strapped to a board, demons tortured him. They cut him, they bled him. When
Dad’s back arched so he could scream in pain, the demons laughed and they just
kept on pulling skin from his body.

“Daddy?”

Some
part of her must have been in the underworld because Dad heard her. He gasped
and whipped his head to the side. His eyes searching high and low for whatever
called him. “Get out of here,” he panted in pain. “Jessica, Amanda if that’s
one of you girls…”

Amanda
went to stroke his skin, for all the terror he must have faced. “I’m going to
save you. I’m going to find a way to get you out of here.”

Dad
shook his head, tears leaking from his eyes. “You leave it alone.” He screamed,
his mouth full of dark stained teeth. “You leave it alone!”

Just
like that the visions of the underworld left her. Amanda gasped as her vision
returned to normal. The promise of what was in the underworld, still held firm
in her heart, but she could no longer see it. She remembered each piece of
twisted rock and every scream lashing out in horror. The most important being
Dad.

Dad,
just thinking his name broke her heart. It festered like a scab long picked
over.

Ten
years. He had been there for a decade. Meanwhile, they saved everyone, but
couldn’t save him. But maybe Amanda could. Maybe she could save him if she
could get out of the casino. If she could just get her head together. Together?
Please, her mind was jumbled like a tossed salad.

She
didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know which way was up. Amanda needed
Jessica. Big sister would always give her the best advice. She would tell her
what to do.

Amanda
sniffled back her tears as the door opened. A security guard strolled in with a
box of tissues. He seemed nice enough with neat brown hair, but wore a scowl on
his face. A three-day binge and a hangover would do that to a person. She had
never been drunk personally, but she had seen enough drunken people to know it
wasn’t pretty.

Why
did people torture themselves like that? Why put themselves through something
that would only hurt in the end?

The
security guard, whose name was Alan, slid his tissues onto the table and took a
seat across from Amanda. “Are you okay, Ms. Blood? I saw you crying from behind
the glass.” He pointed to the two-way mirror.

Amanda
grabbed a tissue and dotted her eyes. “And I saw you guzzling down
four-day
old Chinese food as you watched. It
made me kind of sick.” She glanced up into his eyes with a penetrating stare.
She watched his face drop, while fear crept in from all sides. Was it her words
or her appearance that was so scary?

Did
Amanda even want to know?

He
leaned on the table and interlocked his fingers. “There’s no way you could know
that. You Sherlock Holmes or something? Smell it on my breath?”

“Must
be your greasy fingers.” Amanda
wadded
her tissue into a ball. “I’d like to see my sister.”

“Funny,
she’s worried about you too. You guys are tight as thieves. Maybe a little too
much like Bonnie and Clyde.”

So
he had seen their rap sheet? How did he access it? The answer seeped into her
from his brain. He called the police.

Crap.

Amanda’s
nerves hit the roof. “I don’t know what you’re trying to say…”

“I’m
saying as soon as the police get here, she’s going away for a really long time.
Down the river and you too. Far as I can tell, you’re just a notch beneath
her.”

“We’re
good people.” Amanda’s eyes widened. “Some bad things happened to us, but it’s
not our fault.”

The
security officer leaned back in his chair. “Uh-huh. Tell me another one.” His
eyes raced over her arms and over her neck. You have a skin condition, or
something?”

Insulted,
Amanda gasped for air. She fingers glided across the surface of the table until
they rested on the flesh of his hand. Warm enough, it grew hot under her touch.
Flexing out her fingers, a surge of electricity passed from her onto him. Like
a racing charge, it sunk beneath his skin.

“We’re
good people,” Amanda said more forcefully, with a tilt of her head.

The
security guard slumped in his chair and his arms relaxed. “Well, of course you
are. Some bad things happened to you.”

Amanda
nodded with a slight smile. “And now, before the police get here, you’re going
to take me to my sister. All right?”

He
stood and took a pair of keys out from his pocket. “Come with me, but some of
the others might stop us. They won’t understand.”

Under
heavy strain from the weight of her legs, Amanda stood. “Well, we’ll make them
understand, but no guns. Okay? I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” She was sick
of watching people die. Amanda didn’t want to be the reason for any more death
and destruction.

The
security guard nodded. “That black stuff on your shoulder, it’s creeping over
your face now. Maybe you should see a doctor when this is through.” He headed
for the door like his words meant nothing, but Amanda’s heart thumped extra
hard and skipped a beat.

Gingerly
she touched her face with shaking fingers and could feel how the stain of
Lourdes had risen on her cheek like a burn. It branched out and grew along her
flesh and soon, it’d consume her.

It
would. Amanda was out of time.

No.
It couldn’t be true…A
wail
built in her
chest and along with it all the grief of all the things she’d never get to do.
Vacation with Jessica. Laughter.

Marriage.
Children? It was all going to be over just like that? As if she didn’t have a
life she wanted to lead? She did. Amanda ached for it so bad.

That
pain built like a tornado inside her chest, but Amanda couldn’t give into it.
She just couldn’t. The angel, Miriam, would come for her soon and as promised,
Amanda would have to go with her. She would have to, but first she had to set
Jessica free. Get her to Duncan. Then Amanda would be free to accept her
destiny.

 “Are
you coming?”

Amanda’s
head whipped around at the sound of his voice. “Sorry,” she muttered and picked
up her pace. Each step was like stepping on needles. Shooting pains traveled up
her heels and ran up her legs. The poison of Lourdes was more than annoyance
now.

It
was all consuming.

Out
in the hall, the vibes of evil ebbed and flowed with vibrations. It transferred
to the floors they walked on, the wall reverberated with it, the ooze of
corruption and greed leaked all around. Even the security guard that worked
there, wisps of his soul were being yanked away.

Piece
by piece, by the powerful totem of the Wild Aces Casino. This place was pure
evil, grabbing energy and magic to fuel Sin Town. People would be saved if the
whole place was leveled and that’s exactly what Amanda was going to do.

One
step at a time. First she freed her sister and…then Amanda would say good-bye.

They
crept over to the security room where Jessica was being held, but the security
officer’s hand hovered over the
doorknob
.
With a slow headshake, the words droned out of him, “I shouldn’t be doing this.
She’s dangerous. I can’t just let her go.”

Not
now. Amanda couldn’t wait any longer. She gritted her teeth and slid her hand
over his arm. With a squeeze of her fingers, she could control him. Amanda
knew—He shoved her hand away and backed up.

“What
the hell do you think you’re doing?” He reached for his radio, but Amanda
couldn’t let that happen.

She
slammed the palm of her hand against the side of his head. She didn’t mean to
use so much force, but a new buildup of power festered in her stomach. It
rumbled like a bowling ball, picking up steam and the black veins on her hand
bled onto his skin. It grew along his skull, beneath his hair and extended
until it met his eyes.

They
opened wide with fright and went white. Shimmering like giant cones of light,
his mouth fell open. Amanda didn’t think what she did was permanent, God she
hoped not, but she was out of time.

“Open
the door.” Amanda ordered.

Bits
of drool leaked out the corner of his mouth, but he did exactly what she asked.
Now they were getting somewhere.

 

BOOK: Blood Sacrifice (The Blood Sisters Book 3)
8.78Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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