Blood Warrior (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #4) (3 page)

Alice’s swords were still crossed at
her back, but she could use magic for a weapon if she wanted to,
the same went for Gavin. Oscar didn’t have a weapon drawn, but his
eyes were moving back and forth, looking for more vampires in the
shadows.

Everyone here had their reasons for
being nervous around the undead and not trusting them at all. As
far as Anthony went, I think he was far more nervous than any of us
were. He was truly the one putting himself in danger by surrounding
himself with Vampire Hunter’s and humans with supernatural
abilities.

“
It is my pleasure as far
as both issues. Now,” he rubbed his hands together, “I have
acquired some items for the pantry in anticipation of your
arrival.”

Food! Thank God. Getting a good meal
these days wasn’t very easy for those not pledged to the Vampire
Council. My mouth watered just thinking about meat.

“
If you will follow me, we
can prepare a meal and as the little hunter has suggested,
introduce ourselves and get down to business.” He spun around and
stepped out of the foyer, into the main house.

I followed him, with Drew close at my
side and the rest of the group tagging along hesitantly. I knew
they were uncomfortable, but they were just as hungry as
me.

“
This is the sitting
room,” Anthony described as we passed through a room with delicate
Victorian furnishings. “Anyone play?” he pointed at the piano. “I
am a fantastic pianist, however, it is always much nicer to listen
to someone else play.”

No one answered, so apparently none of
us knew how.

“
That is a shame.” Anthony
shook his head at the lack of answers he received. “And this is one
of the restrooms on the main floor if you have the
need.”

We traveled down a short narrow
hallway which opened up into a very large dining room with a huge
dining table at its center. “This is our formal dining room and
where we will be taking our meal shortly.”

Then, we followed him through a
swinging door which led us into the kitchen. “Normally, I would
have someone on staff to prepare the meal, however, help has been
somewhat hard to find lately.” He shot me a pointed
glance.

Dang, I wish people would stop blaming
me for the Vampire Apocalypse? I already felt guilty enough without
everybody rubbing it in.

Alice stepped forward and shyly pushed
a lock of blonde hair away from her eyes. “I can help with the
cooking, if you like.” She was ogling the kitchen, envy bright
within her blue eyes. While the appearance was very antique, all
the appliances were modern. A large rectangular island took up most
of the center of the room, allowing a nice work space that we could
all walk around.

“
I’ll help too,” Luke
volunteered.

Anthony’s lips widened into a smile so
broad a bit of his fangs were visible. “Fantastic!” Let me show you
where everything is kept.”

The next half an hour or so was spent
with prep work. Alice and Luke put everyone to work doing small
things like chopping, peeling and washing. The whole time, my
stomach grumbled. We were active people. With all the training and
physical work, we all needed to eat more to keep up our energy. I
was freaking starving.

While we were helping with the food, I
introduced the group to Anthony. He appeared to genuinely
appreciate meeting them, while at the same time, my friends were
more apprehensive about buddying up with a vampire. Christina even
went so far as to say, “This better be legit,
bloodsucker.”

Most of us were used to her blunt
comments, but still, I felt my face flush with embarrassment.
“Christina, he has invited us into his home. Keep it to yourself,
all right.” She responded with an indignant look in my
direction.

By the time everyone was seated around
the dining room table, I was practically drooling. I could not have
been happier when Alice entered the room carrying a tray with the
best looking pot roast I had ever seen in my life. Everyone had
already brought in all the side dishes. We had a giant bowl of
mashed potatoes, massive amounts of corn on the cob, green beans,
and a huge bowl of green salad.

Anthony had gone about setting the
table while we were prepping the meal, so there were five tall
candles lining the center surrounded by all the food. He had even
used some really nice dishes which included two plates and two
forks.

Anthony sat at the head of the table,
with me directly to his left and Luke to his right. “Now,” he
began, “we can enjoy this wonderful meal that everyone has helped
to prepare.” Everyone took that as the signal and began serving
themselves.

Once we had all eaten enough that we
could possibly speak over our chewing, it was time to discuss
things. Anthony took initiative and got us started. “I am assuming
you will want to begin the hunt for Korina as soon as
possible.”

Luke nodded. “You assume correctly.
The sooner we can end this, the sooner society can begin to
rebuild.”

Drew finished chewing a bite of pot
roast and stabbed another one. “If we can get one bloodline
eradicated, that only leaves Pavlos and yours, which means far less
vampires to deal with than we have now.”

“
I have a few ideas on
where she might be.” He had eaten his meat and then resorted to
pushing his mashed potatoes around on his plate. “I feel the need
to inform you, however,” he paused, “New Orleans is a city owned by
its people and they aren’t going down without a fight. There is a
resistance.”

Christina tilted her head, “You mean
the survivors?”

“
Indeed.”

Luke leaned back in his chair, “and
what do you mean by resistance?”

Anthony met Luke’s eyes as he
continued. “The survivors are gathering together, preparing to
battle the vampires for New Orleans. As far as I know, there are no
other Hunter’s in the area who have yet found the resistance. I’m
thinking that these survivors may be of some use to
you.”

My plate was empty, so I pushed it a
bit further away from myself. “If you know of the survivors and the
resistance, then surely the Vampire Council knows about them
too.”

“
Yes,” Anthony agreed.
“Most likely they have discovered these survivors by now. I do not
think it will be much longer before the vampires move against
them.”

I looked over at Drew and then Luke
before speaking up. “I don’t want to use these innocent people as
decoys just so we have a better chance of accomplishing our
mission.”

Drew placed his hand on my leg. “I
don’t think that is what he meant.”

“
I don’t care, that is
what we would be doing if we ask them to help us.”

“
But, the resistance is
about getting rid of the vampires, so I think that helping us is
what they would want to do,” Drew countered.

“
I agree with Drew,” Luke
said in a low voice.

Gavin, who was working on his third
corn cob, added, “Me too.”

Of course they all thought we should
do this, like we didn’t put enough innocent people in danger
lately. I exhaled a long breath. “What about the rest of you. Do
you all want to find the survivors?”

I was quickly out voted. Everyone
nodded their heads and voiced their agreement in favor of Drew and
Luke. “All right, I’m with you guys then. But, no one fights who
doesn’t want to.”

Luke narrowed his eyes, “Chloe, you
should know that we would never make anyone do something they
didn’t agree to. Let’s find them first, and then we can see where
it goes from there.”

I accepted the fact that it was going
to happen. I wasn’t happy about it, but I asked anyway, “Should we
go out tonight?”

It was Anthony, not Luke or Drew.
“Yes, we can’t waste any more time. Each day that passes the
conditions get worse and worse.”

I frowned. “What are the conditions
like?”

Anthony leaned back in his chair. “In
expectation of your arrival, I have done a bit of reconnaissance
throughout the area and discovered quite a few interesting facts.”
He paused and there was a stagnant silence as everyone waited for
him to let us know what we were going into.

“
First of all, the
soldiers are thick here in New Orleans. The most obvious reason for
this is that even before the Vampire Apocalypse, the city was full
of people who were obsessed with the undead, thought they
were
a vampire, or were
simply into the dark and mysterious. These humans found it far more
fascinating and … well, safer to join up with the council rather
than have to fight for their lives every day.”

Dang. People were flocking to join up
with the vampires here, that was encouraging.

“
The survivors are
congregating in the French Quarter. Thus far, I have only been able
to locate them going into the LaLaurie Mansion and the pirate
bar.”

Christina rolled her eyes. “Well they
aren’t being very secretive are they?”

“
No. No, they are not. I
was able to spot the humans without seeking them out. It is safe to
assume that the Vampire Council will have been watching them for
some time now. They are probably waiting for the survivors to get
their numbers up before they pursue and attack.”

I nodded, understanding what he was
saying. “The more survivors gathered, the bigger the
massacre.”

“
Precisely,” Anthony
agreed.

Luke drew in a deep breath. “All
right. This gives us a good idea of where to look for the
survivors, anyway. What are your ideas as to where Korina might
be?”

“
Yes, of course, Korina.
She is not active with the Vampire Council, well not that I know of
anyway. I investigated her plantation home and there was no sign of
her having been there. I found two of her pathetic minions and
asked of her whereabouts, either they truly did not know or they
lied, however they both insisted that they did not
know.”

“
Dammit!” Christina
slammed her fist into the table. “They’re going to tell her that
we’re looking for her.”

Anthony dismissed her with a small
wave of his hand. “Truly, I’m wounded, do you honestly think me
dense enough to let them live? I took care of them accordingly.
Although, finding them leads us to the assumption that she is,
indeed, in New Orleans.”

I tilted my head back and closed my
eyes, taking in the information. “So, we are still left having to
hunt her down.” I sighed with exhaustion. I was so ready for a
nap.

“
Yes, little Hunter, but
that is what you do so well.” I caught the flash of Anthony’s grin
as I tilted my head back up. “However, I am here to assist you,
which should ease the difficulty of that particular
task.”

Another wave of exhaustion washed over
me and I yawned, stretching out my arms. “I need to get some sleep
before we head out tonight.”

Anthony pushed his chair out and
stood, “of course, let me show you to your rooms. They might be a
little dusty, but the beds are still comfortable.” He gathered his
silverware onto his plate and picked it up. We all followed suit,
clearing the table and putting the food away. Then, Anthony led us
all upstairs to show us our rooms.

***

The burgundy comforter fluffed up
around me like I was laying on top of a cloud. I couldn’t sleep,
which was strange for two reasons. One, I was exhausted and two,
over time I had learned to sleep whenever I could.

It was the thoughts of possibly being
able to end a vampire bloodline that kept me awake. Would it really
help? Could we take back society with the one task
alone?

There was a light knock on my door and
then it opened a crack. “Chloe, you awake?”

I lifted my head off the pile of
pillows and looked up at the sound of Drew’s voice. “Yeah, I’m
awake. I can’t sleep.”

He slipped inside and shut the door
softly behind him. I turned on my side and patted the bed, inviting
him to lay down beside me.

“
Maybe you would get more
sleep if you actually tried taking your clothes off and getting
under the covers.”

I smiled. “Oh look at you, trying to
get me out of my clothes.”

He rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“You know that is not what I meant?” He slid onto the comforter
next to me and wrapped his right arm around me. “Seriously though,
you even have your shoes on.”

“
I can’t help it. I’m not
comfortable here.”

He nuzzled my neck. “I’m surprised you
don’t have your holster on too.”

I reached my hand back and slid it
under one of the pillows. When I pulled it out I held my forty-five
up for him to see, giving it a little wiggle. “I drew the line at
wearing the holster, but you can never be too cautious.”

He rolled his eyes and took the weapon
out of my hand, rolling over me and sliding it back under my
pillow.

“
What about you?” I
countered, stopping him while his face was directly over mine. “You
can’t tell me you’re walking around in jeans and a tee shirt,
without a gun.” My hands went around his waist and pulled at his
shirt, I felt the gun tucked into the back of his pants and raised
my eye brows. “Ah, see! I knew it.”