Blood Warrior (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #4) (7 page)

Ammunition was stored on the other
side of the room and there was a lot of it. Good, they were going
to need a lot.

Sarah closed the door to the room
after we all had a chance to peek in. Across the hall she opened
another door, inside we found two guys with an ammunition press,
making more bullets out of the shells they probably found lying
around the city. “This is John and Spike, this is pretty much what
they do all day.”

John, a thin guy with messy brown hair
and glasses looked up from his work and offered us a wave. Spike,
was probably called Spike because of his hair cut. His blond hair
was colored with green dye on top and several sections of it had
been gelled into spikes. He merely glanced our way and went back to
what he was doing.

Sarah cleared her throat to get their
attention, “Guys, we have here a bunch of real life Vampire
Hunters. They are going to be helping us out for a
while.”

“
Awesome,” Spike muttered,
apparently unimpressed with our Vampire Hunting status. Probably
because in the apocalypse, everyone is a Hunter … well, unless
you’re the hunted.

Drew stepped forward. “Have you heard
of UV bullets?”

“
Nah,” John shook his
head. “Can’t say I have.”

Drew pulled his gun from his holster
and dropped the clip. He extracted one bullet and held it up for
John and Spike to look at. “You know how vampires can’t come out
into the sun? Well, these rounds are made by our weapons specialist
back home. They contain UV light, which is dispensed into the
vampire’s body after penetration.”

John took the bullet from Drew,
inspecting it as he spoke. “So these are like a vampire going out
into the sun, only it eats them from the inside out?”

“
Exactly.” Drew
nodded.

“
This is fantastic.” He
threw Spike a questioning glance, “You think we could do
this?”

Spike, ever so friendly, still didn’t
look up, but answered his buddy. “Maybe, I would have to figure out
exactly how to make them and that would take some time.”

Drew put the round back into his clip
and slid the clip back into his gun. “I can probably help you. Mind
if I come around later and explain how it’s done?”

John bobbed his head up and down in an
enthusiastic nod, “Absolutely. Come by anytime.”

Spike just rolled his eyes and kept
his mouth shut. Probably best he didn’t say anything since I
already wanted to punch him. I got the feeling though, that he was
distant with everyone, not just us.

“
Let’s move on,” Sarah
beckoned us back into the hall. “There are a few other rooms where
we work, but the majority of the rooms on the upper levels of the
house are bedrooms for the people who stay here. We encourage
everyone to stay here if at all possible. The more people who come
and go from this place, the more attention is drawn to us. And that
is something we don’t need.”

Luke furrowed his brow,
“Unfortunately, I am certain the Vampire Council knows of your
whereabouts.”

Sarah’s lips thinned into a tight
line. “You really think we don’t know that? I know you all probably
think we are dumb as rocks for not being more secretive, but if we
had centered ourselves in a more remote location, we wouldn’t be
able to get as many people to join us as we already
have.”

Luke kept his mouth shut and merely
nodded.

Sarah opened yet another door. This
one led out into the courtyard where we found several people
sparring with each other or hitting heavy bags that were attached
to the galleries. The courtyard was lit with two gas torches. In
the dim light I could see two guys head to head doing pushups.
Behind those two, a woman was performing pull-ups on a makeshift
pull-up rack.

“
This is where we do most
of the physical training,” Sarah explained.

I rolled my shoulders. Aside from the
fighting, I hadn’t worked out for several days and my body actually
ached from the lack of training. A quick glance in Drew’s direction
and I saw the same longing look in his eyes as he stared out into
the courtyard.

I shook it off. We didn’t have time
for that at the moment. I turned to Sarah. “We should go sit down
and talk about a plan of action for finding Korina.”

She nodded. “All right. I just have
one question.”

I raised my eyebrows in question and
she continued. “Are you guys planning on staying here, if you are I
will have a few rooms prepped for y’all.”

Nothing creepy had happened since we
had come into the house, but that didn’t mean I wanted to spend the
night there. I started to shake my head when Anthony spoke up. “We
are already situated in my home, we are quite comfortable there at
the moment.”

She flashed us a grin and laughed a
little. “I figured as much. Come on.” She turned back the way we
had come from.

Anthony walked beside her. “If you
like, would you consider moving your headquarters over to my home?
I have more than enough room to accommodate everyone.”

She eyeballed him. “I don’t trust you
enough for that.”

It was Anthony’s turn to laugh a
little. “I do not blame you for such feelings.”

We made our way through the house and
back to the room with the big table. As we tread quietly through
the hallways, every single person in our group kept darting their
eyes back and forth, expecting something to jump out and scare them
or something. This place was paranoia central, though I admit, I
was doing the same thing.

Once we were back in the map room
Sarah rested her rifle against the table and leaned back in her
chair. “If y’all want a water or a soda, there’s a bunch of it over
there.” She pointed to a corner of the room which was occupied by
probably twenty cases of soda and way more water than that. “It’s
warm, but does the job, all the same.”

We all made a mad dash for the
beverages. I chose a water, as did most of the group. The majority
of us didn’t drink soda, except on occasion. After that, we all
situated ourselves back into the chairs we had occupied when Sarah
first led us into the house.

“
Now,” Sarah asked. “What
does this, Korina, look like.”

Anthony reached into his back pocket
and withdrew a shiny, black leather wallet. He opened it and pulled
a tattered photo from inside. He stared at the photo silently for a
moment, a look of sadness clearly written on his face, and then
held the photo out to Sarah. “That photo was taken just over a
hundred years ago. I am certain she will not have changed
much.”

Sarah examined the picture and then
handed it to Drew, who inspected it and then handed it to me. I
held it in my hands and looked at the woman we were
hunting.

The photo was that old time bronze
color, faded and scratched in some places. Korina posed for the
photo with the posture and bland expression I’d seen in almost
every other historical photo I’ve ever laid eyes on. Her dark skin
stood out against the crisp white of her dress. The dress had a
high neck and tight sleeves trimmed in a loose lace that fell over
her wrists. At the center of the neckline was a large cameo brooch.
Her hair had been pulled up into a tight knot at the back of her
neck and her hands rested softly in her lap. It was her eyes …
large brown eyes surrounded by long lashes that really portrayed
something about her. Those puppy eyes should have been filled with
life, but I could see anger and resentment swirling within
them.

“
So, you knew her?” Sarah
directed her question to Anthony.

He bowed his head slightly in a half
nod, “Yes. I knew her for many years. She was not always as she is
now. The creature she has become is not the creature I knew when we
first met.”

Sarah only tilted her head in response
as the picture was passed around the table so everyone could get a
good look at her.

“
Well,” Luke began,
handing the picture back to Anthony, “let’s make a game
plan.”

***

The rest of the night was spent
talking logistics. Long story short, we were beginning our search
for Korina the next evening. Sarah was briefing her people and
preparing. We headed back to Anthony’s house shortly before dawn to
get some sleep and prepare ourselves.

The moment we stepped out
of the LaLaurie Mansion, I felt the tension wither out of my body.
It was a crazy feeling, I should have felt safer
inside
, since it was out
in the streets that was supposed to be the dangerous place. Perhaps
the spirts had a hold on us even when we couldn’t tell they were
there.

Once we were back within the confines
of Anthony’s home, I felt even better. We filed into the kitchen
where Anthony brought out the makings for a quick meal. After I ate
two huge salami and cheese sandwiches, I felt myself begin to fade.
I hadn’t gotten much sleep before we went out into the city and it
was quickly catching up with me.

I bid everyone a hasty goodnight, gave
Drew a quick kiss and then headed to my room. Once I was alone, I
stripped off all of my weapons and threw them onto one of the fancy
chairs that I’d bet no one ever sat in.

I was so tired that I even
contemplated skipping the shower, but the Louisiana heat had me
covered in sweat again. I hit the shower long enough to scrub my
body and that was it. I threw on a clean tee shirt and sweats then
fell into bed, but not before making sure my gun had been tucked
safely underneath my pillow.

All the curtains were pulled tightly
shut so the room was completely dark. I lay there, on the brink of
sleep and only slightly aware of the waking world. I heard the
bedroom door open and shut softly and I knew without looking who it
was.

He set his gun on the nightstand with
a light thunk of metal on wood and then pulled back the comforter.
He slid between the sheets then pulled them up again. I felt his
arm wrap around my waist, pulling me toward him.

Wordlessly, I lifted my head, letting
him slid his arm underneath so that I could use it for a pillow. I
snuggled my back into his chest and moved my right hand so that it
rested over the top the one he had around my waist.

His chin touched the top of my head
and stayed there.

“
I love you,” he
whispered.

“
I love you too,” I
responded in a low voice and then squeezed his hand. It wasn’t long
at all before the heavy curtain of sleep had me drifting away into
my dreams.

***

When I woke, it felt like I hadn’t
slept at all. Man, this was not good at all. I needed to be rested
and in top condition to be able to fight. Why the heck wasn’t my
body cooperating with me these days?

I gently moved Drew’s arm off of me
and rubbed my eyes with both hands. I could tell already it was
going to be a very long night.

“
Morning,” Drew murmured
softly, moving his hand to my thigh.

“
It’s afternoon,” I
corrected him.

He hadn’t even opened his eyes yet,
but still responded with a sleepy, “whatever.”

I turned and leaned down so that our
lips could meet. He returned my kiss and then rolled onto his back.
He still hadn’t opened his eyes. “Come on, it’s time to get up.” I
shook his shoulder, making him bounce on the bed a
little.

“
For once, I don’t want to
get up.” He turned over on his other side so that he was facing
away from me.

Drew was always up before everyone
else. I was an early riser anyway, but he took the gold medal for
getting up before the sun. But for the last several months, our
schedules had been really crazy and we had been surviving on a few
hours of sleep at a time. I didn’t blame him for not wanting to get
up.

“
Sorry, I wish I could
sleep more too.” I lay back down and snuggled into his back. I
loved the feel of his skin underneath mine. Briefly, I imagined
that the Vampire Apocalypse didn’t exist and that we moved away
from Arcadia Falls, just the two of us.

What would we be if we weren’t
Hunters? I couldn’t think of anything that I would be good at doing
in life. This was what I’d been doing since my mom died when I was
fourteen, almost four years.

I’d known Drew that long too. Now, I
couldn’t imagine my life without him in it.

I took in air through my nose and let
out a long sigh. My world had changed so much since my mother had
gone. Mostly, I was in love with hunting and the life that came
with it, but there were times when I wished for normal.

I sat up again and flung back the
covers. “Come on.” I slapped Drew on the thigh. “We have to get up.
And you have to get out of here before someone sees you.

No sooner had it come out of my mouth
did we hear a short, barely existent knock on the door. Without
waiting for me to answer the door or even call out, the knob turned
and the door flew open.

Christina, Zander and Gavin stood in
the hallway. Even though we were clothed, I reached down and
grabbed the edge of the comforter, yanking it up over us. The move
made us look totally guilty, like we were doing something we
weren’t supposed to be doing.