Blood Warrior (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #4) (9 page)

Luke squinted his eyes. “Financial
endeavors?”

Anthony nodded. “We vampires also have
need for currency, which means that we must have businesses and
investments. Korina purchased this river boat for exactly those
purposes. People were hired to run the business so that she did not
need to do it. The manager does all the work and deposits the
profits into an account for her every month.”

On closer inspection, I could see the
words “Korina Korina” scrawled on the back. Yup, that was
definitely her boat. “Do you think she’s there?” I wondered
aloud.

“
It is possible,” Anthony
replied, also staring out over the waters. “Absolutely worth
investigating.”

I adjusted my bow over my shoulder.
“Well, let’s do it. We are running out of time.”

As a group we trekked down to the
dock, creeping quietly over the wooden structure and hoping that
none of the boards would creak beneath our feet.

Surprisingly, no one was guarding the
river boat. I suppose that was the difference between Korina and
the Vampire Council, she wasn’t worried about the humans, she was
just living her life.

We had divided into teams of three as
we boarded. I was with Drew and Luke. Anthony had been teamed with
Gavin and Sarah. It was strange because I’d originally thought that
we were going to have a problem between Anthony and Sarah, but they
seemed to really be getting along good.

Drew, Luke and I rounded deck of the
boat, glancing in the windows as we passed them. Near the other end
of the vessel we finally found signs of life on the inside. I
leaned up against one of the panels between the windows so that I
could peek in.

Two vampires sat on a Victorian era
couch, near a bar that ran the width of the interior. Both were men
and each of them held a drink in their hand. They both had on
slacks and white button up shirts. One of them had a blazer on over
the shirt, but his tie was loose, like a business man who was
relaxing after a hard day at the office.

I glanced up at Drew, who was looking
in from the other side of the window. He pointed his gun toward the
vampires and then held the forefinger of his free hand to his lips
to signal that we proceed in silence.

We moved on, finding the entrance just
around the corner. I closed my eyes, then opened them again and
pushed open the swinging door as quietly as I possibly
could.

Neither of the vampires noticed us
enter, they were deep in conversation about which was better, the
blood of human males or females.

Yeah, I wanted to vomit.

As luck would have it, when we
entered, we came in behind them. As I carefully stepped toward them
with Drew and Luke on either side of me, I tightened my grip on my
gun. We made it to the back of the couch and that was when one of
them finally sensed us.

“
You smell that?” no
jacket asked the other one.

The vamp with the jacket raised his
nose to the air and sniffed. “Humans … and they are
very…”

Before he could get another word in, I
cut off his sentence by jumping up over the back of the couch and
wrapping my arm around his neck in a headlock. Drew’s action was
synchronized with mine. The barrels of both our guns were pressed
against each of their heads.

“
These bullets have rounds
of UV light in them,” I hissed. “If you make a move, I am going to
pump you full of it. Got it?”

Each of the vampire’s sat unmoving,
except to speak. “What is it that you want?” the one I held onto
asked in a low voice.

Luke stepped in front of them, both
his guns trained onto their hearts. “Is a woman named Korina on
this boat?”

No jacket, whom Drew held down, bared
his fangs and let out a low growl. “Why would we tell you
that?”

Luke nodded. “So she is,
then.”

No jacket shook his head. “I didn’t
say that.”

“
No, but you also did not
say that she wasn’t. You also could have denied knowing what I
speak of at all. You chose your words wrong.”

No jacket threw the f-bomb around in a
couple of creative ways and then struggled against Drew. Obviously,
vampires are much stronger, so when the vamp reached up and grabbed
Drew by the shirt and flipped him over the top of the couch, Drew
fired. A loud crack echoed throughout the cabin and the bullet
lodged into the vampire’s forehead. No jacket slumped back into the
couch, bleeding from the hole in his head as the UV light started
to eat his brains away.

Drew had landed on the delicate coffee
table in front of the couch. His body fell into it with so much
force that the table splintered and broke in half.

“
You all right?” I asked
him.

He groaned and picked himself up from
the remains of the broken table. “Yeah, but that gun shot just told
everyone on this boat we are in here.” He brushed at his
jeans.

He was right, we didn’t have much time
now and we were so close to Korina. I tightened my grip on my gun,
pressing the barrel even harder into the side of the vampires head.
“Tell us where she is, right now!”

He just spread his lips into a grin
and rolled his eyes up toward Luke. “I will never tell
you.”

Luke sighed and turned, he paced the
length of the couch a couple of times before he turned back, raised
his gun and pulled the trigger. His round hit the vampire in the
knee cap.

“
Son of a bit…”

“
Where is she?” Luke
yelled.”

“
Up yours,” the vampire
yelled back, and he was promptly rewarded for his good behavior by
Luke shooting him in his foot.

“
You’re insane!” the
vampire screamed.

Luke raised his eyebrows and flashed
the vamp his own grin. “Maybe, now you will tell me where she
is.”

I was totally in shock. I had never,
ever seen Luke act this way. He was a good Hunter, for sure, but I
never thought I would see him basically torture someone. I couldn’t
decide if I liked it or if it scared me.

This time the vampire got creative
with his answer and spit across the table in Luke’s direction, to
which Luke shot him in the other knee cap and then stared up into
the air as if he were bored. “I can do this all day,” he told the
vampire, “but you, on the other hand, this UV light in these rounds
is going to kill you pretty soon anyway, so you may as well end
your life by doing something for the greater good and tell us where
Korina is.”

A few of Sarah’s people, as well as
Oscar and Alice, came running into the cabin. “What the hell is
going on here?” Oscar demanded. “You guys all right?”

“
We’re fine,” Luke told
him. “But, this guy isn’t.”

“
Screw off!”

Just then, Sarah and her team burst
in. “I heard shots,” she hollered, then took a moment to assess the
situation. “We didn’t find anything in our area, but it looks like
you may have something.”

Luke glared at the vampire. “Yes, we
have, but persuading him to talk is another story.”

Oscar stepped forward, brushing his
blond hair out of his eyes. “I’ll do it.”

With a click, Luke dropped his clip,
pulled a new one from his back pocket and slammed it up into the
gun. “You sure?”

Oscar nodded, “It’ll work.” He moved
slowly toward the vampire. “Tell us where Korina is.” His voice was
soft and gentle, like the soothing waves of a surf rolling up a
beach.

The vampire squirmed under my grasp
and tried to turn his head to the side. “Stop it,” he
moaned.

Sarah moved around the couch until she
was next to me. I still had him in a firm headlock, ready to fire
if things went bad. “What is he doing?” she whispered.

“
Oscar is a
Siren.”

I glanced over at her and saw that she
was looking at me with question in her eyes. So I explained. “When
he speaks, he can sorta hypnotize people and make them do
things.”

She raised her eyebrows. “It doesn’t
seem to be working on this one.”

I shrugged. “It might be because he’s
a vampire. The structure of his brain may not be like
humans.”

“
Tell me where to find
Korina,” Oscar tried again.

Again, he struggled against me as he
consciously fought the pull of Oscar’s voice. “She is …
she…”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “I don’t think
it’s going to work. Maybe we should just shoot him
again.”

“
There shall be no need
for that,” a feminine voice called from the entrance.

The entire group spun, guns up and
trigger fingers ready.

There she was.

Somehow, I expected Korina to look
like she had in the photo. But, I guess that I didn’t account for
vampires changing with the eras. Instead of a crisp white gown, she
wore blue jeans and a white camisole tank top. Outside her jeans
were knee length, flat soled boots made of fashionable black
leather. Her curly hair was much longer than I thought it would be,
it hung down her back, in shining, dark brown waves.

Aside from her looks, none of us could
help but notice that her right hand was tightly gripping my
brother, Zander’s hair. “Step away from my associate,” she
ordered.

I contemplated for only a second. I
didn’t want the guy to get up, but he’d been shot by the UV so many
times it was already eating him away. It wouldn’t be much longer
until he was dead anyway, so, I released him.

I rose into full standing position,
and trained my gun on Korina’s heart. I could probably hit her
before she hurt Zander, but that would really be taking a
chance.

Her eyes settled on me. “Go ahead,”
she taunted. “Shoot me and your friend shall die.”

Zander met my eyes and saw my
hesitation so he cried out. “For crying out loud, do it,
Chloe!”

She moved Zander so that he was in
front of her, efficiently covering her chest area. “Yes, Chloe, do
it. I can snap his neck before I die, I guarantee it.”

I still hesitated. I knew Zander was
willing to sacrifice himself, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be
the one responsible, I was already responsible for enough death and
destruction.

Korina’s big brown eyes
scanned the room and finally she spotted Anthony among us. “Well,
well, well, I suppose I should be surprised to see
you
here, but I am
not.”

Anthony moved toward her. “Korina, let
the boy go.”

Her lips spread into a thin smile and
she shook her head. “Have you no courtesy, Anthony? You haven’t
even said hello to me. After all this time, I would think that you
have missed me even the tiniest bit.”

“
Let him go and then we
can talk.” Anthony ignored her taunting.

She shook her head again. “I do not
think so. I know why you are here, why you are looking for me. So,
no, I will not release this boy. She used her free hand to tilt
Zander’s face up toward her so that she could look at his face. “As
a matter of fact, I think that maybe I will keep him.”

Anthony took another testing step
forward. She saw him advancing on her and moved backward with
Zander.

“
I’m not anyone’s pet,”
Zander spat at her.

She ran her fingertips over the line
of his neck. “We shall see about that,” she whispered and then
turned her attention back to Anthony. “I am quite disappointed in
you. I would think you so much better than consorting with such
pathetic creatures. Truly, Anthony, humans? This is what you have
lowered yourself to?”

Realizing that she had no intention of
releasing Zander, I decided that I should probably chance shooting
her. It looked like that was the only option. I breathed out
slowly, and aimed at Korina’s head.

Zander saw what I was doing and closed
his eyes. I could only thank God that Christina wasn’t in the room
yet, she would have went after him and done everything she could to
avoid this. Where was she anyway?

“
I shall be leaving New
Orleans now, so don’t bother continuing your search for me after I
leave here. She backed out the door. We followed, the entire group
moved as one, stepping forward slowly. “My bloodline shall never
perish, I have worked too hard for centuries to build such a
family.”

“
We shall find you,”
Anthony told her.

Shoot Chloe! Shoot
her!
I told myself, over and over
again.
She is going to get
away
.

“
Oh hell, no,” Drew
muttered. “We have lost too much to let her get away now.” He
raised his gun and took aim.

“
Drew, no,” I whispered.
“Let me.” He knew I had the better shot. But, dammit, I had to take
it soon or we were going to lose him.

She continued to back up and Drew
nodded. “Last chance, Chloe, then I’m doing it.”

“
Tell your friends
goodbye,” Korina told Zander, her lips close to his ear. “It will
be a…” Her sentence was cut off and she lurched forward, almost
letting go of Zander.