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

He tilted his head down until our lips
were lightly brushing each other. “Mmmm.” I murmured, lifting my
head to bring our lips to full contact. At the same time I reached
around and tugged the weapon away from his body.

“
What are you doing?” his
words were muffled against my lips.

“
What do you think I’m
doing?” I whispered. We had been together so long now that I didn’t
really have much shy girl behavior left when it came to us flirting
with each other.

He pushed himself up with both hands
until his was hovering over the top of me. Then, his hand slid
down, touching the skin where my shirt had ridden up and my jeans
had been pulled down a little bit. His fingertips moved downward,
tracing over my hip, then my thigh and down the length of my leg,
until he reached my calf.

Then he pulled up the cuff of my
jeans. “Well, well, well,” He taunted, “What do we have here?” He
slid the small blade I had strapped to my calf out of its sheath
and held up. The metal glinted in the lamplight for a few seconds
before he leaned over and set the knife on the table beside the
bed.

I grinned beneath him and tugged the
bottom of his plain white tee shirt. He sat up on his knees and
finished the job by taking it off himself. I reached up and ran my
hands over the hard muscles of his chest and met his gaze as he
leaned over me again.

He braced himself with one arm while
the other crept down my side, tracing the line of my body all the
way down to my jean covered thigh. I sucked in my breath and pulled
him further down onto me, wrapping my legs around his
waist.

His kiss was slow and familiar. My
body relaxed and tensed all at the same time. His kiss was comfort,
it was therapy, and it was home. I had lost so much in the last few
years, but everything I had now all revolved around him. Drew was
my anchor in a seemingly perpetual storm. Even though he knew just
how to push my buttons, I couldn’t imagine him not being my first …
my only.

But, he was always the one to stop
when things got to heavy during our make out sessions. Every time I
thought that the time had finally come, he would pull away and make
some excuse about it not being the right time.

Now … this time, those soft, familiar
kisses became urgent and wanting. He pulled up on my shirt so I
happily obliged by reaching down and helping him take it off. Thank
god I’d worn my cute black bra with the lacey hot pink
trim.

I heard the intake of his breath as he
hovered above me. “Chloe,” he ran his fingers softly over my cheek,
“you are so beautiful. Not just out here either.” His fingertips
trailed down my throat and over my shoulder. “It’s who you are that
I love.”

I felt my face flush and reached up to
mimic his touches. “I love you too.”

He kissed me again, pressing his body
into mine. The top halves of our bodies were skin on skin and still
I wanted him to somehow be even closer. We kissed until we were
both breathing heavily from lack of air and the rush of
adrenaline.

When he pulled away this time, he
looked me directly in the eye. “I don’t want to stop. I’ve been
stopping for so long. I wanted you to be absolutely sure … are you
sure, Chloe?”

Finally.
Finally
!

I nodded and took his face
in my hands. “I
have
been sure, for a long time now. Don’t you ever think you are
taking advantage of me. I am yours. Do you hear me,” I leaned up to
give him another kiss, “I am yours.

He fell down onto me, crushing our
lips together so that my last words were lost in our
kisses.

***

I stared at my face in the mirror
above the bathroom sink. I looked the same as I did a few hours
ago, but I certainly didn’t feel the same.

It’s so strange how something so very
common, that people do every day, can make a person feel so
different. The bathroom was still filled with steam from the shower
I’d just taken and I had a towel wrapped around my body. Drew had
gone back to his room to shower and get ready to head out into the
city.

That was another thing. Normally I
wasn’t scared at all when we went out on missions, but this time, I
was pretty nervous for some reason. That wasn’t good for me. My
fire power sometimes acted up when I got scared or anxious. The
last thing I needed was to make any mistakes out there.

I had to admit, though, I was curious
about these survivors.

I hurried into the bedroom so that I
could throw on my jeans and a fresh tank top before meeting
everyone downstairs. Through the sheer window coverings I saw that
the sun had just slipped behind the trees leaving New Orleans in
that space between day and night, the time when the vampires
started to come out.

I pleated my hair into two braids and
then strapped on all my weapons into their appropriate places. My
quiver went onto my back and I set my bow over my shoulder and then
I was ready.

Everyone was already downstairs
waiting for me. It was a little embarrassing, since usually I was
one of the first ones ready to go out on missions.

Anthony was joining us on our trip
into the city, so he was also dressed for battle. It was a little
strange seeing him with guns and knives decorating his body. I
suppose I thought of him as a super powerful vampire, not a guy who
needed weapons. He nodded to me as I descended the stairs, “Nice to
see you are going to join us, little Hunter.”

I felt the blood rush to my face. I
don’t know why I was embarrassed, it was no big deal that I was
running late. I guess it just felt like everyone knew what I had
been doing a little while ago. I tried to shake it off. It wasn’t
like I was wearing a sign or anything. “Sorry, I didn’t wake up on
time.”

“
All right,” Luke
addressed the group as I hit the landing, “Now that Chloe has
joined us, are we all set?”

Christina adjusted her holster. “Let’s
do this!”

Everyone agreed and headed for the
door. I caught sight of Drew and moved toward him, he threw his arm
around me as we passed over the threshold and out into the evening
heat, which was far more tolerable than it was during the early
afternoon hours.

Alice moved ahead of us once we were
on the porch. Her blonde ponytail bobbing up and down over the
swords at her back. I couldn’t help but be proud of how far she had
come since I first met her at Trevor’s. She was a woman who had
been unsure of herself, who had lived a dependent life. Now, she
was a strong, independent woman who had found a purpose in life. I
glanced at Oscar, who was close at her side, and smiled. She had
also found someone who truly cared about her. They weren’t super
public about their relationship, but we all knew about it
anyway.

Drew opened the back door of the
Escalade for me and leaned down to give me a quick kiss before I
got in. “You ready?” he whispered as he pulled away.

I nodded, taking in every ounce of
affection from him. “Of course,” I grinned, “Aren’t I always ready
for hunting?” He grinned back at me and then I hopped up onto the
soft leather seats.

Gavin slid into the car next to me.
His eyes were flicking curiously between Drew and I. When I caught
his gaze and our eyes finally locked, I realized that he could see
something was different. Most likely it had been Drew who tipped
him off, since Drew wasn’t normally a very lovey dovey type of
guy.

“
What?” I mouthed, to
which he responded only with a shake of his head.

I felt bad about Gavin knowing
anything about that sort of thing between Drew and I, but he would
have to come to terms with it sooner or later, as he did with
everything that involved Drew … or me.

He slammed the door and faced forward
in the seat so that he wasn’t looking at me. I did the
same.

Once we were all loaded into the
Escalade and Zanders truck, the gate rolled open and we headed out
into the dusk.

As we drove, Anthony passed the time
by telling us the intriguing tale of the LaLaurie
Mansion.

“
For many years, the
LaLaurie Mansion has been known as one of New Orleans most haunted
homes. It never remained in the hands of one owner for an extended
amount of time.

The home was occupied by Dr. and
Madame LaLaurie. Madame LaLaurie was one of those women of high
social status, but she was also said to be an intelligent and
beautiful woman. The house, as you will see is not much to speak of
from the outside, in comparison to other Creole homes in this city,
however Madame LaLaurie fashioned the interior of the house with
the finest of everything.

The couple hosted frequent social
gatherings that were the talk of the town. Anyone who came across
the couple would describe Madame LaLaurie as a kind and generous
host. They appeared to be the upstanding citizens of New Orleans
that everyone wanted to be.

Until, whispers began to spread
throughout the neighborhood of how Madam LaLaurie may be
mistreating her slaves. It had not gone unnoticed that new slaves
would arrive, replacing slaves that had not been seen leaving. The
final straw came when a young slave girl jumped to her death from
the highest floor of the mansion after Madam LaLaurie had furiously
chased her throughout the courtyard galleries.

The laws in place prohibited cruel
treatment of slaves, thus, after the death of the young girl, the
slaves were taken from the LaLauries and auctioned to new owners.
This did not deter Madam LaLaurie in the least, she persuaded her
family to purchase new slaves, from whom she bought them in
secrecy.

The rise of the LaLaurie couple was
nearing an end and it finally arrived when a fire broke out in the
kitchen, setting the mansion ablaze. It is a common rumor that
Madam LaLaurie chained the chef to the stove and that perhaps the
man had tolerated the mistreatment for too long. The story tells
that it was most likely he who set the fire to the
home.”

Anthony paused and stared at the
streets ahead of us. “I apologize, I tend to get into the details
of a story and lose track of where I was at.

“
The fire fighters arrived
soon, efficiently dousing the flames. However, they also were the
unfortunate souls who discovered the secret room in the attic. A
room where experiments were done on human subjects.

Over a dozen bodies were found, as
well as various body parts lying carelessly around the cluttered
room. Most of the slaves found in the room were long dead, yet a
few still held a breath of life in them.

These experiments performed on the
slaves were torturous, intended to bring pain and suffering for
quite some time. The condition of the bodies found is utterly
indescribable, with lips and eyes sewn shut, limbs removed, limbs
placed in areas where they weren’t supposed to be … one was even
found in a small cage with her limbs broken and reset at odd
angles, that one was still alive.

The townspeople went into an uproar
and an angry mob formed outside the mansion demanding the couple be
hanged or punished for their actions. It wasn’t long after the mob
arrived outside the home that the LaLaurie family burst through the
gates in a carriage and right through the crowd until it
disappeared.”

I raised an eyebrow, “So, the place is
haunted by the ghosts of these slaves?”

Anthony turned to me with a curious
eye. “Why, little Hunter, are you implying that you do not believe
in ghosts?”

“
I don’t know.” I
shrugged, but my mind went right to Sostrate, the warrior woman,
even though she insisted that she was not a ghost.
“Maybe.”

“
In any case,” Anthony
continued, screams and moans have always been heard from this
house. There were several people who went inside and never came
out, there were owners who had all of their things destroyed and
the apparitions of slaves wandering the halls have been seen by
many occupants over the years.

Since the LaLauries abandoned the
home, no one has been able to withstand residing there for very
long.”

He smiled, “Oh, I almost forgot, the
not so pleasing end to this story is that in a recent remodel of
the mansion, bodies were found underneath the floorboards.
Scratches and pieces of fingernails were found on the underneath of
those particular boards, implying that the bodies had been buried
while they were still alive.”

I wanted to vomit. “Why … the hell are
we going in there?”

Anthony ignored me. “It is a tragic
tale that has become a large piece of the haunted history of New
Orleans.”

“
Good Lord!” Gavin
grimaced, “if it’s that haunted, why would the survivors hole up in
there?”

Anthony shrugged. “It is possible they
think that is the last place the vampires would look. It is in the
French Quarter, perhaps the resistance is taking the ‘they will not
look right under their noses’ approach. I would also assume, with
the way the mansion is set up, that it would be fortifiable. The
survivors would obviously need to be in a place where they can
erect a substantial defense.”

I nodded. That made sense. But, from
what Anthony told us about the history of the place, I wasn’t sure
that I really wanted to go inside.