Blood Warrior (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #4) (8 page)

“
Oh. My. God.” Christina
covered her mouth and laughed. “Sorry!”

“
It’s not what it looks
like,” I muttered. “Now, go away.”

Gavin’s warm green eyes narrowed into
an angry glare and without a word, he turned around and stalked
away from the doorway.

“
Crap.” I flung the covers
off of myself so that I could get up.

“
Ah! Blood related!”
Zander’s hands flew to his eyes so that he could cover them and
avoid seeing is non-existent naked sister.

“
I’m dressed, you idiot!”
I yelled. “Now will you two get the hell out of here?” I picked up
a pillow and chucked it toward him. For a girl who never misses
with a gun, the pillow totally went off course and nailed Christina
hard in the face.

“
Dang, Chloe, defensive
much?” She picked up the pillow from where it fell on the ground
and flung it back at me.

Zander had a grin spread across his
face. “Look Drew, pillow fight. It’s a man’s dream come
true.”

“
Go away,” Drew told him
in a sleepy voice.

“
Fine, we’re going,”
Zander told him. “We just wanted to let you guys know that we are
eating in about ten minutes and then we are heading out. We were
headed to your room next.”

“
We’ll be there.” I
marched over to the door and closed it in their faces.

Once Drew and I were alone again he
pushed the covers back and finally got out of bed. “Sometimes
living with so many people is a real pain in the ass.”

I nodded in agreement. “You better go
get ready, apparently we’re running late.”

He grabbed his gun off the night
stand. “Someday we will get to lay in bed together and not have to
worry about all of this.”

“
I know,” I whispered as
he opened the door and stepped out into the hall. “See you down
there.”

He shut the door behind him and I
turned toward the bed, pulling up the covers and making it up like
it was before I’d gotten into it. His comment about someday not
having to worry about stuff like this had me wondering if he was
thinking about the same things as I had been earlier.

Oh well, it wasn’t like we could worry
about that kind of stuff right now anyway. First things first … we
had to stop this damn apocalypse.

Since I didn’t have time for yet
another shower, I hurried with my clothes and weapons, and then
headed down to the kitchen. I could skip the shower, but not the
food.

Anthony had made a nice spread of
bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns, toast and fresh fruit. There was
no way we could say that Anthony wasn’t being a perfect host,
eating at his place was like eating at a restaurant every
day.

I entered the kitchen and received a
wink from Christina. Zander looked like he wanted to laugh at me.
Gavin set his angry glare on me and kept it there, no matter where
I moved in the room.

Talk about uncomfortable. None of them
were doing this to Drew, why were they picking on me?

Drew leaned over in his seat and
whispered, “Because you’re an easy target.”

I furrowed my brow. “How did you know
I was thinking that?” I whispered.

“
I know you.” He shoved a
piece of bacon in his mouth. “Ignore them, act like it doesn’t
bother you and they will lose interest.”

I glanced at Gavin. “Not
everyone.”

Drew shrugged like he didn’t care. I
was pretty sure he really didn’t, though. Those two had been going
at it practically since birth and I didn’t foresee that ending
anytime soon. I, on the other hand, did care. I cared a lot. I
didn’t want Gavin to be unhappy. I just wished that he would find
someone for himself that he liked as much as he liked
me.

Our connection was a strange one. I
can’t even describe the way I feel when it comes to Gavin. I love
him, but not love, love. With Gavin, it just feels like we know
each other inside and out. I wanted him in my life, but at the same
time it’s weird when he does things like glare at me because of my
relationship with Drew.

Lately we had this unspoken agreement
going on where he just deals with it and I try not to flaunt it
around in front of him. I guess that agreement was no longer
active.

Ugh. Oh well. No more feeling sorry
for myself, it was time to go walk the streets of New Orleans and
kill us some vampires.

***

We met Sarah outside the mansion on
Royal Street. She had about ten people with her, both males and
females, who were all dressed in black clothing or dark camouflage.
I had to agree, these were the best kinds of clothes. My own outfit
consisted of black cargo pants, black long sleeved tee, even though
it was freaking hotter than Hades outside, and my black combat
boots.

Cliché, I realize, but I know I looked
super cute and if Christina ever taught me anything it is that you
can be a good fighter, but if you look good while you’re doing it,
that makes it epic.

Really though, I just wanted to look
good for Drew, I didn’t care about any of that other stuff. I was
excited to get out there and whomp on some vampires too. I had a
lot of frustration I needed to get out.

Both groups silently merged and we
began to search the streets.

Together we had a lot of people, so I
wasn’t really afraid of anything happening to any of us, I think
the sheer number of our group gave me, and everyone else, a false
sense of security. It had only been about ten minutes into our
search when we were ambushed by soldiers pledged to the Vampire
Council.

I crept along the cracked and broken
sidewalks quietly, keeping my ears open for any sign of danger. I
was near the rear of the pack and it wasn’t easy listening for
other footsteps with nearly twenty people creeping along beside
me.

We passed an alley and after a quick
inspection of it, we moved on. We had been sticking to the
sidewalks, close to the walls where we were underneath the
galleries and safe from overhead attacks. But, even those
precautionary measures didn’t stop the attack.

Behind me lingered two of Sarah’s men.
One guy’s name was Travis and I couldn’t remember the name of the
other one. After we passed the alley a gunshot sounded from behind
me, followed by an ear piercing scream. I spun, guns up and at the
ready, just in time to see the guys whose name I couldn’t remember,
pushed back by the impact of the bullet.

Instead of running to his friend,
Travis headed for the alley, where the shot had come from. I
followed Travis, passing him just as we hit the opening. Two
soldiers were bolting for the other end of the alley.

Nice, their plan was to pick us off
one by one. Awesome.

I picked up speed, determined to catch
them before they got too far away. I heard the sound of more boots
hitting the pavement behind me and I knew a few of the others had
followed. It didn’t take long for me to catch them. I was not quite
vampire fast, but faster than a full blooded human.

I rammed into one of the soldiers
backs at full force. His gun flew out of his grip and his knees
went out from underneath him, taking us both down to the ground.
Mid-fall, I swung the gun in my left hand up and over. Honestly, I
didn’t think it would work, but I managed to nail the other guy in
the back of the neck.

By the time we hit the ground, someone
had already shot the soldier I’d hit with my gun. The one beneath
me grabbed hold of my arm and rolled me over until he was on top of
me. The rough pavement scraped against my skin and I dropped the
gun in my right hand.

The soldier grunted as he easily
pinned me beneath him. One of his hands pushed down into my left
bicep and the other slid up to the base of my throat and
squeezed.

I looked into the man’s eyes as he
choked me and saw that he was enjoying it. Below his eye, his
dragon tattoo stretched as a smile spread across his face. This
just pissed me off even more.

I wasn’t scared. That’s the thing with
knowing you have your own back up. I let the heat swirl inside of
me and then pushed it outward. I couldn’t wait to see this jerk off
go up in flames. If it wasn’t me who he killed, it would have been
someone else that he got his murderous jollies from. This wasn’t a
guy who was forced into what he was doing, he did it because he
wanted to.

Whoosh
.

Not just my hand, but my whole body
erupted. The soldier screamed, practically flying backward as he
tried to get away from me. He stumbled on a chunk of raised cement,
landing on his back.

Whoever was behind me in the alley now
had a clear shot and took it. The bullet hit him in the head and he
dropped the rest of the way to the ground, a splatter of blood
following him down.

I closed my eyes and extinguished
myself.

“
What in the hell
was
that
?” Travis
stood about six feet away, mouth open and eyes wide with
shock.

Drew, Gavin and Christina stood beside
him and the others from the group were lingering at the opening of
the alley.

I turned away, leaving him to stare at
me with his mouth hanging open, and snatched my gun up from the
alley floor. “I can light myself on fire,” I told him. “Thanks for
that.” I indicated the dead soldiers and then dusted off my jeans.
“Let’s move, these can’t be the only ones waiting for
us.”

Travis shut his mouth, but followed
along after me. He probably didn’t even know how to start that
conversation and I didn’t offer any more explanation for
him.

Within two hours, we had three more
incidents involving soldiers and two fights with vampires. Luckily,
we didn’t lose anyone else.

Sarah had decided to leave the guy who
died earlier where he was. She was going to come back later in the
daytime with a crew and then give him a burial. “We are going to
take him out to the swamp. It’s where he’s from and where he would
like to be laid to rest,” she explained. “I feel bad leaving him,
but we can’t stop a mission every time we lose someone.”

I understood that. This was war and
casualties were a part of war. At least she was going to come back
and get him. I admired her for wanting to give him what he wanted
in death, while trying to give life to the rest of the
world.

Before I knew it, we were hunched over
across the street from the Le Pavillon Hotel. The Vampire Council
had set up shop in the historical building which sat on the
outskirts of the French Quarter.

The hotel was well lit and had plenty
of traffic. Vampires, soldiers and the pledged could all be seen
entering and exiting the building.

I sat crouched against the shadows,
holding both my guns, ready to fire if I had to, when suddenly a
shiny black limousine pulled up to the front entrance. I turned to
Drew who was directly to my right and made a face that clearly said
“what the heck?’

He shrugged that he didn’t know and
faced the hotel again to see who in the world would be arriving at
the Vampire Council headquarters in a freaking limo.

The driver slid out from behind the
wheel. When he turned toward us, I saw his dragon tattoo clearly
illuminated in the light of the gas torches. He rounded the car to
the side facing the hotel and leaned down to open the door. He
rose, grasping the delicate hand of a pale blonde woman, who was
dressed in a pin-up style pencil dress.

I’d know that pasty skin and
shimmering mane anywhere. Dahlia.

Her hair fell over her bare shoulder,
the tendrils standing out against the black of her dress. The
driver released her hand and she wiped it on her skirt as if he had
a severe case of cooties and she didn’t want to catch
it.

“
This is either really
lucky or just a big pain in our asses,” Drew whispered.

As if she had heard him, Dahlia’s back
straightened and tilted her head to the side. We all crouched
lower, waiting for her to spot us as she turned and scanned the
general area we were hiding in.

After a moment, she shook her head as
if she may have imagined something and carefully ascended the steps
into the lobby of the hotel.

“
Let’s go,” Luke
whispered. “It’s too dangerous here right now.”

We followed along with Sarah and
Anthony leading the way again. I didn’t pay attention to where we
were going because I was too shocked to really care. Dude, Dahlia
being here was a total game changer. Sure, I still wanted to find
Korina, but killing Dahlia was really, really high on my to-do
list.

Before I realized it, we had walked
several blocks and were at a park that was situated along the
river. The nasty brown Mississippi didn’t look quite so ugly at
night. The moon provided a gentle glow that rested lightly upon the
slowly moving waters.

We gathered close to the water and
Anthony pointed at a docked river boat. It was the kind of vessel
that I’d only seen in pictures and movies. The interior of the boat
was lit up and I spotted a few slight movements from the
inside.

“
That river boat,” Anthony
began, “belongs to Korina. It is one of her financial endeavors
that she has acquired over the years.”