Love is Darkness (A Valerie Dearborn Novel) (7 page)

“He wants us to go anyway.”

The air rushed out of her lungs, making her words a little wobbly. “He’s going to send me into this alone?”

Jack walked closer to her. He was dressed in black cargo pants too. A black turtleneck with a few knife sheaths and a gun holster were on him as well.
Very black ops.
“I'll be there. I won't let anything happen to you.”

She knew Jack would try to save her and that they might both die tonight. It would destroy him if he couldn't save her. Even though he'd been little, he blamed himself for the death of his parents.

She felt the quick anger and sadness at her father
melt
away, become the more familiar feelings of betrayal and bewilderment. In a way, she'd known her father wasn't going to be here.
Cancel the ‘daddy of the year’ award.

They got into the car and Jack drove. He was a very cautious driver. Like a little
old
Italian lady. While other guys drove at a hundred miles an hour, Jack didn't want to invite more risk into his life than he had to.

They parked down the street from the vampire’s lair. In this case it was a house.
A house that had seen some seriously better days.
It had a screen door that was hanging on for dear life and paint that had given up the fight, peeling off the walls and dropping to its death in flaky patches.

Most of the plants were dead too. But a hearty Hydrangea and some ugly shrubs were still fighting for survival.

I could totally die here.

Fuck.

The vampire who lived her was either a total loser or really liked the monster image.
Really, if he couldn't be a rich vampire, then he was a moron.

Vampires had centuries to get rich. They were strong and silent. They could resort to robbery, steal from their victims, but this guy didn't seem to have made it work. Having to take out a loser vampire would make it easier...right?

Maybe he was a newbie.

“What do we know about him?”

“Not a lot. He came into town a few weeks ago. He went to a nightclub and killed a girl in the bathroom. She died of blood loss, obviously. They found him on the security tape. Gilbert sent us the info.” Gilbert Arthur was a Hunter in Australia who always seemed to know what was going on.

It was odd. But the information was always good. Well, sometimes the vampire had left by the time they got there or the details were hazy but he was always right about the attack and location of where the vampire had last been.

Val sighed, “What did Gilbert have that kept the police away from arresting this guy?”

“Ah. That would be the missing security tape.”

She exploded. “Gilbert is in Australia! Why is the tape with him? How did he get it, why does he know this stuff? Shouldn't
we
be the ones in the know? No, you.
You
should be the one in the know.” This wasn’t her fight. She was going to college.

Her future involved
keggers
and one-night-stands. No doubt in that order.

“I'll let the pronoun slide. No one knows where he gets his info from,” Jack said it wearily, as though he'd discussed Gilbert Arthur and his mysterious information a lot.

“Anyway, this guy
— ”
Jack gestured towards the house, “he's laid low, but today he
scoped
out a playground. So, game over. Your dad doesn't want to risk waiting until he gets back. And this should be easy. He's poor for Christ's sake! What kind of self-respecting vampire would live in a dump like this? Honestly.” His voice was disgusted and she knew he was trying to make her laugh.

It was something they'd always done on stake outs. Even she didn't want to be left home alone all the time. So sometimes she'd go along. Especially if she knew there was just about
no chance
they would encounter a vampire. Jack would only invite her when he thought it would be safe.

She'd make hot chocolate and bring popcorn and they'd talk about school, music,
tv
, life. Play twenty questions. She liked those nights.

They always trash talked the vampire in question. Usually, it was amusing, but it didn't work this time, now that she was the one who was going to be doing the fighting.

 
Jack tried to take her hand, comfort her but she jerked away in anger. She opened the door, popped the trunk and grabbed her stuff. Scanning the trees and houses around her intently, Val looked for a flash of gold.

Looking for Lucas.

Maybe her mind had deceived her. Everything had happened so fast that she'd decided she didn't know what he looked like. He couldn’t have been that beautiful.

Her memories of that night were all twisted up so that Lucas now seemed larger than life. She feared she'd romanticized him and that she would be disappointed in his actual appearance if she ever saw him again. Which, she emphatically did
not
want!

Jack got out and waited for her, the sound of his door closing interrupting her thoughts. He was going to stay hidden on the other side of the yard. Hide in the shadows, just in case.

 
“You know what Jack? Fuck you! You didn't
have
to do this. You
know
how messed up this is!”

He ran his hand through his hair, uncomfortable. He'd never disagree with her father. She waited but he said nothing, seemingly at a loss.

“Kiss ass.” She turned and walked away.

“Use the rage, Val. Good talk.” The sarcasm made her want to scream.

Then he was serious, “Okay, this jackass works and he'll be home in twenty. Guess where he works, Val?
The
library
.
Honestly, you could kill him with your eyes closed.”

Jack disappeared into the shadows while she quickly set up her trip wire and stationed herself behind the bushes, dried up blooms falling all around her like snow.

Knives?
Check.
Pill?
Check.
Gun?
Big check!

Okay. She was ready to go. Val imagined the fight over and over. Different ways it could happen and ways she could die.

Val hunkered down behind the Hydrangea and waited.
Twenty minutes is a long time to be afraid…and I really have to pee.

Finally, there was movement. A man was walking down the dark street, appearing and disappearing as he passed under street lamps.
Could be a normal pedestrian out for a walk.

Or not.

 
The guy moved very smoothly. Her stomach wobbled. Vampires didn't have limps or glitches. Tendons didn't matter and it made them unusually graceful. It wasn't something most people would notice. But to her, it was
a tell
.

He came towards the house and a car drove by. The lights caught his eyes and they flashed monster bright.
Yup.
This was the guy.

She felt the gun in her hand, made sure the safety was off,
then
breathed in and out steadily.
Slowly, quietly.
Except for the desire to run away screaming she was still, calm. He turned in the gate.

Three steps, you bastard.

He walked forward and she pointed the gun. She was good, very accurate for all the days she'd spent at the range and all the hunting trips her dad had taken her on, but this was different.

She could screw this up so badly that even Jack's life might be in danger. Her hand started to waiver at the thought, but he was getting close to the trip wire now. He was tall. Why had she thought he’d be shorter? He looked kind of shy and like he could work in a library. Vampires should be scary. It should be required. Looking normal was an unfair advantage.

Val forced herself to calm, re-imagining what it had felt like when Lucas had made her feel so eerily and thoroughly emotionless.

The vampire stepped on the tripwire, a silver-tipped arrow slicing through the air and lodging into
his
 
ribs
. He spun around to find the source of the weapon, simultaneously pulling the arrow out of his body. The head of the arrow detached inside him, just as it was supposed to, and a curl of smoke rose from his chest where the silver burned him.

But he wasn't going to die from it.

Shit! Flesh wound. If only he’d been three inches shorter
.

Val sighted the gun and pulled the trigger. The bullets were made of wood and the gun had a silencer. The plant shook as the bullet passed through. It pierced him in the back and he jerked around again, facing her.

He coughed, black blood arcing from his mouth like vomit. She'd hit a lung.

She fired again and he fell to his knees. She shot him again, knowing this would be the one to finish him off, but the gun jammed.
Of course!
Put that on my tombstone, “Would have made it but for Smith and Wesson.”

She withdrew her knife and ran for him
—
 
acting
on instinct, not wanting to give him any time to regenerate.

 
A wet growl gurgled from his throat as he reached for her.

Val ducked and tried to come in under his grasping arms to stab him in the chest but he was quick. Val tried to adjust and go for his thigh instead. The femoral artery was harder to get to but she was getting confused, panic rising and she felt like she was running out of options, had to end this now! No time for patience or thinking.

He grabbed her, held onto her shirt, yanking her up like a rag doll, before tossing her several feet away.

Close to the front door.
The easier to snack on you, my dear.

Flecks of paint and dust rose around her in a clogging breeze.

Val was paralyzed, her faux-calmness gone, replaced by panic and violent memories, stunned from the painful landing.

Her lungs needed air but she couldn’t breathe yet. She needed the knife, but her muscles were jerky and slow to respond.

Where is Jack?
 

The vampire lunged at her, throwing his weight on top of her, banging her head against the ground. It felt like a firework exploded in her head.

Her wrist!

She slammed her arm into his face and the ball exploded. His skin sizzled, shards of silver embedded in his skin.