Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) (35 page)

Jared squeezed my arm.

My lips curled back. I crushed my teeth together, wanting so badly to bite him. “Do it,” I said. “Break it.”

Jared squeezed harder.

“Let her go.” I heard Melcher’s voice behind him.

Jared kept me in his grip. I felt his hesitation, knew my chances were fifty-fifty. He might obey
, or he might break my arm to spite Melcher. He turned his head slightly to look at Melcher. His eyes returned to mine, and somehow I knew the final decision was mine once more.

I smiled at him, my front and bottom teeth crushed together. I imagined it looked rather ugly and that made me smile bigger.

Jared studied me a moment then slowly released his grip on my arm. Inwardly I winced, but at least he hadn’t broken any bones. “Don’t ever disobey me again,” he said.

I looked at Melcher all spiffy in his suit. Did he have it on when I called
, or did he change at warp speed like Batman when he responded to a distress call? What was he doing here anyway? I wouldn’t think he’d want to sully his hands with a mess like this. That’s what assassins and cleaners were for.

“Where’s Marcus?” Melcher asked.

“I’ll show you.” I led Melcher and Jared to the music room.

Melcher walked straight up to Marcus’s body an
d looked down. He stood silently for several minutes.

I looked at Jared who had leaned against the padded wall to survey the roo
m. He didn’t speak.

“Marcus had Mike’s ring in a jewelry box inside his bedroom,” I said. I waited for M
elcher to ask what I was doing in Marcus’s bedroom. When he didn’t, I continued. “He found me with it and confessed to killing Mike, but he wouldn’t own up to Agent Crist.”

“Andre
Morrel killed Crist,” Melcher said. “He had her cross.”

I
narrowed my eyes. If I had to come up with a theory, I’d say Jared killed Crist and used her death as an excuse to execute Andre and his entire family. If they’d left him in a prison to hang, as Melcher explained it, then Jared had plenty of motives to get revenge. He didn’t strike me as a forgiving kind of vampire.

“
But why was Crist’s body found with Mike’s?” I asked. It all led back to the dump, and once more the pieces scrambled and refused to fit inside my brain.

“It appears we had ourselves two separate killers,” Melcher
said. “For all we know Andre asked Marcus for help disposing of Crist’s body.”

Jared snorted. “Wouldn’t that be Marcus’s luck
—a ready volunteer to take care of his own problem.”

“And Andre wouldn’t know where to dump a body
being from out of town,” Melcher said.

Now that made sense, except for one thing. “I still don’t see what motivation Andre had for killing Crist
…or how he even bumped into her.” I glanced quickly at Jared.

Melcher stared at me a long time. “Aurora, you remember the
occupation
I told you the Morrel family used to engage in?”

“Yeah.”

“Those instincts don’t go away. Andre Morrel has always been a hunter. He doesn’t get his blood from the blood bank.”

“So he just happened to bump into Agent Crist
, who just happened to be patrolling this neighborhood?”

Melcher didn’t blink. “The murder is solved,
Aurora. End of story.”

Yes, sir! If you say so. Did Melcher really believe that load of crap
, or was he covering for Jared? I doubt Crist ever set foot in this area that night. Jared stalked people for a living. He probably followed her off base, broke her neck, and then stumbled upon an interesting surprise when he tried to ditch her body at the landfill.

Melcher
crouched beside Marcus and closed his eyes gently.

I watched as Melcher hovered beside Marcus’s body.
He began to speak in a low voice. I couldn’t tell what he was saying at first then realized it was a prayer. “By the power of God, cast into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.”

I cranked my head back and looked at Jared. He barely glanced at me before
stifling a yawn. I looked back at Melcher as he said, “Amen.” He stood, looking solemn. “We can’t pass this off as suicide.”

Jared grunted and pushed away from the wall. “This is what happens when you let rookies go solo.”

“What’s the problem?” I demanded. “Marcus killed Mike. I killed Marcus. Isn’t that how it works?”

Jared leaned into my face. I forced myself to take even breaths. “The problem
, you little fool, is that Marcus was a prominent figure within the vampire community. Rumors have already been circulating about what we do. He’s been stabbed in the heart. Why not put up a neon sign while you’re at it? Vampire Hunter was here.”

“So make him disappear,” I said. “Bury him at the dump.”

Jared snorted. He looked at Melcher. “Can you imagine the vamp hunt to track down Marcus’s whereabouts?”

Melcher nodded, his expression far
away, focused somewhere beyond that room. “You should have called it in first, Aurora.”

I balled my fingers in
to fists. I felt like shaking one in Melcher’s face. “And how was I supposed to do that after Marcus chained me to his ceiling?”

Jared snorted and smiled at Marcus’s body. “Marcus chained you to the ceiling?” He looked
overhead as he asked, searching for hooks, no doubt.

“
Not here,” I said, grinding my teeth together. “Upstairs in his bedroom.”

Neither
man asked if anything else had happened or if I was okay. Fuckers, both of them. “What is Jared doing here, anyway?” I asked Melcher. “I thought you were sending him out of state.”

“Jared isn’t going anywhere,” Melcher
said. “I want him where I can keep a close eye on him.”

Jared snorted again. “Whatever you say
, boss.”

Melcher looked at me, his expression grave. “Aurora, how many people saw you here tonight?”

My lower lip dropped. I didn’t answer immediately. I couldn’t. In the battle against Marcus, I’d blocked out the other consequences of this evening. “Everyone,” I said. “Everyone who was here earlier.”

Henry’s words echoed in my ears.
“You seem to have a knack for drawing unwelcome attention.”

Gavin had seen me head toward the upstairs and never return. Then suddenly Marcus ends up dead. No, I’m sure he wouldn’t find that odd
in the least. I hadn’t gotten a look in the living room as I passed. For all I knew Henry and Tom had seen me, too.

“Aurora,” Melcher said carefully. “I think it would be best if we sent you out of town for a while.”

“Out of Anchorage or Alaska?”

“
Out of state.”

“Really?” My voice lifted. I hadn’t thought anything could brighten my mood tonight, but there was nothing I wanted more at that moment th
an to get the fuck out of Alaska. Away from Jared and Melcher. Away from Noel and Fane.

“What about school?” I asked.

“I’ll get you everything you need to obtain your G.E.D. through correspondence,” Melcher said. “I know it’s not what you wanted, but having you stick around at this point isn’t a good idea.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “Can you reassign me
to another state permanently?” Indiana? I could still attend Notre Dame. Perhaps there was such a thing as second chances. Melcher certainly owed me. If Jared had gotten to me, it was only because Melcher gave him the resources to do so. I wasn’t about to ask Melcher what he knew about Jared’s recruiting practices. I trusted Melcher about as much as I trusted his new sidekick.

“No, we need you
up here.”

I felt my heart drop even though I knew the verdict before Melcher delivered it. “We’ll send you away to finish your education
, followed by boot camp as planned. You’ll be back by the end of summer and can attend UAA if you still choose to.”

“Where are you sending me?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Melcher said.

“I mean, should I pack flip flops? A bikini?”

Melcher walked out of the room instead of answering. As I passed Jared he leaned into me and said, “Nice try, Raven.”

I kept my expression neutral.

It didn’t matter where Melcher sent me. I was going to give boot camp everything I had, and when I got back, Jared better watch himself.

He
had run me down and taken my life so that I would be forced into killing vampires. Well, that’s exactly what I planned to do. Kill Jared. It might be too late for me, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t save countless other targets on Jared’s list of potential AB negative recruits.

Melcher stepped into th
e living room, lifting his phone to his ear. “Send in the cleaners,” he said into the speaker. He lowered the phone, glancing at me. “I’ll have one of my men drive you home.”

“Don’t bother,” I said. “I’ll have my mom pick me up on L Street. She’s expecting my call. She isn’t aware of this address,” I added.

Melcher nodded. “Very well.” With that he turned to Jared and started talking as though I were no longer there.

Fine by me.

As I approached the entry, the front door opened and two men in biohazard suits walked in wearing masks. I tried not to stare. I’d never actually stuck around long enough to see the cleaners. Not that I could distinguish anything beyond their facemasks.

They didn’t spare me a glance as we passed over the stones of Jerusalem. I looked over my shoulder one last time. No more disco. No more parties. No more champagne and blood.

Melcher had forgotten to say his customary lines. Justice had been served.

Despite this being the shittiest of shit nights in the whole history of my life, I knew I’d done the right thing
, and I’d continue to fight the battle even if I had to start a war from within.

I stepped outside and breathed in the night air.

As soon as I’d put several blocks between myself and the townhouse, I sent Valerie a text in case she was checking.

We have unfinished business to
take care of.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket and pulled out my iPod, nestling each ea
r bud deep inside my eardrums.

There wasn’t a cloud overhead. The aurora borealis, for which I was named, weaved like a river in the sky. Usually it was too cloudy to see them, but tonight shades of pink, purple and green
cast light across the expanse overhead.

I selected “Running Up That Hill” by Placebo from my easy listening playlist and began the long walk home.

The occasional car zoomed by, otherwise the streets were deserted. The digital clock on my phone showed the hour approaching one in the morning.

I didn’t want a ride home. I wanted to feel the
hard ground beneath my feet, the frigid air going down my throat. I sucked it in. It didn’t chill me one bit.

Nikki Jefford is a third generation Alaskan with a degree in journalism from the University of Alaska Anchorage. She loves fantasy, magic, fictional bad boys, and heroines who kick butt.

Nikki married Sébastien, the love of her life, while working as a teaching assistant at a high school in France during the 1999/2000 school year. They now reside in the not-so-tropical San Juan Islands, 70 miles northeast of Forks, Washington in a town without a single traffic light.

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Visit Nikki’s website at:
www.nikkijefford.com