Raven Walks (30 page)

Both Raven and Gina shared a look and
laughed.

***

A week later Sebastian’s club had the makings
of a new roof and a new clientèle. Even Lillith and Damien had come
out to celebrate the fact their enemy had been destroyed and they
could now go back to their normal existence, such as it was.

Sebastian wore Pixie on his arm as he
entertained his guests, and a sense of renewal had uplifted
everyone’s spirits. The music was loud and upbeat, and everyone
danced and drank and left memory of Argos at the door.

Gina stayed to herself tending bar, and
Constantine and Raven were unusually sedate, and civil, as they sat
together nearby.

Hunter brought Abi, as both wanted to make
amends with Gina before they started their new life together. She
hugged them both, and wished them well. She regretted nothing. This
was the path she had chosen, and she knew it would lead her places
that these well-meaning people could not come.

So she gave them the only thing she could.
Peace of mind.

Hunter felt better when he introduced Abi to
Walter, who had also inexplicably joined the celebration. He wore
disappointment on his face, but shook Abi’s hand and wished them
well, knowing that Hunter’s journey chasing vampires had ended.

When Walter joined Constantine and Raven at
the bar, they regarded him with a certain amount of skepticism, not
for his reputation but for the look on his face.

Gina handed him a bottle of water. She knew
he wasn’t there to share the fruits of their victory. His face was
far too pensive.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He didn’t say anything as he motioned to the
person behind him. It was a younger man, with Emo hair, goth
clothes and the bluest eyes she’d ever seen, made bluer by the fact
he wore heavy black eyeliner. He reached out a hand, the nails of
every single ring adorned finger painted black, and smiled for the
redhead he had heard so much about.

“This is Tanner,” Walter said. “My
assistant.”

“Nice to meet you,” Gina politely greeted. He
turned to the vampires who regarded him thoughtfully. Raven reached
out a hand, but Tanner politely declined, holding up a bottle of
water for their view.

“Tell them,” Walter said.

All three of them focused on the young man.
He cleared his throat. “I’m afraid the news is not good,” he told
them.

He slid a newspaper over for their view. The
headline screamed about a desecrated grave in Eastern Europe, a
reputed vampire from the late 1700s whose reputation of being a
vile sadist over the village he lived earned him the moniker
“Diavolului Fiul”, Romanian for “Devil’s Son”.

“I don’t understand,” Gina said.

Tanner took a deep breath. There was no easy
way to say it. “Apparently this is where Argos’s reign of terror
began,” he explained. “A week ago, for some unknown reason, the
doors blew off of the crypt and the remains disappeared. The only
thing we found was a scarf,” he produced it.

Constantine’s eyes widened as he stared at
the material. He grabbed for it. “Where did you get this?” he
demanded.

“From the grave of Octavian Blaga,” Tanner
repeated. “Otherwise known as The Devil’s Son.”

Constantine turned to Raven. “Nina,” was all
he said.

Gina’s face set in a grim line. She sensed
there was more. “And?”

Tanner hesitated only briefly. He slid
another newspaper in front of her to describe the ghastly death in
Bucharest, Romania – where the victim had been drained of its
blood.

“Found at the crime scene, this,” he said as
he showed them a photo of a ring.

Constantine visibly paled.

Raven turned to Walter. “You think this
Octavian guy was the one who turned Argos.”

“That’s the theory,” he said.

“What about Nina?” Constantine wanted to
know.

“Apparently your brother Demetri bribed Argos
with the ashes of his wife to find the most powerful vampire in
Romania so that he could kill him,” Gina supplied.

“To kill him would have killed us all,” Raven
surmised.

“Exactly,” she said.

“But he’s alive,” Constantine deduced.

Walter referred to the newspaper and the
photo. “Apparently.”

“So Nina might be alive too.”

Gina dug out her backpack from under the bar.
“Only one way to find out.”

Constantine was on his feet as well. “I’m
going with you.”

Walter and Tanner turned to face him. He met
their glances with elongating fangs. “It would not serve any of you
to argue the matter.”

“Fine,” Gina quipped. She’d worry about what
it would mean if she had to kill his Nina later.

Raven then stood to his feet. “Then I’m
coming too.” They turned to him. “I started all this,” he told
them. “I should be the one to end it.”

Gina’s eyes met his. She didn’t want him to
go simply because of how much she didn’t want to leave. Having him
in proximity was more dangerous than any killers she’d have to face
along the way. He had awakened something deep inside of her that
she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to bury again.

Truthfully, she had done the same for him. So
even if this new threat had nothing to do with him he knew he would
have found an excuse to follow along her newest adventure. He had
made that decision when he saw how far she had gone to save them
all.

That had to have been why he couldn’t shake
the memory of her body against his or the taste of her mouth. These
were the thoughts of a conquest he just couldn’t shake, an entirely
new experience for Raven.

It made him feel alive since the first day he
rose as the Undead.

So he understood their adventure had only
just begun. And Raven knew that he had no choice but to follow
where Gina walks.

END OF BOOK ONE

The adventures of Raven and Gina continue in
the next installment, GINA WALKS, coming in 2016.