Bad Blood (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 3) (16 page)

“That’s called payback,” Valerie said. “You’re lucky I gave you an option. I could have done a lot worse.”

She’d already tried when she reported me to Melcher—saying she suspected I’d recently joined the vampire race. She probably wanted one of Melcher’s assassins to take me out. Too bad for her
I
wa
s
one of those assassins. That was the moment we discovered we worked for the same boss.

And this crazy bitch wanted me to give her a key to my house? I’d sooner set out a “Vampires Welcome” mat.

“You give yourself far too much credit,” I said. “I was about to break up with him before you blackmailed me.”

“Yeah, right,” Valerie said, rolling her eyes.

Everything had changed when I found out Fane was a vampire. After that, I knew dating him was a bad idea. I’d pulled back, but at the same time I couldn’t stay away… not until Valerie forced me to. Even that didn’t work.

Only Fane could keep me away.

“Not a good idea,” he’d said the night I tried to make a move inside his car.

The thing that hurt the most was he’d been right. The two of us would never be a good idea, and nothing could change that.

At least there were killer vampires to distract me. 

“Let’s get dressed and spy on some ritzy vampires already,” I said, more than ready to change the subject and move on.

Valerie held her glare two more seconds before relaxing into a sultry smile. She grabbed an empty iced tea bottle off her windowsill, unscrewed the lid, and tossed the cigarette inside.

“The room’s all yours. I gotta redo my makeup.”

After Valerie disappeared into the hallway, I pulled my dress out of the shopping bag and snapped the tag off. I dressed in front of a small mirror above Valerie’s armoire, finger-combing my long, black hair once I’d finished.

It was a beautiful dress, long and elegant. I turned back and forth and looked around Valerie’s room while I waited. She’d done a good job of updating the room with stylish décor. There was a modern black and powder-blue theme going on with her bedspread, throw pillows, curtains, and matching window valance.

Decorative picture frames in silver, light blue, and black were interspersed with accent pieces on two wall shelves above her bed. Leaning in for a closer look, I saw that none of the frames held personal pictures. They were all postcards, mostly black and white. One of the Eiffel Tower. Another the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Between each frame was a statue of some kind: a meditating monk, an owl made of gems, a silver heart, a glass swirl, and a miniature rocking horse.

A framed black and white poster of Marilyn Monroe hung to the left of the shelves.

I sat on the edge of the bed and texted Valerie’s address to Dante. Even if I wasn’t his girlfriend on assignment, I still needed a ride to the party, which meant “tagging” along with the happy couple. I sighed and tried not to think too much about tonight. More vampires. Just what I wasn’t in the mood for.

8

The red queen finally returned freshly powdered, hair full of bounce.

She looked me over.

“You cannot wear your hair down with a backless dress. Come over here, and I’ll get you fixed up.”

While I stood in front of the mirror, Valerie ran her fingers through my hair, combing through the silky strands before gathering it all up and twisting it into a bun. She grabbed a jeweled hair stick off her armoire, stuck it in, and stepped back.

“Perfect.”

I turned my head to the side. Surprising how fancy my hair looked after a quick twist and stick.

“It looks nice. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Luckily, Valerie was much quicker changing clothes than she was with her hair and makeup. My phone dinged as she slipped into her heels.

“Dante’s outside.”

“I call front,” Valerie said. Noticing my frown she said, “I’m his date to this thing.”

I inhaled and released my breath slowly.

“Fine.”

“Great. Let’s go.”

Dante whistled when Valerie and I climbed into the Jeep.

“Looking good, ladies.”

Valerie fluffed her hair forward.

“And you smell great, too.”

Valerie turned in her chair to shoot me a smug “told you so” smile. Yeah, well, I didn’t have to pay sixty-six dollars to smell good for one night.

Dante headed south toward the mountains.

“Now that we’re all together, I think it’s time to switch assignments,” Valerie said. “Let’s face it, if anyone’s going to ensnare Diederick it’s me. Aurora’s better off with Dante. The two of you won’t have to pretend.”

Fine by me. Melcher didn’t need to know, and I’d rather play the girlfriend than temptress any day. Melcher had really miscast us.

“Or…” Dante said. “You can both be my girls.”

Valerie snorted. “You wish.”

Dante shrugged. I couldn’t see his face from the backseat, but I was sure his mouth had formed a big ‘ol grin. “Baby—” he belted out suddenly. It took me a moment to realize he was going into song. Oh, boy.

When Dante hit the second verse of his spontaneous song, he started into lyrics about him with two woman at the same time.

Valerie squealed suddenly and clapped her hands. “Oh my god! Is that Simultaneous Lovin’ from South Park?”

Dante repeated the chorus back in answer, shaking his shoulders side to side as he drove. Valerie joined him in the song, shaking her own body while I rolled my eyes from the back seat.

Valerie threw her hands up in the air and waved them around.

Dante leaned toward her singing, “You and me…”

“And her,” Valerie said tilting her head my way.

“Simultaneously,” they sang together.

“You and me,” Valerie sang again.

“And you and you and you,” Dante answered.

Valerie screeched with laughter, banging her arm on the console between her and Dante. Like he needed any more encouragement.

“Oh my god, I’m crying,” Valerie said. “If you ruin my makeup you are so dead.”

Which reminded me, we weren’t out for a joy ride or Saturday night out on the town. This was a mission. I couldn’t blame Dante or Valerie for goofing around and blowing off steam. I wish I could let loose more, get my mind off tonight’s task. Heck, get my mind off everything. What was the point of stressing? Once completed, there would be another mission to take its place. An endless parade of assignments and killing sprees. Thoughts like this made it hard for me to cut loose and laugh.

“I wonder what kind of music they’ll have at this thing,” Valerie mused.

“Fancy music,” Dante said.

“And let me guess, hors d’oeuvres?”

“Fancy ones.”

Valerie snorted.

“You and Aurora should stick together,” Dante said, turning his head until our eyes met. “I don’t know how much of you I’ll see while I’m in the private tasting rooms.”

The familiar flutter inside my chest picked up. Didn’t matter how many assignments I went on. I always got stressed right before game time. Should have joined the sing along. Might have helped.

“Don’t worry about us, Don Juan,” Valerie said.

“It feels funny going on a no-kill mission,” Dante said. “Been getting a lot of these lately, but I guess this is normal for you.”

Valerie straightened in her seat. “Speak for yourself. I started out as an informant and now Melcher has me killing vampires left and right. I took care of those three pizza boy killers and the Morrel family in Sitka.”

“Actually, Jared killed the Morrels while we ran for our lives. Not all of the Morrels are dead,” I reminded her.

“Thanks to you,” she said. “I don’t know how I let her talk me into sparing Vampire Barbie. Should have left her for Jared. Better yet, should have shot her myself.”

“Is this woman dangerous?” Dante asked.

Valerie pushed her hair back with a flick of her wrist. “She’s a woman. Of course she’s dangerous.”

“I have a bad feeling about her,” I said.

Valerie’s body stilled. An instant later, she whipped around, and shot me a death glare. “Oh, so now you have a bad feeling about her? Little late for that, don’t you think?”

“Ladies, let’s not fight before the party,” Dante said, chuckling.

Valerie turned around.

“What about you, Dante? Would you have allowed Giselle Morrel to live?”

“She’s a vampire?”

“One hundred percent.”

“I would have killed her.”

“See, even Dante would kill a pretty woman if she was a vampire,” Valerie said, sounding vindicated. “Not only did Miss Bleeding Heart allow her to live, she dragged her to safety. And I do mean literally dragged.”

Dante glanced at me in the review mirror.

“You rescued a vampire? Why?”

My bottom lip puffed out. The truth was I had no good answer. I panicked. I’d just discovered that Jared was a vampire and witnessed him snap Henriette Morrel’s neck. I crawled away as he struggled with Andre Morrell, but I’d heard the shot from upstairs. Then the second shot when he came upstairs and finished off Etienne Morrel next.

“S'il vous plaît ne blessez pas les enfants.”

I could still hear Henriette’s final words in my head.

Please don’t hurt the children.

It had been too late for the boy, but I had a chance to save the girl. Saving a person, even a vampire, felt a lot more natural than killing them.

I didn’t want to be an assassin. I didn’t want to kill vampires. That wouldn’t ever change, and here I was, forced into killing vampires until Melcher stopped giving the orders.

Valerie made a valid point at the mall. Both he and Jared needed to go. But taking down the man in charge? I couldn’t begin to figure that one out. Did we hire a vampire to go after him? If it all went wrong and Melcher found out, we were deader than undead.

Better to take one thing at a time, and that began with Jared.

I met Dante’s eyes in the mirror.

“I rescued Giselle because Jared was after her. If a vampire that malicious wanted her dead, I figured it might be a good reason to keep her alive.”

Dante squinted at me. He wasn’t convinced.

Valerie surprised me by saying, “Now that’s thinking I can begin to understand.”

“Aside from being a vampire, remind me again why Jared’s so bad,” Dante said. “According to Melcher, he’s on our side.”

“He tried to kill us,” I said, voice rising. Twice!

“You mean literally? Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s a psychopath,” Valerie snapped. “And, yeah, he literally came after us with an ax.”

Dante’s eyes shot back to me in the mirror.

“An ax? You didn’t mention an ax, Aurora.”

“I only saw you once between crisis number one and crisis number two, and it’s not exactly something I’d bring up at dinner with my mother and grandmother present.”

Little did I know that would be the last time I’d see Dante for six months. Fate had other plans. Marcus. All kills were awful, but he’d been the worst. I’d known Marcus personally… as much as you can get to know an eccentric socialite.