Replica (The Blood Borne Series Book 2) (37 page)

“Why did she leave a book if she wants a book?” Rachel asked in frustration.

“I suspect it’s a rumored mythical guidebook. There were whispers the vampires once had a book with clues to find the Book of Life.”

“It’s true,” Antonio agreed, not sounding happy about it. “I’d heard that Elena’s people found it in the ruins of an ancient Greek temple.”

I nodded. I’d heard them as well but dismissed them as nonsense.

The knot...I slid my hand over it, feeling the perfectly round tangle of leather against my palm. “It’s called a death knot.”

“Not real subtle, is she?” Rachel asked as I held out the book to her. “Why don’t you open it?”

“The guidebook can only be opened by one family line.” I frowned. “A family of witches so powerful, they were hunted to extinction during the Salem witch trials. At least, that is how the story goes. The book will only open for one of its own.”

“What do you mean, one of its own?” Rachel didn’t touch the book.

“The leather is made of human skin. The last witch who was taken allowed them to do so only after she’d had her daughter skin her back.”

Rachel recoiled from it. “If they were so powerful, how did they get captured?”

I looked at Antonio and Rachel followed my gaze. “You Cazadors are real assholes sometimes, aren’t you?”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Antonio and I, we are the nice ones. We only hunt the bloodsuckers. There were other Cazadors, though they did not call themselves that.”

From the way he grunted, I could tell he was fighting a laugh. I knew what it would do to him to laugh with me and realize we weren’t all that different. I’d been like him once.

“So what’s this Book of Life? Why does Elena want it so badly?”

Antonio glanced to me, then to Rachel. “It’s believed to contain the history of the origins of the species…but not only that.” He paused. “It supposedly breaks it down enough that the owner of the book could create his or her own supernatural species.”

“Like Stravinsky.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Only no mutants. Pure supernaturals. Elena probably wants it to fight for control.”

Ivan moved to my side and slipped an arm around my lower back. I leaned on him, letting him take much of my weight. “It’s a long story, Rachel. And we have a long trip ahead of us. And you may not like the story once it comes to light. Sangre de la Bruja is not for the faint of heart. Even more so when you realize that it is your bloodline, my friend.”

“You don’t know that.” Her eyes flashed. I tossed her the book, and when she caught it out of reflex the knot untangled in front of us, slithering apart like a serpent.

“I do know,” I said. It made all too much sense, and the coincidences that had brought Rachel and me together no longer seemed so coincidental. Fate had a funny way of making things happen.

Ivan and I moved away from the silent village toward where the Humvee sat waiting. I slid into the front seat, Ivan into the driver’s seat. Rachel squished in next to me, Antonio flanking her. The sun wasn’t bothering me for the moment, and I knew why.

Elena’s blood coursed through my veins; she was far older than me, which meant she’d given me a powerful tool to help Rachel succeed in her quest. I would be able to withstand sunlight in limited exposures.

The satellite phone in the Humvee rang as we settled in, and we stared at it as if it were a bomb.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, it’s just a phone.” Rachel grabbed it and put it to her ear. The voice on the other side was all too clear, and his words were the bomb we’d feared.

“Ah, Rachel, lovely to see you’ve survived.”

Hades. I knew it from her thoughts.

“Not like you were much help.”

“I did my best. I even sent you a lovely gift made of silver. Did you get it?”

She tightened her grip on the phone, and I held my hand out. “Let me.”

“Good luck, he’s a slippery fucker.”

He tsked on the other side of the line. I pressed the phone to my ear. “Hades.”

“And who is this? Wait, let me guess...Lea, perhaps? The vampire gone rogue, killing her own kind in the hopes of redeeming an unredeemable soul?” He laughed, but it didn’t bother me.

“And you would be Hades, the scientist Stravinsky wouldn’t turn into a vampire?” It was a guess.

He sucked in a sharp breath. “Bitch.”

I smiled. “Every day. What do you want?”

“You need help. And for a price, I can give it.”

I motioned for Ivan to start the truck up and move forward. “I don’t think we need your help.”

“No? What about Stravinsky?”

I yawned into the phone, making sure that he heard it. “He and I came to an agreement.”

“What?” He stuttered the one word.

“Yes, not that it’s any of your business. But I do have something in mind for you, if you’re willing to meet with me and Rachel.”

Rachel tipped her head and I tried to convey the message of what I had in mind. Hades was a loose end—a man who would go to whomever he thought would help him acquire his goals. And like Victor, his goal was simple. Immortality.

“I assume you’re close?” I yawned again.

“Very.”

“The village?” I motioned for Ivan to slow the truck.

Hades was silent. “What are you offering?”

“Exactly what you want,” I purred.

“The next village over.” He gave us coordinates and I hung up the phone.

“What are we doing?” Rachel leaned forward and planted her hands on the dash. “The fucker led us on. He gave me just enough info to get me in and killed, and not much else. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have anything on Stravinsky now that the facility is gone.”

“She’s going to kill him, aren’t you?” Antonio settled deeper into seat.

Rachel shook her head. “No, she’s not.”

I couldn’t help but grin. There was a benefit to having Rachel in my head. No more back and forth about truth and lies. She grunted but didn’t disagree.

“I intend to make him forget everything. To send him on a new path so we don’t have to deal with him again. My guess is he was using us to show Stravinsky that he could hurt him in a bid to force the vampire’s hand. It didn’t work, and now he wants what I can give him,” I said. “Loose ends kill people. I won’t have Hades getting in our way or worse, siding with Stravinsky again.”

It took us an hour to get there, and the sun was bright enough that I wanted nothing more than to curl up in the back of the truck. But we had to deal with Hades first.

The village was empty of people and several of the homes smoldered with a thick black smoke. Nothing moved—there weren’t even any stray chickens pecking at the dirt.

“This isn’t Stravinsky’s doing, is it?” Ivan asked.

“No, this is the war,” Rachel said, her voice soft. Ivan parked the truck and we climbed out. I let Ivan lead, Rachel and I followed—side by side—and Antonio brought up the rear.

Ivan didn’t knock on the door, just shoved it open and grabbed Hades while the scientist screeched at the top of his lungs. Two werewolves leapt from the shadows of the room.

Ivan took one.

Rachel and I took the other. The fight was intense, brief, and over before it had really begun.

I gave Ivan a nod of thanks as he threw the two bodies outside. “I wasn’t going to kill you, Hades.” I stepped toward him. “But I think I’ve changed my mind.”

I grabbed him and bit into his neck, draining him down. With it I saw his memories and thoughts. How the blood cells in the suicide pill had been derived from what Stravinsky had mistakenly believed was the last witch, and how Hades had discovered that Rachel was connected to the Sangre de la Bruja.

But mostly how he’d planned to use that information to capture Rachel and me. He’d planned to use me as a blood donor to change him, and Rachel as leverage…and a whore in a much more literal sense. I shivered and spat him out. “Fuck, that was nasty.”

I grabbed his head and twisted it sharply to one side. The dirty thoughts he’d had about Rachel were enough to make me not want another single thought from him.

To my surprise, it was Antonio who asked the question. “What did you see?”

“You don’t want to know.” Rachel went green and I nodded.

Antonio shook his head. “This mind reading shit between you two is getting old, fast.”

“Get over it,” Rachel snapped.

As if that was going to calm him down.

I deliberately sent Rachel a thought. According to Hades’s memories, the witch blood—broken down into its base elements—was what had powered the other compounds in the suicide pill. Without it, the pill wouldn’t have done anything to a vampire. Magic had been the key factor in making it work.

Rachel nodded. “So that means Stravinsky has a witch working for him?”

I squinted one eye. “Or captive.”

Antonio’s jaw ticked. “Are you going to fill us in?”

“In the truck. Elena won’t wait forever and that child’s life is in the balance as well as our own,” I said.

We piled back into the Humvee. Rachel snorted. “I feel like a teenager again, taking my dad’s truck and cramming all my friends into it for a joyride.”

Ivan glanced at her. “So...we’re all friends now?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Whatever. Wolf.”

He grinned at her. “Witch.”

Antonio shrugged and mock-glared at me. “Vamp.”

I snorted. “Wannabe.”

He burst out laughing, as did Rachel and Ivan. The released tension felt good, and it was needed. Because I was about to tell them the story I knew of Sangre de la Bruja, which would add a whole new level of pressure to our group.

For good or for ill, we were tied together.

I only hoped all four of us would make it through alive.

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