Hunting My Vampire (Immortal Vampire #3)

Chapter 17

Kaya

I dreamed of the white crows again that night.

The next morning, I stopped by the supermarket and waited for an opportunity to speak to Tamara.

“I need to get my hands on some occillite,” I said in a low voice, leaning over to ensure that only she heard. The store was empty but you never knew. “I have an uber vampire threatening me and my weapons aren’t going to be enough!”

Tamara’s eyes widened.

“If you really don’t know where that guy is who came back with you, you’ve got to help me get in touch with someone who has the stuff!”

Tamara bit her lip, then nodded.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”

I couldn’t shake my nervousness all day.

I had the feeling the crows had been sent to warn me and I kept looking over my shoulder, checking behind me, jumpy as all getout. For the first time in weeks, I thought of the medicine man’s words; the ones that had confused me so. About me having a mission and having work to do. What was he talking about? I knew it meant something but not what it could be.

In the late afternoon, Jack called me, triumphant.

“I did it!” he said.

He had managed to win over the board. He was able to show how one of the board members, Dominique Le Bruin, had conspired with Natania to hack into his email and frame him. Le Bruin had not shown up for the board meeting and was later found in her bathtub, drowned. In a suicide note found at her house, she apologized for the hack, saying that she’d made a mistake and couldn’t face up to it.

“I don’t think she acted alone, though,” he mused. “She wasn’t the sort of person to have come up with this by herself. I can’t see the motive. I need to dig deeper.”

But for now, the board was satisfied that he had fixed the error and was able to make up for his lapse in attention.

“One of the other board members had a go at me, saying that I had missed a few things at work, hinting at me being distracted.”

“Bastard,” I said, as the dig was aimed at me too.

Jack laughed. “I think Natania was hiding other things from me too. I thought it had been quiet! Meanwhile, there was a scandal at one of our Italian branches that was lighting up on social media.”

“We have to be more careful,” I said, and Jack told me not to worry. He was going to appoint a new daytime CEO as well. He felt Max should’ve taken care of the problems.

“I’m going to spend another day or so out here, then we are going away for the weekend, what do you think?”

“Away?” I wasn’t sure about that.

“Can Princess stay with Tina for one night? I want to take you to a restaurant in Martha’s Vineyard. We’ll fly in for the weekend.”

“Fly in for the weekend?” It sounded a bit much to me. “You don’t even eat in restaurants.”

“I like to go places with you, see you happy,” he said. “Besides, they have a delicious clam linguini at a place I’d love to have you try.”

I didn’t feel like going away but the town was beginning to feel a bit claustrophobic to me. I kept jumping at the smallest sound and movements from the corners of my eye. I used to have nerves of steel when I was still in the business of hunting down criminals. I was never like this. I didn’t like the change that had come over me.

Then again, I’d never had an uber vampire like Simon threatening me.

I took out my weapons one night, inspected them and cleaned them. I strapped on my knives because they made me feel better. Safer.

I went by Tina’s house to ask if she could look after Princess so that we could go away for the weekend.

“You’re going with him?” she asked me, raising an eyebrow.

There was no mistaking who she meant.

“Yeah,” I rolled my eyes.

“I don’t like him,” she said, narrowing her eyes.

“He’s nice, grandma!” Princess chimed up. “He helps me with my homework and everything!”

“Uh-huh,” she said, clearly not impressed.

To change the topic, I asked her about the War and what she remembered about it.

“That was bad,” she said, shaking her head. “We were all living in our basements, never coming out. The men were off to war, most of them dying,” she shook her head. “Bad, bad, bad.”

She said it had lasted for many years and human beings had been suffering the most casualties. The supernaturals were gaining the upper hand and humans had started building tunnels and bunkers underground, preparing for a life away from the outside world. Then they heard the news that a bomb had been dropped on a vampire stronghold near the far northern lands. It destroyed an entire mountain range and caused huge landslides and tsunamis, which rained damage across Northern Europe. There was fall-out from radiation as well as well secondary damage that almost meant an end to all life on earth. It had permanently damaged the earth and many ecosystems but it had turned the balance in favor of the humans.

“Most of us were living underground anyway at the time so it didn’t matter that the air was toxic. We had our masks and we could sit it out.”

Eventually, the poisonous clouds lifted and the air was clear to breathe again. Most of the survivors were human. The vampire population had suffered the biggest losses, as did the shifters and some of the other creatures not able to seek shelter fast enough.

As victors, the humans were able to set the terms of the peace treaty, according to which human beings would occupy positions of power and authority in the Free World and killing creatures, human or otherwise, was unlawful.

“We all came out of our bunkers,” remembered Tina. “Many of us had never seen mountains or trees or rivers. We couldn’t believe the threat was over.”

Some never did, I thought.

“For many years, we had all kinds of natural disasters, related to that bomb. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, whole islands flooded by tsunamis.”

She shook her head.

“But that was the price we paid for life.”

Jack had told me his family had not been fighting on behalf of the older vampires who had been wiped out by the bomb blast. They had been in favor of peace negotiations, and his father had been in France at the time, one of the representatives of the more liberal branch of vampires. But there were many left who didn’t agree with the new world order, he told me. Of the older families, many had elected not to fight in the war, sitting it out in private enclaves across the world.

These were the dangerous families, who were loyal to no-one but themselves and would kill their own kin if it suited their purposes.

Like Simon, I thought, thinking again of his serpentine eyes, glittering with evil as he smiled at me.

But then Jack came back, all eager to go away for the weekend.

I’d never been to Martha’s Vineyard, not to mention, a ride on a private jet plane.

Even though I wasn’t one for dressing up or indulging in luxuries, I allowed myself to be picked up in the limousine. Jack was in high spirits, clearly enjoying himself. We hadn’t seen each other in a few days and I liked seeing him again.

“I’ve missed you,” he said, his voice husky.

“I know,” I said, winking at him and he pretended to grab and tickle me. We were in good spirits all the way there, where a car waited to pick us up from the airport and take us to a huge mansion on the edge of the ocean.

“This is yours?” I asked, my mouth hanging open. It was a palace and much nicer than his castle, actually. Clover Castle was all stone and dark corridors, where this house was light and airy, inviting the sun and sea air into every room.

“It belonged to my mother’s family,” Jack said. “I bought it from them and fixed it up. I haven’t had much time to come here or anyone to come with me, to be honest.”

He pulled me close and as he kissed me, I felt my fears melt away. There was something about being in his arms. I felt safe with him, even though I would never have told him that. For the first time in my life, I was with someone who was probably stronger than me. A real match for me.

That evening, a car took us to a romantic restaurant on the pier of one of the scenic coastal villages. The ma?tre d’ took us to the best table in the room, with a view over the ocean. It was breathtaking. I had never been in a restaurant like this, never had anyone want to take me anywhere special like this before.

I had a dress on for the occasion, which was unusual for me, and high heels that I could barely walk in. But the look on Jack’s face when he saw me, more than made up for it.

It was only for a few hours anyway.

It would have been the perfect evening. It could have been.

But then something happened that I should have been prepared for, something that almost cost me my life. We were waiting for dessert, when I saw a movement from the corner of my eye.

“What is it?” Jack asked, noticing my behavior.

I got up to take a look, I thought I had seen something suspicious. Jack followed me to the front of the restaurant and just as I stepped outside, seeing someone running away; a huge blast ripped through the restaurant, shattering the entire structure. The impact threw me across the pier and the last thing I remembered seeing, was a white crow, circling overhead.