CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Valdez
I covered the door in plywood and dragged the already crispy vampire out to the wood pile. Ellie had fell in to a bit of a trance while I retrieved the few weapons I’d left in the house.
“What’s your plan?” she asked as I moved from window to window. “Rhen said we should leave.”
I shook my head. “I know, but I’m not dragging you to a new place. There isn’t time to secure it before twilight sets in. We’re staying here.”
“Then give me a gun.”
“No.”
“I can shoot, Dez. I can handle myself.”
“You really think so?” I was tired but angry. “Are you gonna make me watch you get yourself killed?”
“Brian told me I could trust you with my life if it came to it, and, by God, I don't want to, because you scare the shit outta me with all of this craziness, but I will trust you. “
“If I scare you, then go home to Oregon,” I yelled as I pointed towards the door, “because what's out there, and what is coming for us, is worse. Your cousin was right. I’m going to get you killed.”
“Give me a gun and I’ll be fine.”
“No.” I didn’t know how else to say it. I didn’t want to worry about her missing a shot and hitting me.
“It was one of those things that killed all those people that I couldn’t help. One of those things killed Garrett. This might not be the same creature, but it’s the same type of thing, if I believe your craziness.”
“Who’s Garrett?” I snarled, tension setting in to my neck as my eyes snapped in her direction. I wanted her gone for her safety, yet there I was, jealous at hearing another man’s name.
She wouldn’t look at me, her fingers moving to twist the ring on her hand.
“He was the one you sent out, huh?”
Ellie only nodded. I thought back to the tattoo on her shoulder, and it finally clicked.
“So you sent your cop boyfriend out, and he got killed by a vampire?”
“That’s what you’re calling it,” she snapped at me, turquoise eyes blazing as she finally looked at me.
“Is he the one that taught you to shoot a gun?”
She nodded again.
She’d been a cop’s girlfriend and sent her boyfriend on the assignment that killed him. Ellie had her own reasons for wanting these things dead.
“I can't believe I’m doing this. Come here. Take off the sweater.”
I handed her a pistol and reached for the adjustable shoulder holster. “It’s silver rounds.”
“Head or heart, right? Like the movies?” She checked the safety and pulled the slide. I glared at her suspiciously. He’d taught her well.
“Yeah, just like the movies. If anything comes at you, shoot first. We’ll deal with clean up afterward.”
“Jeebus. Seriously, Dez?”
“Seriously. I don’t want you having to worry about killing one of them.”
“Shut up. I trusted you when you dunked me in the hot springs. You’ve gotta trust me on this, Dez.”
She was right. I needed to trust her.
“Fine. Let's get this on you then.”
I helped her slip the holster on, and cinched it down the best I could. There was still so much play in the straps, it was almost pointless. If I stopped going through the motions, I’d pick her up and carry her back to Oregon. She slipped the gun in the holster and walked away. I grabbed the tail of the webbed strap and pulled her back against my chest. I wrapped my arm around her.
“Promise me you’ll go home after this is taken care of,” I whispered. “I need to know you’re safe and away from all this. I care about you too much to have you stay here where danger is everywhere.”
“Promise.”
I kissed her temple and squeezed her one more time before slipping back in to hunt mode. Rhen was right. They knew we were here. We were easy targets. But I wasn’t going to Broken Tusk. “I’m going to go start the truck. We should get out of here.”
I started the truck to warm it up, berating myself for leaving her in the house by herself. I didn’t have much of a choice.
I rolled my neck and stretched my shoulders as I got out of the truck. I was getting too old for too many long nights in a row. There was the sharp hiss of air behind me and the sharp ringing of metal hitting metal.
My hand went for my father’s knife as I spun. An arrow was embedded in the bed of my truck, the shaft still quivering. A second arrow broke the back window, the glass shattering. The third arrow pinned a snarling vampire to the bed of my truck. A fourth arrow pinned its outstretched arm.
“Well, isn’t that convenient,” I quipped, glancing around for the archer. I didn’t need to take an arrow to the back.
“Just kill it, Val,” the familiar female voice danced across the snow.
“Gladly.” I growled. I pulled the revolver from my belt and fired, point blank, in to the vampire’s chest.
Willow cursed. More arrows cut through the air as a second vampire came at us from the roof.
Willow joined me by the truck, her back to mine as we looked for more threats. There was hissing and crashing from the woods. I brought the gun level with the tree line as two more vampires came rushing out at us. I took the first shot, downing mine, but the recoil from the gun had knocked me in to Willow. I’d caused her to miss her shot.
“Damn it, hunter!” She loosed another arrow—that one going right between the vampire’s eyes as I put silver in its heart.
It only took a moment for it to stop moving, but now I had to deal with the bodies. Vampires didn’t just disappear like in movies and television shows. That would be too easy. I had a dead vampire with two arrows sticking out of it, pinned to my truck bed like a bad piñata.
A red ribbon of blood trickled down Willow’s snow white cheek. When I’d bumped her just as she was releasing the arrow, it had been enough to allow a fletching to cut her cheek.
“What? You’re not going to say thank you?” Willow walked silently through the snow in her riding boots and chunky sweater, bow tucked under her arm. I expected her to walk away, but she grabbed the boots of the vampire we’d downed together and began to drag it toward the wood pile.
I ground out a thank you as I tried to pull one of the arrows from the dead vampire to pull him off the bed of my truck.
“You’re the one who’s been shooting at me the last few days?”
Willow winked at me. “You really think with my father wouldn’t have taught us archery? Have you forgotten his obsession with Robin Hood?”
I remembered her father sitting at the kitchen table with my mother over coffee, debating the legitimacy of the Welsh tales and legends. I shook my head and made myself focus. I needed to get things done before Ellie got curious as to what was taking me so long. I didn’t need another vamp showing up or Willow getting her hands on Ellie.
I snapped the shaft of the arrows and tossed them to the side. “Rhen has never said a word about it.”
“Seriously? Must you break my arrows? And good little seal boy is horrible at it,” she snapped as she trudged back to help me with the one stuck to the truck. “He’d have an easier time staying away from your lying sister than hitting a target.”
I grabbed for Willow, pinning her against the side of my truck. My hand was on Willow’s throat.
Her foreign blue eyes never left mine.
“Be careful, big boy. I still have sharp teeth.”
“I told you to leave.”
She gave me a wry smile as she reached out with her free hand to stroke my chest. “Now you know I couldn’t have left while being in your debt.”
“My debt?”
“Please, you think I’d ever hear the end of it from you if I just skipped town after last night? You’d find a way to hold it over me. I couldn’t have those worthless leeches taking out my prize pet, now could I? You’re mine. And now that we’re even, we can go back to wanting to kill each other.”
“We’re not even, Willow. There is no even with us.”
“You say that now, love.”
My lip curled in a snarl. Her silky fur rippled beneath my hand. It did not have the same effect on me it once did.
“Your brother knows you’re in town.”
“Please. You think he worries me? The loup garou should have finished him and saved me the trouble.”
My fingers tightened around her throat at the mention of the wolf shifter. “Where’s the boy?”
She shook her head at me. “Safe. That’s all you’re getting. No matter what you do to me. Or what my brother tries.”
“Not good enough, Willow,” I growled.
“Gonna have to be, Val.” I felt something cold and hard press against my stomach. “Cause, if not, I’ve still got your knife. I'll gut you like a fish.”
“Damn selkie,” I hissed. “You wouldn’t.”
She raised an eyebrow at me as my hand tightened a bit more on her throat. “You wanna press your luck, hunter?” Her words were barely a whisper as she fought for air. The cold bite of steel rushed across my skin. I grabbed her wrist, spinning her as I wrestled the knife from her hand. I tossed it through the broken window and into the cab of my truck.
“I told you twice now, Willow, you were supposed to walk away. What else are you in on? Are you part of the Blue Market with the fish?”
“Blue Market? You found out about that, huh?” she wheezed.
“Two mermen were after Cayce. What do you know?”
“You sure they were after him?”
“They said the usurper and his spawn.”
“You poor fool.” She laughed. “You actually think I’m in on that pettiness? Mel has them all running around—well, swimming technically—and starving. His kind used to eat humans all the time. Merfolk are not harmless, yet they blame my kind for being the downfall of the court. You don’t think he’s going to try to feed his people?”
“His people?”
“Yes. His people. Him and the Black King. They’re outcasts. So, yes, his people.” Her eyes rolled so hard I thought she was going to shift. “Finfolk call them mimics. His kind can take on whatever humanoid likeness they wish as long as they’ve touched the individual. And the mermaids hunt them.”
My hand tightened around my father's knife. “I don't believe you.”
She smirked. “Do you know why it’s called the Blue Market?”
“The frozen bodies.”
“You’ve been talking to my brother, haven’t you? Get off me.” Willow put her leg between mine, kicking the back of my knee toward her.
I went down in the snow hard, losing my grip on her. I cracked my head on the ice and flashes of white crossed my eyes.
Her boot found its way to my throat as she stood up taller. “Mermaids bleed red. Those mimics? They bleed blue like the shoreline bottom feeders they are. Just like horseshoe crabs. I don’t like them either. They aren’t very tasty. Too tough and chewy.”
“Caleb bleeds red.”
“Tsk, tsk. Have you seen it yourself?” She glanced down at me, her hair partially obscuring her face. “Why am I not shocked you’d lie to me? Because last time I bled him, his veins ran blue. But maybe you aren’t lying. Maybe he does bleed red and you and I are speaking of different fish. You did come looking for us at Ordeneige. Seriously, love what my brother’s done with the place. Why you wanted seal fur and mermaid scales was beyond me. I thought Cash was the voodoo priest?”
I tried to swipe at her, but she only kicked me in the ribs. I groaned hard as I rolled away from her reach. Willow took the opportunity to walk a few yards away, clearly out of my reach.
“But, then again, what would I know? Maybe you shouldn’t believe a creature of the sea.”
“Merfolk can’t shift like that, Willow,” I growled as I sat up, putting my back to the wheel of my truck for support as I clutched my ribs.
“No? Just proves how little you know about the ocean dwelling Fae.”
I didn't want to believe her. A mermaid that could look like anyone it touched? Had that been what my father thought was a skinwalker? That would explain what Brooks had caught with his wife all those years ago, and why the skin walker had never been heard from again.
“Ask Caleb,” she snapped. “Maybe he’ll tell you about his past if you ask nicely. Maybe he'll just laugh in your face and try to eat you. Fish do strange things. Seriously, you call yourself hunters? I don't know how you survive.”
Willow turned, heading headed back the direction she had appeared from. I leveled my gun at her back. I didn't want to do it, but I'd let her walk away too many times. Willow paused when she heard the click of the hammer being pulled back.
“By not trusting things like you.”
“I'm getting really sick of you threatening to kill me. You never were good on follow through, Val.”
“It's not a threat this time.”
“Oh,” she said as she spun to face me, raising the bow in one smooth motion. “That changes things. Tell your brother ‘hi’ when you see him on the other side.”
Before I could form words, she loosed the arrow. I managed to turn away, the arrow grazing my upper arm through my coat as I dropped the gun. The razor sharp tip cut through my coat, burying itself in the tire. Air escaped in a rush as my truck tipped toward me. Hot blood ran down my arm inside my coat.
I cursed her name as I struggled to free myself. We both froze as the sound of broken glass and heavy wood slammed against wood came from the house.
A slow smile spread across her lips. “Whoops. Guess I didn’t catch them all. Go be a hero, Valdez, because you certainly never were mine.”
“Bring my nephew back, Willow. He belongs with us.”
Willow blew me a kiss as Ellie’s scream echoed off the tree.