Blood Debt (The Blood Sisters Book 2) (9 page)

Amanda
placed her hand against the window. The demons weren’t going to let them get
away that easily. Already they were headed back to their cars. They’d pursue,
but if Amanda had any luck left, they’d make it to the church without incident.

Could she
even pray for such an easy escape?

She
glanced over at Duncan. His concentration was intense, rivaling all else it
pushed his emotions down inside, but deep
under
lay his
loneliness
.
An empty
crater where his heart should’ve been.
What a
heel
she was, what a heel…Duncan
couldn’t control the fate of choices,
any more
than Amanda could.

“I’m
sorry. Sometimes I say stupid things.” She placed her hand on his sleeve and
images flashed in her mind of a burning building.

A woman
screamed from deep inside. Amanda saw a flash of her hands cuffed to a radiator
and outside Amanda stood, a toothpick twirling in her mouth.

Not her
vision, but Duncan’s. And all Amanda felt was…satisfaction. Retribution, but
behind that lingered grief. A broken heart
forgotten
by his act of revenge, whoever that woman was.

Amanda
gasped and pulled her hand away as if his skin was a searing hot plate. She
hoped to never cross him as that woman had, but that type of cruelty wasn’t
him. That wasn’t the Duncan Jasper she knew.

He was
talking, already in mid-sentence, but Amanda missed half of what he said. “…we
work together, we trust each other. Above all else.” Duncan implored.

Amanda
swallowed hard and nodded. She needed Duncan, she wouldn’t succeed without his
help and she knew the quality of his spirit—his heart.

At least,
she thought she did.

V
ain
couldn’t return to Vaughn empty handed.

She
hadn’t intended to kill Duncan Jasper when she stormed the hospital, but she’d
thought,
at least,
they’d
get a moment to speak. Issue tense threats
to one another. Kidnap and torture him, maybe lofty wish, but Vain was
desperate to get her mitts on him.

Desperate.

Vain had
no direct proof Duncan had even seen her, but he did.
Vain
knew he did, because if he didn’t, what was the point of all
those dead people strung up in body bags at the hospital?

Her
handiwork, not exactly, but her demon toys. They loved to maim and destroy.
Demons
did as demons do, that’s what Vain
always said. The money and luxuries had been good, but none of it could comfort
her, not since Duncan betrayed her and handcuffed her to that damn radiator.

 
Worst of it was, Vain suspected all along, but
hadn’t stopped him. Hadn’t said anything. She let his pretty boy looks and
playful smile get the best of her.

Smash.

His pub
was as dull as they came. He rightfully avoided it after everything he’d done
to her, but now Vain tore the police tape down and stomped on in.
The place
was a pig sty. She held her head up
high and sniffed a long deep breath. The smell of blood lingered even after it
had been washed out of the wooden plank floor.

Duncan
had been here. Recently.

“Fan
out.” Vain removed her silver gloves and strolled around the bar. The police
officers that flanked her did as she ordered. Funny, how a woman could command
such demons, but it was part of her… gifts.

She
didn’t know what she was looking for, but she’d know when she found it. Always
follow your instincts. Vain learned her lesson by ignoring it before. She never
repeated the same mistake.

Behind
her the floor creaked and a shadow crept toward the bar. Who had decided to
join their little party?

Vain
reached for the bottle of whiskey with one hand while her other hovered just
over the handle of her dagger, secured at her hip. She poured a shot into two
glasses. “Want a drink or am I going to have to drink both myself?”

A crackle
of magic behind her reflected off the whisky bottle. It seemed she was going to
be outdone. Pity. Vain picked up one shot and threw it down her throat. Then in
one swift move, she pulled her dagger free and spun around to face her enemy.

Her
dagger was torn from her hand and spiraled across the room. The woman in front
of her smirked. She wore a leather trench coat and Vain could appreciate her
flair for style. Her red hair was short, tucked under a bandana and her skin
was splattered with a fine line of freckles. Well, if she didn’t look familiar.

“What’s
your relation to Jessica Blood?” Vain picked up the second shot and drank it
down. She had seen her photo enough in Duncan’s things to know exactly who
Jessica was, even if she never had the pleasure of meeting her face to face.

Not yet,
but time was coming soon. The Blood in front of her was
older
but fit. Beneath her loose shirt, she had all the right
curves. Plump in all the right places. Vain could use a woman like that.
Business was always booming for an older woman.

Older,
younger. Thinner,
fatter
. She had the
clientele
for each preference.

“You can
call me Gwen. They call me aunt.” Gwen sneered and then Vain saw the green mist
lingering behind her eyes.

Interesting,
seems someone got their hooks into a
Blood. They were falling like bowling pins these days. “So we work on the same
side? What is it you want with this place?”

“I work
for Lourdes. We’re not on the same side.” Gwen lowered her hands to her side.
“You reek of Vaughn and all that humanity has to offer.”

Vain
snorted and wished she had poured herself another drink. She might have been
tough, but she certainly wished to avoid any entanglement with Lourdes. No one
was stupid enough to piss the queen of the underworld off, except for maybe the
woman standing in front of her. “I turned my back on humanity a long time ago
and Vaughn, you don’t want to make him an enemy. He has
pull
with a lot of
high-levels
.”

“More
than the queen of the underworld herself?” Gwen sneered. “Please.”

“What do
you want? You didn’t kill me, yet, so you must want something.”

“An
alliance.”

That
shocked Vain more than anything than Gwen could’ve said. Interested, Vain
poured herself another drink with an arched eyebrow.

Gwen took
her silence as a cue to continue. “I know your story. I know your history with
Vaughn and with Duncan Jasper, the one who keeps Amanda safe. Lourdes wants
Amanda and you want Jasper. It seems like a
win-win
,
to me. If we join forces, our chances of success,” Gwen shrugged, “go up.”

A demon
wanted to work together? What were the
odds? Lourdes really must be itching to get her hands on Amanda. Vain’s finger
danced across the edge of her shot glass, and a harmonic tone sang from the wet
rim. “Vaughn wants Amanda, not Duncan. I’m the one with the vendetta.”

Gwen took
Vain’s hand and gingerly licked her fingers. Well, so she was willing to dance.
Fun. “You help me, you get Duncan. When you’re done with him, you come after me
for Amanda. We’ll see who is tougher. A possessed Blood, or you.”

Her words
were a dare, egging Vain on. She had to admit, Gwen spoke the truth. A
magically charged demon pushed the odds in their favor. Vain didn’t normally
work with others, but
in this case,
she
might make an exception.

Vain
pulled her hand
free
but did her best not
to jerk it away. She didn’t want to send the wrong message to a potential
tumble mate. “And how do we track them? Do you have means
with
your magic?”

Gwen’s
eyes sparkled. “Oh, I have the means. Lourdes has a secret weapon; well it’s
not so secret anymore. And she’s about to crack. About to rise up and take up
the sword in our favor. We simply follow her and offer….
assistance.
”

She
couldn’t mean….

Gwen
tilted her head with an unkind smile. “Jessica Blood is about to awaken once
more and she works for us.”

Vain
didn’t think she could miss this little party. She raised her shot glass in the
air, her free hand cupping the back of Gwen’s neck.
 
“To new friendships, now why don’t you come
here so we can seal this alliance with a kiss?”

“
Don’t
give up, Jess girl. Keep fighting. You can find a way. You always do.”

That
voice…. It couldn’t be, could it?

A bright
light drowned out his face, but a tuft of black hair managed to peek through.
Jessica couldn’t forget that voice, no matter how long it had been since she
heard it.

Jessica’s
dry and cracked lips parted. “Dad?”
Hoarse
,
her voice was barely a whisper.

A hand
reached beyond the spotlight and cradled Jessica’s charred cheek. His sleeves
were rolled up and on the inside of his forearm, a tattoo. “Find a way back,
Jessie. We gave everything for you girls.
Don’t
let it be for nothing
. Don’t.”

A wind
blew and Jacob Blood, if that’s who was there, went with it. The spotlight
blew
out like a candle in a winter breeze and
Jessica returned to the vapid darkness of the cavern.

Oh God,
Dad… Jessica wished she could hug him, one last time.

Asleep or
awake, Jessica didn’t know. Her body still burned with pain. Contorting in
agony on the floor of the cavern, rational thought left her as Jessica spotted
her entrails piled on the ground beside her, but somehow she still lived.
Somehow everything inside of her just kept regenerating, as if her wounds were
nothing.

It would’ve
been
handy,
if it didn’t hurt so damn
much.

A sound
from outside the
cave
caught Jessica’s
attention. She sat up with a groan and leaned her back against the cavern wall.
Breathing was a relief, as she tilted her head back, as if to gaze at the sun,
but there were just more stark cavern walls. The screaming and the crying
echoing from remote chambers of the underworld were common
place
now. Maybe it was
because
for days Jessica’s screams had joined the chorus.

“Oh,
you’re awake.”

Turning
her stiff neck created a quick stab of pain behind Jessica’s eye. The skulking
demon put a drinking cup made of stone on the ground beside her. “Drink and
she’ll know you’re ready to submit. It’ll end the pain.”

But it
would bring
suffering
of a different
nature, wouldn’t it?

Jessica
nodded her head and turned her eyes away from the beast that topside, she would
have easily killed. Never gave thought to them one way or another, had she? But
this one…just a lowly servant, well, there was something about him. Or maybe it
was just that Jessica was half way to stark raving mad. Maybe all those doctors
had been onto something.

“It
doesn’t have to be this bad, you know.” His shoulders rounded and the demon
turned with a shuffle toward the exit. Did he have a name? Did Lourdes even
bother to name her demons?

Jessica
leaned forward and picked up the cup, cradling it with her two palms. “Thanks,
Bernie.” Not his name, but it seemed to fit him. How bad was it that she was
naming demons as if they were pets?

The black
liquid sloshed inside the cup like sludge. It wasn’t an ordinary drink, Jessica
knew that. Would anything of her be left once she drank it? Would she forget
the plan, the will to fight at all?

If Amanda
somehow got her message, if she arrived at the church, then did it matter? With
Duncan’s help, Jessica would be captured and Amanda would cleanse her soul.
Jessica had no doubts about that at all.

This was
the only way, but the idea that she might lose herself…

No. It
wasn’t time yet. Lourdes wouldn’t buy it. Too easy.

Jessica
threw the cup at the wall like she had done time and time before. Drag a horse
to water, but couldn’t make him drink. She was way more stubborn than a horse.
Jessica Blood was a stinking mule when it came to stubbornness, Lourdes knew
that. It had to be convincing.

Had to
be.

Gagging,
her throat restricted. She grabbed her neck desperate for air. Seemed Lourdes
was out of new tricks and Jessica was going to suffocate one hundred more times
to satisfy the evil queen’s dark urges.

*****

Down on
all fours like a rat, Jessica’s cheek slammed into the stone floor. Large,
chunky hands pinned her down as Lourdes’s train glided across the floor.

“What did
you do to my parents?” Jessica had wanted to ask for nights, but now, with her
will slipping, it seemed the best time to ask.

Lourdes
snapped her fingers and the demons forced Jessica up to her feet. Her legs were
jittery; it had been so long since she had been able to stand on solid ground.
The demons held her upright as Lourdes’s delicate finger touched Jessica’s jaw.

“Knowledge
can be yours. For a price. Your soul.” Lourdes held out her hand and a moment
later, the stone jar was filled with black ooze. “Drink this, and after you
find Amanda, you’ll know.
 
As if the info
has been downloaded into your pretty little brain.”

It was a
fool’s bargain, but it was a bargain Jessica needed to take. Lourdes had to
believe Jessica was on her side, and this was the only way she could make that
happen. She had to drink the liquid with hopes of finding information about her
parents. In hopes of fooling Lourdes about what was really going on.

Lourdes
knew a Blood would never give in. Not easily. The torture, the refusal to
drink. had all led to this point in time. To this point, when Lourdes would
believe Jessica had finally cracked.

Had she?
Did the plan even make sense?

Jessica
took the stone jar. “You promise?”

Lourdes
grinned. “I may be many things, but a liar isn’t one of them.”

She sniffed
the contents of the jar and recoiled. It smelled like skunk, only somehow
worse, but Jessica drank. She took a tender
sip,
the liquid was slimy, slipping down her neck like a
vial
of mud. So gross, Jessica gagged and slowed the stream down
her throat, but Lourdes put her hand under the cup.

“No,”
Jessica’s voice gurgled and she whipped her head to avoid drinking. She
couldn’t do it. Couldn’t give in, no matter the cost. The
wrank
liquid wafted up her nose. Jessica held
her breath and clamped her jaw tight as a steel trap.

Lourdes’s
eyes widened in a flash. “On her knees. Open that jaw. I don’t care if it’s
broken when we’re done.”

Still,
Jessica struggled. Her knees slammed into the rocks and hands gripped her face.
She had never felt like such an object before as her head was pulled backward.
Dirty fingers that tasted like salt and worse were in her mouth, forcing her
lower jaw open.

Jessica
sobbed as the walls closed in. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t get free. She tried
to
wail
, tried to scream, but Lourdes
poured the vile concoction down her throat. It was thick, coating all the way
down into her belly like a seal and a promise.

Lourdes
dropped the cup. “Let her go.”

Slumping
to the floor, her mind was besieged with visions of screaming and flashes of
fire. A lake of torment. Ideas of revenge and torture flooded her mind; Jessica
couldn’t stop them. Her knees wobbled and when she thought to collapse, the
demons held her upright against the stone wall.

She would
do her
mistress's
bidding. Jessica would
find Amanda and bring her to the underworld. The very idea of it turned her
stomach. Didn’t know why, but it did.

Lourdes’s
nose was held high as she stepped off to the side and surveyed the ruin that
was once Jessica Blood. Her arm swept into the distance. “Retrieve what is
rightfully yours now. Bring Amanda to me.”

A river
of fire swept through the cavern and in the center,
a peninsula
of rock. Amidst the flame, a sword of fire waited, like
Excalibur, for the right person to come along and free it. But this was the
sword of evil, the enemy, and with this knowledge running like a river of
anguish in her mind, Jessica stood and approached the shining blade.

She
shouldn’t do it. Inside her heart struggled to fight, but she couldn’t stop.
She just couldn’t.

Her steps
wobbled side to side, but with outstretched arms, Jessica
treaded
through the fire. The flames rushed up
her boots and onto her leather pants, but she kept going. Stepping onto the
peninsula, the flames were put out by dust and debris. Jessica glanced back at
Lourdes, who only nodded with hunger in her wide eyes.

“Go on.
Become the commander of my legion. Take the sword and wield the power that
comes with it.”

Jessica
took a deep breath. This was part of the plan, right? This was how she was
going to defeat Amanda—no, wait, that was wrong. Jessica wanted to defeat
Lourdes, not Amanda.

Never—it
wasn’t about defeating her sister.

It was
about saving her. Please, let her remember in the end. Let her remember.

With a
deep breath, Jessica wrapped her hand around the hilt of the sword. It burned
and her flesh sizzled. Instinct drove her to release her hand, but instead
Jessica wrapped her other hand around it and they both smoldered. Smoke rose up
from the sword as flame and ash traveled up her skin and over her jacket.

Jessica
gave a scream of pain and power as the flaming sword came free from the rock.
She outstretched her arm toward Lourdes as the sword turned to ash and
disappeared deep inside of her. Her arm now burned hot like the sword had, but
when she put her arm by her side, the fire went out.

But
inside, Jessica felt it. That burning desire, her quest would not be denied.
Amanda Blood would be hers, one way or another.

Lourdes’s
look of desire morphed to pleasure as Jessica strolled over to her. Each of her
footsteps leaving ash and soot on the cavern floors. “I’m ready,” Jessica said,
and bent down low to accept her blessing.

Her hair
was pushed back by Lourdes, and the evil queen’s lips
singed
her forehead. “What a beautiful child you are. Go now, find
Amanda and bring her to me. Show her what happens to those that oppose me,
Jessica. Show everyone what I think of their little plans.”

Little
plans? Jessica didn’t have any plans. All she had was her mission and it would
be written out in blood.