The Blood Diamond, page 5
part #1 of The Hunters Series
“Interrupt me one more time and I’ll rip out your tongue,” the vampire hissed, venom clear in her tone. Seriously, why was I still goading her on? I guess I was just pissed in that moment; pissed that Nerissa was a newborn, pissed that Henri’s actions would land him in jail very soon.
Gritting my teeth, I took a step back to distance myself from the brunette vampire. Her black eyes were twisted with fury. Great. At this rate, she’d keep her threat and kill me. Or she could let Nerissa do the job instead.
The weapons stowed in my pockets reassured me. I could still escape with my soul intact. At least I was armed now…
“Who are you?” the brunette demanded. “How did you even get in here?”
I shrugged, glancing back to look at Nerissa. She was slowly coming to. Soon, she’d be craving blood.
Human blood.
Great…
My attention shifted back to Bony Ass. God, that nickname fit her too well. I laughed aloud. “My name’s Antoinette Drake. What about you? Or can I still call you ‘Bony Ass’?”
The answer was apparently no.
The vamp surged forward and tackled me, throwing me off balance. My back crashed against the tile hard enough to break the cement. Thank God no bones broke inside of me. Instead of focusing on the pain, I kept my attention on the bloodsucker, whose nails dug into my wrists as she struggled to pin me down. Limbs flailed, but none of my kicks threw her off.
Bony Ass suddenly released me, just to slam me hard against the neighboring wall. Chains rattled, and the brunette vamp ceased her movements.
I couldn’t afford to look at her, but I felt new power wash over me. Nerissa had fully awakened.
Not good!
The vamp holding me gave a sickening laugh. “So, you said your name was Antoinette Drake?” Her eyes widened slightly. “You’re the hunter who—”
A loud moan cut her off. My eyes quickly shifted to Nerissa. She was crying out, begging for…food? She looked starved just hanging there.
Bony Ass didn’t look at her fellow vampire; she glared into me, most likely trying to compel me. “You’re that hunter! The one who—”
“Melissa, let her go.”
My head slammed against the bricks of the wall. Red spots danced in my vision, and I rapidly tried to blink them away.
The new voice was a familiar one.
Henri.
He was here.
Nerissa’s cries ceased instantly, and the vampire who’d been trying to pummel me to death—Melissa, I guess was her name—released me without any hesitation at all.
My back slid down the wall and I collapsed, out of breath, my strength spent. If any of them had attacked me in that moment, my life would be over. No joke. I could barely even move as Henri stepped further into the room. Dread washed over me, and Nerissa let out an animalistic whine.
Henri’s expression hardened.
“Henri,” Melissa began, her voice tinted with concern. Concern for who, though? That was the question.
The older vampire turned toward Melissa, instantly quieting her. He shook his head. “I thought I told you and the others not to harm Antoinette Drake.”
“Henri,” she tried again, but she quickly shut her mouth once more.
Henri made a satisfied noise. “I was clear, wasn’t I? Melissa?” His dark eyes raked over her. “If you hurt her—”
Melissa grunted impatiently. “W-whatever. Henri, she—” The vamp pointed a long-nailed digit in my direction. “She insulted me. S-she—”
“I don’t care what she did or said. You knew my command. As your sire, I should step in and punish you for this.” He didn’t seem too invested in his threat. Henri held Nerissa as his first priority. That was clear enough.
As Henri seemed to inspect the newborn vampire, I inspected my own new injuries. Nothing too serious, but my fingers came back with blood after I’d touched the back of my head. With the impact I’d sustained, I could’ve died.
Swallowing tightly, I attempted to rid my fingers of the blood, but it was no use. Nerissa was staring at me intently, red eyes glistening with newfound hunger and interest.
Oh, no…
The newborn jerked against the chains, motivated solely by the distinct smell of fresh blood. I groaned inwardly.
Henri didn’t appear concerned by the new vampire. Effortlessly, he bit into his wrist as he had done before, and offered it to Nerissa. Seemingly hypnotized by the new tantalizing scent, Nerissa clamped down on her sire’s pale wrist, dripping with black blood.
This was all new to me. I’d never seen a newborn being fed their own sire’s blood, but it made some sense at least.
Nerissa was panting when Henri finally pulled away from her, eyes clearly unreadable.
Wiping my hand on the floor, I sent a glare at Melissa, who was looking positively bored with the scene before her. She rolled her eyes at Henri. “You’re too soft sometimes, Henri. It makes you look weak.” She glanced at me momentarily. “And to show that in front of a hunter? Idiotic, I’d say.”
Henri said nothing. He was ignoring Melissa completely, which I appreciated. That bitch had tried to kill me, so enough was enough. Still…
Sighing, I looked up to find Henri hovering over me. He was suddenly there, no warning. No noise had told me of his close proximity, and my resolve shook slightly. There was an emotion present in his eyes that I couldn’t seem to decode.
The vampire gave me a small smirk. “Sorry about Melissa. She knew you were here, but she didn’t know you were a hunter.” He glanced at the vampire in question. “She has a special hatred for vampire hunters.”
Great, now you tell me…
Biting my lip, I hung my head and dropped my gaze. Without my cross, I was still vulnerable to a vampire’s advances. Taking a deep breath, I focused on Nerissa. “I need to tell the Order about Nerissa, Henri. I don’t think—”
“That’s fine,” Henri stated calmly. “I’ll have one of my Shadows deliver the information to the Archives, and—”
My ire rose steadily. “Henri, did you forget that you turned her against her will?! What if her parents—”
“The Order will handle it, I’m sure,” Henri pressed firmly, with a knowing smile. “It’s one of their jobs, isn’t it?”
My jaw clenched. “She’ll be considered a rogue if you keep it a secret. Nerissa will be treated as a missing person until then.” Damn it all. I sat up straighter. “You can’t keep this crime hidden, Henri. I won’t let you. I’ll make sure you—” My voice caught in my throat when Henri’s smile vanished at once.
Brow nastily furrowed, Henri crouched to my level. Swiftly, he captured my hand and yanked me none-too-gently to my unstable feet. Soon, he was pulling me toward him.
Naturally, I protested.
I pulled away—or tried to—but it wasn’t enough. The dark-haired vampire wrapped his long, lean arms around me and rested my head against his chest, exposing my throat in the process. Gradually panicking, I kept up the struggles.
“You’re hurt, aren’t you?”
Biting my lip hard, I averted my gaze. An exasperated sigh left the vampire. “Antoinette? Did Melissa hurt you?” His voice was low, smooth, and insanely calming.
Wait a damn second…Henri Sinclair, the Henri Sinclair, was asking me if I was hurt?
Hell must’ve been freezing over.
“I’m fine,” I muttered automatically, my voice only a note above a whisper.
Henri’s frown deepened, sensing my obvious unease, and tilted my face so I had to look him in the eye. “Don’t lie to me,” he murmured.
“I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.”
Swallowing, I gave up: “Why do you care, anyway?”
Henri didn’t respond to that, yet his frown remained. The strange look in his eyes almost scared me. I just couldn’t recognize the emotion buried within their depths.
What could be going on in his head? Did I even want to know?
Probably not.
Someone cleared their throat loudly, and it was Melissa. “How can you be so close to that human? She’s a hunter, Henri. Her sole purpose in life is to eradicate us from the face of the earth.” She growled in my direction. “The way you treat her…it’s almost as if you care for her.”
Henri laughed then, but the sound was no longer melodious or smooth. It was cold and drained of all emotion. He gave Melissa a lazy smile. “Don’t jump to such conclusions. I have my reasons, one of them being out of pity.” He released me then, and I backed up until my back hit a wall.
Henri’s focus on Melissa now, he continued. “Speaking of pity, I turned you because of that one human emotion. So, I wouldn’t consider that a weakness, or even turning soft.” His dark eyes narrowed. “If anything, you should be grateful, Melissa. Obedient, too.”
Slowly, Henri refocused on me. “Now, Ms. Drake. Don’t you think you should get home to your sister?” His smile returned “I’m sure she’s worried about you.”
I lifted my shoulders. He was right, of course. How could I deny that?
“I can give you a ride in my limo if you’re too exhausted to walk back to your apartment alone.”
Warning signs went off instantly, but I pushed them back to answer the vampire. I didn’t look into his black eyes again, but I still gained confidence. “I’m still telling my superiors about this place.”
Henri said nothing; he just took my hand and led me to his limo, past everyone in the whole club. True, I hadn’t accepted his offer, but I hadn’t exactly said no either.
Damn.
Besides, I was too tired to protest against his strange new courtesy as it was.
To the bouncer on the way out, Henri said: “You’re in charge until I get back.” The vampire nodded his large head, then glanced my way in simple curiosity. Henri’s face didn’t change as I climbed into a sleek, black limousine, the vampire entering right behind me. The driver started to pull away from the curb.
The ride was quick and quiet, and the vehicle soon came to a gradual stop.
“Antoinette?”
I turned my head to look over at the vampire wrapped in shadows beside me. “Yes?”
“Have a good night’s sleep.”
Wait, we were already at the complex? I struggled to see through the thickly tinted windows, but it was all true. How did Henri know? I swallowed. “Henri…how did you know where I live?”
Henri merely smiled. His fangs flashed slightly in the bit of moonlight that escaped into the limo.
Signaling the end of my trip, I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the slim car door. As soon as my feet hit the sidewalk, the limo pulled away from the curb smoothly, and I struggled to move forward. I felt Henri’s eyes on me as the vehicle traveled around a corner and went out of sight.
The front desk of the cramped lobby was deserted when I entered the quiet, sleeping complex. It was after midnight, I told myself. I had to see Liz, and make sure she was still all right.
Ethan had the door to my apartment open for me as soon as I entered the hallway on the second floor. He smiled at me as I approached quietly, sympathy and relief present in his icy blue eyes. “You made it back,” he breathed.
I gave a brief nod in response. We said our good nights, and I closed and locked the door of my apartment. As I trudged to my bedroom, I only barely acknowledged my sister lying in the bed across from mine, where she always was when I came home late. Smiling in relief, I realized just how tired I was. Tonight’s mission had been a doozy, plain and simple. I couldn’t deny that it had drained me nearly completely.
Liz was fast asleep as my back hit the mattress. It made me sigh, to know that she was alive. That we both were. Lifting the covers over me, I sank into oblivion, snuggled into the warmth and security of sheets, and prepared myself for the inevitable nightmares of the past to come over me.
Chapter 5
Visiting Hours
The front door was suddenly wrenched open off of its hinges and thrown out into the dim twilight that had fallen upon the front yard of my childhood home in the quiet residential area of Ridgefield, New Jersey.
The vampire walked in casually, as if he were in absolutely no hurry whatsoever.
He probably wasn’t.
That monster appeared exactly how I remembered him from built-in memory. He obviously didn’t mind exposing his long, sharp fangs and coal-black eyes to the open public. Odd how most vampires kept themselves well fed when they were about to kill someone.
The vampire looked around the house, peeking through the living room, and quickly found my mom and sister stationed in our quaint kitchen. They had been preoccupied carving a Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween. They hadn’t heard anyone come in, but I had. I had seen him enter the home. I tried to scream in alarm, but the cry for help was unfortunately caught in my throat as sheer shock and fear fell upon me.
There’s a vampire in the house!
Of course, I hadn’t known what he was back then, but I sure as hell knew now.
When my mom finally glanced up from my sister’s beaming face, she saw the vampire and screamed at the top of her lungs. The sound rang in my ears at glass-shattering levels.
The vampire, completely unfazed by Mom’s immediate reaction, reached out and took her head in his pale hands. She jerked and struggled, but he held on firmly. Her fight was futile as his grip only tightened. The vampire then twisted her head in a sharp, ugly angle. I heard the sickening snap, and whimpered helplessly in fear. Mom fell to the floor, unmoving.
Dead.
I swallowed hard.
Her young body frozen, Liz cried out as soon as she’d found her voice. “Mommy!”
I momentarily focused on my sister, then made a beeline for her as swiftly as I could. The vampire watched me silently with mild interest flickering there in his cold, dark eyes. Then he turned his full attention to Mom’s body, which was sprawled out on the tile floor of the kitchen. Blood leaked from her mouth, and her eyes were wide and unfocused. I took the distraction to reach my sister, adrenaline driving me the entire distance between us.
I still wasn’t fast enough.
A fanged smile greeted me before I was tackled and knocked off balance by ice-cold fingers. The vampire gripped me tightly by the neck before I could reach my defenseless sister. Naturally, I struggled, but he just squeezed harder, and a choked yelp escaped my chapped, trembling lips.
“Daddy!” I managed to cry out.
As if on cue, my dad pushed through the broken doorway, a sleek metal crossbow in his slightly shaking grip. He took one delayed look at the vampire holding me, and his eyes widened in great horror. “You,” he whispered, his face going pallid almost instantly.
“Yes, me,” the vampire replied with a sinister grin, one that revealed his pearly white fangs. “You knew I was coming, didn’t you?”
“Let go of her, now,” Dad demanded, his voice strained as he attempted to keep calm.
I yelped in pain as the vampire squeezed my throat harder, cutting off my next scream.
I couldn’t breathe.
A dark figure appeared from behind Dad, and pushed him to the ground with ease.
“No! Daddy! Hel—” I screamed, tears forming at the base of my eyes. The vampire that held me chuckled and gently pushed the hair from my shoulder, exposing my throat for easy access.
My vision was quickly darkening.
I could pass out…
“No!” Dad yelled, struggling with all his might to throw off the supernatural strength of the other vampire, but it wasn’t enough.
Every time, it was the same.
The same struggle to breathe, to watch Dad, to feel real, genuine terror.
I felt sharp teeth brush against my skin. The vampire sank his fangs into the flesh of my throat, and I felt nothing but pain now. It was all I could focus on; it was what kept me conscious, if just barely. Darkness threatened to take over again, and I was falling…dying.
Suddenly…the pain lessened a bit.
The vampire who’d bitten me was gone.
Disappeared without a trace.
The pain returned, and it spread rapidly to the rest of my body. I opened my eyes cautiously to the foggy world around me. Glancing upward, I could make out a dark figure towering over my small form. I couldn’t make out the face, but they seemed kind of familiar now that I thought about it.
Then, just like that, they were gone, too.
I shook my head and got to my shaky knees. I was surprised I could even move at all. My limbs hurt like I’d just run a whole marathon, and my throat throbbed in perfect time with my pounding pulse. I somehow made my legs move to where my dad lay. He was on the floor where I’d last seen him. His throat and chest were covered in blood. Daring for a closer look, I deduced that a vampire had savagely torn his throat out.
Terrified, my eyes squeezed shut and refused to open. The sight of the unnecessary amount of blood and carnage caused my insides to flip and churn with unease. Tears filled my eyes, and I fell to my knees in front of his unmoving body. Already becoming numb from the initial attack, I desperately wanted to find my sister. I had to find her.
Eyes cracked an inch, I found Liz crouching in a corner near the TV, her eyes wide and unblinking.
Terrified.
“Liz?”
“T-Toni?”
“Are you okay?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
I was thankful for that. Truly.
I looked around again, seeming to take in my surroundings. They were lightening—changing—I realized with startling clarity. The dream—no, the memory—was starting to waver. Was I actually waking up? Wait, no…
Not yet…
“Toni?”
My eyes traveled back to Liz, but the voice hadn’t belonged to her.
I wasn’t done here…
“Did you hear that?” I asked her, but she never responded. The voice sounded distant, and the imagery shuddered gain, the details of the nightmare starting to crackle like TV static.
Wait…
“Toni.”
Mom…Dad…
That wasn’t Liz’s voice at all…
