Graves of Retribution Read online

  Praise for Lina Gardiner’s

  Jess Vandermire,

  Vampire Hunter series . . .

  “Reading a Lina Gardiner book is like riding an out-of-this-world roller coaster with your favorite people in the world.”

  —Joyce Lamb, USA Today bestselling author

  “Lina drops crumbs of information like Gretel dropping crumbs to find her way home; instead of home, though, we are led to the startling denouement so smoothly, we are left gasping.”

  —BittenbyBooks.com

  “Gardiner just crushed all the genre competition. . . . The best book I’ve read all year!”

  —Dark Angel Reviews on Grave Illusions

  “Beyond the Grave, the second book in Lina Gardiner’s Jess Vandermire, Vampire Hunter series, features all the elements that made Grave Illusions such a wonderful read—including great character development. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.”

  —Keri Arthur, NYT bestselling author

  “Gardiner takes everything positive about romance novels, mixes it with a little bit of adventure, and throws in an evil villain or two, resulting in a perfect petit four for sating a romantic craving. Just don’t be surprised if you are hungry for more 30 minutes later.”

  —More Than a Review on Grave New Day

  “I would highly recommend this latest edition of the Jess Vandermire, Vampire Hunter series to anyone who enjoys a good, detailed paranormal series and almost non-stop action.”

  —Keeper Bookshelf on Grave Expectations

  Books by Lina Gardiner

  Jess Vandermire, Vampire Hunter

  Grave Illusions

  Beyond the Grave

  Grave New Day

  Grave Expectations

  Graves of Wrath

  Silenced by the Grave

  Graves of Retribution

  Sons of Horus

  Black Moon Awakening

  Graves of Retribution

  Vampire Hunter, Book 7

  City of Bones trilogy, Book 3

  by

  Lina Gardiner

  ImaJinn Books

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events or locations is entirely coincidental.

  ImaJinn Books

  PO BOX 300921

  Memphis, TN 38130

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61194-971-1

  Print ISBN: 978-1-61194-981-0

  ImaJinn Books is an Imprint of BelleBooks, Inc.

  Copyright © 2019 by Lina Gardiner

  Published in the United States of America.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

  ImaJinn Books was founded by Linda Kichline.

  We at ImaJinn Books enjoy hearing from readers. Visit our websites

  ImaJinnBooks.com

  BelleBooks.com

  BellBridgeBooks.com

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Cover design: Debra Dixon

  Interior design: Hank Smith

  :Ergh:01:

  Dedication

  Special thanks to Betty Douglas, Lillian Waite, and Tammy Beyer, as well as the Fredericton Direct Charge Co-op, for all of your support over the years.

  Chapter One

  OBLIVIOUS TO THE iconic sights and architectural wonders of Paris at night—Jess Vandermire strode down the sidewalk ignoring the happy sounds of Parisians and tourists dining in cafés and dancing in clubs where music boomed and vibrated, barely a dull, hazy reminder of a life she could never have.

  The ache of loss was her shroud tonight as she continued through the city, until she was in the deepest, oldest section, devoid of tourists, devoid of humanity. It didn’t matter that it was summer, because her cold, dead flesh didn’t register air temperature or feel any discomfort. She was a damned vampire, and that fact had never been more painful than right now.

  Her brother didn’t say it, but she saw it in his eyes every time they were together—he thought she should be grieving the death of their new­found sister, Morana Longina, as he was. But how could she mourn a twin sister she’d never really accepted? She had rejected Morana from the first moment she’d set eyes upon her twin. A twin who, coin­cidentally, lived in Paris.

  And yet if she truly searched deep enough, there had been vague mem­ories, sounds of another child’s crying in her faraway human mem­ories, memories she’d pushed to the furthest recesses of her consciousness because she hadn’t dared believe they were true. And she’d never admitted to anyone, not even herself—until now. Only it was too late.

  Since Morana’s death, Jess had wanted to go home to New York, to her vampire hunting team, the only place where her existence felt almost normal. There was no way she’d admit that to anyone because she was the tough vampire cop who’d promised to stay in France as long as her brother, Father Regent Vandermire was still working for the Church in Paris. He needed her, and he needed her protection.

  Street people littered the sidewalk ahead, so she decided to move to the rooftops. From there, she could travel with impunity. Jumping from one to another gave her a sense of freedom.

  Neither Regent nor Britt liked her out alone on the streets, but she was a damned vampire who needed solitude, at least once in a while.

  It was when she reached the next rooftop, she noticed the sky had gone from inky black to ever-lightening hues of gray, until in the east, a purple haze was bleeding upward into the night sky. Dawn was ap­proaching fast.

  Time had gotten away from her, and she needed to get home. She made a run at a door, the safest exit from the roof. Only, when she got close to the doorknob, she couldn’t bear to touch it, let alone break down the door. There was some kind of electric force stopping her. And like a powerfully electrified field, it felt like it would knock her backward if she got too close.

  With sunrise imminent, she was trapped on the roof of this build­ing—not the place any vampire wanted to be. Death would come shortly after the first hot rays of the sun, and she couldn’t do a damned thing about it.

  Then again, maybe she could. In the race to save herself, she’d almost forgotten about her cell phone. She wrenched it out of her pocket and opened it . . . only to realize her phone had no signal.

  Great. Why didn’t her damn cell phone work? There should be unending reception in the center of the city.

  She took a quick glance at the sky, and her desiccated heart sank. Shafts of purple brightened to yellow near the distant horizon.

  There wasn’t much time left now.

  She strode to the edge of the roof and looked down at the street. Oblivious humans walked by briskly on their way to work.

  Apparently, she didn’t have much option, other than to jump to the street in order to escape the mess she’d gotten herself into. It’d be a shame to show the good citizens of France that vampires actually existed, though. She ran her hands through her hair and cursed.

  A thin ray of sunlight arrowed across the roof until it skimmed her arm. “Holy crap, that smarts,” she said, trying to ignore the fact that her skin had started to smoke. Enough was enough. She had no choice but to jump.

  Besides, if only a few humans saw her, she might be able to persuade them to forget.

&
nbsp; She let out a long, low breath. She’d always assumed her death would be at the hands of a vampire. At least that would have been preferable to burning alive at sunrise.

  Okay, she had to jump, and only hope nobody saw her.

  She stepped back as close to that painful door as she could, then ran at the edge, expecting to leap off and land on her feet below. Instead, she slammed into another invisible wall that blasted her backward with even more force. Her body skidded across the rough surface causing the skin on her elbows to peel back. She crumpled into a heap. What the hell? Was this to stop humans, too? Or was it just for vampires? And who in Paris had the ability to create such a thing?

  She was screwed. She couldn’t get off this roof, and no one would ever realize what had happened to her.

  With no other choice, she got up and tried again. She ran at the south side of the roof. She got the same result, only this time, she tumbled too close to the door. Her body vibrated violently, and she felt as if she’d been burned with acid. She barely managed to crawl back to the center where she pressed her face into the gravel.

  She was definitely going to die.

  She’d never get a chance to say goodbye to Britt, to tell him how much she loved him. To thank her brother Regent for giving up his life to her vampirism. To give Sampson, her forensic vampirologist, one last goodbye and thank him for all his good work.

  Before pain shredded her sanity, she heard the sizzle of her exposed flesh and saw blisters breaking out on her arms.

  On more than one occasion, she’d been able to stay alive in the sun, but only if she’d prepared herself with extra prayers—several nights’ worth of extra prayers. Unfortunately, lately, she’d been too busy to worry about her prayer regime—her mistake, one she’d pay for with her life.

  Now, sprawled on this unholy roof, she screamed herself hoarse while dawn arrived with a vengeance.

  Her eyes seared, and she writhed in pain until everything went black. She floated in nothingness for moments until it all faded away.

  JESS’S EYES FLUTTERED open.

  Shouldn’t she be dead? The last thing she remembered was being trapped on the roof, her body literally on fire.

  Still unable to move anything but her eyes, she saw that she was in a dark room with a muted light that might be a candle burning in the corner. And in that candlelight, a person leaned against a wall, watching her.

  Crap. She’d survived the sun only to be staked while coming out of stasis. She braced for the pain.

  “Good evening, Jess Vandermire,” a deep, familiar voice said. “How are you feeling after your ordeal?”

  Normally she’d have been able to see who watched her in the dark. But her eyes must still be healing, because her vision was less than acute at this moment.

  “Vlad?” she asked. Was it the vampire she’d met through Captain Veronique LaFontaine of the Paris Vampire Hunting team? Her para­lyzed muscles were letting go, and she managed to partially sit up. “Is that you?”

  “The one and only,” he said in a voice that sounded more tense than usual. “I’m not sure you’ll remember, but when I found you on that roof, you were about to become a crispy critter.”

  “No, I don’t remember much after everything went black. Before that, I remember every excruciating second. How’d you manage to get off the roof, because I certainly couldn’t.” She glanced around the room again. She was in a bedroom with no windows and four single beds. “What kind of place is this?”

  “I keep these beds for friends in case they’re unable to return to safety before the sun rises. I have several homes situated throughout the city, and luckily, this one is fairly close to the roof where I found you.”

  “That doesn’t explain how you were able to get off the roof after you . . .”

  One dark eyebrow rose, and he said, “After I saved you?”

  She wouldn’t go that far. For all she knew, he’d caused her to be trapped in the first place. Now that her legs had released from stasis, she stood and stretched her muscles.

  Vlad was dressed in a suit, and although she couldn’t see it clearly, his tie had a tiny crest in the center. His family crest, no doubt. The one she’d seen in his secret meeting room in the basement of his home.

  He opened the door and waited for her to exit first. Her hands fisted as she crossed into a lush room that must have been perfect for parties in its heyday.

  “This is a huge old mansion.”

  “It’s one of my family holdings,” he said. “We’ve been in this city for centuries.”

  She eyed him again. “There are more of you in your family?”

  A guarded expression crossed his face. “I’m the only one left, ob­viously.”

  She recognized his loss. She still had her brother, but then, she was a much younger vampire.

  “If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

  He lifted his gaze to the magnificent ceiling and sighed. “Old enough to know my way around the traps in this city.”

  “You weren’t the one who put that trap there, then?” she asked.

  His expression shifted to shock. No telling if he was putting it on, or if it was a real reaction to her question. “Certainly not,” he said.

  “Who did then?”

  “That would be the billion-dollar question,” he said. “And there are many vampires out there who’d pay to find the answer.”

  “You say there are more of these kind of traps in the city? Traps specifically laid for vampires?”

  He nodded, his mouth thin.

  “Why?”

  “To either catch or kill vampires, of course.”

  She’d had a similar, but much less deadly, experience in the Louvre. She’d gone into a room where she’d been mesmerized and would have stayed indefinitely if she hadn’t been found by Regent and lured back out.

  Now that she knew about the traps, the strange room in the Louvre started to make more sense. “It seems to me you need to find out who’s putting these traps in place,” she said.

  He laughed cynically. “Do you think we haven’t tried? After cen­tur­ies of searching for the builder, many of us have given up. These hazards are a fact of our existence.”

  “I thought vampires in France had an understanding with the French government. If your elders put the traps in place, shouldn’t they have to divulge such information?”

  He met her gaze. “Since you’re a cop from New York, I’m pretty sure you know you can’t believe everything you’re told.”

  The fact that her cell phone buzzed on her hip surprised her. Now she had a signal. Why hadn’t it worked before? “Hello,” she said more curtly than she meant to.

  “Oh, Jess! Thank God,” Britt said with a shaky breath. “What happened to you? Why didn’t you come home before sunrise?”

  “You won’t be happy to hear this, but last night I was caught in some sort of vampire trap,” she said. “Veronique’s friend Vlad managed to save me before I was burnt to a crisp. I’m in one of his homes in the city.”

  “What is the address?” Britt asked quickly.

  “I’m not really sure.” She asked Vlad, then repeated it over the phone.

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” He hung up before she could tell him not to bother.

  Damn. Now she had to wait with Vlad in his old mansion. Worse, she’d have to make small talk.

  She put the cell phone back. “I hope you don’t mind if I’m here for a few minutes more.”

  “Not at all,” Vlad said, crossing the massive room. She followed him to a hallway leading to the front of the house.

  He paused near the door and clinically looked her up and down. “I suggest you take my overcoat before you leave.”

  “Why?”

  “Your clothes have been burne
d, and you’re showing more flesh than is fashionable, even in France.”

  She glanced down. One breast had been partially exposed, and most of her left hip and buttock were left bare.

  She strategically covered her breast with her hand. “I didn’t realize how far gone I was.” The damage to her leather outfit had been exten­sive. Hell, she had to say it. “I’m grateful that you rescued me. Thank you.”

  Her friend Veronique trusted Vlad implicitly, but Jess still had questions about him. Last month, she’d overheard him in a paint factory making plans against another vampire group. There was just too much about him that she didn’t know. She couldn’t trust him, even now. Not until she knew more about his motives.

  She had to admit he had one point in his favor, though—he’d just saved her life.

  His head tilted a fraction toward her in acknowledgement. “We vampires have to stick together. This city is dangerous, especially to foreigners who don’t know what they’re getting into.”

  He opened a nearby closet and pulled out a black dress coat and handed it to her. When she put it on, it covered her, right down to her ankles.

  Moments later, someone banged on the door and she jumped. Not cool for a tough vampire. God, she was on edge. Thankfully, she was now completely covered. She had a feeling Britt wouldn’t take it well to find her half-naked with another man. It made her shudder to think what she must have looked like before she’d healed in stasis. Too bad her clothes couldn’t heal themselves, too.

  “That’ll be your boyfriend, I assume,” Vlad said in a wry tone. As if he found Britt to be an annoyance.

  “Most definitely. He probably broke the sound barrier getting here,” she said, making sure Vlad knew who her real hero was.

  While Vlad opened the door, Jess cinched the overcoat’s belt tighter. She didn’t want Britt getting any ideas.

  “Doll!” he said, pulling her into his arms. “What happened?” After she gave him a brief overview of her near-fatal mistake, he asked, “What in Hades were you thinking? Why were you on that roof without me to start with? I thought we promised to stick together.”