Grave Expectations - Jess Vandermire 4 Read online

  “What kind of price would a vampire exact?” Britt asked.

  “This one’s small, not very strong. I have the feeling a few cases of my stored blood might make it worth her while.”

  Damnation. He already didn’t like the sound of it. He didn’t even know the vampire, but if she was small and weak, he already hated sending her in. But Jess might have a point. No one would suspect her.

  “What do you think he’ll do to her if he learns she’s our spy?”

  “No telling.” That brought back the memory of seeing the vampires lined up in the hallway, and the group inside listening to a practiced, energetic, convincing voice.

  “I’d like to meet her before we do this,” Britt said. “If she’s going to be on the inside, I don’t want to give her away when I’m in the building. Given Fisk’s eagerness to see us tonight, I’ve got the feeling that he’s more than interested in forming some sort of alliance.”

  “Only with you,” Jess said.

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because he wouldn’t let me speak, remember?”

  A ripple of disquiet rumbled through Britt. “Do you think he’s using the ancient vampire scrolls?”

  “Probably not. As far as I know, Sampson is the only one who’s ever found anything like that.”

  “And, even if he did find scrolls, which is pretty damned unlikely, it didn’t feel like that kind of energy. Scroll words give off a sensation when they’re used. I would have recognized them.”

  “At least we have an idea how to proceed. I’d like to meet this vampire friend of yours as soon as you get the go-ahead.”

  “Good idea. I’ll contact her tomorrow night,” Jess said, checking her watch. “It’ll be sunup soon. There’s no sense tracking her down tonight.”

  Britt inhaled. The city air felt fresher than usual tonight. A breeze must be blowing in off the water, adding sweetness to the city’s usual exhaust odors. Without thinking, he reached out and took Jess’s hand, entwining her fingers with his. Normally, he didn’t want to risk his unusual ability on her, and he thought about pulling away. A trinity of vile words filled his brain. He wished he could just love her.

  As if reading his mind, she stopped walking and slammed both hands onto his chest, backing him up against the brick wall. Images of past encounters burst forth in the pleasure centers of his brain. Those places filled with erotic memories of the two of them.

  They were near an alley, in a part of the city that had few residents after hours. Virtually alone. Their favorite place.

  The temptation was almost unbearable.

  He wanted to slip around the corner with her and have his way with her. He swallowed hard. He needed to control thoughts like that.

  She wriggled against him and ran kisses along the edge of his jaw, while he concentrated as hard as he could at maintaining control. She knew how to drive him beyond endurance.

  She looked into his eyes and smiled. “Actually, I’m glad you have the same abilities as Fisk, my love. You’ll figure them out, and you’ll use them for the best reasons possible,” she said, remaining intimately close and mapping his body with her searching hands as she spoke.

  He barely registered the words—he could only think about what her hands were doing to him.

  Meanwhile, the sensation caused by her crushing those enticing breasts against him, forcing them to mound up from her leather bustier, drove him nearly beyond control.

  He was at her mercy and she continued to take advantage by making contact with every vulnerable part of him. Her hips lined up with his, and she moved ever so slightly against him.

  She could turn him to a hot, buttered, drooling fool in seconds flat.

  He closed his eyes and swallowed. “This reminds me of the first time we met,” he said. He’d have to invoke all his strength not to lose control and drag her home to that extra-wide bed.

  Problem was, he’d had control that first time. But since then, they’d become lovers. He knew every intimate inch of her and he wanted to remap her body right about now—with his tongue.

  Her lips smelled of peaches. His favorite lipstick. Had she been planning this attack on his resolve tonight?

  “You mean, when you thought I was a hooker?” she asked in a sexy, deep-throated way, while she slid her hands around to cup his buttocks and pull him closer. “I can be whoever you want me to be.”

  He closed his eyes for a second. “I thought you were beautiful, amazing, and the sexiest thing I’d ever seen that night.”

  She grinned against his mouth then kissed her way along his lips. “That’s nice.”

  Crap! He’d fallen deeper under her spell without even putting up a fight. And that was without her using her vampire wiles to bend him to her will. He could worship her body all night long and had done that on several occasions. God! He needed her.

  Right now, he wished she would use her mesmerizing abilities against him. He needed his fear of hurting her to come in and overrule his libido. “No, Jess. I … we … can’t—do this.”

  “Really?” she asked in a husky voice that grated over him like erotic sandpaper. “That’s strange, because your body says otherwise.” She leaned back for a second, winked at him, and unbuttoned the top snap of her bustier, giving him a better view. “You sure?”

  Luscious visuals turned into tantalizing curves that he ached to touch. But if he succumbed to her, he’d be lost. It was too risky.

  Suddenly, Jess stiffened. “Shhh.”

  “Easier said than done,” he grunted under his breath while trying to get his ragged breathing back in line.

  “We’re not alone,” she said, looking up at the tops of the buildings. “I think we might have made a couple of enemies inside. And, they’re getting closer.”

  “Piss-poor timing, but it saved me from doing something I might’ve regretted later,” he admitted reluctantly.

  She sighed. “Damnation, lover. You mean I was just about to get lucky? I’m going to kill those bastards for interrupting.”

  “Jess, maybe it’s a good thing they interrupted. I got carried away.”

  “No, my love. Never.”

  Two vampires dropped into the alley from one of the six-story buildings. The beasts were dressed in black Goth outfits and adorned with piercings and tattoos. Even though the Goth look was on its way out—or totally gone—there were always a few people who maintained the style. Little did they know they were helping vampires blend in on the streets after dark.

  Reluctantly, Britt pushed off the wall and, with Jess at his side, they rounded the corner, stepping farther into the alley. It was time to take out some vampires.

  JESS QUICKLY SNAPPED her bustier closed again and grabbed the stake from her holster inside her jacket. They moved into deeper cover, away from the prying eyes of humans.

  She allowed her teeth to grow. It’d been too long since she’d had an honest-to-God good fight with some bloodsucking vampires. Besides, she needed to regain the kick-ass vampire status she’d had before Britt had died. That experience had left her in so much anguish, she’d been practically useless.

  “Bitch, we meet again,” the irritated vampire from Fisk’s building said, spreading his shoulders and making himself appear to be bigger before her.

  Oldest trick in the book. She leaned forward and tipped her index finger back and forth, making a tsking noise. “Too bad for you. Now you won’t get to go back to Fisk tomorrow and get whatever the hell it was that he was going to do for you. No, you’ll be floating around the city in little particles of rotting soot.” She snapped her fingers in the air. “What was he going to do, by the way?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know? You’re a traitor to your own blood!”

  “Traitor, am I?” She managed a quick glance toward Britt. He’d taken a fighting stance with his specially designed stake in hand. He looked ready for this too. Just like old times.

  Then another vampire dropped behind them. Three vamps in total.

&
nbsp; “Let’s do this the old-fashioned way,” she said to Britt. In other words, no eliminating these vamps with a mere thought.

  She needed this battle. Maybe she was too dark for salvation after all, because this was the one thing that made her feel worthwhile.

  “Three against one, hunter,” the instigator said. “You can’t win.”

  Excitement burned through her desiccated veins while she took her own battle stance.

  “Jess, don’t forget you’re not invincible,” Britt said as he slashed out at the vampire attacking him.

  “Cover your own ass, Brittain. I’m very capable of looking after myself,” she growled. Just because he could wipe out vampires on a whim, she was still as powerful as ever, damn it. She’d show him.

  She met the charging vamp midair. He slashed out with his thick, black nails and missed, but yanked out a handful of her hair at the same time that she smashed her palm into his nose. She’d felt the crunch and barely noticed the yanked-out hair.

  She flipped over him and cracked his head against the metal dumpster on the way down. He’d need a moment to regenerate. She landed on her feet, and with one beckoning hand, urged the last vampire into the fray. His black eyes looked like obsidian marbles. There was no light inside them, nothing but anger and insatiable lust for blood. This guy obviously deserved to die.

  She could’ve ionized him to molecules, but instead, she punched him in the chin. All that did was make him angry. He dove for her again and she kicked him in the nether regions. That made him even angrier. She grinned.

  Meanwhile, Britt had his vampire running scared. He had chased the guy to the alley’s dead-end wall at the back. Maybe his vampire was smarter than most. He was trying to escape. He’d just jumped to scale the wall, when Britt hauled him back down, flipped him around, and slammed the stake into him. He vaporized instantly.

  While her attention had shifted just a touch too long on Britt, Jess’s second attacker grabbed her arms and held them behind her back. She shook her head. It’d be too easy to flip him over and …

  The first vampire suddenly jumped up … and another two vamps rounded the corner. It had been a trap all along. That’s why Britt had been led to the back of the alley.

  These new vampires wore gloves covered in silver. Their skin must be protected inside the gloves, but the outside of them connected with her flesh, and weakened her instantly. “Britt!” she screamed, just before one of the vampires drove his blade into her chest.

  She heard a gurgling sound, felt the burning, horrible pain, and wondered if she’d see her own body burst into molecules before she lost her life. She instantly searched for the man she loved. To see him one last time. Her damned pride. Her need to prove she was as good as Britt had been her undoing. Why couldn’t she have been satisfied with him returning to her?

  Britt’s agonized voice broke through her pain. “Jess, oh God, no! Jess!”

  She dropped to the filthy ground in the alley near the dumpster. Horrible scents erupted inside her olfactory cavities.

  Through blurred vision, she watched Britt battling the two vampires. Alone!

  Then everything went dark.

  Chapter Eight

  FATHER VANDERMIRE hated being virtually trapped in his own home.

  Vasilli, the overseer of the vampire in the basement, told him they’d start the vamp’s prayer regime after sunset.

  It was a regime they should have known nothing about. Regent racked his brain for an answer. How’d they know what he’d done for Jess?

  The vampire they’d brought in … his face had been covered in a full golden mask. The man must be someone well-known and affluent—he had to be.

  “I don’t know how you heard about my … abilities,” Regent said to Vasilli an hour before sunset. “Whatever you think you know, I’m not able to completely heal a vampire. I couldn’t even save my sister.”

  “That’s not true, Father,” Vasilli said. “Your sister fights for humanity, does she not?”

  Regent tipped his head and shrugged. “I only partially saved her soul—she battles her own dark demons every day. And the prayers must be repeated daily, or she regresses. She is still a vampire. I believe I was only able to partially help her because I love her.” There. That should make Vasilli understand. He didn’t even know the person in the basement. It was hard to save someone you didn’t know, especially when you couldn’t even see their face.

  At least, he hoped they wouldn’t show him the person’s face. If it was that big a secret, he didn’t want to know who it was.

  “What about the baby?” Vasilli asked.

  “Sephina?” Now Regent was really shocked. How long had the Vatican been watching him? “I did have some success, but only because she was so young and so pure to start with. I helped her, but I didn’t save her.”

  “But she is now human, is she not?”

  Regent felt perspiration at the nape of his neck. “I believe she is. I haven’t seen her since the transition. But her humanity has nothing to do with me.”

  “You are responsible, no?”

  Dear heaven, what could he say to that? He’d never give Britt away. Britt had saved Sephina, but he had no idea how he’d done it. There were too many unknowns to even consider mentioning his name.

  “No.”

  Vasilli sighed. “Priests should be honest,” he said, shaking his head.

  “I am honest. But some things are beyond my knowledge,” he said. “I have no idea how little Sephina became human.” There. That should cover what he wasn’t saying, and it wasn’t really a lie.

  “You will make prayers for …”

  Regent thought he might use a name, but Vasilli didn’t trip up.

  “… for guest,” he said. “Tomorrow morning, a supply of sustenance will be brought in. You have refrigeration system for this, yes?”

  “Yes. There’s a fridge in the basement and a small fridge in my office,” he said.

  Vasilli frowned. “No refrigeration system?” His arms extended. “Large?”

  Regent scowled. “It’s only one vampire, how much blood storage do you need?”

  “This client has large appetite. He must be fed regularly.”

  Regent’s spinal column seized. Holy heaven! What kind of a monster was being housed in this rectory? “Is this person a risk to my parishioners?”

  Vasilli looked away and chewed on his fingernail. “Not if properly fed.”

  Regent jumped to his feet. “Hold on, there! There’s more to healing a person than prayers alone. I need to know about this vampire’s physical issues. Blood work, etc.”

  Vasilli stopped chewing. “What do you need?”

  Regent considered his options—he didn’t have many. “Sampson Case. He’s my sister’s personal forensic vampirologist. He’s the only scientist who has ever discovered and mapped vampires’ VNA, and who is in the process of solving …” Regent almost mentioned the ancient vampire scrolls in Jess’s secret holding facility. He’d better watch his tongue.

  “Scientist who did what, exactly?” Vasilli leaned closer and narrowed his eyes. His broken dialect seemed to be improving at an amazing rate.

  Regent shuddered under the nearly emotionless unwavering attention. “He works for Jess, but helps the NYPD identify dead vampires, and helps to prepare them for safe burial.”

  He held his breath. Would Vasilli believe that was all? Would he be able to tell that Regent was holding back something?

  Vasilli sat silent for a moment. His gray impenetrable irises stared at Regent without blinking. The man had most of the characteristics of a disquieting reptile.

  Given the kind of technology they’d used on him, Regent hoped Vasilli couldn’t read his mind—there was no telling what they’d be able to manage for themselves.

  Added to everything else, it bothered Regent that Vasilli sat in Jess’s seat. He didn’t trust this man, and he felt guilty about that. Vasilli was a member of the church, after all. Regent should be more
grateful for regaining his youth. And, maybe he would be, if it hadn’t been done merely to help the voracious vampire in the basement.

  Learning of the vampire’s excessive appetites scared the heck out of him, and he hoped and prayed these people would let Sampson help him. Maybe Sampson could find a way to lessen the vampire’s hunger.

  He glanced down the hall. There were two soldiers at the front door and more at the back. The rectory had practically become a military installation. He couldn’t go anywhere without bumping into one of them. After what Vasilli had just told him, he understood why.

  “I know of Sampson Case,” Vasilli volunteered at last. “He may help you, but he may not meet client in person.”

  “But we’ll need blood samples and tissue.”

  “I will get … if you need,” Vasilli said.

  That surprised Regent. Vasilli would take the samples himself?

  “Mister Vasilli, Sampson has to be able to come here. He can’t help me long-distance.”

  Vasilli’s pupils turned to pinpoints, and for a second, Regent thought he’d gone too far with his request.

  Vasilli looked at that fingernail he enjoyed chewing and barely moved. Finally, he spoke. “Dr. Case may come. Maybe. If he agrees with our rules, he can see client, but he must pass test, first.”

  “Test? What kind of test?”

  “Not your concern,” Vasilli said.

  “He’ll agree,” Regent said, then crossed his fingers and hoped he spoke the truth. No way would he ask for Jess’s help. He’d never expose her to a mega-hungry vampire. She’d want to eliminate him, no matter how important the person proved to be. Especially if he was a risk to her brother.

  “JESS! JESS! WAKE up. Come back to me.”

  Britt’s voice sounded as if it came from the other end of a long tunnel. Her chest burned and pain throbbed through her in a way she’d never experienced before.

  She opened one eye and then closed it again. A huge freaking light hung over her. She slowly reached up a hand and shielded her eyes. “Turn off that damned light.”