Blood Warrior(21)

“This is either really lucky or just a big pain in our asses,” Drew whispered.

As if she had heard him, Dahlia’s back straightened and tilted her head to the side. We all crouched lower, waiting for her to spot us as she turned and scanned the general area we were hiding in.

After a moment, she shook her head as if she may have imagined something and carefully ascended the steps into the lobby of the hotel.

“Let’s go,” Luke whispered. “It’s too dangerous here right now.”

We followed along with Sarah and Anthony leading the way again. I didn’t pay attention to where we were going because I was too shocked to really care. Dude, Dahlia being here was a total game changer. Sure, I still wanted to find Korina, but killing Dahlia was really, really high on my to-do list.

Before I realized it, we had walked several blocks and were at a park that was situated along the river. The nasty brown Mississippi didn’t look quite so ugly at night. The moon provided a gentle glow that rested lightly upon the slowly moving waters.

We gathered close to the water and Anthony pointed at a docked river boat. It was the kind of vessel that I’d only seen in pictures and movies. The interior of the boat was lit up and I spotted a few slight movements from the inside.

“That river boat,” Anthony began, “belongs to Korina. It is one of her financial endeavors that she has acquired over the years.”

Luke squinted his eyes. “Financial endeavors?”

Anthony nodded. “We vampires also have need for currency, which means that we must have businesses and investments. Korina purchased this river boat for exactly those purposes. People were hired to run the business so that she did not need to do it. The manager does all the work and deposits the profits into an account for her every month.”

On closer inspection, I could see the words “Korina Korina” scrawled on the back. Yup, that was definitely her boat. “Do you think she’s there?” I wondered aloud.

“It is possible,” Anthony replied, also staring out over the waters. “Absolutely worth investigating.”

I adjusted my bow over my shoulder. “Well, let’s do it. We are running out of time.”

As a group we trekked down to the dock, creeping quietly over the wooden structure and hoping that none of the boards would creak beneath our feet.

Surprisingly, no one was guarding the river boat. I suppose that was the difference between Korina and the Vampire Council, she wasn’t worried about the humans, she was just living her life.

We had divided into teams of three as we boarded. I was with Drew and Luke. Anthony had been teamed with Gavin and Sarah. It was strange because I’d originally thought that we were going to have a problem between Anthony and Sarah, but they seemed to really be getting along good.

Drew, Luke and I rounded deck of the boat, glancing in the windows as we passed them. Near the other end of the vessel we finally found signs of life on the inside. I leaned up against one of the panels between the windows so that I could peek in.

Two vampires sat on a Victorian era couch, near a bar that ran the width of the interior. Both were men and each of them held a drink in their hand. They both had on slacks and white button up shirts. One of them had a blazer on over the shirt, but his tie was loose, like a business man who was relaxing after a hard day at the office.

I glanced up at Drew, who was looking in from the other side of the window. He pointed his gun toward the vampires and then held the forefinger of his free hand to his lips to signal that we proceed in silence.

We moved on, finding the entrance just around the corner. I closed my eyes, then opened them again and pushed open the swinging door as quietly as I possibly could.

Neither of the vampires noticed us enter, they were deep in conversation about which was better, the blood of human males or females.

Yeah, I wanted to vomit.

As luck would have it, when we entered, we came in behind them. As I carefully stepped toward them with Drew and Luke on either side of me, I tightened my grip on my gun. We made it to the back of the couch and that was when one of them finally sensed us.

“You smell that?” no jacket asked the other one.

The vamp with the jacket raised his nose to the air and sniffed. “Humans … and they are very…”

Before he could get another word in, I cut off his sentence by jumping up over the back of the couch and wrapping my arm around his neck in a headlock. Drew’s action was synchronized with mine. The barrels of both our guns were pressed against each of their heads.

“These bullets have rounds of UV light in them,” I hissed. “If you make a move, I am going to pump you full of it. Got it?”