Blood Warrior(30)

Dahlia squeezed her eyes shut and bit down on her lip as if she were keeping herself from crying out. I figured that it was her last act of defiance. She didn’t want to give me any satisfaction by showing that she was in pain.

I was all right with that. Just knowing that she would be gone for sure was enough for me. But, on the other hand, as I watched the UV light eat through her body, eroding her skin and flesh, I thought that I would have felt just a little bit more satisfied about shooting her than I did in the end.

She died. Her body reduced to a pile of ash on the bed of a hotel suite.

We left the hotel and my only thought was that I hoped I never saw New Orleans ever again.

***

We were home.

Three weeks had passed since the vampire line was eradicated. The governments were now trying to re-establish itself all over the world. The military was also rebuilding their forces, and this time they were equipping themselves to fight vampires.

I was happy to be back in our little compound. I missed everything about it, but mostly I missed how safe I felt inside. A few weeks beforehand, I had been certain that we were going to face our death and that I would never see the place again. Now that we were back, I was even more grateful for it than I had ever been before.

Drew and Gavin weren’t having any strange side effects from the Warrior Angel healing them, but Zander was another story. He acted like he was depressed and hid out in his room all the time. I knew that I would have to make a point to talk with him soon. I had a feeling he was hiding something from us.

“Chloe,” Drew strode into the gym, where I was on the treadmill, with a cell phone in his hand. “You are never going to guess who is on the phone!” he hissed.

“Who?” I slowed the treadmill down to a walk.

“It’s the freakin’ Secretary of Defense! They spoke with the board at Arcadia Falls and found out that it was us who discovered the secret of the bloodline and took out Korina. He wants to know if we will meet with him to discuss being a consultant on vampire affairs.

I wrinkled my nose. “Really? That is so weird.”

He nodded. “It’s true. Are you in?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, I’m in. Why not? I guess our biggest mission ever is going to be to train the world how to fight vampires, huh.”

Drew laughed and closed the door to the gym as he lifted the phone back to his ear.

I turned the treadmill back up and sped back into my happy thoughts of being home, of Drew and of everything I’d almost lost.





Look for The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #5 at the end of December 2014

Hint Hint – It will be Drew’s point of view instead of Chloe.





READ AN EXCERPT FROM SAVIOR





A FULL LEGNTH NOVEL BY JENNIFER MALONE WRIGHT





Sweltering heat emanated from the searing flames. Alex ignored his blistered skin and burnt clothes. He plunged both arms into the blazing orange inferno without a second thought for his own well-being. His hands frantically flailed until he found what he searched for. He pulled the charred remains up and hugged them to his chest before he gave a desperate glance toward the others.

Smoke curled into his mouth and nose and made it nearly impossible to breathe.

“Hurry, hurry. Get out now,” a gentle voice whispered into his ears. “You must go right now if you want to live.”

However, he couldn’t leave them behind.

“Go now,” the voice whispered more urgently.

Sparks flew when a giant log broke in half and fell from the ceiling. It crashed onto the floor less than two feet from where Alex stood. Flames engulfed the fallen wood and created yet another obstacle.

The voice tried again, crying out, “Hurry, Alex!”

Alex knew he needed to move if he wanted to live, but he paused for a moment to question whether he even wanted to bother. The flames grew while Alex stood motionless, undecided. Suddenly, a great push from behind thrust him forward toward a wall of fire.





***

Alex stirred in his mahogany coffin, one of the best money could buy. He felt the soft, white velvet lining rub against his cheek, but it didn't comfort him. He panted like a thirsty dog and writhed helplessly inside the narrow wooden box.

His eyes snapped open. First, he checked his hands for burns, but he found none. He groaned while he became more aware, and realized he'd had another nightmare.

He sighed, wondering if the recurring dreams were going to last forever. He reached up and unlatched the locks he’d installed for his own safety, or at least his peace of mind. He pushed open the lid and sat upright. His gaze wandered across the room while his mind tried to fight off the feeling of dread he had about the night ahead.

In the center of a large stone room that was buried deep beneath his house, his coffin rested on a massive stone slab with Egyptian hieroglyphic carvings around its edges. The carvings read, ‘Death is not but eternal life.’ The slab and coffin were the focus of the room, with the only other items being his slippers and a small table that held a candelabra and a box of wooden matches.