Page 40 of A Hunter Turned
Taking a quick glance at Kane to make sure he was okay, Morgan leaped to her feet and had another blade at the rogue’s throat in a heartbeat. “Where is she?” she demanded as she snatched the gun from his unresponsive hand.
The vampire’s eyes bulged in their sockets, his mouth moving like a beached fish as blood gurgled over his lips. Snapping her head toward Jourdain, she reminded the witch, “We need him to talk.”
“As do I, Hunter.”
Jourdain moved in, getting right in the rogue vampire’s face to snarl, “You will tell me where Evangeline is, vampire or I will let you drown in your own blood.”
“Who the fuck is Evangeline?” Kane yelled. “We need him to tell us where to find Jamie.”
Ignoring Kane’s outburst, Jourdain seemed to tighten whatever noose of power he had on the man, the vampire’s eyes rolling back in his head as more blood was expelled on a choked cough. “Are you going to talk?”
The nod was immediate, and the vampire’s head rolled forward with relief as he took a gasping breath.
“We need to work on your communication skills, my man,” Kane complained, only to be ignored.
Jourdain gripped the vampire's chin. “Speak.”
The bulldog’s mouth opened, but before he could disclose what they were waiting to hear, he screamed, blood streaming from his eyes, leaking from his ears, and rushing out of his open mouth.
“Stop!” Morgan screamed at Jourdain, trying to push the witch away. “He needs to talk. You’re killing him!”
Jourdain stumbled back, a look of bemusement on his face as he met Morgan’s eyes. “It’s not me,” he breathed, looking out into the darkness of the trees.
“You need to stop it. Do something!”
But it was too late. The vampire was dead and so was their best shot at finding Jamie. Glancing up at a sky that wouldn’t remain dark for much longer, Morgan prayed that Travis and the wolves were having better luck.
∞∞∞
Archer’s team wasn’t having any luck. There was just too much ground to cover, and having had to leave enough senior pack members in the bayou to protect their vulnerable in case of attack, not enough of them to fully blanket the area.
The call he’d just received from Morgan only added to his agitation. The vampire they had intended to question was dead thanks to an unforeseen complication of an unknown witch. They had, luckily, been able to get into the vampire’s phone and send off a text that Kane was in custody and while the ploy might buy them a little more time, it didn’t get them any closer to finding Jamie.
A howl split the night only to be cut off abruptly by the crack of a gunshot. Archer bolted for the sound. His feet pounded over the terrain, crypts, and crumbling mausoleums becoming a blur of blacks and grays. More howls answered the first as the team in this area converged.
Vaulting over a low wrought iron fence, Archer spotted one of his males lying prone on the ground. Blood that looked black under the night sky, was a bloom on the male’s lighter colored shirt. Archer snarled, dropping to his knees and quickly reaching for a pulse as more of his pack arrived and joined him on the damp ground. Someone pressed a shirt to the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Marcel was a good male, a good soldier, with a mate, and two sons waiting at home for him and Archer held his breath as his fingers searched for a sign of life. Only expelling a rush of air as he felt the pulse.
He was alive. Catching the eyes of several of his packmates, he ordered, “Get the healer here. Now.”
Bending close to the male’s ears, Archer snarled, “You will survive this, Marcel. That’s an order from your alpha.”
A surprisingly tight grip clapped onto Archer’s wrist as Marcel opened his eyes. “Scarred one,” was whispered before the hand holding Archer moved. “That way… Go.”
With a nod and a growled, “He will die for this, Marcel,” Archer took off in the direction his soldier had indicated. The vengeance inside him roared as he picked up the scent, the lust for the kill nearly sending him into a full shift.
He tracked the vampire to a decrepit mausoleum the bastard seemed to be guarding. Jamie would be inside, he knew it, his hunt was over and revenge was finally his for the taking. Leaping into the air, he tackled the man, a gunshot going off and missing its target as they both landed hard and rolled across the ground.
Marlin Hughes seemed amused at first, a smirk on his ugly face as he flashed his fangs, eyes going black, but Archer was too fueled by bloodlust to give the vampire even a second to crow or taunt at them finally meeting again. He slapped the gun out of the vampire’s hand, his fists like sledgehammers as he straddled the prone vampire, pinning the man’s arms with his knees, he pummeled that scarred face, releasing every drop of pent up rage. He didn't stop, not when blood sprayed in his eyes and temporarily blinded him, nor when the bones of the vampire’s face caved in beneath the force of the blows. This was for all the days and nights the bastard had stolen from Kelsey, for the mother he'd taken from Cady, and the pain he'd caused Jamie before they'd met as well as now. This was for him, for all he'd lost and for all he’d newly found and refused to give up.He continued the beating until the vampire beneath him was unrecognizable. Finally, with a roar of satisfaction, Archer braced his hands on either side of the rogue’s head and gave a sharp twist, ending the nightmare of Marlin Hughes once and for all.
Panting, Archer staggered slightly as he lifted himself off the body and lurched to the door of the mausoleum. He had to get Jamie, get her untied, and get her home before the sun rose. The door, however, didn’t want to budge. Throwing his shoulder into it, all the while calling Jamie’s name, it took three hard hits before the thick wood splintered on its hinges. Bursting inside, her name still on his lips, Archer came to a skidding halt. It was empty. She wasn’t here and judging by the accumulation of dust and lack of any fresh scents, nothing had been here for a long time.No. With his heart in his throat and his stomach in knots, Archer looked around the space in disbelief before he attacked the tomb and desecrated what lay within, in the slim hopes of finding her.
Realization finally hit, and Archer’s eyes welled with tears of despair as he sank to his knees on the old stone floor. Throwing back his head, he screamed Jamie’s name to the heavens. Marlin Hughes’ presence had been a diversion and thanks to the finality of Archer’s rage, the vampire could no longer give up the secret of her whereabouts.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jamie came awake with a slight feeling of disorientation and a pervasive heat pooling in her chest. Shit, what had that witch done to her? Her throat felt sandpaper dry, her eyes gritty, and she really needed to blow her nose. Damn dust was clogging her sinuses. She also ached all over and lashed to the chair as she was, there was no way to take a true inventory of her injuries from the crash. God. Had the wolves found Efrem? Was the boy all right?
