Blood Cure (Blood Type 3)

“I’m here to see the boss. It’s time that we had a face-to-face.”

The vampire with a mean-looking face and giant fangs snarled, “You’re not seeing anyone.”

“Ouch,” she yelped. “That hurts! I’m needed in one piece. You do not want the boss to get mad at you!”

The vampire released her abruptly. Apparently that had struck a nerve. Seemed Harrington had instilled some discipline into his army.

“I’m Reyna. Perhaps you’ve heard of me.” She snapped her fingers in the vampire’s face, twice. “Let’s get a move on.”

The vampire looked to his buddies in confusion. She blew out an exasperated breath and tried to walk past them. But one of them decided he had another idea. He grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her to him. She was only an inch from his face and nearly gagged.

“Dear God, did you stop brushing?” she gasped.

“What is wrong with you? Don’t you fear me?”

“Not in the slightest. I contend with the heavyweights, not a grunt.”

The vampire snarled and reared back as if he was going to sink his teeth into her.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Harrington would probably kill you if you drank from me. I’m Reyna fucking Carpenter. Now bring me to the boss before I get pissed off.”

The vampire was so confused that he actually did what he was told. He probably thought this was a joke and seeing Harrington would be worse for her in the long run. She couldn’t really argue with that. Harrington was never someone she actually wanted to see. But sneaking into his private area was not how she wanted to have this confrontation.

She wanted to play chess on her board, not his.

No traps except the ones that she set.

The idiot vampire dragged her around the action and up a wide set of stairs. She knew where this was going—the observation deck. Sickeningly, there was a platform to watch what was going on below. To check to see who was feeding and when and change people out when necessary. Reyna was sure a lot more sinister shit had gone on down there, but she didn’t really want the details. The ones she envisioned were bad enough.

She stumbled over a step and was nearly dragged up the rest of the way, but hastily regained her stride. The vampire was faster than her…unsurprisingly. And he cared nothing for how fast her human legs could carry her.

They made it to the landing, and Reyna hazarded a glance behind her. She shuddered at the glimpse of the pandemonium below. Casualties in war. So many casualties. She prayed that it soon would be over.

“You want to see the boss?” the vampire snarled at her.

“No, I just asked you to take me to him for no fucking reason.”

The vampire laughed a vicious, deadly thing. It sent a shiver down her spine.

She could sense Beckham’s unease about the situation from a mile away. It was hard to separate it from her own terror, which she was harnessing like a whip. But she couldn’t back down now. She was clutched in the jaws of an alligator, waiting for it to bite.

“You asked for it.”

The vampire pushed open the door to the observation deck and tossed Reyna to the ground.

“Boss, brought you a present.”

Reyna groaned on impact as the metal flooring collided with her body. That was going to bruise. More bruises. Ugh!

“Excellent,” a female voice said from above. “Dismissed.”

Reyna’s head snapped up at the sound. The sound she only heard in her nightmares. The sound that haunted her like a ghost.

“Bronwyn?”

Chapter 33

Well, fuck, Harrington was stupid enough to let Bronwyn out.

She was totally, impossibly insane. The last time Reyna had come face-to-face with her, she’d been smartly locked away where she couldn’t hurt anyone but herself. She’d been manic and uncontrollable. She was still the only other vampire who had ever bit Reyna.

Reyna felt her muscles freeze as she stared up at Bronwyn from where she’d landed on the floor.

“Fuck,” Beckham spat into the earpiece.

Oh shit.

Beckham.

He hadn’t seen his sister in fifteen long years. He’d mourned her death. He’d hated himself for what he’d done to her. Now here she was. And his first look at her was through the camera attached to Reyna, on a tiny screen in an SUV. She could feel his emotions like a roller coaster through his typically controlled exterior.

He was wrath.

He was vengeance.

He was murder.

Reyna shuddered under the weight of everything he was feeling. How much he wanted to rush in and murder Harrington for what he was doing to Bronwyn. For using her again. For letting her out.

“Don’t,” Reyna gasped. “Please don’t.”

She was speaking to Beckham through the earpiece, but it was Bronwyn who heard her.

“Oh my pet”—Bronwyn lifted Reyna’s chin up at a sharp angle—“we meet again.”

The same insanity that Reyna had witnessed in her eyes the first time they met hadn’t lessened an ounce. Why wasn’t she behind locked bars with the key thrown away? She was a danger to everyone around her. At least before she was only a danger to herself.