I didn’t want to, and he nodded slowly as he recognized that as well.
“Now, vampire, how long have you existed?” He turned back to the little bitch in the hole. I paced behind him, waiting, frustrated something stood between me and it.
Soon. He’ll let me have her soon. He better.
“Twenty…twenty-two years,” she answered softly.
“Then you know the Laws,” he said professionally. “And you know how you’ve broken them.”
“It was just so good, you see?” She dared to lean out a little. “And who cares about the Laws anymore? They can be changed. I heard it. But it doesn’t matter. My Master thought he could teach me better, and I said no.”
“Why?” he asked gently. “Why did you tell your Master no?”
“Because I’m a fucking vampire. I can do whatever I want. I didn’t think…” She looked at me, her eyes going wide. “I didn’t think this would happen. It started, and I just wanted to try it out. They said it was so good, you see?”
“See what?” Jabari asked, kneeling. I didn’t like him so close to her, so vulnerable.
“Killing! The blood tastes so much better as they get closer to dying, then they die, and you get all of that…good shit from it. It was just going to be some humans. No one had to make such a fuss about it.”
“Ah. Did someone make a fuss?”
Jabari sounded like a caring uncle or an older brother who just wanted to know why his little sister got into so much trouble.
It tore at my heart because he had never spoken like that to me.
“Yes, my Master, but Essie, she said we weren’t killing anyone important, and it was so good, and he was just jealous. Then he threw us out! He made all of us, and he tossed us out!”
“So, your Master knew before you left. Why did you come out here? There are much nicer places.”
“He suggested it! He said no one would miss some campers. He couldn’t bring himself to hurt his precious children. Seattle wasn’t safe for us anymore, he said. We didn’t know there would be werewolves or werecats. We didn’t think they would care about us, but the werecats did. We had to kill them because we had to stay here.”
“You didn’t think to stop what you were doing?”
“Why? They’re just humans, and I’m a vampire. They’re food. Who gives a fuck—”
Jabari reached out and grabbed her neck so fast, I barely saw it happen. With a single twist of his wrist, he broke her neck.
“She was Changed young,” he said as her wide eyes stared up at the ceiling, her body unmoving. “And she’s not…right. They indulged her and never taught her better. She couldn’t have been more than fourteen,” he whispered, running a finger over her face. “A waste. At least she told me everything we needed to know. Come. She can heal that. We must burn her before she gets back mobility.”
I grabbed onto her arm and dragged her after Jabari, who didn’t spare her another glance as he walked away.
When we reached the mouth of the cave, he took her from me. Heath had already Changed back into his human form as well and held my clothing as I Changed, turning away while I dressed. The starved werewolf was asleep in the dirt now.
The last vampire, her neck broken, didn’t scream as her body went to dust, and only her head remained.
26
Chapter Twenty-Six
I put the heads in the bag. Together, there was barely enough space to close the damn thing. Jabari went back inside with a torch, and we all knew what he was doing—burning the remains of the dead werewolves. That was gruesome work I didn’t want to be a part of.
Which was why I put the heads in the bag.
Much better, Jacky.
Heath walked in behind Jabari, holding every piece of timber he could get his hands on, leaving me with the sleeping werewolf. I ignored the poor man, deciding he didn’t need me scaring the hell out of him by trying to wake him up to perform an exam. I would do it later once I knew we were going to get out of the woods. The EMT in me wanted to do it right that instant, but I knew there was nothing I could do for him, anyway.
There was still a lot we had to do before leaving. I wondered if they were going to burn all the evidence the vampires had