The Enemy of my Enemy: An Urban Fantasy by Shawna Reppert

Author:Shawna Reppert [Reppert, Shawna & Reppert, Shawna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-25T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Training grabbed the logical part of my brain and ran it without my involvement. If one of the vampires had stabbed him, it couldn’t be a blessed blade. They wouldn’t have been able to handle the weapon.

“Is he still alive?” I crouched down beside Valentine.

“Barely.”

If the heart had been struck solid and deep, it would have killed him almost instantly. Anything else he could heal from. I’m surprised Valentine didn’t know this. “Pull the knife. Let the heart start repairing itself.”

Valentine shook his head. “He’s lost too much blood.”

That’s when I noticed the slits at his wrist. The angle and the depth said that they were not self-inflicted. Not that I had thought for a moment that they could be. Noah had become a vampire rather than leave this life. Between the wrists and the chest wound, there should be blood everywhere, but there was a surprisingly small amount.

“My guess is that it was vampires who grabbed him.” Valentine’s voice had the steadiness of someone who held himself tightly together so he didn’t lose it entirely. “They bled him until he was weak enough for the mortals to handle for the stage show.”

It made sense, in a sick and psychopathic sort of way. “So we’ll get him blood, then. Where’s the nearest red store?” Red store was vamp slang for a blood dispensary. If I was going to go through this much trouble to save a fucking vampire, he was going to fucking live.

Valentine shook his head. “It wouldn’t be enough.”

Since when did Valentine quit so easily? I’d never met anyone, human or vamp, so annoyingly stubborn and positive.

“So we buy out all their stock. We buy out all the stock at two red stores.” I had a credit card. That would have to be paid from savings. From generational wealth of hunter ancestors.

Fuck it all. I’d deal with my conscience later.

“Dead blood won’t work.” Valentine said.

I looked down at my wrists. Was I willing to go this far? If it meant saving the life of someone who, damn it, didn’t deserve to die, vampire or no.

“No,” Valentine said softly. “He would need it all. Enough to kill the person he fed on. I would never ask that of you, and I don’t think he would want to live at that cost.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck! After all the vampires I killed, shouldn’t I be able to save just one?

Okay, that didn’t make sense even in my own head. I was losing it.

There was a voice behind me. A scuffle, a groan. I whirled, knife in hand, but it was just the ringmaster, holding his head, trying to sit up.

I looked around. I had actually forgotten about the other humans in the room. I didn’t worry about either wrestler boys or the audience going to the cops. What they had been doing was highly illegal. For all they knew, we were the cops.

Valentine looked over to the ringmaster, then met my eyes.

“No,” I said. “Absolutely not.” The response was automatic, as if someone asked me if I wanted to serve Jim Jones Special Edition Kool-Aid to a pre-school.

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