Blood and Burning

4

I texted Johnny as I was driving home, still fuming. “Hey leave early. Get sara to cover the rest of your shift.”

I tossed my phone down onto my passenger seat and tightly wrung the steering wheel with both hands as I approached the first security checkpoint to leave Albrecht’s grounds. I pulled up to the gate, and it opened. I tried to just take steady breaths, to soothe the bitter rage boiling in my blood like hot acid and to slow my pounding heart.

I tried to focus on the positives—I had express permission to leave Pullman! No, better yet, I didn’t have a choice but to get the f**k out of Pullman! For the first time in an entire f*****g year, I’d be in a place with little to no control over the supernaturals with whom they shared their streets, from the sound of it.

It had been too long since I had the pleasure of unleashing the monster that Albrecht had created. Tearing apart a horde of vampires and walking away alive was an adrenaline rush like no other.

But at that thought, I felt a twinge of anxiety. It was an unexpected uncertainty that crept in, a strange feeling of fear at the prospect of being back in the field without Van. Evander, as Conrad always insisted on calling him.

Jesus, I had managed to go weeks without thinking of Van. Trained myself to numb the feelings of guilt and grief.

I blamed Conrad. If he hadn’t f*****g mentioned him, these feelings in me wouldn’t have been stirred up.

As I pulled up to the second security checkpoint, I could see the bend in the road up ahead, the last bend before my freedom.

Conrad forwarded me the confirmation email for the Airbnb reservation, and he texted me that he and Hannah would bring my partner and a mission pack to my apartment at 8am.

Another positive—I wasn’t expected to return to Albrecht at all, not till after this mission.

And the prospect of my reputation as a hunter being redeemed, my title being reinstated? To suddenly find myself so close to achieving something that felt like an impossible dream was monumental—I was close enough, I could already taste it.

My phone pinged in the passenger seat as I turned onto the main road. It was a text message from Johnny. “Sara will be here in 20. Everything ok?”

I typed out a quick response. “Conrad is f*****g blackmailing me”

Johnny replied right away, a simple, but effective, “Wtf???”

•••

When Johnny arrived at my apartment, he grabbed my face, gave me a kiss on my good cheek, and said, “Let’s blackmail him back. You don’t need this shit.”

We grabbed a Tupperware container full of watermelon out of the fridge and sat on my couch to eat it with our hands. I relayed every detail of my conversation with Conrad. I told him about how Hannah only protested when I said I’d go alone. I told him about how I had Conrad’s credit card in my pocket.

Johnny was quiet as he listened, munching on watermelon. He was quiet for a moment after I finished. Finally, he swallowed a mouthful of melon and said, “Fucker’s gotten too ballsy since Van died.”

“Van would’ve cut his balls off if he’d even tried this shit.”

“Conrad has to know that, too. I still think he’s in the closet, and he had a years-long hard-on for Van.”

I smirked. “I’m still not so sure about that.”

“I mean, that would explain why he tried so hard to find proof you guys were fraternizing. He was jealous, and fraternization would’ve been an ace in the hole—you’d be gone, and he’d have Van all to himself.”

“Oh my God, how far are you going to expand this theory?”

“He has a framed photo of Van in his office,” Johnny reminded me.

“I’m in that photo, too,” I laughed.

“He knew cutting you out of the picture would be weird.” He popped a whole piece of watermelon into his mouth, and then he said, “Give me your phone.”

I handed it over without question—Johnny knew my passcode.

I pulled my legs up onto the couch, tucking them beneath me and pulling a blanket that was draped over the back of the cushions to wrap it around my shoulders. I watched as he navigated to the Walmart app.

“You’ve got Conrad’s credit card?” Johnny asked.

I shifted my weight to pull it out of my back pocket, and I handed it to him, too.

“You need to place a huge grocery delivery order to the Airbnb. He said he’d fund your whole mission, right?”

Another bark of laughter escaped me. “He did say that.”

“Treat this s**t like a vacation, Hazy,” he said, as he added the everything from my most recent, $300 grocery order to my cart. “I don’t know who the hell they sent before you, but even if this was the most vicious vampire nest in the world, an investigation shouldn’t be so dangerous if it’s done right.”

I nodded my head. “I agree. Unless they were tasked with extermination, too, but it doesn’t sound like they were.”

“No, they were just incompetent.” He was adding whatever random s**t he could think of to the cart. “Careless, probably, and they got caught searching for something that clearly, these monsters don’t want anyone to find.”

“It’s the same thing every time someone doesn’t come home from an investigation.”

“You’ll be fine. Muscle memory. Just go, do what you need to do, and then f*****g drag it out. Go to the beach. Go clubbing. Get laid.” He turned my phone screen to face me. “Pickles?”

I wrinkled my nose. “Ew, no.”

“Well,” Johnny said, “what if your partner likes pickles?”

“Good call,” I snickered. “Better get some, just in case.”

“Already done.”

“Get a cheesecake, too.”

“A cheesecake?”

I smiled slightly. “Van would want me to keep that tradition alive, at least.”

Johnny’s expression softened. “Hazel, don’t do that.”

“Just get a single slice, I guess. Not a whole thing.”

He sighed, and I watched as he did as I requested. Then he leaned forward to slide my phone onto the coffee table. He asked gently, “What’s the cheesecake tradition?”

“Every single mission we went on, it was the very first thing we did when we arrived in whatever town we were stationed in. Before checking in to any lodging, before anything else. We’d go to the nearest grocery store, and we’d buy a cheesecake,” I explained. “We’d review our objectives and maps and things one last time and share the cheesecake in the parking lot in his car.”

“Why?”

I shrugged. “It was just what we did.” I poked at a piece of watermelon in the bowl. “It’ll be weird to go back out there without him.”

“Maybe get two slices of cheesecake?” Johnny suggested. “Eat one for you, and one for him?”

“No, just the one. He’d have been pissed if I ate his cheesecake.”

Johnny smiled and chuckled, but it was a sad sound. “You’ll just have to kick ass in his honor. Every single bloodsucker you come across, don’t hesitate.”

“Oh, Johnny, it’s been a whole year. If not for Van, I’ve just got to make up for lost time.”

His smile widened. “f**k, yeah, Hazy.” He picked up my phone from the table. “Let’s place this order, and then we should get your bags packed.”

“Let’s use dumbass’s card to order Chinese food, too. And let’s rent a movie or something.”