Three Times Burned: A Paranormal Fantasy (Remington Hart Book 3) Read online

  H. Anne Henry

  Three Times Burned

  A Paranormal Fantasy

  First published by H. Anne Henry 2021

  Copyright © 2021 by H. Anne Henry

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

  First edition

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  I pulled both sides of my jacket together and zipped it against the bite of the autumn wind. Gabriel’s Chevelle prowled the roads near Dove Creek and we rode with the windows down, enjoying the night air.

  My partner turned onto a county road, changing our direction and causing a crosswind to blow through the open windows. A whiff of smoke tainted the clean scent of the country.

  “Smell that?” I asked Gabe.

  He pointed his nose toward the driver’s side window. “Yeah,” he confirmed. “Doesn’t smell like a grassfire.”

  “Let’s check it out.”

  I scanned the horizon for any sign of fire, but couldn’t find the cause of the smoky scent on the breeze. The road curved off to the left, and Gabriel followed it.

  “There it is,” he said.

  I tracked where his finger pointed out the window and spotted the robust red and gold flames, gray plume rising in silhouette against the dark sky.

  As we approached, it became clear we were chasing a bonfire. A circle of headlights were pointed outward from the burning woodpile and young partiers crowded around to sit on tailgates or stand near the fire.

  Gabe chuckled. “Brings back memories.”

  It was a Dove Creek tradition—like many small towns—to celebrate a football victory with a bonfire. A tradition I was surprised to see hadn’t lapsed given recent events.

  The entire town had almost been lost to a zombie attack only the month before, everyone living in or around Dove Creek becoming intimately familiar with our monster problem. We Amasai had also been outed, but so far left alone to go about our work in relative peace.

  Though the scene revived happy memories for me, too, I knew the revelers weren’t safe.

  “Don’t they know they’re no better than vampire bait?”

  “They’re young and invincible,” Gabe answered my rhetorical question. “Of course they don’t care.”

  He slowed his car and cut the headlights as we got closer. There was enough cheap beer topping off red Solo cups that no one seemed to notice our approach. If they had any sense, they’d have posted a lookout for cops coming to bust them for underage drinking.

  Better still, if they had any sense, they wouldn’t be out there in the first place.

  “We’ll park over here and keep an eye on them,” my partner said, putting the Chevelle in an inconspicuous spot.

  “Good. I’ll check in with Creed and Dylan,” I told him.

  When Gabriel cut the engine, I dialed Creed and lifted my phone to my ear.

  “Hey sugar,” Creed’s smooth baritone came through the earpiece. “Everything okay?”

  “All good here. We found a bunch of high schoolers partying in a pasture, so we’re gonna wait it out and make sure they don’t become blood bags for the fang gang.”

  “Solid plan. Send us your coordinates in case there’s trouble and we’ll work our way over. Not much doing on this side of town.”

  “Will do,” I agreed.

  I switched to speaker phone to open the map function and set a pin at our location. Texting it to Creed and Dylan, I ensured they’d be able to drive right to us if things got out of hand.

  “Got it,” Creed said.

  “Good. See you later.”

  He lowered his voice to a seductive purr. “Can’t wait.”

  Dylan was in the background making gagging sounds and protesting about me being his sister before I disengaged the call. The exchange pulled a laugh from me.

  Gabriel stared out the window and in the faint glow of the dashboard lights, I thought he looked a little green around the gills.

  “You okay?”

  He cleared his throat. “The smell of smoke is getting to me.”

  “Same here,” I said, tucking my phone back into my pocket. “Let’s roll the windows up. We’ll be able to see anything from a mile away with that fire.”

  Gabe smiled and pressed the button to raise the glass. “You might.”

  It was true my vision enhancement courtesy of our guardian angel, Yescha, gave me an edge even in the dark. But, the glow surrounding the bonfire was bright enough where we sat, trouble couldn’t hide for long.

  “Do you love him?” Gabe asked.

  I looked up from checking the magazine of my forty-five. Not the kind of small talk I expected from my partner.

  “I don’t know yet,” I gave him the honest answer.

  “Guess I’ve always thought it’s one of those things you know or you don’t.”

  He had a point. With Dominic, I had known the moment I laid eyes on him. It had been a pull so powerful, otherworldly forces were at work, no doubt about it. We were destined for each other, so I had to wonder if my shot at forever was gone, taken by Valan as he took Dom’s life.

  There was no magic for me anymore. Shouldn’t I make do with simply being happy instead of expecting to find forever again?

  Sliding the mag back into the handgun, I shrugged. “I’m just… cautious. I mean, Creed and I make sense. We’re good together, but…”

  “But?”

  I sidestepped what I realized was a rather sad way of looking at things, but stuck to the truth. “He doesn’t know himself and it’s a dangerous thing. Eden manipulated him into raising an entire graveyard. That’s a lot of power in a loose cannon.”

  “You’re not wrong,” Gabe agreed.

  “So, I like him a lot and I want to be with him, but talk of love just isn’t in the cards right now.”

  Chambering a round, I flicked on the safety and holstered my backup weapon. One advantage of us becoming public knowledge was being able to use firearms with little worry. My trusty bow was still my de
mon-killing method of choice, but it was nice to know I could squeeze off a few rounds without drawing a crowd if things got dire.

  “What about you?” I asked Gabe.

  He glanced from the window to me. “Me?”

  “Anybody special? I hear Suzie Levinson’s been trying to get your attention.”

  Fresh off her second divorce, Suzanne back-to-her-maiden-name was like a rattlesnake with a brand new button on her tail. It was no wonder she was sniffing around an eligible bachelor like Gabriel.

  He laughed. “Where did you hear that?”

  “My brother, the gossip queen. Where else?”

  “She’s wasting her time.”

  Though I wanted to prod him for more details, the insistent, deep itch in my right leg distracted me. I winced and rubbed at my thigh where a zombie had bitten me during the fray. I had been thoroughly checked out and was cleared for duty weeks before, but the healing process was uncomfortable. Since they declared me out of danger, I had never gone back to Meredith for help.

  Some wounds needed to heal in their own time.

  “Is that still bothering you?” my partner asked, shooting me a sidelong glance.

  “A little. You know how it is with deep wounds as they heal up.”

  “As long as it’s normal lasting effects and not—”

  “What? Something worse, like zombie cooties? Worried I’ll go Walking Dead on you and try to eat your face?” I teased, trailing off into a show of rolling my eyes back and making screeching noises no live human should make.

  Gabriel looked at me like an exasperated older brother would look at a ridiculous younger sibling, but busted out with a roar of laughter in spite of himself. The sound was infectious, and I laughed almost as hard, but a movement in the shadows across the road drew my attention and I sobered in an instant.

  “We’ve got company,” I told him.

  No other words were needed. In unison, Gabe and I exited his car in near-silence. I ran around to his side, pulling an arrow from my quiver. We sprinted across the gravel road and I pointed to where I saw the approaching bloodsucker.

  The crowd of teenage partiers heard nothing over the crackling of the fire and blaring country music. So focused on his prey was the vampire, he was oblivious to our counter-attack.

  Sloppy, I thought. Must be new.

  I watched as he looked behind himself, beckoning to another one of his kind. Catching Gabriel’s eye, I held up two fingers.

  He nodded once, then pointed toward me and motioned to the left. Pointing at himself, he then motioned forward. I gave a sharp nod to indicate I understood before taking off.

  Flanking the pair of vampires, I cut them off from the pasture as my partner flushed them out. Like quail from their covey, the leeches scattered.

  I let loose an arrow just as Gabe fired a bolt, both of us finding our targets with lethal accuracy. But we found the two vampires weren’t alone in queuing to take a bite of young flesh. The firelight revealed half a dozen more of their kind.

  My wrist went to my mouth, and I spoke into my smartwatch.

  “We need you now.”

  Though Creed and Dylan would already be on their way, they would have to step on it to be of any help. Ours weren’t the only lives that depended on it.

  There was a flurry of movement as the rest of the vampires came to realize what had happened to the first two. Half of them stood their ground as they recognized us as Amasai and prepared for a fight. The other three broke for the group of teenagers in an obvious bid for blood.

  “Go!” Gabe yelled over the tumult.

  A moment of hesitation took me—I didn’t want to leave him to face the trio of walking leeches alone. But if I stuck with him, innocent lives would be taken.

  I shot off after them, vaulting the barbed wire fence and following their trails through the coastal hay. As fast as I was, they had the advantage of speed and got out well ahead of me.

  I knew the moment they reached the bonfire.

  Music came to an abrupt silence, screams erupted, bodies scattered. It was like somebody had kicked over an antpile. If it hadn’t been for my extra abilities, I wouldn’t have been able to tell friend from foe.

  I zeroed in on a male vamp who made a stout target. He grabbed a girl by the arm and dragged her, flailing and screaming, away from the chaos. No doubt thinking he was home free, he turned to sink his fangs into her and gave me a clear shot.

  My arrow plowed into his back, finding its home in the unbeating heart. The body collapsed and the demon soul left a trail of crimson as it was pulled back to Perdition, but there was no disintegration. Just a heap of flesh and bone slumped on the ground with an arrow sticking up out of it.

  The girl screamed before running blindly into the pasture. At least she’d be out of the way.

  A deeper male shout ripped through the din behind me. I pivoted, nocking an arrow while seeking my next target.

  The hayfield was a scramble of bodies fleeing, vehicles tearing out of their circled spots, and a whole lot of screaming and hollering.

  A truck whizzed between me and the one I was aiming for, giving the bloodsucker time to bite the boy. In the chaos, the vampires had given up on the idea of dragging away their prey.

  “Stop!” I yelled.

  The vamp looked up at me, the bloody leer on his face questioning what I was going to do about it.

  I let the arrow fly and the broadhead found eye socket. The shot wasn’t enough to kill him, but he dropped the youth like a sack of dirty laundry.

  “Go! Get out of here!” I waved the boy away as I ran toward them.

  He clutched his bleeding neck, but scrambled to his feet and beat it.

  The demon also fought to drag his carcass upright, but I was already waiting with another arrow. I hit him full in the chest with it, sending the hellspawn back where it belonged. Again, I was left with a fleshy heap instead of ash and dust, or even decay.

  In the melee, I had lost sight of the third vampire I’d chased into the field. I searched the thinning crowed for it and my partner.

  Gabriel was still fighting off two of the other trio, but was—

  “Oof!”

  The body hit me from behind, arms going around me in a tight grip. My bow was knocked from my hand and I struggled against the crushing hold.

  “They warned us about you,” the female voice told me.

  The Holy Light within me surfaced, glowing and brightening until the bloodsucker relinquished her grip.

  “You should’ve listened,” I retorted.

  She took a step back, looked for a moment like she would stand and fight, but ran instead. I tracked her while reaching down for my bow, but the sound of a gunshot rang out before I could draw. She dropped, and the demon energy that animated her fled back to Perdition.

  I scanned the pasture for the source of the shot and found Creed at the edge of where the fire glowed. Jogging to meet him, I looked again to where Gabe had been struggling with his foes.

  Dylan buried his axe deep in the back of the last vamp. It screeched and hissed, giving Gabe the opening he needed. He stabbed the heart with a stake, causing the body to wither as it should have.

  Creed met me halfway across the battlefield and I sensed him giving me the once-over for injuries. I took a deep breath and my ribcage protested where the vamp I had tangled with squeezed me.

  “I’m good,” I told him. “A few bruised ribs, nothing major.”

  “Could’ve been worse,” he said.

  “It could always be worse.”

  I watched Gabriel wipe blood away from his mouth as he scanned the fallout. He spotted me and I raised a hand to signal I was okay.

  The four of us converged near the fire, Gabe and I still catching our breath. As far as I could see, we were the only living things left in the pasture.

  “Anybody get hurt?” Gabriel asked.

  “One guy got bitten,” I answered. “Best I could make out, his friends loaded him up and took off.”

/>   “Hope they took off for the hospital,” Dylan said.

  I pointed toward one of the felled vampires. “These didn’t disintegrate.”

  “Only one of the three in the other group did,” Gabe said. “Dylan and I will take care of them if you and Creed will double check for any victims we might have missed.”

  The silence after the uproar was deafening. Only the sounds of our boots crunching against the ground and the low crackle of the fire permeated the small hours of the night.

  Gabe moved the first of the corpses with the power of his telekinesis. He concentrated and dropped it into the bonfire. It went up like a stick of dry firewood.

  Creed, Dylan, and I fanned out to walk the field to find the dead vamps and make sure we hadn’t missed a human victim.

  I came to the first bloodsucker I had shot, put my foot against his back, and freed my arrow. The broadhead was bent but Gabriel could re-forge it and the wooden shaft was still in good shape.

  Bending down, I took a look at the body and found a fresh bite wound where his neck met his shoulder—a sure sign he had been bitten and turned recently. But I wasn’t sure the bite was that of a vampire. It was far bigger than what a human mouth could do and even though the vamps had the added advantage of fangs, that didn’t change the size of their chomper. The damage to the flesh looked closer to something like what a dog or wolf could do, but at last check, the werewolves weren’t going around tasting people.

  And thinking of Meg and Gio… I wondered where they had been. We could always count on their help in a fight, provided they sensed it. Had there been another attack elsewhere that night?

  Dylan set fire to the female vampire that had gotten the drop on me, blue flames rising from the corpse as it burned to nothing.

  “I’ve got one over here, Dyl,” I called.

  My brother joined me and he, too, noticed the bite mark.

  “She had it, too,” he told me, hooking his thumb back toward the burning body.

  With Dove Creek Cemetery now empty, the demons’ ample supply of dormant hosts was tapped. They were finding more uses for living humans than that of blood bag.

  It made sense: Waste not, want not.

  The bigger problem was the rate at which folks would be killed. As food, the living weren’t needed but once every few weeks. But as hosts, someone would die each time a demon breeched our Plane.