Blood Dream Read online

  Lupa pushed passed her adoptive mother and started walking down the hallway back to her place, hearing Slasher storming up behind her. She grabbed Lupa’s arm, spinning her around to face her.

  “Don’t you fucking walk away from me like that,” Slasher looked like she was about to punch a hole in the wall, or possibly in Lupa’s face, “What’s the fucking matter with you?”

  “Let go of me.” Lupa knew her voice sounded cold. Too cold. But she didn’t give a fuck right now, “Leave me the fuck alone. Look after Dameon, he’s the one you need to be fucking worrying about right now, or have you forgotten so quickly that someone has put a fucking spell on him?”

  Slasher dropped her hand, shaking her head with disbelief, “I’m suspending you, Lupa, you are not to even come to headquarters. When you’re ready to stop acting like a brat, come and see me at home.”

  Lupa shrugged and walked into her apartment, slamming the door behind her, discovering Sledge staring at her with wide eyes. “What?”

  “Aint sayin’ nothin’…” they heard the front door slam.

  “Fine. Want a drink?” Lupa walked passed Sledge and grabbed a bottle of vodka off the bench and two glasses, “Wanna sit? Or you going to keep gawking at me there?” Sledge followed her to the couch, but he was still gaping at her, “What?”

  “Aint thinkin’…” Sledge accepted the full cup and took a quick drink, “Aint thinkin’ you dun speakin’ to her like that.” He moved his eyes away from hers, “She dun taken your job away…”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Lupa responded, not really believing herself. “We have this other guy to deal with right now. I can’t do anything with this case without Hawk anyway. Hunters can’t go into anything alone. It’s fucking stupid, and against Rule.”

  Lupa knocked back the straight vodka, wincing slightly and refilling her glass. She looked over to Sledge with her eyebrows raised. He gave her a sheepish grin and threw his back, holding it out for her to fill up again.

  “Thinkin’ you might be regrettin’ tellin’ her… about me. In the mornin’.”

  Lupa smiled, feeling slightly embarrassed, “Didn’t think you heard that.”

  “I was waitin’ in the hall for you til I hearin’ that… thinkin’ I better wait in here after.”

  “Ah well, she heard it now. Nothing I can do about it, sorry… if it made you uncomfortable…”

  “Aint sayin’ that,” Sledge leaned back and pulled out a smoke, “What you gonna do now? You gonna make it up with her?”

  “After. After we have dealt with The Eastern Man and Dameon is ok. For now she can get fucked.” Lupa accepted the smoke from Sledge, putting her feet on the table, noticing that she still had blood splattered on her. “Ah shit… how much blood is on me?”

  “Aint too much,” Sledge leaned forward and ran his thumb over her cheek, “Wouldn’t notice unless you be lookin’ for it…” He didn’t move his hand off her face, just kept looking at her, “you sure you a’right?”

  Lupa moved her gaze away and Sledge dropped his hand, “I will be,” she half whispered. The thoughts weren’t running into her mind, but she knew they were there. Knew they were waiting for her. “Just gotta… get through this shit. And I will be.” She tipped back her glass and refilled it again, handing the bottle to Sledge.

  “A’right. If’n you aint, you tell me ok?”

  “You going to beat the bad shit out of me?” She flashed him a cheeky smile.

  “Thinkin’ that be a good way to gettin’ myself killed, witchy girl, you may be little, but I feelin’ what you got in you. I aint fuckin’ with that.”

  Lupa laughed, feeling her body begin to relax, she liked the nice smile spreading over Sledge’s face. Fuck everything else. She felt good right now. “Good to know, now finish your drink and give me another one.”

  Sledge laughed and tipped his drink back, filling both their cups, “Never thinkin’ a little chick like you bein’ able to put so much away and not pass out.”

  Lupa grinned, “You chickening out on me, Lio?”

  “Fuck no, I can dun keep up.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Lupa groaned and opened her aching eyes, rolling over to look at the time. Almost ten o’clock. Fuck. She sat up and glanced over at Sledge laying in her bed, his legs hanging off the end. Shit. His bare chest was rising and falling gently with his breath, she studied the tattoos across it, smiling at the crappy wolf head that looked out of place next to the rest that were well done.

  “What’s so fascinatin’?”

  Lupa startled and looked at Sledge’s face to see if he was giving her that look… but he was smiling at her. “Just being a creep. Want a coffee?”

  “You got any milk this time?” Sledge frowned as he put a strong arm behind his head.

  “Umm… no I don’t…” Lupa tried to stop her mind from wandering to the thoughts of kissing him across his chest… no. She shouldn’t do that. Definitely not….

  “Maybe we dun go out for coffee then. You aint makin’ the best cup.”

  Lupa laughed and gave him a shove, pulling the blankets off herself and getting up, realising she was still in her blood spattered clothes… “Ok, I’m going to have a quick shower then we can go out.”

  She stood under the shower, letting the hot water make her skin burn. There were tears threatening inside her. But she wouldn’t let them come. She needed to stay focused, she needed to be strong. She would get this man from across the river, she would punish him for threatening to harm Dameon; for making her see those dark hidden places inside her, for making the wolfblood inside her… fuck this. Lupa shut off the water, wrapped the towel around herself and walked out into her room where Sledge was pulling his shirt on.

  “Sorry, I gettin’ out.” He shuffled passed her awkwardly, averting his eyes.

  Lupa waited and then grabbed her bag, pulling out one of the pills Hammer had given her with shaking fingers. Fuck these thoughts to hell. She put it in her mouth and dry swallowed it, feeling it sticking in her throat. Dropping her towel she went to the bathroom and cupped her hand under the tap for a sip of water. It used to be so much easier… shit, whatever.

  She quickly applied some make up to her pale face, trying to hide the dark circles under her eyes with eyeliner. Lupa pulled on a black dress and her bike shorts, stuffed her feet into her canvas shoes and walked out to the lounge.

  “Ok, I’m ready, wanna go grab coffee?”

  “A’right, witchy girl, where’s good?”

  Sledge opened the door for her as she smirked up at him, “Nowhere is good around here, don’t you know that?”

  Sledge chuckled and walked over to his car, opening the door for her, “I knowin’ a place they makin’ it good for me. Wanna get some food too?”

  Not fucking really. “Um… sure.”

  Lupa stared out the window as Sledge drove away from her apartment. It felt strange to be… doing a normal thing. Dameon was under a spell. Her case had been taken away from her. She’d be suspended. There a man was threatening to kill her or someone she cared about. And somehow Isabella was involved-possibly all the teens-and here she was just going out to breakfast and coffee with Sledge. What a fucking joke. Lupe smiled to herself bitterly.

  Sledge pulled the car in front of a bright blue diner, Lupa looked around, were they in Blackwater? It seemed so out of place… she hopped out the opened door and followed Sledge inside, the lady at the cashier nodding at him and giving a small smile. They sat down at a booth in silence and Lupa lit herself a smoke; the pill was making her feel better now, chasing the foul thoughts from her mind.

  “What can I get you Sledge?” the woman asked.

  “Coffee. Breakfast plate.”

  “And you, dear?”

  “Same.” Lupa smiled up at the woman as she gave her a tight worried smile, glancing over at Sledge quickly then walking off briskly. “You come here often?” Lupa asked, turning her gaze back to Sledge.

  “Not with company.” Sledge said, lightin
g a smoke and moving the ashtray closer to them, “Thinkin’ she worried I givin’ you your last meal.”

  “Wouldn’t be so bad, sharing it with you.” Lupa responded, her mind wandering away from her.

  Wouldn’t it be nice to go somewhere… away from here? To the seaside? She had never seen the ocean before… she wondered if it was as pretty as the pictures made it look. Where everybody there looked happy and brown…

  “Witchy girl!” Lupa snapped out of it and saw the coffee and food in front of her, “You a’right?”

  “Yeah, yeah, fine. Just thinking about… shit.” Lupa took a sip of her coffee, “Hey, this aint bad at all. Maybe I should get you to come look scary everywhere I go.” Sledge grunted. Shit. “Not that I think you do…”

  Lupa played with the food in front of her, nibbling at a piece of toast and dipping it into her egg yolk. Slasher used to tell her off for doing that when she was a kid… fuck. Slasher must be fuming, Lupa smiled to herself and took another sip of her coffee. She wouldn’t be safe going around there for at least a few days, even if she was going to apologise. If.

  “Aint hungry?”

  “Umm… not much.”

  “You aint eat much usually?” Sledge leaned back and lit a smoke, running one arm along the back of the booth chair.

  Lupa shifted uncomfortably. She hadn’t been eating properly lately… but… alcohol was close enough to food. “Not really… just been… hard. Lately.”

  “Maybe you dun needin’ my cookin’ again,” Sledge winked at her making her laugh.

  “What even was that?”

  “Thinkin’ it was… somethin’ you eatin’. I aint knowin’ really, just throwin’ some shit together. What you wantin’ to do now?”

  Lupa ground her smoke out and finished her coffee, “You babysitting me til tomorrow?”

  “You know it aint like that…” Sledge rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes on his cigarette.

  “I know… but… are you?”

  “Yeah… Hammer callin’ while you in the shower, lettin’ him know about Hawk. He aint wantin’ you left alone. I aint likin’ the idea so much neither. Aint want this fucker hurtin’ you no more. He bein’ doin’ enough…” Sledge looked away, his cheeks turning slightly pink.

  “All good. I get it. You guys need the great and powerful Little Red on your side, no need to gush, I’m here.” Lupa grinned as Sledge threw her a joking sarcastic smile.

  “So what you wantin’ to do then?”

  “Feel like a trip to Blackmoars? I want to search Isabella’s property… that’s where the spearhead was found.”

  “Aint you off the case?”

  “So? If she’s involved with The Eastern Man somehow I wanna make sure we aren’t missing anything. Besides, aren’t we just two curious people going for a drive to the country to look at some property?”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Sledge pulled the car down the driveway and stopped out the front of the Jay’s house. Lupa looked around as she got out. “Ok, we’ll check inside first… then go for a walk?”

  “If’n you say so.” Sledge stared around them uncomfortably, “Aint likin’ this place. Givin’ me the creeps.”

  “Her parents were killed here. Every adult in Blackmoars was… murdered.”

  Sledge nodded, his face blank, and followed her up to the door, Lupa checked it and pushed the unlocked door open. The smell of bleach hit her nose. Fuck. Had Clean-up already looked around? She hoped not, hoped they had just cleaned up the bodies and fucked off. Walking inside, she went to the stripped master bedroom, the mattress had been taken too… but nothing else.

  “Check the cupboards, I’ll check the drawers.”

  Lupa pulled the drawers out, feeling around the clothes then moving onto the next. Sledge was checking the cupboards behind her. “Aint nothin’ here.”

  “Here neither, next one then.”

  They worked quickly and quietly going through all the rooms in the house, but they found nothing of any importance. Although Lupa noted Isabella had a love note from someone, written in extremely old fashioned hand writing.

  “What we doin’ now?” Sledge held a smoke out for her, she took it and let him light it.

  “Guess we look outside…” Lupa stopped, she could hear something… fuck.

  “Soundin’ like a car…”

  They both rushed to the front window, seeing the big red van pulling up next to Sledge’s car. “Fuck. That’s The Force. Shit, if they see me here…”

  “I goin’ out and gettin’ rid of them?”

  “No… just… say you were lookin’ to buy the place, I’ll go out the back and meet you at the road?” Lupa waited as Sledge looked at her carefully.

  “Aint likin’ leavin’ you alone…”

  “If they find me here I’ll be put in lock up. Not for long, but it might be too long… if we are doing this fucking thing tomorrow night…”

  “A’right. Bein’ careful.” Sledge rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment, then walked outside confidently.

  “Who are you and what are you doing here?” Lupa heard a woman’s sharp voice ask.

  “Aint none of your fuckin’ business, ‘less you sellin’ this place?”

  Lupa walked quietly to the back door, opening it carefully, thankful that these people didn’t leave their doors to get rusty. Crossing the back lawn she looked around the side of the house. Fuck. She couldn’t go down there, two men were in the way.

  What now… she checked her surroundings, there were some trees… she could run to them, taking one last look at the men she made a dash for it, keeping as low as she could. Lupa reached the trees and pulled herself into them, making sure she couldn’t hear anyone coming for her… good. Nothing. She looked around seeing a fence to a paddock. Shit, she’d probably have to go that way back to the road.

  Lupa heard Sledge’s car roar to life. Right. She better run now while there was noise. She quickly ducked under the tree branches and threw herself over the fence, rolling along the grass. Pushing herself up, she gave a tiny cry as something cut her hand. Glancing down she saw a bone sticking out of the ground… she lay her finger on it. Fuck. Wolfblood. She tore it from the earth; it was only a small bone, it looked like it was a rib... Shit, she didn’t have time to be thinking, she needed to get back to the damn road.

  Lupa threw it in her bag and started legging it, Sledge wouldn’t be able to just wait on the side, The Force would know something was up and come look. She threw herself out of the trees and saw his car further down, she ran fast, her bag bouncing against her thigh as she did. Ripping the car door open she threw herself in, slamming it shut as Sledge hit the accelerator hard.

  “Found something,” Lupa said breathlessly, “Bit of wolfblood bone.”

  “Important?”

  “Dunno, but it’s something. Guess we can’t really do anymore looking around today though… they say anything to you?”

  Sledge glanced at her, “They knowin’ who I is. And who I workin’ for. But they aint askin’ too many questions, I just sayin’ I interested in havin’ a getaway property for holidayin’. They told me to look elsewhere.”

  “Well I guess that’s something…”

  “Thinkin’ it might not be. They be tellin’ Slasher?”

  Fuck. “Hopefully not… doesn’t matter. I’ll just add it to the long list of things I’m going to get a fucking lecture about.” Lupa pulled out her smokes, lighting two and handing one over to Sledge.

  “Thinkin’ the wolfblood bone bein’ the girl’s dad?”

  “Could be… I don’t know though… in all honesty, it could be completely fucking unrelated. But we’ll see… I just... whatever. We’ll see. What now?”

  “Up to the lady.”

  Lupa snorted, “Lady?”

  “A’right, up to the witchy girl.” Sledge smirked over at her.

  “Hmm… what’s the time?”

  “Bein’ almost four. Why?”

  “Just… wondering. Think Hamm
er would have got anything out of Isabella by now?” Lupa nibbled her lip, her mind was starting to think about those…

  “Might have. Didn’t think to ask when I dun callin’ him. Gives him a call and ask? If’n he has, wantin’ to go round?”

  “Yeah.”

  Lupa pulled out her phone, hiding a pill between her fingers as well, quickly putting it in her mouth when Sledge wasn’t looking. She didn’t want him peering at her with that worried look again. She’d be fucking fine.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “Come this way, wolf witch, you may speak to the girl yourself. She has been rather hostile with my men, understandably, and when I tried to calm her down she tried to bite be.” Hammer led them to a room with a big metal door, nodding at Sledge to open it. “The man has perished, as he was of no use.”

  Lupa nodded and followed Sledge inside, Hammer just behind her. She looked at Isabella chained up to the wall, her face contorted in half transformation. Not strong, no, but much like Sledge. Yellow eyes, protruding fangs, however her face and body were also grey.

  “Good evening, Isabella, Little Red has come to ask you some questions. I do implore that you try and behave a touch better with her.”

  Lupa stepped closer to the girl, who glared at her and whined, “Why the fuck am I here? You left me with these… these… horrible people.”

  “Did you know your father was a wolfblood?”

  The girl sniffed, straightening herself as best she could, “Yes, but I never hurt anyone.”

  “What about your parents? Who killed them?” Lupa stepped a little closer, watching Isabella trying to think of an answer.

  “I don’t know!” She finally yelled.

  Lupa punched her. “Like fuck you don’t. Who killed your parents?”

  “You don’t know anything! Everything was fine until you showed up… no one would have suspected a thing!”

  “Who. Killed. Your. Fucking. Parents.” Lupa felt her skin warming slightly, noticing a change in the girl’s eyes.

  “We all did!” Isabella laughed cruelly, “We all killed them. Every last one of them. He said he would give us all the power in the world. He’ll come for me you know, and then you’ll all be fucked! He loves me, we are having a baby. A baby that will be like you, but stronger!”