Blood Warrior (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #4) by Jennifer Malone Wright Page A

him for a moment before
releasing his hand. “Well, you have a purpose, otherwise the
Warrior Angel would not have allowed you to live.”
    He turned so that he was fully facing
me. “Apparently, my purpose is you, little Hunter.”
    “ Apparently,” I
agreed.
    Drew was at my side, having stayed
with me the whole time, he grasped my hand and pulled me away. “We
have to go see what’s going on out there.” I offered Anthony a
smile and let Drew lead me to the street.
    Our group was lined up on the
sidewalk, watching the results of Korina’s death take effect. There
were several vampire bodies already fallen, laying haphazardly on
the streets and walkways. Two vampires emerged from a building
diagonal from us, screaming and grasping at their bodies as if they
were being attacked by bees. We watched them stumble to and fro
like drunks and then collapse in a heap of undead flesh.
    “ It’s working,” I
whispered.
    Drew nodded and slid his arm around
me. “Yes.”
    ***
    Before we headed home, we went to the
Le Pavillon to check on Dahlia. Anthony was fairly sure that she
was from Korina’s line, but we needed to make sure.
    We knew that we wouldn’t take down
every single vampire when we killed Korina, but from the looks of
it, the portion we got was massive.
    What was left of the entire group
ascended the steps of the hotel, entering with the same caution we
always used. There were bound to be a few stray vampires left and a
lot more soldiers that would be wandering around.
    The lobby was full of dead vampires.
Some were slumped on couches and some were laying on the floor
where they must have been standing when they died. There was even
one who had keeled over at the bar.
    We took the stairs and headed up to
the suites, figuring that was probably where we would find
Dahlia.
    It didn’t take long to locate her, but
she wasn’t in the condition I expected to find her in. She lay on
the bed in the same outfit we’d seen her in earlier, panting and
clutching her stomach. Her eyes widened when she saw us enter the
bedroom door.
    “ Well, dammit,” she
breathed as the group formed in front of her. Her eyes scanned each
person and then finally settled on me. “I guess you found a way
after all. Too bad you had to kill a whole vampire line to get to
me.”
    I stepped forward a few paces. “I
would have found you. This…” I spread my hands wide, indicating the
death of all the vampires, “was to put an end to what you
started.”
    She laughed, but it was
promptly cut off by a fit of coughing. “This was all you darling.
You can make yourself feel better by putting an end to it, but you
and I both know that the world will never be the same again. You made the history
books, love.”
    I wanted to throw up. And why was it
that people were so obsessed about recording the history of all of
this. I really, really hoped to God that my name would not be
tainted forever in the books children would study at
school.
    I slid my gun from its holster. “I
know that you are going to die soon. That much is inevitable, but I
am going to shoot you anyway, just because it will make me feel
better.”
    She laughed again. “You have been a
worthy adversary, Chloe. I will give you that much. So come on,
let’s get this over with.” She rolled and flung her arm over so
that she lay spread eagle on the bed. “I accept my death …
finally.” She muttered the last words as I silently pulled the
trigger. The UV round lodged into her chest, causing her to lurch
forward a little bit.
    Dahlia squeezed her eyes shut and bit
down on her lip as if she were keeping herself from crying out. I
figured that it was her last act of defiance. She didn’t want to
give me any satisfaction by showing that she was in
pain.
    I was all right with that. Just
knowing that she would be gone for sure was enough for me. But, on
the other hand, as I watched the UV light eat through her body,
eroding her skin and flesh, I thought that I would have felt