Free Bad Blood (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 3) by Nikki Jefford Page B

even spread my books over the dining table and get a head start on my assignments.
    I invited Valerie Ward over.
    We’d kept in touch by text, and she was also enrolled at UAA, but this was the first I’d seen her since we parted ways in the Juneau airport.
    She arrived in cutoff jean shorts and a tank top, pushing her sunglasses over her head after I let her inside. Without so much as a hello, Valerie made her way through the kitchen and dining room, flip flops slapping against the back of her heels.
    “Is this your place?” she demanded.
    Yeah, I invited you here . I caught up to her in the living room, where she spun around taking everything in. Her eyes landed on me. She frowned. “You suck!”
    “Where do you live?”
    “With one of the unit’s staffers.” Valerie scowled. “I was supposed to move in with a real roommate, but then I took off. Back on probation.” She sighed. Her face lit up a second later. “But now I have a place to hang out. Make me a copy of your key. It will be perfect. I can come over and study during the long gaps I have between classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.” She eyed the couch. “Beats the hell out of the library.”
    I chewed on my lower lip.
    “What’s the problem?” Valerie demanded.
    The problem was I had to think a moment. If Valerie suddenly started hanging out, I’d be the one stuck studying at the library just to have some peace and quiet. And what if, god forbid, Fane showed up again?
    “If I gave you a key, what’s to stop you from bringing guys over all the time?”
    I could see it now, Valerie’s after school brothel, no silver bats to prevent me from walking in on the flavor of the week—or worse , flavor s .
    “The only guy I’d invite over is Gavin,” Valerie said.
    Sure, invite a vampire over into a house full of informants and assassins. At least she’d moved on from Fane.
    “You’re still with Gavin?” I asked.
    Valerie’s spine straightened. “I am capable of a long term relationship. I was with Fane for almost five months before you came along. All-time record. Almost made it to our half year anniversary until you turned all morbid and moody and put on your doomsday show. Fane’s a sucker for the macabre.”
    “Well, I’m not with him now,” I said tersely.
    Remind me why I had invited the vixen over? Oh, right. The matter of Jared—Melcher’s unorthodox recruiter. Vampire. Murderer. The man responsible for bringing Valerie and me to the brink of death and turning us into government slaves.
    Time to cut to the chase.
    “Where’s Jared?”
    Valerie leaned back against the kitchen counter, grinning. “I offed him while you were at your extended sleepover. Kidding. The leech has gone into hiding.”
    “You haven’t seen him at all?”
    “Not since I shot him in Sitka. This is your fault by the way. You should have finished him off when you had the chance or let me do it.”
    “I had no idea who he really was.”
    Valerie sniffed. “Doesn’t matter. He tried to kill us… a second time.”
    He wasn’t much of a recruiter if his habit was to take down team members less than a year after forcing them into service. Something told me Jared had little regard for life. People were his playthings, and when they didn’t do what he wanted, he either forced their hand or wiped them out completely. He killed his own family for deserting him in Paris.
    Like it was their fault he murdered people, got caught, and thrown in prison.
    If only he’d stayed behind bars, or better yet, gone the way of the guillotine. Off with his head! I wouldn’t have any blood on my hands and would be blissfully in the dark about vampires.
    Blaming me for anything to do with Jared wasn’t very cool, either.
    “Sorry,” I said, not masking the aggravation in my voice. “I’m still new to the whole killing thing.”
    Hey, I was human. Hesitating to murder a person, even an undead one, counted as a strength in my opinion.
    Valerie drummed her nails on the