Bulletproof Damsel Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Bulletproof Damsel

  Amelia Hutchins

  Copyright ©October2020 Amelia Hutchins

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book in its entirety and in portions is the sole property of Amelia Hutchins.

  Bulletproof Damsel Copyright©2020 by Amelia Hutchins. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic, paperback or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

  This eBook/Paperback is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to place of purchase and buy your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Authored By: Amelia Hutchins

  Cover Art Design: Eerily Designs

  Copy edited by: Melissa Burg

  Edited by: Melissa Burg

  Published by: Amelia Hutchins

  Published in (United States of America)

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Dedication

  For my first pet Tyler, the best dog ever. Thank you for being my first real friend and walking me home from school every day, even if you did growl at my teacher. You were the best dog, my first friend, and the model in which I aim for every dog to be. Now, if you could give Gunner (Sir Barks-A-lot) and Milo (Satan) some lessons, that would be amazing.

  Chapter One

  The headlights of an oncoming truck blinded me on the two-lane highway. Traveling at a steady pace, I was making great time over the passes, and through the backroads of Washington State, heading to the last place on earth I wanted to go: Home. I hadn’t been home in over five years, and while I’d missed it, I hadn’t missed fighting with my overprotective mother. I also didn’t miss the ugly argument we’d had on the day I’d left to join E.V.I.E. to fight on the right side of the war against immortal beings that preyed on the weak.

  I could still hear her screaming at me, even though my memories were blank in places, something those at the E.V.I.E. compound had noted upon my entry. It was as if someone or something had messed with them, but there was no proof, so there was no reason to go digging into my head for more information since that was both dangerous and time-consuming.

  Studying the mountain range ahead, I frowned, remembering how I found this place and thinking how perfect it was. I’d spent years moving around with my mom until we’d finally settled in the Inland Northwest, nestled high in the mountains.

  It should have been safe enough, but she was fearful of being discovered, and it had driven me bat-shit-bonkers. My mother’s endless talk of the Van Helsings finding us and removing the threat we posed had driven me insane. She’d homeschooled me, forcing me into a life where I had no outside contact with anyone. Not until I’d finally run away and discovered an entire network of creatures that hunted down bad guys.

  At seventeen years of age, I’d done what any other teenage girl would have done. I joined an army-type hunter’s guild that secretly kept humans safe from the otherworld creatures. I had gone through years of rigorous training, learning how to hunt and bring down immortal beings.

  By the age of eighteen, I’d mastered weaponry classes and graduated as a hunter. By twenty, I’d become the head weapons master of the Pacific Northwest, and created tools used to hunt our enemies without the body count of agents being a factor. I had done things most adults hadn’t accomplished in their entire lifetime. Of course, my mother hadn’t seen it that way.

  She was the reason I was coming home today. She’d failed to answer mine or my sibling’s calls for the last two weeks, which was unlike her. I turned off the highway and headed up the old gravel road that led deep into the woods. I cursed, hitting deep ruts in the road with the expensive Audi I’d loaned from E.V.I.E. to return home.

  Living in Seattle inside the bunker, I didn’t need an expensive car, let alone own one. Driving in Seattle was crazy enough, so thankfully, we had drivers who took us where we needed to go, and everything else we ordered online. It reduced our chances of being caught outside the company, but they also liked us to stay close in case the need to relocate occurred. Luckily, that was something that had only happened once since I’d joined.

  Pulling up in front of the cabin, I narrowed my gaze, inspecting my surroundings. The rocking chair on the porch lay on its side. The windows had shattered, apparently from the inside since the light from the headlights revealed glass outside.

  Swallowing, I frowned, chewing my bottom lip as I reached for the glove box to pull out the handgun stashed inside. Slipping it into the holster on my hip, I retrieved the flashlight from the middle console before grabbing my phone as I slid out of the car.

  At nine o’clock at night in the woods, it might as well have been a blackout. The sliver of light from the moon offered nothing to help me see the footpath to the cabin. At the door, I pushed my phone into my pocket and clicked on the flashlight, noting the salt line in front of the door was disturbed.

  “Mom?” I called, praying she answered, and it had just been a spell that had gone awry.

  Silence met my call. I shook off the sensation of unease as I slowly stepped into the house, turning on the light switch. Nothing happened, which caused my frown to deepen. My feet crunched over broken glass as I moved deeper into the house, withdrawing my gun, and pointing the business end to where the flashlight shined.

  The cabin wasn’t huge, but then my mom bought it because it sat on the ley lines that made our magic more potent when casting. It boasted of a large, open front room, kitchen, and sma
ll dining area with two bedrooms and a full basement converted into an armory. Shining the flashlight toward the kitchen, I found the table smashed into two wooden pieces, the scent of rotting food and magic assaulting me.

  Ignoring the signs of struggle, I walked on shaky legs into the bedroom, opening the door with my foot. I took in the disheveled bed and broken picture frames that covered the surrounding floor. Tears pricked my eyes as I turned, moving toward the one other room in the house, clearing my old bedroom, and the bathroom.

  Whispering a prayer to the witches of old, I heard the sound of salt scraping over wood as it recreated the barrier around the house. Slipping my gun into the holster, I dialed my oldest sister. The call went straight to voicemail, and I muttered my message before hanging up.

  “What the hell did you do, Momma?” I aimed the light around the floor, before lifting it toward the wall, finding silver bullets pebbling the plaster along with blood spatter. “That can’t be good.”

  I ran my fingers over the bullets in the wall, brushing them over the dried blood. My phone chirped, scaring the life out of me, and I frowned at my response, rolling my eyes as I answered in a singsong tone.

  “Remington, what?” Winchester Silversmith demanded coldly.

  “I do hate it when you use my full name, Winnie,” I groaned, hearing the all too familiar grunt of her response.

  “And I hate it when you shorten mine. To what do I owe the displeasure of this phone call? I intend to murder my phone after we’ve finished the call.”

  “Have you heard from mom lately by chance?” I asked, still smiling at the displeasure I imagined was on her too-perfect face.

  Winchester Silversmith was blessed with the Silversmith looks. Unlike my red hair, she was born with the stylish silver-blonde strands known for the Silversmiths. My eyes were electric-blue, giving away pretty much every emotion that went off inside of my head, while hers were ice-blue and as cold as her insides. I loved her, but she made the arctic look warm and fuzzy on her best day.

  “No, I have not. I don’t make it a habit of knowing our mother’s every move as you do, Remington. She’s probably sitting at home trying to figure out how to answer your call.”

  “Nope, because I’m standing in her house, and it’s a mess.”

  The call went silent, and I held it away from my face to make sure she hadn’t hung up on me.

  “What?” she demanded carefully. I took a moment to enjoy the fact that I’d made her speechless. “Why are you there, Remington Silversmith?” I frowned at her sharp tone.

  “I’m in her house, Winnie. Someone cut the table into two large, upturned pieces, and scattered potions all across the floor. Either silver bullets have become all the style as wall décor, or she used them to attack someone. There’s only a little bit of blood, which is good. Her bed is a mess, and you and I both know she wouldn’t leave the house without making it first. Tidiness is how a lady starts her day, after all,” I repeated the mantra my mother had sang to me every freaking morning as she loomed over me, ensuring I had made my bed before stepping foot outside my bedroom.

  “What else do you see?” she asked softly, her voice finally holding the panic I felt standing in the shattered mess of my mother’s home.

  “Someone or something breached the salt line, and the windows are all broken, blown out of the house instead of inward. Rotten food was on the counter, along with a half pot of coffee that smells like shit.” I walked to the pot, tilting it as my nose turned up, and the sludge within it made a sickening noise as it moved. “I can’t smell anything else over the potions shattered on the floor.” I moved toward the bedroom, pushing the door open to survey the room. “The power is off, and the pictures on the walls are broken, missing the frames’ photos.” I stopped in front of my mother’s desk and balled my hand into a fist at the spot where I should have seen the family bible. “The bible is gone, and all the desk drawers ransacked. Someone was in here looking for something unless all they wanted was our bible.” Some asshole had taken our family bible, which didn’t actually contain our real names.

  “You need to leave, now, Remi. You need to get into your car and go home to Seattle.”

  “I’m not leaving until we find mom,” I groaned at her tone. “I’m not a child anymore, Winnie. I’m the weapons master at E.V.I.E., and I have assisted on countless missions.”

  “You’re twenty-one years old, Remington Alaina Silversmith!”

  “And you’re two-hundred and seventy-five. Yes, I get it. I’m a child in your world, but I am not a little girl anymore. I hunt bad guys, and they’re some pretty big bad guys, sis!” My tone was childish, but she was being an asshole.

  “You hunt unclaimed vampires without houses to back them. If someone came for Elizabeth, they did so under the backing of a house or houses. You need to go back to E.V.I.E. where you’re safe and out of their reach. Now! That’s an order.”

  “I don’t follow your orders anymore, Winnie. You’re in Paris, Colt is in Ireland, Sig is in Russia, and the others, well, honestly, I don’t even remember where they escaped. I’m here, and you’re not is my point, in case you missed it.” I bristled, uncertain why she thought she could boss me around from her current location.

  “Remi, you need to get somewhere safe. For once in your life, listen to me, please. If they took our mother, it means something big is happening. There are things we hadn’t told you. Things that you weren’t ready to learn when you ran away,” she muttered.

  “I’m ready now, Winnie.” I placed my hand on my hip, waiting for the line to go dead as it normally did when I asked her questions. When it didn’t, my jaw almost dislocated.

  “Do you remember mother telling you about the Van Helsings?” she asked guardedly, her voice lowering as if she feared they’d appear like Bloody Mary if she said it too loudly. At my affirmative reply, she continued. “They promised to eradicate all Silversmiths, which is why we don’t stay together. We keep ahead of them, or we did until you ran away. Mother refused to leave because you were in Seattle. A newborn Silversmith in the hands of a Van Helsing would be a catastrophe. Now go home!”

  “You’re saying this is my fault?” I snapped harshly, running my fingers over the bullets in the wall, feeling the call of silver that hummed as I touched them.

  “No, but if the Van Helsings have our mother, they won’t let her go easily. If one house has a Silversmith on their side, they’re damn near invincible to the other houses. The Van Helsings lost their footing when we cursed them, but also because we no longer had the alliance to create their weapons. Once upon a time, Silversmiths were bonded to them and only them. Silversmith marriages were arranged with the Van Helsings because they fought to protect us from the other beings, and we created their weapons. There’s a lot more to it than that, but it isn’t something to discuss over an open-line. Just trust me—you need to run and let us handle this.”

  I frowned, considering doing as she asked while I moved into the kitchen. Shining the light onto the counter, I scanned a piece of paper lying across it. I lifted a flyer from the stack of mail and studied the logo on it carefully.

  “Did you know there’s a bar in this town called Hunter’s Sanctuary?”

  “You’re not leaving, are you?” Winnie exhaled, and I didn’t need to see her to know she was pinching her nose with exasperation straining her face.

  “Nope, but I’ll call in a team for protection if that will make you stop demanding that I do.”

  “Your little hunter’s club can’t protect you from this one, Remington. You’re out of your league here. If there’s a sanctuary there, that means there’s also a Van Helsing.”

  “If mom feared these alpha houses so much, why stay here?”

  “Because leaving Washington State would mean leaving her youngest daughter behind, and until your twenty-fifth birthday, you’re mortal. Add in the fact that should you fall into the wrong hands, you could do something very stupid,” she sighed heavily. “Where are you staying tonig
ht?”

  “I booked a hotel in town,” I admitted.

  “Under what name?”

  “Remi Cordova, duh,” I chuckled.

  “Get there. I’ll call in some people to come protect you.”

  The line went dead before I could argue. I pushed the phone into my pocket as suddenly the lights came on and music started playing from my mother’s room. Now that that I could see inside the cabin clearly, the entire scene became real. Things were smashed and destroyed, indicating there was a struggle. My heart clenched while I took in the blood spatters, and then I exhaled slowly.

  My heart thundered in my chest when I noticed the corpse hidden by the broken table. More blood spattered the kitchen walls, and I noted the black sulfur that ran from the bedroom to the front door. Silently, I moved toward the corpse, using my foot to open his bottom lip to reveal fangs.

  Vampire corpse.

  Black sulfur.

  Broken salt line.

  Missing mother!

  Vampires, demons, and witches, oh my.

  Chapter Two

  Once I’d checked into the hotel, I made the call to E.V.I.E., listening as they explained politics in this region of Washington. Help wasn’t coming, which figured since they played by a rule of conduct and the local police hadn’t invited them. No bodies were piling up, and one missing witch didn’t scream foul play on a supernatural level. Not even the vampire corpse had gotten their attention.

  My phone rang, and I slid my finger over the screen, listening.

  “You do know I can hear your creepy breathing over the phone, right, Remi?” Nyx snorted, chuckling as if she’d amused herself.

  “Not a good time, Nyx,” I admitted, thumbing through the phone book for the club’s address.

  “Considering that you called the elders before calling me, I should be offended. However, as your official best friend, I’m going to let it slide this once. I’m currently getting on a plane and coming to you. You’re welcome.” The boarding announcement for Spokane echoed through the phone, and my lips jerked into a smile. “No, that’s mine, it does not go below! What if I need to get off while on the plane? I can’t just grab a male and take him to the bathroom with me. That isn’t sanitary!” she whined to the man, arguing that she needed to check her bags.