by Renee Rose
The blood drains out of Jordy’s face. She looks as tortured as I feel. “I didn’t know.” She sinks on the bed, the sketch pad in her lap, damning image on display.
Of course she didn’t. I’ve got to think clearly. Rationally. If I’m not the hunter, then I’m the prey.
I rub a hand over my face and clear my throat. “When did you meet him? Do you know?” There, that’s rational. Ask questions, figure things out. I’m Sherlock fucking Holmes.
Jordy hesitates. Her face twists in painful memory. When she speaks, she looks at the image. “It was recently. The past few months. I was blindfolded at first, but then they…got into things.”
“Sexual?” I ask, my voice cold, clinical.
She winces. “And other things. They fed. Just my pulse points at first but then—” she gestures to her heart. “I don’t remember that part.”
Makes sense. Heart blood is the most potent, but the most dangerous to take. Easy to kill your victim.
“Do you remember anything else?” She hesitates and I growl. “Jordy. Tell me now.”
“I felt like I was dying,” she whispers and my heart seizes. I’m an asshole, forcing her to remember. But I need to know. Everything I’ve worked for is at stake. “The vampires drank and drank, and I thought I would die. I passed out a few times. When I came to, they were giving me blood. Their blood.”
What. The. Fuck. Vampires sharing blood? With a shifter? Sounds like my arrangement with Frangelico. But why would they do that for Jordy?
When I ask, she shakes her head. “I don’t know. But it healed me. The blood made me feel strong again. But later, Augustine told me I’d failed. That I was too weak. He hated me after that.”
“So you tried to forget that night.” Until I made her remember. Yeah, I’m an asshole, but it’s time she knew. I’ve been playing house with a cute little fox for too long. Playtime’s over.
I tug the sketch pad from her hands and rip out the image of my enemy. A quick page through doesn’t reveal anymore telling images. I pause a moment on a sketch of my face, drawn lovingly, scars softened. “Kit—” the word sticks in my mouth. I swallow the endearment down. Gotta stay cool. No heart. No emotion. Nothing but the hunt.
I toss the pad on the bed next to her. “I’m going out. Stay.” I put enough dominance into the order to root her to the spot.
“Grizz—”
“I mean it.” If she leaves and Augustine finds her, he’ll get her to lead him straight to me. The hunter becomes the hunted. Not if I can help it. Once Frangelico and I question Benny, the truth will come out. Frangelico will give me enough blood to take out the one-eyed vampire and company. I just have to focus. That means getting a seductive fox out of my head.
With that thought, I head out of the bedroom without a second glance.
“Grizz,” she cries.
I stop in the doorway but don’t turn. “What?”
“I’m sorry.”
I make an impatient gesture. A sob hits my ears as I walk out, but I harden my heart. Stone cold hunter, hell bent on trapping his prey. I forgot for a moment, but it’s time for us both to learn: there’s no room in my heart for anything but revenge.
Chapter 16
Grizz
My cell rings just as I climb onto my bike. I answer with a grunt.
“Where have you been?” Parker snaps. “I’ve been fielding calls all day from the wolf pack. They want to know when you’re returning to the Fight Club to collect the package you left.”
“On my way right now. Meet me there. I need your car to transport the package.”
Trey is waiting for me by the back door when I roll up.
“You here to collect the leech?”
“Yep.” I resist the urge to lift the dumpster lid and check on Benny. Don’t want him burning to death too soon. “Just waiting on transport.”
Trey offers me a beer while I wait. At my startled expression he shrugs. “You threw a match. Won the pack a ton of money. I think everyone’s pretty much forgiven you. Everyone but Caleb. He wanted to beat your ass.”
“That bear has too much crazy in him. It would’ve been bloody.”
“Who was that redhead, anyway?”
I shake my head. The fewer people know who Jordy is, the better. I know there’s another fox shifter in town—or at least half fox. She’s mated to one of the wolves, but things are too hot to introduce them. Keeping Jordy safe is way more important than building her social life.
“Wouldn’t have guessed there’s anyone in the world you cared about,” Trey muses.
So much for hiding my feelings. Fates, I gotta figure out what to do with Jordy.
“If I needed safe passage for someone out of town, could the wolves provide it?”
His eyes light. “A favor?”
I swallow my pride. “Yeah.”
He stares a moment, then shakes his head. “No favor required. Not if you’re helping someone out of the goodness of your heart.”
A day ago I’d say I was helping Jordy for the benefit of my dick. Now, I’m not so sure.
We wait in silence. The white Camaro appears as the last fingers of daylight loosen their grip on the mountains.
Trey and I load Benny’s still body into the trunk of the Camaro to the soundtrack of Parker’s griping.
“This is a new car! Well, new-ish. We just got it cleaned!”
I slam down the hood, silencing the complaints. “See ya around,” I say to Trey.
“Yeah,” the werewolf rubs the back of his neck, slaps the trunk, and disappears into the Fight Club. If everything goes right, I might not be back here again.
If everything goes wrong, I’ll be dead.
“Grizz? Ya ready or what?” Declan calls.
“Yeah.” I pivot on my boot and point to Laurie. “You take my bike. The rest of you, into the car.” I tromp to the driver’s side and glare at Parker until he scrambles out of the seat.
The club looms in the rearview mirror until I turn out of the parking lot and gun it, ignoring the further protests of the shifter Stooges.
No more nostalgia.
I’ve got vampires to catch, and a murderer to kill.
“Where are we going?” Declan asks.
“Frangelico.”
There’s a flurry of frantic activity in the back seat. “We can’t go there! He’ll kill us!”
“Pull over,” Declan shouts, grabbing the wheel.
I do. “What the fuck?”
Laurie and Parker are already out on the sidewalk.
“We made a bet that you’d win the fight.”
“So?”
“So we might have borrowed a wee bit of money to do it.”
I sigh. “And you borrowed from Frangelico. You don’t need me to tell you that was fucking stupid.”
“You were supposed to win the match!”
My hands tighten on the steering wheel. I gotta get Benny to Frangelico now. Every second that passes is another chance for the one-eyed vampire to get away.
“Get in the car,” I order. “I’ll put a word in with Frangelico for you.”
“Really?” Parker perks up. “You’d do that?”
“He won’t kill you on my watch. Won’t even bleed you.” They’ll just be in his debt, which is arguably worse.
We pull up to the mansion and I park in front of the gate.
“Tell Laurie to park my bike out here,” I order before exiting and grabbing Benny out of the trunk. The sucker gurgles as I arrange him over my shoulder. He better not drool blood on me.
“And you’ll talk to Frangelico about our debt?”
“Yep.” I wave without looking back. I flag the attention of a lookout camera and tip Benny into view.
The gates creak open and I jog up the hill. Benny feels lighter. Loss of blood? Vampire anatomy is so weird.
This time, no guards greet me at the front door. The king trusts me. Or he’s impatient to get his claws into Benny. Or fangs.
“Don’t envy you, sucker,�
� I mutter to the unconscious vampire as the front door swings open.
Frangelico appears in the foyer, dressed in jeans and a white button-down shirt. It’s the most casual I’ve seen him. “Is this for me?” He rolls up his shirt sleeves. I’m about to point out that white is a bad color for what we’re about to do when Benny gurgles and jerks. The stake falls out and my burden starts to thrash.
“Shit, he’s waking up.”
Frangelico is by my side in a flash. Literally. I didn’t see him move. He didn’t even blur. Shit, fast vampire! My defenses stutter while Frangelico grabs his sired.
“Shh, I got you,” the king croons as if he’s holding his child. Which, in a way, he is. Benny’s eyes flutter and land on the king’s face, where they widen in terror. A moan breaks from the smaller vampire when he realizes who’s holding him.
“Good evening, Benedict,” Frangelico says in the fucking creepy crooning voice of his. “Have you been a bad boy?”
I turn away before I barf, just in time to miss Frangelico breaking Benny’s arm. The lesser vampire screams, but the king just lifts him. “Get the door, will you?” Frangelico asks me and I scramble. “We’ll finish this in the dungeon.”
It takes less than an hour for Benny to break. Usually I’d get involved, but the way Frangelico tortures his own is too much for me. I’ve given plenty of beatings—taken them too—but Frangelico uses both emotional torment and physical pain that’s beyond what I can stand. Plus his dungeon is full of medieval torture devices—actually from the Middle Ages. Fucking creepy. Benny thinks so, too, because he spills everything about the coup against Frangelico and all the players involved. Pretty much all of Frangelico’s sired were planning to overthrow him. When he finds that out, Frangelico drops all pretense about caring for Benny, and gets really cruel.
I almost pity the vampire victim. But then Benny screams something out about “Augustine’s fox.”
“What was that?” I lean closer to Benny’s face. No need to look down his body at what Frangelico’s doing.
“Augustine has a pet. He said you took her. He said he needed her back.”
“Did he say why?”
Benny shakes his head frantically.
“What about the one-eyed vampire,” I ask. “How is he involved?”
“He wanted the fox back too. The experiment is over, they said, but they still wanted the fox back. Something about hiding evidence.”
“Experiment? What experiment?”
Frangelico does something and Benny screams. “I don’t know! They don’t tell me everything.”
I nod to Frangelico and he makes Benny scream some more, but we don’t get anything else about the one-eyed vampire. Just the location of their secret club—behind the basement door where I cornered Benny.
Finally, Frangelico announces that we’ve gotten enough for tonight.
“Join me for a drink?” he invites. As he leaves, he caresses Benny’s limp hand. “I’ll be back for you later.” At Benny’s whimper, we leave.
“I gotta go,” I tell Frangelico after we’ve washed up. The king’s shirt is covered in Benny’s blood, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He washes his hands and inspects his nails as if he spent the last hour getting a fucking manicure.
“In a minute,” Frangelico says.
“Now,” I growl. Every second here gives the vampires a chance to clear out of their club.
“I promise to make it worth your while.”
Okay then. I follow the king into his living room.
“What are you going to do with your sired?” I ask. The king ignores me, going to the bar and pouring two glasses of whiskey. I accept mine but don’t drink.
Frangelico drinks his in one gulp and pours another. Is he trying to get drunk? Do vampires even get drunk? Shit, I don’t have time to play drinking games.
Before I can bow out, Frangelico murmurs, almost to himself.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to sire a vampire? What’s involved?”
I shrug. “Blood exchange.”
“Yes. A careful, constant feeding. The number of exchanges varies. Too many and you weaken the victim. Too few and the virus doesn’t take hold. Oh yes,” he takes my shock for interest. “Vampirism is a virus. After all the exchanges are done to ensure the victim is primed enough to accept the virus, it’s time for the final step. The sire kills them. The heart must stop and the victim must die. Only then can the virus take over. It takes heart’s blood. The deepest, richest, and most deadly blood of all. The victim spills their heart’s blood, the sire replaces it.
“It’s excruciating,” he whispers, studying the color of his drink. “Waiting by your youngling’s side, not knowing if they will rise again. If you snuffed their life out before its time.
“Of all the sins on my head, the deaths of my children are why I am damned. But damnation is a small price to pay to avoid the long penance: eternal life.” He sets down the glass with a clink. Again, he’s murmuring so softly I wonder if it’s meant for my ears. “I will live forever, alone.”
Lucius Frangelico, all-powerful king of the vampires, is lonely.
Enough of this. I’m not his therapist. I drain my glass and set it down on the bar with a clink.
“I’m going after the one-eyed vampire,” I say. “I need blood. Lots of it.”
Without another word Lucius goes to his bar and draws out a small cooler.
“Here,” he says. I take the cooler’s handle but he doesn’t let go. “This is more than I’ve ever given you. Use it wisely. Drinking all of this could—”
“Kill me, yeah, yeah. I know.”
He raises a brow and I realize I just mocked a vampire king. After a second he smiles and I relax.
“I was going to say ‘bring a person back from the dead’. That’s another use of vampire blood—did you know? Vampire blood—the most healing substance on earth.” He picks up his glass and murmurs to the liquid, “The humans would hunt and breed us, if they knew.”
I wait until he’s finished swallowing before saying, “One more thing…”
“Yes?”
“The shifters who borrowed money from you. To place on me during the fight.”
“Yes? What about them?”
Fuck. How do I say this? “They’re…they’re my friends.”
The vampire king grins broader. It is not a pretty sight. “And you’re telling me this because…”
“Because I like my friends.” It better not get back to the Stooges that I said any of this. “I’d be very upset,” I enunciate carefully, “if any of them got hurt.”
“Ah. I see.” The vampire laughs. “You’ve been hanging out with vampires too long. Learning the art of the subtle threat.” He bends to the mini fridge and fills his drink with ice while I grit my teeth. I’m this close to saying a stake isn’t so subtle when he shrugs.
“I have no interest in killing any of my debtors. You can’t squeeze blood from a stone. Or a dead shifter.” He gives me one of his chilling smiles. “If they cannot repay me, they will simply owe me a favor.”
I suppress a shudder. The Stooges might be better off dead. “Got it.”
“I wish you well on your hunt.”
I’m halfway to the door before I remember my original question. “And your sired? What are your plans?”
The king has moved to a spot in front of his French doors, looking out on the portico. Without turning he waves his hand. “Finish your quest. Have your revenge.”
“Don’t worry, I’m planning on it. But if I run across Augustine and the rest of your sired, do I have permission to deal with them?”
“If they have turned against me, they are no longer under my protection. You may kill them. Kill them all.”
I leave him looking out at the night sky. I have a feeling he won’t move for a long time.
Chapter 17
Jordy
“Buck up, lass, it’s not so bad,” Declan says. He and the other two have been trying to cheer me up since picking
me up from Grizz’s house. “You get to spend the day with us.”
I stare out the car window but see nothing except Grizz’s angry face.
“Here we are,” Declan sings as Parker pulls into a trailer park. Each lot holds a single wide, a patch of gravel for a yard and, towering over everything, a palm tree. “Home sweet home.”
The guys pour out of the car, carrying bags of takeout. I follow more slowly, rubbing my aching tattoo.
I thought Grizz and I shared something. I thought maybe, he’d give us a chance. We could be together if he’d just choose me.
But he didn’t, and I shouldn’t be surprised. My family threw me away. I give my all, and it means nothing.
As I enter the trailer, Parker’s on the phone. When the grey-haired shifter sees me, he ducks out of the room.
“Kit, come on.” Laurie waves at me to sit by him on a threadbare couch.
I try to follow Parker and Declan pops up in front of me. “Want some beer? Or some of this?” He holds up a flask and pries off the top. “My own brew.” He takes a swig and coughs until his eyes redden and water. “Delicious,” he gasps. Laurie jumps up and pounds him on the back.
I take the offered flask. Looks a lot like Grizz’s. I sniff the top and the fumes scald my nose. Parker returns and I hand the flask back to Declan.
“Was that Grizz?” I ask Parker eagerly.
The grey-haired shifter won’t meet my eyes. “It was. Says he’s left Frangelico, and he’s on the hunt.”
The hunt. Of course. “Did he ask about me?”
“He said we should get you out of town, and quickly.”
I suck in a breath. I was expecting this, but not so soon. But why not? Grizz doesn’t want me. He just wants revenge.
“It doesn’t have to be tonight,” Parker continues gently. “But soon.”
“It’s all right,” I say. “I can go.”
“No, no, lass.” Declan throws his arm around my shoulders. “Kick back. Stay awhile.”
For the next few hours, I sit on the couch and watch reruns on the television with a digital antenna taped to the window. Every so often the channel cuts out. Declan and Laurie take turns kicking the console until it flickers back to life.