by brett hicks
Kayla McQueen: Dark Bargain
Dedication:
I wanted to dedicate this book to my good friend and fellow authorNisha Prince.
You inspired me to stay the course and to do my very best in my work. You even took it upon yourself to handle the editing process of this book! There are few friends in this world as kind and inspiring as you! I am glad that you and I happened to meet and that we have had the chance to share thoughts and help inspire one another in each of our individual works of literature!
https://www.wattpad.com/user/Catherine_Edward
I hope that my readers will check your work out and that I will continue to enjoy a long fruitful friendship with you!
Chapter: 1
It was early June and scorching hot already in New Orleans. My feet were sore from walking the streets for over eight hours today. My blue uniform was beginning to look a little messy now, no longer the crisp, freshly ironed look from this morning.
My boss decided that the newbie beat cop needed more time walking up a beat on Canal Street. It was a beautiful day, but the humidity made it a bitch to walk in a blue police uniform all day. I, luckily had skipped the damn vest, since I am pretty hard to kill anyway.
My TO walked to my right side and made me look like a dwarf next to him. He was six feet and two inches tall. He was in his late thirties and he really did not like me at all. He made my life hell every day. He was not a bad cop at all, but he was a pretty closed minded human being. He also thought it was an affront to law enforcement everywhere that I was allowed to work supernatural crimes with Detective Jon Divichi.
We had another group of tourists walk up to ask for directions. They always bypass the little blonde and go to the big gruff macho man to my right. Sometimes I wonder if I am giving tours of the damn city and not patrolling the city. My partner did not seem to care much, because he was used to the beats of New Orleans. The high point of today was handing out a parking ticket to someone blocking off a fire hydrant.
We began to walk back up Canal Street and over towards Royal, where we left our cruiser parked on the side of the road all day. Thankfully, it would be a very short ride back to the station in our hot cruiser.
I had been on the police force since the middle of May, when I graduated from the academy. I was the first dyamphyr in history to become a police officer. Basically, I am a half vampire and half witch. I am a living vampire and a day walker. I do drink blood, but I also require solid food like any other living being. My captain was welcoming to me and my two werewolf friends who joined the force with me, but a lot of cops were watching us like we were perps.
We walked past a bar and grill and my stomach growled at me. I needed to eat and get some blood in my system. I left my spare blood in the break room on the supernatural crimes floor. They were one floor above homicide and it was the two floors I spent over ninety percent of my time on. All the way back to the cruiser all I could think about was getting to my damn blood stash in the precinct and checking in with Jon.
We were nearing our squad car, when I caught the unmistakable stench of grave musk; a vampire was hunting. My eyes flickered from their steel grey to silver and reptile like black slit pupils. I tore off in the direction of the stench and I left my TO in the dust. I rounded the corner of Royal and burst into the alley next to the Starbucks. I smelt the first hints of human blood now and I palmed one of my daggers into my left hand.
I blurred around the next corner, following the blood and grave musk like an invisible trail to my prey. I saw the vampire, he was easily six and a half feet tall and his stench puts him well over three hundred years old. For a lot of sups, that would make him very damn hard to kill, but I am not most sups.
His foggy brown eyes registered surprise, and then triumph. He clearly thought I was just a pretty little eighteen year old beat cop; he thought I was a mundane. Flinging my dagger, it ripped into his cheek as he dismounted the shivering brown haired woman and dodged it. The silver would have completely scrambled his higher brain function, if he had held still a millisecond longer.
He cursed vividly and snarled at me in anger, only now did he notice my glowing silver eyes and my smaller set of fangs. I blurred towards him head on and he obliged me by blurring to me as well. He blocked my right cross and I kneed his gut. He staggered back one step, and then swept for my legs, but I had leapt into the air and twirled to face his back, palming my dagger in my right hand now. I rammed the blade through his throat from the right side of his neck and out through the left.
Hissing violently at him I said, “I will just tear your fucking heart out, if you do not get on your knees right now!” He had no legal rights as a vampire and he knew it, the only hope he may have of a day of life longer was me. Despite the pain, he nodded his head weakly, communicating his compliance with me. I tapped my shoulder radio and began to report on my capture.
“This is Officer McQueen, I have one nocturnal subdued, requesting armored transport on Royal behind the Starbucks near the precinct.”
****
It only took them ten minutes to come to my location with a heavily armored transport unit designed for vampires, or other violent sups. The large titanium box on wheels was six inches thick and it had sixteen wheels to support the weight of its structure. I helped the Supernatural Crimes Division load our jackass vamp. They do not like help from outsiders in most cases, but they find my half-breed strength handy.
Being born dyamphyr, or half vampire, half human, it comes with many of the perks and not so many of the pitfalls. I am half witch and half vampire, so I am even more of a special little snow flake.
“Officer McQueen, we just retrieved your, ah, off duty weapon for you.” Ben, one of the early thirties SNCD detectives said and he handed me a plastic baggy with my still bloody silver and cold iron dagger. I had long since retrieved my second dagger, but I had to wait for them to “process” our perp to get this one back.
Ben was being kind to me, as per usual with him. He was one of the few who saw the major perks to having a half-breed on the force. He was tall, at six three, a whole foot taller than me; not that I have a height complex of anything! His bright orange red hair spoke of his deep Irish roots. He had a round and symmetrical face, with handsome features. His ocean blue eyes were like looking into the depths of the Atlantic.
“Ben, I need to get back to the station and grab my dinner, can I finish my report when I get to Detective Divichi?”
He smiled widely with his lips and his eyes seemed to smile at me too. “Course little rook, just get your dinner down first. Don’t need ya putting no holes in our boss.”
I rolled my eyes and gave him a sheepish smile and said, “A girl’s gotta eat Detective!”
“Ya, just not the boss, let us scare you up a nice juicy rook ta bite then?”
“One of these days I might just bite someone, just to prove I can ya know!”
He shook his head and laughed playfully and said, “Make sure I am there for that ya?”
I nodded and waved goodbye to him. Ben was one of my few friends on the force, besides Sally and Dylan. I made my way back to our squad car and Mike was following on my heels. He was leaking anger and resentment like it was the last chance he would ever have to express these feelings to me.
My TO, Mike Daniels, was climbing into the driver seat of the cruiser and I waited for him to hit the damn unlock button again. He seemed to make a chronic habit of locking me out of the car! After another thirty seconds of waiting he finally decided I could sit the fuck down. Someday I was seriously going to bite him and not in any way he would enjoy either!
Mike never really spoke to me much, unless he had something he really had
to say. He took his job as TO very seriously, but he hated me. Mike is one of the cops who has been around long enough to have killed a few vampires. He has seen the kind of chaos they can cause. He has arrested plenty of shifters too, but he particularly hates vampires. I cannot really blame him; after all, we do drink blood!
It was a very short ten minute ride back to the 8th and I was glad to be off the damn humid streets. My feet were sore, but once I got my blood I would feel fine. I walk into the station and I hear the cat calls directed at me. I rolled my eyes as a middle aged balding patrol sergeant comes up to me.
“Hey McQueen, Jamison was telling me you love to suck, is that true?”
I did not even give him the benefit of seeing me look disgusted, I just gave him a salute and kept walking. Follow the damn procedures and don’t give the monkey a banana! That was another of their running jokes at my expense. One of the officers apparently had the epiphany that as a dyamphyr I must give a lot of oral sex. I’m not exactly sure what his logic on that one is, maybe it is just wishful thinking on his part?
The sad thing about the men in this station, most of them would sleep with me, but all of them would still hate me after. Oh the troubles of being a lonely little dyamphyr in this mean city. I think I could manage to write a country song about it.
I ignored the cat calls as I passed the rows of offices on the first floor, to get to the elevator. I pressed six and I drummed my fingers nervously until the elevator opened onto the supernatural crimes floor. I made for my locker with all human level haste.
I had a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a navy blue, snug fitting, NOPD tee shirt in my locker. I put up my on duty weapon and I pulled out my off duty nine millimeter. I had it buckled to my belt on my left side. I had silver hollow points loaded as I always do. I also had a silver and cold iron throwing knife buckled next to my hand gun. This was pretty light weight for me. When I went out with the supernatural crimes division, I always had about five or six daggers and two handguns. I also have a full length katana forged of silver and cold iron. My boss had convinced me to calm down on my arsenal unless I was actually hunting something.
I finished tying up my black and white flat top sneakers and I walked out of the locker room. I made a B line for the fridge in the break room. I found my pint of type A right where I left it, on the bottom shelf. I sniffed it, before I turned it up and chugged it. I was ravenous and I completely forgot that other cops were in here with me. My eyes had gone silver and slit like snake eyes.
I licked the bit of blood from my lips and I went crimson in the face, when I realized I had four guys staring at me. Two of them flinched when they saw my eyes. I quickly made my eyes shift back to their normal stormy grey color. I really needed to stop eating in front of people, because it was not doing much for my popularity in the station.
I walked out of the break room and weaved down the rows of desks until I came to a stop at Detective First Grade Jon Divichi’s desk. He was on the land line and he held up a finger and gestured for me to take a seat. I sat down across from him and I waited for him to finish his call.
“We’ll be right over, ma’am. Yes, yes she is coming. Ok, I will see you then, ma’am.”
I quirked up an eyebrow and waited for him to address me as he hung up the phone. He looked over to me and his hazel green eyes bore into me. I wanted to squirm a little, because he was very young and very hot to be a ranking detective. I have never done very well with cute males giving me attention.
“Kayla we have a case, murdered witch. Let’s take my car and head over to the coven.”
I give him a bit of a pensive look and say, “When you say the coven, you mean which coven, exactly?”
He gave me an amused smile that showcased his adorable dimples and said, “Your coven of course.”
I harden my look into a full on frown now. “I do not have a coven, you must be referring to that woman, whom I just so happen to share DNA with.”
“Yes, your grandmother’s coven is our destination.”
I sigh loudly and make sure I look a little pouty, but I stand up and start to follow him to the elevator. The short trip to the elevator, improved my mood considerably, because I was checking out the young detectives back side the whole way. I may be a virgin and half vampire, but I am still a young woman with raging hormones people! Not for the first time, I pondered what he would be like in a very intimate way. I was trying to convince myself that I would be ok with some casual sex, just so I could actually have some sex, but I knew I was lying to myself.
“So what did Daniels have you doing today, Kayla?”
I snorted and said, “Patrolling up Royal and down Canal all freaking day! The good news is you might see me making a lot of guest appearances on people’s selfies on Facebook tonight. Every tourist and their mother took a selfie with me today. Just once I wish the myth about being captured in a photo was a real thing.”
He snorted in amusement at me and said, “Well might not work on you since you’re not exactly all vampire chérie.”
I just shrugged and smiled a little bit, because that was a kind thing to tell a girl as insecure as I am. Jon seems used to my slightly less human habits. Hell, I have never seen him look sick at me, drinking my lunch.
“Jon, we got us a vampire headed into the precinct now by the way. I was coming to report a live capture to you when you decided to whisk me off to that coven.”
Jon’s face was blank cop now and he said, “So tell me everything then.” I nodded and began to recount the whole event for him, straight forward, smell vampire, find vampire, and then stab vampire.
Jon nodded a few times and he tapped a few buttons on his smart phone. I heard Ben on the other end of the line answering.
“Ben, keep that vamp fresh for us, no one is to go in until Kayla and I get back. We will need to have her help in asking the questions.”
Ben said, “You mean you need the expertise of an experienced vampire torturer.”
Speaking loudly enough to be heard by Ben I said, “You boys always need a woman’s touch to get your work done right.”
Ben laughed on the other end and Jon rolled his eyes, but I saw the hint of the ghost of a smile on his bland cop face. He could resist my charms all he wanted to, but we both knew that he did find me funny.
“I will have our little princess back as soon as I can Ben. Hold down the fort and I need you to gather all the witches on the force. We have a matter that will require their full attention I fear. I will fill you in once we get back from meeting with the coven leader.”
“Ok, say hi to Kayla’s granny from all of us.”
I growled in annoyance, she may have sort of helped us bring down a crazy teen necromancer, but she was not in my good graces by any stretch! She still behaved like I was better off dead; though she masked it better these days.
We drove down towards the Mississippi and we reached the fully silver gated community of witches of the McQueen coven. This was not my first trip into my grandmother’s completely self-sufficient community of witches. They had generals store and bar and grills in this community. They seemed to be set up like an old mid-evil keep community. My grandmother ruled over this place like the queen our family surname implied.
A pair of young novices flagged us through the opening gates and our unmarked car began to crawl forward. I looked at Jon and said, “You got that protection talisman I made you?”
He looked at me to see if I was joking and he nodded after he realized I was completely serious. “Ya, I never take that thing off. Never know when you might need protection in this world chérie.”
When we were alone, he always called me chérie and I would be lying if I said, his deep masculine voice had zero effect on my lady parts. He could turn me into a hot mess of little dyamphyr hormones, but I just took extra cold showers to remedy that problem. The cold was not really helping much these days, because I was a powerful ice witch. My power over ice made me immune to drastic temperatures now.
Jaden looked at me with her glowing green eyes and studied me with open distrust. She had not warmed up to me much, even after working with us to solve the deaths of half a dozen innocent girls and stop the revival of a dead voodoo priestess. I had fangs and Jaden basically would not trust me for that reason alone, then, and my grandmother did not trust me; Jaden was her lacky.
“Detective, so nice to see you again,” Jaden gave Jon a friendly smile and subtly raked his six foot one muscular form over with her green eyes. She liked every inch of his tan body and she did not hide that from me one bit. Sups had high sex drives and we were generally unabashed about our lust, except for me. I have the sex drive, not just the sex yet. I was about to growl at her for staring at him, and then she said, “Kayla McQueen, we feared you might have to be dragged into this as well.”
I rolled my eyes and very dryly said, “Jaden so nice to see you too!” My feigned enthusiasm might have been slightly unprofessional, but these people pissed me off on a constant basis.
“Right, well, let us off to the crime scene we wish to report to you Detective Divichi. If you are bringing the little half-breed, keep her on her little leash please.”
Not for the first time I wished I could hex the little witch with mystical crabs or something equally annoying!