E.V.I.E.: 13 Slayers, 13 Missions

by Lexi C. Foss

My fire moved more quickly than both of us, and the flames started circling his torso. “No,” Louis shrieked, dropping to the ground to roll around.

  A giggle—which was seriously inappropriate, considering the circumstances—bubbled up my chest as I shook my head in disbelief. The stop, drop, and roll routine children learned didn’t do any good when it came to fire magic, something a vampire of his strength should definitely know. I pushed more power into the spell, and the flames swiftly engulfed his body. His shriek echoed through the forest, and then he burst into ashes. A huge plus to how vampires died was the lack of cleanup when the kill happened outdoors, meaning I could head out of town tonight. With Louis dispatched within less than twenty-four hours of receiving his bounty, there was a good chance I’d be able to enjoy the comforts from home for a little longer than usual.

  2

  Trey

  My alpha summoning me to his house was the last thing I wanted after spending the night in my tiger form, trying to run off the restlessness that had been bothering me for the past week. Not that Connor was a bad guy. I wouldn’t be part of his streak—let alone his enforcer—if he was. We had known each other too long for him to have not noticed something was going on with me, though, and I wasn’t ready to talk about it since I didn’t know what the fuck was up with my tiger. He was moody as hell lately and didn’t want to be around the other members of our streak. Tigers tended to be solitary creatures due to their volatile nature but not antisocial—which was where mine was headed if something didn’t change soon.

  I rapped my knuckles on his door before walking in, more out of habit than anything else since Connor would have heard me as I walked up the steps to his house. He was hunched over his laptop at the kitchen table with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk set off to the side.

  “Hey.” I headed straight to the fridge to pour myself a glass and snagged a few cookies, dropping them on a paper towel in front of me as I sat down with a chuckle. “Your sister has the strangest sense of humor.”

  Connor shrugged as he reached out to grab a cookie. “You know how much she likes to tease me.”

  I wasn’t sure where Carmen had gotten the recipe for the tiger cookies, but the combination of chocolate, crushed frosted flakes, and whatever else she threw in there was delicious. “I wouldn’t call it teasing. More like yanking your chain in the nicest way possible to remind you that she still remembers when you couldn’t shift into a six-hundred-pound beast.”

  “Yeah, but as long as she keeps feeding me while doing it, I’m not going to complain.” He shoved an entire cookie in his mouth, and I grabbed a couple more before they were all gone.

  After stacking the rest of my haul in front of me, I asked, “What happened over the weekend that you needed to see me before morning?”

  “Two o’clock is technically morning.” He knew what I meant, but he’d always been weirdly precise about time, so there was no point in arguing. Instead, I popped a cookie in my mouth, shaking my head as I waited for him to continue. “Shit went down in Pine Ridge, and we’re going to need to intervene before their trouble spills over to us.”

  My head reared back in surprise. Pine Ridge was the town closest to us, but crime rarely happened there. They only had a population of about two thousand, three stoplights, and an eight-room motel for out-of-town visitors. It was your stereotypical small town in the middle of nowhere. “What the hell happened?”

  “They’ve had three deaths in as many nights.” Connor pinched the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb. “Their sheriff wrote the kills off as animal attacks, but he had no choice but to call the state for assistance with them happening so close together.”

  “Fuck,” I groaned. Pine Ridge was about eighty miles to the east, but that was too close for comfort if there were going to be wildlife officials roaming around the woods with firearms. When shifted into our tiger form, Connor and I could both hit forty miles per hour and liked to run far and fast when we needed to wear out our animals. I probably put in a good five hundred miles this weekend. “We’re going to need to tell everyone to stick close to home for their runs until this blows over.”

  “Yeah, the last thing we need is for someone to catch sight of one of our tigers. Without the deaths, that would cause a panic. With them?” He shook his head, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “The humans wouldn’t stop hunting until they had a dead tiger to parade through the media.”

  “What do you think is going on?” There was no way in hell any of our tigers would be involved in something as evil as this, but Connor still would’ve started investigating as soon as he heard about what happened.

  “There’s a fucking bloodsucker in Pine Ridge.” He swiveled his laptop so I could see the screen. Blood and gore didn’t freak me out, but I set my half-eaten cookie down when I saw the crime scene photos. The victims all had their necks ripped out, which explained why the sheriff thought it was an animal attack. “Since you weren’t available, I sent Jake into Pine Ridge and had him say he was your deputy.”

  As Connor’s enforcer, I called myself the chief of police when I had to deal with human law enforcement since people weren’t aware we existed unless they had a close, personal connection to a shifter. Jake served as my second when needed, so the explanation fit. Nodding, I scrolled through the information Connor had pulled up. “I’m surprised they gave him access to the police reports so easily.”

  “Get ready to be shocked then because they did more than that,” he warned, tugging the laptop back around. “Jake was able to go down to the funeral home where the bodies were being kept tonight. He caught the scent of a vampire on the neck wounds of each victim.”

  “A vampire? Shit.” We’d never faced off against one of the nightwalkers before. I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be to hunt him down when vampires could replace memories in the residents of Pine Ridge.

  “Yup.” Connor picked up his cell phone. “That’s why this couldn’t wait. Damien is on the West Coast, and Seth said he’d be available to talk around eleven his time.”

  Damien was the top enforcer for the shifter council, and Seth was the head of the council. Since there weren’t any other supernatural communities nearby and Connor didn’t bother with politics, we didn’t have much need to reach out to the council for help. The few times we had, Damien was the one they’d sent out.

  A vampire dropping bodies left and right definitely warranted a call. Damien picked up after two rings. “Sorry, things have gone kind of sideways here, so I don’t have as much time as I thought I would.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I know how bad it can be when a mission goes wrong,” Connor assured him.

  “If only I was here for something as simple as a mission,” Damien mumbled.

  Connor and I looked at each other with raised brows. Damien was the only person I knew who would refer to a council mission as simple, and I couldn’t imagine what kind of trouble he was having if he wasn’t there on official business. The hulking dragon shifter wasn’t the kind of guy who took shit from anyone.

  “I’ll be quick.” Connor gave him the rundown of what Jake had discovered.

  “Although I can’t come out there, Seth made me your point of contact because I can help get your case assigned to the best slayer E.V.I.E. has to offer.”

  I’d never met any of the slayers who worked for the organization dedicated to hunting down vampires, but I knew they received specialized training before being given any bounties. They were best equipped to offer us assistance with this problem, and I wasn’t going to argue over Damien’s suggestion when he was unavailable to help us. “Who did you have in mind?”

  “My sister.” There was stunned silence on our end of the line before he added, “Denica is fierce as fuck, and I have no doubt she’ll be able to get to the bottom of your vampire problem faster than you expect.”

  Connor looked at me, and I nodded. “It sounds like we have a plan. Send her Trey’s and my contact information.”

  “
Will do,” Damien confirmed.

  “Any idea how long it’ll take her to get here?” I asked, concerned that the vampire would drain another human soon if he’d already done so three nights in a row.

  There was a pregnant pause before Damien answered, “Expect to see her soon. Slayers have their own way of traveling fast when necessary.”

  “Alrighty then,” Connor muttered after Damien disconnected the call without saying anything else. “Did you know that Damien has a sister?”

  I shook my head. “Nope, but I guess that’s not too much of a surprise since dragon shifters are so damn secretive. I just hope Denica doesn’t give us too hard of a time about sharing information.”

  3

  Denica

  Kicked back on my front porch with my cat curled up on my lap, I had my hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate with a shot of peppermint vodka and a crap ton of whipped cream on top when my cell phone rang. After slurping some of the creamy goodness so it didn’t all melt into my drink, I set my mug on the small round table at my side and picked up my phone. Stabbing my finger at the screen, I punched the button to put the call in speaker mode and growled, “What?”

  “Is that any way to greet your favorite brother?” he chuckled.

  I rolled my eyes and sighed, “You’re my only brother.”

  “Mom would be so disappointed,” he teased.

  “She wouldn’t be even a little bit surprised, and you know it.” Cara got irritated with my lack of attention and jumped off my lap, so I set my phone in her spot and picked up my hot chocolate again. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing new on my end.”

  I heard the thread of frustration in my brother’s tone and wished he’d take me up on my offer to help. “There’s no trace of her?”

  “Nothing more than the same barest hint of her scent that I’ve caught a few times over the past month.”

  My big brother was the best tracker I knew, which made his lack of success in this instance so shocking. For the first time in his life, the outcome of his chase was personal, but he hadn’t caught a single break since Carrick had told him he was acting like a shifter who had found his mate. Damien had been visiting the bear shifter who served on the council when he’d first encountered the subtle scent that stirred his dragon. “Are you sure you don’t want me to fly out there? I can call Jude to ask for a little time off. He’s got to be happy with me right now since I nabbed my last bounty within hours of getting into the town he’d turned into his killing grounds.”

  “That’s actually why I’m calling; to ask you to reach out to Jude.” My sigh of relief turned into a groan when he added, “Seth wanted me to see if you’d be able to take a case on for the council since a vampire is involved.”

  Normally, Seth would’ve called the head of E.V.I.E. with his request, but he had gone through my brother a few times instead since I’d joined the organization eleven years ago. The head of the shifter council had tried to recruit me to become one of their enforcers back then, but I hadn’t wanted to work under my brother. As much as I loved Damien, having him boss me around wouldn’t have been good for our relationship. After I turned him down, Seth had proven that he wasn’t above using that relationship to get what he wanted—me working for the council in a roundabout fashion sometimes. “I was really looking forward to having some downtime, but I’ll take on this case since you’re the one who’s asking.”

  “Thanks, sis. I’ll send you the contact information for the alpha and enforcer of the pack who asked Seth for help with this,” he said before giving me a rundown of what he knew about the situation.

  “Crap, it sounds as though I’d better give Jude a call now and get ready to head out soon.” I took a quick swig of my hot chocolate, refusing to let the delicious concoction go to waste. Luckily, I had a high tolerance for alcohol, and the measly shot of vodka wouldn’t hinder my abilities.

  “Good luck. Stay sharp out there, Denica.”

  I didn’t expect Damien to run into any trouble while he was tracking his mate, but out of habit I still replied, “You too, bro.”

  After taking five minutes to enjoy the rest of my hot chocolate and the view, I called Jude and wasn’t surprised when he answered on the first ring. “Jude Reyes.”

  It was easy to picture the E.V.I.E. head honcho in his office at our headquarters in New York City. He was probably looking at the neighboring skyscrapers through the huge plate-glass window behind his desk and wearing his usual tailored suit and Italian loafers even though it was late at night, and he most likely had the entire building to himself. I wasn’t sure exactly how old Jude was, but I pegged him for late thirties or early forties. He’d worked his way up through the ranks to the director role and had a well-earned reputation for being ruthless but fair. I respected the heck out of the man, which was a big part of why I had never second-guessed my decision to become a slayer.

  “Hey, Jude. It’s Denica.” I knew he had caller ID, but I still always identified myself when I called because it felt weird not to.

  “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon after you filed the report on your last mission. Everything okay?” he asked.

  Wanting to enjoy my time at home, I had finished my report as soon as I returned. Although I was going to head right back out on another bounty, at least I wouldn’t still have it hanging over my head since I hated doing paperwork. “Damien called. There’s a tiger streak with a vampire problem, and Seth wants my help.”

  “Of course the bear shifter had your brother reach out to you instead of calling me himself. Again.” He’d gotten used to Seth going around the usual protocols years ago, so there was only the slightest hint of exasperation in his tone. “What’s going on?”

  I shared the details Damien had given me, ending with, “If you sign off on the bounty, I’ll head there tonight.”

  “Like there was any doubt I’d agree,” he grumbled, making me smile.

  Standing, I lifted Cara out of her faux-fur bed and carried her into the house. “I’ll take that as your official go-ahead then.”

  “Please do, and check in with me if you think you’ll need additional resources once you get to Tigerville.”

  “Tigerville?” I echoed, bringing Cara up to my face to press a kiss to her nose and earning myself a swipe of her paw. “Not exactly subtle for a streak of tigers trying to keep their secret from humans.”

  As I set her on the floor, Jude explained, “Their alpha, Connor Tigre, is a descendant of the town’s founding family. His great-great-great-grandfather spun it as a typo they chose not to fix, and everyone seemed to buy it without too many questions. Now it’s the story that the locals enjoy telling whenever someone asks about the uniqueness of the town name.”

  “So what you’re saying is I should definitely make a smart-ass remark about a bunch of tiger shifters living in Tigerville,” I joked.

  “Sure, go ahead and pull a tiger’s tail,” he smoothly agreed. “See what it gets you.”

  Making fun of the town that was named by an ancestor of the streak’s alpha would probably end up with a brawl since tiger shifters tended to be relentless fighters with a short fuse. “Sounds like a fun time to me.”

  “Your warped sense of adventure is part of what makes you such a great slayer.”

  His compliment—albeit a touch backhanded—made me grin. “Aww, thanks Jude.”

  “You’re welcome, but I’ll deny ever saying it if you brag to your slayer sisters.” As we said our goodbyes, I laughed off his warning since it wasn’t the first time I’d heard something like it from him—and I was fairly certain my fellow slayers could say the same.

  After rinsing out my mug and putting it in the dishwasher, I refilled Cara’s automatic food and water dispensers and changed out the litter in both of her boxes. Then I fired off a quick text to my neighbor Jason asking him to check on her if I didn’t make it back within the next couple of days. With that all taken care of, I spent the next fifteen minutes playing and cuddling
my cranky kitty before I grabbed the bag I hadn’t unpacked yet and headed out the door.

  One of the reasons I’d chosen my home was its proximity to the only portal in the surrounding area. It only took me fifteen minutes to get to the underground location that let me travel across the world in the blink of an eye. My dragoness wasn’t a fan of using the portals—she wanted me to let her loose to fly instead—but the windows to other places and realms were quite useful. With my third time using one today, the portals will have allowed me to travel a total of almost five thousand miles in mere seconds.

  Moving quickly through the cave system where this one was located, I paused in front of the glittering curtain that would take me halfway across the country to the portal closest to Tigerville. Before I stepped through it, I scanned the shimmering space for any sign of life. After confirming the coast was clear, I ignored my dragon’s huff of disapproval and stepped through the portal. It was one I hadn’t used before, and I was pleased to find myself in the middle of a wooded area once I made my way through the rock formation that hid its location. The waning crescent moon hung high in the sky, and I didn’t sense anyone within miles. Since I was about twenty miles from Tigerville, I decided to let my dragoness fly me the rest of the way there. Drawing on my fire magic, I shifted into my other form in the blink of an eye. Carefully clutching my bag in my claws, I launched myself into the air. It had only been less than an hour since my brother called me, and I was tempted to give her free rein to fly for a little bit. But lives were at stake, so I raced toward our destination instead.

  4

  Trey

  After spending another hour at Connor’s house going over the information Jake had obtained, I was beyond ready to get back to my place. Although it was three o’clock in the morning, an ice-cold beer and a dip in my hot tub sounded perfect. From what Damien had said, I assumed his sister would get into town sometime today. This was my last chance to enjoy my solitude before I had to partner with the slayer to catch the vampire who was putting my streak members at risk.