A Bite Before Dying: Book Six Supernatural Enforcers Agency

by E A Price

  A couple of their numbers were creating a distraction round the front of the house, pretending to be so drunk they thought this was their house.

  The back door to the house was unlocked. Good job, too. The windows all appeared to have silver bars on them. Almost like they were trying to keep shifters out. Imagine that.

  It was mere seconds before they came across their first vampires. Ingrid was the first to react, taking advantage of their shock, leaping on one, tearing into him with one of her many knives. Calder took on the second, pounding his fist into the other vampire’s face.

  Ryder followed Frank through the house. More vampires popped out of nowhere, but the element of surprise was very much on their side. The vampires were far too arrogant to believe anyone could break in.

  Dumbasses.

  Vampires were stronger than him, but he was so pumped on adrenaline that it didn’t stop him for long. The moment a vampire came into his sights, his sabre-tooth took over, ecstatic to be free and bursting through the change, wrapping his enormous fangs round his head.

  If it weren’t for his worry over Juliet, he’d really be enjoying himself. As it was, he was just enjoying himself a little bit.

  The tiger dropped the vampire and growled as he spotted another. Okay, maybe more than a little bit. Rawr.

  *

  The queen shambled into the bedroom, dragging two of her protesting jaguars behind her. They cast forlorn golden eyes in Juliet’s direction. Here were possibly two creatures worse off than her. Though they weren’t under the imminent threat of sharing a bed with Matthew. Ugh.

  Juliet folded her arms. She could feel the rippling power of the queen. Unlike other witches who had been turned, she had retained her magical powers. Not only was she an old, strong vampire, she was also a formidable witch. Juliet should fear her, should respect her, should… oh, she could give two figs at that moment.

  “Is this the part where you tell me I’m not good enough for your son? I’m in total agreement. He doesn’t deserve me. So if you just tell him you forbid him from mating me, I’ll be on my way. I won’t even raise hell about the fact that you kidnapped me.”

  Katherine didn’t bother smiling; her hard face was set in a perma-scowl. “I’ll forget the hilariousness of your last statement – no laws can touch my family or me. I could rampage through this dreary city, killing everyone in my path, and the cops and SEA agents could do little more than ask me how my day is. No. Let’s forget for a moment you tried to kill my son, and have somehow bewitched him into falling in love with you. In spite of those things, of course, you’re not good enough for my son. No females are good enough for my sons. But I’m not going to waste my time trying to forbid him from mating you – I learned the hard way that doesn’t work.”

  For a moment the older vampire was lost in a moody reverie.

  Juliet looked up as she heard a distant growl. That sounded somewhat familiar. Her heart gave a thump, and the queen whipped her eyes back to Juliet suspiciously. Her eyes hooded, ogling her beadily for a few seconds before shaking her head slightly.

  “So, I’ve decided to kill you.”

  Juliet almost giggled at the casualness with which that was said. “Just like that?”

  The queen took on a patronizing lilt in her tone. “I’m nearly two thousand. I’ve killed hundreds of people in my lifetime. Probably more like thousands – I’ve lost count! Your death won’t cause me any pause.”

  Life really is one big carousel of craziness. She wasn’t sure which horrified her more – the mother trying to kill her, or the son trying to mate her. If it came to it, perhaps the killing would be preferable to centuries with Matthew.

  “What will you say to Matthew? He won’t be pleased.” The guy had been panting after her for half a millennium, after all – he didn’t seem exactly reasonable where she was concerned.

  The queen rolled her beady little eyes. “You act like I’m not experienced in these matters.”

  “Right, of course, you’re the Picasso of mass murder.”

  Katherine bared her fangs. “Ripping your throat out can’t come soon enough. You’re going to attack me. My faithful creatures,” she scraped her nails across the backs of the unsuspecting cats, “will come to my aid, attacking you, and then I will finish you off. It’s no secret you do not wish to mate my son. He’ll have no reason to doubt you will attack me.”

  “You’re right, I don’t want to be anywhere near your son – but he knows me, he won’t believe I’d do that.”

  “You set him on fire.”

  “There were extenuating circumstances,” Juliet said primly.

  “Ugh, I can’t wait until you’re dead!”

  Katherine flicked her wrist, untying the jaguars from their leashes. She muttered an incantation, sand the jaguars snarled at Juliet, advancing on her. The queen’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. She all but tented her fingers and cackled maniacally. Big surprise the supreme vampire ruler was a complete monster.

  Juliet took a couple of steps back, hitting the window. She slithered to the ground and held up her hands.

  “Easy, girls,” she murmured.

  The jaguars paused in their tracks.

  “Attack!” spat the queen.

  They moved closer to Juliet. “Easy,” she repeated softly.

  Juliet held still as the jaguars approached her, warily and uncertainly. She waited until they were in front of her and Juliet ran her hands over their heads, smoothing their beautiful fur.

  “Good girls,” she mumbled.

  The queen all but dropped her jaw in disbelief.

  Juliet nodded at the older vampire before issuing the command, “Get her.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Vampires aren’t so tough thought Ryder smugly. He fought as his huge beast, ripping any vampires who dared challenge him to pieces.

  Helped that he had some vampires backing him up. Helped that he had the element of surprise. Not to mention the fact that he could scent Juliet. She was nearby and knowing that provided a hefty punch of motivation.

  He was flying pretty high for a while there. One second he was taking down a bland, forgettable vampire and the next, another had a hand around his throat, roaring at him.

  This male wasn’t like the others. Power oozed from every inch of his pale skin, red eyes and midnight hair. He was stronger than any vampire he’d ever met, stronger than even Frank. He’d have to be. He was holding back a huge sabre-tooth tiger without any effort.

  Ryder snarled and swiped at the male, but it did no good. The male was choking the life out of him.

  Just when he thought he was going to black out, the male loosened his grip, sniffed and then grinned a vicious grin.

  “You smell familiar.”

  *

  The guard on the door burst in on hearing the queen’s furious screams. Juliet elbowed him out of the way and scrambled for freedom.

  The jaguars wouldn’t keep the queen down for long. It was time to get out of there before the damned vampire witch got her claws into her, or worse, Matthew decided he wanted to snuggle. Shudder.

  Juliet almost gagged as the mixed smells of blood hit her. There were vampires and shifters in that mix. Added to that the sounds of distant roaring, Juliet almost stumbled as she virtually flew down some stairs.

  What on earth was happening?

  Retracing her steps through the house, she ran into the cavernous ballroom. She really did stumble at what she saw next. Tripping over her feet, colliding with the floor with all the grace of a drunken elephant.

  Groaning, she looked up to find Ryder, shifted to his beast and tethered to one of the silver chains she’d seen on the jaguars. Probably worst of all was the fact that Matthew was currently holding the chain.

  *

  “Let him go,” Juliet demanded, her voice shaking in a fury.

  Matthew pulled on the chain, making Ryder grunt.

  Her heart chose that moment to start beating again, strongly and furiously.
<
br />   Slowly, she clambered to her feet, her fists curling, nails painfully digging into her palms. “Let. Him. Go.”

  “I tried, darling, I really did,” said Matthew patronizingly. “I wanted you to think he was dead. Wanted you to forget him, but you wouldn’t, and here he is. So now, you can watch him die. Him and all your friends.”

  “My friends?”

  For a second she worried Matthew really had rounded up all her colleagues from the SEA and brought them there, in preparation for killing them when she refused to bond. Juliet looked over at the bloodied group of vampires and shifters kneeling on the ground, surrounded by the queen’s guard. Who the hell were all these people?

  “I don’t…” Juliet hesitated, “I don’t know them.” She wondered whether there was any merit in denying knowledge of them, whether it would put them in more danger or not. But they were already in danger – it wasn’t getting any worse.

  Matthew didn’t believe her. “They came here to rescue you.”

  “They did?” She searched the group of people. There were ten of them, six vampires and four shifters. They weren’t SEA, but maybe she’d met them somewhere else. Nope, didn’t know them at all.

  Matthew tapped his foot impatiently. “This is irrelevant. They came here to rescue you. They made an attack against the queen, and now they will die.”

  “That’s not why we came here,” rumbled one of the vampires. He was fairly large, with dark eyes and a grim demeanor. Ryder howled in disagreement.

  “Silence,” snapped Matthew, pulling at Ryder’s chain.

  One of the guards slapped the loquacious vampire. Ryder snarled, and Matthew pulled the chain again.

  “Stop!” cried Juliet, rapidly moving towards them.

  Another guard advanced on her, he cracked his hand across her face so hard it made her ears ring, and for a second she thought she saw fanged birds circling her head.

  Matthew howled and quick as a flash, he killed the guard, tearing the dead heart from his undead chest. The guard registered surprise for a moment before collapsing, all life extinguished.

  Juliet dropped to the ground and started dry heaving. Lord knows she’d seen worse, but she really wanted to throw up all the food she didn’t have in her stomach. Ryder padded to her, the silver chain dangling from his burning neck, but he didn’t even seem to notice it as he started nuzzling her. She pushed her fingers into his fur, wishing them both a million miles away.

  The queen strode into the room, looking none the worse for wear considering she’d just been attacked by two wild animals. Her hair was slightly askew, and Juliet realized it was a wig. The urge to laugh was so much she buried her face into Ryder’s furry neck. Noah and Seth followed close behind her, grimly taking in their surprise guests.

  “There are strange vampires and shifters all over my house. What in Hades is happening?” howled Katherine. Her eyes sought her son. “Matthew what… you killed my favorite guard!”

  “He hurt Juliet,” groused Matthew.

  The queen gave Juliet a narrow look. “Is that a sabre-tooth tiger?”

  Seth and Noah looked around the room in confusion.

  “What is happening?” demanded Seth looking over at the captured vampires and shifters.

  “They came to rescue Juliet,” sneered Matthew. “They have failed, and now they will die.”

  “You can’t possibly kill the sabre-tooth,” pouted the queen, “he’s so rare. I’ll keep him for my pet.”

  Juliet tightened her arms around Ryder’s neck.

  “No!” whined Matthew.

  “Dear, feel free to kill the rest, but I would adore keeping a sabre-tooth.”

  “He’s mine,” snapped Juliet.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Keep your whore quiet, Matthew.”

  “Do not speak of her that way!”

  “Ryder is my mate,” yelled Juliet.

  The sabre-tooth snapped his head to her in surprise before letting out a rumble that she was sure was supposed to be a smug chuckle. Okay, so she’d been denying it fervently since the moment he made a claim, but she wasn’t going to bother denying it anymore. Not given the fact that she was about ninety-nine percent certain they were both about to die. Seemed petty to do so now.

  “Impossible!” spluttered the queen. “Shifters and vampires cannot mate.”

  “They can,” boomed the same vampire from before.

  The vampire guards looked uncertain whether they should stop him - less uncertain when the queen roared at all her guards to stop him.

  They moved to him, but Seth held up a hand. “Let him speak.”

  “How dare you!” screeched his mother.

  “This is turning farcical,” murmured Juliet into Ryder’s fur. He chuffed at her, which she took to mean, ‘you’re telling me!’. Either that or, what does ‘farcical’ mean.

  Seth glowered at his mother. “It is time we knew the truth.”

  The queen looked as innocent as a newborn kitten. “Darling, I…”

  “You’ve been lying to us for centuries,” growled Seth.

  His mother blinked at him, a petulant look on her face, though her eyes never lost their calculating edge. “Darling, let’s discuss this somewhere else.”

  “No, we’ll discuss this now. You lied to us about shifters and vampires being able to mate.”

  Everyone else in the room was silent and still, watching in morbid fascination, unsure what they should be doing. The queen narrowed her eyes at her eldest son, waves of anger pouring from her.

  Noah came around quicker than anyone else. “Nonsense,” he hissed. “You remember what happened to Alexsander.”

  Seth let out a bitter laugh. “I remember my favorite brother found his mate in a shifter. I remember he wanted to leave and mate her. I remember our mother tried to forbid him, and he ignored her.”

  “For his own good!” snarled Katherine, “and clearly I was right. How can you bring this up? It broke my heart when he died.” She clasped a claw-like hand to her fleshy chest. “You know how I still mourn my favorite son.”

  “Rude,” muttered Noah, though with more humor than heat.

  “What on earth are you trying to say?” asked Matthew disdainfully.

  Juliet listened to the conversation while desperately trying to free Ryder from his silver chain. This whole family drama was not to her taste, even though Ryder seemed to be riveted.

  “Tell them the truth,” Seth urged his mother, his eyes flashing dangerously.

  “I have had enough of this conversation,” she hissed, turning her back.

  Seth roared and leaped to her, grasping her arms, shaking her, so her wig was even more askew.

  “Tell them!” he thundered into her furious face. “Tell them!”

  “Seth!” snarled Noah and Matthew, trying to pry their older brother away from their mother.

  Juliet noticed she wasn’t the only one preparing to make a bid for freedom. The other shifters and vampires, who had apparently come to rescue her, were also trying to make their way out of their bindings, readying to overtake the guards who were enthralled by the family tiff unfolding in front of them.

  Finally, the two younger brothers managed to pry Seth away, he hung between them, practically frothing at the mouth.

  “She lied! Shifters and vampires can mate!” he roared.

  “It’s true!” piped up the unknown vampire from before.

  Juliet swiveled her gaze to him. Once again he rose to his feet, but this time none of the guards tried to stop him.

  “I’m mated to a lion shifter!” he declared proudly.

  Noah gaped at him before spluttering, “Impossible.”

  “She’s pregnant with my second young.”

  The other vampires and shifters started shouting out in agreement, shouting out that they too were mated to shifters or vampires.

  “I’m mated to a bunny!” a particularly large male hollered.

  Noah dropped Seth’s arm and looked at their mother in confusion. “How can
this be? How can this be possible if we are all still alive? Mating a shifter should kill everyone in their bloodline, which would mean either Seth, Matthew or myself would be dead.”

  If Juliet did not know any better, she would say panic briefly flared in Katherine’s eyes. It happened so fast, she couldn’t tell, and Katherine’s face quickly took on a cold look.

  “Obviously, they’re lying.”

  “I do not sense they are lying,” said Noah thoughtfully. He looked to Seth. “What are you to do with all this?”

  Seth shook off Matthew’s hand and stood tall. “I met my shifter mate four months ago. That is when I realized what happened to Alexsander was not as we thought it to be.”

  The queen paled and rushed to Seth. “No, my darling, you cannot possibly be thinking of mating a shifter.”

  He glared at his mother. “It will not kill me or her.”

  “But it will!” she cried, clutching at his shirt. “Don’t you see? I sacrificed so much for your life to continue, for you to become what you are today. I did it so we could live forever, together. But if you mate a shifter, your life will come to an end. You’ll grow old and die – you’ll be no better than a human! Alexsander was lost to me the moment that whore shifter caught his eye, but I can still keep my other sons.” She was sobbing now; her words almost lost in her tears.

  Noah looked sick. “You killed Alexsander. You poisoned him and his bloodline, didn’t you?”

  “I had to,” she snarled. “Even when I warned him of what would happen, he still wanted to mate that shifter. Still wanted to grow old with her and have her bear his bastards. He thought nothing of me, of everything I’d done for him. But I wouldn’t let him. He died for his ungratefulness and to ensure none of my other children thought of doing the same.”

  Seth pushed her away from him, pure fury lacing his every word. “Over the years, we’ve killed so many vampires thinking they were going to destroy us. We sacrificed them merely for your selfishness.”

  “Selfishness? How dare you. Do you have any idea how many wretched humans I had to kill to bring you back to life so that you could live this eternal life?”

  “You should have let us die,” he murmured.