Good, the Bad, and the Vampire

by Sara Humphreys

  Damn. Sadie’s laugh jingled through Olivia’s mind. Now you’re just talking crazy.

  Olivia shook her head and smiled. Her heart had been stolen long before Vincent made it stop beating, and besides, even if she did have her heart to give, Moriarty certainly would not be a candidate.

  Michael was a greasy little worm who used his family’s reputation to get what he wanted. He came to The Coven every Saturday night with his gaggle of dirtbags, and Olivia could smell his fear and feelings of inadequacy a mile away. He’d been trying to get into her pants for months now, and apparently was still trying, even after a multitude of rejections.

  She felt his eyes on her all night and had managed to ignore him, but now it was time to play the game. She had to placate the little weasel. Jerk or not, he was a customer—a customer who spent a lot of money in her club.

  Olivia flashed the most charming grin she could muster as she approached Michael and his motley crew.

  “Hey there, hot stuff.” He leered at her and his lips curved into a lascivious grin. “I was wondering how long it was gonna take you to get your sweet ass over here.”

  She wanted to bite his face off. What an asshole.

  “Hello, Mr. Moriarty,” she said through a strained smile. “Are you gentlemen finding everything satisfactory this evening?”

  “We’re just fine, aren’t we, boys?”

  He took a long sip of his martini as he ran his hand up the leg of some young girl who was draped all over him, probably believing he’d make her rich and famous. She definitely didn’t fit in with the other clubgoers. This blond was more mainstream and never would have stepped foot into The Coven if it weren’t for Moriarty. Many humans were easily swayed by money and power. Moriarty had both.

  “I’d be doin’ a lot better if you’d come here and sit with me.”

  The girl next to him made a noise of disgust, shoved his hand away, grabbed her purse, and stomped off. He shrugged and snickered as she stalked through the crowd toward the door.

  “It seems you’ve upset your date, Mr. Moriarty.” Olivia watched the foolish girl run from the club. She probably expected him to chase her. Not likely. “Looks like she’s leaving.”

  “She’s not my date,” he spat. “Just some bimbo hanger-on—you know how it is. She should know better than to do that.” His lip curled in disgust as he watched her leave, and the smile faded. Olivia felt the anger roll off him as he stared after her. “I don’t give second chances. One and done. Know what I mean?”

  “Yes, of course.” Olivia smiled tightly and looked at him like the black-haired little bug he was. “Well, gentlemen, I hope you’ll let me buy the final round here. It’s almost last call.”

  She motioned to the waitress who covered the three VIP tables opposite the bar. Suzie, one of only two humans who worked at The Coven, came over quickly, but Olivia sensed her anxiety long before she arrived at the table.

  “Sure, baby.” He leered. “You can buy me a drink.”

  Olivia wanted nothing more than to glamour this guy into dancing naked in the middle of the club with only his socks on, but the image alone would have to be enough.

  “Suzie. Please get our guests their last round.” She flicked her gaze back to Moriarty. “On the house, of course.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” She looked like a skittish lamb surrounded by wolves. She almost hadn’t hired Suzie due to her naive nature, but Olivia was a sucker for hard-luck cases. Suzie was straight from the farm and as green as the fields. By hiring her, she figured she could at least keep an eye on her.

  Olivia nodded and said a brief good-bye before working her way to the front door. The place was starting to thin out, since it was just about last call. The tension in her shoulders eased as soon as she set eyes on the only other human who worked at the club—their bouncer Damien.

  Damien, unlike Suzie, knew what Olivia and the others were. He was what some referred to as a familiar, but Olivia hated that term. It seemed like a dirty word, laced with innuendo and ill intent. Most humans who worked with vampires did it out of love and friendship.

  However, Damien wasn’t just a friend—he was more like family. He was the only human who knew what Olivia was and kept her secret, and not because he had to, but because he genuinely cared for her. She’d met him when he was a boy, spending most of his time on the streets and clearly heading down a bad path.

  She’d heard his cries one night, and even though it was against Presidium rules to interfere with humans and their problems, she couldn’t help it. That cry of a young boy in the dark overrode any rules she was supposed to follow, and before she knew it, she was plucking him from what was sure to be a deadly situation.

  She planned to rescue him from the local drug dealer and send him on his way. Yet the second she looked into those soulful, brown eyes, she was hooked. At first, she told herself that she would only check on him for a few nights to be sure he was safe, but those few nights turned into weeks, and then years. Since vampires couldn’t have children, Damien was the closest she’d ever have to a child, and she loved him as if he was her own.

  “Hey there, handsome,” Olivia said. She walked through the vestibule crowded with folks leaving for the night. “How’s it going out here?”

  “Hey there, boss,” Damien said in his deep baritone.

  He gave her his trademark toothy, white smile, the one that completely changed the perception of who he was. He was a wall of solid muscle, stood over six feet tall, and had lovely olive skin. One look from this hulking fellow would send most people running, but in reality, Damien was a giant teddy bear.

  “So is everything okay on your end tonight? Nothing, um, out of the ordinary?” Olivia asked as she scanned the exiting crowd warily. Damien raised one eyebrow at her skeptically. “You know, out of the ordinary for us?” she clarified.

  “Just the usual fare and a few drunken idiots. I did have one crier though, just a little while ago,” he said as he pulled the velvet ropes in for the night. “She looked pretty upset. I tried to stop her, but she ran away, down toward Sixth Ave.”

  “Mmm.” Olivia rolled her eyes. “That was Moriarty’s date.”

  “Moriarty’s still here?” Damien had barely finished the question, when Michael appeared in the vestibule with his posse.

  “We were just leaving, big guy.” Michael gave him a smack on the back as he walked to the enormous stretch limo waiting at the curb. Olivia put her hand on Damien to keep him at bay. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to go after him, because she wanted to punch the little bastard’s lights out too.

  “You know, Olivia, one day that guy is gonna get what’s coming to him,” Damien said quietly as the limo pulled away. “I just hope I get to see it.”

  “You know what they say, babe,” she said quietly. “Be careful what you wish for. Besides, his money is as green as anyone’s.”

  “I realize you’re not into live feeds like most of your crowd, but boy, does that guy deserve to be dinner or what? I know you can handle yourself, but I don’t like the way he speaks to Suzie or any other woman for that matter.”

  “I know.” Olivia smiled and rubbed his arm reassuringly. She knew he had a crush on Suzie but would never admit it. “Suzie is tougher than you think, and you know I’ve always got her back. Besides,” she said in a weary voice, “Moriarty’s not worth the trouble.”

  “Hey, you okay?” He looked at her worriedly with his arms folded across his massive chest. “Did you feed today?”

  “Yeah, well, not a live feed, obviously,” she quickly added. “Just from my microwaveable stock, which reminds me, we need to place another order with the Presidium’s blood bank.”

  She rubbed her temples absently as various patrons pushed past as they left. Live feeds were always best, but Olivia tried to avoid them. While the live feed was most rejuvenating, it was also the most dangerous. Live feeds were
like a drug. The more she did it, the more she wanted it, and each time it got harder and harder to stop. Besides, blood memories came with it, and she wasn’t interested in anyone else’s baggage. She had quite enough of her own shit to deal with.

  “This incident with Maya earlier really rattled me. She’s got to learn not to feed in or near the club,” she said with frustration. “I don’t want any trouble. I mean, it’s not just my place of business. We live here too.”

  “What happened exactly?” Damien asked quietly. He leaned down and looked around to make sure no one would overhear. “I saw her leave with him last night after closing, so how’d she end up back here? I got some of the dirt from Trixie, but then Suzie came around, and well, you know.” He shrugged and smiled sheepishly.

  He knew Olivia wanted to keep Suzie in the dark about the vamps because it was bad enough she’d let Damien in on their world. It took years for the Presidium to accept him, and accept would be a generous description of their feelings on humans in the know. Tolerate was a more appropriate word.

  “I saw her leave with that meathead last night after closing. I figured she’d ditch him before sunrise, so I locked up and went downstairs to sleep. Then tonight, right after sundown, I go run an errand, and when I come back, I find her in the middle of the club with her boy toy.” Olivia looked past him and through the door at Maya, who was cleaning up the bar. “She obviously brought him back here just before sunrise and messed with him all day long. I’m not sure why she’d do that,” she murmured.

  “My guess is that she wanted to get a rise out of you. Want me to talk to her?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I’ll speak to her again before she leaves tonight. She’s my…”

  “Responsibility,” Damien finished for her. He sighed and shook his head. “Not everyone is your responsibility, you know.”

  “No, but she is.” Olivia patted his shoulder wearily. “I hear the last song of the night.” Sadie always played The Strike Nineteens’s “Forever in Darkness” as the final tune, and the irony was never lost on Olivia. “Time to go inside and clear out the stragglers.”

  As she turned to go back inside, an oddly familiar voice floated over, and the scent of the ocean filled her head.

  “Excuse me. Can you tell me where I can find Ms. Olivia Hollingsworth?”

  Olivia stopped dead in her tracks, and the tattoo on the nape of her neck burned. Her fangs erupted, and little licks of fire skittered up her spine, as one note of that smooth, velvety voice banished all self-control. She closed her eyes and willed her quaking body to settle.

  It can’t be.

  Terrified and hopeful, Olivia steeled herself with courage she’d forgotten she had. She turned around, excruciatingly slowly, and found herself face-to-face with the man of her dreams and the love of her life.

  The problem was he’d been dead for almost three hundred years.

  Order Sara Humphreys's first book

  in the Dead in the City series

  Tall, Dark, and Vampire

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  by Asa Maria Bradley

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  Leif Skarsganger and his elite band of immortal warriors have been charged to protect humanity from the evil Norse god Loki.

  Under attack from Loki’s minions, Leif is shocked to encounter a dark-haired beauty who fights like a warrior herself. Wounded and feverish, the Viking kisses her, inadvertently triggering an ancient Norse bond. But when Naya Brisbane breaks away and disappears before the bond is completed, Leif’s warrior spirit goes berserk. If Leif doesn’t find her fast, he’s going to lose himself to permanent battle fury.

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  “Bradley is a new force to be reckoned with in the paranormal genre! Move over Highlanders…the Vikings are coming!” —Rebecca Zanetti, New York Times bestselling author of the Dark Protector series

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  by Paige Tyler

  New York Times and USA Today bestselling author

  The new gang of thugs in town is ruthless to the extreme—and a pack of wolf shifters. Special Wolf Alpha Team discovers this in the middle of a shootout. When Eric Becker comes face to face with a female werewolf, shooting her isn’t an option, but neither is arresting her. She’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen—or smelled. Becker hides her and leaves the crime scene with the rest of his team.

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  “Bring on the growling, possessive alpha male… A fast-paced and super-exciting read that grabbed my attention. I loved it.” —Night Owl Reviews Top Pick, 5 Stars

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  SEAL Wolf in Too Deep

  by Terry Spear

  USA Today bestselling author

  His love is dangerous

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  For Debbie, working with another top-notch diver like Allan is too good to be true, and their mutual attraction is hotter than she could have dreamed. Debbie suspects he’s hiding something, though, and she’s set on figuring it out—one off-duty rendezvous at a time. But when Debbie gets between a werewolf hunter and his intended victim, suddenly she is plunged straight into the heart of Allan’s world—a world she never knew existed.

  Praise for Terry Spear:

  “Terry Spear delivers the action and steamy romance expected by fans of her shifter stories.” —Paranormal Haven

  “Spear takes readers on a pulse-pounding ride… There’s plenty of action.” —Publishers Weekly

  For more Terry Spear, visit:

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  About the Author

  Sara Humphreys is the award-winning author of the Amoveo Legend series. The third book in the series, Untamed, won two PRISM awards: Dark Paranormal and Best of the Best. The first two novels from her Dead in the City series have been nominated for the National Readers’ Choice Award. Sara was also a professional actress. Some of her television credits include, A&E’s Biography, Guiding Light, Another World, As the World Turns, and Rescue Me.

  She loves writing hot heroes and heroines with moxie, but above all, Sara adores a satisfying happily ever after. She lives in New York with Mr. H., their four amazing sons, and two adorable pups. When she’s not writing or hanging out with the men in her life, she can be found working out with Shaun T in her living room or chatting with readers on Facebook.

  For a full list of Sara’s books, please visit her website.