Vampire Games (Entangled Ever After)

by Tiffany Allee

  Such was the price I had paid.

  And I had paid with my gift. Psychometry wasn’t a talent vampires possessed. I had lost my visions. My ability to witness murders after the fact. My occasional ability to glimpse the future. That was something that would have killed me a week ago, would have made me feel entirely worthless. But now, the idea made me almost giddy, if a touch sad, when I let myself dwell on the loss.

  “Getting melancholy on me, out here staring at the waves?”

  I smiled but didn’t turn around. “Just enjoying the view.”

  “You’re not missing the Midwest winter are you? Because I have a cabin in North Dakota that would provide the seclusion we need for you to adjust. It’s not Chicago, but it’ll do if you’d prefer the cold we left behind.”

  I shivered. Just the thought of the freezing Chicago wind was enough to make me never want to leave this small island. I wasn’t sure exactly where we were—I hadn’t asked—but it was warm here, humid. The beaches were beautiful. And we were the only people on the island.

  That was good enough for me.

  “Don’t you dare threaten me with cold, mister.” I turned and poked Claude in the chest. “Them’s fightin’ words. And they’ll get you bit.”

  He grinned and pulled me close for a quick kiss, but worry flashed in his eyes. I didn’t bother calling him on it. He’d eventually figure out that I wasn’t going to slip into a great depression because he’d been forced to choose between watching me die or turning me into a so-called creature of the night.

  I was glad he’d chosen the way he had. And someday he’d believe it, too. We had plenty of time. It had only been a week, after all.

  “Got a call from Lieutenant Vasquez.”

  “Your supervisor?”

  “Yes. He wasn’t too happy with me leaving him and the rest of the unit with the cleanup. That many dead vampires—well, there’s a lot of paperwork.”

  “I’ll bet.” I’d been unconscious for the day after the events had unfolded in my brother’s rural home. And I’d been practically a zombie for days after that—nearly a literal one. Thinking much beyond the hunger for blood had been impossible. And the heat that had roiled through me from Claude’s blood hadn’t faded for several days—after I’d died from my injuries, to be reborn as a vampire.

  I tried not to think about that part too closely.

  My memories were sketchy, but Claude had filled in the details. He’d let Nic go to save me—I remembered that much. But Luc, after making sure I would live, had found Nic on the front steps. He’d been nearly dead from the blow to his heart that Claude had inflicted with the sword, but Luc had cut off his head, just to be sure.

  It seemed that the father had finally run out of patience with his son.

  Before the police and paramedics had arrived, Luc and Eddie had left. I hoped that meant my brother still lived. And that somewhere, Luc was looking out for him.

  “I might have to fly back to Chicago for a few days, but I told him we needed some time here. OWEA is stepping in to help close out the case. But without Nic—or Luc—burying things, evidence is piling up. Vasquez is willing to interview you over the phone until you’re up to meeting with him.”

  I could do that much. Things were getting easier to deal with than they had been, and with each passing day my strange new world was starting to feel more normal, more natural. Surely I could manage a phone call. In fact, I could manage a few. I needed to call my parents and talk to them personally, instead of through Claude.

  “Evidence,” I muttered. It was strange. Words felt different coming out of my mouth as a vampire. As if everything had a taste. I turned back to the ocean. “I will get used to this, right?”

  He pulled me close, his hard chest against my back, and his arms cradling me. “You will.”

  “So what’s the evidence saying?”

  “Are you sure you want to talk about this now?” he murmured, mouth close to my ear, his face pressed against my hair.

  “I’m still an investigator. Or I will be, once I get a handle on this new B.S.” Like my new overwhelming desire for blood. Shit.

  No. I couldn’t get freaked out. Claude said it would get better, and I believed him.

  “It seems like we were right. Nic’s been building power. The brands that the giant told us were for torture—well, not quite. He bent the truth. An OWEA-hired shaman, with Natalie’s help, was able to figure that out. They did connect Nic to the selkie prince and others. But it didn’t allow for torture, it was to control them. Get them to do things at key times. Others he had blackmail material on, and I’m sure he had a couple of otherworlder leaders he was going to bribe. He had planned to take over his father’s territory. And given Nic’s narcissism and his stash of power, I’m sure that was just the first step.”

  It was as I’d thought, as I’d lain there on the floor, waiting to die. “I wonder why he marked my brother.”

  “Several of the vamps were marked. Just enough to ensure that Nic had some loyal to him when the coup came. Crazy though. The amount of power he would have had to harness to be able to control that many people would have been tremendous. I don’t know if he planned on only activating the brand on one or two at a time when he needed them, or if he planned something really horrible to drum up enough power to be able to control more.”

  “Anything on the shaman who helped him?”

  “Nothing yet. But with the resources the OWEA and Chicago PD are putting behind this, they’ll find him.” He took a haggard breath. “I’m still shocked that Luc knew—really knew. That he was sending me away as much as he could to try to bring Nic to heel. But all he did was give Nic more opportunity to build his resources.”

  “He loved his son.” And the whole family was off their rockers. But I didn’t say that. Out of respect for Claude. And out of a weird understanding for Luc. Even given everything he’d done—and perhaps more important, the things he hadn’t—the man hadn’t wanted to see people hurt.

  “He was desperate. And selfish,” Claude said.

  Truth. Not the whole of it, but it was true enough.

  Claude nuzzled my neck. “Let’s talk of more pleasant things.”

  I couldn’t help smiling again. I was doing a lot of that lately—smiling. Far too much for a person who had been near death a week ago, and who was still nursing wounds from the experience. But maybe that was the trick. The threat of everything being taken away gave me a new appreciation for it all.

  “What would you like to talk about?”

  “Us.”

  I smiled. That was fine by me. There was an “us” now. And it was something we could have for a very long time. Forever.

  Acknowledgments

  There are so many people I owe a thank-you for their help and encouragement with this project, and who have been supportive of my writing in general. I want to give a huge thanks to my family, my critique partners, my editors, and my wonderful publicity and marketing folks at Entangled Publishing. A big thanks to Katie Clapsadl, who is a special sort of publicity wizard and all around awesome person. And a big thank you to Barbara Rogan, who has not only helped me become a better writer, but has been amazingly supportive throughout my journey.

  A special thank-you to Kerry Vail and Regan Summers for last-minute reads and fabulous advice. My mother for never faltering in her faith. My husband for supporting me in the scary decision to go for this writing dream. Erin Molta and KL Grady for their always fabulous editing. And Robin Haseltine for her wonderful editing as well. Thanks to all of my friends and fellow writers for their support and kindness.

  Last, but certainly not least, a huge thank you goes out to all of my readers.

  About the Author

  CPA-turned-romance-author Tiffany Allee used to battle spreadsheets in Corporate America, and now concentrates on her characters’ battles to find love. Raised in small-town Colorado, Tiffany currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona, by way of Chicago and Denver. She is happily married to a secret
romantic who tolerates her crazy mutterings.

  She writes about ass-kicking heroines and the strong heroes who love them. Her work includes the suspense-driven Otherworlder Enforcement Agency series, which revolves around a group of paranormal cops solving crimes and finding love, and Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid, a lighthearted paranormal romance (Entangled Publishing).

  Tiffany has an MBA in accounting and nearly a decade of experience in corporate finance. All super-useful stuff for a writer who spends far too much time trying to figure out fun ways to keep her characters apart, and interesting ways to kill people (for her books—of course!). http://tiffanyallee.com

  Bite into another book from Tiffany Allee…

  DON’T BITE THE BRIDESMAID

  Alice Shepard needs one thing: a date for her sister’s wedding. And not just any date. A hunk who will make her fiancé rue the day he left her for her best friend. Her drop-dead gorgeous neighbor fits the bill—even if he is a bit quirky and never comes out during the day—and Alice has downed just enough appletinis to ask him. But she makes it quite clear that there will be no funny business.

  Spending a week on a cruise ship full of humans while sleeping close to his sexy next-door neighbor sounds like a helluva bad idea to vampire Noah Thorpe. But his friends need time to get him out of a shotgun wedding—a vampire bonding that will tie his fate to a female vampire he’s never met. And Alice’s offer comes at just the right time.

  What could possibly go wrong?

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