Snake Charmer (Shifter Squad Book 6)

by J. C. Diem

  “Your dog has really crappy timing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Dan and I were in the middle of our second round of orgasms when Zeus started barking right outside the bedroom window.”

  I blushed, remembering that I’d sent him to find her to keep him out of danger. “Sorry he ruined the moment for you.”

  She waved my apology away. “It’s fine. There’ll be other guys and other orgasms.”

  “Did Dan take your mind off Cole and Kendricks?”

  She shrugged one shoulder. “Not really. He was good in bed, but I think I have a thing for bad boys at the moment.”

  “Kendricks is more than just a bad boy,” I reminded her. “He’s a cold blooded killer.”

  She flashed me a smile at that. “That’s the problem. He’s just like me and I find that incredibly sexy.”

  “You can be so full of yourself sometimes,” I told her wryly.

  “Yeah. I know.” She wasn’t at all apologetic about that admission. “All cats are vain, you know.”

  “Cole and his pride certainly seemed to be.”

  “What did you think of Felix?”

  I shook my head at the reminder of the strange feline. “I think he has severe mental issues.” He’d told me that he’d had sex with a vampire, which went against our instincts. He’d told me that in confidence and I thought it would be best to keep it to myself.

  “He’s a bit too weird even for me,” she admitted. “No offense, but I’d never sleep with a werewolf.” She shuddered a little at the thought then grinned in an abrupt change of mood. “Then again, that isn’t strictly true. While I assume I haven’t had sex with either of you, I remember waking up with you sandwiched between Flynn and me not that long ago.”

  My blush returned at that reminder. “Flynn is surprisingly affectionate when he’s in his snake form,” I said in my defense. “So are you when you’re a cat. It’s impossible to sleep alone when you two are around.”

  “We can’t help it if we’re drawn to our alpha,” she smirked. “It’s your fault for having such strong charisma.”

  “How is that my fault?” I asked in outrage. “I didn’t ask to be an alpha.”

  “Yeah, but you’re stuck with the gig and now you have to make the most of it,” she teased. “I wonder how McSweeny would have reacted if she knew we’d both woken up naked with Flynn?”

  “I think she’d have put a bullet in us both.” We shared a chuckle then my amusement died. “I wish things could have been different between them. They made a cute couple.”

  “Like you said, none of us can be happy with a human in the long-term.” She was introspective for a moment. “At least he finally got laid.”

  “I’m pretty sure he was telling us the truth when he said he wasn’t a virgin.”

  “Yeah, but now I know for sure he’s not. I feel like a weight has been lifted off me.”

  “Why does Flynn’s sex life bother you so much?”

  She struggled to explain it to me. “It’s no secret that I’ve been with a lot of guys.” I motioned for her to continue without contesting that. “It’s sexist, but I can’t help but feel that our roles should have been reversed. He should be the one sleeping around while I’m the pure and innocent one.”

  I managed to hold in my amusement for a couple of seconds before I exploded into a laughing fit. “Sorry,” I gasped after I managed to regain control again. Her arms were crossed and she was pouting. “I just can’t see you as innocent or pure.”

  “Thanks a lot, Levine,” she said tightly. “I’m sure I must seem like a total slut to you.”

  That sobered me quickly. “I don’t think you’re a slut,” I said quietly. “I actually envy you, a little.”

  She looked at me askance. “Why?”

  “Because you can pick and choose anyone you want. You’re not locked into bondage with a guy who doesn’t even want you.”

  Her annoyance fled and compassion took its place. “Once Reece has bonded with the bimbo, you’ll be free to choose someone else.”

  I nodded, but avoided her eyes. She couldn’t possibly know that there would never be anyone else for me. I was fated to grow old and die alone. Unless the vampirism took me over, of course. Then my team would have to hunt me down and end my life. On the upside, at least my misery would end if that happened.

  Kala looked out the window and squinted at the faint hint of light that appeared on the horizon. “The vampires will be going to sleep soon. How far away are they?”

  “About two miles,” I said, glad to be distracted from my depressing thoughts.

  “We’ll wait a few more minutes then move closer.”

  Now that it was almost go-time, we focused on the task ahead.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Once the sun had risen high enough for the vampires to be forced to fall asleep, I moved the SUV closer. We entered the grounds of an isolated farmhouse that was far too still.

  Parking in the yard next to a rusty old pickup truck, I smelled blood and death as soon as I opened my door. Wait here, I told Zeus. He hopped out and dutifully took up a guard post near the vehicle.

  Kala’s lips were pressed into a grim line. We both knew what we’d find inside the house. Spying a swing set and a pair of small bicycles, I tried to brace myself as I followed her to the front door.

  Already unlocked, it swung open silently when she pushed on it. The house was large and sprawling, but there was no need to search for either the victims or for their attackers. The subtle odor of vampires drew us down the hall to the bedrooms.

  We glanced inside the first two rooms to see the small bodies of a girl and a boy crumpled on the floor. They’d been drained and then tossed aside.

  “I’m glad Mark isn’t here to see this,” Kala murmured. Seeing kids being abused or murdered always hit him hard after losing his daughter and unborn son.

  The scent of blood and the beginnings of putrefaction almost drowned out the scent of vampires. All four creatures lay on the bed in the master bedroom. They were naked and hadn’t bothered to cover themselves. Their limbs were entwined in a parody of affection that they weren’t truly capable of feeling.

  A thick curtain covered the window, but a wardrobe had been dragged over to block it. They thought they were safe, but they were about to discover otherwise.

  Both of the parents had been savaged and had multiple bite marks on their bodies. Once they’d been drained, they’d been kicked out of bed to the floor. The mother’s eyes stared up at me sightlessly, almost seeming to accuse us of being too late to save her and her family.

  “What’s the plan?” I asked Kala. “Are we going to stake them?”

  “Nah. Let’s just haul them out into the yard and let the sun finish them off.” She grabbed the master vampire by the ankle and dragged her off the bed. I winced when her head thumped to the floor, half expecting her to wake up. She remained dead to the world. The state they reverted to wasn’t really sleep. It seemed to me that the death magic that inhabited them went dormant during daylight hours. It brought them back to semi-life when the sun went down again.

  Watching Kala drag the vampire by the ankle brought back a fleeting memory of me doing the same thing to a bear. The memory faded before I could grasp it. Unwilling to touch the undead more than necessary, I grabbed one of the men by the wrist and hauled him off the bed. His flesh was pale, cold and utterly devoid of life.

  I reached Kala just as she heaved the master vampire out into the yard. With a bright flash of silver fire, the creature ignited. She burned to ash in seconds, leaving little residue behind. Zeus trotted over to inspect the remains then wandered away again in disinterest.

  Waving flecks of ash away from her face, Kala grinned widely. “That was awesome! I don’t think I could ever get tired of seeing that.”

  Then it was my turn to toss the vampire into the sun. He turned just as crispy as his master and we returned for the final two monsters.
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  “That really is a quick and efficient way of killing them,” I noted when they were reduced to nothing. Kala turned to me and I could see she had a question in mind, but was wary about asking it. “What?” I said to prompt her.

  “Holy objects have the power to hurt you now and I was just wondering if the sun is affecting you at all yet.”

  That possibility hadn’t even occurred to me. “Not that I’ve noticed.”

  Her relief was obvious. “Good. Then we still have time to save you.”

  “I have a question for you,” I said. She’d been about to turn back to the house, but stopped and turned to face me again. “How come none of you knew I was being stalked by Katrina when we were in New Orleans? Shouldn’t you have been able to smell her on me?”

  I could tell that she was reluctant to answer my question, but she knew I wasn’t going to let it rest. “You must have noticed that their scent is far more subtle than ours,” she said reluctantly. I nodded and she continued. “I think we didn’t notice that she was stalking you because she smelled so much like you.”

  That sounded plausible enough, but I had a feeling she wasn’t telling me everything. “There’s more, isn’t there?” I asked suspiciously. I knew her well enough by now to know when she was hiding something from me. I could even smell it in her scent now that my senses had been heightened after remaining a werewolf for far longer than usual.

  Knowing I wasn’t going to give up until she told me everything, she sighed. “We knew right from the start that there was something different about you,” she finally admitted. “But we didn’t know you’d been bitten by a vampire.”

  “Mark knew,” I said almost bitterly. He’d hidden that knowledge from his team as well as from me.

  “If we’d had more experience with vampires, we might have figured out what was going on with you sooner.”

  “So, you couldn’t tell that she was feeding from me because I already smelled like a vampire?”

  Her nod was reluctant. “You didn’t smell exactly like one, but your scent definitely resembled theirs before Reece bit you. Now you smell like a cross between a werewolf and a vampire.”

  “Doesn’t that freak you all out?” It freaked me out and I was the one this was happening to.

  She shrugged. “Kind of. We’re just worried about what’s going to happen to you once your Mom is dead.”

  “You think the taint is too far advanced to stop the process even after she’s gone?”

  She was silent for a little too long before responding. “We don’t know. All we do know is that we have to put an end to her soon.”

  I was in perfect agreement with her there. “We’ll take care of her as soon as Flynn is back to normal again.”

  For a moment, worry for our teammate nearly overwhelmed her, but she mastered herself before she could burst into sobs. “Speaking of Flynn,” she said in a voice that was thicker than usual due to suppressed tears, “I don’t like leaving him alone for so long. Let’s destroy the evidence then head back to base.”

  Doing the job the Cleanup Crew usually took care of was a new role for me. Kala’s plan was simple. We carried the children into the main bedroom and put them on the bed. We put their parents next to them then covered their bodies with a blanket. She went in search of matches and returned carrying a container full of gasoline.

  I backed out of the room while she splashed the gas on the blanket until it was soaked. Lighting a match, she flicked it onto the bed and hurried out into the hall as flames whooshed to life.

  “The bodies should burn well enough to hide the fact that they’d been bitten and drained of blood,” she said. This clearly wasn’t the first time she’d had to hide evidence with fire. Wiping her prints off the container, she left it sitting in the yard.

  We retreated to the car and Zeus sneezed at the heavy scent of gas that coated Kala. “He says you stink,” I told her solemnly.

  Kneeling beside Zeus, she rubbed her hands all over his face. “Now you stink, too, fleabag.”

  He sent her an unfriendly stare and slunk around to the back of the SUV. He preferred to ride in the cargo area rather than to be subjected to her smell during the long drive back to our base.

  Kala checked in with Mark to tell him we’d completed our objective and that we were on our way back to the compound.

  “Good job,” he said, sounding weary. “I’m nearly done here and I’ll be heading back to Texas in a few hours. I’ll see you both when I return.”

  “Roger that.” She tucked her cell phone into her pocket again then settled back against the seat for a nap.

  Anxious to return to Flynn, I drove quickly and ignored the speed limits for once. My reflexes were uncanny now and there was little danger that we’d be involved in an accident. It was mid-afternoon by the time we reached our base. I stopped briefly to fill the tank and then again for breakfast and a third time for coffee.

  Kala opened her eyes when I stopped at the gates to our compound. Her nap had turned into a solid sleep during the last hour of our journey and she looked refreshed. Meanwhile, I was feeling tired and cranky.

  Parking in the garage, we filed into the hallway and turned right instead of left. Mark had given us temporary access to the cells and our first task was to check on Flynn. Removing the hydra head had worked to some extent. Just like Mark had warned us, he’d gone back to being inert again. He stood in front of the door, staring through the bars with an expressionless face and a blank mind.

  Kala splayed her hand on the window. “I wish there was something we could do for him,” she said plaintively.

  So did I. I’d never felt so helpless before and I hated not being able to do anything. A new emotion was rising in me that I’d never encountered before. I felt responsible for his safety. I felt the same way about Mark, Kala and Zeus. They were my pack and I was their alpha. It was my job to keep them safe and I was failing miserably.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Thirty

  Mark arrived several hours later and his first priority was to check on Flynn. He’d been in a waking coma for only a few days, but he was worried about him. I couldn’t detect any changes in Flynn and our bond was weakening by the day. If we didn’t break his mind free soon, I had the feeling we’d lose him forever.

  Mark insisted on us all sitting down to dinner together. Kala picked at her food rather than stuffing it into her face as quickly as possible for a change. “We have to do something to help Flynn!” she said at last and pushed her plate away.

  A speculative look crossed Mark’s face, but it disappeared as quickly as it had come. “What?” I asked him. “You just thought of something then dismissed it.”

  He sent me a sharp look. “You’re becoming very perceptive.”

  Kala sat up straight and looked at him in hope. “If you know of a way to help him, we have to try it.”

  He shook his head. “It was just a passing thought. It probably wouldn’t work.”

  “We’re getting desperate, Mark,” I pointed out. “What was your idea?”

  “I was thinking that the Mind Sweepers might be able to help him.”

  Kala blinked in confusion. “I thought they took memories away. Are you saying they can restore minds as well?”

  He shrugged and gave up on pretending to eat as well. “I’m not sure. I don’t know the full extent of their abilities.”

  I remembered how Kurt Jorgen had used his faery magic to wipe the minds of several campers. He’d also erased Mark, Kala and Flynn’s memories of the visit he’d paid to our compound in West Virginia. I was the only one who recalled his question and answer session with Gareth Carter. He’d tried to wipe my memory as well. For reasons that I couldn’t explain, it hadn’t worked. It was possible that he might be able to save Flynn. The question was would he even try?

  “It can’t hurt to ask,” I said. “We’ll never know if they can help him or not if you don’t call them.”

  “It’s a longshot,” he warned us, but he took
his cell phone out and scrolled through the numbers. Choosing one, he waited for it to be answered. “This is Agent Mark Steel. I’d like to speak to the leader of the Mind Sweeper team.”

  “One moment, Agent Steel,” a female voice said. “I’ll see if he is available.” We waited for a couple of minutes before she spoke again. “I’ll just put you through.”

  “Mark!” a pleasant and familiar voice said a few seconds later. The accent was German, or from that general area of Europe. “How delightful to speak to you again.”

  “I’m sorry,” Mark said in confusion. “Have we met?”

  “Of course we have, but you don’t remember it,” Kurt Jorgen said jovially. “I take it you have need of my skills?”

  “Yes. One of my agents has had his mind altered. I was hoping you might be able to restore him.”

  “Really?” Kurt seemed almost delighted by this. “Altered how?”

  “He’s a wereconstrictor and his mind has been taken over by a hydra that I believe is a golem.” Mark didn’t even seem to realize he was divulging the Shifter Squad’s most closely guarded secret to someone who probably didn’t have the clearance to know about us. Of course, the Sweeper already knew that Mark was the only human in our team. He’d known that Reece and I were shifters as soon as he’d laid eyes on us. He’d met the rest of our team soon after.

  “How interesting,” Jorgen mused. “Yes, I believe I might be able to assist you in this matter. I will arrive first thing in the morning.”

  Neither Mark nor Kala found it surprising that he didn’t ask where we were. Mark hung up with relief emanating from him. Kala slumped in relief as well. Kurt’s faery magic must have been powerful if he could exert it over the phone from an unknown distance away.

  Mark left one of the wall monitors on so we could watch over Flynn at all times. Waiting for my colleagues to retire for the night, I crept out of my room and sat down at the computer table. Flynn still stood facing the door. I had a side view of him, which was enough for me to see that his face was still expressionless.