The Undead Detective Bites: Book 1

by Jennifer Hilt

  Fang extended himself so that the tips of his fingertips were probably within reach.

  If I’d been human, there would be no way I could survive this. But I wasn’t human; my reflexes were faster. I was stronger.

  “Coward,” he muttered.

  That was it. I let go with my right hand, simultaneously reaching up for his outstretched one. Both our hands were wet. My fingers grazed his, but my hand slipped.

  For a second, I was nearly in freefall, clinging only by my left hand. His face, framed by determination, would be the last thing I’d see.

  Fang’s reflexes were faster than normal too. He grunted and extended more, locking our palms. He pulled as I scrabbled up. “Stop moving. You’re making it harder.” He grimaced.

  It seemed like a long time, but eventually I was able to reach his ledge with my other hand. I pushed my toes against the wall as he hauled me over the edge.

  As soon as I was on the ledge on my hands and knees, I collapsed. My toes still dangled over the abyss.

  Fang rolled over, still breathing heavily. He stretched his right arm. “You’re a lot heavier than you look. Must be all that attitude.”

  I could hear the smile in his voice. Turning my head to the side, I was greeted by his bare feet, ankles, and calves. I closed my eyes. “You’re naked.”

  “No thanks, huh?” Fang huffed. “What do you think, I carry a change of clothes around my neck like some kind of Saint Bernard?”

  That was an amusing image.

  “Thank you, Fang.”

  “You’re welcome.” He sat up, groaning excessively. Shifters are so dramatic.

  “Come on, let’s get out of this storm.” He rolled to his feet.

  He was very naked.

  He ducked his head to enter a cave set into the sandstone.

  “Are you going to lie there admiring the view all night?” he called.

  I crawled inside the cave. The ceiling opened up to a comfortable standing height for him. My vision was a bit blurry, and my head was really hurting now.

  “That bad, huh?” He eyed me.

  I didn’t answer, since I was concentrating on not passing out. I sat down by a wall but leaned forward, letting my head drop to my bent knees.

  “Let me take a look.” He squatted next to me, but I batted his help away without looking at him.

  “It’s fine.” I found his nakedness disconcerting. What the fuck was wrong with me? Vampires were the polar opposite of prudes.

  Sex with humans was inconsequential. I tired of it long ago—all that frailty and weeping. Besides, naming your food is never a good idea. Some vampires preferred making other vampires, but it was a tedious and messy process. Besides, I was not interested in having anyone tethered to me long-term.

  Any kind of sexual activity between vampires was allowed and even encouraged. And if you wanted to casually fuck another paranormal, go ahead. What was strictly forbidden was emotional attachments between vampires and non-vampires. There was technically no problem with loving another vampire, but in my two hundred years I hadn’t seen or heard of it. Try sticking two magnets with like charges together and you’ll see what I mean.

  Back to the forbidden love problem. This was more than just frowned on. It was a stake-able offense. Other paranormals were able to reproduce. Vampires could only do so by draining a human and replenishing him or her with our blood. In the vamp world that was what our energy should go toward.

  The back of my head was still bleeding. I had a concussion. Not tonight dear, I have a headache took on a whole new meaning.

  Outside the rain and lightning continued. The cave’s blessed thermal heat was welcome. Even so, I shivered.

  Fang sat down beside me and loosely put his arms around me. Such was the disparity in our size that he pretty much engulfed me. There was something familiar about him that initially put me at ease. He reminded me of the cowboys I’d seen in my human youth, physical creatures capable of great violence toward humans but deeply attached to their horses and nature.

  Digging further, I found that I felt a sense of peace and a feeling of completeness around him. We sat like that, not speaking for some time, while the storm outside the cave opening raged.

  “Are you smelling my hair?” I asked.

  Fang’s chuckle rumbled through his chest against my back. “I like how you smell.”

  I sniffed. I liked how he smelled too. Doggy, but that was normal for wolf shifters. Besides that, he smelled familiar.

  My hand stole over to his crotch. At my touch his thick cock sprang to life. Fang leapt away from me as though I’d poured hot oil into his lap.

  “Hattie, are you sure? It’s not worth dying over.” His breathing was coming fast now. He glanced toward the opening of the cave. A flash of panic crossed his handsome features.

  “It was last time.” I stood up, kicking off my waterlogged running shoes. I pulled my sweater over my head, peeled off my T-shirt, and then slid my track pants off. I was absolutely feeling better. Still a bit of a headache but it was rapidly improving.

  Fang’s eyes were wild. They darted from me to the cave opening.

  I reached around behind me, feeling the open wound on my shoulder blade as I unhooked my bra. I was gratified to hear Fang’s breath quicken as I dropped the bra on my pile of clothes.

  “Please stop.” His hands clenched at his sides.

  “Why’d you change your tune? I see evidence that’s not what you want.” My balance was a little wonky still, so I put my hand against the cave wall for balance when I slipped off my panties. I flung them to join the rest of the pile.

  Fang stared.

  I crooked my finger at him. He came forward, his eyes locked with mine. He moved as if he were glamoured, but that doesn’t work with other paranormals, only humans.

  I reached up, feeling his hair. I hadn’t realized until that moment how I’d been wanting to feel his a-bit-on-the-longish-side, thick hair. I loved how it curled around my fingers.

  I liked that it was long enough to tug.

  I did just that, pulling his head down to mine as we sank to the cave floor.

  His hands glided across my ankles, up my calves, to the back of my knees, and up my thighs. He stopped there, his finger pressure increasing, digging into my skin.

  The warmth of his touch surprised me. It made my skin warm and tingly.

  I stared into his beautiful, strong face. The gray color of his eyes brightened by desire.

  I dropped my gaze lower. His legs were open, giving me a full view of his muscled chest, his flat belly, and his groin.

  I licked my lips.

  I straddled him and immediately he straightened his legs. His hands guided my ass down to rest on his thighs.

  “You keep saying no, but your actions say yes.”

  “God, I want you. You don’t know how much I want to. I’ve never stopped wanting you.”

  “Really?” I stopped, surprised.

  Fang laughed. He ran his fingers through my wet hair, fanning it out over my bare shoulders. He gathered a handful, bringing it to his nose and inhaling deeply. “I love your scent.”

  I’d dropped my hands to his shoulders, liking the feel of warm muscle beneath.

  His hands rested at my waist, his fingers flexing into my skin again. “You look so delicate. And you are the strongest being I’ve ever met. All I want to do is fuck you long and hard.” He leaned forward, lightly licking my nipples.

  A heat shot through me that surprised me, reminding me of the touch of sun against my skin that I remembered all those years ago.

  I arched against him. He moved his hands up to cup my breasts. He took me into his mouth, and I gasped. Ribbons of molten heat shot through me.

  Despite appearances, I was about as far from delicate as was possible on the humanoid spectrum. But then all thought left my mind as I kissed Fang.

  His sighs and growls encouraged me to repeat my actions. When I did, warmth and tenderness bloomed inside me.

 
; In my short life as a human or my eternity as a vampire, I’d never known such feelings.

  19

  I awoke the following evening after sunset in my crypt alone.

  As always my brain gains consciousness first. Waiting for the rest of my body to respond is like a swimmer coming up from the depths, eager for a breath of air. The heaviness in my arms and legs recedes.

  Tonight in those depths I’d been dreaming.

  It had to be dreaming.

  How else could I hear a child skipping close by?

  That night, as feeling returned to my body, my ankles and wrists tingled uncomfortably.

  “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.” Elsbeth poked my side with a wooden stake. “Talk about a sound sleeper.”

  I turned my head to the side and blinked. My reflexes were still sluggish, but not so off that I couldn’t recognize serious shit. I wasn’t dreaming.

  Fuck.

  Elsbeth was in my crypt, skipping.

  She peered closer—uncomfortably close. She waggled my wooden hairpin in her fingers and then returned to playing hopscotch.

  I was calm. I would remain calm even as I realized I was bound by silver chains. She’d done a damn good job too, making sure my wrists were tied to my waist. I was trussed up like a ham at Sunday dinner.

  Remember that bit earlier about silver being lethal to vampires?

  “Elsbeth, what are you doing?” As conversation starters go it wasn’t great, but I knew screaming at her wouldn’t help. And I had no way to snap her neck, which was the one thing I really wanted.

  “Not yet.” Elsbeth unzipped a toiletry bag. She removed a small white lace glove before picking up a nail file. “We’re waiting.”

  “If you don’t let me go, I’ll kill you.”

  Elsbeth raised her fair brows. “Tough talk, but I don’t think so.”

  “What is your problem?” I knew she was a crazy, but now she’d just strapped on a jetpack and was headed for orbit.

  “I’m so glad you asked.” Elsbeth focused on filing all nails on her right hand, then pointed the emery board at me. “You are my problem.”

  “Me?” My wrists were burning now. I tried not to move. My leggings were thick and provided a barrier, but it wasn’t going to be long before I was in serious trouble. “You called me, remember?”

  Elsbeth produced a can of air freshener and sprayed it liberally over me. Great. Now I was going to burn and smell like a cheap piña colada.

  “You stink.” She wrinkled her nose.

  “Let me go.”

  “Not yet. You’re still on a slow bake now. I can pull your clothing away from your skin and speed things up at any time. Remember that.”

  The searing pain was not going to let me forget.

  “Elsbeth, what’s the point? You want me to suffer? Fine. Leave me alone. I’ll burn but at least I’d have some privacy,” I said.

  She consulted her watch. “I’d at least keep you company. I am your creator.”

  “Not by my choice.”

  Elsbeth pointed her file at me accusingly again. “Arrogance among vampires is a common trait. But with you it’s annoyingly persistent.” She cocked her head toward the cave exterior, listening.

  I lifted my head. The increased pressure intensified the silver’s burning through my clothes.

  A gray wolf slipped under the rock-ledge entrance. His massive head swung from me to Elsbeth.

  “Sheriff Fang!” Elsbeth sang. “You got my note.”

  The fur along his spine rose with his growl.

  “You’ll want to hear me out before you do something stupid.” Elsbeth’s voice climbed. “Silverthorne is getting toasty here.”

  Fang’s wolf paced back and forth near the entrance. He glanced at me. He raised his head, smelling the air. No doubt Elsbeth’s beach party in a can was not covering my burning scent.

  The wolf whined.

  Well, fuck. This was a mess.

  His howls rumbled deep in his chest before he released them to echo off the cave walls.

  Shifting was a painful experience that never got easier, reinforcing how neither humanoid nor shifter was really comfortable in this world. And they needed to be moving to shift. There wasn’t much room in this cave.

  I shuddered.

  The howling stopped.

  The humanoid Fang stood up. Naked.

  “Sheriff!” Elsbeth sounded shocked. “Modesty please.”

  Elsbeth crouched low over me as if she was guarding me, except that her stake was at my breast. “Stay where you are.” Her voice was steel.

  I watched the two of them, wondering how in the fuck Fang and I were going to get out of this.

  “That’s enough gawking.” Elsbeth pressed her stake against my skin. “Turn your head. You two still got it bad.” She giggled.

  I turned my head to look Elsbeth in the face. I couldn’t wait to kill her. It’d been a while since I’d killed anyone but I was going to break my streak with this vampire.

  Fang took a step forward, and I could feel the rage rolling off him.

  “What do you want?” His voice was even not shaking with rage like mine.

  Elsbeth bared her teeth. His casual tone didn’t fool her. “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?”

  “Let Silverthorne leave Nowhere and go back to LA,” Fang said. “Tell me what you want. If it’s in my power, I’ll give it to you.”

  “I’m not letting her go. I went through so much trouble getting her here in the first place.” She sighed. “I’m very disappointed. Neither of you is very bright.”

  “You wrote the note,” Fang said slowly. “You killed Triana. Why?”

  “I don’t like your tone, sheriff,” Elsbeth pressed harder. “And I’m asking the questions.”

  I winced. The burning smell of my skin sickened me.

  Still hovering over my body, Elsbeth pointed the stake at him. “Stay right there.”

  She jabbed the stake toward him again. “I don’t understand. You love her.” She spat the last word. “A vampire! She left you, remember, years ago? But you still love her. Why?”

  “You wouldn’t understand.” He ran one hand through his hair.

  “I may look like a child, but I assure you, sheriff, I am not. I bet Silverthorne here is just as interested in the answer as I am.”

  “Actually, I’m not,” I volunteered.

  “Shut up.” Elsbeth’s voice was savage. “Or I’ll cut your lying tongue out.”

  “Touch me again and I’ll kill you,” I said.

  It wasn’t a threat; I meant it. I just hadn’t yet figured out how. The bitch was going to die.

  “Tough talk from a vamp on slow bake in silver.”

  “Stop. Stop.” Fang sounded weary.

  I felt a curious turning over in my chest. Thankfully, it wasn’t Elsbeth’s stake. It was the twin razors of pain and opportunity.

  “I…” Fang continued.

  No. No. No. Stop talking. Please.

  “I love Silverthorne. I always have. I always will.” He gave a harsh laugh. “Believe me, God knows I don’t want to. But you don’t choose your soul mate in this life. Fate chooses for you.”

  Fuck. This wasn’t going to be well received.

  Elsbeth’s shoulders deflated. She looked down.

  “You still love him, don’t you?” She spun on me, pointing my hairpin at me. Great, she planned to stake me with my own hairpin.

  I hated irony. I was going to shove that thing up her ass if it was last thing I did.

  The way things were going it might be the last thing I did.

  “Don’t you?” she pressed. “Answer me or I stake you right now.”

  “I don’t even like Fang most of the time.”

  “That’s not what I asked.” Her eyes were wild. “Do you love him?”

  Oh, fuck. Here went nothing.

  “Yes.” It came out as a hiss.

  “Thank you.” Elsbeth calmed slightly. “I set up the perfect experiment for you with subject
s. But you threw it away.”

  I was trying to stay still, but the pain made me writhe. “There’s no way to make a vaccine for Glytr. Get over it. And I’m never making another vampire, I mean it.”

  “Maybe she wants to control Glytr because she can’t make more vampires?” Fang cocked his head to one side. He glanced from me to Elsbeth and back to me.

  “That’s ridiculous. Her creations are…” I stopped. Maybe it was the pain but it was like a lightbulb going on in my brain. “Are you in menopause?”

  “Your ex-wife was the most willing drug mule I ever met. She couldn’t wait to humiliate you and her brother. She had some unresolved issues with you both. Triana had visions of grandeur. She contacted Idris in a scheme to embarrass Silverthorne. But it was premature—we didn’t have enough time to distribute Glytr effectively. And Triana was sloppy. Your bear shifter discovered what she was doing. So I had to kill all three myself.” Elsbeth shook her head. Her ringlets danced. “That’s the burden of management.”

  My fingers flexed at the thought of cracking her spine.

  Fang had gone pale. His rage at facing Griz and Triana’s murderer was no secret.

  Elsbeth tapped her chin with a gloved finger. “You call yourself a scientist but you don’t even know what happens when paranormals take this drug, do you?”

  “No one does.”

  “That’s not exactly true.” Elsbeth preened.

  Inside me a dark horror opened up. “What have you done?”

  “What you were too chicken shit to do. I’ve done some research. I’ve discovered that I not only like it, I’m rather good at it.”

  “Elsbeth, the first rule of medicine is ‘do no harm.’”

  “I don’t have time for that and neither do you. We aren’t humans. They serve us, not the other way around. They are cattle, remember. Or have you become so impressed with yourself, you forgot about where you came from?”

  I shuddered. “I remember. I remember it all.” And it wasn’t good stuff. I’d enjoyed killing and inflicting pain for a long time—it was the only way I knew to be. Until I found my religion—medicine.

  It saved me from being a monster.

  “Tell me what you’ve done.” I struggled against my restraints. The burning silver bonds had me squirming in agony.