Whiskey, Vamps, and Thieves (Southern Vampire Detective #1)

by Selene Charles

  Technically I didn’t need to breathe often, but the sudden blast of fiery pain was excruciating, and in that second, I knew I’d lost.

  He wrapped a leg around my waist and flipped us over, pinned me to the ground, and then he shoved powerful fingers into the softness of my belly, not puncturing my organs but bearing down in such a way that I screamed out in agony.

  If he wanted to, it would be nothing to rip out my heart, ending me in a breath.

  I jerked, trembling beneath him as his beautiful face stared down at me, his high-slashing cheekbones and firm mahogany flesh with barely a trace of crow’s feet around his laughing, green eyes. The only sign of his age was the silvering peppered liberally through his midnight-colored hair.

  “You fought well, Vampire. But still not well enough.” He pressed his fingers in just a fraction of an inch more, and my body stiffened like a board.

  My heels dug into the ground as my body erupted in terrible pain, and a scream tore from my throat.

  He eased up on his grip just a little, but I could read the sparkle in his eyes. He enjoyed this, my suffering. My pain.

  A glint of something twinkled in his eyes, something I’d not noticed before.

  All knew the Alpha was slowly losing his grip on the Silver Creek shifters, but no one understood just how much it truly bothered him. Because in his eyes, there glowed a type of fanaticism and madness that brought chills down my spine.

  His face was a contorted mask, man and beast mixed into one. As much pain as I was in, I needed to shove it all down, way, way down in the recesses of my mind to force myself to speak, to try to break the single-minded look of death he wore.

  “I...” I gasped, swallowed, and tried to ignore the stomach-churning queasiness of having his fingers rest inside me. “I need wolves. We have a problem now, Alpha. We must end them before they kill more.”

  It wasn’t often a vampire sweat, but I did then. Blood leaked through every pore. I was seconds away from passing out. The darkness at the edge of my vision taunted me. Then one of his long claws flicked at my heart, and I screamed again.

  I couldn’t understand why he’d taken things to such a dangerous level, and I was terrified he might not stop. I couldn’t stop shaking, shivering, and wondering if I’d ever feel warm again. Clarence had never been so ruthless with me before.

  Even the last time we’d fought. I’d lost because I’d been weak then. I’d thought I’d grown stronger, but I no longer thought so.

  Lowering his face until his large, hawkish nose grazed mine, he whispered against my lips, “Has Sharp Elbows killed on shifter territory?”

  I had to swallow bile before I could speak. I guessed I didn’t speak quick enough to his liking, because the grip he’d eased up suddenly shoved back down into the soft meat of my stomach, and I felt my organs shift beneath his hands.

  Darkness swallowed me, and I passed out.

  Then something hard and brutal slammed into my face, waking me up with another scream. The Alpha had punched me, and I smelled the sweet, metallic tang of blood ooze from my broken nose.

  Clarence’s eyes glowed like hell flame. “Answer me!” His face contorted, and I realized much too late I should never have come here tonight.

  Clarence wasn’t well. He’d never been what anyone would call gentle, but he’d never been like this before, either.

  I winced when I opened my mouth to speak, realizing my bottom lip had been split.

  “I...I found the bodies here.”

  He curled his fingers, causing me to buckle and jerk. “Finding bodies here and killing here are two different things, Vampire,” he spat. “You get nothing. Hunt Sharp Elbows on your own.”

  I gasped, and only because of my outrage was I able to ignore the plethora of injuries I’d sustained. “Then you are sentencing more to death—”

  He snorted. “Humans. What care I for humans? Let them die.”

  That wasn’t like him. What’d happened to our Alpha? How did no one know how mad he was going?

  Humans were the shifters’ greatest ally. Humans might be weak physically, but they had technology, they had brains...they were the reason shifters had won their independence from their overlords—the vampires.

  “You don’t mean th—”

  His fingers wrapped around my liver, and ice filled my veins because I knew he meant to kill me.

  I had no time to ask him what he was doing or even why. I was in a fight for my life. No one would intercede, not against the Alpha, not unless they wanted a war. I could cry out to Mercer and he would come, he might even get here in time, but I’d lose any respect I had painstakingly cultivated among the pack over the last twenty-five years.

  No one could fight another’s battle for them in this world, not if they wanted to survive to a ripe old age.

  Everything hurt. And I couldn’t stop trembling, spasming as his claws nicked at my liver with a look of euphoric delight painted on his face. My vision swam in and out of focus.

  I had two options. Fight or die.

  But my arms felt like lead, and any sort of movement exacerbated the fire of pain licking at my nerves.

  A tiny wolf whimpered, and I knew Steven had watched.

  It was that tiny sound that made me push past the mind-numbing agony. Drawing from the very final pools of strength I possessed, I exploded, shoving my own claws deep into his chest, tearing through the meat, the gristle, and slipping one hand beneath the bones of his ribs, snapping two of them as my hand found and fisted his heart, holding tight. Blood slid down my arm, thick and viscous and alive with the delicious aroma of pure power.

  But I didn’t care about the blood, not now. Not with death bearing down on me.

  Clarence’s eyes grew wide, and the man faded as the beast took hold. His flesh sprouted with fur, his eyes turned feral, and then he did the one thing I’d dreaded him doing.

  He howled.

  And this time, I knew it was a call to arms as all around me the night rang out with the call of his pack.

  Steven howled too, but his was full of pain and terrible heartache. The sound of it caused my soul to ache.

  In seconds, the door to the Alpha’s home was thrown open, thudding violently against the wall, and I knew my death warrant had been signed.

  Emerson, always his daddy’s little bitch, couldn’t have been far. He’d see me, see my hand around his father’s heart, and that would be the end of my short life as a second born.

  “Scar!”

  My skin prickled. It wasn’t Emerson who’d come but Merc. The situation had just gone from bad to far worse.

  “Mercer, stay back,” I snapped at him, terrified for his safety more than mine.

  His chest rumbled with a tight, angry growl, and I didn’t need to look at him to know that his fury wasn’t at me.

  “What is this?” he snarled.

  The sound of more footsteps beat through the doors. And I smelled shifter all around me.

  Shit. Shit. Shit. I was in big damn trouble.

  “What the hell have you done to him!” Emerson bellowed, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

  It was only my grip on the Alpha’s heart that was keeping me alive right now, and I wasn’t planning on letting go, possibly ever.

  “I’ll fucking end you, you two-bit vampire whore!” Emerson pressed on.

  There was a rush of steps but then an immediate scuffle before the house shook from the strength of two bodies being shoved against the living room wall.

  “Take another step toward Scarlett and I’ll consider it an act of war, brother,” Mercer said deep and low.

  “You would choose that filth over the Alpha?” Emerson growled, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to ignore the slippery feel of blood coating my fingers.

  Clarence still had his claws on my liver; one nick and he could slice it in two. It wouldn’t be a killing blow, but it would hurt like a son of a gun. From there it would be nothing to move up a little and rip out my heart. His claws were already long
enough to puncture it if he really wanted to; he’d already proven that.

  We were at what was classically known as a stalemate.

  He could kill me, but Clarence knew as well as I that without the stealth attack, I was actually faster than him. If he so much as twitched, I’d end him, signing my own death warrant in the process.

  So either we both walked away from this or neither of us would.

  “It’s easy enough to see that Clarence holds the top position over her, brother,” Mercer drawled.

  Mercer had learned the very delicate art of insulting someone while saying the most benign things. He’d called Emerson brother, but he could have easily swapped out the word shithead, since that was exactly what Emerson was.

  Everyone sucked in a sharp breath. At least ten bodies were packed inside of Clarence’s living room—the Wolf Pack and, I had no doubt, a few of his more vocal supporters. With the exception of Mercer, I doubted any of them would even miss me if worse came to worse and I died tonight.

  My holding onto the Alpha’s heart wasn’t the only reason I wasn’t already a forgotten, splattered memory.

  All of Silver Creek knew who their next Alpha would be. Their loyalties might lie with Clarence—for the moment—but it was never wise to make an enemy of the future Alpha.

  “What would ye have us do, Alpha?”

  It wasn’t Emerson who spoke that time. Bile volleyed up my throat at the sound of James’s deep brogue.

  My eyes still hadn’t unlocked from Clarence’s. I was looking at him so hard that immediately I noted the subtle shift in him.

  The madness that’d beat like wings at me earlier faded, leaving behind the rational, clear eyes of the man I’d once thought of as a second father. Something glinted in his gaze too, something soft, subtle, and even tinged by confusion.

  It so surprised me that I relaxed my grip on Clarence’s heart.

  The moment I did, I knew I was in terrible trouble. I’d lost the upper hand, the only thing keeping me safe and still breathing. I cringed, expecting the final deathblow.

  But it didn’t come. Clarence remained as he was, kneeling above me in a position of control, but his hand too had relaxed. It was as if a light switch had just been flipped on inside of him, and the mad, feral monster who’d been there just moments ago was gone.

  His face didn’t outwardly change much, but I felt the shift in tension almost immediately.

  “I do not authorize use of the Wolf Pack on Sharp Elbows. You wish to find the beasts, you do it yourself. No shifter of mine may aid you in the hunt for it. You are dismissed, Vampire.”

  Then he tore his hand out of my gut, bringing up bits of gore with it. I trembled violently, knowing he’d practically broken me but also knowing that for some odd reason, he’d spared me.

  Mercer ran to my side, and I knew what he would do.

  I also knew how it would look to the others. What it would do to my reputation and his.

  “No,” I growled, my stomach muscles clenching spasmodically from that one word. Dear God above, I was in bad shape. I might not even make it out the door before I passed out. But I had to try.

  Mercer knew it too.

  “She is right,” Clarence spat. “She wishes to leave here, then she does so of her own volition or not at all.”

  Mercer’s eyes burned with fury, but he stood back, looking down his nose at me even as his eyes silently pleaded with me to be okay.

  Clarence shoved off me, and already I could see his wounds healing. The ribs mending, the flesh knitting itself together again.

  The air prickled with the charge of great power being sucked out of those standing around him.

  I’d injured the Alpha gravely if he had to draw so much so quickly.

  I, on the other hand, had no access to pack magick. The only strength I had was what little was left to me. Dregs of nothing.

  My arms shook violently as I rolled onto my side and began to shove myself up. I dropped once, maybe twice. I couldn’t remember the second time, as my chin hit the wooden floor and all I saw was stars.

  When I came to, I noted all of them still standing around me. Even the Alpha, then fully healed, watched as I slowly and painstakingly got to my feet.

  I felt like a newborn colt standing on untried legs. I was weak and delirious with pain. I looked at none of them as I plodded toward the front door; my eyes were focused on only one thing, getting out of the house and to my truck and then somehow figuring out a way home.

  I needed to heal.

  I needed blood.

  And for damn sure there wasn’t a soul in the house that would give it to me. Not with the Alpha standing there, still challenging me. I had a few spare Baggies in my cooler. If I could just get there, I knew I might be okay.

  I didn’t remember much of that long walk. If I’d been stronger, I could have run, but I could barely stand on my feet. I’d taken a couple of deathblows tonight; if I’d been anything other than Veiler, I’d have breathed my last several times over. It was a time when being so young wasn’t fun. An older vampire, even taking the beating I had, wouldn’t have been so weak.

  I continued to sway and black out on my feet, falling face-first into one of Lucille’s prized rose bushes at one point. Somehow, I managed to extricate myself.

  It could have taken me minutes or hours, I simply didn’t recall, but finally I took that final step. Only yards separated me from my truck.

  The next step I took, I fell headlong into plunging darkness.

  Chapter 11

  Scarlett

  I came to a while later, realizing without even needing to open my eyes that I was in my home and tucked into my favorite spot, a little nook inset within the wall between my kitchen, which I never used, and my dining room, which I also never used, but that little library was my slice of heaven. It was where I read my favorite books. When I had time, that was. Which wasn’t nearly often enough.

  Taking a deep breath that didn’t hurt, I finally snapped my eyes open, knowing I wasn’t alone but also knowing that the shifter would never hurt me.

  Mama’s crocheted afghan of cream-colored granny squares with lavender and pale green rosettes lay over my lap.

  I buried my fingers into the soft blanket, immediately calming myself as a wave of comfort and familiarity ran through me. Glancing down, I finally spotted the reason I was no longer in pain.

  A red-stained tube was running out of my arm. Merc had pumped blood straight into my veins.

  It wasn’t the highest quality blood, just the crap I had to settle for when I didn’t have time to hunt, but it’d done the job. I felt mostly whole. A little twingy if I breathed too deeply, but I’d live.

  Clearing my throat, I scooted up, finally staring at my brother. I didn’t need to ask a single question to know he knew where my thoughts had gone.

  Mercer looked like hell. His eyes were bloodshot, his flaxen hair a mussed-up mess, and his jaw was set tight. He sat on a kitchen chair, not moving an inch, just staring at me with a grave intensity that gave me chills.

  I couldn’t help feeling as if somehow tonight I might have lit the spark to set off a war.

  “Merc, I’m so—”

  He held up a hand. “Don’t even fucking say it. Don’t say it, Scar. ’Cause if you do, I’ll march my ass back over there and challenge him right now.”

  His chest rose and fell heavily, and his eyes pinched at the corners. I’d gotten good at speaking “dog.” Mercer was angry, like a Doberman trying to decide whether to rip the intruder’s throat out or not. Not exactly ready to pounce, but damned close.

  I closed my eyes, rubbing my brows. I’d healed, but I was so tired. Just a bone-deep sort of exhaustion that tended to happen when one came perilously close to death.

  In this world, I was the equivalent of a baby. Vampires grew stronger as they matured. The older the vamp, the more powerful they became. Considering I’d only have been nearing my fifties in human years, I still had a long way to go. I was strong,
but I was no match for a mad Alpha.

  “Why’d you go to him tonight?” he asked slowly, as though he were still trying hard to keep himself in check.

  I glanced down at his hands. He had them clenched tight. The skin around the knuckles was blanched a ghostly shade of white.

  Blinking, I reached over to him, laying my hand atop his. Keeping my movements slow and steady, nothing sudden or jerky.

  He watched me move. And honestly, intense Merc was a little scary sometimes. Even for me.

  I squeezed softly. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he continued to stare down at my hand. He was as still as a coiled-up rattler, which obviously caused me to go stiff too, wondering if somehow I’d done something. If maybe it wasn’t about him feeling upset that I’d nearly died. The thought had never once occurred to me since Merc’s finding me that he wasn’t always going to be on my side.

  “Mercer, I—” My voice quivered.

  And I didn’t know whether it was the sound of a scared vampire or the fact that I was his sister, but suddenly he moved so fast that I flinched, expecting God only knew what.

  I was tired. I was scared. And I hesitated. With anyone else, I would have struck first and asked questions later, but I could never lift a hand against Mercer. He was my one real weakness.

  I stared in shock as he rubbed his scruffy cheek against my palm over and over, whimpering beneath his breath like a wounded wolf.

  My brows drawn and my mind blank, I stared, transfixed by his odd behavior. He’d never acted like this before. Not with me, not with anyone.

  “Merc? Mercer?” I said it softly.

  But instead of answering, he took my other hand and laid it over his head, threading his fingers through mine and holding me down tight.

  Wetting my lips, I didn’t know what to do. I knew when wolves grew anxious they petted each other. I’d seen the behavior before; I’d just never experienced it for myself.

  Mercer was always the epitome of calm. Even when his own mother had died fifteen years ago. He’d shed not one tear.

  Vivienne had been a vivacious beauty, full of life and spunk. But she’d been challenged to a duel, not uncommon among the female alphas. It wasn’t just Clarence who had to worry about his spot in the pecking order.