Bad, Dad, and Dangerous

by Rhys Ford

  Table of Contents

  Blurb

  Dedication

  Monster Hall Pass

  Kismet & Cadavers

  Elf Shot

  Wolf At First Sight

  Coming Soon from TA Moore

  About the Authors

  By Jenn Moffatt

  By Bru Baker

  By TA Moore

  By Rhys Ford

  Visit Dreamspinner Press

  Copyright

  Bad, Dad, and Dangerous

  By Bru Baker, Jenn Moffatt, TA Moore, and Rhys Ford

  When the kids are away, the monsters will play.

  School’s out for summer, and these dads are ready to ship their kids off to camp. Not just because their kids are monsters—whose aren’t?—but because they’re ready for some alone time to let their hair down and their fangs out. You see, not only are the kids monsters—their dads are too.

  Even the most dangerous of creatures has a soft spot. These bad, dangerous dads love their kids to death, but they need romance.

  Every year, for a few short weeks, these hot men with a little extra in their blood get to be who they truly are. And this year, life has a surprise for them. Whether they be mage, shifter, vampire, or changeling, these heartbreakingly handsome dads might be looking to tear up the town… but they’ll end up falling in love. All it takes is the right man to bring them to their knees.

  To Holly and Mike… for everything.

  Monster Hall Pass

  By Bru Baker

  White-collar dad Hugh Whitby dotes on his adopted daughter, but she’s away at camp. Now it’s time let the vampiric urges he so tightly controls run wild and take advantage of his monster hall pass to feed on criminals. But when fae prince Rykoff of Harlow interrupts Hugh feeding, he catches Hugh’s daughter’s scent and vows to avenge the fae youngling he believes Hugh has captured.

  Hugh had no idea his daughter wasn’t human, and it rocks the foundation of his world. He must convince Rykoff that the fae youngling in question is safe with her vampire dad and can prosper in the mortal realm—or risk losing her forever.

  Thanks to my own Gaga ball enthusiast, who was definitely the inspiration for Ruby and all the antics she gets up to at summer camp. This also wouldn’t have been possible without Rhys, Tamm, and Jenn, who took this crazy idea for a short story and turned it into an amazing anthology. Much love to all of you.

  Chapter One

  SOMEONE KNOCKED softly on Hugh’s glass office door, breaking his concentration. He needed his A game on this call, so he did something he hated—he held up a finger, telling the knocker to wait. He couldn’t do much over the phone, but if he focused hard enough, he could use his powers of persuasion on the person outside the door.

  He recognized the shock of bright blond hair, and his mouth watered involuntarily. Dammit. This phone call was all that separated him from his vacation, and he needed to make sure his brain was here and not leaping ahead to, ah, other appetites.

  “That sounds frustrating. I’m sorry your experience has been so stressful,” he said, wincing when he heard his voice. It had lost the soothing, honeyed tone of persuasion, which meant he would be back at square one with the caller.

  The woman on the line plowed ahead with her litany of complaints, as he’d known she would. Mrs. Simmons was a frequent caller, and he knew better than to interrupt her before she hit full steam. It would start the excruciatingly in-depth explanation of her problems all over again, and he didn’t have time for that now.

  Hugh muted his headset and waved Cassandra into his office.

  “Hey, Cass,” he said warmly, standing up to take her hands in his. Not everyone on the staff embraced his literal hands-on approach to management, and he was careful to respect each employee’s boundaries. But Cassandra always sought it out, so Hugh didn’t feel bad about the pulse of power he sent her way. She shivered slightly, her eyes glazing over for the fraction of a second it took for him to drain off the worst of her anxiety. A nice snack for him, and a heady punch of relaxation for her.

  He checked to make sure his headset was muted before motioning her toward the cozy chair he kept for employees. Call-center work was hard enough without having to deal with an uncomfortable work environment. He’d paid for the cushy chair himself—officially because it made his office welcoming, unofficially because some people went a bit weak after he fed on their auras, and it helped to have a soft place for them to land if their knees went out from under them.

  “I’m so sorry,” Cassandra said as soon as she sat down. “I know you’re trying to get out of here early to get Ruby, but I just couldn’t get her to calm down.”

  The bitter-hot smell of her frustration tinged the air, and if his stomach could growl, it would have. He needed a decent feed before he left or he’d never be able to handle summer camp drop-off with Ruby. So much anxiety and excitement and fear—it was like a smorgasbord of emotions, and going in starving could be a disaster.

  “Hey, hey. It’s fine.” He let a little of his power slip into his voice, and her shoulders dropped noticeably as she reacted. “You’ve only been here a month, Cass. You’re doing a wonderful job. Mrs. Simmons is a tough one. There likely wasn’t anything you could have done. She always escalates to a manager. That’s not a reflection on your abilities. It’s just how she is.”

  Hell, the fact that Cass was still working there after a month meant she was better than most of the new hires. Not everyone was cut out for working in a health-insurance call center. Most people couldn’t handle the stress and anger, not to mention the desperation and fear. It was hard to talk to angry people day in and day out.

  It even took a toll on Hugh, and he thrived on intense emotions.

  No one called their insurance company because they were happy with their service. Literally every call was a complaint. If they were lucky it was something they could actually help with, but most of the time it wasn’t. Hugh wished he could shape the company’s policies and reverse claims denials, but he couldn’t. He and his employees were working from a limited scope, and that put them on the front lines with very little power to actually do anything.

  “I know, but I just wanted to come tell you I’m sorry,” she said, her head hanging.

  Crap. If he didn’t handle this right, she wouldn’t last much longer. He needed employees like Cass. She really was good at her job, but she was also empathetic. Hugh had come to rely on her as one of his main feeding sources because she felt so bad for all of the customers.

  Mrs. Simmons paused long enough in her diatribe for him to get a word in edgewise, so he put a hand out to motion to Cass to be quiet and unmuted his headset.

  “I can’t imagine the stress,” he said, agreeing with what she’d said. “And I am so sorry that you feel Unity Health isn’t serving you well. I am putting a note in your file that we’ve spoken and asking our billing department to take another look at that claim.”

  Mrs. Simmons went off again, and he listened for half a beat to make sure it wasn’t anything new before muting her again.

  “Cass, you absolutely did the right thing escalating her to me. I’ll finish up with Mrs. Simmons, and by then Doug will be in to take over for the evening shift. Why don’t you take a ten-minute break to go unwind in the employee lounge?”

  She nodded and got up, her scent already lighter from his affirmation.

  He was a good manager. And when you took his special abilities into account, he was a great manager. Vampires often worked in high-stress environments because it gave them so many emotions to feed from, but few used their abilities to help people feel better. Darker emotions like hate, anger, and lust were the best feeds, but they were hard to find unless you went hunting for them—literally. A
nd he hated treating humans like prey.

  The day-to-day emotions that swirled around a white-collar office were much more mundane. The desperation, fear, depression, and anxiety he siphoned off when he fed made a measurable difference in his coworkers’ lives. He was a Good Samaritan. Kind of. Feeding on them wasn’t great for keeping him sated, but it contributed a lot to office morale.

  “Mrs. Simmons,” he said, cutting her off when she finally took a breath, “you’re absolutely right that we haven’t been able to help you here in the call center. So I will refer this to our case-management team. You have a complicated claim, and a case manager will be able to give you the time and attention you deserve.”

  Anyone who called more than seven times in a calendar year was eligible for the case management program, and she definitely qualified. He’d selfishly been letting her go into the main call-center pool because it was good for his feeding schedule, but that had been going on long enough.

  “The system will assign you a case manager tomorrow, and they’ll be in touch. I’ll follow up with you myself on Monday to make sure they have contacted you.”

  That took the wind out of the old hag’s sails, and he could end the call with minimal threats and sputterings from her. He put a note in his calendar to remember to call her from the road on Monday.

  He filed a report on the call and did the escalation paperwork that would hopefully ensure Mrs. Simmons wouldn’t drive Cass into a nervous breakdown before his return. Once he’d cleared his inbox, he could shut everything down and officially be on vacation for the next three weeks.

  Hugh tried not to think about his monster hall pass, as he liked to call it, much during the year. He put a lot of effort into suppressing his vampire side when he was playing at being human, and that meant those three precious weeks were his only time to give in to his more demonic nature. Vampires weren’t meant to subsist on the kind of diet he allowed himself, at least not long-term. He got weaker and weaker throughout the year, though it didn’t matter much since even at half power he still had to work to conceal his abilities in order to fit in with humans.

  Hugh just had to hang on until he could get Ruby to camp, and then his break could begin.

  Hugh shivered and his mouth watered as memories of past trips flitted through his mind. He’d settled down when Ruby came into his life and tried to go cold turkey from feeding frenzies and general debauchery. That lasted until she’d been old enough to go to sleepaway camp. He wasn’t sure how he’d survived those first six years, only giving himself a few hours away from his humanity a month while Ruby was with a sitter. Even that hadn’t been nearly enough, since he was careful never to break his rule about draining people within a hundred-mile radius of his home. He’d survived on the residual energy from sketchy Tinder hookups and craigslist orgies.

  But once she was old enough to spend time away at Oak River, that had changed. At first she’d gone for a week, then two. Now she was ten, and he’d finally been comfortable signing her up for a full month this summer. It was a huge financial drain, but so worth it. The last few years of summer hall passes had helped him feel more grounded and happier. Between his call-center job and his monster hall pass, he’d really been able to get into a groove. Sure, he had to fit all his orgies, feeding frenzies, and hunting into his brief respite from the responsibilities of parenthood every summer, but it was enough. It had to be.

  Ruby needed him to be human, and humans did things like attend PTA meetings instead of attacking rapists in crack dens and draining them of their life force.

  Hugh closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to focus. His vacation hadn’t officially started yet, and it wouldn’t begin until he finished up here. He’d already made all the arrangements for his stay in Detroit, so the best thing to do was put it out of his mind until he’d done everything on his list.

  Then he’d get Ruby packed up for camp, and they could get on the road. There was a sleazy truck stop on the way to Michigan—maybe he’d reward himself by stopping there to hunt after drop-off.

  Chapter Two

  HUGH RIFLED through the pile of duffel bags at the bottom of the stairs, sighing heavily when his hand closed over a box of granola bars. He pulled it out and kept digging, coming up with a dozen chocolate bars, a box of cookies, and, inexplicably for his vegetarian daughter, a handful of beef jerky sticks.

  He confiscated the contraband and rezipped the bag, moving on to the next one. It yielded even more candy. Ruby had a sweet tooth, but this was ridiculous. Did she really think he wouldn’t check her bags? He wasn’t sure if he was angrier that she was trying to sneak food to camp or that her effort was so weak. All she’d done was pile clothes on top of the boxes. Amateur.

  Hugh sensed Ruby coming around the corner, her curious absence of scent preceding her. His daughter was the only person he’d met who was immune to his powers. He couldn’t even scent her aura, which was how he’d found her.

  He’d been stalking a man with an aura of violence so strong Hugh could practically see it when he’d come across a curious blank spot behind the dumpster of a Ruby Tuesday. He could tell there was something there, but he couldn’t read it. The surprise was enough to distract him from his hunt, and three months later he’d gone before a judge and adopted her.

  It had only taken a little of his persuasion to grease the wheels. On paper he was a great choice as an adoptive parent. He’d been a nomad before finding Ruby, but in the weeks after he’d held her for the first time, shivering and swaddled in a too-thin blanket, all alone in the world, he’d changed his entire life. He’d gotten the job at the insurance call center and used the modest amount of money he’d had in the bank to buy a house.

  It was the stuff that wasn’t on paper that would have caused problems.

  Like the fact he was a vampire.

  His daughter had no idea, which was part of the reason she was heading to summer camp for a month. He’d be able to hunt to his heart’s content and not worry about staying out past the sitter’s curfew or running into the PTA president with his fangs out.

  Ruby stopped short when she saw her open bags, her eyes comically wide.

  “I can explain.”

  He might not be able to read her emotions, but luckily she was predictable. He didn’t need the upper hand provided by his powers when it came to his daughter.

  Hugh spread the food out on the floor and quirked an eyebrow at her, letting the silence build until she burst.

  “It’s not for me!”

  He cocked his head to the side a bit, waiting her out.

  “Last year Emma got a care package from home with snacks, and everybody wanted some,” she blurted.

  “Ah. And you thought having contraband snacks would be the way to make friends?”

  She’d been going to the same camp for years and had a group of girls she always bunked with. They were pen pals during the year, and they’d even visited a few of the girls who only lived a few hours away. Why did she need to make new friends?

  Ruby hesitated and then shook her head. “No. She didn’t have enough to share with everyone, so kids started offering her money.”

  Hugh bit back a laugh. He needed to be stern, no matter how amused he was by her scheme. “And you thought you could make money selling snacks?”

  It was admirable, really. And if his health didn’t hang in the balance, maybe he’d let her do it. But he really couldn’t afford for her to be kicked out of camp. The small meals he could get during the year weren’t enough. He needed to drain a few victims to keep himself going, and that couldn’t happen here in Cincinnati. He needed the anonymity of a bigger city, one where a few unexplained deaths wouldn’t spark an investigation.

  “Sorry, kiddo. You know the rules. No food from home.”

  Ruby sighed and gathered up the pile. He followed her as she trudged into the kitchen.

  “There are good reasons for the rules, Rube. Ashlynn’s diabetic, isn’t she? And Cadence is allergic to nuts.”
>
  Sometimes the ridiculousness of his life snuck up on him, and this was one of them. He was a vampire. He killed people to stay alive. Yet here he was in his suburban kitchen, listing off his daughter’s friends with food allergies.

  “And there are bears,” Ruby said knowingly.

  “I don’t think there are bears, Ruby.”

  “Gina saw one last year!”

  He shook his head and let it go. There were no bears in Ohio. Or very few, at least. And certainly no bears at the camp Ruby attended. He’d spent months picking it out, reading tons of reviews and even touring the camp itself before enrolling her. He was a total helicopter dad, and he knew it.

  “No contraband. Take a final pass through your room and make sure you haven’t forgotten anything,” he said like he wouldn’t do a double check himself before they left. His baby girl would be gone for a full month this time—there was no way he would leave anything to chance. What if she forgot the lavender-infused eye mask she needed to fall asleep every night? Or the natural silk pillowcase and sheets that were the only bedding her sensitive skin could tolerate without breaking out into rashes?

  “Fine,” she said, flouncing up the stairs. “But see if I make you a bracelet to match your necklace now! I was going to, but that was when you were nice.”

  He stifled a laugh as she stomped her way upstairs, his fingers automatically seeking the pendant he never took off. She’d made it in a rock tumbler last year at camp, and she’d been so proud of it. She’d found the piece of celestite in a riverbed when they’d been rock hunting and told him she’d known the moment she saw it in the mud that he needed to have it. He’d thought she was being dramatic, but she insisted he wear it at all times. He only took it off to shower, and if he forgot to put it back on, she’d pitch a fit.

  He’d worn it dutifully ever since. After a few weeks, wearing it had become such a routine that he felt naked without it. He used it almost like a worry stone whenever he was troubled over something involving her. Like this latest blowup.