by Juniper Hart
“Okay, Universe,” he chuckled, spinning back toward the apartment. “Give me your best. I’m ready for it this time.”
Vampire’s Bite
Shifters Confidential
Vampire’s Bite: Shifter’s Confidential
Text Copyright © 2020 by Juniper Hart
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
First printing, 2020
Publisher
Secret Woods Books
[email protected]
www.SecretWoodsBooks.com
Prologue
Anyone looking in would have dismissed it as a usual meeting with the tribe. Franz often called them to gather for meetings, and it had been a long while since anything of value had occurred inside the caves. For the most part, everyone was bored, antsy to move along before the sun came up and forced them into their various stages of hiding, whether they were protected by the sun or not. No one wanted to be caught in the rays, regardless of their level of security.
Only two seemed to understand the implication of this seemingly common encounter, one of which was growing more agitated by the second as she stared at Franz. As always, he paid her no mind. Lara hissed lightly in the way she did whenever she heard something that displeased her, but Pascal knew the noise was more to garner attention from Franz than an actual expression and it made his skin crawl. It was an irritating sound, not unlike one that an incensed cat might make, but Pascal had been privy to the noise too often in his very long life to acknowledge it with any great interest. Pascal’s attention was fixed on her mate, who continued to preach from his position in the darkness, words more or less blending together in the ears of the others.
“It is high time that we stepped out of the shadows,” Franz intoned, his glittering eyes filing about the room. The elder vampire had a way of looking at all but nothing, not fixing upon any one being until he wanted to make a point. Pascal envied the amount of power oozing from Franz and not for the first time, he wondered if he would ever boast the same level of respect. In fact, it was a question that had kept him up a great deal over the years.
How else can someone listen to this endless drivel and pretend to be fascinated? The being is puissant, important. No one ever dares question Franz, even when he’s rambling.
“For too long, we have become complacent,” Franz continued, nodding at his loyal following. “But are we complacent?”
“No!” the group cried with a passion that Pascal knew they couldn’t possibly be feeling.
“Are we going to sit back and watch the other, less adept shifters and incompetents ruin the world that once belonged to us?”
Again, Lara sucked air between her pristine white teeth loudly enough to pull Pascal’s attention from Franz toward her. As if anticipating his gaze, she turned her brilliant blue eyes on him, locking gazes with a modicum of desperation that was oddly familiar to Pascal.
Don’t get sucked into that now, he grumbled to himself, wrenching his eyes away to stare at Franz again. If the elder noticed what his mate was doing, he made no indication.
He’s immune to her charms, Pascal thought with a sigh.
“Thankfully,” Franz went on, “some of us are more proactive than others.”
A murmur of discontent made its way throughout the crowd as the vampires eyed one another with a combination of resentment and curiosity. A bubble of excitement shot through Pascal. He knew that he was up, that the meeting was about to turn to him.
He just wasn’t sure he was ready for the attention, even though he had been anticipating it.
I’m not even sure I know what the hell is going on, he mused but it wasn’t the time for Pascal to argue. He hadn’t been sure that Franz was going to say anything at all, given what little Pascal knew on the matter, but now it was clear he was broadcasting it, blindsiding the younger vampire, if only slightly.
“Some of us have managed to find solutions by thinking outside the box, by taking initiative without waiting for me to give instructions,” Franz went on, resting his gaze on Pascal with a twitching smile.
A swell of pride coursed through Pascal’s body, overriding all other emotions. Now there was no secret. Franz was calling him into play. He was almost dizzy with the recognition and a wavering beam of his own overtook his face. Franz gave him a short nod and gestured for him to come up front.
“Pascal has learned of a secret agency that works against not only our best interest, but also the interest of all shifters and enchanted beings,” Franz went on as Pascal shuffled toward the pair at the head of the group. Lara made no effort to make way for him and he paused a few steps away. The confused din grew louder when all eyes rested on Pascal, but he felt as though he was in a trance, his own gaze set on Franz, who nodded encouragingly.
“Tell them,” Franz insisted when Pascal hesitated. “Go ahead. Tell them what you have been recruited to do.”
Pascal’s grin faltered slightly, a peculiar feeling of disloyalty tingling in his gut.
Don’t be absurd, he thought with dismay. The only loyalty I have is to the tribe.
The sensation alone was confusing.
“Well?” Lara snapped when he didn’t speak. “What is this amazing coloring you did outside the lines?”
Finally, Franz seemed to detect the bitterness in his partner, and he eyed her with half-interest before again turning his full attention to Pascal.
“Go ahead, Pascal. You can tell them.”
“I’m not sure there’s anything to tell yet,” Pascal replied, suddenly uncertain under the scrutiny of the tribe. “I mean, I haven’t agreed to whatever it is.”
“But you will,” Franz said quickly, looking slightly appalled by the notion that Pascal might refuse. “We’ve known about this program, or at least heard whispers of it. You are the first being who has ever come back from a meeting to speak of it.”
“There hasn’t been an official meeting,” Pascal reminded him. “I was only approached by this Dexter being about the potential of a meeting.”
Franz grunted, annoyance clouding his eyes. Pascal was instantly contrite, realizing that he wasn’t doing what he had been instructed to do but before he could speak, Franz jumped in.
“If you won’t tell them, I will,” their leader snapped, the spark of pride extinguishing from his eyes as he turned toward the tribe again. “Pascal has an ‘in’ to the Sleeper program.”
Pascal opened his mouth to correct Franz again but thought better of it. Instead, he watched the group as they looked to one another in confusion.
“The what?” someone asked.
“What does that mean?” someone else demanded. Only Lara seemed to know of what Franz spoke and her eyes narrowed into slits as she glared at Pascal. He could almost read her thoughts.
Once again, Pascal turned his attention away and focused on Franz, even though he could feel Lara’s eyes boring into him.
“It means that not only have we been in constant competition with the other shifters, there is yet another force that works against us, one that unifies rogues from within their own realms and turns them into spies,” Franz explained. There was a confidence in his voice that Pascal did not understand but it spoke volumes to him.
He clearly knows more about this than I thought, Pascal realized.
But how could Pascal have guessed anything? All he knew was that an elusive stranger had cornered him earlier that night and asked for—or demanded—a meeting with his employer. The dragon stranger had warned him not to speak of it until the interview had come and gone but Pascal kept no secrets from the tribe’s leader.
After Dexter had disappeared, promising to return in the morning, Pascal had directly called Franz, who had instantly called the tribe meeting.
But if the strange encounter had meant something to Franz, it was obvious that the rest of the tribe was just as confused as Pascal had been, not that he blamed them for being so perplexed. He wasn’t sure he understood the impact of what he had told Franz about the meeting with the elusive dragon either, not even when Franz had made a half-hearted attempt to explain it.
“You must go meet this man’s employer,” Franz insisted, excitement coloring his face when Pascal had told him. “If this is what I think it is, you have given us insight to a program I’ve been eager to learn about.”
Pascal had tried to ask more about it, but Franz had already dismissed him, his own thoughts taking over.
“I don’t get it,” Lynda called out, voicing the words that had undoubtedly been playing in everyone’s mind at that point and bringing Pascal back to the gathering before him. “What force? What are you talking about?”
Pascal eyed Franz, wondering how much he intended to share with the others.
How much does he really know about it? Maybe he’s just putting on a show.
The thought filled him with a slight guilt. He had no right to doubt Franz’s leadership. There was a reason he was the regent, after all.
The truth was, Pascal would never have given Dexter’s proposition a second thought if it had not been so mysterious. If Pascal had known how excited Franz would get about it, he wasn’t sure he would have said anything in the first place.
Who are you kidding? You tell Franz everything, he chided himself, almost rolling his light blue eyes into the back of his head.
Yet Pascal could not help but worry about what waited for him the following day with this “interview” with the dragon’s “employer”. The entire situation reeked of something untoward to Pascal, even if Franz had the utmost confidence that he knew what was going on.
That’s why Franz is the leader and the rest of us are mere minions in the grand scheme of the tribe, Pascal reminded himself again with a combination of exasperation and affection. The feel of Lara’s intense stare on him forced Pascal to look back toward her. Even looking annoyed, her expression was indecipherable, as though she was trying to communicate something to him through her stare.
Never mind Lara, he told himself crossly. That ship sailed long ago.
But he could not miss the way she continued to gaze at him, a slight desperation in her eyes.
“The truth will unveil itself in due time,” Franz told the others with his magnetic evasiveness. “But soon, we’ll have the upper hand over all the others and find ourselves back in our rightful spot as leaders of the free world.”
Pascal wished he shared Franz’s confidence, but he could not ignore the trickle of apprehension that formed in the pit of his stomach.
Whatever I learn tomorrow will make everything much clearer, he thought, shoving aside his misgivings. I haven’t committed to anything, one way or another. It’s just a meeting. By this time tomorrow, I’ll be back here and fully alert to what’s happening.
Unfortunately, Pascal had no idea just how wrong he was.
1
The Volkswagen followed the road evenly, Kyla guiding the car with one eye on the stunning waterline to her right. It never ceased to steal her breath, even after several weeks of being in Cape Town. The odd yet tantalizing color of the South Atlantic Ocean seemed otherworldly, strange. The swirl of deep blues, greens, and blacks belonged to something out of a sci-fi movie, not of this planet. She wondered if she would ever get used to seeing it.
It just goes to show you how sheltered you’ve been up until now, she mused, not for the first time as she led the vehicle toward the center of Hout Bay. A quick glance at the time on the dash told her that she had a few minutes to kill before the newbie arrived but that didn’t bother Kyla. It gave her a few minutes to enjoy the breathtaking view of the ocean on one side, and Hout Bay on the other.
She’d made other pickups before, greeting the new Sleepers as they came in from Virginia over the past few years, but they had come fewer and farther between over the past two years. In fact, getting notification from Anatoli, the vampire-witch hybrid, had surprised Kyla. She had almost forgotten that recruits were still coming through.
She parked the car, pulling the keys from the ignition as she sat back to wait. She caught a glimpse of her face in the rearview, her startling dark eyes catching her view before anything else. Frowning, Kyla drew her face closer and eyed herself with more intensity.
Why do I look so tired? she wondered, her full mouth drooping more, a strand of ebony hair falling over her forehead. Am I that tired?
Being immortal had ensured that white hair and wrinkles were only worries for the humans but that didn’t mean that witches were immune to physical flaws—like bags under the eyes. The fact that she looked tired was less troubling to Kyla than the fact that she had no idea why. Her life in Cape Town had been easy for the most part. As a Keeper to the Sleepers, Kyla did not have to worry about being activated or prepared for war the way the other members did. Her job was simple—take the trainees and oversee them until they were activated on their own.
The Sleepers were agents for a secret organization that was supposed to bring peace among the Enchanted. Anatoli, the vampire-witch hybrid, was the leader of the elite organization.
Of course, the recruits who were sent to Kyla didn’t realize that they were being babysat. When they had been trained at the compound, they had left under the illusion that they would be on their own when they reached their placements and for the most part, that was true. But every once in a while, Anatoli would send along a trainee who did not quite pass the fealty test as well as the Director hoped. In some cases, Anatoli would simply send said recruits back into the world after deprogramming but Kyla knew how much she loathed to waste a resource. When possible, the questionable recruit would be sent for additional training, even if they did not know it.
So far, Kyla had repositioned every recruit she had been given, each of them comfortably tucked away in other parts of the world, awaiting whatever plan Anatoli had for them. Over the past six months, Kyla had been free to enjoy her quiet life in Cape Town, relishing the alone time and convening with the ancient earth on which she stood. Truthfully, it had been blissful.
Why, then, did she look so tired?
“Mholo,” someone said as he neared her car. “Awukwazi kupaka apha.”
Kyla glanced up at the police officer and gave him a helpless smile. Instantly, his face softened and he returned her smile.
“I don’t speak Xhosa,” she told him apologetically.
“English, yeah?” he asked. She nodded. “You can’t park here.”
Her smile faltered and she cocked her head in confusion.
“Since when?” she asked, looking about for signage. She had used that spot several times over the years.
“A dignitary and his wife are coming through this week,” the cop replied. “Special circumstances.”
“Oh.”
Kyla flashed him a wary look.
“I’m picking up a friend,” she explained hastily. “He won’t know where to find me if I don’t meet him here. I promise, I won’t be long.”
The cop hesitated but Kyla gave him a warm, fluttering look and he softened more.
“I’ll circle around the cape but when I come back, you better be gone,” he said, winking at her meaningfully. “Or else…”
Kyla swallowed a retort and kept the demure beam on her face.
“Thank you!” she breathed. “I’ll make sure we’re long gone.”
The policeman nodded and headed away, swaggering his navy-blue pants slightly as he did. Kyla smothered a groan of disgust, turning her head to look around the street. She had received a file on Pascal Wyndham the previous day after Anatoli had called. She knew what to look for in the vampire, but Pascal had no idea who she was. It was up
to Kyla to locate him.
This is an obtuse time for a vampire to meet, she thought worriedly. Despite it being late fall in South Africa, the sun still ran hot. It was never terribly cold in those parts, not even in the dead of July. It was the first time a vampire Sleeper had ever been sent her way and Kyla was beginning to consider the implications of all that.
Not your problem, she reminded herself firmly. You’re not his mother.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of black and she turned her head intuitively. Whatever it was that had caught her attention had vanished. Kyla’s mouth puckered into a scowl and she again pivoted her gaze back toward the water. Through the rearview, she saw another blur of movement. This time, she stepped from the car, whirling to catch the sight in her vision.
He stood out like a sore thumb in his all-black issue, his fair face a disturbing contrast to the brilliant blue of his eyes and ebony of his hair.
Even in a place as diverse as Cape Town, it was clear that Pascal Wyndham did not belong.
“What are you doing?” Kyla snapped at him. “Get in the car.”
For a moment, he seemed taken aback by the instruction and gaped at Kyla in dismay.
“What?”
“What do you mean ‘what’?” Kyla grumbled. “What part didn’t you understand?”
The sarcastic question was rhetorical, and Kyla almost felt guilty for being so harsh with him, but she didn’t want the police officer to return while she was explaining things to Pascal. Things were already complicated enough, and they didn’t need to be calling any more attention to themselves.
“Who are you?”
Kyla groaned.
“Will you just get in the damned car, Pascal? I’ll explain as we’re driving. I’m illegally parked here.”
