Midnight Guardian

by Tamara White

  The fact they died so quickly though, was a disappointment because I still needed to feed. It’s harder to attempt to feed on two victims unless I incapacitate one first. Sometimes, it’s not easy to do so.

  Still, I need to find more to feed on. I want to have enough sustenance to be able to survive the week of classes without any random attacks on students. My temper is easily triggered when I’m hungry, so it’s best to ensure all my appetites are fed.

  I spend the next hour wandering the streets, hunting for my next meal, when finally, I find something thrilling. Shifters may enjoy killing humans, but there is nothing more exciting for me than hunting shifters, especially wolves. Jordan used to say it was because of the way my family died at the hands of wolf shifters, making me develop an instinctual need to hunt them, to kill them. I don’t care about all the other psychobabble that he said, I just knew I would never trust a wolf shifter again. Even more so after Drake’s betrayal. He was the first wolf I trusted after being thrust into this new world, and he will definitely be the last.

  My mind focuses on my new target as my heart races in excitement.

  The wolf shifter is luring a young girl, barely older than twenty-one, away from the back of a club in a deserted alley.

  I know he can’t turn her into a wolf because it’s not a full moon yet, but it doesn’t mean he won’t turn her into a supe. One bite from him is all it would take to start the change from human to supe. He could be simply intending to hook up, which there’s no law against in my book. So long as he doesn’t hurt her, I won’t interfere. Even if my body begs me to.

  Usually, I would rely on the intentions I feel from him, but the ones I’m getting from him are a little confusing at the moment. He wants to eat, he’s hungry but he’s also horny. It makes it a little hard to discern whether he intends on hurting her or just fucking her in the alley.

  I watch intently as the girl seems to grow worried the farther away from the club the man leads her. He’s an imposing figure, so I’d imagine fear is now settling in her belly. I can’t distinguish much from the way he’s talking to her in low, mumbled tones, so I stay attached to the building, hidden in the darkness, and wait.

  The girl starts growing panicked and tries in vain to push the wolf away from her, but he barely budges. In the next second, his hand snaps out and grabs her around the throat, lifting her off her feet.

  That’s my cue.

  I detach from the shadows, keeping my eyes on the threat before me. Shifters generally hunt in packs, but even with my senses fanned out around me, I can tell this idiot is on his lonesome. It’s gonna make killing him easier.

  The girl is scratching at the brute’s hand around her throat as tears stream down her face. Judging by the growls emanating from him, and the way his body vibrates with need, I’m going to assume he’s one of the shifters Drake told me about that likes to feed on human flesh rather than on animals. Apparently, some humans have a tastier vibe to them. Not that I’d know. All of my meals are supes.

  I’m almost to him when I sense the presence of tigers and a vampire nearby. Not close enough to intervene, but too close for me to make this last longer than I usually would. The fact this wolf seems oblivious to their energy means he’s either working with them or he’s too consumed in his future kill to sense them.

  Once I’m only a few feet away, I see that his canines have lengthened and there’s no humanity left in his eyes. He’s given over to his animal side completely.

  “Here, boy,” I call, whistling him over like the dog he is. The moment he moves, I reach my hand behind me, palming my gun, waiting for the right moment.

  I don’t want to accidentally shoot the girl, but he’s too close right now for her not to be a casualty.

  His chest heaves as the animal in him wars on which route to go. I pull on the part of me that’s the wolf, calling to his softly in my mind. Nudging him to let the girl go and come play with me instead.

  The girl screams as his grip loosens enough that she drops to the ground, and I waste no time bringing my gun out and firing at his chest. The bullet has enough of a punch that it sends him stumbling away from the girl. But lucky for him, these ones are designed to poison then kill. It’ll give him enough time to realize what is about to happen before I feed on his life force.

  Before I can offer up a word of comfort to the human, she springs up and takes off running as fast as her little legs will carry her.

  “You’re welcome!” I call after her, shaking my head. If she wants to run into the dark night without help, I’m not going to fucking chase her.

  I’m sure she’ll find the nearest human she can and scream the word “monster” from the rooftops, but I doubt a soul will believe her.

  As a bunch, humans are pretty ignorant of the things that go bump in the night. She’ll probably run to the first cop she sees, who will assume it’s a mugging gone wrong, and try to get help, by which time I’ll be gone.

  I stalk to the wolf, intent on feeding on him. He has a hand pressed to his chest in an effort to staunch the flow of blood from his gunshot wound, but little does he know, he’ll be dead very soon. If not from my feeding, he’ll die from the poison starting to course through his veins.

  He tries to back away from me and ends up stumbling. He trips over a box and lands on his ass. Seriously? Did that just happen?

  I look down at him in anger. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Animals provide all the damn protein we need. Why hunt humans? Do you like me stalking your ass in the night? You’d think that me being out here would at least deter you dicks from hunting humans like they are nothing but cattle, but no, you’re all too fucking stupid and keep fucking hunting!”

  Surprised by my rant, he remains quiet. Hell, even I was surprised by my tirade. Guess all these nights spent hunting them is starting to make the anger harder to bury.

  I smile at him as I bend down to grab his wrist. Blood bubbles on his lips as he weakly tries to pull away from me. My fangs grow and in an instant, I latch on to his wrist. A moan grumbles low in my throat as his life drains into me. This time, though, instead of ending the supe’s life quickly, I pull back when there is only a drop of energy left. Just enough to sustain him as death takes hold. I want him to feel every inch of pain that he would have inflicted on that poor human.

  “Who are you?” he gargles out, blood dribbling from his mouth in a steady stream. In the limited moonlight, I can see the gleam of silver now mixing with his blood.

  “I’m your nightmare come to life,” I smirk, watching his life fade before my eyes. I would have ended it quicker, but why give the monster a quick kill when that girl would have been writhing in agony for hours as he fed on her flesh.

  I watch as his body begins to turn to dust like a statue. There’s no breeze to blow away the shards of his body, which means I’m going to have to stamp his ass into the ground.

  As I get to my feet, the tigers that I sensed earlier, seem to get closer, eventually approaching me from behind. It’s not just them though, I sense the vampire, along with what feels like a bear and a wolf nearby too. It’s too much of a coincidence for them to all be gathering near this area for anything but me.

  I groan, frustrated at their timing. Ugh, why couldn’t they have picked a fight after I’d disposed of this nutcase? Stupid fricking supes.

  Using my feet, I start stomping the body into unrecognizable piles of dust. “If you guys have come for a fight, just give me a minute to dispose of this guy, then I’ll get rid of you. Or you can turn around and run as fast as you can and hope that I won’t find you again,” I call, as dust sprays back, landing on my pant leg and making me cringe. Gross, I’m going to look like I had a fucking dust bath for the rest of the night.

  Neither of the tigers moves from behind me, and the other supes remain where they are, probably thinking I can’t sense them from the distance away. But I am not your regular supe, I can sense others far away if I’m concentrating.

  I finish up quickly
, facing them when I’m satisfied with the job I did reducing the body to nothing. There’s no evidence of the death that happened here tonight.

  Chapter Nine

  Tristan

  I think I’m in love.

  That’s the only reason to explain the way I want her.

  She is beauty and darkness all wrapped up in one shell, and I want her more than I’ve ever wanted anything else in this world.

  It was pure chance that she happened to stalk the same vampire I had my eyes on, but rather than interfere and get petty when she stole my meal, I’m enraptured. She is cocky, her every move placed meticulously as if to alert the vampire to her position.

  It surprises me when my protective instincts surge forward, demanding I shield her from this vampire. That’s never happened with someone who wasn’t family.

  My instincts are fucked up, so the fact she makes me feel an urge to protect her is intriguing on its own. But as I watch her stalk the vampire, taunting him away from his meal, it makes my heart beat faster than ever before.

  She throws her head back suddenly, laughing at whatever the vampire said.

  My eyes take in every inch of her beautiful pale skin, zeroing in on that sweet spot on her neck where I know her pulse beats. I want nothing more than to be down there and press my body to hers while running my tongue over the delicate flesh of her neck. I want to taste her, to make her mine.

  Moonlight bounces off her body, showing me enough to make my fangs drop. On the left side of her face are four jagged scars and the sight of them enrages me. Whoever the fuck gave her those is going to die at my hands. There is no if, buts, or maybes, I will hunt the fucker down who dared hurt her and feed him his own heart.

  Suddenly, her laughter stills and a gleam of hunger appears in her eyes before she moves swiftly. In a mere second, a blade appeared and she’s sliced the vampire’s neck. Blood spurts from the wound, but it doesn’t go to waste long before the girl is latched on his neck like a starving vampire.

  I watch completely enthralled. By the way she moves, I would have assumed she was a shifter of some kind, maybe a Fae with how much she’s enchanted me, but a vampire? I never would have believed it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes.

  When she lets go of the body, I watch in amazement as it disintegrates into dust. A startled chuckle escapes me. This girl is fucking amazing!

  Her gaze snaps up to the roof where I’m hiding, but I know she won’t see me. Even when her gaze crosses me a few times, she has no clue where I am. Every time her eyes graze over me, a shiver of desire rushes through my body and straight to my cock. I know if it’s not tonight, I will have her soon.

  She may not feel the draw I do, but I know what she is to me. She’s mine.

  Although I want nothing more than to go down there and claim her, I fight the urge with every ounce of strength I possess. I may know she’s my mate, but before she’s stuck with me, she deserves to know how defective I am.

  My family likes to think that they’ve hidden all their fears and concerns from me, but I knew even before my mother turned me that I was nothing more than a monster. She knew of my instincts even then. She was the one to catch me in the act when I killed the animals on the farm down the road from our home.

  Mother covered it up, even from Drake, but she knew deep down what I craved. I craved blood, I craved the hunt, and most of all, I craved the kill. The feeling inside me as I take another’s life is nothing short of euphoric.

  Something that makes everyone I live with afraid of me. They think I’m mentally challenged, that I’m in some kind of depressed state after mother’s death and then Drake’s leaving, but that’s not it at all.

  It’s just who I am. I don’t have a conscience. My needs are primal and they will never understand that, but for just a millisecond there is a moment of hope that my mate may accept the monster I am since she, too, has her very own.

  I follow her as she leaves the alley, using the rooftops to watch her, forgetting all about my own need to feed. Even as I see her easily decapitate two more vamps without feeding, I can’t help but feel a longing to be with her. I want to feed from her, then let her feed on my soul, to let her feel the darkness within me and let me nurture her own. She may run from me, but I can only pray to whatever powers exist in this world that she gives me a chance to prove that although my heart is dark, it will only ever belong to her.

  Chapter Ten

  Isobel

  The moment I turn around, I let a curse spill from my lips. At the mouth of the alley, the two tiger shifters are watching me in fascination. But that’s not what’s thrown me. It’s the fact that one of them is none other than the idiot from my dorm.

  A harsh laugh escapes me as I study the figure on the right, his moss green eyes burning into me. Of course, it’s the same fucking guy from the dorms standing there, his eyes full of judgment. My life can’t be fucking simple, can it?

  He’s no longer cloaking himself, and it’s obvious just how powerful he is. Dominance wafts off him in waves, making my body shiver with arousal. Damn me for my attraction to dominant males.

  But why did the guy from my dorm and his friend, or possibly brother, judging by their similarities, come down this alley?

  Just who are these guys? They can’t be newly turned, because their power levels are just as strong as the enforcers I’ve encountered. Everyone gains power through age. Some supes are prone to being more powerful based on the one who turned them, but according to Jordan, it’s entirely possible for me to turn two people and one would have the power of my new line while the other would be a complete washout in the abilities department.

  I study them suspiciously. Who comes down a dark alley when they can clearly see me killing another supe? And why did they just watch? Are they both idiots? The guy from my dorm didn’t strike me as stupid, but maybe I was wrong.

  My gaze goes to the guy on the left, studying him more intently.

  The only real difference between the two of them is the harsh expression fixed on the second guy’s face, like it’s practically stuck there. His eyes are green too, but a sharper hue, more like a jade gemstone. These two have to be brothers or at least cousins.

  Rather than acknowledge their presence, I simply move to walk between them when the second guy’s hand snaps out and grips my arm in a vise-like grip.

  “Who are you?” he growls, his voice low and dangerous.

  I tense, not liking his hostile tone. My eyes linger on his grip before moving to his face. “If you don’t let me go right this second, you will lose your arm,” I warn through clenched teeth. I hate being grabbed, especially by people I don’t know. It’s like his friend told him to grab me so he could get a repeat of the action earlier.

  My gaze flicks to the guy from the dorm, waiting for him to tell his friend to back off after having witnessed my reaction firsthand, but he just looks between us worriedly. He obviously doesn’t want to interfere.

  Well, screw that. I have more important places to be. I cover the second tiger’s wrist with my free hand, squeezing with just enough strength to snap a human’s wrist. The surprise in his eyes is enough to have me smirking. I keep squeezing, my grip getting tighter and more painful for him as I wait for him to let go.

  Finally, he gasps in pain and has no choice but to release me.

  I’m about to walk away when the energy in the air stirs and the other supes come closer. I concentrate on them, feeling their intent is nothing more than curiosity, so I continue to walk toward the street and into the soft light of the distant streetlights.

  The supes are nothing more than a wolf, a bear, and a vampire, and while they are high in power too, they are no match for me. No one I’ve met has been.

  I pause and turn back to the tigers, putting two and two together. “Tell your friends to stand down or they’ll be dead in seconds.”

  “What friends?” the guy from my dorm asks, trying to fake any knowledge of the others. I raise a brow. Does he really think
I’m that stupid?

  I shake my head, disappointed. Things never turn out good when supes play dumb with me.

  Sighing, I turn to the right, pointing to a section in the back of the alley where I sense a presence. “The bear is down there.” I gesture to the dumpster that sits on the corner of a street and has enough room for a human to squeeze behind. “The wolf is hiding behind the dumpster. And your vampire friend, well, he’s directly above me on the roof. If he jumps like he’s thinking of doing, he’ll be decapitated before he hits the ground.”

  As I talk, both of the tigers’ eyes widen in astonishment, clearly shocked that I knew exactly where each of their friends were.

  They have no idea what I am, thanks to my lack of supe scent, which gives me a very good advantage over them. And unless they see my mark, or I tell them, they’ll never know who I am.

  “Okay, guys, you better come out,” the first guy says, drawing the bear and the wolf from their hiding spots. They both take slow steps toward us, but it’s not them my attention is fixed on. No, my attention is on the predator on the roof, his heart beating wildly.

  I know he’s going to jump, I can feel him like he’s in my body, my heart beating to the same rhythm as his. The moment he leaps, a smile curves my lips and I decide to give them a little show. Let them see just how unprepared they are to attack me.

  Time slows down as he descends, and I draw on my own speed. Crouching down, I pull a dagger with one hand and then jump. I meet him halfway, grabbing him by the throat. When we land on the ground, I spin, slamming him against the wall, raising the dagger to his throat and pressing firmly enough that blood starts to trickle down.

  “I warned you what would happen if you jumped,” I mutter, staring into his brown eyes. My heart races, sensing a familiarity within him, a draw that I shouldn’t feel.