by T. J. Quinn
Vampire
Bloodlines
Dark World Series
Book 2
A.J. Daniels
GTQ LLC
Orlando, Florida
Copyright © 2018 by A.J. Daniels
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
GTQ LLC
PO Box 540375
Orlando, FL 32854
www.gtq.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Bloddlust Vampire/A.J. Daniels -- 1st Ed.
ISBN
CONTENTS
Prologue
Red Headed Spit Fire
The Diplomat’s Daughter
A Reluctant Date
The Unusual But Cute Vampire
Professional Insults Not Withstanding
Strong People Have Feelings Too
Love in Letters
The Hunt for Sweet September
Falling in Love
Rangers in Training
Feeding a Sexy Vampire
Loving a Sexy Vampire
Celebrating V-Day
Abducted or Willing Hostage
Trouble at the Institute
Human Trafficking
Senol
Wearing a Wire
Rescuing the Children
Happily Ever Afters
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Prologue
It’s the year 2092, and the world is a very different place, especially since the end of the alien wars. The earth is now populated by several different species, all living side by side, working together, and things can get rough. Aliens sometimes have difficulty navigating the complexities of human civilization, and there is still much prejudice against the newcomers.
When your back’s against the wall, and your survival is on the line, don’t trust public law enforcement. They’re overworked, underpaid and spend most of their time combatting the never-ending war on designer drugs.
No matter who’s after you, alien or human, a good hunter can mean the difference between life and death. Get the best one you can find and then sit back and enjoy the no holds barred thrill ride, as they do their thing. Dakota Davenport is the best in the business. She protects newcomers with a vengeance. Trust me, she won’t let you down.
Chapter 1
Red Headed Spit Fire
Garan had to admit that his men liked the states pretty well because of the surplus of willing female feeding partners. One of the local clubs catered to male vampires looking to meet unattached young females and his men got lucky almost every time they went there. Garan rarely went to the club for one perfect reason.
He had found something he liked more in the form of the pretty red head who supervised the kitchens at the institute. She was large, and he loved the way the lights reflected off her beautiful red hair…it sparkled like fire. Her large green eyes were so calming he easily found himself getting lost in them. He tried to make it a point to be where she was so he could talk to her. She was a busy person but also a good sport about talking to him and answering his thousand and one questions about the states.
He guessed he was following her around a little too much because one day he walked up behind her when she wasn’t looking and apparently surprised her. That was the day she became irritated and explained to him what the word stalking meant. He had never even thought there might be a word for following a woman around too much although his men had been teasing him that he was following her like a little lost puppy.
Several times he had found himself staring into her beautiful green eyes as she was speaking to him and much to her annoyance he totally lost track of the conversation. He discovered that she was a bit of a spitfire and rarely cut him any slack. She always said what was on her mind and didn’t much care who liked or didn’t like it. She even snapped at Alek on occasion, and no one here did that.
He respected that she didn’t seem to play favorites and treated everyone with the same level of impatience except perhaps little Selene. Who could possibly blame her? Selene was small and innocent, and he had found out rather quickly that whoever teased her got a knuckle sandwich from Jared. Garan smiled to himself as he thought of his son. For someone who didn’t seem to like violence, his son could scrap with the best of them.
Garan asked for an assignment and Dakota had assigned him to assist Josh with the security team. He found Josh very competent, and he enjoyed spending time with the human much to the annoyance of his gentleman friend. The Kalian regularly cursed him a blue streak for spending time with Josh. He didn’t care because Josh liked to talk about things Garan was interested in such as hunting and tracking and such.
This morning he could not seem to stop looking into Miss. Lona’s large green eyes. She was scolding him for the third time because he was making a mess on the breakfast bar. She said, “Good grief Garan, how can one man make so much of a mess getting cookies and water. Move over, I’ll do it for you.”
Garan leaned on the bar and replied, “There seems to be a beautiful red head distracting me this morning. I suggest if you send her back to her office things will go a lot smoother out here.”
She glanced up with a scowl on her pretty face and commented, “What in the world is up with you today. You seem intoxicated or something. Did you drink last night…do vampires even get drunk?”
He leaned over and said, “My men took me to this place called a ‘bar’ last night, and the ladies there gave us something called a ‘lap dance.’ It was extraordinary. Do you give lap dances, Miss Lona? If you do I want them all…no wait, is that just for bars…maybe it is only for after dark…are lap dances and dates the same thing? They feel like the same thing almost. Let me know...”
She spun around and asked, “Are you familiar with the term sexual harassment?” She could tell by the look in his face he was not.
He looked perplexed until he realized she was mumbling, “Strange…idiotic…sexy vampires…all over the damn place these days. Here have a fresh blood bag. Now get out of here, you big oaf.”
Garan smiled and sat down with his men. They all made fun of him for pissing the red head off so early in the morning. He knew they honestly could not figure out how it was he was so disinterested in seeing cooperative females at the bar but was somehow so preoccupied with the one woman who didn’t seem one bit interested in him. He was beginning to wonder that himself.
Josh plopped down in front of him and began talking about a break in, something about one of the outbuildings. Garan grabbed his blood bag and walked out with him. His men where all whispers when they noticed the red head watching Garan leave with a little smile on her face. She glanced over at them and saw they had been watching her.
Her brows furrowed and she snapped, “Don’t leave a mess over there gentlemen. I swear that I will call you back to clean it.”
One of the males called out, “Call me anytime little angry princess.”
Lona stopped in her tracks, turned around, pointed to the door and said, “Out.” The male grabbed his blood bag and scurried out the door. She glanced at the others and asked, “Anyone else think they are a c
omedian today?” They quickly went back to their breakfast, and she headed to her office.
Josh and Garan began looking through the building that was ransacked and discovered some graffiti spray painted on the wall. It appeared to be something done by teenagers. Nothing was missing, and the computer hadn’t been touched. They discussed strategies for managing the perimeter of the grounds. There was a large stylized SA painted on the side of the building.
Josh noticed a crease in Garan’s brow and said, “I don’t know of a gang that uses that tag so it must be the teenagers.”
Garan nodded.
Chapter 2
The Diplomat’s Daughter
Garan also continued to accept cases to hunt. He didn’t have many contacts in the US but got his first referral after a month of being at the institute. The case was on a missing diplomat’s daughter. They wanted him because he spoke Spanish fluently. Jared didn’t speak Spanish and wasn’t interested in a hunt if he couldn’t understand anyone.
Garan took the case with half of his men. The fee was a cool million. It would be enough to pay his men their wages for the year and then some. It would be nice not to have to worry about that for the rest of the year. Garan met his point of contact. He got a quarter of the million up front and rest on the successful resolution of the case. In hunter talk that meant he got a quarter of a million for looking and the rest was a bonus if the female was found alive.
He got a data file with several pictures of the female, an itinerary of her American vacation, rental car information and general information on her life. Her father was attached to the Brazilian consulate in the states, but she lived with her mother in Brazil. Well, he just took a case where he could barely speak the language. Brazilians spoke Portuguese, not Spanish. Shit, he pulled out his cell and arranged for a translator. He smiled ruefully to himself. If it were easy, he wouldn’t be getting paid so much.
He stepped off the plane and took a deep breath of the hot, muggy air. For most humans, it would be uncomfortable, but for Garan, it was kind of exhilarating. He linked with his translator and visited the bar where the target was last seen. He felt if she had been snatched for money then her family would have heard something by now.
Maybe some sadist or slaver had abducted her. People were turning up missing off and on all the time these days. There literally weren’t enough hunters to work all the cases. He threw down a neural net, and his men began searching every square inch of the place. No one fitting the woman’s description or with her DNA was present. They started scanning the site for trace DNA evidence.
They found quite a bit in one of the restrooms and on the roof. Garan stood on the roof with binoculars looking carefully at each and every building within sight of the club. Something caught his eye. One of the apartments had a telescope in the window…one of the short low resolution ones that you could not see many stars with but was quite fantastic for spying on your neighbors with.
Garan had absolutely no idea why but he had a strong gut reaction to finding this. He could see in his mind’s eye a person who was too socially inept to go out and meet beautiful women becoming obsessed with watching them then finally acting on the growing impulses.
He turned and went back into the bar, downstairs and out the back to his shuttle. He and his men leveled up, and they converged on the apartment with the telescope.
Quiet and undetected was their plan and they slipped in and made their way to the apartment. They knocked on the door and nothing. Garan simply kicked the door in, and they began looking from room to room. Sure enough, they found her tied to the bed naked in one of the back bedrooms.
She was tearful and terrified when she saw them. He pulled a blanket up to cover her and sent his men out to look for her abductor. Garan called her father on the phone and put the phone to her ear. She calmed as soon as she heard his voice. He slowly removed her gag. Then he began working on the ropes that held her hands and feet then pulled the sheet up around her. The woman immediately curled into a fetal ball as she spoke to her father and he could see the relief sweeping through her body.
She handed the phone back to Garan, and the man’s voice seemed pleased but shocked as he said, “I will wire the rest of the money to your account. I called the local police and an ambulance for my daughter. Stay with her until I arrive, I am on my way.”
Garan nodded and asked the female if she would like to be alone and she said, “Yes…no…yes…I don’t know. How far away will you be?”
Garan smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll stay over here.” He got up off the bed and moved to a chair across the room.
She smiled uncomfortably at him and whispered, “Thanks.”
Garan sat staring out the window at the sky and the tops of the other buildings. This hunt had been pretty unsatisfying as far as challenging his intellect. He barely even used his translator because the target and her father both spoke English. This was the one and only case he ever had that he managed to solve literally in minutes. He already wished for another case.
The police arrived. Shortly after that, the victim’s father arrived and was disappointed to find the abductor had not been caught. Garan reminded him of the terms of the contract. He was hired to find the daughter not wrap the whole case up for the police.
The detective said, “Don’t worry we have put out an All Points for him. My guess is we will have him in custody by the close of business today.”
Garan nodded, answered basic questions for the detective, traded contact information and promised a written report within twenty-four hours.
Chapter 3
A Reluctant Date
Jared was shocked to find that his father had returned less than nine hours later and a million dollars richer. Garan did not seem all that thrilled and described it as boring and not stimulating. He thought maybe his father liked hunting for the challenge or the thrill of the hunt. Jared thought that if that were true, then his father would probably find getting to know him about as interesting as this last hunt…in other words, not at all.
Garan went to the kitchen and found the beautiful red head, Lona there supervising the details of the evening meal. She glanced up at him and said, “Back already?”
He smiled at her and replied, “Boring case. We got there found her tied up and got her back to her father. Easiest case I ever had. Would you allow me to take you into town for dinner to help me celebrate?”
She looked pleased and responded, “That would be fantastic. Who all is coming?”
Garan looked at her for a moment and blinked.
She realized he was asking her out on a date with just the two of them.
Her enthusiasm waned so he asked, “How many other people would I need to invite for this invitation to be ‘fantastic’ again?”
Her eyes softened, and she said, “I would love to go out just the two of us. When would you like to leave?”
The corners of his mouth turned up, and he replied, “How about six pm?” She nodded and scurried off.
Garan headed to his tiny bungalow, slid out of his hunting leathers and into the shower. He stood leaning on the shower wall as the warm water ran down his body as he thought about the beautiful red head. He thought about how much less enthusiastic she had become when she realized it was just going to be the two of them. He was not very experienced with women, but he knew she had agreed because of the socially awkward situation of accepting then felt it would be rude to decline. He decided to just let her off the hook. It was obvious she was not interested in him, and it hurt to realize that she was just too sweet to say no.
He pulled on dark brown leather pants and a white linen shirt. He looked at himself in the mirror and realized that he was unfortunately not very attractive with his short hair and his large thick fangs. His fangs were rough from feeding mostly on animal blood throughout his life. No woman would want those fangs in her neck. It hardly mattered because he rarely did that anyway. Mostly the women from his village just cut their wrists a little, and
he drank covering the wound with saliva which normally left it healed completely in a couple of hours. He sat on the side of his bed for a long while with his head in his hands then fell back staring at the ceiling.
The next thing he knew there was a knock on his door, and when he answered it he found Lona looking at him rather questioningly…he quickly glanced at his clock and realized it was five minutes past six. He apologized and asked her in while he put his shoes on.
She stepped over the threshold and said cheerfully, “You room smells of wood burning in the fireplace, leather, soap and sexy vampire.”
He smiled at her and remembered he was going to offer her an opt out for their date. He sighed and said, “I don’t know about that last part, but I noticed that when you realized I was asking you out on a date instead of to a gathering with other people you lost your enthusiasm rather quickly. I won’t be offended if you want to just tell me I’m not your type. I mean I won’t expect you to go out with me if you would rather not…what I mean to say is I would like for you to go out with me but only if you would like to.”
She walked over, grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door saying, “Good grief, if I let you keep talking we will eventually end up with me asking you out on a date.”
Garan laughed out loud and opened the car door for her.
He asked, “So how did your day go today?”
She looked at him incredulously and replied, “That’s what we are going to talk about? My boring day? Oh no, you saved a person’s life today. Trust me that will be at the top of conversation starters this evening.”
He smiled and responded, “Fine, have it your way. It will be a short conversation. Don’t worry though if you like to hear about hunting, I have many better stories than today to talk about.”
