Venom & Vampires: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by Casey Lane

  “You could always send them to the casino. I’m sure Leon would appreciate the business.”

  The old man threw his head back and laughed. He still had plenty of his own teeth left. “I like how you think. I just might do that.” He reached back and grabbed the key tag off number eleven before sliding it across the desk to me.

  I picked up the key, feeling the weight of the hard plastic tag in my hand. No key cards for Griz. I pocketed the key and bade him good evening.

  I stood outside his office for a few minutes. The moon was full and bright. The storm had moved on, leaving the trees bare of their last leaves. The ponderosa pines and blue spruces were the only bits of greenery left. The sun has nothing to compare to moonlight. I know all the science of what it does for the planet. But moonlight nourishes the soul the way sunlight does the body.

  It’d be a great night to be out in my wolf form, roaming free under the heavens. Instead, my boots crunched the parking-lot gravel. I ignored the moans behind door number two.

  Door eleven swung open before I knocked.

  “You going to listen to the orgy all night?” Harriet Silverthorne combed her fingers though her long, dark hair, still wet from a shower. She wore black running tights, black running shoes, and a long sleeve tee. Not a stich of reflective material.

  “You heading out to eat, Hattie?” I swiped my hat off my head.

  Her right cheek twitched. It was so fast I’d have missed it if I hadn’t known to watch. She didn’t care for her first name or me using it. She was always Hattie to me, though—sometimes Silverthorne when she’d pushed me too far.

  She stepped back, waving me inside. Her room smelled of some fruity shower soap, which always surprised me. It hinted at a frivolous side of her I craved to know.

  Behind her, the bathroom door opened, and a wave of steam escaped. A young human male wrapped in a towel emerged. I squinted at him. It was getting harder to guess human ages. They all looked like infants to me.

  He held a small dog tucked under his arm. It bared its teeth at me. I growled. The pup emitted a small whine and flattened its ears.

  “Dogs never did like you,” Hattie murmured.

  “It’s my wolf.” This was more for the boy’s benefit than the dog’s.

  Towel Boy’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped. “Wow. You’re a wolf shifter.”

  “Son, how old are you?”

  “Twenty-three?” He cocked his head. “Why?”

  If he was legal it was none of my business, no matter how I felt about it.

  “Just checking.” I swatted my leg with my hat.

  “Fang’s the sheriff. And this is Ben.” Hattie didn’t bother introducing the dog. “Ben, please step outside.” It wasn’t a question.

  Ben’s gray eyes widened. “Alone?” He eyed me for confirmation.

  “Give me the dog. And don’t go far,” she said.

  Ben handed her the dog, then put on briefs and jeans. He grabbed a shirt and light jacket before stepping outside with a glance back at Hattie, then me. He was clearly nervous about being outside at night here. Smart boy.

  “Who the hell is that?” I dragged my eyes away from his suitcase on the room’s only bed.

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but he’s my personal assistant.” Hattie raised her chin. She set the dog down on the bed. It climbed up to the pillows and lay down.

  “Since when does a doctor need a personal assistant?”

  “Fang, you have no idea what life is like out of Nowhere.” She returned to stand across from me. She folded her arms, and I recognized her interrogation stance. “Besides, I’m not here to discuss Ben. You’ve got much bigger problems than worrying about my personal assistant.”

  Outside the window, Ben was staring at me. I crossed to the window and he jumped back. I snapped the cheap curtains closed.

  “Are you sleeping with him?” I demanded.

  “You know I never sleep.” Her lips twitched into a brief smile. “Now, what the fuck have you done with your wife?”

  I stared. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to remember every bit of her face. She was still beautiful, with her dark eyes and hair. Her pale skin looked exactly the same as when I’d last seen her ten years before.

  Then again, she was a vampire.

  “You know you can’t glamour me, right?” She turned away, checking on the sleeping dog.

  “Goes both ways,” I murmured.

  She ignored me, rummaging around in her suitcase. She pulled out a black jacket, slid it on, zipped it, and turned up the collar to cover her neck.

  “What the hell happened?” she asked.

  “We argued. She left. She does this a lot.”

  “So what’s special about this time?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m betting Leon Ryk does.”

  “Still the attentive older brother? He must be busy with that new casino.”

  “Yeah, and yes. Let’s go see him and find out.”

  Five minutes later, the two of us were in my Bronco, pulling out of the motel parking lot. Ben and the dog remained behind. Why on earth would she bring a human to Nowhere? Sadly, the way things were going for me, this wasn’t my most pressing question.

  “Did you meet your neighbors?” I asked, pulling away from the town.

  She shook her head. “Maybe up here the idea of group sex is scandalous. But back in LA, it’s considered quaint.”

  “How do you like LA?”

  “Love it.”

  “Better than here?”

  She glanced at me sideways. “You can do better than that.”

  “One question,” I said.

  “Choose it wisely.” She looked out her passenger window as we sped down the highway.

  “Why does he look like me?”

  “Who?”

  “Ben.”

  “He does not.”

  “Hattie, he could be my son, though thank heaven he’s not. The last thing I need is my life turning into a Greek tragedy.”

  “I’ve never noted any resemblance. You shifters are so sentimental.”

  I let the matter drop, knowing I’d gotten the best answer I could for the moment.

  We drove the rest of the way through town in silence, watching the moon climb over the mountains. I let the silence stretch between us. Despite the circumstances, it felt good to have Hattie back again. Just having her in my sphere made me feel whole again, despite the mess with Tina.

  Once we were through town and back on the highway, I tried again.

  “We need to talk,” I said. I kept my eyes on the road, but I didn’t need to. I knew every dip and every patch of scrub brush on this highway.

  “I’m here to pay the debt. Nothing more.” Hattie’s voice was clipped. She sat beside me like some surly teenager out for a Sunday drive with her father.

  “That’s not true.” I considered turning the radio on to annoy her but decided against it. I wanted something from her beyond this cold, impenetrable indifference.

  “You live with your version of the truth. I’ll live with mine.” Out the window, she watched the night slip by us.

  I gripped the steering wheel so hard that my knuckles blanched. “Tina and I were having some problems. The other night we got into it, pretty good. We both said things we didn’t mean.”

  Maybe we meant them. Maybe we didn’t. Marriage was like that sometimes.

  That drowning feeling filled my chest again. It was like drowning in breathable air. It was like that with Tina. She sucked everything out of me until I was nothing but a vacuum.

  “When I came back from work she was gone, and the kitchen was covered in blood.”

  “Hers?”

  “I think so. Still waiting for the result.” I rubbed my mouth as if to remove the bad taste before I continued. “I wouldn’t harm her.”

  Hattie gave me the side eye.

  According to Tina, I’d already hurt her plenty.

  “I’m not a killer,” I added.

  Hattie
turned her head. Her dark eyes fixed on me. “We both know that’s not true. You called me here to find out what happened, and I will.”

  I slowed the Bronco as we entered a tight curve in the road. “Hattie, it wasn’t me who called you. I thought you came because . . . never mind.”

  She didn’t reply. I could see her turning my answer over in her mind like a locked puzzle, searching for the key.

  Higher in the mountains, the snow lingered. With the moonlight reflecting off it and lighting up the landscape, the world appeared tranquil. It was a lie, though not so dissimilar to mine. We passed a mile marker with a paw print. We were now on Leon’s territory.

  Leon Ryk was our mayor and the de facto King of Nowhere. His parents, wolf shifters Silas and Mathilda Ryk, were founding members of our community. His parents were big dreamers, but Leon was a doer. He had charisma and hustle. His wolf pack was strong. He was also a jerk.

  His estate was outside the town limits on a two-thousand-acre tract of prime land. I hadn’t been out this way in a while; I preferred doing business with Leon at his office. I wasn’t part of his pack. It was hard enough being married to his sister, but holding Leon back from getting into sheriff business was an unfortunate part of my job.

  “You think Leon called me to here to investigate?” Hattie asked.

  “That’s what we’re here to find out.” I slowed the vehicle and addressed the two uniformed guards at the gate. “Evening, fellas.” They were wolf shifters in Leon’s pack.

  “Evening, Sheriff.” They tipped their hats at me. “Mr. Ryk is expecting you.” The younger man stared at Hattie. He didn’t blink but leaned closer to her, placing his hands on her open windowsill. “Evening, ma’am.”

  I glanced over to see Hattie holding his gaze.

  “Stop glamouring the help,” I said as the wrought-iron entry gates swung open before us. Hattie was a very powerful vampire. Her glamour didn’t work on me, but not every shifter was immune.

  I tried to keep my tone light, but it came out testy. Who was I kidding? I was testy. Dealing with Leon was tricky on a good day. Now his precious little sister had gone missing, and clearly he suspected me.

  Hattie drummed her fingers on her thigh as we rounded the last bend. Leon’s two-story house was sprawling and modern. It was all glass and stone, held together by something more than I could see. It had many windows for enjoying the view in the daytime. At night, it was illuminated by lights within the landscaping.

  I didn’t have an eye for that sort of thing. I just repeated what Leon said often enough. The house was Leon’s baby. And a damned fussy one at that. No sooner had we pulled around front than the entire place went dark.

  “This is going to be fun,” Hattie murmured. Her voice was so cool I wasn’t sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

  I imagined that her life in LA featured such places and many such men as Leon. But then again, she was with Ben, so what did I know.

  “Let’s get this over with.” I killed the ignition, grabbed my hat from the backseat, and met Hattie around on her side. She was already out of the vehicle waiting for me.

  Her head was thrown back, exposing her lovely white throat. She gazed up at the stars overhead. They were so numerous out here, away from any artificial light, they looked like glitter spilled against black velvet.

  The ridiculously oversized front door swung open. “Dr. Silverthorne! And my favorite brother-in-law. You made it.” Leon stepped out to greet us. He threw his arms wide as if this was a social call rather than something more sinister.

  Leon was just slightly shorter than me. Leaner. He not only practiced yoga at Tina’s studio, he ran marathons in humanoid form—something I failed to understand at its most basic level. Being a shape shifter made life complicated in many ways, but running as a wolf wasn’t one of them. Why even bother with the two-leg version?

  He dressed as though he was vacationing in the tropics, or at least LA. I wish I could say that was for Hattie’s benefit, but it was just him. He wore loose-fitting white pants made from some drapey fabric and slung low around his lean hips, along with a white long-sleeve shirt with the top buttons open. He was barefoot.

  The last part was especially hard to understand. We’d grown up in the desert. Nobody wandered around the desert barefoot. It was just dumb.

  As usual, I was wearing my duster, jeans, boots, and a long-sleeve shirt. Plus hat and pistol. I never left home without any of it.

  Leon had full head of red-gold hair, naturally curly. He was my age but managed to look quite a bit younger. Maybe it was all that smiling and yoga. He was boyishly handsome. Some women like that kind of thing, I’m told.

  He stopped short of Hattie, pressed his palms together, and bowed. “It is an honor to have you as our guest.” He wasn’t above trying to flirt with her.

  Lots of luck, buddy. Hattie didn’t flirt. Ever.

  A girlish laugh that I could only surmise came from some nearby hyena . . . was that Silverthorne flirting with Leon?

  Good God. Hell was well and truly freezing over.

  “Come in, come in. My apologies about the lights. I have no idea what happened, but my engineer will have it fixed in no time.”

  “It’s lovely just as it is,” Hattie said.

  We stepped inside. I’d been to the place many times. The giant foyer and vaulted ceiling always gave me pause. Tina told me it was all imported marble from Greece. According to Leon, it had cost a fortune to buy, let alone ship. Standing here gave me a cold, exposed feeling, as it always did.

  My wolf liked to blend in.

  The two of them walked on ahead of me, one dressed all in black, the other all in white. I passed the big oval mirror in the entryway. I looked like a blast from a hundred years ago. Change wasn’t my strong suit.

  Leon led us into the living room, where a fire blazed in the hearth. More uniformed servants glided around, strategically placing candles and beverages for us.

  The last time I’d been here, Leon had just bought wonderfully soft leather couches. Now the couches were gone, replaced by a dizzying collection of pillows scattered across the Persian carpet.

  “What happened to the couches?” I wrinkled my nose. I hated incense.

  “Leather shreds.” He motioned for us to all to take a seat, then stood at a nearby bar, busying himself with drinks. I found this odd for a variety of reasons, the least of which was that Leon liked others waiting on him.

  “I’m so pleased to see you again, Dr. Silverthorne. You are here to help find my sister, I hope?” He handed us each a heavy crystal glass without asking what we wanted. Hattie had an expensive merlot. Mine was seltzer water.

  No one ever accused Leon of being subtle.

  “I was under the impression you called me,” Silverthorne said.

  Leon sat down cross legged. We were seated in a roughly U shape with Hattie between us.

  “Why would you think that?” he asked.

  “Because I didn’t request Silverthorne’s presence either. And yet here she is,” I said.

  “Dr. Silverthorne’s reputation has created many fans for her, I’m sure. My sister is dearly loved in this community. Perhaps someone else mentioned it?”

  I didn’t like any of this. It was all too fast. I didn’t believe Leon hadn’t requested Silverthorne’s help. She was here now. Why lie?

  “Have you had any word from your sister?” she asked.

  “None.”

  “Any suggestion from her, before this happened, that anything was amiss?”

  Leon glanced at me, then down into his bourbon. He held the glass with both hands as though he was reading tea leaves. Such an actor. He was playing the dutiful brother. But he knew Tina’s problems were there long before me.

  “She’d spoken to me about some aspects of her life that were painful to her. We’re quite close. But she refused to give any specific details of why she was upset.”

  He lifted his head, meeting her eyes. Leon’s eyes were hazel. Now they seemed
to be lit from behind, crackling with light and heat. My head felt sluggish. I stared down at my seltzer water. Was there something in my drink? Or was it just the fireplace playing tricks on me? “Is it possible Tina was mixed up in something Fang didn’t know about?” Hattie asked.

  “I found the missing troll from your casino. Dead.” A desperate feeling was coming over me, like being trapped in a cage. It was one of the reasons I disliked being in close proximity to Leon; this wasn’t the first time I’d felt that. He was manipulating so many events in this community that I wanted to shock him out of his arrogance.

  Leon set his glass down on the wood floor. A maid whisked in and placed a coaster underneath it. “Of course. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to appear insensitive. It’s just that I’ve been so worried about Tina. I’d forgotten all about Shelia. Do you know what killed her?” He got up easily and began pacing in front of the fireplace. Now that he was backlit, it was very apparent he wore nothing under his pants.

  I glanced at Hattie. She was studying him through her lashes. Her face was perfectly solemn, but I fancied that a smile played at the corner of her lips. She had noticed, all right, and seemed to find something amusing about it. He hadn’t changed in ten years. None of us had.

  Having to negotiate these damned pillows wasn’t helping my mood. I was too large, and they kept shifting beneath me. If I’d been in wolf form, I’d have been in heaven.

  Leon stood before the fire, his hands on the mantel, looking down into the flames.

  Hattie’s hand shot out to my arm. She squeezed my forearm once, hard, to still me. Then her hands returned to her lap as she sat cross-legged and still.

  “We don’t know yet.” Clearly she didn’t want me sharing details with him.

  Leon turned back to face us. “I wish I’d mentioned this earlier. She begged me not to tell anyone, but she feared she was being followed.”

  “What?” I leaned back, astonished. Too late, I realized there was nothing behind me. “Why didn’t she tell me? What didn’t you tell me? I’m her husband. And the sheriff, goddammit.”