"My eyes, my eyes. She fucking blinded me."
"They'll heal...eventually. Or, maybe not." She stood up shakily, her hand attempting to staunch the blood seeping from her own throat. "But that's nothing to what I'll do to you if you come after us. I'll make sure you're staked for the early morning sun, asshole. We are leaving. Follow us at your own risk."
The big bull vampire shuddered, his head turning, tracking, following her voice. For the moment, he was of little threat. She spun around looking for Taz, to find him once again standing, his chest heaving as he stared at the vampires on the ground. Three of them. She raced over. "Taz, are you alright? Are you hurt?"
He couldn't get any words out. He reached out and pulled her tight against his heaving chest. "I will be. Shit. I'm so out of shape."
She pulled back slightly to stare up at him in astonishment. "Huh? You just fought three vamps. I doubt you could do better anyway."
"Four."
"What?" She spun around, still held in the circle of his arms, to find Terrance, the lecher orderly, crumpled in a heap off to the side.
"I'm glad you're on my side, Taz. I never even saw those last two arrive."
He reached a hand to her head, tilting it so he could see the rip in her throat. "Hospital for you, my dear."
She shook her head, then winced. "No," she said hoarsely. "This will heal. Let's go before any more of these assholes come."
"Good idea."
Exhausted, the two stared at the small train, then down at the long tunnel ahead of them. "Walk? Drive?"
"Is driving an option? I want out as fast as I can."
"Walking will buy us a little time, maybe. Their control panel should tell them if the train is moving away from the warehouse. This way, they'll think these assholes are handling the situation. Won't come looking for a while yet."
Sian grimaced. "Walk it is." She glanced back at the mess of unconscious and injured vampires. They were her own kind, yet she felt nothing for them. "What about them? Kill them or leave them?"
He hugged her tight, then stepped back with his arm around her shoulders, tugging her down the tracks. "Regardless of how tempting, killing them isn't going to make any of this right."
Sian looked up at the beloved face. How could he, after all he'd suffered, still hold true to his high morals? "Honestly? You don't think they deserve death for what they did to you?"
"Not if there is another way." His firm tone brooked no argument.
Curious and a little envious of his clear cut moral ground, she had to push. "And if they are waiting for us at the end of this ride? What then?"
"The same thing as we've just done if we can. And if not...then death it is. But only if there's no other option."
"They're going to be waiting for us on the other end. You know that, right?"
"Then maybe they will be the ones in for a surprise." He pulled a phone stick out of the pants. "We aren't entirely helpless. With this, we can set up a rescue of our own."
Walking steadily, Sian watched and listened as Taz called several of the power people he knew. She, in theory, could call someone, too. Only she didn't know whom to trust. A year ago, she'd have said there was no trusting a human. Now, she wondered at the reverse. Could she trust any vampire?
They moved forward. Hands linked. The mileage passed quickly. Taz had shifted her world. She owed him so much. And now, they might make it out of this alive, after all. In fact, Taz had arranged for a tactical party to head for the tunnel entrance even as they spoke. This stage of the war would be over soon.
Then the real work would begin. Helping those poor people—in what could be a long and painful process. If they could be helped. Some of them had been in stasis too long. Nerve tissue had deteriorated, muscle tissue had wasted away to nothing. She didn't know what, if anything, they could do for them. It would probably take months if not years to sort out this mess. At least now it could be sorted out.
And maybe she could sleep in peace again, wrapped in Taz's arms, and without all those faces haunting her dreams. She smiled, a tiny intimate smile. Maybe that intimate Halloween party could happen after all.
"Thank you for finding me. For saving me."
Surprised, she looked up to see he was speaking to her. She swallowed hard. Her heart in her throat, she stared at the man who'd given her so much. "I had to. Life without you...well...let's just say, I wasn't too interested in living it alone."
She reached up and dropped a warm kiss on his chin. "When you disappeared and I knew the worst, my goal was to rescue you or perish in the process."
He stopped and spun her around, pulling her close. "And now? Before we walk out of this tunnel and finish this hell? And now?"
Caught by the heat in his gaze, she smiled. "And now, I wouldn't wish to be anywhere else, but in your arms."
"And yet you were prepared to leave me. You pushed me away." Deep brown eyes gazed into her own, searching for the truth, needing the reassurance that she'd be there for him.
It hurt that she'd done that to him. "The situation scared me. I loved you so much. I didn't want you to lose everything. You are human. And I...well, I'm like them...vampire."
"You're nothing like them." He tilted her chin so he could stare deeper into her eyes. "Don't ever say that. What we have is special. We'll work out the problems whatever they are...just don't run off on me again."
"Never."
He lowered his head and sealed her promise with a kiss.
o0o
About the author:
Breast cancer is a disease that affects everyone. Dale's aunt and two of her best friends are breast cancer survivors. She’s honored to be included in this anthology that will benefit so many valiant women in their struggle against this crippling disease.
A prolific, multi-published writer, Dale writes romantic suspense, paranormal romance and crossover young adult books in multiple genres. She also writes nonfiction in many different fields. Sian and Taz are both minor characters in Vampire in Denial.
To find out more about Dale and her books, visit her at http://www.dalemayer.com. Or connect with her online with Twitter at www.twitter.com/dalemayer and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dalemayer.author
Books by Dale Mayer
Psychic Vision Series
Tuesday's Child
Hide'n Go Seek
Maddy's Floor - coming soon
Young Adult Books
Dangerous Designs - Book I
Vampire in Denial - Book I of Blood Ties
Gem Stone Mystery Series - coming soon
In Cassie's Corner – coming soon
A BIT OF BITE
Cynthia Eden
Chapter One
Two days until Halloween, or, as the not-so-gentle folks in Crossroads, Mississippi, liked to say…two days until hell came calling.
Sheriff Ava Dushaine climbed slowly out of her patrol car. She could smell death in the air. It was a dank scent she’d grown used to since being appointed as a paranormal liaison in the Crossroads area just over six months ago.
Liaison, my ass. More like watch dog. She straightened her shoulders, checked her gun, then walked toward the dead body that had been tossed right in the middle of the road. A deliberate position, one that placed half of the body in the territory marked by the werewolves and half in the territory claimed by the vampires.
The deputy who’d followed beside her began to gag as soon as he got a good look at the vic.
“Suck it up, Billings,” she told the young guy, making her voice snap. Ken Billings was too green for this scene. A new transfer in her department, he obviously wasn’t accustomed to the stiffs. If he stayed with her, he would be soon enough.
But this kill…it was particularly brutal. She wanted to recoil from the sight, too, but Ava knew that wasn’t an option for her. Putting on the brave face, yeah, that was her bit. “Call for backup and tell the team we need them out here ASAP.”
Not that backup would do any good for the poor stiff on th
e ground. His throat had been torn out. His eyes stared in frozen horror, and his lips were parted in a soundless scream of terror.
There’d be no helping him.
Blood soaked the ground beneath his body. There were scratches and deep gouges all along his face and arms. This guy—he’d fought back. Death hadn’t been easy for him.
Jaw clenching, she paced a few feet away. The rising sun looked like a ball of fire in the distance, with streaks of red skating along the sky.
Those streaks looked just like blood in the sky. Blood followed her everywhere these days.
Dammit, this job was getting old.
She knew the deal. The werewolves waited to the left. The vampires to the right. She’d been doing her best to keep peace between the two factions, and they’d been pretending to follow the rules that the government set up for them when the supernaturals had thrown their big coming out party ten years before.
Stay on your designated land.
Don’t kill humans.
Enjoy only willing prey.
But someone was breaking the rules. This was the third dead body she’d found in a month, and Ava was tired of humans dying on her watch.
She was also tired of having the folks in Crossroads talking almost constantly about the destruction that was waiting for everyone. According to them and their good old gossip mill, the town would be facing a freaking apocalypse come All Hallow’s Eve.
Just what she needed. An impending apocalypse and a dead journalist. Because, yeah, she’d recognized the mangled human on the ground. Kyle Powell, investigative journalist. A guy who’d been digging for the wrong story—a guy who hadn’t listened to her warnings.
A twig snapped a few feet away from her. Ava didn’t jump and spin toward the sound, but her right hand did rise slowly to curl around the butt of her gun. The problem with all the supernaturals was that they could just move too fast—
“Easy.” His deep, dark voice washed over her and, just like that, werewolf alpha Julian Kasey stood in front of her. The light, woodsy scent that marked his kind clung to him as he towered over her.
But this wasn’t her first ball game. Or monster hunt. Even as Julian closed that last bit of space between them, she shoved the barrel of her gun right at his heart.
Ava offered the handsome wolf a smile. “Do I need to remind you that these bullets are made of silver?” Like she’d really carry anything else.
His face—hard, square jaw, cheekbones sharp enough to cut, and lips that hinted at both cruelty and sensuality—lowered toward hers. “Would you really shoot me, baby?” Doubt cloaked his whisper.
Ava risked a fast glance at the deputy. Right. Figured Ken hadn’t even heard the wolf’s approach. He was too busy talking on his phone and trying to keep his lunch down. “Don’t test me,” she snapped back to the wolf. Sure, they might have been lovers once—once—but that was over. She had a job to do.
She’d do it. A sexy werewolf wouldn’t stop her.
Julian cocked a dark brow, but he also stepped back. Good.
“Now put your hands up,” she ordered him.
Smiling a bit, he raised his hands. In the early light, she didn’t see any blood beneath his nails. Nails, not claws. The claws would only come out when he shifted.
“Want to tell me what you’re doing here?” Ava asked.
He shrugged but kept his hands up. “I just followed the scent of blood.”
Supernaturals enjoyed the scent of blood far too much.
So she had a dead human, one who’d had his throat ripped open, and a werewolf, right at the scene of the crime. She also knew for a fact that said dead human had been planning to interview Julian last night.
Things weren’t looking good for the wolf right then.
And it wasn’t like she had a whole lot of options. Sighing, Ava pulled out her cuffs. “These are gonna sting,” she warned him. Silver cuffs. Because of their enhanced strength, werewolves could break free of almost anything else instantly.
He dropped his hands. “You aren’t serious.”
She was. Did it look like she was joking? “I need you to come to the station with me. You can either come willingly…” Then she’d leave the cuffs off, at least for the time being. “Or I can take you in the same way I do other paranormal suspects.” She had a little more freedom than the sheriffs who only patrolled human counties and captured mortal criminals.
When the monsters you hunted could kill with claws and fangs, new rules had to be made.
The blood had drawn out a werewolf, but, even though the smell was like pure ambrosia to a vampire, she knew none of the undead would be coming to join their little party. Everyone knew vamps and sunlight didn’t mix.
She’d get to them, though, soon enough.
Julian glanced toward her patrol car. “You don’t want to make a mistake here, Sheriff.”
Oh, wait, she wasn’t “baby” anymore? If the big wolf wasn’t careful, he’d hurt her feelings. “I know claw marks when I see them,” she told him, still holding tight to her cuffs. “As far as I know, there’s only one wolf pack in Mississippi.” Nothing happened in that pack without his approval. Nothing.
His gaze, bright blue, came back to her.
“Now, Alpha,” if he was gonna be all formal, then she could be, too. “Will you play nice and get in the car, or do I have to cuff you?”
Sirens wailed in the distance. Had to be her back-up racing toward them. The deputies always responded quickly when it was a supernatural call. Humans had to stick together.
“When have I ever played nice?” Julian growled the words.
Right. Of course, the guy wouldn’t make this easy.
She locked one cuff around his wrist. There was a slight sizzle as the silver burned his flesh. His gaze held hers. “You don’t want me as an enemy,” he warned.
She reached for his right hand. She wouldn’t put the cuffs behind him. Ava figured she owed him that much. “Sometimes it doesn’t matter what we want.” Since that night they’d shared, she’d learned that bitter lesson. Her hand curled around his wrist. Staring into his eyes, she snapped the other cuff onto his wrist. “Alpha Julian Kasey,” she’d do the legal bit to make sure she covered her ass, “you’re a paranormal person of interest in a murder and, as such, you’re now in supervised custody.”
His lips curled in a very slow, wicked smile. A smile that showed the sharp edge of his canines. “Later, when you look back, this is the moment you’ll regret.”
Maybe.
But… “Right now, looking back,” she shouldn’t say this, she shouldn’t, but the words and anger couldn’t be held back, “the moment I regret was hooking up with you at that godforsaken bar.”
The faint lines around his eyes tightened.
“And if I find out that you’re behind these killings…” She shook her head. “Then what happened between us won’t matter at all. I’ll still lock you up.” She had a job to do. People who counted on her. A hard case of lust and need for a dangerous werewolf couldn’t distract her.
Not when human lives were on the line.
o0o
She’d put him in the backseat, behind the cage barrier that was supposed to keep suspects held captive. Julian narrowed his eyes as he stared at the back of Ava’s blond head. She was driving the small patrol car, looking straight ahead, and ignoring him as he curled his fingers along the metal frame.
He barely felt the sting of silver on his wrists. Julian was too aware of the fire of fury in his gut.
She was actually taking him in? Ava thought he’d been the one to slaughter that ass of a human? Tempting, but no.
“I know he was out there to interview you.” Her voice came, slow and sweet, gently rolling on the waves of the South that he’d learned to like. “That dead guy was Kyle Powell, the newest hire at the Jackson Sentinel.”
Yeah, Kyle had been a prick who was looking to make a name for himself by trashing the wolves. “I didn’t talk to him.”
Her shoulders
stiffened. “So you admit seeing him?”
“I saw him. The guy came to my place.” When the wind was right, wolves could smell humans from miles away. “I also kicked his ass out because I didn’t want another story on how savage and animalistic my pack is.”
There was a beat of silence in the car. A beat that lasted too long. “Well,” she said finally, “you can turn into animals.”
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