I turned back to my Jameson on ice, took a swig, and looked at my laptop to see if there was anything of importance in my inbox.
Viagra spam. Delete. VRBO spam. Delete. The Fitness Guru newsletter. I saved that one for later. More Viagra spam. Delete. A letter from Zanzibar saying my distant relative in Africa left me twenty-million dollars—reply here to collect. Delete. I sighed.
While I scrolled down through endless useless emails, I made a mental note to go back in and unsubscribe from tons of sites who did nothing more than clutter my mind with useless chatter.
The crackling fire in the hearth warmed the big room, and the Jameson made my tight neck muscles begin to relax. The only problem with relaxing was that I associated it with boredom. Occupational hazard, I supposed. Monster-hunters didn’t like downtime. I sighed again. “Nothing from Shade. How weird.” Where is he?
It wasn’t like I wanted another assignment from the Hunters’ Watch Brigade so soon after the mermaid incident, but if I was honest with myself, working with Shade kept life interesting.
“Disappointed?” Max asked.
I closed the laptop and watched him wash his mouth with one white-socked paw. He took extra care to get his whiskers clean, one of his finest features. He peered up at me with steady blue-green eyes.
“Sort of,” I replied.
“I know how you look forward to his emails.”
Something in his tone spoke of jealousy. I pursed my lips. “It’s not like that, Max.”
“You have a thing for him. No sense denying it, sweetheart.”
I narrowed my brows. The way he emphasized the word sweetheart gave me pause. Another weird interaction with Max. Was that jealousy? Over Shade? Dear God, was he going through some weird cat puberty or something?
“What I have is a thing for is adventure, and yes, he’s the gatekeeper to those adventures. So, who knows? It’s complicated.”
“Would you marry him if he asked?” Indignation had crept into Max’s voice.
What the hell? I narrowed my eyes at him. “Me? Marry a vampire?” I shook my head, the thought curling a shiver over my shoulder blades. “Not in a thousand years. Supernaturals don’t make good bedfellows, Max. Besides, girls like me aren’t exactly the marrying type.”
He bounded over to me and wrapped his body around my ankles, purring. “Don’t say that. One day, someone will come along and sweep you off—”
“Whoa, Max.” I lifted my hands up in mock defense. “I’ve got responsibilities that don’t include picket fences, you know.” It was true. Chasing monsters didn’t exactly make for settling down and getting cuddly with a family.
Was I lonely for a man’s touch? Sure. But the risk of getting involved in an intimate relationship with anyone who could accept me was more than I could wish for at this point in my life. Besides, I didn’t exactly have a line of suitors crowding my doorstep to convince me otherwise. “Have you been conspiring with my mother, Max?”
He tossed his tail high up in the air. Had they been talking? About me? The thought raised my hackles. I needed to check my phone and go through all his voice texts.
“Besides, all the men I’ve met in the Hunters’ Watch Brigade are hunky, to-die-for handsome, sure, but they’re largely over-stimulated testosterone-ladened creatures of the night. Definitely not my type.”
“You’re an amazing woman.” He purred against my calves, and leapt up, placing his front paws on my knees. Tiny pinpoints of claw tips pierced my skin, but he didn’t hurt me. Max’s green eyes focused on mine. “You gotta believe one day the love of your life will find you. Your mother’s right. Everyone’s destined for love in some shape or form. You just have to open your heart to it.”
I pulled back from him. Wisdom from a cat? Good Lord, had they been talking? Had he learned to operate my cellphone while I wasn’t looking? Were they texting each other?
I needed to check my social media accounts for cat selfies.
The lights flickered once, and I lost my Internet connection. While I waited for the network to reload, Max ambled back over to the front door. His ears rotated back and forth, as if he was listening for something outside.
“Is it that mouse again?” I asked.
He looked back up at me over his furry shoulder. “I need to go out.”
“Too bad you never learned how to open doors.”
He lifted a paw. “No opposable thumbs.”
I grinned. “Are you sure you want to go outside? The storm is bound to start any minute. You’ll get drenched.”
“I’ll be quick.”
I opened the door and let him go outside to answer nature’s call, then sat back on the couch to check the weather radar. Somewhere amongst the booming thunder, I caught the unmistakable sound of Harley Davidson pipes roaring down the street.
My belly flipped.
Shade.
I bolted up, my pulse hammering hard, and eyed the door. No wonder he hadn’t sent me an email. My vampire handler had decided to pay me a visit in person.
Chapter 4
Sam
A KNOCK SOUNDED on the door, and I jumped. Yes, vampires knocked. He would never enter my house without my permission, even if the organization was paying my rent. I heaved in a deep breath, and dashed for the door.
Shade Vermillion had a rep as a bad-boy lover who seduced as many women as he saw fit, particularly when it benefited the HWB. I sure as hell had no intentions of ever being one of his one-night stands, but still, I reached for the mansion’s doorknob with a shaky hand. The vampire had a way about him that got the girly juices flowing, and that made me uncomfortable. Not that getting all hot and bothered was a bad thing. It’s just that I had a feeling a romp in the sheets with Shade would consist of handcuffs, whips, and a lot of safe words.
Was I being ridiculous? Shade wasn’t the only person who rode a Harley, was he?
Sure, there’d been a time or two, when I’d been a hormone-raging teenager in the HWB ranks, that I’d considered it—me and him, together. He’d been turned when he was twenty-five years old—more than two hundred years ago, and goddamn, the man’s body was a work of art frozen in his prime.
But Shade was more of an older brother figure to me. He’d given me a place where I ultimately fit in. Being a halfling daughter to Poseidon and my human mother meant I had skills other kids my age on Earth didn’t have. Take the trident for example. It was always there, a magical reminder that I was different.
Ever since my mom had introduced us, the man had enthralled me. I guess Max was right to be jealous on some counts, but hell, Shade was a vampire. They did that to everyone, right?
“Who is it?” I asked in my most carefree voice. I forced my hand not to tremble as I reached for the doorknob. I wasn’t absolutely sure he could read minds or any of that pop-sugar nonsense going around about vamps, but I had tools too. I’d laid out charms around the property the week before we moved in to keep prying eyes and ears at a distance. It had been a little bit of witchcraft Mom had taught me when I was a girl. Hopefully, everything was intact.
“You need to teach your little guardian some damn manners, Samantha. Open up the door before I deal with him myself.” Shade’s voice boomed low and deep, like the thunder from the storm.
I ripped opened the door to one of the sexiest men on planet Earth. Then my mouth fell open.
The hulking seven-foot vampire stood on my doorstep dressed in black leathers, with chains clinking when he moved. He held a writhing, hissing Max up by the scruff of his neck.
Horrified, I reached for Max and took him from Shade’s massive hand.
“Guardian? He’s my familiar, Shade. Don’t be so damned mean to Max.” I cuddled my cat close, searching for injuries, but found none. Just a growling, pissed off, puffed-up feline.
My familiar’s tail was three
times its normal size, and burred out like a bottlebrush. The source of Shade’s agitation was a line of five deep and bloody gashes down the right side of his face. I grimaced.
“Max! Are you all right?” The cat rearranged himself in my arms, faced Shade, and growled, high and loud. He laid his tufted ears back against his head, hissed at Shade, and whipped his tail back and forth. “Easy now,” I warned. The last thing I needed was these two engaging in a fight. “We have to talk to Shade.”
The vampire pointed his finger at Max, and in his deep booming voice, he snarled, “As a professional courtesy to Samantha, I won’t drain you tonight, Guardian. But next time you greet me like that, all bets are off. Consider yourself warned, Kitty Boy.”
Max hissed back at him, and wound his muscles tight to spring. A growl keened low and deep from his throat. I turned him away from Shade and put some distance between the males. The testosterone in the room was palpable, and honestly, it made me nervous. “What is wrong with you, Max?”
“He was skulking around outside, watching you like a pervert. I won’t tolerate intruders. Especially not him,” Max spat, then snarled again.
“As long as we work for the HWB, Shade is welcome wherever we go. Settle down.”
“I found him back by your bedroom window. Probably watched you get dressed. It’s indecent. He deserved the scratch.” Max’s remark was matter-of-fact. I turned and glared at Shade.
Max had never lied to me. He was my eyes and ears, and I trusted him. He’d always warned me of unexpected trouble, and his keen sense of hearing had protected us more than once. Still, I couldn’t see Shade as a Peeping Tom.
“Don’t overreact. He’s obviously here to follow up on the mermaid, or he would have sent an email. Now, behave. The last thing I need is for him to turn you into some horrible vampire cat because of your weird-assed attitude.”
“Kitty Boy having a bad day?” Shade’s snide remark wasn’t helping the situation.
Max continued growling.
“I’ll put you out in the garage, mister.”
He reared back, and stared me in the eye. “So you can be alone with him? Don’t do it. I’d hate to have to tear that door down. Trust me. You won’t like what you see if you do that.”
“Then chill the hell out. Or else.”
Indignant, he leapt from my arms and raced across the room to crouch under the living-room table. I threw my hands up in exasperation, and turned to face Shade. He still hovered at the threshold, waiting for an invitation. I waved him in. “Come inside, Shade, and steer clear of Max, would you? He’s got a hairball or something . . .”
Shade walked in and shut the door behind him. “Thanks for asking me in.” He plopped down on the couch, patted the seat next to him, then stretched his arm across the backrest. “Got an update for me on the mermaid incident, Samantha?” He always used my formal name. It kept us at a professional distance, and I liked it that way.
When I earned my credentials as a lieutenant in the Hunters’ Watch Brigade, Shade had hung my medals on my vest himself. I was one of his best recruits, and one of his most accomplished investments. Letting him down by losing the mermaid wasn’t exactly my idea of a fun Friday night.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the gashes Max had carved into Shade’s jaw. They were already knitting together like an invisible sewing machine was going to town on his face. It was so damn cool. His superfast vampy metabolism wouldn’t allow a scar to form, and I looked under the coffee table at my cat, raising a brow. His claws must be made of something as hard as diamonds for him to have cut into a vampire’s skin. When had that happened? What else was I gonna have to explain?
I faced Shade. “Sure. I was just settling in to type up my official report.” I gestured toward my laptop.
“Great. Got any evidence I can turn in to the brigade? The boys I sent to meet you at the pickup showed up with a mermaid tail. They’re concerned your sidekick there has gone feral. They threatened to go over my head to the division commanders.”
There was no use in skirting the issue. I had to come clean. If I didn’t, Shade would know. He could smell a lie before it got out of an opponent’s mouth. He was also a furious taskmaster. The vampire equivalent of a sexy, to-die-for drill sergeant, Shade Vermillion made sure anyone who got out of line paid, sometimes with their blood. I’d never cross him.
I’d seen that sort of thing go bad fast for others in the service who’d tried to hide something from him. Besides, I’d always been honest with him out of sheer respect.
What we did together in the Hunters’ Watch Brigade was important. Humans depended on us. I couldn’t withhold details, even if I wanted to protect Max from the mistake he’d made with Moriah.
I tugged in a deep breath and gestured to the couch. “Sit down. We need to talk about my mother, among other things. Shall I pour you a shot of Jameson?”
Shade
WHILE SAMANTHA poured him a shot of Irish whiskey, Shade stared at the cat under the living-room table, and wondered what was holding him back. He’d done everything he could think of to encourage him to get angry enough to shift. Maybe he’d have to push things to the edge to make him react.
Really mess with his head.
He’d gotten bad news an hour ago. Samantha was in jeopardy, and he’d authorized the HWB to mobilize to help him solve what looked like an ages-old issue with her family. Worse, he had it on good authority that the witch Rosencratz was in league with one of his oldest enemies, and they were working together to take down one of the shifter’s divisions of the brigade.
He’d worked closely with both Sam’s and Max’s mother for years now. They kept expecting Max to shift, but the possessive furball wasn’t playing the game the way Shade needed him to.
Who knew? Maybe Max was scared, a real pussycat. But Shade was here to change all that.
Some sinister shit was about to go down. Halloween was just a few days away. She didn’t know it yet, but Samantha, Max, her entire family, and the Hunters’ Watch Brigade were about to be involved in a paranormal shit show, and he needed Kitty Boy to shift to his true guardian form to watch out for Samantha. For the time being, that was.
That way Shade could attend to another HWB issue.
A threat loomed on the horizon. The vampire who’d turned him two hundred years ago was financing a paranormal uprising in the witch community, and somehow Kristoff West had gotten his manipulative fangs into Samantha’s worst nightmare: Francesca Rosencratz.
Max
THE GUARDIAN in Max wanted his freedom.
He was destined for something bigger. He knew that. And now that Sam was entertaining the bloodsucker right here, in their home, Max’s true nature clawed for release. It was a burning instinctual thing, and trying to keep it at bay was killing him. Shade’s presence only made it worse, and even Max’s whiskers felt odd, like they were twitching off his face.
He growled again, a low, guttural wail, a sound of warning, but Sam wasn’t listening. It infuriated him the way she paid attention to the vampire.
He’d barely been able to contain his emotions, to control the urge to shift when the mermaid threatened her life. Now it was an overwhelming fire burning in his veins. His mother had told him his first shift would not be easy, but he didn’t care if he suffered. As long as he protected Sam.
“Moriah’s gone,” Sam said, and handed Shade a glass of liquor.
Did the bastard even realize that last month in Ireland, he and Sam had taken on an entire rabid flock of fairies to save the distillery? He doubted it. The pig.
The vampire nodded, then insisted they clink their glasses. Max flicked his tail, and let out another warning. Sam looked over to him, but then she turned back to face the fanged bully, to talk with him, to explain herself.
She engaged him in easy conversation, and even smiled at the unde
ad abomination. Max sneered. Couldn’t she smell how repulsive the undead creature was? Max covered his nose with his tail to block the stench.
“You killed her?” Shade asked, expectantly. “The mermaid wasn’t brought in, so naturally I guessed after the explosion was reported, you had to fall back on your best judgment.”
Sam set her glass down. “Things took an unexpected turn. She got the jump on me. She went for my trident, but Atlantis doesn’t tolerate anyone else touching it.”
Max raised his shoulder blades, and every hair on his coat stood on end. Was she going to lie to him?
Shade shook his head. “Your job was to escort her back to me so we could interrogate her. We’ve talked about this, Samantha. We need intel on the monsters we neutralize, not just grave markers.”
“Trust me, she wasn’t part of some master plan to destroy the HWB. She wanted revenge on a sailor who dumped her. And then, there was a distraction.” Sam looked away from the vamp. Her gaze met Max’s eyes. No wonder she’d been so angry with him.
She hadn’t been furious that he’d interfered, or that he’d tried to distract Moriah from killing her. She was angry because she had to explain herself to the vampire. That she had to protect him from Shade.
“What happened?” Shade asked, draining the whiskey from his glass, then turning and staring at Max. “The light elves and the lifeguard said you had a problem with your assignment.”
“I know you had eyes on the charter boat, Shade. Are you baiting me, hoping I’ll lie to you?” Sam’s heartbeat sped up, and Max keyed in on the subtle acceleration of the pitter-patter beat, just as the vampire did. He was trying to catch her in something Sam would never do.
Sam was loyal beyond a fault to the HWB. How dare Shade try to color her intentions? God, he regretted not listening to her now. He squeezed his eyes shut and shuddered. Suddenly he understood what a difficult place he’d put her in, and remorse clouded his frayed emotions.
Shade swallowed hard, set his empty glass aside, and opened his hands to Sam. “The last thing we saw was your little furry sidekick interfere with your duties. Tell me exactly what happened. The commanders are demanding a full report.”
Initiation Page 4
