Page 1 of Love Bites (Timber Creek #2)
CHAPTER 1
MAX
Two in the morning wasn’t exactly prime time in Midwestern hillbilly towns. The cracked parking lot next to the local park was empty, the only streetlight flickering in and out several hundred yards away. Crickets chirped in the faint moonlight, answered by an owl hooting in the trees above me, unaware I lurked in the shadows beneath it. Just like the oblivious fucker who climbed out of the van advertising for a local electric company while a nondescript black sedan pulled up next to him, headlights off.
“Have you ever been on time even once, Joe?” He bent down, arms on the roof of the car as he peered inside, staring into the backseat. “Where’d you find this one?”
“Foster care.” The door chimed as Joe exited the car, the first man stepping back to make room. They spoke in hushed voices, but between my supernatural hearing and the quiet of night, their voices carried like a cocking gun. “Her case worker filed a complaint she was acting odd during a full moon and asked for her to be rehomed. Like shooting fish in a barrel, Frank. This is getting too fucking easy.”
Joe yanked open the back door and reached inside, dragging a small figure out of the car towards the van. They moved awkwardly, shoulders jerking to the side telling me their hands were bound behind their back.
Shadows curled around me, blending in with the night sky as I leaned against an old oak tree on the opposite side of the parking lot, listening as these lowlifes buried themselves with every word they spoke. On and on they went, talking about their latest kidnappings, confirming tonight was merely one in a long string of cases I’d been hunting down for the last several months.
Since shifters were outed to the human world several years ago, supernatural society had been plagued with a kidnapping problem. My job working for the Paranormal Relations and Interspecies Council — sometimes not-so-affectionately called the PRICs — encompassed a wide range of not-quite-above-board responsibilities, but this was the best part. Even if I hadn’t been assigned to help bring kidnappers to justice, I would have found a way here tonight. Not because I had some hero complex to protect the innocent, but because I loved the taste of evil.
“Think she’s a wolf?” Joe said, a cigarette dangling from his lips as he flipped on his lighter, casting a glow over his face. “Delta wasn’t happy when the last girl turned out to be just a crazy ass human.”
My mouth tingled, my fangs begging to be released as if sensing my prey with the mention of Delta . I’d heard that codename from more than one kidnapper lately, and hopefully this was enough to prove to the PRICs that this was a much bigger issue than they wanted to recognize.
I’d been tracking these two deadbeats through podunk towns for weeks after intercepting a police beat 200 miles away, but catching them in the act made this an open and closed case. As much as the chase was half the fun, I was ready to move on. Too long in one place made me edgy, and edginess only led two things — fucking, or feeding.
Considering how slim the pickings were in rural Kansas, fucking was off the table. But with any luck, feeding was very much on the table.
Frank jabbed a thumb at the full moon hanging in the sky as he opened the back door to his van. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
I rolled my eyes at their ignorance, picking a piece of lint off my black shirt. Humans now knew about the existence of wolf shifters, but propaganda was everywhere. Despite West Larkin assuring the world that wolf shifters had little in common with werewolf lore, many of the violent and terrifying myths persisted. Including that wolves could only, and always did, shift on the full moon.
Joe almost dropped his lighter, taking a step away from the girl he pushed towards the van. “Shit. Is it even safe to —”
She lunged at him, snapping her jaws. He let out a high-pitched yelp and I suppressed a chuckle.
“Don’t you know anything?” Frank said, yanking her back against him. “You can’t be turned into a werewolf. That’s just superstition.”
“I’m not a werewolf ,” the girl snarled, probably upset at what was, to shifters, something of a slur. She curled her lips, teeth glinting in the moonlight. “But I can still bite —”
Joe slapped her hard across the face, and she went down, crashing onto her knees with a gasp.
Rage flashed through me as a crackle of lightning shot across the dark night, drawing the attention of all three of them to the cloudless night sky.
I’d seen enough.
“You really should do your homework before class, kids,” I drawled, appearing a few feet away from them and dissolving my shadows.
Joe yelped again at my jump-scare, the whites of his eyes showing all the way around his irises. “What the fuck —”
With a flick of my hand, shadows erupted, dragged him to the ground and sealed around his mouth, silencing him. Black bands of my magic held him as tight as the ropes tying his victim’s arms, and I closed my fists, squeezing them tighter until his eyes bulged with a muffled scream.
“Much better.” I quickly scanned the girl for any more serious injuries before meeting her gaze. “You good, short stack?”
She pushed to her feet, and her nose gave the barest twitch, the only sign she was trying to figure out who, or what, I was.
Frank was too busy gaping at the shadows smothering his buddy to notice when my attention switched to him.
“Pretty nifty, right?” I tilted my head to one side, lifting a brow in question.
The acrid scent of his fear filled the air as he turned wide eyes on me, quaking in his boots. “W-what are you?”
Leaning in, I whispered, “The monster in the shadows. The one you feel in the prickle at the back of your neck when you’re alone in the dark. Everything you've ever feared, come to life.”
His eyes flicked between me and the van, as if wondering if he could move fast enough to get in and drive away, which only made me smirk.
“You can try. In fact, go ahead.” I waved a hand at the van. “Make this fun for me.”
He didn’t move, so I stepped towards him, my hands flexing at my sides.
“Take her,” he blurted, pushing the teenage girl towards me. I reached a hand out to steady her, then stepped forward, blocking her from his sight. “Just let us go.”
“Oh, I’m definitely taking her with me.” I held my hand up, inspecting my fingers as the inky magic in my veins painted my usually olive skin the same color as the night sky, feigning boredom. “But what’s that human saying about having your cake and eating it too?”
I flashed a grin a second before he broke into a run. Letting out a sigh of relief, I rolled my shoulders and finally let my fangs descend. It had been far too long since my last hunt.
Somewhere in my mind, my father’s voice rang through, giving me specific orders not to bite anyone, but it was so hard to remember all those little details, especially when his list of rules had been growing nonstop since before the first World War.
Keeping my back to the girl so she didn’t see my canines, I said, “Wait here, and I’ll get you somewhere safe. Hope you’re not afraid of some blood.”
In a heartbeat, I vanished and reappeared beside Frank, halfway across the parking lot. He ripped at the van door handle, but I slammed it shut again, his panting breaths turning to whimpers as my shadows surrounded us, blocking out what I was about to do from any street cameras, as well as the girl.
Technically my job description was to find the kidnappers, subdue them, and turn them over to the PRICs, but accidents happen all the time, right? Not my fault he tripped and fell into my mouth.
“Please!” Frank screamed until my shadows dipped into his mouth, choking him. My fangs sank into his neck, his body going rigid under my hold as he flailed uselessly.
The tangy, copper taste washed over my tongue, like the first drink of water after the hottest day, quenching a thirst I usually denied myself. Human blood was so much more satisfying than animal for a vampire like me, and when that human deserved to die for trafficking kids?
Like the finest Italian vintage.
It only took a few moments to drain him of enough blood to kill him. I let out a sigh as I licked my fangs clean, wiping my mouth as they receded back into my gums. I didn’t need to give the poor girl a heart attack when I was supposed to be rescuing her.
Soon enough, his lifeless body slumped to the asphalt. I pulled him up by the armpits, heaving him unceremoniously into the back of the van, then poured the spare tank of gasoline I found over his body, around the inside of both the van and Joe’s sedan, and in a ring around them.
My phone buzzed in my pocket as I tossed the empty can back into the van. I answered it as I headed back to the girl and Joe, still restrained by my shadows on the ground.
“Wow, an actual phone call? Am I in trouble, Premier, or did you just miss my dulcet tones?”
“Not now, Massimo,” came my father’s voice, sharper than usual. As the head of the PRICs, he wasn’t used to anyone sassing him, but it was my favorite hobby. “Come to Headquarters immediately.”
I glanced down at the blood spattering my jeans and leather jacket, licking my tongue over my teeth. Not exactly Headquarters apparel. Not to mention it would be a dead — pun intended — giveaway I hadn’t followed orders. Again.
“Kind of in the middle of something, actually.”
“ Now , Massimo.” He hung up.
What a guy, my father.
Letting out a breath, I strolled back over to the girl now sitting on the concrete, staring at me with a mixture of confusion and wariness.
A look I was very familiar with.
Squatting down in front of her, I asked, “Do you know who I am?”
For good measure, I revealed my wings — the unusual black feathers catching her eye immediately. Most of the supernatural community had heard of the Dark Angel — I was the only one of my kind with wings as inky black as mine — but she shook her head.
“You’re — an angel?”
“Debatable,” I muttered, but my feathered wings, despite being opposite the typical angel white, led most to believe that was what I was.
The human world might have just learned about wolf shifters, but the supernatural world had recently had its own shock — vampires. The species had successfully hidden in the shadows — literally — for centuries. Even five years after they were revealed to the general supernatural society, there was still a lot of secrecy. My ancestry was one of the Premier’s best kept secrets.
“I promise I won’t hurt you. We need you to make a statement for the Council. I’m going to bring you into Headquarters, and then we’ll get you home.”
“I don’t—” She swallowed, her gold-rimmed eyes staring up at me. “I don’t have a home.”
My jaw worked, a deep sigh escaping. “Have you heard of Timber Creek? West Larkin?”
She sat up straighter as a little of her fear dissipated. “Yeah. I’ve heard of him.”
Not surprising. Timber Creek’s Alpha had made quite a name for himself. Now there was a guy with a hero complex. But even I could admit he was one of the good ones.
“He’s made a sanctuary of sorts, takes in shifters like you. You’ll love it there.”
Her eyes darted to Joe. “What about him?”
I stood, adjusting my jacket as I looked at the human scum still staring wide-eyed at me behind his shadowy restraints. Sweat beaded on his brow.
“He’s coming with us, too.” With his mention of Delta, hopefully there was a lot more than blood to get out of him. Apparently, interrogating him would be someone else’s pleasure for the night since my father needed me so urgently.
I turned back to the girl. “Do you trust me?”
Biting her lip, she gave a shaky, not at all convincing nod.
Good enough. With a shrug, I grabbed Joe’s lighter, flicked it open, and tossed it. A whoosh sounded as the gasoline caught fire, circling the vehicles.
I yanked Joe up to his feet by his elbow, then took the girl’s arm — much more gently — and we vanished into the night as an explosion boomed behind us.