Page 75 of Blood of Vengeance

“Never.”

“Weird.”

“Definitely. As was him calling you Cutter’s girl.”

Zella stared right at me, not flinching in the slightest. Giving nothing away. A sure sign there was something going on.

Something she hadn’t told me about.

A thought that made my heart lurch a little and my stomach tighten. “Oh.”

She shook her head. “Don’t go getting all excited here. It’s not like that.”

“Not worth talking about?”

“There’s nothing to talk about…yet.” She approached me slowly, holding eye contact, a slow smile spreading across her face. “I think he likes me, though.”

And that right there was when the penny dropped. The facts of the situation my presence in Mesa had exposed her to. The…creatures that she had known about since my dad had told her, but maybe not understood. Maybe not realized how many of them were sniffing around. “You know he’s…one of them.”

“A biker? Yeah. I know.”

I was such an idiot—letting her come into this world and not warning her. Not preparing her the way my dad had prepared me. Not protecting her. She knew Chiggy had been a wolf shifter, but did she understand he wasn’t the only one? Did she have any clue we’d been hanging around a pack for days?

“He’s more than that,” I said, that clenching in my stomach growing stronger, making me feel nauseated. The sudden floral aroma infiltrating the house not helping in the least. “They’re all more than that.”

“More than what? What are you talking about?”

But I didn’t get a chance to tell her because at that moment, someone started pounding on the back door.

Twenty-Four

Flinch

The scent of death and rot practically permeated the ground. It hung heavy in the air and lingered over every bit of brush or desert flower we came upon, confirming our suspicions. There were vampires in our midst.

“I hate dealing with these motherfuckers,” Rush mumbled as he picked apart some sort of stick he’d found.

“We aren’t dealing with them yet.” I crossed my ankles, the shade from the truck behind me growing longer and deeper as the night began to fall. “Anyone green enough to be assuming they’re like storybook vamps and only come out at night?”

Cutter huffed what sounded like a sarcastic laugh, looking over the crew with a hard gaze. “If only. They’d be easier to deal with if the fuckers followed their own canon. But no—we get to deal with sun-loving vampires.”

“Wonder if they sit around bitching that we don’t only turn into wolves on the full moon,” Diesel said, sticking close to Cutter like Rush kept close to me. Both men not new to running jobs with us but inexperienced when it came to the walking bloodsuckers we were about to destroy.

“Wrong canon.” Cutter grabbed his binoculars and peered toward the barn hiding Chiggy’s truck. “Werewolves turn due to the moon phases. We’re shifters—different breed.”

“No shit, but that doesn’t mean they accept the species differentiation.” Diesel shot me a quick smirk, knowingly goading our current commander. “They could be pissed we’re not all weres.”

Cutter nodded once and brought down the binoculars, giving his usual partner a flat-eyed stare. “They could be, though it would be their own damn fault for throwing shifters and weres in the same group. Not like we’re out here lumping vampires and incubi together and expecting them to act the same.”

Diesel grinned. “Fucking incubi have the life. Sex, chaos, more sex, a little bloodsucking thrown into the mix. Never having to experience fleas.”

“You’ve had fleas?” I stared, unable to even comprehend that possibility. “My brother, bathe thyself.”

“You’ve never had fleas?” Banger asked as he sidled over, the old man looking tough and ready to rumble.

“Not fucking once.” And I never would. That shit seemed torturous.

“Could you imagine only shifting once a month and having no control over it?” Rush asked. He rubbed at his chest, his face contorting as if in physical pain. “That would suck.”

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