Page 74 of Flesh and Fury

“Alo has a friend on the Navajo rez, not a shifter, but a good friend from his college days. When they figured out where the blood plant was, Alo called him, and they met with him as soon as they got to town.”

“So, what’s going on?” Ari asked, not liking the frown on Eoghan’s face or the concerned tone in his voice.

“He says that people from the Navajo reservation have been going missing. His brother-in-law is a tribal police officer out there and he’s told Alo’s friend that fourteen people have disappeared without a trace in the last five months.”

“Shit,” Ari said. “Just as we feared might happen.”

“Yes,” Priest said.

“Does Alo’s friend know about him being—”

“About him being a shifter?” Eoghan asked. When Ari nodded, he shook his head. “No, and Alo wasn’t about to tell him those people are most likely dead, killed and drained by starving vampires even though there’s a blood plant within spitting distance of the rez.”

“So, that means Bradshaw is such a fucking bastard that he’s limiting even his own loyal vampires access to the blood too?” Ari asked. When neither Eoghan nor the chief replied immediately, he went on. “Look, the killers can’t be from King John’s reservation since the king told us Bradshaw has them locked down, basically stuck on the rez with no way out…so they have to be Bradshaw’s men.”

“I don’t know why they can’t be from King John’s rez,” the chief said. “I mean some could have escaped Bradshaw’s people and gone onto the Navajo reservation to drain a human here or there.”

“I don’t see how, Chief,” Ari said. “King John told us that he was almost killed escaping Tillis Bradshaw’s trap and he’s fairly certain the man who freed him didn’t make it out. If Bradshaw has two braincells to rub together, he would’ve tightened security around King John’s palace, probably the plant too. I mean it is his headquarters.” He paused, shaking his head. “This guy is some kind of sadistic freak. He stops Townsend’s people from getting a freely available source of blood and now I suspect he keeps his own vamps starved as well. We knew this guy was evil, but I had no idea things were that bad.”

“Explained that way, I have to agree, Brown. This is why we’re going to put an end to Tillis Bradshaw, his shitty empire, and free King John’s vamps once and for all. We should be wrapping it all up by this time tomorrow,” Priest said.

She’d pulled into a truck stop called the Blue Navajo Travel Plaza and waited for the vampire’s semi to park beside several others, including the one containing the Tahoe clan. Ari realized that off in the distance, he could make out the bright lights of the Twin Arrows Casino. As soon as they were all out of the car, he spotted Joe and Alo coming their way along with the dragons, Severin and Invictus.

He’d never been happier to see paranormal creatures in his life. Of course, the presence of the dragons made him feel a hell of a lot better about the proximity of the vampires who were getting out of the back of the semi to stretch their legs. Their glowing red eyes never seemed to shut off. He glanced around. In this parking lot, reserved for tractor trailer rigs, everything was quiet, and he realized they were in the back lot where the truckers parked to sleep out of the noise and glare of the pumps and bright lights out front.

They greeted each other with handshakes all around and from somewhere, the chief pulled out a map and unrolled it, spreading it on a small, folding table she pulled out of the back of the SUV.

Elora and King John walked over and greeted the others with handshakes. Ari watched her greet Eoghan with a leer, examining the pulse in his neck and seeming to watch the artery in his neck beat rhythmically. He wondered if she could hear it and based on the hunger she didn’t even try to disguise in her eyes, he already had his answer. She looked at his lover as food, even worse than a sexual object as he’d thought before. When he finally turned his back on her and stepped between them, moving Eoghan close to Severin and Invictus, the dragons looked up, even as Eoghan protested being manhandled.

“What’s going on?”

“Come with me,” he demanded.

“We’ve got this, Brown,” Invictus intoned in his deeply scary voice. Like magic, both dragons moved to insert themselves between Elora and Eoghan, making the vampire take several steps back and howl out in protest.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Puff?” she barked as she was jostled and then steadied by King John who stood beside her.

“Back up and leave the humans alone, Elora. We know you wouldn’t know a boundary if one came up and bit you in your dead ass,” Severin said.

“Okay, if we’re all done here,” Joe said, sounding exasperated. “Alo has some things to share with everyone.”

As they all calmed down, Alo explained what his friend had told him about the people missing from the Navajo reservation. Ari noted several people watching the king for his reaction to the news. When Alo had finished, the king stepped forward. His frown was intense, his concern real and telling.

“We always had a good relationship with the Navajo Nation. This comes as a terrible shock to me. It has to be Bradshaw’s people doing this to the Navajos. I just can’t imagine anyone could escape from my reservation. I nearly died making my escape all those months ago. I would imagine security has to be even tighter since then.”

“We had the same thoughts, Your Highness,” Priest said. But none of that changes things. We still have to end him and in order to do that, we need to figure out how to get to him.”

“Fortunately, we’ve been here a while and we think we know how,” Joe said. He walked over to the folding table and the map. “If everyone could gather around, I think you’ll agree with the approach Alo and I came up with.”

Elora, King John, Ari, Eoghan, the chief, and Severin and Invictus moved in close enough to see what Joe and Alo proposed. Ari noted how the dragons, again, put themselves between Eoghan and the vampires—in particular—Elora, and he appreciated it more than he could express.

And by the time it was all laid out for them, Eoghan and Ari were smiling as they exchanged a look with their chief.

Priest nodded to them before turning back to the plans. “It’s gonna work, Joe.” She grinned, nodding vigorously, and taking his hand as her eyes teared up. “It’s really gonna work.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

EOGHAN

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