Page 1 of Veil of Shadows

1

VOSS

The world stilled when I smelled them. I felt the shift in the earth as it trembled with their rushing footsteps. Their putrid stench filled the air of our compound before I heard the rattling of their dead bones beneath their skin, grinding together like unlubed gears of a fucking truck engine. I smelled them, I heard them, then Ifeltthem. The rush of wind that came with their sprinting wafted across the compound. The trees rustled in the makeshift breeze, luring people out of their homes. The troops gathered as night fell heavily across the compound, creating prime conditions for the walking dead to emerge. I heard Ronyn growling in groupthink as he clocked the edges of the compound from his porch. My eyes sharpened and I watched us become surrounded in the darkness. Vampires, encircling us like fucking vultures.

We’d have to find a new home at this rate.

I shoved my way through the crowd of troops gathering on the northern meadow of our compound. I felt my wolf scratching beneath the surface of my skin. It wanted to eat. It wanted to feast. It wanted to kill. It wanted to destroy. But, I stuffed it down as Ronyn worked his way through the crowd, waiting for that bitch to appear.

I scented that disgusting perfume of hers.

And she sure as fuck wasn’t getting away this time.

“Well, well, well,” that bitch said as she emerged from the woods. Her bones clanked like icy metal against a fucking window. And don’t get me started on her putrid stench. “Look at what the cat dragged in.”

She sashayed out from the shadows of the dark forest night in her crimson red dress with her blonde hair wafting in the breeze that kicked up. Someone in the crowd behind me gagged, causing Ronyn to chuckle alongside me. The sly grin on that bitch’s face fell from her pale skin, and I wanted nothing more than to rip her throat out with my goddamn teeth.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now,” I snarled.

But instead of talking to me, the vampire bitch that killed my family peered over my shoulder. “Ah, Special Agent Anna. I’ve been looking for you.”

“Delilah,” Bexley said flatly from behind me.

“The fuck is she doing here?” Ronyn spat.

I peered over my shoulder and pinned Dom with a look as my mate shoved her way through the crowd. Dom stood behind her, wearing that sarcastic little smirk of his, and I wanted nothing more than to toss Bexley over my shoulder and lock her back in my bedroom until this was all said and done. I didn’t give a fuck who this woman was to my mate. I didn’t give a flying goddamn about what Bexley thought she was capable of.

She had no idea what Delilah was actually capable of doing when provoked.

“What do you want, Delilah?” Bexley asked as she worked her way to the front.

I grabbed the back of her shirt and yanked her behind me. “You’ve got a lot of nerve coming here, Delilah.”

The woman with the ice blue eyes and the red dress smiled viciously. “You really are a tricky one to find, I’ll give you that. Not many of my agents spend the kind of time you do surviving.”

Bexley quickly regained her composure and stepped back in front of me. “Whatever you’re doing, you’ll never get away with it.”

Delilah giggled. “I’ve always enjoyed your feistiness, Special Agent. You’ll make a fantastic vampire.”

“You watch your fucking mouth,” Ronyn snarled.

“Over my dead body,” Dom growled from behind us.

I stepped back in front of Bexley. If she thought for one fucking second this was her conversation, she had another think coming. If she didn’t want me protecting her, that was fine by me. But she sure as fuck wasn’t squandering the only opportunity I had to get some answers before I killed the cunt responsible for annihilating my family. My father, I didn’t give a shit about. But, Mom? My best friend?

They didn’t deserve half of what this bitch had done to them.

“Any last words?” I threaten.

Delilah waved her hand in the air dismissively as she continued giggling. “I swear, you shifters are absolutely… pathetic.”

She changed on a dime with that last word, and the vitriol was evident in her voice. Her face soured. Her eyes grew dark. The darker it became, the more that steel blue gaze of hers seemed to glow, and the red shining behind the whites of her eyes made the hairs on the nape of my neck stand on end. These vamps were ready for a fucking firefight.

And we were caught with our fucking pants down.

“What do you want?” Ronyn asked.

Delilah tilted her head. “For starters, you can all die.”

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