Page 1 of Bitten

Chapter One

Twenty-some-odd years ago…

Two young lovers with their bodies on fire… Aching to swim that river of desire…

Reggie tapped his finger on the steering wheel as he drove down the old country road, stereo blasting.He’d just gotten off at the mill and was more than ready to get the heck home and grab some of his mama’s cooking. Forcing his eyes wide, he focused on the narrow road that was little more than a long patch of gravel.

Leaving innocence there on the bank by their clothes…A man holding on to a woman letting go…

He glanced at the radio a moment, wanting something with a little more giddy-up. After a long day at work, he needed something to keep him going until he made it home. Exhaustion and the heat were making his eyelids droop as it was. The setting sun wasn’t helping. Leaning over to switch the CD on, he apparently veered a bit too much into the shoulder and felt the wheels begin to turn out of control.

What the fuck? I wasn’t going that fast…

He overcorrected, the truck skidding to the side. Reggie hit the brakes and ended up squealing tires…

Until he was facing the opposite direction. He stared down the empty road, his heart going a mile a minute. After he took a couple of deep breaths, he pulled the truck over to the side and let his body calm down a moment before taking off. His hand shook as he ran one through his too-long hair.

The sun was almost set. Long shadows were cast by the moss-lined trees and nearly reached his truck. Crickets chirped and cicadas hummed their sweet song. The air was sickeningly acrid with the smell of the swamps nearby. Stars were beginning to dot the darkening sky.

Resting his head back on the headrest, he waited until the lulling sounds finally helped steady his racing heart. He knew full well his daddy would have his nuts in a vise if he wrecked the truck.

Again. He’d already had a fender bender the year before because he’d been driving too fast. That one had taught him a lesson and took some weight off his lead foot.

Or so he’d thought.

It didn’t take much for his father to fly off the handle when it came to Reggie, though. His father seemed to know there was something not quite right about him, something evil and vile.

Wrong. He was wrong in every way.

For the tiniest of seconds, he pondered the cashed paycheck in his back pocket. It wasn’t much, but maybe enough to get him to New Orleans and a room for the night. From there, he could figure out what came next…

But the thought of leaving his mother and brothers… it just wasn’t in him to run out on them. Especially Remy. His twin wouldn’t forgive him if he just ran without a goodbye. Plus, if he was gonna leave, he might as well pack his bag and say his piece. Do it right.

I don’t belong there. It’s only a matter of time.

Reggie had known he wouldn’t stay out in the sticks the rest of his life. He wasn’t sure how he knew, he only sensed he didn’t belong.

These weren’t his people.

Where he was headed, only god knew.

He felt a sting on his neck and slapped away a mosquito. “Damned vampires,” he mumbled under his breath before putting the truck back into gear. After carefully turning around—those soft shoulders near the swamp had gotten him before—he headed toward home.

A little slower this time, not that he’d been going that far over the limit as it was. He knew those roads like the back of his hands…

As he neared home, the night grew darker—and cooler. With the windows down, the air felt almost cool, but he knew that was some trick of the imagination. Nowhere was cool in Louisiana in August, unless it was indoors and air-conditioned to match what he suspected hell frozen over felt like.

Hopefully his mama had it cranked up and the trailer was cool. He needed a good hot shower after his shift to clean the hundred layers of sweat and grime off him, and he wouldn’t be getting it if the house was too warm. He stunk to high heavens, he was sure. They’d been hauling bags of manure all day.

When he approached the trailer, he frowned. There wasn’t one light on—no illumination from any of the TVs—and he knew damned well both his brothers and his mama should’ve been home by then. Dad, too. As he neared, he saw mama’s car in the gravel driveway, right beside his daddy’s old supped-up Ford.

Hell, even the outdoor lights are off. Maybe it’s a power outage.

Out in the middle of nowhere, they were always losing electricity. It wasn’t too out of the ordinary. Still… there was something causing a shiver to race up his spine for some reason. His mama hated the dark. She claimed there were things out in the night that would try to get you, if you let them. After his daddy would chastise her about drawing every mosquito in three counties to their front door with her ‘voodoo’ candles, she was quick to light up enough to rival electric lighting when the power went out.

He and his brothers had once pretended they were at a séance during a right bad thunderstorm—but of course daddy had beaten him half to death for playing at witchcraft and it hadn’t even been his idea. His brothers hadn’t walked away unscathed. Harry had tried to stop their father and gotten a good right hook to the left eye that had left one whopper of a bruise.

Remy had dragged their father off somehow and gotten a knee to the balls for his trouble… hadn’t stopped him, either. His father had just gone back to beating the living hell out of him.

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