Page 12 of Slay All Day

Kissing her temple, I rested my cheek on her silky hair and inhaled her scent deep into my lungs. “What, baby?”

“I—”

Whatever she’d been about to say was interrupted by a fist pounding against the front door.

“You have to be kidding me,” I groaned. We’d barely been home long enough to eat, shower, and fuck. With Denica cuddled into my side, I was ready to catch some sleep before we headed back to Pine Ridge in the morning. My fellow streak members knew how little time I got at home with my mate while we were hunting the vampire, so there had to be a good reason for the interruption.

Rolling off the mattress, I tugged on a pair of athletic shorts while Denica padded into the bathroom to clean up. “I’ll meet you downstairs, baby.”

There was another round of knocking as I left our bedroom and headed down the hall. I picked up my pace and flung the door open and found Connor and Jake waiting on my doorstep. “What’s up?”

“Denica is going to want to hear this, too,” Connor muttered as they walked inside my house. He crossed over to the couch and dropped down on the cushions, dragging his hands over his face. Jake leaned against the wall next to the door, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I’m here,” she announced, joining us at my side. In the short time since I’d left the bedroom, she’d dressed in what I’d coined her slayer uniform—black tactical pants and tank top. Her black leather jacket was flung over one shoulder, and she was carrying her black combat boots in the other hand. The difference between how she looked writhing beneath me as she came only minutes ago and now was night and day.

“Damn, Trey. Another mating mark?” Jake shook his head and held his hands up. “It’s okay, man. We all get it. The hot-as-fuck slayer is all yours. You don’t have to keep biting her so we’ll get the hint. If you keep it up, we’re going to start to think that having vampires nearby is giving you the wrong kind of ideas.”

A deep growl rumbled up my chest as my tiger’s claws slashed out, ready to draw Jake’s blood for daring to talk about my mate. Denica tossed her jacket and boots on my recliner and ran her hand down my back, soothing the rough edge of my tiger’s fury. Connor held up his hand, aiming a dark look my streak mate’s way. “Now is not the time for your horrible sense of humor, Jake. Serious shit is about to go down, which you well know.”

Jake ducked his head and mumbled, “Sorry, alpha.”

Denica laced her fingers through mine as Connor shared the news that had brought them to my door in the middle of the night. “I just heard from Owen. The girl from the bakery apparently had a sudden urge to take a long drive into the woods in the middle of the night. Once she was far enough out of town where nobody would see, he left his car on the side of the road and shifted. He continued to track her from as far behind as he could while still hearing her for several miles into the forest before she stopped. Then four men practically appeared out nowhere and climbed into her car.”

Denica clenched her fists at her sides and hissed, “We aren’t just hunting one vampire. We’re after a damn nest.”

11

Denica

With one of Connor’s tigers stalking four vampires, we didn’t have any time to waste. I gathered my supplies in my backpack while Trey got ready, and less than five minutes later, we were all in Jake’s car and racing toward Pine Ridge. As we neared the spot where we were meeting Owen, I ran through the same spiel I’d given Connor, Jake, and Trey when we’d started this hunt days ago. “In your tiger form, your best bet for killing a vampire is decapitation. Be sure to sever the head completely because bloodsuckers can come back from any injury—no matter how bad it looks—if you don’t finish them off.”

“Creepy motherfuckers,” Jake muttered.

“Luckily, it’s impossible to miss it when a vampire dies. There will be a popping sound, and then they’ll turn into ashes,” I reminded them. “If none of that happens, don’t stop.”

“Got it,” Connor confirmed from the passenger seat.

I glanced up at the moon and sighed. “Sunrise isn’t for another six hours, so they’re going to be at full strength. We’re going to have a heck of a battle on our hands.”

“What’s the best plan of attack? Should we all shift? Or should one of us stay in our human form in case we need to tell you something?” Trey asked, his gaze sliding to Connor.

My mate hadn’t hesitated to follow my lead in this hunt so far, so I refrained from asking him what was going on with their loaded glances. Instead, I weighed the pros and cons of being able to communicate with one of the guys while we were fighting versus their added strength when they were in their tiger forms. “Who’s the quickest at shifting?”

Since Connor was the alpha, I wasn’t surprised when he answered, “Me.”

“Let’s plan on you shifting only if it becomes necessary.” I pulled two spare daggers out of my backpack and handed them to him. “Getting a vampire in the heart will work with one of these, but only if you hit them in just the right spot. The steel is specially blended with balsa wood so the blades work like stakes but are a heck of a lot easier to throw.”

Connor tested the weight of the blades before nodding. “It’s been a while since I’ve slashed out with anything other than my claws, but these will work.”

“If it comes down to needing your claws to defeat a vampire, don’t hesitate to shift,” I advised. “One of the first things I learned in slayer training was the importance of using every tool in your arsenal when you go into battle against a bloodsucker.”

Trey gave his alpha another weighted look. Connor sighed and turned in his seat to look back at me. “Tiger shifters have a well-kept secret. Our alphas can communicate telepathically with the members in their streak.”

Dragon shifters tended to be secretive, hoarding secrets as though they were jewels. As such, I understood how big of a step this was for Connor. “Thank you for telling me.”

“You’re Trey’s mate. Once you have the claiming ceremony, you’ll be part of my streak, too,” he reminded me, waving off my gratitude as though his admission was no big deal

“Telepathy is a heck of a tool to bring into this fight. We’ll all be able to communicate, even with Trey and Connor in their tiger forms.”

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