Page 2 of Slay All Day

“Two o’clock is technically morning.” He knew what I meant, but he’d always been weirdly precise about time, so there was no point in arguing. Instead, I popped a cookie in my mouth, shaking my head as I waited for him to continue. “Shit went down in Pine Ridge, and we’re going to need to intervene before their trouble spills over to us.”

My head reared back in surprise. Pine Ridge was the town closest to us, but crime rarely happened there. They only had a population of about two thousand, three stoplights, and an eight-room motel for out-of-town visitors. It was your stereotypical small town in the middle of nowhere. “What the hell happened?”

“They’ve had three deaths in as many nights.” Connor pinched the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb. “Their sheriff wrote the kills off as animal attacks, but he had no choice but to call the state for assistance with them happening so close together.”

“Fuck,” I groaned. Pine Ridge was about eighty miles to the east, but that was too close for comfort if there were going to be wildlife officials roaming around the woods with firearms. When shifted into our tiger form, Connor and I could both hit forty miles per hour and liked to run far and fast when we needed to wear out our animals. I probably put in a good five hundred miles this weekend. “We’re going to need to tell everyone to stick close to home for their runs until this blows over.”

“Yeah, the last thing we need is for someone to catch sight of one of our tigers. Without the deaths, that would cause a panic. With them?” He shook his head, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “The humans wouldn’t stop hunting until they had a dead tiger to parade through the media.”

“What do you think is going on?” There was no way in hell any of our tigers would be involved in something as evil as this, but Connor still would’ve started investigating as soon as he heard about what happened.

“There’s a fucking bloodsucker in Pine Ridge.” He swiveled his laptop so I could see the screen. Blood and gore didn’t freak me out, but I set my half-eaten cookie down when I saw the crime scene photos. The victims all had their necks ripped out, which explained why the sheriff thought it was an animal attack. “Since you weren’t available, I sent Jake into Pine Ridge and had him say he was your deputy.”

As Connor’s enforcer, I called myself the chief of police when I had to deal with human law enforcement since people weren’t aware we existed unless they had a close, personal connection to a shifter. Jake served as my second when needed, so the explanation fit. Nodding, I scrolled through the information Connor had pulled up. “I’m surprised they gave him access to the police reports so easily.”

“Get ready to be shocked then because they did more than that,” he warned, tugging the laptop back around. “Jake was able to go down to the funeral home where the bodies were being kept tonight. He caught the scent of a vampire on the neck wounds of each victim.”

“A vampire? Shit.” We’d never faced off against one of the nightwalkers before. I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be to hunt him down when vampires could replace memories in the residents of Pine Ridge.

“Yup.” Connor picked up his cell phone. “That’s why this couldn’t wait. Damien is on the West Coast, and Seth said he’d be available to talk around eleven his time.”

Damien was the top enforcer for the shifter council, and Seth was the head of the council. Since there weren’t any other supernatural communities nearby and Connor didn’t bother with politics, we didn’t have much need to reach out to the council for help. The few times we had, Damien was the one they’d sent out.

A vampire dropping bodies left and right definitely warranted a call. Damien picked up after two rings. “Sorry, things have gone kind of sideways here, so I don’t have as much time as I thought I would.”

“Don’t worry about it. I know how bad it can be when a mission goes wrong,” Connor assured him.

“If only I was here for something as simple as a mission,” Damien mumbled.

Connor and I looked at each other with raised brows. Damien was the only person I knew who would refer to a council mission as simple, and I couldn’t imagine what kind of trouble he was having if he wasn’t there on official business. The hulking dragon shifter wasn’t the kind of guy who took shit from anyone.

“I’ll be quick.” Connor gave him the rundown of what Jake had discovered.

“Although I can’t come out there, Seth made me your point of contact because I can help get your case assigned to the best slayer E.V.I.E. has to offer.”

I’d never met any of the slayers who worked for the organization dedicated to hunting down vampires, but I knew they received specialized training before being given any bounties. They were best equipped to offer us assistance with this problem, and I wasn’t going to argue over Damien’s suggestion when he was unavailable to help us. “Who did you have in mind?”

“My sister.” There was stunned silence on our end of the line before he added, “Denica is fierce as fuck, and I have no doubt she’ll be able to get to the bottom of your vampire problem faster than you expect.”

Connor looked at me, and I nodded. “It sounds like we have a plan. Send her Trey’s and my contact information.”

“Will do,” Damien confirmed.

“Any idea how long it’ll take her to get here?” I asked, concerned that the vampire would drain another human soon if he’d already done so three nights in a row.

There was a pregnant pause before Damien answered, “Expect to see her soon. Slayers have their own way of traveling fast when necessary.”

“Alrighty then,” Connor muttered after Damien disconnected the call without saying anything else. “Did you know that Damien has a sister?”

I shook my head. “Nope, but I guess that’s not too much of a surprise since dragon shifters are so damn secretive. I just hope Denica doesn’t give us too hard of a time about sharing information.”

3

Denica

Kicked back on my front porch with my cat curled up on my lap, I had my hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate with a shot of peppermint vodka and a crap ton of whipped cream on top when my cell phone rang. After slurping some of the creamy goodness so it didn’t all melt into my drink, I set my mug on the small round table at my side and picked up my phone. Stabbing my finger at the screen, I punched the button to put the call in speaker mode and growled, “What?”

“Is that any way to greet your favorite brother?” he chuckled.

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