Page 3 of The Vampire's Thirst
He was an animus demon. Dax hated fire. He dodged the blaze. Almost. The skin on his left side sizzled. When he charged, he caught the flame-throwing asshole’s neck in his jaws, fangs buried in the jugular.
Dax had handled the first asshole with ease. Number two was about to go down for the count.
Like all Scion Firebrands, Dax was beefed up, bagging an extra dose of power once he accepted the Phoenix’s call to serve as a Scath warrior. Always handy when faced with an attack by two demons. But the warlock who exited the portal tipped the scales. One wave of the male’s hand as he cast a spell pinned the vampire to the ground, arms to his sides and legs spread.
What a shitty way to exit. Trussed and tied to an anthill. Not my best moment.
A warlock could only create so many spells before he ran out of juice. But Dax didn’t have much time and this guy didn’t look weary.
When somebody says life passes before your eyes when you’re about to croak, believe them.
Dax flashed on a brutal past. His mother. Weak. His stepfather. Evil. The O blud den where he’d been raised. Rat’s nest of blood, sex, and more blood. Bounty’s face floated into sight. First as a child. Then as a fully grown female, honorable, a thing he hadn’t tainted, someone he was proud to call sister.
A spell dug its fingers into Dax’s chest while he fought the deadly intrusion. His muscles clenched, trying to form a shield. But the warlock’s magic was strong. It broke through.
Large animals charged through the bushes, howling, attacking. Dax inhaled. Exhaled. Each breath shallower than the last. Faint scents drifted into his nostrils. Crisp air. Honeysuckle. Pine. Moss. Damp soil. Leaves rustled beneath the killer’s boots. Dax heard a bird singing, a fucking bird, just before pain shot from his wrist. Next, it was cut-to-fade as a final thought flitted through his brain.
I hate warlocks.
****
The best part of Bounty’s job was the action. As Commander Kole’s vampire executive assistant at the Firebrands’ Eastern Stronghold, she occupied a front-row seat. Disconnecting from a call, she was eager to return to eavesdropping on the heated meeting in her boss’s office.
Spit and fury blasted through the walls as Kole and Thorn went shitkicker-to-cowboy-boot. They were pissed. She should have ordered the room soundproofed.
No fun in that.
Tyr was also inside with the excitement, probably enjoying the up-close-and-personal show she tuned into from her desk chair. She could have been unscrupulous, pressing an ear to the door. But she had her good name to consider.
Bounty’s eyes rolled right as she caught Kole’s booming baritone.
“I’m waiting,” he yelled.
The next voice was Thorn’s, a wolf shifter. “Luka’s my brother. It’s my pack. I didn’t have a choice.”
“Son, choices abound in this world. Problem is you made a shitty one.”
Silence.
Then Kole again. “How much did you tell him?”
Thorn’s turn. “I didn’t really tell him anything. I asked questions.”
“Like what? Don’t make me pull this out of your ass.”
Bounty pictured flames shooting from her animus demon boss’s fingers. She had enough to do this week without arranging for a patch job on the wall. She had fireproofed his office, but sometimes he burned through the protective layer.
Thorn again. “I asked Luka whether the pack was involved with drugs. When he turned furry on me, I shifted to demo who was the better brother. Once I subdued him, my teeth in his neck, he returned to his skin. I told him he was without honor. Our parents would not be proud. I left.”
Then Tyr started in on the shifter. “Here’s the thing. By the time Dax and I got to Karth, the entire pack had moved out. Whereabouts unknown. We would have been to North Shelters sooner, but we were caught in a situation with a female. We didn’t get on the road again until after Ram’s rescue. You fucked up our job, buddy.”
Honeyed words rolled off the tongue of the sexy Goth warlock. Bounty had to think about Karth for a minute. He was the wolf shifter who’d been doling out the new drug Gold Dust like candy. Thorn and Tyr had been about to corral him for some Firebrand-style questioning when they arrived to find Luka and his pack gone.
“He’s my brother.”
Tyr said, “So ya said. I told you about Karth because I trusted you. It was a heads-up, not a call to shout out a warning which gave them time to run.”
“It was not my intent.”
