Page 1 of Claiming Her Vampire

Chapter One

Ryker

“Why do they always cry?” I put down my knife, disgusted. I love my knives. Guns are fine but so impersonal. There’s nothing like sliding metal into someone who wronged you, inflicting the most pain with a blade. I have studied all kinds, big and small; they're so easy to hide. I have my favorites, though. The knife I just used, a long serrated one, has a wicked curve on its tip. Just enough to make big tears. Our guest has a lovely long gash in his thigh.

I’ve been interrogating a traitor in one of our warehouses for an hour.

Greg, a man I thought was an ally, turned out to be working with an unknown man who was determined to kidnap humans from my nightclub. He’s been forcing them to turn into shifters and vampires.

This I cannot let go on.

I may be a little ruthless, but I have my limits. Forcing anything on innocents is not something I participate in. I’m all about the right to choose.

Now torturing and maiming those that are genuinely evil, betray me, or hurt women or children—that I can get behind.

Like right now.

“They cry because when they see you coming, a fierce vampire intent on cutting them up, they get a little scared,” Sebastian says dryly, not looking away from the man chained to the ceiling.

Sebastian is my most loyal child, friend, and . . . partner? Well, it’s hard to describe him. I turned him into a vampire many years ago. He was struggling in his human life and wanted to be powerful. It was pretty simple. That was back when I didn’t care. I had been alone for a long time and was bored. If I no longer had any family, I thought, why not make my own? It took a while for him to warm up to me, to stop fighting and trying to kill me. But we worked it out. To many, he’s still a stone-cold killing machine. While that’s true, he’s also a real asset to me. We know we have each other's backs if shit goes down. We’ve made a lot of money, killed a lot of enemies, fucked a lot of women, and built many lives together.

I would have called him a friend in the past, but I have learned from my new, true friend Harmony that may not be the correct term. Sabastian doesn’t understand, but I think he wants to protect me. Or something.

I smile slightly, thinking about the first time I saw Harmony, making Greg shake as he looks at me in fear. I ignore him.

“I don’t know anything.” The whimpers shake me out of my thoughts. Usually, we have them tied to a chair for this process, but they hung Harmony from the ceiling with chains when she was kidnapped. I saw the benefit of this. Of course, I didn’t tell her mates that the assholes that took her inspired me. That would have just been in poor taste.

“I think you do. You reported back to your boss about the humans in my club that were ripe for the picking. Yet you claim not to know his name?” I pick up my second favorite knife, shorter than the other but thicker and just as deadly, and hold it under his chin, tilting his head up. “That doesn’t make sense to me. Why would you work for someone you don’t know?”

“He paid well. He just said to call him Boss. I hadn’t been doing it very long. Please don’t kill me,” he begged.

“Why do they always beg?” Sebastian rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, shaking his head. See, we think the same.

“You give me a name or names of those behind this, and we will kill you quickly,” I promise, running the tip of my knife down this chest to his potbelly. He was human, and I tried never to kill humans anymore, but this was necessary. If you play with the devil and all that.

“He calls himself Boss. We never met in person; we just spoke over the phone. Please, I could go back, go undercover, get inside information for you.” He looks at me hopefully.

“Greg, if he hasn't shared anything with you before this, what makes you think he will now?” The stupidity that surrounds me.

“I can gain his trust,” Greg says weakly.

The blood is dripping down his body to drain into the floor from our efforts to get answers. In that old barn where they held Harmony, one thing was missing—a drain. The next day, I had one installed. I hate cleaning up. That’s why I always wear gloves. Do you know what a pain in the ass getting blood out of your fingernails is?

“What do you think, Sebastian?” I ask, turning to face him.

“I think he’s an idiot. The boss won’t tell him shit.” He picks up his favorite tool: the hammer. Simple but very effective.

I sigh dramatically. “I suppose you are right. Well, Greg, if there is nothing else, we should get on with it.” I hide my grin at the panic on his face when Sebastian steps closer, wielding the hammer.

“Wait, wait.” Greg wets his lips. “He’s planning something big. He asked for twenty humans this time. Any age. He wanted me to gather them by the end of the month. I can tell you when and where.”

“That’s good, Greg. I will leave you with Sebastian. Give him the information we need.” I nod to Bash to follow me. I take a step but hesitate and turn back. “But I didn’t get to use my knife, which seems a shame.” I look at it mournfully and then quickly plunge it into the fat of his stomach and twist. The screams satisfy the demon inside.

We walk across the room to the door. “Get all you can. I will go home, get cleaned up, and then head to the club. I have a stack of applications I have to go through.” I carefully pull off another ruined pair of gloves to drop them in the sack Bash is holding. “That asshole Brian fucked around with our best waitress. She quit yesterday.” Brian is one of the bouncers and needs to learn to keep his cock in his pants at work.

“Are you surprised? This is the third one.” Bash raises an eyebrow.

“Not really. I have to talk to Brian. I won’t allow a fourth.” I scowl. “Get this done and meet me at the club.”

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