htm Hybrid Misfit (11 page)

Simon looked like he would argue, but at a curt nod from Gene he clamped his lips tight. “Very well. We will be around in case trouble crops up, so fear not even if you don’t see us. But know this,” he said coming close to me and staring down at me with his eyes glowing. “You will be spending the night with us.”

I trembled with instant arousal and wished I had more time to get a sample of what I could see in his eyes. But, Gene and I had spent quite a bit of time sparring and according to my inner clock, it was time to get ready for work.

“I’ll take her home,” Gene offered.

Simon bent me over and gave me a thorough kiss that made me want to say screw work, but I fought his allure, to the disappointment of my body. Gene slipped his arm around my waist, and in surely the best method of transportation ever invented, popped us back into the human world just outside my apartment door.

“I gotta ask,” I said turning in his arms to face him. “How do you know when you teleport us that there’s no one around to see?”

“I don’t.” he shrugged. “The magic seems to take care of that for me. Cool huh?”

“Very.” I leaned in for my goodbye kiss, which also included some ass groping, before I finally went in to face reality—and a thousand questions from my roomies.

Chapter Seven

The club was quiet that night and true to their word, I didn’t sense or see my boyfriends at all. I did my sets on autopilot, the trickle of emotion from the crowd nothing compared to what my lovers could give me.
They’ve ruined me. Now that I’ve had a taste of them, I’ll never be able to go back to feeding on humans.
At the end of my second stage show, I found Claire wiping glasses behind the bar.

“Hey, I’m heading out,” I announced.

“I thought the boys would be picking you up?” she crinkled her nose.

I shrugged. “Guess not. If I don’t see you back at the apartment then know that I’m probably sleeping over at their place.”

“Be careful.”

I just grinned in reply. I headed out, my high heels clacking on the pavement as I went up the street. I kept expecting Gene or Simon to pop out and say “Boo,” or at least slap my ass in hello, but the night was eerily silent.

So much for getting lucky.
I wondered what had held them up.
It better be important.
I refused to give in to worry yet. Or doubts. Perhaps it was foolish of me, but I trusted Gene and Simon. I knew they wouldn’t let me down without good reason.

My heels clacked noisily on the sidewalk and given the deserted streets, I decided maybe a flight home would be in order. I’d no sooner thought it than I heard a whisper of sound. I whirled—too late. The course fabric of a sack was pulled over my head, and though I thrashed and kicked, steel bands wrapped around me and when I felt the prick in my side all I could think of was Shit, not again.

Simon bit back a growl as he watched Beth fighting as she was manhandled by the vamps. It went against everything in him to let those dark beings just take her.

“Calm your beast. You know this is the best way to locate their lair,” Gene said placing a restraining hand on his arm.

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” muttered Simon, finding it hard to do nothing while he saw his
one
attacked, drugged and kidnapped.

“Save your fury for when we rescue her in a moment.”

“And who’s going to save us from Beth’s fury?” Simon asked arching a brow at his friend.

“I hope your tongue and cock are in working order when the battle is done because we’ll have to make it up to her, probably more than once.”

Simon, even given the seriousness of their mission, couldn’t help remembering Beth, not naked and panting, although she was beautiful in that moment. Nor with her lips wrapped around his cock, much as it pleased him. No, he remembered Beth’s trust in him, a trust he’d protect her, and here he’d let some dirty vampires kidnap her.
I will make them pay for every hair they’ve bent,
he swore.

Quietly, he and Gene followed the vamps who stuffed their unconscious prize into a dark paneled van. Simon had wanted to shift into dragon shape to follow, but Gene talked him out of it, saying his beast was too large to squeeze between the narrow confines of the city streets. Instead, they rode Gene’s carpet, not the colorful one he’d used in Limbo, but one dark as the night itself. It also matched Simon’s mood. He consoled himself with the fact that once they killed all the dark ones, it would be one less danger to Beth.

And only a freaking huge menace left to her in the form of the Legion of Darkness and Army of Light.
He’d received some disturbing news while Gene had been busy training Beth. It would seem both armies were aware of Beth’s existence already. But, another tidbit from his source gave him reason to hope, for he learned the two armies were divided on what to do. It seemed a large faction on both sides wanted to let the prophecy fulfill itself in the hopes of tearing down the walls that surrounded their realms. While many demons and angels could move freely in and out, nothing else could, not without the use of some powerful magic. Not to mention, ever since the walls were erected, effectively sectioning the forces for good and evil, neutral no longer existed. You either belonged to one camp or the other.

And many were tired of the whole freaking thing. This fracture in the two realms, though, was great news for them as it meant less beings for him to destroy when the battle for Beth’s survival occurred.

Gene nudged him as the van halted outside a large house tucked outside of town. The light flooding the front lawn from the windows was enough for them to see that there were quite a few cars parked out front. The stench of vampire was unmistakable, especially to one with a refined olfactory sense like his.

“Time to play?” Simon questioned.

Gene grinned, his smile bright in the gloom. “Let’s show them what happens when they mess with the woman of beings more powerful than them.”

Simon jumped down from the floating carpet, hitting the ground with barely a thump. He flexed his hands, and his claws sprouted sharp and deadly.

Time to kick some vampire ass so I can get some sweet ass of my own.
He sniffed the air and found his first victim, a fledgling left to guard outside.

With a twist and a crack that severed the spine, the vampire dropped to the ground, permanently dead. Not that Simon stayed to check. Urgency and a need to protect Beth took over, and the vampires he met on his path to find his
one
, discovered why they should never fuck with dragons,
because no one touches what is mine.

When the outside was cleared of the foul ones, Simon met up with Gene who, with a flick of his hand, sent the front door to the home swinging open soundlessly.

In they stalked, Gene flicking fireballs at the vampires that came pouring out of the depths of the home to meet them. Simon took a more hands on approach: slicing, dicing and breaking the snapping creatures that dared get close enough to him. And when they began giving him a wide berth, he went after them with a snarl.

They worried not about the noise they made, because Gene, in order to retain the element of surprise dropped a silencing spell on the area.

At last, only one stupid vampire stood between him and the closed doors that hid Beth.

“Shall we announce ourselves? Gene asked with a deadly twinkle in his eyes.

Simon just grinned, and while the remaining vampire blanched—not an easy feat given his already pale status—he approached, rotating his extended claws in a hypnotizing swirl.

When he got close enough, he grabbed the soon to be permanently dead one and rammed a sharp claw through its torso. He allowed the creature to emit a scream that he cut off with a slice to its jugular.

Then he stood in front of the doors, chest heaving. A cry from inside made his rage double and before he could barrel through the doors, Gene blasted them open.

And when he saw his
one
, tied to a chair with her face swelling, he lost all reason.

They are all so dead.

Chapter Eight

I regained consciousness to a slap in the face. I forced my heavy eyelids open to see a familiar face—how unfortunate. “Jeremy, I should have known you’d be behind a cowardly attack on a woman.”

My ex-brother, who during his incarceration with me had acted as a sort of leader to the rest of the inmates, grinned at me with pointed teeth. “Beth, how nice to see you again.”

“I wish I could say the same. How’d you find me?” Of all my ex-brothers, Jeremy frightened me the most. As the strongest of the lab-created vamps, he was the one who’d received a sample of my blood, given to him by scientists who wanted to see what effect my blood would have on him. Jeremy had greatly enjoyed my blood, because it not only gave him the ability to walk in sunlight, it was apparently much better tasting than that of a human’s—lucky me. From that moment on, I ended up having to watch myself, because once word got around about my blood’s unique properties, all the vampires incarcerated with me wanted a taste, whether I was willing or not.

“I’ve been looking for you a long time. I can’t believe you didn’t come with us when we escaped. I thought we were family.”

“Family doesn’t want to fuck and suck on each other,” I spat. It still irked me that they’d turned on me.
Silly me, I thought being victims of the same sick bastards would have made the bond of friendship stronger than that of avarice.
I used to be so gullibly stupid back then.

“Minor details. As to how I found you, I noticed over the years, that every time one of us went missing, it coincided with them going out for some
fun
, the naked dancing on a pole kind. When I realized that, I began sending groups of the boys to clubs, although, I have to admit, when you moved cities about two years ago, you almost lost me. Lucky me, though, I found you again.”

“Yeah, lucky.” As I encouraged Jeremy to talk, I worked at the rope that bound me to the chair I sat on. But my claws, while sharp, were awkwardly placed for slicing. I also wondered what the hell had happened to my supposed protectors.
They put me out there as bait and then disappeared. Nice.
They’d have some apologizing to do with their tongues and cocks when I got out of here. Of course, the odds of my escaping didn’t look good, but I always was an optimist.

“Aren’t you going to ask what I have planned?” Jeremy said with a smile which said without words that nobody sane was home.

“Hmm, let me guess, you’ve decided to bathe.” I wrinkled my nose and was rewarded with an expression of rage and a backhand that snapped my head sideways. I saw pretty stars for a moment before I straightened to taunt him again. “Ooh, what a big man, hitting a woman all tied up. Is that the only way you get sex, too?”

I expected the next slap, and I laughed once the buzzing in my ears died down. “Woo. I was wrong. Even tied up, a woman is too feisty for you.”

Jeremy’s eyes burned red with rage and I smiled vapidly back at him. I knew from experience my succubus wiles didn’t work on him, something about his mind or powers being too strong. But it didn’t stop me from sending out vibes in the hopes some of his weaker coven members would succumb and give me an edge.

“Nice try,” Jeremy smirked. “I’ve learned a lot in the last couple of years, including how to control those weaker than me, which happens to be all of the vamps that came with me and those I’ve come across since.”

“It didn’t help Jonathon,” I replied sassily.

Jeremy growled. “Let me rephrase then. So long as they’re within a certain proximity, I can protect their minds from soul sucking bitches like you.”

“Oh, that’s rich coming from a blood sucker,” I rolled my eyes. A crash sounded from outside the room along with a scream that cut off abruptly. A chill breeze flowed into the room with a familiar scent and I smiled. “Uh-oh, are you in big trouble now.”

Jeremy slapped me again and I cried out on purpose, for truly, the slap hadn’t actually hurt much. But I achieved the desired result.

The doors to the room slammed open, and in stalked my furious dragon, his body bulging at the seams and his green eyes blazing with fury. Gene followed behind him with his trademark grin, juggling fireballs. Even given my current predicament, I found it hot and my body responded.

Simon spied me and I could tell by the way his body tensed up that he’d noticed the swelling on my face.

“Hey, baby,” I called out. “He did it.” I inclined my head towards Jeremy who blanched when, with a roar that shook the house, Simon charged at him.

Gene followed more slowly, lobbing fireballs with unerring accuracy at the other vampires scattered about the room. When he finally reached me and released my bonds, I couldn’t resist saying, “Took you long enough. I thought I was going to have to clean the nest up by myself.”

“I tried to hold Simon back because I knew you could handle it, but dragons can’t stand it when people steal from them.” Gene rolled his eyes as he said it, while at the same time lobbing a fireball over my shoulder.

Something screamed and gurgled, a sound covered by Simon roaring again. “Should we help him?” I asked as I watched Simon decapitate a vampire to get at Jeremy, who’d hidden behind rows of his people.

“Nah. He needs to blow off some steam. He wasn’t crazy about the plan,” Gene tossed that tidbit at me casually.

“Gee, and did it never occur to you to let me know about the plan?” I placed my hands on my hips and glared at him.

Gene grinned and shrugged. “What, and miss the fun we’ll have making it up to you?”

I punched him in the arm and laughed. “You are incorrigible.”

I thought about joining the fight, but was much more intrigued watching my big, bad ass dragon work on his anger issues. The man moved with a breathtaking grace, and while his fury was bloody, I loved that he was furious on my behalf. It didn’t take long for Simon to finish dealing with his vengeance and at the end of it all, there was an impressive scattering of dead vampires.

With the source of his anger eliminated, Simon stalked towards me, still bristling, almost seven feet of sweaty male—/oh my/. I didn’t flinch, even when he grabbed me in a bear hug that squeezed all the breath from me.