Veso Read online

  Her hands trembled as she shoved another clip down the front of her shirt. She kicked the closet door shut, hugging the weapon close.

  “I’m loaded for bear,” she yelled. “Break in and I’ll open fire on you. I don’t give a shit what the hell you are. Having holes ripping through your body is going to ruin your fun! I’ve got enough rounds to turn your ass into Swiss cheese.”

  A female scream coming from outside made Jadee jerk, shoving her back against the closet. She was afraid she might fire out of pure fear and pressed her finger down along the underside of the weapon. She used her left hand to chamber a round so it was ready to go if that door gave way.

  A second set of footsteps stormed closer from above and suddenly what sounded like a heavy body dropped flat. She winced, swearing she heard something scratching the roof.

  “Do you hear me?” she yelled louder. “I have live ammunition and I will shoot you!”

  Something slammed against the door but the locks held. There wasn’t a window there, and the closed shutters next to it didn’t give her a view of outside. She braced her legs, worried her knees might collapse under her otherwise. The last thing she wanted to do was fall over from fright.

  Another loud thump came from up top, near the back. That made three she could count, since the scratching sounds didn’t stop and the person on the other side of the door continued to batter it with what sounded like a heavy object.

  “Assholes!” Jadee shouted. “Enough. I’m not screwing around. I have an arsenal at my back and I’m gripping an assault rifle. My dad is a paranoid gun fanatic who made me learn how to fire anything that took bullets or shells from the time I could walk. I won’t miss, and I’ll keep firing. I can reload faster than you can say ‘oh shit’. Take your freaky circus act somewhere else!”

  Silence reigned. It was eerie and sudden.

  Jadee sucked in a deep breath, blowing it out slowly. It was possible her threats had made them reconsider making her a target. She bit her bottom lip, relaxing her grip on the rifle. The weight of the handgun against her outer thigh seemed suddenly heavy.

  “Goddamn,” she rasped. Her dad and his geek squad had actually found a nest of Vampires. What are they doing in the middle of Nowhere, Alaska? It didn’t make sense.

  “Come out,” a man’s creepy voice crooned.

  Jadee stopped breathing, trapping air inside her lungs. It sounded as if a nail slid across metal above, from where the voice had originated.

  “We want to play,” a female voice called out from the other side of the door.

  “And make you bleed.” Another man laughed above her.

  “And scream!” the female added.

  Jadee forced herself to breathe and tightened her grip on the rifle, sliding her finger over the trigger. A chill ran down her spine. They sounded deranged. She was tempted to tell them to break in and find out who did the bleeding, but she remained mute, waiting to see what they’d do next. The RV was a tank on wheels. Her father had designed it to withstand anything he hunted.

  She moved fast toward the front cab area, reaching up to the control panel that was mounted on the ceiling right before the driver’s section. She read each button and hovered her finger over the one labeled Panic.

  She hesitated. The siren blasting might scare them off. She debated pressing it. Another scenario popped into her head.

  Someone might hear it and come. Like the cops.

  * * * * *

  “What are we doing out here?” Kar jerked his coat tighter around his body. “It’s a Friday night.”

  “We have to go check on a human family and relay a message to them. Lorn wants us to do it and he’s our leader, so here we are. A human called the lodge because she can’t reach her family.” Lavos nonchalantly shrugged. “Besides, it’s not as if you had anything else to do.”

  “Fuck you.”

  Lavos grinned. “No thanks. You’re not my type.”

  His friend flipped him off but grinned. “As if you could get that lucky.”

  “Not even in jest, man. Although, you do have big tits.”

  “I don’t have man boobies.”

  “Yeah, you do. You get any bigger and we’re going to have to special order your shirts with built-in bras.”

  “Shut up,” Garson demanded from the backseat of the open Jeep. “The Tab sisters are visiting and I could be pounding Ginna if I hadn’t been assigned this bullshit task. I don’t want to hear anything about sex or tits.”

  Kar snorted. “The only pounding you’d have been doing is with your fist when you watched Ginna walk off with me. Everyone knows she only visits our clan because I’m there. And who knows? Maybe Kinna’s given up her preference for men over sixty and would have bedded me too. I bet they’re crying right now because I’m out on this stupid drive.”

  “I want a mate. You just like fucking. I’m a better choice than you, and I would have told Ginna so. She would have come home with me.”

  Kar snorted and shot Garson an amused grin. “Your place is a mess. You ever take a woman there and they’d be convinced you’re looking for a maid instead.”

  “It’s not that bad. I’m just not a neat freak. Why did you pick us to go with you?” Garson asked. “What about Veso? Couldn’t you have called him, Lavos?”

  “He’s bonding with his new mate.”

  “A human one.” Kar chuckled. “I never saw that coming in a million years. I almost feel sorry for her. He’s a grumpy bastard.”

  “I couldn’t believe Lorn was so great about accepting her into our clan. Does Veso have blackmail on your older brother the way Davis had on Decker?”

  Sometimes Lavos’s friends annoyed him. “No. Of course not, Garson. We wanted change in the clan.”

  “That’s a big one,” Kar sighed. “Human-huge.”

  “Lorn is very smart,” Lavos said. “We talked about it afterward. He figured some of the clan probably hoped Veso would challenge him for leadership once he showed up alive. They believed until then that he was loyal to Decker.”

  “So Lorn accepted his mate as a thank you for not making him fight and have to kill another one of our clan members? I get that.” Kar nodded.

  “Wrong. My brother knew Veso had already made enemies who might come after him. Veso pledged loyalty to him, so Lorn did the same. Only a dick like Decker would deny a man his mate.”

  “So that means we can start testing matings with humans?” Garson sounded excited. “That’s going to be awesome! I’m so getting me a mate.”

  “Wrong again. Keep your hands off women in the nearby towns.”

  “That’s not fair,” Garson snarled. “I could rock a human chick’s world.”

  “Maybe if you ever learned mind control,” Kar muttered. “And told her to pretend she was experiencing an earthquake.”

  “I heard that.” Garson reached between the seats and punched him in the arm. “I’m great in bed.”

  Lavos gripped the wheel and turned off onto a dirt road, slowing the Jeep. “The house is just ahead. Knock off the banter before they overhear your conversation. We’re here on official business.”

  “Who bitched because someone else had better things to do than answer their phone? I’m sure that’s it.” Garson cleared his throat. “They were probably avoiding talking to them.”

  Lavos slowed even more, on alert as he glanced all around, mindful of his surroundings. “It’s the man’s mother. He didn’t call her when he should have. I’m not going into the full story but she’s worried. Lorn said to check on them and give them the message. That’s what we’re doing.”

  “Why is this our problem?” Garson leaned forward between the seats. “Bullshit, I tell you.”

  “You’re supposed to be an enforcer, not a whiner,” Kar muttered. “Can you at least act like you take your duty seriously? And the task probably is bullshit but we still need to check it out. I’m sure the lines are just down because of that storm that blew through and it will get fixed eventually. It’s normal, b