Fucking Vampires. What the hell?

They climbed out of the earth, then took a minute to hide the traces of where they’d buried themselves. Six of them jumped the fence, entering VampLycan territory. The stupid bastards passed right under him but then they stopped. He wondered if they would look up, aware of him after all.

“I smell human,” one of them softly rasped.

“Me too.”

Shit. Kira must still be at the campsite. The wind is coming from that direction.

One of them giggled. “I’m hungry.”

“Let’s go feed. We can go hunting on a full stomach.”

They took off, moving in the direction of Kira.

Veso dropped out of the tree. He landed with a thud and the bastards turned, hearing him. He snarled, tearing off his clothes to get them out of the way.

The Vampires gawked at him, either surprised he was stripping or maybe just that he was there at all. He half shifted to unleash his claws and fangs, attacking while he still had surprise on his side.

The closest one froze, terror on his features. Veso ripped his head off, the bastard turning to ash. He lunged at another but that Vamp avoided getting his throat torn out. They could move fast when motivated. He spotted two of them turn tail and run. They weren’t heading back to the fence though, going toward Kira instead.

He needed to kill them all fast and get to her. She’d be no match for Vampires. He’d trained her well but she lacked their strength and speed.

One of the Vampires came at him from the front, the other two moving to his back. The bastards never fought fair but that was fine. The odds weren’t in their favor. Three against him almost made Veso laugh.

He went after the one in front of him, grabbed hold, and punched the son of a bitch in the throat with his claws. They tore through and he twisted his wrist hard, removing the bastards head. Solid body turned to ash and he spun, snarling again.

The guns pointed at him pissed him off. “Cowards,” he spat. Bullets would hurt but they wouldn’t take him down. He rushed at them and they fired, then jumped out of the way to avoid his lethal claws.

The pain was less than he’d expected and he glanced down, stunned at the sight of darts sticking out of him.

They fired again, this time hitting him in the arm and in his side. He snarled, ripping out the darts.

To his horror, his knees gave out. He crashed to the ground.

Drugs. It sank in fast. The suckheads had shot him with tranquilizers or poison. He wasn’t sure which but it hit his system hard.

Another dart imbedded into his ass. He tried to howl out a warning to Kira but his mouth wouldn’t open. His entire body refused to move when he attempted to push up, needing to attack.

One of them bent over him. “That was easier than I thought to find and capture a half-breed.”

“Our two dusted companions would disagree.”

“Better them than us. Damn, he’s big. Who gets to carry him?”

“I’m older. You do it.”

“That makes you stronger.”

“We’ll both do it.”

Blackness took Veso.

Chapter One

Noise alerted Glen that something major had happened. The usually eerie silence was broken by excited hisses. She shivered, knowing it didn’t bode well for whomever or whatever excited the creepers. She walked to the door and peered out into the hallway through the one-inch bars on the small window section of the door.

Candles had once been a romantic symbol but watching the flames flicker from the wall sconces in the rock tunnel had become her only source of light. Her mind blanked when she tried to remember how long it had been since she’d seen daylight. Everything had blurred until her sense of time had been lost. It could have been days or weeks since that horrible night when she’d been kidnapped from her apartment.

The hissing grew louder, the noise scarier than usual, with a menacing quality. She almost backed away from the door but fought the urge out of curiosity. The thick door kept her locked inside the tiny room, but it also protected her from the creepers. They wouldn’t be able to break through the two-inch-thick locked door.

Wheels squeaked and movement drew her attention. A creeper walked backward, pulling a gurney. She hated the sight of those pale, hideous creatures that hissed threatening words and revealed sharp, dark-stained fangs when they came to torment her outside the door. Sometimes they would just scratch at the metal, trying to get inside. She refused to think of them as human.

A large man had been chained down on the mobile table. He was the reason the creepers hissed, which continued as he was wheeled past her door. She got a good enough look at his massive bared chest and his biceps as he strained and fought the shackles that held him. Long black hair hid his features with his head lifted, chin to his chest. He tried to kick at the other creeper by his restrained ankles. They had a blanket thrown over his middle section.

“Sssstop,” that one hissed.

“Fuck you,” the guy snarled.

Glen gasped, jerking away from the door. He hadn’t sounded human with that animalistic grumble. He sure wasn’t a Vampire, his skin too tan. The noise faded and she closed her eyes, fighting tears. She just wanted to wake from the nightmare but that wouldn’t happen. It was all real.

Keys jingled sometime later and she slid along the wall to the far corner, praying the person would just pass right by her door. They’d already fed her the crappy meal she got every day. She was only allowed a bath once a week, when she was taken down the tunnel, but that had already happened the day before. It wasn’t time.

The footsteps stopped right outside her door.

“My dear, dear Glenda,” the singsong voice taunted. “It’s time to meet someone.”

She squeezed her eyes closed, wanting to avoid looking at the thing she’d learned to hate most. She refused to call him a man.

The key twisted in the lock, metal creaked, and she figured her life was finally about to end.

“I see you,” the son of a bitch chuckled.

She opened her eyes, glaring at Vlad. It was highly doubtful that was his real name. He was rail thin, his skin so white it seemed to glow from the candlestick he held aloft with one boney hand. Hatred battled fear inside her as she stared into a pair of sinister dark eyes.

“Leave me alone.”

“It’s time for you to learn what your purpose is.”