A Bead of Blood Read online

  A Bead of Blood

  (Book Five in the Wiccan-Were-Bear Novella series)

  by R.E. Butler

  Copyright 2012 R.E. Butler

  A Bead of Blood

  by R.E. Butler

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Cover by Ramona Lockwood

  This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.

  Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those over the age of 18 only.

  * * * * *

  I would like to extend sincere thanks to Jennifer Moorman for editing this story. Her insights, professional courtesy, and encouragement helped to bring Griegs’ story to life. Thank you.

  Thanks to Alex G. for running my Facebook page and for her tireless optimism. Thanks to my new fans and friends, and for those that demanded Griegs’ story after “two long years”. And to Jacq McNeill., who never ceases to amaze me with her strength and courage, thank you for everything.

  To Aunt B.L., and my husband...I love you!

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  From the Author and Other Works

  Preview of Book Six, A Twitch of Tail

  Chapter 1

  From my high vantage point, I steadied myself on the ledge as I watched the dark alley behind the vampire club, Fang. My heightened senses revealed that there was nothing going on except a few rats hanging around a dumpster that smelled unpleasant even from several stories up.

  The North American Vampire Council had dispatched me to Cleveland two weeks ago with only a vague idea that something bad was going on. People were disappearing, and when people disappeared in a city with a master vampire and a fairly large vampire and were-population, the humans got twitchy and wanted answers and promises that whatever was going bump in the night was going to either stop bumping or go away.

  A man slinked out of the back door of the club that was one of many Mishka, the master of the city of Cleveland, owned. I trained my eyes on him. He was nervous; his heart rate was high, and he panted. A dark sedan without lights on pulled into the alley a few feet and stopped. The passenger door opened and a man exited slowly, looking around carefully before walking to the man at the back door.

  “Here,” the back door man said after he cleared his throat. He held out a folded piece of paper.

  The man from the car snatched it. “Are these all the addresses?” he demanded.

  The back door man whimpered and took a step back, pressing his narrow shoulders into the door. “It was all I could get. The bears all live in one place west of here, but the wolves are scattered all over.”

  The man from the car grunted. “We already have bears and wolves. I want those damn birds!”

  “S-sorry, Hector. I tried to follow the bird-men that were with the witches on the solstice like you told me to, but they flew into the air, and I lost them in the trees.”

  Hector slammed him into the door. “Never use my name!”

  The back door man whimpered again, shaking his head furiously. “I won’t, I’m sorry!”

  “Get me those addresses within the next week or I’m calling in your debt to The Doc. We clear?”

  He nodded and slumped to the ground in relief as Hector released him and stalked away. I pointed my smartphone at the car, using the night vision software to read the license plate and record it for later research. As soon as Hector shut the passenger door, the car backed out of the alley quickly and sped away. I tucked the phone into its holster on my hip and leapt down to the ground. My feet absorbed the impact nearly soundlessly when I landed next to the man and covered his mouth before he could scream.

  The switchblade that had been resting in my pocket now pressed against his throat. “You scream, it will be the last thing you do, understand?” I hissed. He nodded. I released my hand but kept the knife pressed into his flesh. “What’s your name?”

  “F-Frank.”

  “You work for Mishka?”

  “Yes.”

  I sniffed and smelled only human with a fresh bite wound in his wrist.

  “You food?” I asked derisively. I hated the thought of paying for food. Hell, we might as well be humans at restaurants if we couldn’t seduce a nice, hot meal out of a human.

  He nodded, realized the knife was still there and went still. “Yes.”

  “Tell me about the addresses you gave to Hector, and don’t think about lying because I heard the whole conversation.”

  “I got in bad with a loan shark from some gambling losses. When I couldn’t pay, the loan shark threatened my family and I got kids.” He started blubbering and I sighed.

  “Save the waterworks, Frank. I’m not interested. What happened next?”

  He sniffed loudly. “S-Sorry. I promised the loan shark I’d do anything to pay off the debt, and he sent me to someone they call The Doc. He said because I worked for the master vamp I could be helpful, and he’d call my debt even eventually. But I’ve been working for him for months now, and he says I’m still not done!”

  “You get addresses for him? Whose?”

  “Any were-animals or other supernatural creatures within a hundred miles.”

  My fangs elongated in rage. “Vampires? You betray my people?”

  “What? No, no! They’re only interested in weres and things like fairies or elves. The Doc is a vampire.”

  I let my fangs recede. “Who is this ‘doc’?”

  “I don’t know. He’s got some kind of project that he uses were-animals and supernatural beings for.”

  “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know where he works out of, but I met him at an office downtown on High Street once.”

  He rattled off the address, and after some prodding, he told me that he had given Hector addresses to a bear den west of the city where forty resided and a handful of wolf addresses, members of the pack who lived in the city. “How many other weres are around this area?” I asked, pulling the blade from his throat and using his shirt to wipe off the sweat clinging to the blade’s tip before closing it and sliding it into my pocket.

  He straightened in relief. “A lot. The bears aren’t around here, but in the city are wolves, serpents, falcons, and tigers. There’s also a big wiccan coven that uses all the weres during their ceremonies. That’s how I found the ones I did, by following them.”

  Sighing, I reached for his collar and stared into his eyes until his mind went blank. Using my persuasive powers, I said with a low tone, “You never saw me.”

  By the time he awakened from the light trance, I was back up on my perch on the ledge, watching him shake himself out, look around in confusion, and return inside.

  Stealing away over the rooftop, I made my way to my hotel and called my boss.

  “Sabrina, what did you learn?” Etienne was the head of the northern states’ Hunters. Hunters, in simple terms, were vampires who chose to become the police of our kind. Hunters were the Internal Affairs of the vampire world, and I’d been one for almost eighty years. When I came of-age at e
ighteen, my best friend Lara was staked by her vampire boyfriend who grew jealous over her friendship with another male. When he was brought before the council, they gave him a slap on the wrist. The hunter who worked the area at the time was too busy to get to the bottom of the situation. So I joined up.

  I explained to Etienne what I’d learned at the club. He was quiet for several minutes. “Go tomorrow night and speak to Mishka. I don’t know who The Doc is, but if he’s a vampire and he’s snatching were-animals, then something is going on and you need to get to the bottom of it. You need a booster. I’m going to send Red.”

  A booster was a demon who had been trapped in a human’s body as punishment. Their blood was particularly potent and gave a vampire enhanced abilities. When confronting a rogue vampire, who wouldn’t want a dangerous, pissed off demon at her side?

  “Cool.” I sighed, kicking off my shoes.

  “You need to be careful, Sabrina. Do your research, call for backup if you need it. I can get another hunter to you in a few days.”

  “Or I could go to the were-animals who are being targeted,” I suggested.

  “I think you do that at your own peril. How will you trust a wolf to believe you or help?”

  I shrugged and remembered I was on the phone. “Don’t know. I’ll ask Mishka what he thinks.”

  Etienne’s voice went cool. “Watch out for Mishka. He’s not to be trifled with. He’s got way too many friends on the council and could screw up your career.”

  “I’m not human; I’m not exactly his type.” I snorted. Mishka never dated vampires. He strictly dated humans or the occasional supernatural woman. I never understood how a vampire could date someone with such a finite existence and be unwilling to change him or her into a vampire. If I loved someone enough to commit to him, I would want him to live with me forever.

  “Still, watch your back. Red will report at sunset tomorrow.” Etienne signed off.

  My mind whirled over the possibilities. What could a vampire want with were-animals? Yes, their blood was stronger than human blood and they couldn’t be bespelled like a human, so to feed from one, you either had to convince a were-animal it was a good idea or take it by force. Vampires were pretty on par strength-wise with weres, but there were exceptions to every rule.

  The license plate came up as being stolen from a blue Pontiac Firebird, which the car in the alley had most definitely not been. Bust.

  I closed the blinds and stretched out on the lumpy mattress. Two myths humans held to were that sunlight caused death and that we died at dawn. Neither of those things was true. I was never really sure where the ideas came from, but it didn’t matter at any rate. Often, they worked to our advantage. We were sunlight sensitive, so going out in the sun was a bad idea. If I had to go out, I covered every inch of skin and stayed in UV tinted cars. A good feeding would take care of any burns, though. And the dying at dawn? Who thought up that one? What would be the point of only living for half a day? True, we weakened with the sun, so we rested during the day, but that didn’t mean we were dead. Very much awake and aware if I wanted to be, thank you very much.

  I settled back on the pillow and sighed. It had been a long night, one of many long nights, staking out the back of Mishka’s club. Finally, a little breakthrough, but I wasn’t sure what would come from it. I drifted off to sleep, thinking about the weres on the list given to Hector and what was happening to them.

  Chapter 2

  “Hello, gorgeous.” Red, my favorite booster, flopped on the bed just as the sun set and I woke up. He had summoned himself into my room so he didn’t have to knock. Being a demon did have some perks, including his ability to go just about anywhere. But a major downfall was pissing off the big boss and getting stuck in a human’s body.

  Still, Red had one hell of a foxy body, so it wasn’t all that bad in my opinion. I rolled onto my side and peeked at him through the veil of my lashes. “Hey, Red.”

  “Long time, no feed.” He grinned at me and tried to arrange his bulky body artfully. He failed, but it was endearing. Thick, muscular legs were encased in black leather pants, and a tight black t-shirt tried in vain to hold in the muscles of his chest and arms. Black hair cropped short topped his head and a square jaw gave him a rugged look. The only thing that made him look less than human was his red glowing eyes, a dead giveaway to the demon lurking inside and the reason he had his nickname. All demons punished to live in human bodies had red eyes. Red was the only one that worked for the North American Vampire Council, also known in the vampire world as the Fang Police. He and I had been partners off and on for nearly two decades, and there wasn’t anyone I trusted more at my back than him.

  Red and I weren’t involved sexually, although it had crossed my mind from time to time. The problem with him, however, was that once he was done serving his punishment, he was back in the sulfur where the one calling the shots in the relationship would definitely not be me. I showered and changed into a blood red mini dress with a plunging neckline that accentuated my generous chest. As I fixed my long onyx hair into a pile on top of my head, I caught Red’s gaze in the mirror over the bureau.

  “I thought we were working tonight? You look like you’re planning to sin.”

  Chuckling, I swirled a pair of chopsticks into my hair to anchor the mass. “We’re going to see Mishka at his club. I set up an appointment with one of his people for ten and it’s not like I can walk into the club looking like a bounty hunter. They already don’t like me because of my job; I can at least try to look like I belong there.”

  His red eyes swept up and down my 5’5” frame, lingering on my breasts. “You belong a lot of places, but not at one of those pay-to-bleed vamp clubs.”

  Aw, sweet.

  “Feed now or later?” he asked as he sat up on the bed.

  “Now,” I said, closing the distance to him. He gave me his wrist because he knew me well enough to know that I only fed from the wrist. The neck, where most vampires fed, was too intimate for me.

  I was almost one hundred. A naturally born vampire to two vampire parents. My father was killed when I was fifteen during a werewolf uprising in Europe where we lived at the time. One hundred years ago, vampires kept werewolves as guards, often against their will. When they rebelled, a lot of vampires died, and my father was among them. My mother and I fled to South America. She bedded her way across the country looking for her second husband, while I finished school. My father never had a son to pass on his legacy to, so I took up where he left off, planning to go to work for the council the same as he had. While he had been a diplomat, I found my true calling within the Hunters.

  My delicate fangs elongated, and I licked across the smooth expanse of Red’s wrist to deposit a numbing essence. When I asserted mind control on a human, they couldn’t feel the bite. If they were alert, like Red, I numbed their skin. Sinking my fangs into his warm skin, I closed my eyes and savored the taste of his tangy, rich blood before extracting my fangs and closing the wounds with another lick. His blood coursed hot and fast through my body, sharpening my senses in ways that human and were-blood could not. For hours, I would be faster and stronger, with enhanced vision, scent, and hearing abilities.

  Since I was familiar with the area, I drove my black Escalade to Fang, arriving just before ten and walking past the long line waiting to gain entrance. Grumblings and complaints followed our wake, but we ignored them. I informed the two large doormen that I had an appointment.

  “Name?” the one with a clipboard, a snarl and an earpiece barked.

  “Sabrina Chalice.”

  The second one, who looked like he was being choked to death by the collar of his dress shirt, gave me a once over and scowled. “You’re the Fang Police, yeah? What do you want with Master Mishka? He’s done nothing wrong.”

  Red pulled off his sunglasses, and his eyes flashed brilliantly. “Listen, you fuck. Kiss your boss’ ass some other time. If you don’t let us in immediately, I’m going to do something that will land this club o
n the morning news.” Sliding his sunglasses back onto his face with a deadly smirk, he folded his arms. “I doubt that your master would appreciate that.”

  The first one narrowed his gaze at me for just a moment, avoiding eye contact with Red, and then unhooked the velvet rope. “Turn right at the coat check, straight back to the double doors.”

  Red was very handy.

  My heels clicked on the tile floor as we walked into the club and followed the guard’s directions. I hadn’t ever been in Mishka’s club, but I’d been in plenty over the years and they were all pretty much the same. The club paid humans to be food for their vampire customers, who also paid a fee to feed. The human food was identifiable by the red ribbons they wore on their necks or wrists, indicating where they preferred to be fed from. When I was young and newly turned, I did the pay-to-feed clubs because I didn’t know how to use my powers of persuasion and mind-wiping. Now, I didn’t see the need. Some vampires said it was more civilized to pay for food, buy bagged blood, or to use the synthetic blood known as SyBl. I didn’t mind SyBl, and I would buy bagged blood in a pinch, but paying to feed in public at a club wasn’t my cup of tea.

  Two large men stood in front of heavily carved wooden double doors, their massive arms resting at their sides. Their large forearms gave away that they were trolls, although their fairly human features indicated they were half-breeds.

  Red and I stopped in front of them, and they looked down at us from what was at least seven feet. As I was about to say something, anything, they parted silently and pulled the doors open, dropping their heads and averting their eyes as if I were royalty. Red snorted indelicately as we passed them, and I elbowed his side and gave him a warning glare that he should behave.

  The room was round, with columns stretching up to the domed ceiling showcasing a painted, faux night sky littered with stars. A large white marble fireplace took up one of the six walls, the logs blazing and casting amber flickers across the room. Several couches and chairs were scattered around the room, anchoring oriental rugs to the white marble floor. Between iron sconces hung ornate tapestries, detailing what I knew would be Mishka’s interesting and violent history.