Bad Vampire by Lauren Dawes (read aloud books txt) 📕

Every time I saw it, I went weak at the knees. “I just wanted to tell you that I can see your improvement. How long have you been coming here for?”

“Six months?” I wiped the sweat from my brow.

He nodded. “Six months, and you’re already giving some of my full-time guys a run for their money.”

I snorted. Yeah, like that was true. But I smiled graciously, because that was the kind of person I was. “Thank you.”

“You got it.” He looked over to the reception area, where the next class was waiting to start. I looked too, then frowned at what I saw.

“Supe class?”

“Yeah. One of my new trainers is a werewolf. He thought it might be good to start having separate classes for them, rather than mixing with the humans. They’re all incredibly strong, and at least this way, they won’t have to hold back.”

“Do you participate in these sessions?”

Mike shook his head. “I’m strong, but these guys are in another league. I hear that they’ll be starting an MMA cage fighting division just for supes. They can’t compete with humans.”

“More like we can’t compete with them,” I said bitterly. “How many do you have coming?”

“Every day? Maybe twenty. Some come every day, some only once a week.”

“What flavor are they? Do you know?”

“From what I can tell, mostly shifters. Some vampires come, but there’s bad blood between the two groups.”

“Any fae?”

Mike shrugged. “Couldn’t tell if there were. They look too human.”

I grunted. I couldn’t agree more with that. The fae were the ones that scared me the most. With shifters, there was a look in their eye, something predatory that gave them away. Vampires had fangs—duh—but the fae were difficult. The fact that they could use glamor too only made it worse. Were they all hideous? Is that why they covered themselves in ‘human’ skins? Whatever the reason, I had no way to detect who was who.

Sometimes, I wished those bastards would just disappear into the hole they crawled out of. The human authorities called the fae realm ‘Wonderland,’ which was cute if you liked the idea of one place where fae shed their skins and were every inch as badass as we thought they were. Wonderland wasn’t something humans could access. We weren’t even supposed to be able to see it, let alone set foot in it. And if we did? Instant death.

Yeah, the fae were a whole bunch of fun wrapped in barbed wire. They were the gift that kept on giving.

I waved goodbye to Mike, then stalked past the supes waiting for their class. One of them gave me the stink eye as I passed, and I returned the favor. I felt dirty even brushing past them. When I got to the front door of the gym, I stepped to the side to watch the start of the class.

Call me a glutton for punishment if you want, but there was something to be said about assessing the enemy.

The group began working through their warm-ups, each of them stretching out their powerful bodies in a weirdly synchronized way. Every single one of them—male and female—had muscles that bunched and flexed under their skin. They were predators in the purest form of the word.

They were dangerous.

With one final glare, I turned and left, wondering whether I’d just made the biggest mistake of my life by agreeing to join PIG. I guessed I’d find out tomorrow.

Three

I woke up the next day feeling sore and irritable. Not only did I not sleep well, the idea that I was now an official member of PIG was making me want to scratch my own eyes out. As I got ready for work, I tried not to think about everything that could go wrong today. Talk about walking into a hostile workspace. The thing was, it was different from walking into a roomful of cops who were human. All they could do was talk.

Walking into a roomful of supes who had claws and fangs at their disposal? I had a feeling I’d find out how fast I could really run.

I stopped at the coffee shop to grab a shot of caffeinated courage before I made me way into the office. I scratched at my over-starched shirt and cursed that I had to wear the uniform again. Maybe the supes had a more relaxed dress code? That’d be amazing if it was true. I parked my truck and walked into the café, whistling softly as I did. The girl behind the counter gave me a warm smile.

“The usual?”

“Thanks, Jen.” I paid for my order, then tucked a couple of bucks into the tip jar. I’d been coming to this place for about a year now, way before I’d joined the force, and while I was still in training too. Moving off to one side, I waited for my order, my eyes not focused on anything in particular.

My gaze rose when I heard someone with a dark, smoky voice place an order. I stared at the guy, unashamedly. He was tall—not hard when I’m rocking Oompa Loompa stature—with dark hair and crystal grey eyes. He was just the kind of guy I’d go for. All he had to have now was a twelve-inch dick.

Hey, a girl can dream.

My gaze drifted lower, to his strong hands that looked like he knew what to do with them. Like spank me when I needed it. Yeah, just thinking about it made me squirm. There was a breathy sigh, and I glanced over at the woman waiting two back in the line from him. Her eyes were on him too, the lust filling her gaze unmistakable, because I felt it as well. It was raw and strong and…

The necklace around my neck began to glow and pulse beneath my shirt. I glanced down at it, wrapping my hand around the stone to stop anyone else from seeing it glowing. What in the actual fuck? What was it doing?

The room seemed to pulse, like a breath held