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

The two cops shook their heads and went downstairs. I was either going to be a fucking badass for killing two supes by decapitation… or I was going to be the freak of nature who killed two supes by decapitation. Either way, I was alive and the bad guys were dead, but the bastards had left me a puzzle to figure out all on my own.

It was only after a few more minutes when I heard the sirens. The EMTs were here, and I was closer to falling into a bed. When they walked into the kitchen, they looked at Draco, then at me.

“He said I was short,” I told them with a shrug. One of them blanched a little, then put his professional face on.

Dropping his jump bag onto the counter beside me, he said, “What’s your name?”

“Cat.”

“Okay, Cat, can you tell me what happened?”

“Where would you like me to start?”

“At the beginning, preferably.”

So I did. I saved him the trouble of listening to everything that had happened before the night out. That was just for my therapist to know. I also left out the part about my parents and Draco’s reasoning for targeting me specifically. I played dumb when he asked about how I decapitated the big bad vampire, letting them think I was some sort of supernatural with awesome strength. Sometimes, being unassuming was the best way to fuck someone over.

By the time the EMTs were done, the house was crawling with CSI, cataloguing everything they could find. I thought it was kind of stupid actually to have PIG in place for investigating paranormal crimes, but not have a paranormal CSI. What if some things were enchanted or magical in nature, so when they went and touched it, they ended up cursing themselves or killing someone else? Maybe that was something I could bring up with Wolfe when I reported to him tomorrow.

“We’re going to take you to the hospital now, Cat. Did you need to collect anything from here?”

I shivered in the blanket they’d given me and shook my head. “I’m ready to leave this house of horrors.”

When I arrived at hospital, I was taken straight to the ER to have my shoulder x-rayed. They were concerned that more damage had been done with the cuffs and wanted a better look at my knee, which had blown up to the size of a grapefruit. They stitched up my hand and gave me a cold compress for my head. By the time I was wheeled onto the ward, the sun was well established in the sky and the clock on the wall read nine-fourteen.

I fell asleep as soon as the wheels were locked in place.

The next time I woke, someone was stroking my arm. I peeled open my eyes to find Sawyer there. He looked hollowed out. Black rings were under his eyes, and all the color had leached from his face. I thought he’d even lost a little weight.

“You’re awake.”

I nodded. “You are too. Which was it in the end—loss of all bodily fluids, or did someone knock you out?”

He grimaced and looked away. “The owner of the club eventually knocked me out at closing time. I…” He sighed. “I wasn’t myself.”

“Is that what normally happens if you’re denied?”

He nodded, just once. “It hasn’t happened in a very long time.”

“I’m sorry then, since I was one the who… ran, I guess.”

“You were right to get the hell out of there, Cat. If we’d fucked, things would’ve been so different.”

I shrugged, instantly regretting it. I sucked in a hiss and looked down at the sling keeping my right arm immobile. Sawyer’s fingers tightened around my hand.

“Your shoulder will be fine with rest—you didn’t dislocate it again, but it did get strained. I’m not sure what other injuries you have. The nurses and doctors aren’t too forthcoming with people who aren’t immediate family, and since you didn’t have a next of kin registered, they’re even less willing to talk to me.”

“I don’t have a next of kin because Draco killed my parents.”

“He did what? What the hell happened last night, Cat?”

I stared at him, waiting for any hint that he knew about me, about my past, or about what happened. “My parents were part of an organization called Rogue Faction. Have you heard of them before?”

He frowned. “I’d heard of teams of humans who were believers before we revealed ourselves, but I didn’t think they were organized in any particular way. You’re saying they were?”

“If what Draco said is true, then yes. They’re organized, and if Draco didn’t kill them all, there are more of them out there. I tend to take everything a psychopath says with a grain of salt.”

“What happened to your parents?”

“When I was ten, my mom just didn’t come home from a trip, and when my dad did, he looked dead himself. Apparently, my father went on a killing spree. He was looking for revenge, for absolution. He was clearing out a kiss in Turkey when Draco found him. Draco was the lone survivor of his Italian kiss, and he blamed my father for the slaughter. So he killed him. And he wanted to kill me because apparently, I’m a combination of two of the strongest bloodlines in Rogue Faction.”

“You?” His brows shot up in disbelief.

I nodded. “Me. Draco wanted me dead, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction.” I looked around the hospital room. It was nice for someplace sterile and white. “Did you hear about Faline?”

His expression turned stormy, his eyes darkening to nearly black. “I heard. She was working with him?”

“Apparently. Evidently, he promised her she wouldn’t become sick and die if she fed exclusively from him. She felt like that was a good deal.”

“But she’s been a cop for years. I don’t understand how she could just switch sides like that.”

It was a rhetorical question, but I answered him anyway. “You yourself said you’d give anything to stop this cycle of perpetual loneliness. What