Heat . Amy Blankenship

the red irises of his eyes. “However, a dinner date with both of you sounds good.”

      Damon moved fast, grabbing the first one and draining him dry in less than a minute. He broke out in a sweat from the pain when more bullets started pushing out faster and landed on the ground with audible metallic clinks. Tilting his head back, he laughed breathlessly before dropping the dead man at his feet.

      The echo of the second man running away drew his attention and Damon ran after him, once more pulling the shadows close to disguise his pursuit. Pain and adrenalin held its own high.

      He caught up with the oversized punk and stalked him for a few moments, enjoying the smell of fear. When the man started to slow down, Damon merely chuckled in the darkness making the human start running faster again. Yes, this is what he needed… to rid the world of a couple low-life human scum while taking the blood he needed to heal.

      Quickly growing bored with the chase, Damon closed in on the man and jerked him into an alley. The human’s struggles were valiant to say the least, but when matched against Damon’s superior strength… the outcome was inevitable.

      Finally, the man’s struggles ceased and Damon dropped him to the dirty concrete. During the struggle, small packets of white powder had fallen from the man’s pockets along with a good-sized wad of money and a hand gun. Damon knelt down next to the corpse and, using a corner of its shirt, wiped his face clean of any evidence before taking up the money and tucking it into his back pocket then walking away.

      Reaching the mouth of the alley, Damon shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking down the sidewalk like he didn’t have a care in the world. Now that his need to kill and feed had been partially satisfied, he could pick his next victim with a choosier taste.

      Misery watched the entire exchange between the vampire and the two humans he’d chosen as his victims. She wanted to approach him but was too weak to do so. Instead, she satisfied herself by feeding off the fear the two humans exhibited as the vampire bled them dry. Their death thralls had been delicious.

      Her encounter with Kane earlier that evening had forced her to use up all the power she’d had stored away since escaping the cave. When she’d combined her power with Kane’s blood, it had used up almost everything she had. Creating cracks in the dimensional walls of this world was a tedious process and would take a lot more power than she had at the moment. She could feel the evil heartbeat of this area and knew she’d awakened some of the weaker demons that slept here.

      She would need to be stronger to thin the walls enough for the demons on the other side to sense it and take advantage. If the demons were powerful enough… they could finish the rip from the other side and join her in this world.

      While her demonstration hadn’t been enough to do what she wanted, the evil in this city was breeding and it wouldn’t take long for her to build her power up to the necessary level. Once that level was reached… she would try to breach the walls of this dimension again. This vampire’s aura wasn’t as tasty as Kane's but the similarity and potential of the blood ritual was definitely there.

      This vampire... though he did show a sadistic side that appealed to Misery… his power was completely different from Kane's. She already knew how to tap into Kane's real power but the more she stared into this one’s soul, the more she saw the dangerous truth. The power this one possessed could only be released while protecting something he loved. It was a worthless power since the creature suppressed such emotion.

      After studying the vampire for a few more moments, Misery decided it was best if this one remained loveless because if he ever tapped into such emotion… his power would be limitless.

      Damon could smell soulless vampires flitting all around him and down the darker alleyways. He thought briefly about ridding the city of a few of them but decided he’d already done his good deed for the day. If they wanted to feed off the low-lives in this area, then who was he to stop them? It wasn’t like he hadn’t just done the same thing. As he continued to walk, more bullets fell out of his shirt and hit the ground, tinkling on the sidewalk like forgotten memories.

      The small hairs on the back of Damon’s neck stood up and he stopped walking, turning his head from one side to the other… he was being watched. Finally jerking his head back, his eyes narrowed when he saw a shapeless silhouette lurking on the roof of the building beside him.

      Stepping back into the shadows, Damon wrapped the darkness around him hating how this city had no privacy with all the fucking paranormal breeds running around. Before coming here, he’d never been around shifters or the fallen. In his country, shifters had been purged back in the dark ages and been smart enough not to return. He’d never realized just how territorial he was while in a land he’d kept clean.

      He’d never been one for traveling around the world like Kane and Michael… not when he’d been having so much fun where he was. But that wasn’t a shifter on the roof… it was a fallen, and it wasn’t either of the men he’d seen at the church. This must have been the one that got away.

      *****

      Zachary breathed a sigh of relief when the last of the news reporters finally got bored and left his quote-unquote crime scene. He turned his attention back to the soot-covered firemen and winced apathetically. Poor guys, they hadn’t stood a chance in getting that fire under control, although they seemed thankful it had not spread beyond the boundaries of Anthony Valachi’s land. Zachary smiled when he saw what he’d been waiting on.

      He’d made the fire so hot that he knew it wouldn’t be long before it ran out of stuff to burn. He’d done it for two reasons. One was to give pity to the humans who were sacrificing their lives on a daily basis playing with fire, and the other was to destroy any evidence the humans didn’t need to see… including bodies to autopsy or bones to study.

      “Looks like its dying down,” Chad said as he approached Zachary. “I’m surprised Trevor isn’t here.”

      “Oh he was,” Zachary smirked. “Last time I saw him, he was dragging your sister out of here so I could blow the place up.”

      “What!” Chad yelled then stepped closer so no one could hear him. “I’ve been here for a fucking hour and you’re just now getting around to telling me that my sister was almost killed tonight?”

      “The bullet only grazed her,” Zachary just loved hazing the new guy. He felt a little guilty when all the color drained from Chad’s face. “Relax, she’s fine.”

      “You’re an asshole,” Chad informed him without remorse.

      “I’ve been called worse,” Zachary shrugged. “But for now, you can call me boss. I fast tracked your paperwork so it’s already a done deal. You no longer work for the police department. They work for you and you work for the CIA as far as they are concerned. And this falls under the CIA’s jurisdiction since it was a mob hit.”

      “So what am I supposed to do now?” Chad asked feeling a little lost and secretly wondering how he could beat up a jaguar for putting his sister in danger yet again.

      “Enjoy the promotion because I’m leaving you to handle this for the night.” Zachary patted him on the shoulder before opening the car door and sliding inside. He counted to three before Chad rapped on his window. Rolling it down, he arched an eyebrow.

      “What do I tell them?” Chad asked.

      “That’s the brilliance of it all. You’re not at liberty to give out any information at this time.” Zachary laughed and rolled the window back up then laughed again when Chad kicked his tire as he pulled past him.

      His humor faded once he was alone with his own thoughts. He knew most of the wolf pack was harmless and had only been under the influence of their alpha’s orders, but the rest of them would want revenge for the death of Anthony Valachi. Some would be pointing at Micah’s rescuers, but some would point the finger at Steven and the cheating fiancé. Either way, that would put Night Light on what’s left of the city’s mob hit list.

      Pulling out his cell phone, Zachary put