Feral Instincts (The Feral Series) (19 page)

Walking
over to his bed he looked at the broken female with disinterest. She wasn’t
dead yet but she no longer had the strength to fight him. He was bored. She had
been a poor substitute for his consort. Closing his blood red eyes he imagined
Ava’s raven locks and pale skin spread out on the bed before him. With a snarl
he pulled the female to him by her hair. Tearing into her throat he drained the
last of her blood from her limp body. She was already so close to death that
she didn’t even struggle as he ended her pathetic life.

Marco
watched the scene with very little interest. Tossing the woman’s lifeless body
towards his second in command Salvatore moaned in pleasure as the power of his
kill rolled through his veins. With no emotion Marco went through the motions
of disposing of the lifeless body just as he had all the others. It was getting
harder to appease his master. When Salvatore was dissatisfied, all of them
suffered. They needed to retrieve his chosen female quickly.

A
feral grin teased Salvatore’s lips as he pictured his little consort cowering
before him. Little Ava’s time was coming. She would have to be punished of
course for the part she played in their childish little trap. He would enjoy
teaching her where her loyalties lie. It was a hard lesson he had been forced
to teach his mate Ernestine too. He would not kill her though, not unless she
had lain with one of those filthy guardians of Victor’s. It was time to bring
her home. He just had to be patient and she would come to them.

********

Joseph
sat at one of the tables in the back of Howler’s. They had been in the bar
yesterday with Ava. Tonight, he and two other guardians were watching the bar
for any signs that Salvatore was taking the bait. They were pretty sure
Salvatore would have caught wind that she had been spotted here by now. Of
course Salvatore would know they were using Ava as bait but Victor was counting
on the vampire’s giant ego. A man like Salvatore would never let an insult like
this go unpunished. They figured he would be furious that they flaunted his own
“consort” beneath his nose.

He
was glad Ava and Teagan were not with them tonight though. There had definitely
been some tension between the two of them last night and it didn’t take
supernatural senses to pick up on it. Colin had thought it might make Ava feel
better if they all pounded on the werewolf again but Joseph had told him to
stay out of it. He may still change his mind though. It was about time Ava came
to her senses and started to distance herself from Teagan.

He
had no idea what it was that had finally changed her mind. That son of a bitch
had better not of hurt her though. Ava would never tell them if he had. The
girl was just too soft hearted and he was sure she would protect that dam Lykae
even if he had hurt her.

He
had watched her closely for any signs of bruises or soreness last night but
hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. Colin had said he had seen Ava in
the gym and although she had definitely appeared pissed off he hadn’t seen any
marks on her either. Apparently, he had been able to see a whole lot of her
while she was training and he had been watching her closely, too closely.
Joseph forced himself to relax his grip on his glass before it shattered in his
hand. Perhaps he should supervise Ava’s next training session.

Alex
put glasses away while she discretely watched the dark brooding vampire at the
back of the bar. She couldn’t help but admire the flex of his bicep beneath the
straining sleeve of his black t-shirt as he lifted his glass to his lips. He
was scowling and appeared to be pondering some deep, dark thought.

Alex
felt a tiny shiver tingle down her spine. For some reason she was always very
aware of him when he came to the bar. She found him fascinating. Scary when he
looked the way he did right now and yet still… fascinating. He was one of the
biggest vampires Alex had seen in the bar, besides Liam that was. As a matter
of fact all of the men Joseph came into the bar with seemed larger than the
other male vampires she had met. Frankly they made her nervous. They had an air
of battle hardened warriors about them, Joseph especially.

He
had surprised her though. The day that the cute little dark haired girl had
started crying she had seen genuine concern in his eyes. She couldn’t help but
stare at the two of them when the dark vampire had very gently held her while
she cried all over the front of his shirt. He had been protective of her but
she didn’t think that she belonged to him. It seemed like the woman belonged to
the Lykan that always came in with them.

The
huge Lykan snarled and growled at all the other males in the bar as though she
was his mate… but that couldn’t be right. When she had asked Liam about it he
had laughed and said a Lykan would never take a vampire for a mate.

The
whole situation seemed strange to her but Liam refused to tell her anything
else. He was trying to protect her from something, she was sure of it.
Sometimes he treated her like a child. He had just told her to keep her ears
open and to let him know immediately if someone came around asking about his
friend or the little female. So far, no one had.

Joseph
caught the little redhead staring at him and raised his glass to her to signal
for another drink. He chuckled at the embarrassed look she gave him, having
been caught staring at him. Reaching under the bar she filled a glass and began
to carry it to him herself. Joseph’s dark brows raised in surprise, she very
rarely came out from behind the bar. Liam seemed to want to keep her close at
hand and didn’t like her wondering around the customers.  Personally
Joseph didn’t understand why he allowed her in the bar at all.

She
seemed a little tired tonight and stressed out.  As he had watched her she
kept glancing back towards the poker room with a worried frown on her face.
Something was clearly upsetting her. He had been watching her hustling back and
forth to Liam’s private room since he had got here. Actually, if he was honest
with himself, he had been watching the little red head a lot.

Sitting
in this dark, smoke filled bar night after night, watching Alex had become
something he could actually look forward to each night. Tonight he studied her
as she slowly rubbed at the knots that must be forming in her delicate
shoulders. For just a moment Joseph wondered what she would look like leaning
over the top of him with all of that red hair cascading down around the two of
them. Quickly shaking the forbidden image of Liam’s Chosen out of his mind he
smiled at her as she placed his drink on his table.

He
always seemed to make the little female nervous even though he tried his best
to not to scare her when she waited on him. “How is Liam’s poker game going?”
He deliberately leaned back in his chair into a more relaxed position, making
sure he didn’t look like he was ready to pounce on her.

Alex
looked up into his eyes for a moment before ducking her head to avoid making
eye contact with him. Pulling out the towel she sometimes kept tucked into the
waist band of her jeans she wiped the crumbs and water marks off of his table
while she talked. “He seems to be doing well. I think it is making some of the
guys he is playing with angry though. I don’t want to distract him so mostly I
have just been dropping off the drinks and getting out of there as fast as I
can.”

Having
run out of things to do to avoid looking him in the eye she gave up and peaked
at him from under her bangs. She had already been caught staring at him once
and didn’t want to embarrass herself by getting caught again.

Joseph
smiled at her. She had actually stopped to talk to him this time. Maybe she was
getting more comfortable around him. He didn’t know why, but it was important
to him that she not be afraid of him. He was sure it was probably just because
she was Liam’s Chosen, and Liam was one of very few men he actually considered
a friend, that was all.

“Liam
does love his poker.” Alex felt something in her chest flutter at the grin Joseph
gave her. The vampire wasn’t nearly as scary when he actually smiled.

“Why
are you not playing with them?”

“Oh,
well I learned a long time ago to never play poker with my good friend Liam.”
That
and I can’t watch for Salvatore’s men from a little room in the back of the
bar.
Of course he couldn’t tell her that part though.

“Oh
I see.”

“Ya,
you know that vintage hardtail Harley Liam’s been riding around on for the past
three years.”

Alex
began to smile at Joseph, she could already see where this was going. For a
moment he almost forgot the rest of his story. He had never seen her smile
before. He made a quick mental note to make sure she did it more when she was
around him.

“Please
tell me that wasn’t your bike.” She looked at him in amused sympathy.

“Ahem,
well yes a matter of fact. It was my bike. Bastard wouldn’t even give me a ride
home, made me call a dam taxi.”

Joseph
had enjoyed her smile but the sound of her laughter was even better.

“Alex!”
The male that usually worked behind the bar with Alex was signaling he needed
her help. Joseph could tell though that he just didn’t like that she had
lingered a little too long at his table. The man was surely on of Liam’s goons
and had been instructed to watch Alex when he wasn’t around. Joseph found the whole
situation fascinating. Who would have thought that Liam would be protective of
a female? What the hell had come over the man?

“I’m
sorry, I better get back to work. Poker nights are really busy.”

“No
problem. Thanks for the drink.”

Joseph
watched the curly ends of her hair sway in rhythm with the roll of her hips as
she hurried back to the bar and immediately started putting the next order of
drinks together for the back room. What was Liam thinking anyway, letting her
work at his bar like this? If she had been his, this would be the last place he
would want her working. Dam it, he hated to bring Ava here too and she at least
was escorted by one werewolf who acted like she was his property and several
vampire bodyguards. An underworld bar was way too rough for a little female
like Alex. He didn’t like the way several of the bar’s patrons had been
watching her. It was even worse tonight than usual since Liam wasn’t around.

Another
hour crawled by while Joseph kept watch from his post in the back corner of the
bar. It was turning out to be another long, frustrating night with no signs of
Salvatore. Out of habit he found his gaze searching the room for a glimpse of
red.
Where was she anyway?
It suddenly dawned on him that it had been a
while since she had come back from her last trip to the poker room in back.
What was she up to? All night long Alex had been dropping off drinks and then
scurrying back out again.

Focusing
on the private room in back, Joseph tried to filter through the other voices in
the bar and hear what was being said. Before he could sort through all of the
conversation going on around him he heard several angry male voices coming from
the back room. Suddenly all the other voices were drowned out by a giant roar
that shook the mirrored back wall of the bar. It was either a giant angry
grizzly bear… or Liam.

Springing
to his feet, Joseph started for the back room when suddenly a thundering of gun
shots rang out in rapid succession. Bullet holes ripped through the thin wall
of the poker room, spraying the bar and narrowly missing a group of vampires
sitting closest to the back wall. All around him the bar erupted in chaos as
the bar patrons started moving for the exits. Screaming was heard as the few
females in the bar were drug outside by the men they had been sitting with. The
customers who were too far away from the exits tried to take cover behind the
pool tables they had been playing on.

Joseph
pressed the button on his comm unit as he dodged tables and pushed people out
of his way on his way towards the back room. “We have shots fired at Howler’s.
No visual on Salvatore yet. Shooter is in the back room. I’m going in.”

“On
our way.” Ethan’s voice responded on the radio.

He
had just about made it to the back room when the wall in front of him suddenly
seemed to explode with a splintering of wood and drywall. Liam’s enormous body
crashed through the wall, dragging a snarling vampire with him. Together they
slammed into the floor of the bar, rattling the very foundation of the old
building. With one last roar, the fight was brought to an abrupt end as the
cracking of bones was heard and Liam tossed the now lifeless body of his
attacker aside.

The
poker players that had been trapped in the room began to flee through the
broken wall. Liam struggled to get to his feet when two more vampires came
through the hole Liam’s body had made and headed straight for him. With a snarl
of rage Joseph lept the distance to Liam’s attackers, slamming his shoulder
into the bald headed vampire and knocking him away from his intended target.
With a violent twist of his wrist, Joseph quickly took control of the gun in
his hand before he could take another shot at Liam. The man screamed in
surprise as he suddenly found his arm that had been holding the gun, broken and
now bending the wrong direction.

Joseph
heard Colin’s growl beside him as he too finally made it through the chaos of
the bar and went after the other man still charging towards Liam. Joseph felt a
satisfying crunch as he drove his knee into the vampire’s chest, breaking
several of his ribs. Then the moment he bent over gasping for breath and
holding his damaged ribs Joseph slammed his elbow into the back of his skull
and dumped his limp body on the floor of the bar. Joseph turned just in time to
see Colin finishing off the last of Liam’s attackers.