Night Bites (8 page)

The goal of the exercise is to complete it at the same speed you would without the obstacles. They both have a lot to work on. I see many hours of hurdle jumping in their futures.

“Good job, guys. I can see lessons already forming in my head.” They are both panting heavily lying down on the ground. For me personally, I would want my instructor to get me up and on to the next test as soon as possible, but I don't think either of them have that mentality. “I would like to move on to the weights. They will probably be the last thing we do today, are you guys ready for it?”

Phee immediately bounces up, trying to act chipper and ready for anything, but clearly wishing for a thirty-minute break. “Let's do it,” she says walking to the other side of the gym. Sam, not wanting to be outdone, follows slowly behind her.

“Alex, can you assist?” I ask skipping along behind them. I bet Sebastian is the strongest of us, but he isn't the same species, so I don't want them to get unrealistic hopes of what they could achieve.

“Right behind you,” he replies getting in line. I point to one of our all-in-one weight machines and he takes a seat while removing his shirt.

I hear a little startled “wow” from Phee. Yeah, my wolfy man leaves you kind of speechless. She better hope Sam doesn't catch her eyes falling out of her skull. He might get a little upset.

“As I hope you both know, Alex is an exceptionally well trained soldier. It has taken him years to get into the condition he is in now, so don't expect overnight results. Alex, what weight can I set this to?”

“On this, I can do a ton,” he says not surprising me at all. At my size, I can only do about six-fifty on a good day. I adjust the dial for a ton and then let him do a couple reps to show how the exercise is done.

“Thank you, Alex,” I say tilting my head to indicate he can vacate the seat. “Now that you know what you are going to be doing, I will set it back down to one hundred pounds. We will start there and work your way up in intervals of twenty-five to see where you are both at. The final goals for you will be about five hundred for Phee and eight hundred for Sam. I think those are reasonable goals, but only time and training will tell for sure.”

After they both have their turns, Phee ends up at one fifty and Sam is at three hundred. Many hours of weight training is added to their hurdle jumping in my mind, just as I expected, but at least now we have goals set and I can come up with ways to get them there while training them how not to get their asses handed to them.

“That's it for today, so if you guys want to head back to Sam's cell to have a little chat, you are free to go,” I say walking over to collect Clyde who is still snoring. His little feet are moving like he is chasing something in his dreams. It is kind of cute. I imagine the object he is chasing is Sebastian. They kind of have a thing going on between them.

I was going to go over general rules and regulations, but I think they both understand to do what I say and don’t give me any shit about it.

Chapter 10

Don’t bring a Hellhound home to meet Daddy

When we get up to the apartment, I lay Clyde on my bed to snuggle in for the night. His little snores still are making me laugh.

It is still pretty early, so I want to check my work email and see if there is anything to keep my mind off current events. Finding a few clients that have legitimate kills lined up for me would make my night.

The shadows follow behind and I work hard to put up blinders. It only works so far because Sebastian is again trying to touch me. He attempts to play with my hair. I am not amused.

“Calm down,”
Alex commands through our link.
“I don't know what I would do if our connection just dropped one day, but I could still physically see you. When we lost contact when you were first taken, I pictured you dead for a brief second myself. Then I remembered there is no way someone could take my girl down. You have way too hard of a head.”

“I am trying to let it go. I just wish he wasn't acting so needy. He is stronger than this and he knows I hate being touched,”
I reply trying to state my case.

Not wanting to continue with the short mental conversation, I switch to vocalizing my desires. “Sebastian, is there anything I can do to make things easier for you that doesn't involve constant touch?”

“Nope. Everything I can think of involves touch,” he says after thinking about it for a second. “Are you hungry or anything? I could make you something to eat.”

“I am still not hungry at all. If anything, I feel a little tingle of hunger for my liquid diet. I don't understand why that would be. I was up to at least a week between feedings,” I say bringing my email up on the screen.

“I would assume it is because your last feeding was on a person that you didn't share a vampire bond with. Our blood was stronger when we were connected, now that we aren't you are pretty much back to being a newborn vampire that needs to eat more often. It was yet another thing I was afraid of and one of the biggest reasons why I want to be with you at all times now.”

I quietly question that “all times” comment in my mind. He could leave me right after a feeding and I should be good to go until at least the next day. Even now, it isn't really that bad, I can feel it just starting to ache, if I think about it.

“Any idea on why I am not craving solid food?”

“I couldn't say. I stopped when the bond was severed, but I am not part werewolf so I never expected to keep wanting solid food,” Sebby replies moving to take a seat on the nearest couch.

Air to breathe. I take a big whiff and let it out slowly. Okay that was just a tad over dramatic, I admit. My phone, which someone conveniently has placed on my desk, starts buzzing bringing me out of my moment. I pick it up to read the text. I am shocked by not only who it is from, but the fact that it says his name as the sender. Who programmed my father's number in my phone and why haven't I noticed it before?

A HELLHOUND!!! YOU BROUGHT A HELLHOUND HOME WITH YOU!!! OF ALL THE IRRESPONSIBLE THINGS YOU COULD HAVE DONE!!! WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A LONG TALK ABOUT THIS, LITTLE GIRL!!! YOU ARE LUCKY YOU ARE TOO OLD TO BE GROUNDED!!! I MAY FIND A WAY TO MAKE AN EXCEPTION FOR THIS!!!

It actually makes me laugh. “Daddy isn't too impressed with Clyde and he hasn't even met him yet,” I say to let the others in on the joke. “I am sure once he does, he will love him as much as I do.

“Your father is texting you now?” Alex asks.

“They must have put a new cell tower in by the rock,” I say still laughing. “It appears Hellhounds don't even rate an email explaining the dangers of them. They require an immediate text message telling me I am grounded.”

“I don't think anyone was expecting Clyde to join the family,” Marcus inserts. I don’t know about that. I am pretty sure there is a psychic out there somewhere laughing his or her ass off at this development.

“You don't think this new revelation is going to bring him out of hiding early, do you? In his past messages, he seemed to indicate how important it was for him to stay away until my birthday. What he expects to happen then, I have no clue.”

“I think only your mother sniffing around would bring him out,” Jonas says. “Even if she gets close, we have other options now that we have a demon on our side. I doubt she could find you if you went on a little vacation to Hell.”

Not my idea of a dream vacation. What would you even pack for something like that? I might need to stock up on some SPF 1000, just in case they decide that really is a good idea. Ben’s dream room isn’t too bad or anything, but I imagine it might not be as climate controlled in real life.

“Let's just keep trying to stay under her radar as much as possible. I know that will be tougher with the little guy in tow, but we will just have to do our best,” I say still thinking about what visiting Hell would be like. In the end, I decide it is something I want to avoid.

Email, once again, is mostly spam. How are these things getting through my settings? Only one of the emails looks appealing and that is just because it doesn't have much to say and it is cryptic.

My favorite combination, sort of like Sebby, before he went batty.

Ms. Slaughter

I would like to meet with you tomorrow in your office at noon. I understand that is early for most of our kind, but I will explain the need for the early hour, if you show up. I am a bit of a distance away from you so I will be leaving shortly after I send this and I will not be able to check to see if you actually respond.

Suffice it to say I am really getting desperate and you are getting to be my last hope. Please show up at noon.

Kent Newhouse

I am not sure I like being people’s last hope. It tends to be a familiar saying to me these days. I am not looking forward to being up that early either, but I wouldn't mind hearing what he has to say. Maybe I will get to kill someone.

“You know a Kent Newhouse?” I ask Alex. I figure the guy is a werewolf when he says things like “our kind” and is venturing out in the middle of the day.

“The name sounds vaguely familiar. Why?” he asks in return.

“He says he needs my help and wants to meet me tomorrow. I am his last hope and all that jazz, so I think I want to go check it out.” The fact that he is asking me why means he isn't floating in my head. I wonder if he hit his head on a rock or something. He hasn’t exactly been his usually annoying self since I woke up. More evidence leading to the rock theory.

“Isn't he the guy behind Ghost Town?” Jonas asks.

“I think you are right. We have sent enough people there, I should remember something like that,” Alex replies without going into further details.

“So, what is Ghost Town?” I ask trying to get more information. I wonder if it is a place where all dead paranorms gather. That would be really creepy. I have killed enough of them, that if they are floating around a town somewhere, I will be taking a giant step to avoid getting close.

“Kent can tell you more about it tomorrow. He is the founder pretty much. We have sent some people there when they need to go into hiding. I have never been there myself, so I cannot give that much background information.”

“Can I find more information about it online? I would like to have some knowledge about it going into the meeting.”

“Nope. If you were able to, it wouldn't be a secret town. All I can tell you is, that unless you really need it, you won't be able to find it,” Alex says.

“It wouldn't happen to be the secret location of my dad, would it?” I ask wondering about his little definition. My dad definitely needed a place to hide out and this place is starting to sound perfect.

“No. He would be hiding somewhere even more under the radar, or over the rainbow, so to speak,” Jonas quickly says.

Interesting. I do believe Jonas knows exactly where Daddy is and I would lay odds on him being the one that sends him up-to-the-minute messages. I file away that little tidbit of information to use against him later. I find it a little surprising because I always thought Jonas said he hadn't met my father, even though his family has always been loyal. I think he is trying to confuse me.

“Okay. So, we are all good with me meeting this guy tomorrow at noon?”

“I would prefer it not to be day hours, but yes that should be fine. Right, Sebastian?” Alex asks.

“Yeah, I can tag along. Will both wolves be available?”

“With you being there, I was hoping to only send Jonas. I need Jake for a little side mission,” Alex replies. I forgot that I was supposed to be pissed at him for neglecting to tell us about Jake's last mission.

“You have another bitch you want him to seduce?” I ask harshly.

“No, it isn't even business related. I need him to run a personal errand for me.”

I don't believe him for a second, but without digging through his dirty mind, I doubt I will get the truth out of him. “Would it have been so bad if you told us ahead of time tonight that Jake was undercover?”

“That was probably an oversight on my part. I was interested to see how you would react, though. Whether you went straight in guns a blazing or were calm enough to get all the facts before blowing people's brains out. In case you are wondering, you passed the test.”

“I am so pleased,” I say tartly while I close the laptop. “If we have to get up early tomorrow, we better get to bed.” I stand and make my way over to Sebastian. “Come on, big boy. I am guessing we are sharing again tonight.” I grab his arm and pull him from the couch.

“Good night, Nyx. I hope you sleep well,” Alex says from the opposite couch. No crazy innuendos or demands that I dream of him.

Both of my men's brains have been shipped off to planet Cuckoo and I would really like to get them back. A sedate, needy Sebastian and a calm, businesslike Alex are just wrong in my book.

Chapter 11

Sugar and spice and a whole cup of vinegar

Déjà vu hits hard the next morning when the alarm wakes me up. Sebastian is wrapped around me and Clyde is nipping at him, trying to remove his hand. I thought the two had made some progress, evidently not.

“Clyde, calm down. Mommy will get up and take you for a walk in just a second,” I say rolling over to give Sebastian a quick peck. “Good morning, sunshine.”

“Hey, love. When was Clyde’s new puppy bed supposed to be arriving?”

“I clicked next day shipping, so sometime today,” I reply rolling back over and setting Demon Dog on the floor so I can get up. “I am going to take a quick shower. It is greatly needed.”

“What are we supposed to do with him while you are in there?” he asks shifting to climb out of bed.

‘Him’ has wandered into my closet and I can see him playing with one of my boots. “Clyde, you are already working my patience and I haven’t even sharpened my knives yet this morning.” He huffs and follows me into the bathroom. “I think he is hanging with me. I won’t be too long, but I need to get this funk off of me.”

“I know you still won’t let me join, so I am going to use one of the spare baths to get ready. If I get done before you, I will get some food ready for your babykins.”