Hybrid Misfit

allure, to the disappointment of my body. Gene slipped his arm around my waist, and in surely the best method of transportation ever invented, popped us back into the human world just outside my apartment door.

“I gotta ask,” I said turning in his arms to face him. “How do you know when you teleport us that there’s no one around to see?”

“I don’t.” he shrugged. “The magic seems to take care of that for me. Cool huh?”

“Very.” I leaned in for my goodbye kiss, which also included some ass groping, before I finally went in to face reality-and a thousand questions from my roomies.

Chapter Seven

The club was quiet that night and true to their word, I didn’t sense or see my boyfriends at all. I did my sets on autopilot, the trickle of emotion from the crowd nothing compared to what my lovers could give me. They’ve ruined me. Now that I’ve had a taste of them, I’ll never be able to go back to feeding on humans. At the end of my second stage show, I found Claire wiping glasses behind the bar.

“Hey, I’m heading out,” I announced.

“I thought the boys would be picking you up?” she crinkled her nose.

I shrugged. “Guess not. If I don’t see you back at the apartment then know that I’m probably sleeping over at their place.”

“Be careful.”

I just grinned in reply. I headed out, my high heels clacking on the pavement as I went up the street. I kept expecting Gene or Simon to pop out and say “Boo,” or at least slap my ass in hello, but the night was eerily silent.

So much for getting lucky. I wondered what had held them up. It better be important. I refused to give in to worry yet. Or doubts. Perhaps it was foolish of me, but I trusted Gene and Simon. I knew they wouldn’t let me down without good reason.

My heels clacked noisily on the sidewalk and given the deserted streets, I decided maybe a flight home would be in order. I’d no sooner thought it than I heard a whisper of sound. I whirled-too late. The course fabric of a sack was pulled over my head, and though I thrashed and kicked, steel bands wrapped around me and when I felt the prick in my side all I could think of was Shit, not again.

Simon bit back a growl as he watched Beth fighting as she was manhandled by the vamps. It went against everything in him to let those dark beings just take her.

“Calm your beast. You know this is the best way to locate their lair,” Gene said placing a restraining hand on his arm.

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” muttered Simon, finding it hard to do nothing while he saw his one attacked, drugged and kidnapped.

“Save your fury for when we rescue her in a moment.”

“And who’s going to save us from Beth’s fury?” Simon asked arching a brow at his friend.

“I hope your tongue and cock are in working order when the battle is done because we’ll have to make it up to her, probably more than once.”

Simon, even given the seriousness of their mission, couldn’t help remembering Beth, not naked and panting, although she was beautiful in that moment. Nor with her lips wrapped around his cock, much as it pleased him. No, he remembered Beth’s trust in him, a trust he’d protect her, and here he’d let some dirty vampires kidnap her. I will make them pay for every hair they’ve bent, he swore.

Quietly, he and Gene followed the vamps who stuffed their unconscious prize into a dark paneled van. Simon had wanted to shift into dragon shape to follow, but Gene talked him out of it, saying his beast was too large to squeeze between the narrow confines of the city streets. Instead, they rode Gene’s carpet, not the colorful one he’d used in Limbo, but one dark as the night itself. It also matched Simon’s mood. He consoled himself with the fact that once they killed all the dark ones, it would be one less danger to Beth.

And only a freaking huge menace left to her in the form of the Legion of Darkness and Army of Light. He’d received some disturbing news while Gene had been busy training Beth. It would seem both armies were aware of Beth’s existence already. But, another tidbit from his source gave him reason to hope, for he learned the two armies were divided on what to do. It seemed a large faction on both sides wanted to let the prophecy fulfill itself in the hopes of tearing down the walls that surrounded their realms. While many demons and angels could move freely in and out, nothing else could, not without the use of some powerful magic. Not to mention, ever since the walls were erected, effectively sectioning the forces for good and evil, neutral no longer existed. You either belonged to one camp or the other.

And many were tired of the whole freaking thing. This fracture in the two realms, though, was great news for them as it meant less beings for him to destroy when the battle for Beth’s survival occurred.

Gene nudged him as the van halted outside a large house tucked outside of town. The light flooding the front lawn from the windows was enough for them to see that there were quite a few cars parked out front. The stench of vampire was unmistakable, especially to one with a refined olfactory sense like his.

“Time to play?” Simon questioned.

Gene grinned, his smile bright in the gloom. “Let’s show them what happens when they mess with the woman of beings more powerful than them.”

Simon jumped down from the floating carpet, hitting the ground with barely a thump. He flexed his hands, and his claws sprouted sharp and deadly.

Time to kick some vampire ass so I can get some sweet ass of my own. He sniffed the air and found his first victim, a fledgling left to guard outside.

With a twist and a crack that severed the spine, the vampire dropped to the ground, permanently dead. Not that Simon stayed to check. Urgency and a need to protect Beth took over, and the vampires he met on his path to find his one, discovered why they should never fuck with dragons, because no one touches what is mine.

When the outside was cleared of the foul ones, Simon met up with Gene who, with a flick of his hand, sent the front door to the home swinging open soundlessly.

In they stalked, Gene flicking fireballs at the vampires that came pouring out of the depths of the home to meet them. Simon took a more hands on approach: slicing, dicing and breaking the snapping creatures that dared get close enough to him. And when they began giving him a wide berth, he went after them with a snarl.

They worried not about the noise they made, because Gene, in order to retain the element of surprise dropped a silencing spell on the area.

At last, only one stupid vampire stood between him and the closed doors that hid Beth.

“Shall we announce ourselves? Gene asked with a deadly twinkle in his eyes.

Simon just grinned, and while the remaining vampire blanched-not an easy feat given his already pale status-he approached, rotating his extended claws in a hypnotizing swirl.

When he got close enough, he grabbed the soon to be permanently dead one and rammed a sharp claw through its torso. He allowed the creature to emit a scream that he cut off with a slice to its jugular.

Then he stood in front of the doors, chest heaving. A cry from inside made his rage double and before he could barrel through the doors, Gene blasted them open.

And when he saw his one, tied to a chair with her face swelling, he lost all reason.

They are all so dead.

Chapter Eight

I regained consciousness to a slap in the face. I forced my heavy eyelids open to see a familiar face-how