“Here are your options, humey. You can go back home and deal with the police freaking out and then trust them to keep a vampire out of your apartment, which they can’t,” he assured her. “Or you can come meet the Winterset coven and tell them everything that happened that night. Maybe we will notice something that wouldn’t mean anything to the police. Some detail they would miss.”
“So…you want me, a recent vampire attack victim, to go to a house filled with an entire coven of powerful vampires.”
“But we are nicer vampires.”
“I like how you said nicer, and not just nice.”
“There’s no such thing as nice vampires. There’s no kumbaya and hand-holding and peace rallies in our world, Humey.”
“Nicole. My name is Nicole.”
“Mmmm. Danger, girl, giving your name to a vampire. Some say if you give your name, you’re giving up your power.”
Something about that gave her chills. “The monster called me by my first, middle, and last name.”
“Hmmm.” He lifted his chin and looked down his nose at her. “Good. Anything like that is good for us to know.”
“I’m scared of the Winterset Coven.”
“Lie. I can hear it. You are numb right now. You aren’t scared of anything.”
Nicole bit her lip and considered it. “You pinky promised.”
“I won’t let anyone hurt you so long as you are with me. Besides, there are two girls in the house that wouldn’t let you be harmed anyway. They’re all woman-power and moral compasses pointing due north. They’re annoying. They’ll probably befriend you and do your nails or some shit by the end of the night. I can just hear them shrieking about a slumber party now.”
“They sound fun.”
“You mispronounced ‘annoying.’”
She giggled and nodded. “Okay. I’ll talk to your coven. If it gets the monster found faster and justice for the women he killed, I’ll do it.” Nicole scrunched up her face. “Do we have to do that flying thing again? With the bats?”
“You don’t like heights?”
“I don’t like catapulting through the air.”
Evan frowned in the direction of the main road. “It’s a two hour walk through dark woods the week of Halloween with a serial-killing monster hunting you.” He nodded thoughtfully and rested his hands on his hips. “Should be fine.”
Nicole gulped. “Never mind. Catapulting sounds good to me.”
He grinned a feral, sharp-toothed smile. “You mean batapulting.”
And then she was whisked up in purple smoke to the soundtrack of shrieking bats.
Chapter Three
Nicole was stunning.
Evan glanced over at her again, but she caught him and smiled.
There she sat at the dinner table with the two snow leopard shifter mates of Aric and Garret, chatting like they were old friends. Sadey and Dawn were feeding her, of course. They latched onto any excuse to do a dinner with normal human food. The girls balanced living in a coven of day-sleeping, blood-drinking vampires pretty well.
Nicole could fit here, too.
Stop it.
“Dibs,” Shane said as he flipped through channels on the giant television in the den.
Her hair was pretty. It was a darker brown that she’d highlighted to a lighter blond on the ends and curled until it hung down her shoulders in waves. She had high cheekbones and soft curves and the prettiest laugh he’d ever heard.
“Dibs,” Shane said again.
She could fit here.
The scar down her cheek was angry and red and swollen, but it didn’t take away from the pretty hazel of her eyes or the slight slant to them that made her look feline. Her lips were full, and she had smile lines on either side as though she smiled often. He liked that.
She’d been attacked two days ago and had to be exhausted because it was the middle of the night, but there she was, eating chicken and mashed potatoes with the girls.
She was a curious little kitty of a human, direct with her questions. He liked that about her. She smelled good. Her blood smelled delicious, sure, but her natural scent drew him to her.
“Did you hear me, man?” Shane asked, pausing in his channel flipping. “I said I call dibs.”
“On what?” Evan asked.
“The new feeder.”
The fury was instant. Evan slammed Shane against the wall clear across the room as he summoned the knife from Sadey’s hand that she’d been using to cut her chicken. It hurled toward him, end over end, but he caught it by the handle and smoothly slid it into Shane’s shoulder.
The Fourth of the Winterset Coven grunted, and his eyes turned black with fury as he glared at Evan. “I knew it, you fucking human lover.”
“Enough,” Aric said from behind Evan. There was an undeniable order in his tone.
Evan shook his head hard and released Shane fast.
When Shane yanked the knife from his shoulder, it clattered to the ground, covered in blood. “Everyone here is soft.” His jaw was clenched as he looked at Evan, Aric, and then Garret, who stood in the open doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. “This is not the coven I joined when I fought beside Arabella for all those years.”
“Don’t mention her name in this house,” Aric growled.
“Or what, King? You’ll punish me? I’m one of the last ones left. Your poor leadership has chased away the others, and now look. We are down to four because you keep allowing weakness into this house.”
“Shane!” Dawn exclaimed. “What’s wrong with you? Are you saying Sadey and I are weak?”
“Why do you think we keep getting targeted? Huh?” Shane yelled. “Because you aren’t replenishing our numbers with vampires. You’re filling powerful spots with shifters and humans.”
“I’m not a part of this coven,” Nicole murmured, looking at the table, her cheeks tinged pink.
Evan wanted to kill Shane for making her smile go away.
“I’ve been watching Evan stare at
