Red Hunger (Night Squad, Book One)

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An Excerpt From: RED HUNGER

Copyright © CRYSTAL KAUFFMAN, 2011

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

Every instinct told him to run. This could only mean bad news to come. He hurried back to the bedroom and dragged on jeans and a flannel jacket without a shirt. His panic rose as he chose flight. He needed shoes. He’d never make it through the woods without them. He stuffed his feet into his hikers, forgoing socks.

With his heart climbing up his throat, he decided to take one last look out the front window before running off half-cocked into the woods.

He wished he hadn’t. The hearse had pulled to a stop sideways to the house. It idled, headlights throwing two foggy beams into the forest, a plume of steam billowing from the tailpipe. Four figures stood in front of it, silhouetted eerily.

Vincent West.

They were here for him. A surge of adrenaline made his scalp prickle. His name hadn’t been so much called aloud as moaned by a ghost.

Fuck this. Vince turned and ran.

* * * * *

“Jesus. Did you have to do that?” Jas scowled at Ruben. Humans hadn’t reacted well to psychic suggestion since the end of the eighteenth century, when science had surpassed myth and people had begun to lose their superstitions. Nowadays far fewer people believed in ghosts, and psychic suggestion only made most people think their meds weren’t strong enough.

Ruben shrugged. “It works more often than you’d think.”

“Yeah, it’s the only way Rube can get a date, so he’s in practice.” Edge laughed at his jibe.

Jas sighed. The idea here wasn’t to scare the guy to death. “I’ll get him.”

With his acute hearing and ability to see in near-pitch environments, Jas could easily overtake him, but he didn’t want to freak the poor guy out any more than he already was.

Jas didn’t think Vince knew he was a vampire, and understood his fear was inspired by something entirely different. The others hadn’t seen how Vince reacted when Jas was in the bar. They hadn’t read the flush in his skin, heard the increased rush of blood in his veins, or seen the heat signature of his throbbing cock. Vincent West was guarding a secret that could get him killed in Hillbillyville.

“Hey, Vince! Hold up.” Jas tried to sound as normal as possible, even though the guy would probably find it strange that he’d caught him so quickly. While vamps couldn’t fly like Hollywood sometimes portrayed, the accelerated speed he was capable of could make it seem that way, especially if he took a running jump.

Vince tossed a glance over his shoulder. He tripped and went down just as Jas clamped a hand on his shoulder, and Jas tumbled down right on top of him. They landed face-to-face on a bed of dry pine needles.

At once Vince’s rich musk-and-honey scent engulfed him, washing away the tang of Ponderosa pine. His pulse was pumping and his adrenaline raging, making his blood smell even sweeter.

“Why are you running?”

Vince’s body went stiff as a pine trunk. “Why are you chasing?” His voice broke over the question, Adam’s apple bobbing. The waning moon cast a silver glow, turning his green eyes gray. Tiny crescents reflected in their wide pupils.

When Vince thrashed, Jas seized his wrists and pinned them to the ground. “Dude, take it easy.” Damn, this had gotten out of control fast.

“What do you want? How did you know where I live?” Vince’s heart was pounding, his panic rising with all the obvious signs.

“Phone book.” Jas glanced down at his pulsing jugular, all thoughts going to the lead pipe in Vince’s pants that was currently throbbing against his abdomen. “You’re not that hard to find.”

“My mother is in the phone book.” Vince swallowed again. “I’m not.”

“I just want to talk to you.” And take a taste of your ultra-rare blood.

Shit, he hoped he hadn’t channeled that.

It was his occupation as Bill Wheeler’s bartender that made the team consider Vince, but it was his unique and rare scent, and his obvious attraction for Jas that had made him hope the others would choose him for the task.

“You’re on top of me.” Vince was as tense as steel wire, but didn’t try to fight.

Jas grinned. “Yeah. I kind of like it.”

That didn’t bring the reaction he expected. Vince closed his eyes and turned his head.

“What’s your blood type?”

His eyes shot open again. “Oh Jesus.”

Jas had been expecting him to say O positive, and Vince’s oath made him laugh. Then he realized the problem.

Fangs.

“Please don’t kill me. I’m leaving town, I swear.”

He closed his mouth, retracted the fangs. “I’m not going to kill you,” he said, and then laughed to show now normal teeth. “What made you think that?” He hoped Vince would think he imagined the elongated canines.

As though confused, and hopefully thinking he had imagined them, two little lines appeared between Vince’s brows. “I don’t know, creeping up to my house at three in the morning?”

Jas released his wrist and dug his hand between their bodies. “What’s this?”

He enjoyed the way Vince’s eyes flashed wide.

“That’s my dick.”

“Why is it hard like this?”

“Because I’m scared shitless!”

“You always get a hard-on when you’re scared?” Being the incorrigible tease that he was, Jas gave it a squeeze. Vince’s free hand braced his shoulder, but he didn’t exactly push.

He took that as an invitation to continue. His next squeeze included a tug, and he slid his hand down to feel the heavy lump of a very nice pair of balls. The slow glide of his hand back up brought a rush of breath out of Vince.

“Not usually, no.”

“Then why now?” He was still teasing, but had dropped his voice into a gravelly whisper.

Vince closed his eyes, and on Jas’ next stroke a little groan escaped.

“Please…don’t.”

Jas froze. Vince shifted beneath him, as though he wanted to struggle but was afraid to.

“You’ve got the wrong idea about me.”

Had he misread the signals? Jesus, the last thing he wanted was to assault the poor guy in the woods. He must seem like some kind of monster. Actually, he was some kind of monster, but he was about to fuck up this whole plan. The team needed Vince.

“I don’t think so,” Jas argued, more than a little disappointed.

“So you thought you’d follow me home for a quick fuck?” Vince shoved him off and scrambled backward. “I don’t do that.”

“All right, all right.” Jas sat back on his heels and held up his hands. “I told you, we just want to talk to you.”

“About what?” Now there was definite irritation in Vince’s scowl.

“Your employer.”