Vampire Mate Read online

  Vampire Mate

  Bloodline Warriors

  By L.J. Red

  Vampire Mate

  Copyright © 2019 by L.J. Red

  Copyright © 2019 by L.J. Red

  First Electronic Publication: May 2019

  L.J. Red

  www.ljred.com

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission by the author, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not the be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organization is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  Chapter 1

  Dana rested her hand on her flashlight. She wanted the light, but she was wary about turning it on and calling all eyes to herself. She moved her hand away from the flashlight and instead rested it on her gun. Something didn’t feel right. She’d been a cop long enough to trust her gut. Slowly she began to pick her way deeper into the warehouse.

  Big, silent machines sat like giant spiders, casting deep, black shadows on the ground around them. Wooden planks and metal poles leaned against stacked up crates, and all over the ground were strewn tangled rolls of rope and canvas. The leftovers from an abandoned warehouse left out as a dangerous obstacle course for unwary detectives. A little light came in from the slanted skylights up in the roof, but only enough to cast weird shadows, not do anything useful like show her where to step.

  Brigit should be in position now. If this went as easy as they’d planned, Sparrow would be in there somewhere, all skin and bone, but full of nervous energy and Dana would be able to flush Sparrow’s tinfoil-hatted self out into Brigit’s waiting handcuffs. That, or wonder of wonders, maybe she’d stick around to actually talk to them, considering she was the one who asked them to come out to this graveyard of dead machinery. Dana glanced around herself uneasily. Great, why did she have to call it a graveyard? That made it even more creepy.

  She rolled her shoulders, trying to shake off the tension that had crept up on her since she and her partner split ways. She half wished Brigit had left the car lights on. The familiar flashing blues would have been a comfort, but they hadn’t wanted to scare Sparrow off. She scared easy. She was a good informant most of the time. She had a good eye and better memory, but occasionally she’d spook and there would be no finding her for weeks.

  As Dana ventured further into the dark and increasingly empty warehouse, she realized this was one of those times. Maybe Sparrow had been and gone, maybe she’d split right after calling, while Dana and Brigit had still been leaving the precinct, grabbing their coats and trying to shake the exhaustion from their tired limbs. It had been a long day in a whole line of long days, and it looked like this wasn’t the break in the case they’d been hoping for.

  She rubbed her hand across her eyes. Weeks and weeks of nothing but brutal murder after brutal murder. The bodies ripped apart by a force no human could match. She’d thought it was bad enough two years ago when the world had turned upside down at the news that vampires were real, and walked among us, half hidden in shadows. She’d thought everything would change, that there would be wars and fighting in the streets. Instead, vampires had become the new celebrities. Their hidden, secretive nature only added to the allure. In fact, little had changed except for the sudden return of Goth as the hip, new fashion trend and the odd vampire-owned club springing up to make money off the thrill seekers. But then, like a nightmare waiting to happen, the murders started. There had been twelve in the past six months, and she was ready to burn every vampire in a fifty-mile radius just on principle.

  Everyone at the precinct, hell every cop across the city was working overtime trying to catch the bastard who thought he could just rip humans up and leave their bodies scattered across the ground like trash. She was exhausted. She was sick of staring at the crime scene photos, sick of them following her into her dreams and stealing the little sleep she could get. She wanted it to be over.

  Dana exhaled roughly and straightened up. This wasn’t going anywhere. She’d be better off back at the precinct. Or maybe she’d go home and stare at the ceiling until morning came and she could say she at least tried to sleep.

  Dana pulled out her radio, intending to tell Brigit to call it off when a light appeared at the far side of the warehouse. She instinctively moved closer to the bulk of one of the machines and pressed herself into its shadow. What was that? Moving carefully, she sidled along the side of the machine, closer to the light. It was above her, coming from a room on a raised platform towards the back of the warehouse— The office, looking down on the warehouse floor. The dirty windows were lit up yellow from the light inside like dead, staring eyes.

  Well, that’s cheerful, she thought, grimacing. She paused in the dark next to a stack of crates. It could be Sparrow in there, but it wasn’t like her to pull a creepy prank like this. Still, it could be she’d retreated into the office to keep warm. It was bitterly cold, even with her coat and all her layers underneath. Chicago in January was no joke. She crept forward, still moving slow and careful, not wanting a clumsy clatter of metal to give her position away. Maybe it was Sparrow, maybe…

  She finally reached a good vantage point, not far from the office and half hidden by what could have been a forklift, missing half its fork. She rested her hand on the cold metal of the vehicle and leaned forwards. The door to the office was open, and she was about to call softly for Sparrow, when someone moved up to the window, casting a dark shadow on the glass. The figure was big. Bulky. Definitely male. Nothing like Sparrow’s slim, female build. Dana tightened her grip on the forklift as a second, taller person appeared beside the first. There definitely shouldn’t be two people here. She crouched down, pressing her shoulders against the vehicle, her eyes glued to the window.

  Maybe they were workers up late? She took a moment to think, glancing at her dusty hand. No one had been in here for months. What were they doing in a dead warehouse? She didn’t trust this. The silence, the darkness. There was something weird going on here.

  Dana considered her options. She could back out. The doors were now hidden behind the machinery she’d passed, it was a long way back. She could radio Brigit from outside, tell her she didn’t like it. Pull back somewhere safer and observe. Dana frowned. The light in the back room was still on. Leaving didn’t feel right. Her gut might be telling her something was wrong but she wasn’t a coward. She wasn’t going to run away. She needed to get closer.

  Dana slipped her gun out of its holster and sneaked towards the stairs. As she drew closer, she could hear the murmuring sound of voices. There was a patch of open ground directly in front of the office. Glancing up at the windows, she could see the figures were turned towards each other and she took the risk, bending low and sprinting across the open space, pulling to a silent stop just under the rails. Her heart beating hard like it was trying to escape her chest.

  “—Already at the Sanctuary,” a voice was saying.

  “And he’s on his own?” The other voice, a little deeper, said.

  “Yeah.” There was an ugly laugh. “These Shadows, think they’re so tough.”

  “They are tough,” the deeper voice said. “We’d be fools to underestimate any of them, especially hi
m.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. He won’t expect—”

  “Just be sure you have enough men to take him down.” The deep voice cut across the other. “Even ambushed, the Shadows are formidable fighters.”

  The Shadows. The enforcers of vampire law. The Vampire Death Squad. Vampires so scary they gave other vampires nightmares. Of course, she’d heard about them, but this was the first she’d heard about people trying to kill them. Kill the Shadows? They might be completely terrifying, but they were law and order. Hell, they were the vampire version of cops. A flare of anger burned deep in her gut. Whoever these guys upstairs were, she wasn’t going to let them kill a cop.

  They’d said the Shadow was at the Sanctuary? That was smack bang in the middle of the fanciest neighborhood in the city. Vampires sure loved prime real estate. Maybe she could get to this Shadow and warn him before he ended up in whatever ambush he was heading into. It hurt her to think of helping a vampire when some other vampire was out there murdering innocent humans, and the thought of going into the Sanctuary made her skin crawl.

  Wait. There was no reason for her to go. She could pass it on to Dispatch. Some of the tension leaked out of her shoulders. There had to be some way of reaching the vampires through official channels. She was just a detective, nothing special, certainly no one a Shadow would want to talk to.

  She breathed out all the way, then tensed up all over again. The two upstairs weren’t talking. Weren’t moving. Shit. Had they heard her? What kind of people would plot to kill a vampire except for other vampires? Her stomach felt full of lead. She was no match for two vampires.

  The exit was all the way back across the warehouse, past all those machines and the open area. Dana tried to figure out how long it would take her to get out.

  She froze for a second, then, in a burst of inspiration, clicked her radio four times — code four, noise disturbance. She waited, crouched in the hollow under the stairs. Would Brigit guess what she meant? It was obvious they weren’t investigating a noise complaint right now.

  “Go check it out,” she heard the deeper voice say. Shit. They had heard her!

  She started out across the warehouse. There was no chance she’d make it across the open space without being seen. They’d know she’d heard them plotting to kill the Shadow. They’d never let her leave alive.

  The metal frame of the stairs creaked as someone stepped onto it. This was it. She was too late. She was going to die as vampire food. Or worse, dismembered and scattered over the warehouse as victim number thirteen. She gripped her gun tightly.

  There was a sudden noise from the back of the warehouse. A crack, a low creak and then a resounding crash as if something big, heavy and breakable had just smashed into the ground. Go, Brigit. Dana didn’t waste a second. With the crashing still echoing behind her, she sprinted across the ground, not looking back until she could dive for cover. She hit the concrete floor with a hard, bruising impact on her shoulder, rolled into the pain and came up with her gun aimed at the office door. The dark silhouette of the stocky man stood at the top of the stairs. He was just turning away from the distraction at the back of the warehouse to face her. She breathed out, focused, and fired one, two bullets into his central mass.

  He moved so fast he blurred. Had she hit him? Couldn’t waste the time to check. She was up, sprinting dangerously through the dark, trying to remember the route she’d picked out before.

  Poles clattered as the vampire crashed into something behind her. Good. She must have at least clipped him. Since the murders, Chicago PD had issued them wooden bullets. She’d personally taken hers to the priest at the church down the street for blessing, and she hoped that was slowing the bastard down. Vampires hadn’t publicly released any list of weaknesses, so Dana figured she’d cover as many as possible. She’d even wanted to dip them in garlic oil, but Brigit had talked her out of stinking up the inside of her gun, her holster, and possibly the entire precinct.

  She wished she’d done it anyway.

  She skidded around one of the large machines, and there was the door. Better than that, the walls were already painted in the strobing blues of the police lights. Brigit must have come directly to the front after setting off her distraction. Dana was almost to the door when she felt some sixth sense of warning. She leaped to the side just as the vampire grabbed at her, and narrowly missed his grasping hands. She tucked in her elbows and let the force of her leap take her right through the doorway. She stumbled to the ground, twisted around, and kicked the broken half of the door shut with all her strength. She felt it slam against something, hard enough a human would have shouted out, but the vampire made no noise. She scrambled upright, fired off another couple of shots into the darkness of the doorway, and then sprinted towards the car.

  Brigit had the engine running, the passenger door wide open. “Come on!” she shouted as Dana came running up. Then “Down!” she said, her eyes wide. Dana dropped, and Brigit fired over her head.

  She shot back up and threw herself into the car.

  “Drive!” she shouted as Brigit threw the car into drive and shot away from the warehouse.

  Dana curved around in her seat. The vampire was standing, hunched over in front of the warehouse. Clearly, some of the shots had lodged in his body, but as she watched, he straightened back up. It was terrifying, like a monster from a nightmare. She tensed in her seat, expecting him to start running after them, just like in the movies. But instead, he just stood there. Watching them go.

  Why was he letting them go? Didn’t he care that she’d heard him? Was she too late? Was the nameless Shadow she was trying to save already dead?

  Chapter 2

  “What the fuck was that?” Brigit asked, her eyes still wide. Strands of her flyaway blonde hair escaped the ponytail at the back of her head.

  “Just keep driving,” Dana said shortly and pulled out the car radio to get Dispatch. The woman on the end of the line was shocked into silence as Dana began to report.

  “How do you know they’re a tangible threat?” The woman’s tinny voice echoed out.

  “They were crazy vampires that tried to kill us!” She shouted into the radio. “That’s pretty damn tangible and pretty damn threatening.”

  “There’s nothing we can do.” The reply came from Dispatch. “We have no way of reaching the Sanctuary or so-called Shadows.”

  “What do you mean so-called?” Dana asked, trading a wide-eyed look with Brigit. “Everyone’s heard about them—they’re the new bogeyman.”

  “Yeah. And like the bogeyman, according to official channels, they’re not real.” The voice on the line sounded pissed. She couldn’t blame her. A vamp was going around killing humans, and here she was trying to save one? Most of Chicago would be happy to see them all wiped out. What was Dana doing?

  She glanced at Brigit, who had her eyes firmly back on the road and a grim set to her mouth that said she was going to want answers, and soon.

  “We don’t have any access to the vampires,” Dispatch went on “They’re completely closed off. The only way you can talk to them is by making a petition at the Mayor’s office.”

  “Are you kidding me? That’ll take years! This guy is gonna get killed now. Tonight.” Maybe it was already happening. Maybe he’d already walked into the ambush. “He’s a damn cop,” Dana bit out. “He may be a vamp, and I don’t like them any more than you do, but the Shadows are the closest they’ve got to cops.”

  “They haven’t done a damn thing about the Monster of Chicago,” Brigit said tightly. Not looking at Dana.

  Dana looked away from the radio at her, but Dispatch interrupted before she could say anything, before she could think what to say. Brigit was right. They’d done nothing. But then neither had Chicago PD. They were all chasing smoke with this killer.

  The radio crackled “I’m sorry. I can keep trying to call…” Dana tuned her out. He was going to die. She’d failed. It was over.

  She slammed her hand against th
e dashboard, so suddenly and loudly that Brigit jerked her arms, and the car swerved before she brought it under control. “Dana,” she snapped.

  Dana took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. Dispatch had fallen silent.

  “We’ll do it,” Dana said, opening her eyes. She scrambled for the radio. “Keep trying. We’re going to the Sanctuary.” She caught Brigit’s eyes. “We’re going there in person, right now.” If they couldn’t raise them on official channels, she’d have to hammer the door down herself. She didn’t give a crap how isolated vampires wanted to be. They’d damn well listen to her.

  “We’ll do what?” Brigit said in disbelief.

  “I’m not going to let another person die,” Dana said, choking on every word. Her mind flashed back to the crime scene photos from the Monster’s previous kills. She roughly shoved the memory away. “We’ll go,” she said firmly. “We’ll warn them.”

  “How?” Brigit asked.

  “I don’t know,” Dana said. “We’ll find a way.”

  Brigit flicked the siren on and cleared the street as she spun the car in a U-turn made dangerous by the speed they were going. Dana braced herself against the door as the world spun, Brigit flooring it as they drove north.

  Dana dropped the radio and turned in her seat. “Sparrow was a no-show.”

  “Yeah, no shit,” Brigit snapped. “I figured when you sent me your coded, blow shit up, message.”

  “Thanks for that, by the way. You saved my ass.”

  “You bet.” Brigit paused and turned to Dana. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” Dana took a second to check. With the adrenaline pumping, it was easy to take a hit and not realize until you felt the blood wetting your clothes, but no, she was whole. No wounds.

  “I guess I should’ve let you dip the bullets in garlic after all,” Brigit said after a moment and she sent Dana a sharp grin.