California. Estate of House Reval.

Lock settled heavily in his office chair and leaned back.

He eyed his cell phone sitting on the desk. He was being a chicken. The recent Ashwood attack put a lot of vamps back into play, which meant long hours trying to find them. It also meant a lot of missed dinners.

And tonight, he’d be missing another one.

He thought of some bull excuse he’d be telling his wife and cringed. She didn’t know what he did for work. And he didn’t want her to know either.

Still, lying to her was somethin’ he never looked forward to.

He unlocked his phone, but before his thumb hit her picture, a green flash filled the area.

One extremely pissed off hunter stood on the other side of his desk.

“Cadet Chase. Can I help you?”

The cadet balled his fists and damn near growled.

Lock set his phone down. “I take it you found out I’m the one that sent Kat’s daddy up?”

“Yes. Why did you do that to her?”

“She deserved to know he was still alive.”

“In the cruelest way possible?”

Cruel? Maybe. But Lock knew her pain would only end once she faced it. He’d learned that the hard way 170 years earlier when his own daughter had been turned into a vampire. Kat and he were the same. It’s why he’d decided to sponsor her. She’d be an exceptional hunter one day…once she toughened up a little.

Chase’s dark eyes seemed to grow even darker. “If you hurt any of my teammates again I’ll—”

Lock stood. “Cadet, you forget your place.”

“I do not.”

Resting his hands on his belt, Lock smiled. “If ya want to chew me out, fine. Take your leathers off, but so long as you’re wearin’ em, you are Cadet Chase. Or did you want me to treat ya differently, my lord?”

He added a little bow for effect, and that shut the kid up. Lock hadn’t wanted to press on that nerve, but his temper was short tonight. “You’re dismissed, cadet.”

Chase didn’t leave right away. Anger stormed all over his face. The kid could probably intimidate a lot of people, but Lock wasn’t one of em.

The cadet clenched his jaw, holding back words he so clearly wanted to say, then teleported away without even a ‘yes, sir’. Lock would let that slide.

This time.

If Chase ever learned to accept who he was—what he was—he’d make a hell of a team leader one day. Someone worthy of having Kat’s back.

As it stood now, he had too much rage in him.

Kids.

They never knew a god damn thing. But don’t try to convince them of that.

Shaking his head, Lock dialed his wife.

* * *

A note from Jex:

If this is the first book of mine you’ve read: Welcome to the world of Beautiful Monsters (BeMo for short)! It’s a paranormal setting where the vampire/incubus war serves as a backdrop.

The entire Ashwood Red series can absolutely be read on its own without reading my other series. However, if you find yourself enjoying this world, I recommend checking out . In it, a vampire, Matthew, is captured by the domineering High Lord General Tarrick. The book is not a genre romance, rather an ongoing saga following Matthew’s story. Don’t worry though, between the epic battles, vampire masquerades, and incubus parties, it still has lots of heat.

Oh and both Kat and Darius have minor cameos in that series. Dawn also. Come to think of it, there’s kind of a spoiler about Dawn in BeMo Vol. 3…

Timeline-wise, Dark of Night runs simultaneously with Captive.

If you are already a fan: Heeeeeeey Beautiful Monsters! Did you know that Tarrick wasn’t really supposed to be in this book beyond a few brief mentions? In fact, when I set out to write this story, I had it firm in my mind that the entire focus would be all on the hunters. But at some point, Tarrick sat me down and said something to the effect of, ‘These are my hunters at my estate with my ward as one of the main characters, and you think I’m not going to show up? You are a fool.’ Well, he was right. And what’s worse? Hiroto had to sit me down the other day also. I swear, these characters, I have zero control over them.

As always, much love.

Xoxo,

Jex

* * *