Chapter Two
Hunter made his way back to the main security office. As soon as he entered the room, he spotted Gergo, a younger Shifter. He sat at one of the desks and another security team member, Janos, sat at the other. They both watched the twenty-plus monitors that recorded every inch inside the building and the gated property outside. Gergo had dark-brown, sometimes unkempt hair and a lean and lanky build. He didn’t appear a day over twenty-one but he was actually fifty years old. Grown by human standards but, considering the Shifters lived upward of five-hundred years, he was still a pup amongst brethren.
“Gergo, you and Daniel are now with me on Vamp babysitting duty,” Hunter said when Gergo looked his way.
The younger Shifter’s face immediately contorted into a frown. “Are you serious? What kind of punishment is this?”
Janos laughed. “I’m glad I don’t have to do it.”
Hunter cut his eyes at Janos, silencing him with a look. “It’s not a punishment, Gergo. It seems the Vamps think they can do whatever they damn well please and brought extra company.” Hunter glanced around the office. There were a few cubicles on one side and lockers lining the wall on the other. “Where’s Daniel?”
Gergo pointed to one of the security monitors. “He’s in the break room trying to get a date out of Helena.”
“Well, call him and tell him the good news. He has to cancel his evening plans for the next week or so. You too. We’ll all be working late.”
Gergo cursed under his breath and picked up the desk phone. While he relayed the message to Daniel, Hunter homed in on the monitor that recorded the cubicles in the finance office. He spotted Erzsebet putting her things into her laptop bag, getting ready to leave for the evening. Hunter looked at his watch—it was only three-thirty.
She’s leaving earlier than normal.
Because the Vamps were coming and Andras didn’t want any trouble between them and the Pack, Andras had given a strict order that everyone besides designated people were to vacate the building by five o’clock sharp. Normally, Erzsebet would’ve been one of the few who stayed late and put in extra hours. She’d been working full-time as the manager in the accountant department since Dark Wolf Enterprise had been formed by their cousins when they’d moved to America years ago. She loved her job and took it very seriously. Leaving early just wasn’t something she did.
Then again, Erzsebet hadn’t been acting like herself. He could believe that she hadn’t been herself since the week before, when Andras had announced that the Vamps would take over the forensic audit—like him, Erzsebet had a good reason to hate them. But that would’ve been a lie. Erzsebet hadn’t been acting like herself for quite some time. When Hunter tried to put his finger on when her attitude had changed, he couldn’t.
The change in the way she acted had started off subtly, at first. She’d stopped calling him as much. He had appreciated that—as his only sibling they were close, but she’d always been clingy. She’d wanted them to talk all the time and run as wolves together, and if he hadn’t been able to make a date with her, he could’ve counted on her whining and pouting about it.
It was only after she’d began standing him up for their scheduled bonding time did he stop to focus on what was going on with his little sister. While he’d enjoyed the extra time he’d had on his hands, he’d found that he’d missed not having her around as much. And when he’d expressed that, she’d blown him off. That was when he’d really known something was wrong. As her big brother and protector, it was up to him to find out what.
He watched her get up and grab her coat from the hook behind her and made up his mind. He really didn’t want to invade her privacy, but there was no way around it. He had to find out where she was going and what she was up to.
“Gergo, I have to make a quick run. I’ll be back well before the Vamps arrive. Make sure the building is clear by five.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
One of the cameras caught Erzsebet going to the parking lot and that was where Hunter headed. When Erzsebet climbed into her red pickup, Hunter slid onto his motorcycle. He left the parking lot before her and waited for her to pass him on the only street that led from the entrance to Dark Wolf Enterprises to the main road.
Marquette was a beautiful place, set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It had rural and city life rolled into one. Dark Wolf Enterprises was located on a one-hundred-acre private estate with three lakes and wooded areas. There was a fifteen-foot-high iron fence that kept the employees from roaming off company grounds while in their wolf form. Being a Shifter at a Shifter company had its perks. If the urge struck, a Shifter could change and enjoy the freedom. The fence was provided so that no one had to worry about their wolf breaking the rules by venturing farther into the residential areas. Andras had chosen this property because he’d wanted to make sure his Pack had enough unencumbered running room to stretch their legs when needed without being seen and or hunted by humans. There weren’t any other businesses or homes for miles in either direction.
As Erzsebet drove down the winding road that would eventually lead deeper into town, Hunter made sure to follow at a respectable distance. There weren’t many cars that he could use to hide behind, so he made sure that if she were to peer into her rearview mirror she’d only see a speck on a motorcycle. He, however, had no trouble tracking her. Erzsebet made good money, but she preferred to keep a truck that was so old that it leaked oil and had a bad exhaust pipe. And, luckily for him, he had the advantage of the wind working in his favor.
She made a right and he increased his speed to make up the two-mile difference and followed her. She turned here and there, even going in a circle, making her way through the after-school traffic. It wasn’t as heavy as the rush-hour traffic, but with the extra moms and dads on the road he could allow five cars to get between them. Erzsebet seemed to not really know exactly where she was heading.
Erzsebet made a left on a yellow light and he tried riding the white line dividing one side of the road from the other to get around the cars in front of him, but a car came at him head first with horn blaring. Hunter dipped back into his lane, letting the car, and the others behind that one, pass.
He wanted to tail her, but not at the expense of smearing his brains on the pavement.
He had no choice but to wait until it was his turn to make a left—legally. By the time he turned down the street, Erzsebet’s truck was out of sight and because of the different smells from automobile fumes and humans walking around, he’d lost her.
Hunter cursed under his breath and made a U-turn, heading back to Dark Wolf Enterprises. If he hadn’t known any better, he would’ve thought that she’d lost him on purpose. But he quickly shook that thought from his head. Erzsebet was straight-laced. The only job Hunter pictured her in was as an accountant. She was quiet and sweet, shy to anyone who wasn’t family or Pack and, even then, reserved.
No, she hadn’t lost him on purpose. He’d just caught a bad break.
* * * *
Asha stifled a yawn, making sure not to open her mouth and inhale. She’d long since learned how to hide when she was fatigued. She would get no sympathy from the company she kept. Her eyes burned from lack of sleep, but the lubricated drops she’d put in before the others had woken up ensured that at least they weren’t agitated and red. No one would have ever guessed that she’d only gotten two hours of sleep. She’d had years of practice at appearing well-rested.
“Tired?” asked Clarissa.
“No,” Asha stated, not giving into the lure of false empathy.
“You’ve been up for quite some time. You’ll need to put in long hours while we’re here. Have you at least taken a nap today?”
That she’d put in long hours was an understatement. Asha’s job hadn’t started when their private plane had touched down at the small terminal at Sawyer International Airport. Asha had worked with the executive realtor to find suitable housing for her and the Vampires during their stay. She’d finally settled on a model home seven miles from Dark Wolf Enterprises. She liked that she’d been able to find something close to the company, but it had been the make-up of the neighborhood that had swayed Asha to rent the property. There were only four other houses in the proposed new development and they were all demos. That assured Asha they didn’t have to worry about the nosy neighbors of a thriving community.
After securing the house, Asha had then coordinated their schedule with Andras, the CEO and Alpha. She’d also made sure that Andras agreed to their working space accommodation.
Although Clarissa had sent her to a private high school and, afterward, paid for her to finish an online master’s degree in information technology and accounting, Asha was nothing but Clarissa’s personal assistant slash protégé. And the most important part of her job was to ensure that everything about this trip ran smoothly.
“Yes, I was able to rest a few hours. I’m fine.” Fitful sleep the night before and a twenty-minute power nap hadn’t really done the job, but seeing the satisfaction on Clarissa’s face when they’d arrived at the rental property had been well worth it to Asha.
Clarissa turned to stare at her. The blue contacts that she wore over her blood-red eyes made her long eyelashes stand out even more. “Do you think that I worry if you are ‘fine’ or not? I care only that this job runs smoothly and there are no incidents like the one that we experienced at the Packer Corporation.”
And there it is.
This time, the dig at her inadequacies didn’t hurt Asha as it would’ve if she’d thought for a second that Clarissa had truly been concerned about her. Clarissa only cared if she was personally inconvenienced or not. No matter how big or small that inconvenience may be. And in the case of the Packer Corporation, that inconvenience had not been Asha’s fault. The CEO had decided not to stop production of the auto parts assembly line because he had a deadline to meet. But that fact hadn’t stopped Clarissa for punishing her just the same.
“Andras has assured me that there will be no unnecessary personnel in the building while we are there.”
“I sincerely hope so.” Clarissa turned to stare out of the window again. “It’s bad enough that I’ll be trapped in there smelling leftover animal for hours on end every night. I don’t want an entire building full of mangy mutts scurrying around me.”
Asha wanted to remind Clarissa that, as a Vampire, the need to breathe wasn’t a necessity, but she wasn’t prepared to get her neck snapped for pointing that fact out.
“Why did you even agree to allow them additional security?” Francisco asked. “Now instead of having one mongrel in our presence we’ll have three.”
When Asha had first met Francisco, he’d reminded her of an old math teacher she’d once had. He appeared to be in his late fifties and, although he didn’t have a need for glasses, she could easily picture that he’d worn them in his previous life. Nothing was flashy or glamorous about him, not like the other Vampires who she’d met. It was as if someone had turned Francisco purely for his abilities as a forensic auditor. It would’ve been a silly reason to turn a human, but Vampires were not known for their thoughtfulness or levelheadedness. She could see one of them deciding that they needed him and, just like that, he’d been changed on a whim.
“It couldn’t be avoided. They whined about me bringing Ricko and Rocko.”
Asha peered at the twins, who Clarissa had gotten from a side-show circus in the early 1900s. They’d been billed as the strong men and one of their shows had featured them chewing glass and bending metal with their teeth. Clarissa liked to use them for intimidation purposes. Everyone already feared Vampires, but the twins made humans, including Asha, have nightmares.
When Ricko caught her eyes on him he smiled, showing a mouth full of teeth. His wasn’t the type of smile that one would respond to. She turned her head. It was best not to engage him or his brother. Clarissa wouldn’t let them use their teeth on her—she didn’t fear that. Clarissa liked looking at pretty things, and if the twins got a hold of Asha, she wouldn’t be pretty any longer.
“Why do we even need them?” Angelica asked. She turned up her lip and glared at them.
Rocko flashed his canines at her and she flashed hers back.
“For show. I want to see the mongrels squirm. Asha, I respect you more than I do them.” This time, it was Clarissa who smiled. “In fact, feel free to do all the talking. Look them directly in the eyes and give them direct commands if you have to. They’re just like dogs. When speaking to them, be firm and direct.”
Asha wanted to snort. Clarissa had more respect for her than she did the Shifters? Well, they must’ve been pretty low-class, then. “If you don’t like the Wolf-Shifters, why did we accept this job?” As soon as she’d finished the last word, Asha snapped her mouth shut. She hadn’t meant to say that thought out loud.
“First of all, we didn’t accept the job. I did,” Clarissa said. Even though her voice was sing-songy, Asha felt the warning behind every word. “And it’s not about liking them or not. This is a job, and they’re paying well. Mongrel money spends just as good as any other.”
“You’re right, Clarissa,” Asha said, trying her best to cover for her mistake of talking out of turn. “Please, forgive my forwardness.”
Clarissa didn’t respond verbally. She just reached over and ran cold fingers across the inside of Asha’s wrist. Asha’s heart sped up at the touch. The familiar anxiety began to loom over her like a black cloud. Asha tried hard not to let the others feel her fear, it would only rile them up more.
Asha complied with the nonverbal command and lifted her wrist up to meet Clarissa’s mouth. When Clarissa’s canines pierced her skin, Asha winced but held her breath. She closed her eyes as Clarissa’s lips pressed against her. Clarissa mewed and slurped as she fed.
Asha tuned out the others, not daring to glance their way for she would see their eyes locked longingly on her—a treat that Clarissa was not willing to share.
One day, Asha wouldn’t have to feed anyone anymore.
One day she would be above this.
One day she would be a Vampire and take care of herself.
One day.