Shifting Blood Read online

  Shifting Blood

  Book 1of the Shifting Blood Series

  By Francheska Fifield

  Copyright © 2013 Francheska Fifield

  Cover Art by Lola Kyle

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  I slumped into the grassy knoll trying to stay downwind of my prey. The werewolves were always a pain in the ass. The vampires went crazy and I could just go toe to toe with them and cut them to pieces. The Weres, they were smart. They hunted me as much as I hunted them. It made me glad it was warm out if there had been even an inch of snow I might have told the council of Weres to get a different hunter. I had hunted a crazed Were last winter, and I wouldn’t likely do so again.

  Glad this wasn’t a Were I knew. I hated hunting them; I hated hunting anyone I knew.

  I pulled out my gun and made sure it was my silver bullets in there. It was coming close to the full moon and fluffy here would be at his strongest. I wanted to get the kill before then.

  I knew I wasn’t bringing him in alive, I had already tried the ‘it’s not too late to stop mass killing people’ speech and had almost lost an eye for my trouble. I hated the almost dying part but I tried to be fair, I had actually had marks respond to the speech and give themselves in. Usually, the ones that were not totally gone and might come back from insanity. This guy was not one of those.

  I sighed and jumped out from behind the knoll. Well shit, he wasn’t where I had last spotted him. I closed my eyes and listened. Weres were big tough guys and they could move like you wouldn’t believe but anything that’s that big makes a sound when it charges. I was in a field, it had to come at me at some point and when it did I wouldn’t have to worry about not knowing or this fight waiting until the full moon.

  I heard rustling in the trees around me, it was circling me, trying to decide the best way to attack, the best angle. Trying to decide if I was worth the fight it would have to go through. I smiled eyes still closed and unwrapped my hand. I clenched my fist and the cut that had finally stopped bleeding after two days started flowing freely again. Let’s see him resist that.

  I heard him come at me from behind. I opened my eyes’ spun on my heels and lifted my gun preparing to shot him right between the eyes.

  He apparently didn’t want to be shot because despite my being an expert marksman I missed. And he continued to charge.

  “Oh shit!”

  I turned and ran toward the place I had left my rental; it had my sword in it. I didn’t have any more weapons on me, I didn’t have my enchanted pocket knife or my sword because I had been hoping to stay out of jaw reach.

  When I did get to my car I threw open the door and jumped in closing it behind me. It was a good thing I had good renters insurance on this because he didn’t let the car stop him. He jumped and pounced on it. Being five hundred pounds or so he could pack a hit, and the car was the brunt of that hit. It went flying and I put my arms out trying to keep myself in place so I wouldn’t be jostled unconscious.

  When the world stopped spinning, which was a few minutes after the car stopped moving, I reached into the back seat and grabbed my sword. This baby could survive anything.

  I looked out the now missing windshield and saw the werewolf shake it off….seriously he just demolished and sent this car flying and all he has to do is a head shake to get back on track? I meanwhile would be bruised for a better part of a week and I was supposed to go clubbing this week with Jess. Oh, that was so it!

  I jumped out of the car and ran at him, while he darted at me. When I could smell his breath I jumped and spun landing behind him. I stabbed outward and got him in the hindquarters. He spun and swiped at me but I rolled out of the way.

  The first thing on my agenda now was to get my sword back, before it was lost forever so close to his ass. I spun out of his way a few more times diving under him in an effort to confuse him. A normal werewolf this wouldn’t work on but the crazed ones didn’t think right and he did a spin to see where I had gone. I pulled myself up, grabbed my sword and pulled it out of him.

  He roared and spun, claws fully extended intending to swipe me much like a grizzly would. I used my sword as a shield and blocked the attack but was sent backward. I had a lot of experience so I kept myself vertical, but only barely.

  I charged him and knew this strike would have to be the defining one; otherwise, I was running straight into his jaws for dinner.

  I grabbed my bounty from the council man’s hands and smiled. “Lovely doing business with you fellows.”

  “Thank you for the fast recovery Bethany .”

  I nodded. I wasn’t the area’s top bounty hunter for nothing. And the supernaturals always brought in the best money.

  “I think it might be time to tighten the leash on your mutts, I've noticed an increase in illegal activity from them.” Illegal activity for a supernatural was anything that exposed them to the human population on Earth, anywhere.

  “You are one to talk, is your vampire family eating your human one yet?”

  My smart mouth always got me in trouble and apparently now was no different. Weres didn’t like being called out, and neither did I. I could attack the councilman and we could fight and maybe kill each other, you aren’t a councilman representing the werewolf race because you are good at diplomacy, no it had to do with strength, but then I would likely get my butt kicked, I could only fight so many and he had the other eleven councilmen and women here.

  I smiled, I’d let my mouth, not my gun, do the talking. “All is good in Bethany land, but I will be looking into your family. Council life is stressful and you never know you could snap and I could be called in to bring you in dead or alive, and we all know how that usually goes.” I nodded to the dead body I had dragged in, luckily they turned back to their human form when dead, made it easier to drag and hide.

  I could see his face turning red. So I turned and walked away, laughing the whole time.

  Chapter One

  “My mom is like most undead. If you show fear she’ll attack and …”

  I looked around at the well-groomed estate with its manicured lawns and carefully tended roses nodding to Jessica as she went over the rules that came with being in her family’s domain. Vampires were like that, they didn’t like outsiders in their homes.

  “And if I am anywhere in the house alone she’ll go straight for me,” I said interrupting. “This isn't my first vampire visit. Besides, she might be put off by my smell.” Sane vamps didn’t eat each other. They could smell the vampire gene and were put off by it, even in half-breeds like me.

  “I don’t think so. You don’t smell like a vampire.”

  I nodded. I didn’t smell like anything special, just a mortal with no supernatural gene interference. I got it all the time when I was near supernaturals. Despite that my mother was actually a living vampire. She had had a one-night stand with a mortal supernatural that had smelled like nothing more than a human. My father, not knowing anything about vampires being able to reproduce, had participated in the affair. Neither expected anything until nine months later out pops a healthy living child. So I’m
half-vampire and half other. But I smell one hundred percent human and because of that I got challenged by a lot of supernaturals.

  “It’s all right I can handle myself.”

  I was a hunter. Hunters were like bounty hunters for the supernatural world. Don’t mistake that with slayer. I don’t kill unless I have to. My job is to take rogue vamps, or other supernatural’s, and bring them before the council that represents their race.

  When a werewolf, vampire, or fey stepped out of line me, or another hunter was called in to take care of it. Though supernaturals couldn’t hide from everyone the fact that they existed wasn’t public knowledge and so when someone did something to make us all public knowledge we took care of them. Whether it was to bring them in dead and in pieces or alive so the ruling council of their race could punish them in a way that made an example of them didn’t matter. We did what we had to.

  I tried to bring them in alive but I will admit that sometimes, most of the time, in fact, they don’t cooperate and I have to kill them. I don’t feel bad for them. Usually, these vamps are undead ones, as they are the ones that need blood to sustain themselves and heal. They hate their own existence, or the fact that everyone else is alive and enjoying the sunrise and they can't; eternal life isn't made for anything with a mind all it does is drive you mad. So to punish the world they go on killing sprees. This threatens to expose all supernaturals and so the vampire council hires slayers and hunters to bring them in, dead, or alive.

  Jessica nodded. So far her current family hadn’t done anything wrong that would send me after them. Her mother was an undead. She and her brother were still living vamps. Their father had been staked years ago when he had gone insane. Their stepfather was mortal and insisted on feeding his wife daily. Fresh blood was supposed to help the sanity thing and as long as he was volunteering of his own free will I wouldn’t interfere.

  The theory used to be that they lost their souls, but that was recently proved wrong apparently, with regular doses of blood and the support of friends and family they could keep their souls. It wasn't their souls they lost it was their sanity. After living so long you go a little crazy. Basically, their deaths gave them a weakness to the sun and holy ground. However, it also made them stronger and faster than their living counterparts. The garlic thing, well I had seen both living and undead vampires eat it so it was complete bull.

  “I just need to change. It won't take me more than five minutes. I’m going to leave you with my little brother just in case.”

  I nodded. Seeing me with family, as a friend would put the old vamp off me, at least that was the plan. I wasn’t sure it would go that way, all undead had a lot of pride and arrogance but I suppose it was worth a shot.

  “Lead the way.”

  She nodded and we got out of her Mercedes. The car was nice and matched the house, fancy and rich. We crossed the drive to her family’s home and she paused by the door. After my last hunt, a werewolf gone bad, I had made quite a bit of money and had decided it would be a good time to take a break and party. When I wanted to party I called Jessica, my best vampire friend at the moment.

  Jessica was an artist and a talented one at that. No one thought it odd that she only did shows at night or preferred nightlife in general. She could go out in the day being a living vamp, but like most vamps living or undead she preferred the night. Artists were supposed to be eccentric and she gave her fans what they wanted. Her work was dark and portrayed the darkness inside every living and dead thing so her eccentricities worked.

  “Just through here.”

  We entered the foyer. I paid attention to doors and windows that could work as an escape, old habits die hard. I felt the undead before I saw her. My muscles tensed but I showed no fear. Fear excited the beast inside of an undead, the one that caused killing sprees and led to me being called in to hunt. I increased my alertness ready for anything.

  We entered the ballroom, recently redone if the golden oak panel walls and shiny marble floor was any indication, and she stood at the top of the stairs. Jessica’s undead mother. I looked her over. She was frail looking. I wasn't stupid; that didn’t mean anything. I had taken out healthier undead than her though. I relaxed. I could usually gauge a fight with just one look. I was guessing she’d fight like a girl, all nails, and slapping. Of course, teeth and claws did a lot of damage when it was an undead vampire wielding them.

  “Hi, mom. This is my friend Bethany. She’s the one I met at the club a couple months ago. We are going out tonight if you don’t need me for anything.”

  Jessica bowed her head in respect waiting for her mother’s permission. Technically Jessica was an adult. She was twenty-five and a successful artist. She could afford her own place. Vamp hierarchy and living conditions were weird though. The children never left the nest, so to speak. All followed the matriarch or patriarch of the family. Basically, the eldest was in charge. Didn’t matter if they were the strongest or most powerful. Age was everything.

  Okay, not entirely true. The eldest undead was in charge. If a child undead had only been undead for a year and say their mother or father was still a living vamp the child would still be in charge. Screwed up, but it didn’t usually work out that way, so things mostly made a weird kind of sense.

  The woman said nothing just stared. I could tell what that look meant. I wasn't armed with all my toys but I had an enchanted pocket knife I always kept with me. Well, it wasn't enchanted so much as blessed silver. Most supernaturals had a thing about silver, so it is the best metal to keep on you at all times.

  None of the fey liked it if it was blessed, (silver held a blessing better than other metals) and the vamps were cautious of it. The silver alone wouldn’t kill any of them, though. Just poison them. It could kill a werewolf if struck in the chest or head, if there was enough of it stuck in them, a single silver bullet wouldn’t do it but a few clips would. Blessed silver would turn vamps to dust if hit in the right spot. Like real estate, location was key, hit them in the arm and that turns to dust. Hit them in the head or chest and everything goes.

  I tried not to stare back and issue a challenge in the undead’s own house, but I didn’t look away. That would be showing weakness. She knew what I was doing, and she sneered at me in response.

  “So, you know something about vampire custom, do you?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Her facial muscles twitched.

  “What is the world coming to when a mere mortal knows such things? It is supposed to be a secret among our kind.”

  Haughty much? “It is, ma’am.” I wasn't about to tell her more than I needed to so I didn’t mention being a half-breed. Besides most of the old timers thought being a half-breed was worse than being human…sad but true.

  “You don’t smell like a vampire.”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Humph, insolent child. You are not welcome in this house. I won't have mortals coming here, in my home, without my invitation.”

  To say I was no longer paying attention to the décor is an understatement. I put my right hand in my pocket fingering my knife feeling better just knowing I could use it if I had to.

  “Mother, her mom is a living vamp.”

  Letting someone else speak for me wasn’t usually my style, ask anyone that knew me and you'd know I had a big mouth and a bigger opinion on everything to go with it. In this case letting Jessica soothe her mother would make things easier, and safer for everyone.

  “A half-breed then. Tell me, what made you mother stoop so low as to lay with a human?”

  I shrugged. Let her think I was a defenseless half-breed. “You’d have to ask her, ma’am.”

  Her lips pursed.

  “Indeed.”

  She turned and walked up the stairs. Jessica grabbed my hand and pulled me into a door on the right down the hall from the ballroom.

  “Look after her while I change. Mother doesn't seem to care for her.”

  Before I knew what was happening she was gone, and some geek
boy sitting in front of a computer turned to look me over. Geez, I’m way out of your league, buddy. Okay not really.

  I wasn’t a looker myself, very plain in fact but every time someone stared I wish I could say that so they’d be embarrassed and go away. I hated having someone or something’s full attention on me. I didn’t say any of my thoughts out loud, though. I just looked for some sign that this boy no, the young man, was related to Jessica.

  Jessica was tall and willowy, five-foot-nine before heels, and he looked barely taller than my five-foot-six, of course, it was always hard to tell with the slouching, for some reason computer chairs make you slouch….at least comfy ones did.

  Jessica had long red hair, which I guess could be dyed but I didn’t think so. I never smelled dye when around her. His hair was brown. Nothing special like chocolate or honey brown, just the regular medium brown. I looked into his eyes and realized how to tell they were related. They both had those evergreen eyes. Eyes that matched the color of pine needles I had seen on trees in Vermont and New Hampshire when I had taken a job up there. Well, I guess some siblings got all the luck. My half-brother was way more attractive than me, so I shouldn’t judge geek boy here.

  “So you are the mortal that Jessica has become enamored with recently.”

  I stared without responding. If this vamp had a bit of brain he’d know I was not a normal human.

  “Not very talkative… I wonder why Jessica has befriended you. She is a very social person.”

  “You mean she’s a very social vamp. I’m not stupid; I have a sense of smell. One you seem to lack. Otherwise, you’d know I’m not human.” I shouldn’t be saying that since I really didn’t smell like a supernatural but it annoyed me so much I decided I had to be a smart ass.

  He shook his head and turned back to his computer.

  “I didn’t say human. I said mortal. You don’t smell fey or vamp so you aren't immortal. You should learn the difference before befriending other species.”