Dead to Bites

Chapter Four

I was never a person to sit around twiddling my thumbs and hoping that some man would ride up on his white steed and rescue me. I was raised by a single mom and I knew the power that a woman could weld. More importantly, I knew never to sell myself short just because I was female. I liked to take life by the balls and get shit done.

I knew that when Andrew told me that I needed protection and that he was offering that it was basically a way to put claim onto me. Something that I didn't want to happen, especially while I was trying to get info from people. Andrew would clearly be a problem, but he was beautiful and I was attracted to him. Wow, that sounds almost male of me. It was strange to find myself attracted to a vampire. I had studied them for so long that they were the norm to me. There was no allure just for the oddity of them.

There was clearly something about that man that made me want to get to know him better, but that was going to have to wait until my job was done. He told me that I should wait until after the full moon, which mean I had three days to get some work done on my own without him trying to cockblock me.

The day broke bright and early. I cringed as I took my first sip of coffee. It was a bittersweet moment. Something about the first cup makes the world seems more bearable, but the fact that it was sipped so early made it all the worst. How the hell anyone is supposed to function before noon was beyond me. Leave me in bed until the day was no longer bright and all the idiots of the world had gone home for the day, and I was good.

I looked at the address that Andrew had given me the night before. I knew it was one of the safe houses that he provided for his “children,” I briefly wondered if this one had been emptied out for my use. Not that it mattered, I would not stay under the roof of a vampire- he might think I was his. I rolled my eyes in annoyance for all the crap that I have to deal with. Let's not mention the shit I'd be in if I got more involved with him, and I think that staying at his house would definitely count as getting more involved.

It took me about two hours and several phone calls to get the location of the local pack leader. The wolves would be dangerous on the night of the full moon, so I decided it was best to get them out of the way first- and during daylight.

The pack leader was a woman- the first in three generations. She had fought hard to get to her spot, and from what Intel I had, she was not likely to take to an outsider poking around in pack matters. I really hoped that none of this would end up as pack matters that way I would get some answers. All I really wanted was to stop whatever sick fuck felt like it was a good idea to murder people- especially the kind that would be missed.

I remembered reading about the first murder online. I always subscribed to the Valley's paper, The Daily News. It was a mom, she had been killed in an empty parking lot. She had just gotten off work and was about to go home to her disabled husband and two kids. I blind rage swept through me at the time, but it only got worse as the killing toll started to climb. I mean, shit, I grew up in the Valley. It was supposed to be safe for people, we won't mention the Reseda Slasher or anything like that. Now that guy was a sicko, and never caught- humans can be worse than any creature we dream up.

Now the task had fallen to me to try and figure out what section of the paranormal world that existed quietly in the Valley was responsible. They were certain that it was one of the pns. Some sort of trace evidence that told them it wasn't human. One of these days I was going to have to get around to learning what pointed them in the direction of the occult. But not today, today I had wolves to see.