Page 1 of Wicked Bite
CHAPTER ONE
GRAYSON
Misty rain settled like a cold blanket over Boston. It was the kind of rain that didn’t actually fall. It seemed to hover in the air, soaking everything through and chilling me to my bones. My leather jacket barely provided a reprieve from the freezing rain, but I’d grown used to it. Though the rain was lighter here and the air even colder, the damp dreariness of it all felt like a familiar place I’d been trying to avoid: London. Even so, getting lost in a bigger city was the plan for tonight. At least until the Royals called upon me once more to preform my duties protecting the Witch Queens of Evermore. Until then, the world could piss right off, along with every other expectation held over me.
There was something seedy about Boston. It was a mix of both culture and danger. Signs of the nightlife were all around me: people roaming in drunken packs up and down the streets, one girl screaming at her boyfriend for looking at another girl, a bachelorette party climbing into a limo while holding each other upright. Pubs were scattered along the roads and overflowing with people and noise. I just had to pick the right one to get lost in.
The light scent of something sweet and fresh tingled my nose, and I turned the corner, following that honeyed fragrance. Then the scent of something dark and coppery overtook it, ruining the sweetness and forcing me to halt just outside a narrow alley. It was a familiar smell, one I both loved and had grown weary of. Blood. It was both delicious and worrisome, depending on the context. I turned my gaze down the alley, allowing my senses to take over.
To the human eye, there would be nothing there. Maybe the lingering eeriness would cause a shiver down their spine—an instinct that would save some of them from the danger that lurked in the shadows. But I was no human, and shadows held no danger for me. I took a step from the glow of the streetlights and let the darkness fall around me like a cloak. I bared my fangs and hissed into the alley. Like animals in the night, three sets of eyes reflected back at me. At the center of the group was a single human with a slow, lagging heartbeat. Shaggy hair fell over his face as his head lolled to the side, losing consciousness. His skin was sickly pale, and I could tell from here they’d taken too much blood already.
“And what do you lot of amateurs think you’re doing?” I strolled farther into the alley, stepping over one young human male, who was unconscious and barely clinging to life, while three fledgling vampires held another one up against the wall, feeding like uncontrollable vultures.
They hissed in my direction, and the female farthest from me spoke. “Move along, this one is ours.”
I tilted my head to the side examining her features. Hair pulled back tight to her head, heavy dark makeup, bright red lipstick . . . or was that blood? It trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Blood then.
“And you’re about to kill him. You do know there are other ways to feed without this kind of . . . disaster? Places to go.”
The female closest to me popped her fangs from the guy’s wrist and hissed in my direction. Ballsy little sod. She too had her hair pulled back tight in a high ponytail and wore dark makeup. “Ours. Leave.”
Adorable.
I rolled my eyes. So typically, movie vampire. It was like they all lost their sense of self and decided this was who they were going to become. Horrible little night predators. Untrained and untamed.
“You’re aware of the laws, yes?” I looked them up and down.
The third one backed away from the man and stared at me. His mouth fell into a little O-shape, and his eyes went wide. Strands of dark hair fell into his face as he nodded but said nothing.
Ah, that’s more like it.
“What’s it to you?” the woman with the darker hair snapped. She put her hands on her hips and swung her head with all the attitude of a young naïve vampire living in Boston.
“M-Mandy.” The male vampire smacked her arm while never taking his eyes off me. “Sh-shh. Shut up.”
He dropped to his knee in front of me and rested his arm on it. He bowed his head and glanced up at me. “Yes, we know the laws.”
Mandy wrinkled her nose at him. “What are you doing?”
He grabbed her arm and yanked her down beside him. “The House of Shade.”
She jerked free of him. “Yeah, what about it?”
“He’s the heir you, moron.” The young male jerked his chin toward me.
I arched my eyebrow, and chuckled. That was me, the reluctant heir to the most powerful line of Vampires the world had ever seen. And yet, here I was in the dredges of Boston, policing baby vamps and stopping murders in the street.
“I had no idea, your maja-highness.” She awkwardly ducked her head while the other girl tripped over her own feet to drop down next to her.
“All right, come off it.” I waved for them to stand up. “No need to be flopping about on the ground.”
She staggered to her feet. “Your maja-highness—”
“Grayson. The name is Grayson, love.” I glanced at the two nearly dead humans. “Right, so you’ve made a mess, and before the Royal Vamp Police show up to, well, you know, kick your arses, you should clean it up.”
The young male vampire glanced around. “But how?”
