Page 10 of Happily Undead in Dark River

Holy shit. Holy shit. That could have been me. My heart tore in two for the unknown vampire. I turned over the page, and there was another photo clipped to the file above the transcription of the Council’s ruling and her execution date. The photo was of Walker and Rosalita, smiling at each other. They’d obviously been a couple, given how their hands were threaded together, and they were grinning like school kids.

My heart broke a little more for Walker, who’d been so happy, and the way he’d handled my turning made a little more sense. But he’d never mentioned her. Not even once.

I finished typing it up and tried not to fixate too hard on why he’d kept her a secret from me.

Chapter Five

I’d left the file on my desk, closed, like there was a monster between the covers of that manilla folder. Maybe I’d ask Walker about it, or maybe not. I didn’t want to dredge up something that was obviously painful for no reason, but on the other hand, I desperately wanted to know more.

I went back to boring data entry until the front door of the office screeched and in swaggered the bad boy of my dreams.

“Hey there, Rainey Day. You ready for a break?”

I swear, he made my heart flutter every single time he walked into a room. It was ridiculous and a little high school, but the man made me swoon. I stood up and slid my phone into my back pocket. “I’m starving,” I said, and it came out way more like a purr than I intended.

Judge’s eyes hooded, and he bit his lower lip. Which just made me want to do the same thing. I sashayed across the room, and into waiting arms. “Ah, Sugar, there's nothing more I’d like to do than bend you over your stuffy Sheriff’s desk and fuck you while I taste your delicious blood, but I left X outside, and he’s like a toddler you can’t leave unattended for too long.”

I heard a chuckle from outside the door. “Don’t hold back on my account, Brother. I might just join in too?”

Judge rolled his eyes and mouthed, “See?”

I laughed and kissed him, sucking his full bottom lip between my teeth and scraping my fangs along the soft skin inside until it bled. Then I sucked harder, and he moaned. Hell, I moaned too. Even X moaned, and he couldn’t see what was happening.

I gave Judge a smug grin and stepped away. “We better go before X makes a spectacle of himself.”

Judge held the door open for me, and I stepped out into the warm darkness of summer. X was leaning against the wall of the Sheriff’s office, a smirk on his razor-sharp face. “I know your town frowns on biting people, but how do they feel about public masturbation?”

“Not positively, I don’t think?” I said, grinning because I couldn’t help myself.

He nodded with mock-seriousness. “I’m willing to test the theory. If you and Judge could just stand over there and do that thing you did in the good Sheriff’s office, that would be great.” He reached for the zip on his worn, tight jeans, and Judge punched him in the arm.

“No one wants to watch you pull your sausage, or whatever it is you Brits call it.”

“Whack my Willy?” he suggested.

I giggled. “Beat your meat?”

“Flog the one-eyed toad?”

I honked out a laugh. “Seriously? That seems a little violent.”

X gave me a lascivious wink. “That’s how I like it, Love.”

Well, that thought made heat pool in very inconvenient places. Judge just walked faster and rolled his eyes so far back he could probably see his brain. I hurried to catch up, before X caught something telling on my face, like lust or drool. Gah, there was something about him, about his rough edges and that coiled air of violence, that seriously made me pant. It reminded me of Judge, but if Judge was like a torrential river that sucks you down, then X was like the sharp rocks that shredded your body.

We walked across the square and I noticed people instinctively avoided us. Where Judge might have been taken in as the Drifter, a solitary entity that made them uncomfortable but that was it, then the two of them together screamed threat. In a town full of predators, they were the biggest, baddest monster. Or maybe they were avoiding me, it wouldn’t be the first time in the last few weeks. It was like no one knew what to say to me anymore. Or maybe they blamed me for almost killing Walker and Alice’s execution.

When we opened the door to the diner, I expected the silence. I was almost becoming immune. Judge tipped his invisible hat to Beatrice, who waved us down the counter to three spare stools right at the end. It was Judge’s spot, the place he always sat when he wasn’t with me and the guys. They both waited until I sat down, old school chivalry that I now expected from Judge, but was a bit of a surprise from X.

“So, what’s going on with you and the human?” X asked Judge, looking at the menu. “Do you think they do a full English breakfast here? Black pudding?”

“Umm, I don’t know about the blood sausage, but what’s goin’ on with Tex and me isn’t really your business,” Judge said, but there was no heat in his words. I realized these guys weren’t just old colleagues, but old friends.

X traced his finger down his menu and stopped at bacon and eggs. “That’ll do. You know I don’t care either way, Mate. Don’t get your undies in a bunch. I just wanna know if you guys are doing the three-man tango or if it’s more serious like you and Red over there. Because, I gotta say, you went from confirmed bachelor to shacking up with the little woman and some man candy awful quick.”

Judge was looking directly at me when he said, “Some people are worth changing for.” Then he went back to looking at his menu like he hadn’t just confessed the Judge version of ‘I love you’.

But the look on X’s face said he knew, and so did I.

---