Blood Shift (The Charming Shifter Mysteries Book 3) Read online

  She placed her hand over the phone. “Yes,” she whispered. “I have to be able to see other worlds.”

  “Are you still there?” Cecil said. “Promise me you won’t come. I’ve got to go. I’m supposed to be getting the hardware out of the storage. I…”

  A man’s voice could barely be heard in the background.

  “What, this? I had to answer it. My mom’s been really sick.” Cecil disconnected, but not before Chia heard a dog-like yelp.

  She slid the keys in the ignition, her hands trembling, and powered on the Jeep.

  No one said a word as she eased out of the parking lot. When she turned to head the opposite direction, toward her house, Hung’s hand landed on her thigh.

  “No, Chia, I forbid it.”

  She gave him a quick side-eyed glance. “It’s not your call. I have to do this.”

  “Goddamn it, woman. Don’t you ever learn?”

  “All I’ve learned is I can’t see the world as it exists to supes.”

  “Even I can’t see this so-called world of yours. I can only see it as whatever bird I shift into can see it. You think that makes me any less good at my job?” Hung’s voice rang out sharply.

  Chia eyed Sugar in the rear-view.

  She stared out the window, not making eye-contact.

  “You saw it last night, though, right?” She flicked on the turn signal and turned up the winding road heading to her remote homestead.

  “We already went over that. What’s your point?” Hung looked like he wanted to strangle her.

  “So. Maybe we both do it. It will give us an advantage.”

  Besides which you might want to go to bed with me after we’ve visited the factory.

  “Absolutely not.” His mouth formed something akin to a crack in granite.

  “Suit yourself. I’m doing it.” She accelerated. “Anyway, we need to check on the little fairy girl.”

  They drove the rest of the way in a smothering silence. Even the magnificent mountains and the vast vistas of snowy terrain did nothing to ease Chia’s mood, the way it usually did.

  When they pulled into her driveway, Sugar said, “I’ll wait here. I don’t want to know what you’re planning on doing.”

  “No one asked you to come in,” Hung said, opening his door.

  “You can’t treat me like this forever,” she said.

  “Want to bet? Once this whole thing has gone down, for good or for bad, you’re dead to me.” He slammed the door.

  Chia’s eyes met Sugar’s in the mirror. “I’m sorry, but…”

  She waved her hand in front of her face, her eyes moist with tears. “It’s okay. I deserve it. It just sucks, you know?”

  Chia nodded, then exited.

  As they tromped up the front step, Hung said, “You know it’s full-on daylight, right? Won’t he be asleep?”

  “I’ll wake him up. I’m pissed at him, anyway. I don’t care if I disturb his slumber.”

  They trudged into the house and headed for the basement door.

  “Can you see in the dark?” she asked.

  “What do you think? I have bird sight, even when I’m not shifted. The real question is…can you?”

  “Not really. I’ll feel my way along.” She paused. “Wait here. I need supplies. He likes chocolate.”

  “How romantic,” Hung said.

  “You can wait outside, you know.” Chia glared at him.

  He jabbed his finger at her. “Not on your life. I’m keeping an eye on you.” His stance widened.

  “Fine,” she said, pivoting.

  “Fine,” he called.

  When she returned a few minutes later, chocolates and knife in hand, she said, “This is getting old. I’m going to have to find new places to bleed from. And, I hurt everywhere I’ve had to stick myself.” She dropped her supplies into her pocket.

  “‘Had to’—good choice of words. Not ‘want to,' ‘choose to’…no, with you, it’s ‘had to.'” Hung flicked his hand at the doorknob like he was backhanding a naughty teenager. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Chia opened the door, and they both stepped into the dank smelling basement.

  “Close it,” she whispered. “Let’s keep it dark. I paid a fortune to install blackout blinds down here.”

  Once he’d immersed them in darkness, she gripped the wooden railing and stepped down the wooden slats. Her footfalls clattered and echoed, making her feel like a boot-clad elephant.

  “His bed is over here,” she said into the pitch-black gloom.

  “You mean his coffin.”

  “Bed, coffin…it’s where he sleeps.”

  She rummaged for a chocolate kiss. The rustle of the cellophane bag sounded too loud. Even her breathing seemed intense like she was already on the high. And, her vision had adjusted to the lack of light, letting her see dim shapes. Feeling for the oak coffin, she unwrapped the last few candies and placed them on what she hoped was the edge of the structure. Then, she gripped the knife, took a deep breath, and sliced open her fingers. She held them over what she hoped was the right position over the chocolate. She squeezed, drawing pain through her digits.

  “Ouch,” she whimpered.

  “Junkie,” Hung muttered. “I have no sympathy.”

  Chia shook her head and then rapped on the coffin. Hearing no response, she knocked again, louder this time.

  “Go away,” came D’s muffled voice. “I’m in repose.”

  “I need you.”

  “You’re going to owe me into your next few lifetimes, you know that, right?”

  “I think we’re evening out the score what with your violation of my roommate rule. Now open up, or I’ll pry it open.”

  “You won’t want to see this.”

  “Whatever it is, I can deal. Open up.”

  A key-latch clicked, and the coffin lid creaked open.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Hung muttered. “He’s got a dead woman in there with him.”

  Chia squinted.

  D’Raynged’s naked body curled around an unblinking female.

  “Is that your…the woman I…?”

  “She wanted to sleep with me. I needed a snack in the night. Things might have gone too far.” It looked like he shrugged. “She witnessed too much as it is. We can’t have her knowing where you live, now can we?” He plucked a chocolate morsel off the coffin edge. “Now this will serve as dessert.”

  “Damn you, D’Raynged! That’s even worse! Keeping your victims in here is a total no-go,” Chia shouted.

  “Keep your voice down. You might wake her.” The vampire laughed.

  “She’s dead, jackass.”

  “There you go with your insults. Do you want my help, or don’t you?” He started to lower the lid.

  “I do but…” Chia spluttered. “The dead girl better be gone by the time I return. And not merely tossed outside for scavengers. We’re so going to have a chat about boundaries and rules when this is over.”

  He chuckled. “I look forward to it. But first…” It appeared he popped the candy in his mouth without making a show of it.

  Chia glanced nervously at Hung. From what she could tell, he merely watched in stony silence. And, instead of her wanting to throw it down with either of them, she only saw a light show before her. Even the vampire glowed red.

  “I don’t suppose you can control the effect of this exchange, can you?” She waved her hand in front of her face, seeing red glowing tracers stream from her fingertips.

  “Maybe,” he mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate. “We’ll have to see, won’t we?”

  “What are you two talking about?” Hung said. He crossed his arms.

  “Um…sometimes I experience different sensations,” Chia said, smoothing her shirt. “Are you done yet?” she asked the vampire.

  “Can you see a light show?”

  “Yes.”

  D’Raynged sneered. “Then we’re done.” Once again, he started to close the lid.

  “Wait!” She put her hand
on the oak.

  “For?” One of his eyebrows arched high on his forehead. “I’m really getting tired of this exchange.”

  “Can you do anything for Hung?”

  “I already told you—it’s a big, fat no from me.” Hung tightened his arms crossed on his chest.

  The vampire smiled. “But think of it, bounty hunter. It might wipe out the debt I owe you.”

  Chia’s breath caught in her throat. Is there a connection between my so-called addiction and something D’Raynged did? Is that why Hung practically births a baby cow over the blood offering?

  “Nothing’s going to wipe out that debt.” Hung glared at D’Raynged.

  “Think of it as a payment on a debt owed.” The vampire’s smile deepened.

  “What are you two talking about?” Chia’s hands flew to her hips.

  “Nothing,” they said at the same time.

  “Does this have anything to do with your resistance to D’s and my exchange?”

  “Only partially,” Hung said.

  D’Raynged rolled his glowing eyes, still colored red from his feeding. “Only totally,” he corrected.

  “Are you going to tell me?” Chia said.

  “Not in the moment. We have things to do.” Hung’s face revealed nothing except stubbornness.

  “How is it he could owe you, a mere human?” Chia directed her question to Hung.

  “Long story,” he answered.

  “Well, bounty hunter? You have blood nearly as exquisite as this fine creature.” D’Raynged nodded toward Chia.

  Hung looked at the vampire. He glared at Chia. His attention shifted toward the ceiling. Then, he thrust his wrist in the direction of D’Raynged.

  D seized his arm, opened his mouth and bit, hard.

  “Motherfucker,” Hung said, his teeth gritted.

  “Mmm,” D’Raynged moaned.

  “That’s enough.” Hung yanked back his arm, sucking the puncture wound.

  The vampire licked his lips, his eyes hooded. “It’s like having both of you at once.”

  Chia’s core pulsed in response. Delightful ripples shot up her spine. She bit down on her lip to prevent revealing her secret. But then she glanced at Hung’s pants—his erection stood at full mast.

  “We could take some time to play,” D’Raynged cooed. His tongue slid back and forth over his teeth.

  “Hell, no!” Hung adjusted his jeans and stalked upstairs.

  “What about you, kitten?” The look D’Raynged gave her made her insides turn to steam.

  She huffed out her exasperation. “Sorry, D. I’ve got to see to my whatever-he-is-to-me.” Before she could give in to D’Raynged’s offer, she turned and ran up the steps, after Hung.

  She didn’t find him in the house. Only when she scrambled out the door did she see him, arms crossed as usual lately, staring at the blue sky, streaked with clouds.

  He bore an unusual expression like he found it interesting to view the world under the influence of vampire. When he saw her, however, he marched across the yard and climbed into her Jeep.

  She followed him. As she slid into the driver’s seat, she nodded to Sugar.

  Sugar flashed pain filled eyes, then, turned away from her.

  As before, they drove to the factory in silence, only this silence didn’t seem so weighted—at least not between her and Hung.

  Hung stared out the window. “The tundra looks different.” He cocked his head.

  Sugar simply stared out the window.

  “Different, how?” Chia smiled.

  “I don’t know. Just…different.”

  Chia’s attention pinged between Sugar, Hung, and the wonderful, magical world all around her.

  Her mood, shifted, however, as they approached the MBD factory. About a mile from the building, it seemed like a giant hand pushed against the SUV, making it slow.

  “Whoa. Something like a force field is preventing us from going any farther. I’m stopping.” She parked behind a hill, out of the line of sight of the factory. “Should we take any weapons?”

  “To fight shadows? What do you have?” Hung asked, adding a scoff.

  She reached past him, opened her glove box, and rummaged around. Her hand closed around her red Swiss army knife. She waved it at him. “You never know when this will come in handy.”

  He smirked and shook his head.

  Wordlessly, she, Hung, and Sugar exited the Jeep, and gently closed the doors.

  Hung and Sugar effortlessly slipped into their bounty hunter roles, scanning, watching, waiting, bodies poised for anything.

  Sugar placed her finger over her lips and pointed.

  Hung indicated that they follow, moving in stealth-mode.

  When they were about a half mile from MBD, the three of them constantly looking over their shoulders, they got on their bellies and crawled through the snow, up to a rise.

  “We’ll pause at the top there.” Hung pointed up the boulder-covered hill. “We can get a full view of the factory without being seen.”

  “Good,” Chia whispered, the cold making her joints feel like they needed a squirt of oil to move properly.

  Sugar nodded, her face glum.

  Hung reached the top of the hill first. He whispered, “Shit. I hate to say it but good thing we did the blood thing.”

  “Why’s that?” Chia whispered.

  “Look.” He pointed at the sky.

  Chia lifted her gaze to see the same dark Fae shadows from yesterday zooming toward them, like a plume of smoke streaming from a cannonball. She scrambled to her feet. In a matter of seconds, they’d be surrounded.

  Chapter 26

  The Fae shadows hit them like balls of hail slime. One of them slithered around her neck. Chia clawed at it—or tried to, anyway. Her fingers slid right through. Fumbling around with the creature, she managed to get her hands on something icky, gooey, and downright disgusting. Whatever it was, it made shudders race up and down her spine.

  Wildly hopping up and down in the snow, her face scrunched, her hands flailing, she yelled, “How the hell can you fight a shadow?”

  “You can’t,” Hung called. “I already told you that. Don’t let them get inside of you. They want to turn us into one of them. I’d bet my life on it.”

  Flinging the Fae shadow away, she bent down and wiped her gloved hands—smeared with a sick brownish-yellow glow—in the snow.

  The dark Fae whirled like some freakish tornado, then boomeranged back in her direction.

  She sprinted—as well as someone in two-foot snow could sprint—away from it.

  Shades of darkness swooped around them, choking the sky with oily blackness.

  Her stomach lurched at the stink of these creatures.

  She let out a cry, hurling handfuls of snow at the evil wisps surrounding her. “Any ideas…for fighting them?”

  Behind her, the MBD factory loomed like a blight upon the pristine landscape. Putrid brown smoke spewed from stacks. Guards patrolled the perimeter. And, in Chia’s enhanced state, evidence of what Cecil had told her—of levels and levels of magical protection—throbbed and pulsated. It seemed as if the factory were breathing.

  “Haven’t found a way yet,” Hung called. “When I was drugged, I was at their mercy.” He threw his hands over his face as he tried to duck and avoid the Fae shadows. “But for fuck’s sake, don’t let them get inside you.”

  “Get inside me?” A sharp, prickly chill launched through her spine. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “It means if you feel something slithering into you,” Hung yelled.

  “It won’t be you?” Chia’s lame attempt at humor only left her with stabs of confusion poking at her brain, like salad forks searching for something meaningful in a bowl of nonsense.

  “Nope. I won’t then make you cold, numb and wishing you were dead.”

  At the factory, what looked like malevolent pterodactyls—huge, ancient-looking birds, the color of vomit—made lazy circles overhead. They seemed to consume the light,
sucking it into their bodies, as they made their way through the sky.

  “Where do all these magical creatures come from?” Chia said, raking the air. Her wrist met with something slimy and foul, like decaying ectoplasm. She shivered and shook her arm, trying to get rid of the sensation.

  “They’ve always existed. That’s why I don’t want you seeing them. Some things are better left in the dark.”

  A low vibration thrummed against her ears, making a whomp, whomp, whomp noise.

  Chia pushed her palms against her head. “Can you hear that awful sound?”

  “Yeah,” Hung said.

  He threw himself to the snowy ground and rolled out of the way of a Fae shadow. It hovered, black against white, before zipping off toward Chia.

  “I can’t hear it,” Sugar called. “Or see it. All I can sense are strange, icy prickles. I can run from the feeling, but then it catches up with me.”

  “Consider yourself lucky,” Chia said.

  Overhead, her ghosts tried to blend in with a flock of crows in a lone, spindly tree.

  “Nice try,” Chia snapped. “I wish you weren’t so random in your attempts to help or flee.” She shook her fist at them until three dark Fae shadows flew before her eyes. Their black wings flapped, batting her head. A smothering wind rolled from their wing tips, smothering her. “Out of my face,” she screamed, stumble-running. “Get away from me.” She tripped, landing on her knees in the soft snow.

  A couple yards away, Sugar did her own theatrics, squirming and writhing, as the shadows rocketed toward her like dark missiles. “What’s happening? Help me out. I can’t see what’s attacking me.”

  “Think dark, ugly, and mean,” Chia said, panting, as she got to her feet.

  Sugar waved her arms. “I think they’re trying to separate us,” she yelled.

  “We’re already separated,” Hung said.

  “Hung!” Chia caught a glimpse of his face.

  “What? I only meant that…”

  “No. Your face. It’s growing black.”

  “Get it out of me!” He scrambled backward as if he could outrace whatever tunneled inside his nostrils.

  “I don’t know what to do.” For the longest millisecond she’d ever experienced, she stood like a big dummy in the snow. Then, she put her head down and threw herself into a mad, arm-waving sprint, aimed at Hung. Colliding with his belly, they both went down, hard.