Vance ducked into the shadow cast by the awning over the back door. He banged on the hard metal muttering about how much he hated the sun. Although the rays wouldn't kill him, there was something very annoying about sunlight with the red tint his eyes put on everything. He remembered being human, bathing in the sun's rays on a clear day like today, but as a vampire it was as if he wore red contacts that amplified sunlight to an annoying degree that no pair of sunglasses could fix.
A slot opened in the door at eye level for a relatively tall man, and a calculating pair of brown eyes appeared on the other side. "What?" A deep voice grumbled.
"Who the fuck are you talking to, blood bag?" Vance snapped feeling his fangs slide further down of their own volition.
"Oh. It's you." The man snapped the slot shut and unlocked the door. He opened it up to the stair case that dipped down into a dark cellar.
"Where the hell is Josiah?" Vance smashed the man into the wall with the door using just enough force to demonstrate how inferior the large man was even though he dwarfed the vampire.
"Downstairs..." the man told him, barely able to breathe with the door pressed into him.
Vance let the door go and strode past him swishing his long black trench coat behind him. Ever since he'd been turned, he'd embraced the image that came with being a blood sucking, murderous, creature of the night. He liked long coats and dark colors, boots, and expensive jewelry. He fit right in with the crowd he found dancing around as he stepped off the stairs and into the club. It was dark and the music was mostly just bass and some woman whining over the beat, but the people around seemed to be in their own world as they drunkenly swayed to the music. Vance pushed through the crowd taking note of the especially intoxicating ones that he might pick off before he left— maybe even take home a doggy bag for later. He was met at the VIP section by a guard, but as if he'd seen the fate of the doorman, he simply stepped aside and unhooked the red rope for him to pass.
"Well, what an unexpected surprise." Josiah sat on the overstuffed leather couch with two girls on each side of him.
"You fed me bullshit info! He was ready for us!"
Josiah shook his head and chuckled. "Well you're the one who insisted on attacking him at his fortress of a home. What did you expect the result to be on his turf?"
"Don't get smart with me you little bitch! I lost men because of you!" Josiah smirked brushing a freshly tanned hand through his dark waves.
"Careful. Unlike you, I do my homework and I know that vampires are hard to kill," he raised two fingers in the air and several red lasers appeared on Vance's black sweater and the coat on top, "but not impossible."
"You can't kill me with bullets," Vance scoffed and with an almost unnoticeable signal Josiah ordered one shot to the leech's chest. It was a small wooden arrow, sharpened to a point that landed just millimeters from his heart. Vance didn't even see where it had actually come from before the arrow was painfully embedding its way into his chest. The thing couldn't have been bigger than a freshly sharpened No. 2 pencil, but it was burning Vance's chest like, "holy water..." When he tried to yank the arrow out it only broke right at the part that was buried in his body.
"You shouldn't underestimate me because I am human."
"Ugh, fuck you."
"Well then I guess you don't want to be a part of the plan that brings down the entire Cruz empire, for good."
Finally able to dig the arrow out of his chest, his shirt now drenched in black blood, Vance narrowed his red eyes at Josiah. "Yeah? And what plan is that?"
Vicente listened as the wind whistled through the trees and caressed his senses as only the open outdoors could. It had been a week since his unexpected visitor had arrived and his pack's searches had yet to yield anything. His growing frustration was wearing on his control.
Determination to fulfill his duties as the great Alpha of Medellín drove him to continue to lead his search team up and down the South American coast in an effort to find any clues or traces of the hunters that had taken the 7 wolves. As if that were not enough, the pent up sexual energy his mate had built up in him the last time he'd seen her was causing him to grow even more irritated with each passing minute. He could almost hear her body calling to him, taunting him with thoughts and erotic dreams of the flesh he wanted to mark as his own. In his wolf form, everything was heightened, even his emotions and now with his paws digging into the dirt beneath him, Vicente had to fight the battle within to seek her out and mate her whether she wanted it or not.
But just as she tempted him, she had also left him baffled after an obvious connection having been revealed between them. She had actually run from him, leaving him in her wake wondering what he had done so wrong.
Vin let out a snarl thinking about his last encounter with her. He felt that he had failed in the greatest way. He couldn't even get a girl that had no choice but to be attracted to him. For the past week he'd been wracking his brain, trying to figure out what he'd said, what he'd done. Had his eyes changed in front of her? Had the kiss not been as electric for her as it had been for him? To top it all off, she had taken off before he could even ask her real name.
Vicente heard the howl of his Beta and realized he couldn't dwell on the failures in his love life while he was leading a search and rescue mission. The large chocolate wolf appeared from the trees carrying some kind of staff in his mouth. Vicente acknowledged Manuel with a grunt before speaking into his mind through their pack's connection.
'Where did you find that?' He asked assessing the weapon as his Beta dropped it on the leaf coated ground.
'In that clearing just west of here. I assume that is where they made camp.'
'Is this all that was left?'
