Code Wolf - Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

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at him with dull, flat, lifeless gazes. Whatever kind of voodoo had animated this pair remained one of life’s great mysteries.

      Derek didn’t waste any time in going after them. In this instance, their newness to the vamp bag of tricks was in Were favor. The dark-eyed pair had speed, but he and Dale far outweighed them. When their bodies collided, the two vamp fledglings shrieked with anger, yellow fangs snapping, but couldn’t escape the claws that snagged their rotted clothing.

      After spinning his bloodsucker around in a circle, Derek tossed his opponent against the brick. The bloodsucker quickly rallied and was on him again in a flash with arms and legs flailing. The creep was a hell of a lot stronger than he looked.

      Derek’s muscles corded as he fought to send this ghastly creature back to its natural state of death. Actually, he was doing these monsters a favor, because who would have wanted to end up in such a sorry state?

      He felt the breeze of snapping canines that had gotten too close to his face and he roared with displeasure. The sheer menace in that preternaturally wolfish sound temporarily stunned the vampire in his grasp.

      That’s it. Those teeth of yours won’t harm anyone else in this city. You won’t accidentally make another bloodsucker in your image, and further contribute to the pain in my ass.

      Dale had maneuvered his vampire to the back of the alley, where there was an even slimmer chance for it to escape. Derek danced his flailing abomination in the same direction, whirling, ducking, lunging to the side to avoid the sucker’s uncanny ability to recover.

      The only way to keep those pointed teeth from making contact with his flesh was by taking a firm hold on the bastard’s neck. But since vampires didn’t actually breathe, a good squeeze wasn’t going to suffocate the creature into submission.

      The vampire’s spine hit the wall with a thud that shook the brick. The wily creature brought up its filthy bare feet and straddled Derek’s body with legs made mostly of brittle bone and strings of sinew.

      Fine little hairs on the back of his neck lifted as Derek shoved off the creature. With a fresh round of strength fueled by disgust, he finally got the vampire on the ground, on its back, where it fought like it had five limbs instead of four. When the sucker gurgled with anger, black blood bubbled from its lips.

       “This is the end. I’m sure you’ll thank me later. And really, there is no pleasure in this, and only a necessary kind of justice.”

      Dale, close by, tossed him a stake, which Derek caught in one hand. With one final burst of energy, he stuck that wooden stake deep into the vamp’s chest, in the spot where its heart had once beat.

       Go in peace, vampire.

      The creature exploded as if it hadn’t been actually composed of flesh and bone at all, but merely a bunch of musty pieces that had been glued together. Seconds later, a rain of nasty, odorous gray ash swirled through the area like a twister.

      A second explosion rocked the area moments after that. Amid a flurry of ash that was temporarily blinding, Derek turned his head to see Dale smiling back at him.

      “Mission accomplished,” Derek messaged to his packmate. Or so he thought before the soft, muffled sound of a human in trouble reached him from the street beyond.

      Across the filthy, ash-strewn alley’s crackled asphalt, above the musty gray dust that had quickly settled to the ground, Dale’s eyes again met his.

       Chapter 3

      Riley was no weakling, but the guy was extraordinarily strong and fast, using his other hand to spin her around. He now had her by the waist with a hand clamped over her mouth.

      Despite her rocketing pulse, she got one good kick in before he pulled her into the shadows so fast, it happened between one blink of her eyes and the next. Still, she wasn’t going to play dead or be reduced to a teary mess, and managed to connect with the guy’s shin with a second kick. When his hand fell away from her mouth, Riley shouted for help.

      The fight she put up had surprised her attacker. His hold on her waist loosened enough for her to pull back and spin sideways. They were near the entrance to an underground restaurant and yet no one had seen this happen because the asshole’s timing had been impeccable.

      She heard her phone hit the sidewalk and didn’t have the opportunity to retrieve it. Hands came at her again as if the guy was half octopus, and as if he had more at stake here than she did. He clasped her throat to choke off a call for help.

      “Bastard!” she shouted.

      A filmy blur of movement danced around her, reminiscent of a storm system moving in. The whirlwind was so strong, she flew backward, stumbled and almost lost her footing. The jolt of hitting a wall knocked her senseless. Her head snapped back. Stars danced in her vision and her stomach turned over.

      That’s when things really got fuzzy.

      Did the ass who had manhandled her have accomplices? There were now three moving blurs of speed in the area. Mere streaks of movement. Nothing defined. And she had a concussion. Either that or these new guys were larger than any humans she had ever seen. The sounds they made were fierce, threatening, and similar to sounds animals made in the wild. Each grunt and growl added to the pressure in her skull.

      It occurred to her that she had been dropped into the middle of one of those horror movies she had been thinking about. Strange sounds under a full moon reinforced the thought.

      Looking up made her dizziness worse. Her knees started to buckle. Her vision narrowed as a hovering net of blackness slowly descended. Riley dug deep for more courage. She could get away while no one was looking, find the phone she had dropped and call for help.

      Another arm closed around her before she had completed the plan. Although she struggled to get free, she could hardly breathe past the pain in her head, let alone rally for another attack.

      Uttering a string of curses, she tried to focus her eyes and found nothing in front of her but a wide expanse of someone’s bare chest.

      “Damn it.”

      She whispered more curses as she was lifted up and swept off her feet. The only way to stop the unusual sensation of having the ground ripped from beneath her was to close her eyes.

      Another sound ricocheted inside her head, seeming to echo noises she had heard before. Though she couldn’t have been colder, a new round of chills arrived when she recognized what that sound was.

      With her heart rate nearing critical mass, Riley slowly opened her eyes and took a breath before having to face whatever her fate was to be.

      Nothing happened immediately. Cool wind on her face soothed the icy shame of having put herself in harm’s way. But she was in somebody’s arms, and moving away from the street. For some reason, she didn’t sense harm here, though.

      Her inner defiance sparked and anger burned like a beacon.

      “Put me down. Let me catch my breath.”

      The arms holding her loosened considerably. Riley again felt the hard support of a wall behind her as the man did as she asked and set her down.

      In her vision, this guy’s body continued to move as if he had the ability to fluidly alter his shape. Yet she knew that couldn’t be right, and after a tense moment of silence, he spoke.

      “Can you stand?”

      The husky, overtly masculine voice cut through the pain behind her eyes.

      “You’ll be all right in a minute. We’ve called this in and someone will come to get you,” he said.

      Hell, had she just been rescued? Was that what all the commotion was about?

      Shaking off the last vestiges of dizziness, Riley focused all her attention on the

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