A Christmas Surprise (15 page)

Humans would always fear the unknown. Vampires, though they liked to drink blood, did not have to have it to stay alive. And the sun thing, they were allergic to the sun, that was it—no bursting into flames if the sun touched them, although, she had seen a Vamp that had fallen asleep on a park bench, and the black skin had taken
days
to re-grow. And they couldn't change people into Vampires; they actually had an extra DNA strand that created them. All the shifters and magical critters did.

Now if a wolf and a bear mated, well, that was just freaky. Their children tended to have very large bodies and very small feet. But other than that, mating was sacred, special, happy, and a pain in her ass. Something the humans could not figure out either. Mating for all the
Breyting
were for life, once you found your mate, there was no other. And blah, blah, blah, happily ever after. Some things were just better left unsaid.

The
Ulfer
were different. As Cherri would say, there were not too many branches on their family tree. They had the same DNA strand as the magical community, but there were holes in it. The humans tried to make all the shifters and whatnot take a DNA test so they could figure out who was evil and who was not. Like that really worked, but you can't blame them for trying. No, the
Ulfer
fit into society, that is, until they decided to go mental and began to kill people. That's where the Drekinn Agency came in. They responded to
Ulfer
problems and handled them. Calli and her friends were the best handlers in the Agency. That was probably why the
Bondi King
wanted them dead, it would solve a lot of his problems. No one was close to their knowledge or skills—then again, no one tried.

Just recently, their boss asked them to train the younger ranks. Calli and her friends thought it was an honor to be able to pass their knowledge along. Unfortunately, they had just begun to interview candidates and classes had not started. It would have been great if they had had some back-up.

"Now, why would he want me dead? I have never done anything to him, personally," Calli said, forcing a tear from her eye.

The hyena rolled his eyes, "I'm not that stupid, bitch."

"But you do admit to being mentally challenged, right?" Calli sneered.

She grinned when he pulled the gun up and aimed it at her head.
If she was gonna go, she was gonna go in style
, she thought.

"Hey, besties. Are you done arguing yet, ‘cause I have to tell you good-bye. It's been fun, but I have a gun pointed at my head, and I think that possibly we're gonna have to re-evaluate the rent. You all are gonna have to pay more," Calli called out, and grinned at the shifter in front of her who was frowning.

Did he expect her to cry, cower? It wasn't in her vocabulary, and she refused to go out without at least a fight. She knew her friends were trying to get loose, if their arguments that drifted down the hallways were any indication; they couldn't shift either. She needed to try to bide some time, or maybe she should take it like a woman...Nah.

"So, self-proclaimed slow boy, what exactly are your plans here, so I know what to expect," Calli said calmly.

She could feel the drugs beginning to wear off, but the silver was still affecting her. On a normal day, she could have probably found a way out of this cluster fuck. Calli was a wolf, and a damn good one. Standing five feet eight, she was not a shrinking flower. Her taunt, muscular form made men sit up and take notice. Her black hair and blue eyes matched that of her wolf, and when she was pissed, there was a sparkle to her eyes—they must be fucking glowing about now. No one would say she was beautiful, but her breasts were an eye catcher. She used to hate them when she was younger, but as she grew, Calli realized that most of her prey fixated on them, so she used to them to her advantage. Her friends called her 'GI Bombshell' as a joke. But it wasn't far off the mark since her daily attire usually consisted of military style, black cargo pants, and a black tank top. Her long, black hair tied into intricate braids around her head and then clasped in a ponytail. She never wore make up, because with her coloring, she didn't need it.

The hyena growled and moved closer to press the gun right against her temple. "Simple, I shoot you, your friends, and then drag your carcasses to the
King
, then I get the handsome reward he has put on your head."

"Wait there, slow boy. You never said anything about a reward. How much?" she laughed. Then thought,
why the hell was there a bounty on her head?
Cherri and Rissa were both wolves too, and they worked together a lot, but in the last six months, they had been working on the training gig, not on the front lines where they could piss someone off enough to put a bounty on their heads.

"Fifty thou a piece," the smelly man said.

Calli frowned again, not a huge amount in this day and age; she was a little offended the bounty was such a meager amount. Hell, she had that much sitting her account if she needed it. She could buy her way out of this, but it was the principle of the thing.

"Are you freaking kidding me? A measly fifty thou for killing my ass? It's a scandal, a travesty. Hey, girls, I have a fifty thousand bounty on my head, is that shit or what?"

Rissa yelled in reply, "Hell, you're worth more than that, I think you're losing your mojo. I wouldn't waste my time on fifty thou, now if they upped it a few million, then your ass is toast, and I'm the toaster, but for now, I'm insulted right along with you."

Calli rolled her eyes; figures Rissa would be the one who answered her on this question. She was the investment genius that made them the money they had stored in so many accounts around the world. It would be a little scary if anyone actually found out their net worth.

"Fuckin' A, now before you kill me, let me point out a few facts to you," Calli said calmly.

The man grunted and looked at her breasts that were heaving. Dammit, this is why she hated sports bras; they tended to flatten you best assets when you needed them the most. Calli pushed her chest out so the idiot would continue to stare at her breasts and not pay attention to the sounds coming from the other room. With her wolf senses, she could tell that her friends were close to getting loose. She only had to keep his attention. Maybe her day of death had not arrived.

"Now, if you kill me right away, then you will be wasting that yummy hard on you have going on," Calli said seductively. She tried to look at the tiny bulge in his pants with interest, but she was sure they were talking cocktail, not ballpark, at this point.

The hyena grinned and she almost threw up a little. Her friends had better hurry their furry asses up, or she was going to shave their heads in their sleep, again. He dropped the gun a little, and she let out a breath of relief and then nodded to him.

"Yeah, I think maybe you could go out with a bang, in more ways than one," he barked, and she laughed with him while she was rolling her eyes.

"Good one, now why don't you come on over here and let me take care of that thing?" she growled and licked her lips as an invitation.

Damn, but he was stupid. The big man put the gun down on the floor and hurriedly began unsnapping his pants. She almost groaned when she saw he wore tightie whities, of course he did. She seriously thought those had gone out in the mid to late 20's.

Finally, she heard the scrape of her friends getting out of the room they were being held in. Slow Boy was too busy trying to pull the cocktail wiener out of his pants to notice. That was until Cherri slammed in the room holding a metal bar and swung it like Zena Warrior Princess at the idiot's head—Calli loved that show on the oldies channel. He had no time to react and went down like a house of cards on the floor, still holding his pecker in his hands.

Rissa walked in the room slowly and grinned when she saw the man on the floor. "Really, can we take pictures and post on the page?"

Cherri turned to her and growled, "Where the fuck were you? I thought we said we were going on three."

Rissa shrugged and kicked the gun away from the man, in case he woke up. "
Your
three and
my
three are two totally different things. You need to work on that. And we killed the other four that were outside the door, you did the same thing there; I only got to kill one."

"How the fuck, can the number three be different? It's a Goddamn number," Cherri yelled.

Calli waited patiently while they fought about the timing of their entrance, and finally, she couldn't take it anymore. Here she was, tied to a freaking wall with silver chains, and they were fighting in front of her instead of getting her loose. They sucked; she had no clue why she was best friends with them sometimes.

They were all so different. Cherri was the short, cute, perky one. She was referred to as Marilyn Monroe on more than one occasion because of her voluptuous body, and blonde, curly hair. When the girls saw that old faded pin-up, they had laughed. Men chased her constantly when they went anywhere, she was a slut. Then there was Rissa; she was the nerdy counterpart. She had brown hair that was cut into a short, spiky hairdo, and she was stick thin and tall; they could never figure out where the hell her muscles went. Rissa was strong, but it looked like a wind could blow her over—she said it was because of her metabolism, they said she was anorexic.

None of them were in a relationship because they were all holding out hope that they would find their mate, but after one hundred years or so, they had pretty much given up and figured that scratching their itch was needed. They only had one rule, and that was no one brought a man to the apartment. It was their sanctuary.

She loved being close to the park so she could run. It was a good thing that when they shifted their clothes disappeared and then reappeared when they shifted back. It was part of their magic. But it took practice. You have no idea how many times Calli had shifted back to a human with her underwear on the outside of her clothes. Thank goodness, that was just when she was young. Now she could do it without thinking.

Sitting on the top floor of a highly secured apartment building they had bought when the prices were cheap in the mid 2530's, their apartment took up the whole floor and was huge. They divided it into sections for each of them with a common area in the middle. Every high tech gadget you could think of was in the place,
since Rissa invented most of them
, few people had them. If a stranger came into their place, they would probably try to steal their shit.

Calli hung on the chains thinking that her bed sounded good about right now, considering the silver was making her tired, and her friends were still fighting, completely forgetting about her predicament. She growled when they began to walk out of the room, as if she was supposed to follow them.

"Bitches, get me out of here," Calli said, and her friends stopped and turned to look at her. Cherri put her hands on her hips.

"Seriously, we escaped. Why can't you? I thought you were playing with him?" she said, losing her patience a little.

"Really, and what would your clue have been? Possibly the silver chains that were hanging on me? Or maybe it was the way I was hung on the wall," Calli snapped.

"Silver?" Rissa said and stepped closer and narrowed her eyes. "Well why the hell didn't you say something sooner? We were only tied to the wall with iron chains; the dipshit must have thought you were a bigger threat. You know I get sick and tired of everyone thinking you are some badass and we're like your weak, little sidekicks."

Calli laughed as her friends grumbled and unchained her. She had been held in that position for so long that she fell to the floor. Her friends stood there with their hands on their hips and watched as she struggled to get up.

"Fuck you," Calli said and finally made it to a standing position.

"Hey, wonder girl, you're the one who usually kicks everyone's ass. We just clean up your mess. I hate to ruin my nails. Oh, by the way, we have a mani/pedi scheduled for three, so we kinda need to get cleaned up. I hate going to the parlor smelling like day-old BO," Cherri said. Then walked out of the room, while Rissa and Calli watched her in horror.

"Shit, really, we have to do that again?" Calli said and growled. It was Cherri's latest thing that made them seem more like chicks instead of Enforcers. She said that you could kick ass and still look good.

Excerpt from Playing with Zach

Cassidy Family Series Book One

By Jana Leigh

Chapter One

Jade Cassidy hated her name, and all that came along with it. Her brothers were the only family she had left and they drove her crazy. All of them were police officers, they loved using their jobs to keep track of her, and of course, whomever she was dating at the time. Lately, she had no dates because her brothers had a reputation for being overbearing. In the small town where they lived, they were the kiss of death for her to get a date, let alone sex. Jade loved her family, but she was close to killing each of them in a spectacular way.

Her brothers were the reason that she was currently pissed and in a bad mood. Last night, she had finally gotten a date with a nice lawyer. He was tall and handsome, plus a little boring, but she could live with it as long as she got a little. She wasn’t a slut or anything, but her two-year dry spell was driving her nuts. All because her brothers had decided that she needed protecting.

Her parents had died a few years ago in a plane crash. Jade had been devastated, they were the only ones who understood her need for independence from her brothers. The Cassidy name was well known in this area. Before their untimely deaths, her parents had developed one of the biggest cattle operations in Colorado. Then there were her brothers.

They were the stars of the town. Each of them had their own successes that placed them apart from one another. Jared was the oldest and the biggest. He had led the school to their first State Championship in football. He was the All-Star quarterback who had all the girls throwing their underwear at him when he walked into a room.

Miles was the middle brother but it never seemed to faze him that his older brother was the town hero. He paved his own way in a different sport, wrestling. Miles won the state title three years in a row.

The youngest brother was Danny. He was still older than her but also the most sensitive out of the group. Only older by 16 months, he was the one she went to when she wanted to talk. Danny was the runner. He ran cross-country, track, and won every event they ever put him in. It drove Jade crazy when she was younger because she was always compared with them.

She was always the little sister, the cute little doll they would stand around and protect, never letting anyone too close for fear they would hurt her. Jade developed a temper because of all of their protecting. She had also had her wild phases, and refused to let them tell her what to do. They tried anyway and it usually led to a huge fight.

She understood why they were so protective, since she had been attacked on a date, but she had taken care of herself and broken the guy’s nose. They were pissed because she had ended up in the emergency room with a broken hand, and they had not been the ones who broke the guy’s nose. They refused to admit she could take care of herself and therefore able to make decisions about whom she dated. One mistake and she was branded.

Tommy had been her one mistake. Her boyfriend for a few months in college, he thought he would have the easy life and marry into the Cassidy family. Jade didn’t want to get involved in a serious relationship and when she saw things in his closet before a date one night, she knew they were not compatible. When she tried to break up with him, it had turned into an ugly fight. She ended up pressing charges because he refused to accept no for an answer.

He had been sentenced to a few years in jail for domestic violence and attempted rape. Jade wasn’t going to press charges until the day after she had broken his nose for getting a little to frisky, the dumbass tried to break into her bedroom and rape her. Since then her brothers didn’t trust her judgment in guys.

Well damn it, this stopped now. She groaned when she saw her brothers, who still lived in their parent’s house, had a visitor. The other bane of her existence, her brother’s best friend and fellow police officer, Zach Trent was inside. He had moved to Johnstown, Colorado in the second grade. Zach and her oldest brother had gotten into a fight in the schoolyard his first day of school and they had been inseparable ever since. No one even remembered what the fight was about but they had differing opinions on who won.

Jared was the Chief of Police and Zach was his Assistant Chief. The other brothers were both deputies and with four other men, they made up the local Police Department. Her father wanted his sons to go into ranching like him, but accepted they had a different calling. They worked at the ranch on their days off, which seemed to make her parents happier. Zach and his parents had moved into the farm next door, and the families liked each other so much, they went into business together. Zach’s parents grew the feed for their cattle ranch.

For years, she had pined after her brother’s best friend, tagging along when they went to the movies or play football. She had a stupid schoolgirl crush and had no idea how to deal with it. To top it all off, the dumb ass never looked at her as something other than a little sister. She had tried everything to make him see she was a grown up. Traci had helped and over the years, she had come up with some very good schemes to do it. Nevertheless, the big thickheaded asshole never saw the signs.

Jade made the decision a few months ago that she needed to try to make the man take notice. So far, all she had to show for it was a bunch of pretty underwear and used batteries that she needed to dispose of. It was sad when the best action she had seen in the last few months was with a silicon toy. She just had no clue how to make the man stand up and notice what was right under his nose. She watched as he dated blonde bimbos for years, never once bringing them home with him to meet the family. No, his mom complained right along with theirs before she died, about the lack of grandchildren.

For too long she fascinated about being the woman who gave him a child. She couldn’t even get him to admit she was a grown up, let alone a woman he wanted to live the rest of his life with. “ARHHHHH,” she yelled in the car interior.

Jade sighed and decided she had postponed the confrontation for long enough. She just wanted them to back off long enough for her to make a real play for Zach. So far, she had been tiptoeing around the issue. Dating other men in front of Zach, until he realized what he was missing. It was all a process to get him to wake up. That didn’t mean her brothers had any right to interfere and screw up her time frame. By now, she was supposed to have him jealous from all the guys she was seeing. This of course would not work if her brothers kept scaring the shit out of her dates. Zach had to be laughing.

Needless to say, this wasn’t going to be fun, but it had to be done. These dumbasses couldn’t and would not, run her life. She sat in her truck for a few minutes, thinking of what she needed to say before storming into the house. If she went in there half-cocked like usual, they would pat her on the head and send her on her way. Her friend had listened to her rant and rave for the last two hours. She agreed that something needed to be done if Zach was ever going to look at her like an adult.

None of her brothers were married or in a solid relationship. Basically, they had slept their way through the women in the town. Now they were working on the rest of the Front Range. They had no room to talk about her dating life, when they couldn’t make it through a week with one woman.

Last night had been the last straw. She had been on a lovely date with Rodger, a new attorney in town, and then her brothers had showed up. They reminded her date that she was their little sister and as such needed to be home at a good hour safe or he would have them to answer too. That had made the evening go downhill and soon she found herself left on her doorstep without even a good night kiss. Frustrated after another night with her battery operated best friend, she had woke up with one thing on her mind and that was vengeance.

Pushing open her door, she jumped from her truck, ready for battle. She stormed up to the front of the sprawling front porch and barreled through the door. Her brothers were all sitting in their living area watching football, comfortably sprawled across the recliners they had each bought for themselves. The room was huge, it held all three recliners and two deep couches that were also recliners for their guests. When they had remodeled the house together last year, they had made sure the living room would hold a giant big screen television and their chairs so when they hosted football parties their friend would all have places to lay and see the television. In the corner, they had built a wood bar, so they would not have to leave the room to refresh their beers and miss anything important. On top was their snack food they always had in stock.

Jade stormed in front of the TV, blocking their view.

“Hey!” Jared her oldest brother yelled.

Miles, Danny, and Zach followed, yelling at her to get out of the way. Jade stood firm and glared at each of her brothers in turn.

“You may watch your precious game when I am done. This is it! I have come to let you all know if you do not stop interfering in my life, you will all be sorry,” she ground through her teeth.

Silence fell and her brothers waited for the punch line. It would have been a lot better if she were big enough to back up her threat. Jade had regrettably not been as blessed with her father’s genes. Her brothers were all lucky to have taken after him, they all had black hair and blue eyes, and stood at least six foot five, all of them had been compared to Greek Gods. They were all gorgeous and the women in town panting after them told them way too often. Jade, on the other hand, was only five foot two. She had long red hair, green eyes, and a temper to match. She was a pint sized Madonna (not the singer), with classically beautiful bone structure. Which made her seem fragile but she was just the opposite, and she was gonna get it through these idiots’ thick heads.

Jared started laughing and the others followed. They loved it when she got riled up, they said she was cute. “Arhhhhh, listen you Neanderthals, I am serious! I just want to have a nice normal life, a normal date! You have to stop interfering and showing up wherever I go with my dates!” she yelled, frustrated.

“Hey now, you went on a date last night. I am sure you had fun. That was a really nice restaurant the slimy lawyer took you to. What more do you want?” Miles said trying to look around her to see the game.

Jade moved to block his view. “Okay, let me clarify myself. I want you to stay out of my personal life. No more showing up when I am on a date for a late dinner. No more pulling my boyfriends over to discuss imaginary traffic infractions. No more background checks. And finally, no more putting out Bolo’s for me when we go to Denver. I want you to respect the fact that I am a grown woman, who has the intelligence to take care of herself when she is out on a date.”

“Jade, we do trust you, and respect you. We just happen to know what goes through the minds of men when they are in the presence of a woman. We just need to remind them to be on their best behavior, that’s all,” Danny said in his condescending tone.

“Really, maybe I want them to think about me that way. Maybe I want to have dirty thoughts, and dirty sex!” she yelled, which caused all of her brothers’ jaws to drop. Zach raised his eyebrows. “I am not thirteen anymore, you giant dumbasses! I refuse to let you keep doing this to me!”

“Baby girl,” Zach said, thinking he was going to be the peacemaker. “Your brothers just want what’s best for you. If you need to have a little dirty sex, I will be happy to help you out.”

“Zach, shut the hell up!” Jared said, turning back to his sister. “What the hell are you talking about? SEX! You are so not having sex with anyone!”

“Just saying,” Zach said and sat back and smiled at Jade. Holy shit, did the man she had been pining for all these years just say he would have sex with her?

“Right on! Shut the hell up, Zach!” Miles said and smiled at her. “Listen, there is a new guy from the station, and I think he would treat you right. Let me see if he wants to take you to dinner.”

“Yeah right, a nice, little, safe date. I suppose you all have spoken to him about what is allowed and not allowed on a date.” She steamed, distracted from what Zach had said. “Do you think you can run my life forever?”

“We’re not running your life! We are just giving you safe and reasonable men to choose from!” Jared yelled back at her. “Do you know what could happen to you? Well I do, and I will be damned if I let some slimy, little pecker anywhere near you!”

“You do not get to decide who I date or who I do not date! Do you not get it? I don’t want your help! I want you to all leave me alone. I am serious. If you do not stop, I will be forced to do something drastic.” Jade cried, frustrated they were doing what they always did, and tried to organize things around her.

Jared and Miles laughed at her threat; Danny frowned knowing that she was thinking of something. Danny was the one who was closest to her age and knew when she was backed into a corner; she had always come out fighting. That led to problems, she never made the best decisions when she was pissed.

Zach, watching the Cassidy family show, was amused they thought they could do anything about what Jade wanted. He had watched and encouraged their over protective attitude over the last several years. He couldn’t explain it, but he felt better knowing she was at home alone without any male companionship. For him, the last few years had been lonely as well. For some reason, and one he wasn’t quite ready to examine closer, he had been more worried about who Jade was seeing and what she was doing at night. He drove by her house so many times to check, he knew her schedule better than he knew his own.

When she was in a bad mood, she sat in front of her front window with her best friend, Traci, eating chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. When she was happy, she would turn up the music and dance around her living area. Zach would never cross the line between his friends, but he was fast becoming to like the addiction he had to Jade. Hell, he had not even had sex in the last year, because all he could think about was Jade.