Wicked Love - Michelle Dare Page 0,276

and I screamed for her to stop. My spine arched in agony as she turned it up another notch. I knew if I didn’t do something fast, I was going to die. Closing my eyes, I broke her stare. My hands dropped to my knees as I leaned forward and took a deep breath. I sucked every last bit of pain and rage into my lungs and hurled it back at her with a giant exhale.

She gasped, her eyes widening with surprise, then she started to clap. “Bravo!”

Bernie whimpered beside me. We’d both had enough. Screw proper protocol. The goal now was to get out alive.

“I’ll make a deal with you. If you let us go, I won’t report you for entrapping Officer Gonad and endangering the lives of two police officers.” She stared at me as if trying to find a way back inside my head. Sorry, bitch, find someone else to mind fuck.

“How intriguing,” she cooed. “How about this, you tell me what you are, and I won’t kill your friend.” She snapped her fingers, and a vampire stepped from the shadows. His arms were wrapped around a struggling Mick. My lungs seized. Fuckfuckityfuck.

“Don’t tell her,” Mick rasped as if there was something to tell. With my heart in my throat, I stared at my partner and tried to figure a way out of this mess.

My eyes flicked to her. “I’m nothing, really. I just . . . sense things.”

“Wrong,” she said. Her fingers snapped, and I screamed as the vampire buried his fangs in the side of Mick’s neck.

“I don’t know what I am!” I shouted. “I can feel you inside my head, that’s all. Now, let him go!”

“Wrong again,” she sang, and I panicked.

“You fucking bitch!” I pointed my gun at the vamp holding Mick, aimed it at his head, and pulled the trigger. The vampire exploded into a pile of dust, Mick crumpled to the ground, and ice queen let out an unholy sounding shriek.

“Lenora, we must go,” one of the other vamps called out. That’s when I heard the sirens.

With a swish of her robes, the ice bitch and her fang-gang melted into the night.

Mick died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Bernie, of course, sang like a canary.

And a week later, I was transferred to the Paranormal Human Division.

2

Four months later . . .

Christ, I hate this place. Like every other morning since my re-assignment, I was kicked back in my cushy chair with my feet on my desk and my favorite coffee mug in my hands while gazing out my office window. I took a sip of the almond-flavored delight and sighed. I never thought I would say it, but I actually missed the coffee from my old department. It was the put-hair-on-your-chest and turn-your-teeth-permanently-brown-after-one-sip kind of coffee, not this fancy, froufrou crap. Fancy coffee from a fancy cafe in a fancy office building with cushy chairs and a great view. Fucking kill me now.

My eyes dropped to the notepad on my desk and the large, red number sixteen scrawled across the page. It had been sixteen weeks since Mick’s death. As always, when I thought of Mick, which was often, my heart ached. He was dead because of me. His wife was now a widow, and his children were without a father because of me. It should have been me who died that night.

My first month working at PHD had not gone well. My heart was shattered over losing Mick. Not only did I have zero appetite, but my sleep was plagued with nightmares, and since I couldn’t talk about it without breaking down, I didn’t. His death had left a gaping hole inside my chest. The only reason I showed up at work at all was for the paycheck. I spent a lot of time sitting in my office staring out the window—a lot of time thinking about that night and all the things I could have done differently. I missed my partner—my best friend.

Four weeks to the day after Mick’s death, my new boss paid me a visit. After staring at me for what felt like forever, he said, “Girl, I get that you’re hurting, but you’re going about it the wrong way. Vengeance requires three things: patience, ingenuity, and skill. If you want Lenora Moreau, you’re going to need those, plus a hell of a lot more.”

My spine stiffened at the mention of the ice bitch’s name. He now had my attention. From the smug expression