Newly Undead In Dark River (Dark River Days, #1)

by Grace McGinty

“There's no way Walker would let me leave the safety of the town. I’m still too new.” Angeline gave me a look. It was part sneaky, part self-satisfied and all trouble. “Walker is coming with us.”

Actually, I wasn’t excited at all. I was a ball of nervous energy all wrapped up in killer heels. I finished the blood bag in my hand, and no sooner had I put it down than Walker handed me another one from the cooler in the footwell. Apparently, the idea was to gorge me on blood on the way, and by the time I got there I’d be so full that the temptation of all those flitter-fluttering heartbeats would be dampened. This was pre-drinks to the extreme.

I unfolded myself from the front seat of the sports car, I couldn’t help but notice how Walker’s eyes took in the long line of my exposed legs.

But Mika was dead, and I put it on, along with the expensive hooker heels, and owned it. Now, seeing the heat in Walker’s eyes, I was glad I owned it.

And the smell. So much blood. So many heartbeats that thrummed in my ears like a siren’s song. “I’ll take her from here, Cresta,” Walker’s low voice said from behind me, and he tugged me back to his side. He tucked me tight against his body in a move that would have seemed almost affectionate, if I didn’t know he was just keeping me close in case I decided to go rabid.

I concentrated on just Walker’s scent, his slow pulse that was so different in comparison to the warm thrum of blood rushing through the club. I breathed through my mouth slowly and gripped Walker tighter.

I burst through the exit doors into the back alley just as someone wrapped an arm around my waist from behind. I tried to spin in the hold, hissing as the predator finally got loose. And she was pissed. “Hey, it’s me. It’s okay.” Walker’s soothing voice was beside my ear, and I shuddered with relief. But I was still so fucking hungry.

I spun in his grasp and latched onto his neck before he had a chance to move. The warm flow of his blood across my tongue made me moan so loudly it echoed down the alleyway. He let me push him back against the rough brick wall and press myself so hard against him that I could feel every inch of his body, as if it were an extension of my own. I had no doubt that if he didn’t want what was happening right now, he could have stopped me without a thought. Instead, he tilted his head a little more to the side and let me drink deep.

But Walker was like a soaking warmth that you could drown in. I lifted my leg up so I could grind myself against his denim-clad thigh, almost the perfect height in these ridiculously high heels. The bottom of my dress rode up over my scant lace underwear, but before the cold night air could even kiss my ass cheeks, Walker had turned us both, pressing me back against the wall, preventing the world at large from seeing how badly I was soaking my panties. He groaned as he ground himself against the apex of my thighs, and then he slid a finger between my lips, releasing the sucking of my mouth at his neck and jumping away as if my vagina was electrified.

Walker looked physically pained and judging by the massive bulge in his pants, perhaps he was. Though he was also wobbling a little on his feet. Shit. I’d taken too much.

Walker pushed me away another few inches. “If I take blood from you now, I’m going to fuck you against that wall like a rabid animal.” He dragged in a shuddering breath. “Just stay over there, okay? I’m fine.” But his eyes were glowing, so I knew he was worked up.

But I knew Walker would hate himself for defiling me in a filthy back alley. I could resist to save his white knight sensibilities.

“We have time to run home.” I blinked at him. Then blinked again. “Excuse me? Are you suggesting we run fifty miles home? Is now the time I should tell you I failed gym class?”

“What do I get if you’re wrong and I can carry you all the way back to your apartment?” I leaned forward, so my lips brushed the shell of his ear. “Whatever you want.” Wrapped around him as I was, I felt the small shiver that ran through his body. “Dangerous offer, Raine. You might not like what I want to take.” I chuckled, nipping the back of his neck. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to love whatever you have to offer, Walker Walton. Especially if you use the handcuffs.”

“Carrying me like a baby possum getting to you, Sheriff?” I teased, and he quirked a brow. “Pretty sure it was more than ten minutes, newbie, so looks like I win our bet.” He stalked toward me, looking every bit the predator in that moment.

“I want a kiss.” Walker’s words felt like a caress. “Just a kiss? Where’s your imagination?” I teased. He hummed low in his throat. “I didn’t say where.” His voice was a low, seductive promise. A thrill ran through me, and every part of me wanted to jump him there and then, except one little, annoying part of my brain that said that perhaps we should make him work for it. Oddly enough, that thrilled the new vampiric part of me too.

“Well then, Sheriff,” I said, stealthily slipping off my heels. “I guess you’ll have to catch me first?” I laughed and took off down the darkened road, hearing his deep belly laugh, followed by the steady thump of his feet as he chased after me. I kind of expected the road to tear up my feet, but it felt so natural running barefoot down the road, the rocks no longer pricking my soft human flesh.

“Better run faster, little vamp, because I’m hot on your delicious ass,” Walker called, and he sounded so happy that I jus...

Walker stopped right behind me, and when I looked over my shoulder—once I could draw breath again—I caught him staring at my ass. “Are you looking up my dress, Sheriff? I’m going to have to call the authorities.” He strolled over like he had all the time in the world, and ran a hand down the curve of my spine and over my ass. “You should definitely call the authorities,” he murmured. He bit his lip, the points of his fangs dragging at the slightly pale flesh, reminding me that I’d fed from him and then made him drag me across the Canadian wilderness like a packhorse. Or a donkey. But he did have one fine ass.

“I like you, Raine. A lot. You’ve overcome a difficult situation and flourished. And I want you so badly that sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night as hard as a fucking rock for the first time since I was a human teenage boy a long, long time ago.”

Walker’s cool voice pierced the lust-filled haze of my thoughts. “Take his thumb out of your mouth, Raine. You don’t want to hurt him.” He almost sounded pleading, but I quirked an eyebrow at him. Of course I didn’t want to hurt Tex. I wanted to fuck him six ways to Sunday, but I didn't want to obliterate him until he was a bloody mass.

And when you, uh, slept with Raine, Mika, whatever, you made her your mate. And then she went and became a vampire.”

he pressed his nose into my neck, a move so like Brody’s that I couldn’t refute what Brody was saying. Tex was a shifter.

I clung to that little bit of home so tightly that I didn’t know how I was going to let him go. But he had to go. I knew that deep down. Our families wouldn’t rest if they lost both of us to the Canadian wild.

Smiling, I pulled open the door. Walker was standing there in his uniform, hat, and everything, looking every bit as handsome as the first time I’d seen him. My eyes drifted past him, and my smile fell. Judge stood behind him, looking haunted.

“Well, this stupid human found his missing person, so how about you go fuck yourself?” Tex growled out, and Judge’s lip twitched.

“Still, I’m sorry I dragged you into this mess.” He huffed out a laugh. “I’m sorry I accidentally made you my mate.” I smiled against his chest. “I’m not,” I whispered softly. But he heard.

“I talked to Brody.” I resisted the urge to nuzzle his neck, in case he got the wrong idea. “Oh?” “I don’t want to go back. Brody thinks I could stay if I wanted. That he’d make me part of his Pack. I’d have protection.”

“There isn’t anyone else. Hasn’t been since before you went to college. No one serious, anyway. It never felt right. At least we know why now.”

“Does it bother you? That I have… you know?” “That you’re dating half of Deadsville?” I snort-laughed. Deadsville.

“He’s an asshole,” he grumbled. “But he kind of makes me want to take my pants off.”

“You didn’t know I was bisexual? Yeah, there’s a reason for that, Mika. My parents are super conservative Catholics, remember?” He held out a hand, and I realized he was holding his breath. I took it quickly, and he dragged me back into his arms. “I figure, if you can remake yourself as an undead woman named Raine, I can at least come out, right?”

Hot, right? Now imagine them more than kissing. Yeah. This is why my brain wasn’t firing well. “Say something,” he groaned.

“Depends—are you willing to share them? Are they all as hot as they sound?” I laughed. I could definitely get used to having a bi boyfriend.

Actually, Judge didn’t seem so perturbed about Brody being in his space either. Maybe he was keeping more than one secret from me too. Apparently, I was oblivious to anyone else's attraction other than my own—Tex was proof of that.

“I want you to bite me.” Someone laughed from behind me. “Well, that would be a freakin’ terrible idea, Rainy Day. Especially since Lover Boy just got interesting.” I whirled around, crouching, the predator ready to attack in defense of her mate. But I relaxed when it was just Judge. “Geez, Judge. Make a noise next time. How long have you been standing there?” Behind me, Tex was like a statue.

A part of me expected him to break Tex’s wrist or something, but instead, he lifted Tex’s hand to his face. “You wanted to know what I looked like,” he murmured, and I realized Judge had been standing there a lot longer than either of us knew.

When Tex ran his thumb over Judge’s full lower lip, I almost came right there in my big girl panties. Judge slid his eyes toward me and raised an eyebrow, telling me everything I wanted to know.

When Judge nipped at Tex’s thumb, causing him to hiss, I was about three seconds from throwing myself at them. I forced myself to stay rooted to the spot. Tex lifted his other hand, and pressed it hard into Judge’s face, his thumbs running along the line of his cheekbones, cupping the knife-edge points of his jaw. “Are you satisfied now?” Judge said in a low, purring voice. Oh damn. Tex shook his head. “Not yet.” Judge let out a chuckle that was one hundred percent sex, a hint of danger edging his words. “Hmm, what’s stopping you then?”

Tattooed fingers drifted lower, over his pecs and when his fingertips brushed across Judge’s nipples, the vampire hissed, making us all tense. He swallowed hard but nodded at me. I could see the heat in his eyes. “Keep going. Can you sense how much this is turning our girl on right now? Rainy Day is about to live up to her name over there. Wetter than monsoon season.”

Judge struck like a python. His hand gripped the dark strands of Tex’s hair, and he slammed their mouths together. Holy fucking shit on a dinner plate. I sucked in a gasp as they kissed. It wasn’t the way they kissed me, which was all soft and tender, even when Judge was being rough. No, they kissed like they were fighting for control, like they were in a battle. Tex gripped the front of Judge’s shirt, and I couldn’t tell if he was trying to push him away or pull him closer. It was frantic and feral, and I was about to come right on the spot.

Judge moved over toward me and kissed me. “Is this what you hoped for when Lover Boy down there told you he batted for the other team?” he asked me softly.

Holding his cock in one hand, he ran the fingers of his other through Tex’s hair gently, a tenderness on his face when he looked down at him that made my breath hitch. But he didn’t say anything as he pressed the head of his dick against Tex’s lips, and waited.

“So, that’s what Judge is like,” I said, running my fingers through his disheveled hair. He turned his head and kissed my palm. “I’m beginning to see why you stayed in this town, Mika.”