Death's Servant (The V V Inn, First Prequel Book) by C.J. Ellisson Page A

what I need to do. I can twist the connection to suit my plans without ever having met the addicts.” She glances at her watch. “Come, let’s get this over with. Rafe will be here soon and I’d rather have this part behind us when he arrives.”
    She opens the office door, revealing a shocked Tara huddled in the hallway. “Something is different,” she says, the fear leaving her voice as she ventures to stand. “My mind is starting to clear.”
    Dria nods. “Yes. The nightmare is over for your pack. Go to where Cecil imprisoned your alphas and free them. Give them the drink that restores their blood and strength.” Tara nods, her eyes as big as saucers. “How many ‘guests’ came to the house tonight?”
    “Five.”
    “Good. Gather every wolf you encounter to the large building out back. We’ll be there when we can.”
    “What about the wolves upstairs already with vampires?”
    Dria reaches out a hand and places it on Tara’s arm. Instantly the woman quiets. “Don’t you worry. I’ll get them out.”
    Tara scurries toward the back of the house. Dria watches her leave and strides toward the front entrance. Her high heels ring out across the wood with each step. In a moment we’re in the main foyer, facing the first room Tara showed us. The lounge contains one vampire mingling with three wolves. Wolves that look like they are waking from a long sleep.
    “Jon, take them outside and return to me.”
    The Weres look to me, and I swing my head to the front door. Without a word they move as one to the exit. The man sitting in the room is the one Cecil called Nathaniel last week, the one who tasted Raine against her will while the others watched.
    Curiously, he doesn’t move and doesn’t speak as I herd the Weres outside. I pause on the threshold, the retreating Weres safely in front of me, and glance back to see what Dria will do.
    “Close your eyes, Jon.”
    Before I have a chance to process the request, and decide to follow her command or ignore it, Nathaniel’s head explodes, showering the room in blood and bits of gore. Horror and shock roll through me as I stare at the redheaded vampire.
    Oh my God. What is this woman I’ve pledged myself to? Is she simply a vampire or something more? What is this unleashed power Dria wields?
    “I told you not to look.” She turns to face me. A calm detachment on her face. “Four more to go. Why don’t you go grab your clothes from the car and assist me as a man? It will be easier for you to help the Weres upstairs.”
    Without giving her a gesture of understanding, I race out the door, feeling as if the hounds of hell were on my heels. I never imagined a vampire could do such a thing to another of its kind and wonder why no one has mentioned it. Granted, we didn’t talk about vampires a lot in Manitoba, but surely if all of them could kill like that there’d be fewer vampires in the world, right?
    The heat of the night warps around me as I crouch next to the rented car. The hushed crying and whispers of the wolves standing in the gravel drive reach me, pulling me out of my thoughts to the here and now.
    I reach for the physical change, picturing my human form in my mind. Flesh dissolves around me as the bones and muscles re-knit so fast in a wash of energy that I’m returned to man in the blink of an eye.
    I rise from the gravel and open the back door, withdrawing the bag and grabbing my clothes with a speed I’ve never possessed. I slide the T-shirt over my head, then pull on jeans, apprehensive to face not only what waits for me inside the blood brothel, but to come to grips with exactly how I’m managing to move and change form as fast as I am.
    It’s the vampire heart, you twit. Guess you’re digesting it faster than you’d bargained for.
    My stomach clenches at the thought, the urge to hurl and dispel the vampire heart raging through my system.
    “Who are you and what’s going on?”
    I turn and see the three wolves from inside, huddled next to