Serpent's Touch: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (The Last Serpent Book 1) Read online

  The man now mounting my car pulled his hoodie back to reveal a bald head, bright red eyes, and a pair of sharp fangs descending from his mouth where canines should have been. He hissed, and his voice made a sound not unlike the shriek my phone had just produced. This time, however, I didn’t hear it with my ears, I felt the shriek in my bones. My entire body began to tremble, and then it froze. I watched him wind back his arm and throw it into the windshield with enough power to punch right through it, sending shards of glass flying into the car and creating a spider web of cracks that spread along the rest of the windshield in an instant.

  I pulled back against my seat just as the thing’s groping hand came searching for my neck. He cocked his other arm and smashed that one through the windshield too, reaching for me with two hands as the windshield between his arms began to fall away. As soon as I saw an opening, I aimed the pepper spray at one of the holes his arms had made and pressed the button.

  A jet of liquid squirted out, some of it splashed on the cracked glass, but most of it sailed through the opening and struck the monster attached to my car in the face. My eyes stung from the backsplash, but the thing that had been groping for me made that screeching sound again and began to retreat, staggering away from the car and toppling over a curb.

  Looking out the passenger’s side window, I spotted the second man already at the side door. I could have stayed inside and tried to fight them both off with the pepper spray, but I was already having trouble keeping my burning eyes open, and I didn’t know how long the car would hold against the kind of punishment these things were apparently capable of dealing.

  Instead of accepting almost certain death, I opened the driver’s side door and stumbled out of the car, collapsing onto my hands and knees and rolling on the asphalt. Fighting through my own panic, I picked myself up and began to run, despite not being able to see as well as I would’ve liked. Tears were streaming down my cheeks and my legs felt like putty, but I was moving—moving toward the mall—back to where I knew there was at least one other person. Ten more seconds and I would make it.

  Powerful hands descended onto my shoulders, cutting my forward momentum and pulling me backward to fall flat on my ass. I struck the ground hard enough to elicit a shriek, but I didn’t have time to focus on the pain. The creature had circled me like a vulture about to land on its prey, and he was coming for me.

  He grabbed my jacket collar and pulled me to my feet. I struggled with him, trying to wrestle his hands away, tearing and pulling at his fingers, but his grip was vicelike. Then the realization dawned on me: it was going to kill me. I had to find a way of defending myself somehow—it was kill or be killed.

  The monster’s eyes gleamed with blood-red light. He opened his mouth, revealing the same vampire fangs as the first creature I’d encountered, and hissed in my face. The little white knives glistening in his mouth came toward me as he arched his head around to bite my neck. Incredibly, I still had the pepper spray in my hand, and as much as this was going to suck, I pressed it into his face and shot off another squirt.

  My eyes started to burn, too, but in the shrieking confusion—the adrenaline haze— I managed to pull myself to my feet and run. Unfortunately, this vampire must have been more resilient to pepper spray than the other one because I had only gotten a couple of feet away before he was able to grab my foot and hold me in place.

  I sent my right fist toward his face, spinning my torso around with the momentum, and caught him square in the jaw before he was able to stand. A loud crack sounded on contact and reverberated throughout my entire body. My hand was burning from the impact, eyes teary from the pepper spray, but the vampire had at least released my foot, and for now I was free of him.

  When he got to his feet, he threw a glance at his buddy, who had rejoined the fight, and they started to close in on me again like animal control trapping a feral cat. I could barely see them, could barely keep track of my surroundings. I staggered back, and while my swollen eyes ached from the effort of remaining open, my heightened senses remained hard at work, picking out possible escape routes. If I could just make it to the mall…

  The vampire who had made swiss cheese out of my window lunged unexpectedly. Again, I fell back, my body instinctively trying to move out of its reach. Just as it reached me, a wink of light so bright I was forced to look away and shield my eyes split the air. There was an intense blast of heat, as if an oven door had been opened. The hot breeze crashed into me and was followed by a cloud of ash. I kept my eyes shut and my face turned, but I could feel the ash touching my cheek, my hand, and getting into my hair. When the draft receded, I turned my head to see only one vampire in front of me through a cloud of swirling ash.

  He turned tail and ran without a backward glance, speeding into the night as fast as his legs could take him.

  My heart was pounding. I could feel it not only hammering against my chest, my temples, but also my neck, my feet, and in the tips of my fingers. A thin film of sweat had broken out across my brow, and my body was running so hot against the cool night, my hands were giving off steam, unless I was seeing things.

  I got the impression the source of the light, that intense, hot wink, had been behind me, so I spun around on my heels and backed up, putting my hand up as if anticipating the same thing would happen to me. Only it didn’t. There was someone there, but looking at him was like looking at a mirage. The air in front of him shimmered and shivered, obscuring his features. I got the impression of heat, and could even feel it radiating from the spot where this dark figure stood. The shimmering halo around the person in front of me slowly dissipated, leaving the man—the source of the power that had turned the vampire to ash—standing only a few feet away from me.

  Somehow, the effect of the pepper spray on my eyes was gone just like that.

  “Get back,” I said, taking another step away.

  Dante put his hand up. “I’m not here to hurt you,” he said, his voice just as low and husky as it had been before. “Do you believe that?”

  “You’d better stay back.”

  He didn’t move any further, but he did lower his hand. “Does that happen often?”

  “Does what happen often?”

  “Those guys. The attacks.”

  “What do you know about them?”

  His stare tightened, and his jaw clenched. “A great deal.”

  “Then you’d better start talking.”

  He shook his head. “No. Not here. Someone may have heard that, and there could be police on the way.”

  “Look, I’m grateful for what you’ve done here, but I’m going home, and you aren’t coming with me.”

  I started toward the car, but when I saw it, realization came flooding back immediately. That car wasn’t going anywhere. The thing had put a hole in the windshield as wide as a basketball. Even if the car did start now, there was no way I would be driving it home. The first cop I saw would pull me over in a heartbeat. The best thing for me to do was call it in, make a report, and give a statement. But, I didn’t want to do any of that. I just wanted to go home.

  “Need a ride?” Dante asked.

  I turned around to look at him. “I don’t know who you are,” I said. “For all I know you’re involved with those guys, and you’re just making yourself look like a big hero.”

  “I’m not involved with them, but more will come. And they won’t stop coming until they get what they want.”

  My eyes narrowed, and I looked from the car, to Dante, to the bus stop only a hundred yards away, and then back to Dante. I almost couldn’t stop myself from looking at him, taking in the shape of his jaw, the intensity in his eyes, the shape of his lips. Dammit. Why did I feel like I was making a deal with the devil?

  “Fine,” I said as I walked past him. I picked up the can of pepper spray from the ground. “Just so we’re clear, you have until I get home to explain whatever you want to explain. That’s about fifteen minutes.”

  A smirk spread across his face. “All th
e time I need.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  The Offer

  Dante drove a black Lotus Elise Sprint, a sleek, petite yet powerful sports car. From the way he dressed and carried himself, had I really expected any less? The interior of the car had that fresh off the line smell, as if he’d driven it off the lot fifteen minutes ago. Though the exterior was black, the interior was cream colored with polished mahogany accents on the dash and control panels. The car itself purred like a jungle cat as it cruised down the long, quiet road separating the mall from the center of town.

  We’d already been in the car at least three or four minutes, and neither of us had said a word. He knew his timer was running out, I was sure, but something told me he didn’t much care.

  “What do you know about those guys?” Dante asked, breaking the silence.

  “Know about them?” I asked, “I don’t know anything. They just came out of nowhere.”

  He shook his head. “They didn’t come out of nowhere. They’re supernaturals, and they want to eat you.”

  “Eat me? That’s insane.”

  “Is it? I think what you saw tonight stretched the limits of what’s sane and insane, hasn’t it?”

  “Maybe, but how do you know they wanted to eat me?”

  “Because that’s what they do. They want your energy. Has this happened before?”

  “Yes but no. I’ve never seen anyone that looks like that, and I’ve never actually been attacked. But I’ve had that feeling before, a feeling that tells me something is wrong, and I can sort of tell who it’s coming from. I’ve always been able to get away before anyone noticed me.”

  Dante glanced over at me, but I wasn’t looking at him. My eyes were staring up at the night. A bridge passed overhead with two people standing on it, making out under a streetlight. “You don’t think you’d have gotten away?”

  I shrugged.

  “Still think I’m involved?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Until you prove otherwise.”

  “Well, if I wanted what they wanted, don’t you think I’d have taken it from you at the store?”

  “Unless what you wanted to do was lure me into a false sense of security… get me when I’m at my most… vulnerable. Most afraid.”

  I lowered my voice as I spoke, gradually letting it fade into a soft, almost sensual whisper. His expression, however, didn’t change. The smirk remained plastered to his lips as if he had been born with it. I could imagine it, too; this baby, born into the world with two of the most gorgeous eyes I had ever seen, smirking at the doctor, at the world.

  “You’re good,” he said.

  “Good? At what?”

  He turned his eyes back to the road again. “I bet you’re used to making all kinds of men weep.”

  I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Sure. Anyway, I wasn’t kidding when I said that they would come back again, especially now that I’ve shown myself.”

  “What makes you so special?”

  “I have a reputation. Those people know me.”

  “So, you are involved with them.”

  “I’m involved with an organization that finds vulnerable supernaturals and puts them under our protection.”

  “I’m sorry… supernaturals?”

  He looked over at me again, and his lips twitched into a smile. “It’s a little late to play coy, Lilith.”

  Coy. I wasn’t playing coy, I was actively trying to lie to him. Sure, I had never seen a vampire before tonight, not really, but I’d always gotten feelings from people—I’d always known I had a sixth sense of some kind. And if people can have a sixth sense, then why shouldn’t there be a supernatural world full of monsters and magic? I simply didn’t want to let on that I knew more than I cared to share.

  “Who says I need your protection, anyway?”

  “Let me answer your question this way. If those guys come back, and they will, how long do you think you’ll be able to fend them off before they take what they want from you?”

  “Why would they want to eat me?”

  “Because, Lilith, you’re a supernatural.”

  The laugh spilled out of my mouth before I was able to contain it, a cackle that filled the interior of the car. I almost snorted, too, for good measure.

  “This isn’t a joke.”

  A single second of looking into his eyes told me not only was he being totally serious, he could also see right through my bullshit. Still, I continue to play the part anyway.

  “What the hell do you mean I’m a supernatural? I don’t look like them. I’m just a regular person.”

  “Your powers haven’t developed yet, which is why you’re an easy target. Your blood would make them stronger. But it isn’t just vampires; there are others out there that would love to make a meal out of you, most are far more terrifying than what you saw tonight. I can’t say you’re safe where you are anymore, and that’s why I’m here.”

  “How do you know all that?”

  “Because I know who you’re dealing with, and because I’ve been following you for two weeks.”

  I shifted in seat, my heart suddenly kicking into gear. “What?”

  “Don’t be so surprised. They’ve been following you for longer. At least I’m not trying to eat you.”

  “So you say.”

  “And yet you got into my car. If you’re so worried, why didn’t you catch the bus?”

  I sighed. “Because the bus sucks, and you were right about getting out of there before the cops showed up.”

  “I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m trying to help you. The sooner you accept that, the sooner I can make my offer.”

  “Offer?” I asked, my eyebrows pinching in the middle. “What offer?”

  The car slowed as we reached a red light just at the edge of town. No one crossed. “The organization I work for doesn’t just protect vulnerable supernaturals—we train them, help them discover and unlock their potential. I could take you to them, and you would be able to learn everything there is to know about yourself.”

  “Take me where?”

  “I won’t be giving you specific details until you accept.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “You realize that’s shifty, right?”

  “Not shifty. I’m just protecting myself and the people I work for. If you accept, I can have you ready to go first thing in the morning.”

  “So, let me get this straight… you want me to pack a bag and leave with you tomorrow to an undisclosed location so that I can learn how to be a better supernatural, and I don’t have to pay a penny?”

  “That’s right. You’ll fly first class, and I can assure you the accommodations are going to be incredible.”

  “Fly…”

  I had never been on a plane before. I had barely left the city before. The thoughts running through my head were coming too quickly for me to catch them all. I had no idea who this guy was other than his name and what I had seen him do, and he was offering me a chance to… what… discover myself? For all I knew he was going to roofie me and throw me in the back of a truck, although he didn’t have a truck—he had a sports car—so there was that…

  “What’s the catch?” I asked.

  “There’s only one.”

  “I knew there would be.”

  He started driving again. Another few minutes and we would be at my place, a small residential block on a busy street. “The catch is you can’t ever come back to your old life.”

  I tilted my head to the side. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean the experience will change you. Home will never feel like home again.”

  The neighborhood passed me by: laundromats, bars, and fast food places followed by an attorney’s office, rental car lot, and then an old video arcade that made its money now thanks to the wave of nostalgia affecting most children of the 1980’s. Dante stopped the car at the foot of my apartment building, redbrick and uninspiring. I stared up at it and saw my own re
flection surrounded by the glow from inside the car superimposed on the image of my apartment building in the window.

  Let go of this?

  It wasn’t much, but it was home, wasn’t it? Yeah, the faucets leaked often, the neighbors were loud, and the rent was probably a little too high, but my house was where my stuff was. My bed, my books, my cat—Shit, my cat. How was I supposed to just leave without my cat? She’d been there with me through thick and thin. More than anyone else I knew, we were buddies—even if she was a grumpy old bitch sometimes.

  I pulled the door handle, cracking the door open a touch. “Look,” I said, “This all sounds… interesting. But I’m going to say no.”

  “Sure I can’t change your mind?”

  “I don’t think you can. My life is here. I don’t have a lot, but I’ve earned everything I’ve ever gotten. I’ve never had a handout, and I’m not going to take one now.”

  “I can respect that,” he said, “But if you change your mind, I’m staying at the North Trail Hotel.”

  “I won’t.” I opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out of the car. “Thanks for the lift… and for the other stuff, too.”

  Dante nodded.

  The night was cool, cooler than the inside of the car, and blessedly fresh against my warm cheeks. I shut the car door and headed for the grocery store across the street where I grabbed some cat treats, a bag of chips, a microwave pizza, and a six-pack of Pepsi. The car was gone by the time I crossed over to my block again, and Dante was out of my mind by the time I entered my apartment.

  An hour passed, and I had finished two Pepsi’s and the pizza, when something strange happened. I started thinking about Dante again. Not necessarily about his offer, but about him. Who the hell was he, really? A Google search on Dante Rhodes brought up nothing, nada, zilch. He was a ghost. No online presence at all. But he clearly had money, or at least he was pretending to, and he had some kind of power. Not only had I felt it when we touched, but I had seen him use it when he…when he turned that guy to ash.