Read Online Wolf in Plain Sight by Delilah Devlin - Free Book Online Page B

Max had often seen before Joe turned. “You’ll be with me.”
    “Wearing your flak jacket tonight, Garcia ?” Max said, keeping his voice even.
    “Will I be needing it— Max ?”
    “You never know, old buddy .”
    The door opened again, and the rest of the team filed in. Max forced himself to relax. He felt so wound up, he was a hair-trigger away from exploding. The Captain knew better than to partner him with Joe—he’d made his feelings clear on that issue.
    However, the sly look in Joe’s face when he’d mentioned scouting for new vamps in town had raised red flags. Joe knew about Pia. Max had known the bitch was too good to be true—even before he’d discovered she was a bloodsucker. Just his damn luck the most appealing woman he’d met in years…
    Maybe shadowing Joe for the night wasn’t such a bad idea. He might get a chance to figure out what she was doing here and how The Council might be involved. Remembering his brother’s suggestion to pal around with Joe, Max decided to play it cool and keep his ears and eyes open.
    He glanced across the table and found Quentin’s gaze trained on him. Something was definitely up. The bastard’s face always sported a smirk. Now, his expression was a blank slate.
    *
    Max’s head pounded in time with the heavy beat of the rock n’ roll blaring inside the last stop of the night. Hard rock music couldn’t have been more appropriate for his rotten mood.
    “Look, I’m going to speak with the bartender,” Joe shouted into his ear. “Why don’t you have a look around the back rooms, see whether everyone’s playing nice.”
    Max nodded, glad for the chance to shake Joe off his back for the first time since they’d left the station. Maybe he’d even find some vamp action he could sink his stake into.
    The scene in the “blood banks” had undergone a dramatic change since The Council came into being. Before, vamps had always sought their victims in dark alleyways or the restrooms of the “blood banks”—seedy bars where the pickings were easy. Lured by the erotic and sometimes hypnotic nature of the vampires, humans followed them into darkness.
    If they were vampires with souls or at least a healthy streak of self-preservation, they played by the rules and drank only enough to sate their appetites while leaving their human hosts slightly dizzy from blood loss. The gift the humans earned in return for serving as meals-on-legs was a powerful, sexual release.
    Since vamps were hard to spot unless they forgot to retract their teeth or wore their monster faces, Max had often crept into dank, dark hidey-holes to catch a vamp in action and dust him.
    Now vamps had public places, poorly lit back rooms in bars, where humans and vamps could mix and be watched. This was considered an improvement. So long as the sexual conduct remained fairly PG, no one interfered with consensual blood sharing. Prostitutes and thrill-seekers were the only human fare—that was another rule: No innocents could be taken here.
    When Max pushed through the door of the “feeding room”, he hoped for one little scream so he could let loose.
    The heavy thump of the drums was just as loud here as in the main hall, because the room was packed. The sound of the bass beat was muffled, but insistent, like a relentless, throbbing heart. A colorful light ball spun overhead, painting the patrons in strobing, rainbow colors while they undulated to the music and their sexual fervor.
    Max edged around the room, checking the humans to make sure they were conscious and pink-cheeked. Unfortunately, everyone appeared to be playing nice.
    Then he caught a glance of a familiar mane of glossy brown hair among the dancers. He shoved between gyrating bodies until he stood behind Pia and her human meal. The young man was groping her backside, grinding his hips into hers while her face snuggled into the crook of his neck.
    Max’s shoulders bunched tight as steel, and he saw red. His hand sought the stake deep