Stone Crest: Rise of a Raven

7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven

Locke

M y feet carry me down into the basement of our estate. Declan and I went in together on this thing nearly fifteen years ago. It was in rough shape, but we managed to bring the eight thousand square foot house back to its original state. Refinished the hardwood floors, updated the bathrooms, remodeled the kitchen, and created the underground safe room that I’m currently walking into.

“Incoming,” Hendrix bellows just as a football comes flying through the air and nearly hits my temple.

My quick reflexes allow me to catch it before I’m firing it back to him. It hits him square in the chest and he hunches over with a groan. “Fuck, Locke.”

“You done?” I ask. “I thought you vampires were tougher than that?”

He nods and rubs a hand over his shirt. “Yeah yeah. You’re always so damn….”

“Henny, give the man a break. He’s got…things on his mind.” Declan leans against the bar that’s tucked in the back corner of the room with a calculating grin.

Most days I’m glad we forged together, but other days, I wish he’d just stay in his wing of the house and mind his own damn business.

“Don’t you have a vein to drain or something?” I mutter.

“As a matter of fact. I was offered an invitation by a lovely lady on aisle three at the supermarket today.” He smirks. “She bluntly offered to drain my vein.”

“Gross.” Autumn gags. “Not the conversation I wanted to walk in on.”

“Please Autumn. You’ve seen my dick,” Declan scoffs.

“You’ve seen his dick?” Zander, who’s now hovering over Autumn’s five-foot two frame asks with annoyance.

It’s clear to anyone with eyes he’s got it bad for her, but she’s in a relationship with a douche bag and is too blind to see it. Zander owns the only tattoo studio downtown and has mad talent. You can tell by all the ink in the room he’s had plenty of canvases to work with.

“You were passed out on the lawn. Naked. It was in no way voluntary.” She rolls her eyes.

Zander stalks over to Hendrix who’s seated in front of three monitors. Hendrix is our tech man. He’s slick as shit. Even created a new music app that skyrocketed two years ago. He’s been sitting pretty since. Like Declan, Hendrix is a vampire. Another misfit that makes up our unconventional group. Zander is a shifter. A siren that shifts in the water, which comes in handy with our line of work. Autumn is a water shifter as well. She’s been secretive about her past, but we took her in regardless. If it wasn’t for Zander, she’d probably be dead.

“The others?” I ask.

“Callum and Nyko are on the way.” He nods.

Nyko is a wolf shifter like me, but Callum, he’s human. You wouldn’t think a bunch of creatures like us would befriend a human, but you’d be surprised what brings people together, and strangely, we all had one thing in common. Revenge.

Callum and Nyko ran a successful security company, and was another piece of the puzzle that made what we did work properly and quietly.

“What do we got?” I ask Hendrix.

He clicks a few times before surveillance footage pops up on one of his screens.

I lean over his shoulder, trying to get a better look at our target. "Vampire,” I state.

“He’s been hunting in Chamberlin, and he was spotted in Stone Crest last night,” he adds.

“Alone?”

“Wouldn’t be a surprise. Anyone that’s feeding on innocent civilians usually doesn’t have a group. It draws attention.” Declan slams his glass down. “Let me get changed.”

For a man who lives in suits that cost about as much as my first house, he loves the dirty work. Declan is what I would consider our hit man. Our enforcer. Nyko and I track since we have the best senses in wolf form while Dec has speed and strength. Hendrix backs him when we’re on a job.

“Get one down, a million more to go,” Autumn mutters.

With all the legends this town carries on, it’s our duty to keep our kinds protected, and that comes with eliminating those that bring danger to the innocent and bring questions that can’t be answered with logic. There was too much speculation as it was…. we didn’t need to hand them the smoking gun.