I was so enthralled in his story, I didn’t smell her approach.

Alek looked at her with curiosity.

“That’s right,” he confirmed. “But I can control it. I’ve done it before. I didn’t come here for blood.”

Having worked for RAIDOS, Alexa knew a lot about the supernatural community. I knew asking her to come would be a smart idea. RAIDOS was now our enemy and she should be brought up to speed on all new developments.

“Can you control it?” Max looked at him skeptically.

Alek raised his hands. “You caught me. I’m here to drain all of your blood. I walked into your hundred-strong den with a heroin junkie teenager. That’s my big plan,” he said, sarcastically.

“Look, we’re just trying to understand why you’re here,” I told him, trying to hide my smile at the way he shot down Max.

Alek shook his head. “I’m sorry, this has all gotten derailed. I’m not thinking clearly. I haven’t fed in three days. Look, we came to give you information about the queen. The kid knows stuff. He was turned two days ago and he heard things. I thought we had a common goal, but if you don’t want our help, we can leave.” Alek grabbed the kid by the shirt collar and turned to leave. The queen was Alek’s word for Layla. I wondered why he wouldn’t say her name.

“Hold on,” Kai told him and Alek stopped, turning to face us.

The teenager scratched his arms. “But I’m not telling nothing unless you give me some blood.” He fixed Kai with a glare.

God, he must have been sixteen years old. Some mother was probably roaming the streets looking for this kid.

“Fair enough,” Kai said and the kid’s face relaxed. “Let’s all go to the barn.” Kai led them away from the check point.

Max grabbed Kai’s arm. “I don’t like this. Since when do we supply vampires with blood?”

Kai grabbed Max’s shoulders. “Since now. Times have changed and we need to adapt to survive.” Then he walked away and we all followed.

Blood

Kai made a clean cut on his wrist and positioned it over a small glass. It began to fill with blood. Frowning, I decided I was never using that glass again. Ick.

The teenager’s nostrils flared and he tried to launch across the table, but Alek pulled him by the back of the neck mid-air and slammed him down hard on the table top. The teenager was breathing in through his nose and hyperventilating. Jesus.

“Be patient, child! Our host’s generosity will run out if you attack him,” Alek told him through gritted teeth.

The kid whimpered.

After filling the cup, Kai bandaged his wrist and handed the glass to the kid. “Is that enough?” Kai asked as the teen greedily gulped the blood.

Alek frowned slightly and swallowed hard. “Yes, that will be enough for now. Thank you.”

“What about you? I need you clear-headed and well fed if you’re staying on my land around my females,” Kai told him and went to cut his other wrist.

I stopped Kai’s hand. “No, that’s too much. I’ll do it.” Was he stupid? Werewolves died of blood loss. I wasn’t going to let him stand here and give two glasses away.

“No, you won’t. Vampires need your blood for other reasons, remember?” he ordered me and looked at Max. They were conversing in their heads, I could tell.

Max threw his arms up. “Fine! Why not? These are the good cuddly teddy bear vampires, right? Let’s help them,” Max joked, reaching for the knife.

Before Max could do anything, Alexa grabbed the knife and slashed her wrist, holding it over the empty cup that the teenager had drained.

Kai stared at her with his mouth open. “Alexa!”

She was a wild card, I had to admit. After things had settled after Layla bit me, we tested Alexa’s pack rank. She was fourth behind Max. She was very dominant and did what she wanted most of the time but respected Kai’s authority.

She shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.” The cup was filled and Alexa watched in fascination as her wrist healed. “Cool,” she said. She was still a werewolf newbie.

The teenager was panting now and his pupils were pulsing. “I want the other kind of blood,” he whimpered to Alek.

Alek shook his head. “No,” he stated firmly.

Alexa handed him her cup. “Bottoms up,” she said. He bowed slightly before taking it back in three big gulps. His pupils shrank, his cheeks were pink, and he stood taller.

“Thank you, I feel much better,” Alek said politely.

As a human, I had struggled with low blood sugar issues. I was always snacking. Sometimes I got dizzy or grumpy or confused if I didn’t eat. I wondered if that was how vampires got, too.

“So, you have some information for us.” Kai stared at the kid.

The kid wiped his red-tinged mouth on his sleeve.

“Yeah, well, I was at a house party a few days ago and some really pale chicks showed up with some smack.”

I looked at Kai in confusion.

‘Heroin,’ he told me.

The kid went on. “I smoked weed a bunch of times but never did hard stuff. I wasn’t interested, but one of the chick’s made me. Her eyes went all purple and she sweet talked me into it. The second the high hit me … she attacked me. Bit me.” His hand flew to his neck rubbing the spot where he was once bitten.

Kai, Alek, Alexa, Max, and I all had the same look on our faces. Rage. This was not okay! Bringing drugs and forcing them on teenagers in a house party was not okay. Mist began to creep off my skin and I took a deep breath to calm myself. I wanted to blast the roof off of this barn! If I was feeling wishy-washy about killing the vampires before, this cemented my belief that they needed to be wiped out. Everyone associated with Layla’s drug-running clan would die. Anger rolled off of Kai and rippled through the entire pack bond.