TJ Michaels

Note for Readers: You must be over eighteen to read this excerpt.

EXCERPT from HATSEPT HEAT
Vampire Council of Ethics Book 3
By TJ Michaels, Copyright 2007
Samhain Publishing, All Rights Reserved

Max turned down what appeared to be a dead end. At the end of the street, he stepped through an unmarked door and closed it quietly behind him. Seconds later, his tail did too.

Inside the nondescript building was a catacomb of twisting and turning hallways that seemed to go on forever. She saw nothing and no one. Perhaps Max had ducked into one of the other rooms she’d passed as she moved deeper into the building? If she didn’t see him soon, she’d make her way back out somehow and go to his apartment to wait. There was no way she’d continue to walk around in this place with no idea of what was in front of or behind her. In fact, it was a stupid idea to come in here in the first place.

Just as she started to turn back, Shinju stepped into a huge warehouse full of crates of all sizes and types. What the hell? Had she stumbled into the opposing clan’s goody store? If so, perhaps she’d find a nice new katana to take as a prize.

Then voices sounded just ahead. Sounded a lot like Max swearing. Her stomach dropped into her knees as she sought a place to hide. Diving behind a stack of pallets piled with crates, Shinju squeezed underneath and crawled to a spot with a gap between the wooden slats. It gave her a perfect view of Max. And the man quickly closing on him was no fellow yakuza.

He moved faster than anyone she’d ever seen. He made no sound and was on her brother in a flash. Just as she moved to get out from under the crates, something happened that she never thought she’d see in all her days. Not only unimaginable, but impossible.

The man lifted Max, a full grown man packing plenty of dense muscle, right off the floor like he weighed nothing. Then he grabbed Max by the hair, pulled his head to an odd angle…and bit him? Yes. Bit. Him. His teeth sank right into Max’s flesh like some kind of animal. No human’s teeth could puncture skin like that. Could tear out a chunk of flesh until the blood flowed like an endless stream. The man threw back his head and laughed, his face painted red. His teeth—oh my God, fangs—gleamed with her brother’s lifeblood.

What should she do? If she showed herself would the man attack her too? If he could pick up Max and overpower him with such ease, what would he do to her? What to do? What to do? Adrenaline set her whole body shaking as she tried to reason it out.

But Shinju was simply frozen with terror as her brother lay dying not twenty feet from where she knelt trembling under the crates.

Blood. So much blood. It was congealing into the cement floor, flowing into the cracks. The scent reached out and wrapped around her, oozing up her nostrils, then down her throat, gagging her. Covering her mouth, Shinju held her breath, tightened her stomach muscles and forced her dry heaving to clog in her throat. Better to choke silently on her own vomit than give away her position.

The attacker’s head swiveled her way. Oh no! Had he seen her? Perhaps if he had super strength and killer teeth, then maybe he had x-ray vision too. Then just as quickly as she’d stumbled onto the ghastly scene, the man took off, leaving her in the dusky warehouse with her indecision.

Another movement caught her attention. There just off to the right came another figure moving so fast it almost seemed to beam into the room out of the darkness. Hell, vampires were no longer on the list of impossible things. What other creatures walked the night among the completely unsuspecting and oblivious humans? Never mind. Shinju didn’t think she wanted to know.

Several men moved in her direction, eyes searching, missing nothing.

“Shit!” yelled one of the newcomers, pointing down at Max’s twitching body, then motioning toward the direction the first murderer had fled.

“Go get him!”

“Yes, sir.” One man immediately took off in hot pursuit, moving so fast he was merely a blur.

Yet Shinju still hadn’t moved an inch. Maybe they were friendly? She hoped so. Max needed help. His movements were becoming less and less strong. Shinju knew that if someone didn’t do something she would watch her brother die.

Another one of the men growled into the darkness. “What do we do with him? He appears to be a human.”

Did that mean these guys weren’t human either? Monsters like the one who’d fled?

Her question was quickly answered. The one who seemed to be in charge bared a set of sharp-looking fangs on a snarl, reached down and lifted her brother in his arms.

Oh God, no. Max couldn’t possibly take another attack. She had to help him. Had to. Scooting backward and out from under the crates, Shinju ran to where her brother’s blood congealed and separated on the floor. But he was gone. The whole lot of them had departed as quickly and silently as they’d come. And they’d taken Max with them.

Shinju hit the floor in a crumpled heap, and there she sat. Sat and prayed and cried until her eyes were sore and her legs numb from the cold of the concrete floor. Even when her feet felt stung by pins and needles, she’d watched the spot where Max had lain as if her wishing and hoping could bring him back.