Free TangledHunger by Tina Christopher

agitated than usual and sent me away. He
told me to go shopping and not come back until he phoned. But he never did.”
    “So you came back against his wishes.”
    Trurro nodded. “Yes, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I found
him in the bedroom.” He covered his face with his hands. “They cut off his
head. Duncan, they killed him.”
    Duncan grabbed his shoulder. “What did you do?”
    “His instructions had been very clear, so I called the
undertaker and followed Hugo’s final wish.”
    Before the boy could succumb to another wave of grief,
Duncan pulled him back. “You said he spent a lot of time in his office. Doing
what?”
    “I’m not sure, he kept the door closed most of the time.”
    Duncan rose and strode inside the study. The room was as
lavishly decorated as the rest of the apartment. A massive real-wood desk stood
before French doors leading to a balcony. Floor-to-ceiling shelves were filled
with books, real paper books.
    Nothing seemed out of place. The small personal comp hummed
on the desk. Duncan instructed it to show him the last transactions and was told
that it had been wiped clean. Knowing Hugo’s attention to detail, chances of
recovering any data were slim to none. He paced up and down, hands on his hips,
trying to imagine where Hugo would hide his information.
    He’d been afraid and sent his human lover away. Hugo knew
the enemy was coming for him. He would have found a way to leave something
behind to avenge his death.
    Duncan had heard rumors about Feral activity that crossed
the line and could lead to another galactic war between humans and Vampires. Vampires
might be the stronger, more advanced race, but their birthrate was far slower
than humans. Unless Vampires started turning humans left, right and center,
humans would always outnumber Vampires, making an all-out war deadly for the
Vampire race.
    If Hugo had evidence of the Ferals’ actions, Duncan had to
find it and see what he could do to stop it from getting out of hand.
    He stared at the classic books lined up on the shelves, all
neat and tidy. At the decorative statues lined up like soldiers. One closer
look showed him the figurines were based on book characters. He studied one
more closely. The Tin Man had a brain around his neck and that was wrong.
    Duncan carefully lifted the short necklace off the figure
and studied the brain amulet. It looked exactly like a student version of a
human brain. His fingertips traced across it with the lightest touch and he
found a hairline fracture. With a hint of pressure the brain broke open and
Duncan found an old-fashioned microchip.
    Fifteen minutes later Duncan stared at his comp monitor.
They had completely and utterly lost their minds. If they continued on this
track they wouldn’t just cause a war with humans.
    It would lead to the total extermination of Vampires.
    * * * * *
    Hours later Duncan stumbled into his complex. He’d been
talking to his sources, trying to verify what he’d found at Hugo’s. He was dead
beat and only wanted a tall glass of Baijiu, then to get a shower and try to
rest his brain.
    What he didn’t expect was to be attacked by a fury in his
own lobby.
    “Where have you been? Do you have any idea how long I have
been waiting for you? Hours!” She punched his shoulder. “Where the hell were
you?”
    Duncan captured her wrists and shook her a little. “Tanasha,
pull yourself together. What happened?”
    Hours earlier he parted ways with an immaculately dressed
and controlled Naema, who’d snuck into his head and made herself at home there.
She’d made his heart race and his cock hard.
    Now her hair was tangled, a smudge of dirt decorated her
cheek. Her clothes were disheveled and her pants had a small tear. And
controlled? Nowhere close. Her emotions bombarded him. He felt her fear and
knew it was the predominant reason for her screeching.
    He released her wrists and took her by the shoulders.
“Tanasha, calm down and tell me what happened.”
    She took a