Free Turned by Virna Depaul

his boss about the dark-haired man who’d been hassling Ana. What he hadn’t known then was that the man was a vampire. He did now. The cop’s bullet couldn’t kill him. But it would cause Fang Face a shitload of pain.
    Ducking his head, Bobbie stifled a grin. Delight rippled through him. Even as a kid, he’d loved the mingling of blood with pain. Whether it was the sight of it, the smell of it, the sound of it … whether it was his own or someone else’s … didn’t matter. He’d cut himself and cut up others, animals and humans, enough times to know what floated his boat.
    His mother had tried to make him feel bad about himself. She’d always told him he was a freak. Twisted. And for a while there, he’d started to believe her. He’d even let her commit him, and had undergone weeks of treatment by doctors who’d prescribed handfuls of pills. The medication had clouded his mind until he’d found the strength to fight back. Until he’d finally understood the truth.
    Until he’d joined the Devil’s Crew gang and learned that vampires weren’t just myth, but joyful fucking reality.
    In the end, he’d realized his instincts weren’t wrong, he’d just been born wrong. How many times had he heard about men who felt like women trapped in men’s bodies? So much so that they’d willingly cut themselves up to change their gender. Well, Bobbie sure as shit hadn’t been born the wrong gender, but he had been born the wrong species . He should’ve been a vampire, and now he was going to have his own shot at reassignment surgery.
    But only if he played his cards right.
    Vampires. Damn, he knew for a fact they existed. He’d seen them for himself. Still, sometimes doubt reared its head. Sometimes he expected to wake up in an insane asylum. But having just watched this dark-haired one drink from a homeless man’s throat, Bobbie knew that no, he wasn’t crazy, just lucky. Lucky to be in the know when ordinary fools didn’t have a fucking clue. When so many were still operating under the delusion that humans were at the top of the food chain.
    As the cop got back into the squad car with his partner and drove off, Bobbie shook his head with awe. His boss’s efficiency was impressive as hell. All it had taken was a phone call from Bobbie saying a strange male was sniffing around Ana and that he’d gotten rough with her inside the café—though from Bobbie’s hiding spot outside, their tussle had seemed more like foreplay than actual violence. He’d been immediately instructed to follow the guy and make sure the hit went down as planned.
    When the guy had freaked and attacked the homeless man, Bobbie had been surprised. Mesmerized. And undeniably excited. When the vampire had run, Bobbie had lost him. He’d been panicking when he’d heard the sirens and decided to follow them. And his hunch had paid off. He’d seen the cops pull up. Knew from prior experience who’d sent them.
    And knew what Officer Southcott didn’t—the man the boss had wanted dead wasn’t. Wasn’t a man. And wasn’t dead.
    But just to be sure …
    Bobbie walked toward the wounded vampire and crouched beside him. Instinctively, he felt a shiver of pleasure at the bloody hole in the man’s forehead. He was still breathing, however, his chest rising and falling with his jerky breaths.
    God, how awesome it would be. To be that strong. That indestructible.
    But despite his capacity to heal, this vampire hadn’t been as strong as the other two.
    Why? Did vampires come with varying degrees of strength? If that was the case, Bobbie would have to make sure that when his time came he was turned into the best of the best. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a vampire yet, and that meant he had to hurry before this one woke up. Even if he was the weakest vampire, chances were he could crush Bobbie with a flick of his little finger.
    Sure enough, the wound was already starting to close, pushing the bullet out of the man’s skull. Bobbie quickly