Free Dr. Wolf, the Fae Rift Series Book 1- Shockwave by Cheree Alsop Page A

scattered cadence on the sidewalk.
    A lump he had mistaken as part of the bags of garbage that piled at the corner separated and rose up. Aleric skittered around the lumbering giant’s arms when the man attempted to catch him.
    “Come back, pup,” the giant called. “I haven’t eaten for days. You would make a juicy morsel.”
    Aleric turned the next corner and slid to a halt. At the end of the alley, three vampires stood around a body. They didn’t look like the healthy, haughty vampires he had met once when his mother took their taxes to the Sanguis Building as part of the Armistice agreement. These vampires were skinny, frail, red-eyed creatures whose bones could be seen through their thin skin. All three of them turned at Aleric’s appearance.
    “We have no power over Ashstock,” one said.
    Another shook his head. “This one is weak. We should try.”
    “Come here,” the third one coaxed.
    “Come join our game,” another invited. “We’re having fun.”
    “You’ll really like it,” the first said.
    Aleric made the mistake of looking into their eyes.
    “Here little wolf, come hang out with us.”
    He took several steps forward, his mind in a fog. Instincts, even at his young age, told him listening was a terrible idea, but he couldn’t fight against the pull of their voices.
    “You’ll really like it,” the second vampire said.
    “Not as much as we will,” the third commented.
    “Concentrate,” the first snapped. “We can’t let him get away.”
    Aleric felt as though he was wrapped in a warm blanket. The sensation paused with the vampire’s rough words. Aleric was almost to them. The promise of being with anyone after the absence of his family was almost more than he could deny, yet instincts tickled at the back of his mind. He wondered if he should phase to human form so he could talk to them.
    His gaze shifted to the body at their feet. For a moment, he couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing. It looked like a faun, its throat torn open and blood staining its skin and fur. But the blood was old and the faun’s skin was gray. The creature had been someone’s feast days ago and now the vampires were left with the refuse.
    Fear prickled through the hold the vampires had on Aleric’s mind. He took a step backwards.
    “We’re losing him,” one of them said.
    “Stay calm,” another echoed.
    “Come to us,” the third told him.
    Aleric shook his head against the compulsion. The third vampire darted toward him. Aleric yelped and turned, galloping back up the alley and around the corner.
    He ran until he could no longer hear the sounds of pursuit, winding in and out of Drake City’s confusing network of alleys and streets. Everywhere Aleric looked, terrors loomed. There were creatures trying to eat him, an old women coaxed him with yummy food until he caught sight of the cleaver behind her back, tentacles snaked out of a street drain and grabbed his paws; they nearly succeeded in pulling him under until a chance car rounded the corner and the tire clipped him, knocking him free.
    Exhausted, terrified, and hungry, Aleric limped to an abandoned apartment building that looked ready to fall down at any moment. He found a board leaning against the building and crept beneath it.
    Aleric’s body shook. His head hung. Memories of his mother pushed against him and it took every bit of his willpower to keep from howling again. She had fought the sickness for as long as she could. He knew she did it for him. She had told him so when he lay on the bed with her, willing for her to come out in the sunshine and play with him like she used to. She wanted to, but her body wasn’t able.
    His dad told him the blight was his fault, that she had never fully recovered after his birth. The kicks and beatings he gave Aleric when they were outside of his mother’s hearing only added to the heartache Aleric felt.
    The day his mother died, Aleric had been watching from the door. The doctors were there beside