Free Dark Hunter by Shannan Albright Page B

saving Mari’s life.
     
    ****
     
    Mari watched as Navar and Adrian moved around the room, using the crowd as cover while they cautiously approached the back booth. The same booth where she’d discovered Anya’s body…no, she refused to go there, not here and sure as hell not now.
    H er curiosity was eating her alive. She wanted to know what they found so interesting in the back booth, but from her angle at the bar, she couldn’t get a clear view.
    “Hey, babe, I need a Jack straight.”
    The voice brought her up short. Forgetting about her customers and giving bad service was not acceptable to her, and it was a good way to lose her bar. She plastered a big smile on her face and turned to the asshole who’d called her babe. “Coming right up.”
    Grabbing a rocks glass, she poured two fingers of the golden brown alcohol and set it in front of the man. “That will be five-fifty.”
    “Put it on a tab.” The man gave her a tight smile, his fingers closing over hers around the glass.
    A shiver worked its way up her spine, sending barbs of unease thorough her body. The cold from where his fingers rested on hers sank into her, giving her goose bumps. She noted his dirty blond hair hanging in limp strands against a gaunt face and the odd, slightly rotten odor emanating from his massive frame. He was dressed in a plain black T-shirt and jeans streaked with dark stains, but many of her customers came here right from work.
    No, the warning bells sounded when she looked into the crimson lights flickering in his eyes. His face was unusually flushed. As she watched with growing horror, he gave her a wide-toothed smile showing stained teeth, and dear gods, a sickly green substance dripped from his elongated canines. Realization hit her with all the force of a freight train.
    Feral.
    Her futile attempt to pull her fingers free only resulted in his grip tightening, threatening to crush her bones, as he shoved his face up way too close to hers. His fetid breath made her stomach roil with nausea. “I’ll break every finger in your fucking hand if you make any sudden moves.”
    Fear rooted her feet to the spot. Her heart pounded so hard in her chest she thought she would break a rib. “It was you? Why?” Her demand came out on a thin whisper, but the acute hearing of the feral vampire meant he heard it well enough.
    “Your relationship with the enforcers has not gone unnoticed. Now you take up with a hunter? It’s time to send a message to all who choose to stand in our way, and you will be the message.”
    “This is neutral territory. I can damn well serve anyone I want or refuse them. And that means anyone who walks through my door. I won’t be bullied to change my mind.” She hissed between her teeth, anger spiking her adrenaline as she yanked free and took a step back out of his reach while she glared at him. “Now, get the fuck out of my bar, and don’t come back.”
    He shot her a nasty smile, his eyes focused on a point behind her left shoulder. She fought the urge to look behind her, her gaze instead darting around the room for any sign someone would be watching the altercation.
    Nope, and wasn’t that just her luck?
    She opened the mental pathway to get Navar’s attention. A sharp burning sting in her neck made her gasp in sudden pain. As prickling heat traveled down her neck to her arms, she turned around on wobbly legs as weakness stole through her body only to confront a pair of familiar blue eyes. A wall slammed down hard in her mind, her call bouncing back at her with enough reverb to make her temples start beating like war drums in her head. Her arms were yanked back with savage force, but she didn’t have time to fight as a pair of fangs sank deep into the flesh between her neck and shoulder for a second time. The second dose of poison pulsated through her bloodstream, rendering her helpless, paralyzed, and unable to protect herself. She opened her mouth in a silent scream as her vision spun and she