Free The Secret Guide to Dating Monsters: Secret McQueen Story by Sierra Dean

when a new wave of pain rocked my body as my bones attempted to force themselves together. My collarbone would need to be re-broken and set again if it had any hope of healing properly.
    “I’d finish you myself if I could,” Holden replied, then led a very compliant Tyler away from the scene.
    “I’ll make it painless.” The smile on my face gave away how much I was going to enjoy it. I only wished I could make it last longer.
    The sword only had to swing once. A vampire couldn’t come back from a beheading.

Chapter Eight
    The next night, I found myself sitting on the steps outside of the council’s headquarters with a newspaper in my hands, thanking my lucky stars I was alive. Surviving Charlie and his goons had been the easy part. Facing the Tribunal afterwards to explain why I’d killed three vampires on a subway platform filled with witnesses, well…
    I’d rather be neck-deep in hungry rogues than square off against the Tribunal again.
    To be fair, they’d gone easy on me given how close I’d come to exposing the truth about vampires to the world. I could have been executed for what I’d done, and one of the three leaders, Juan Carlos, seemed more than happy to watch me die. Thankfully, the two others, Sig and Daria, weren’t in such a hurry to do me in.
    They needed to punish me for something, though, or risk total anarchy among the council. They’d charged me with the unlawful execution of three rogues. It was, as charges go, a misdemeanor and a total walk in the park punishment-wise. I got to keep the ten thousand for killing Charlie but owed the council the head value of each of the guards. They had docked fifteen hundred dollars from my bounty, and I’d been removed from active duty for a month.
    I tried to be happy about my hefty new bank balance, but I was too mad at Holden to enjoy it. Not only had he missed almost the entire fight, he had done nothing to defend me to the Tribunal tonight. Instead, he’d agreed my actions had been reckless and stupid and that I had put every vampire in New York at risk.
    It wasn’t that he was wrong, I was just pissed he hadn’t even tried to take my side.
    My phone vibrated, distracting me from my grumpy musings. The caller ID told me it was Mercedes, and I considered not answering.
    “Hello?” I said warily, bracing myself for her wrath.
    “So, Tyler called me,” she began. She sounded calm enough.
    “Yeah?” I didn’t know what Tyler would have told her, because I only knew the truth. I had no idea what Holden had convinced Tyler of when the detective was under the thrall.
    “Yes.” Anger laced her tone, and I knew whatever the story was it wasn’t good. “He said you guys were having a great time until you got a business call and just vanished. He said you left him in the restaurant without a word, and even though he tried to call you, you totally blew him off.”
    “Oh.” Well, so much for a second date. I was livid. Instead of giving him a story that would have let me still be the good guy, like a friend in the hospital or something, now Tyler was always going to remember me as that bitch who ditched him in the middle of dinner. Awesome.
    “Oh? That’s all you can say?”
    I was somewhat distracted by that day’s edition of the New York Post , which Holden had been kind enough to provide me a copy of. The front-page headline boldly announced the story of a vigilante blonde with a sword who had been terrorizing the subway during the night. Details were foggy, because the only witnesses were people who had run away before the vampires had arrived, and there were no bodies or evidence of any kind to back up the story. The body of the guard in Charlie’s room had already turned to ash thanks to the big, open windows, and the vampires had subsequently wiped the memories of everyone involved.
    Sig had seen to it that by tomorrow the Post would be printing a retraction, and hopefully by the end of the week it would all be forgotten.
    “I’m