The Vampire Went Down to Georgia (Southern Vampire Detective Book 3) Read online

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  The Vampire Went Down to Georgia

  The Vampire Went Down to Georgia

  Other Books by Selene Charles

  About Selene Charles | Selene Charles is the pen name of a successful NY Times and USA Today bestselling author. She loves to write about the seedy underbelly of things that go bump in the night. If you want to learn more about her books you can follow her on FB.

  The Vampire Went Down to Georgia

  Scarlett Smith is back, but this time the stakes couldn’t get any higher...

  Mercer and I we shouldn’t have done what we did at the Infantes Castle, not killing the vampires, cuz...let’s face it they totally deserved to die. No, the other thing. Binding ourselves to each other. Mating. The cost was high. And now, our love might make us lose everything we hold dear.

  Now we’ve been summoned to Georgia to meet with the Alpha Council. Clarence is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder against his pack, but somehow he’s only gotten a slap on the wrist for it. Something’s just not right. I know it and so does Merc, but we’re helpless. We have to go to Georgia. We have to fight to save Silver Creek. But when we get there and I find out what the council really wants me to give up, I’m not sure I can. I’m not sure I will.

  But a betrayal is coming for me. A big one; one that will shatter all the things I’ve ever believed in or held sacred. And before three days are up the world as I know it will never be the same again.

  Join me in the explosive finale that you are sure to never forget...

  The Vampire Went Down to Georgia

  Copyright 2018 Selene Charles

  Cover Art by Damonza

  Formatted by D2D

  My super seekrit hangout!

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, events, or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, Selene Charles, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in the context of reviews.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Selene Charles.

  Unauthorized or restricted use in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patent Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2018 by Selene Charles, United States of America

  Chapter 1

  Scarlett

  He had me pinned to the forest floor, neon-green, feral eyes staring into my own.

  My heart was racing and my skin tingling as my own beast roared to life inside me, wanting out, wanting to play. Blood rushed through my ears, a sound still novel to me because, for so long, there’d been nothing but dead silence within me.

  I’d had to run away, had to make him chase me. I saw the glow of the wild in his eyes, and I knew he would have destroyed Blue for what he’d done to me. I had to save Blue. He was an idiot sometimes, but he was my idiot.

  So I ran as far and as fast and my short vampire legs could carry me. I hopped the bar top and flew from that honky-tonk into the woods. He howled once, making my blood boil, turning it into pools of molten lava within me. Then I heard him give chase. Gods, I felt high on anticipation, adrenaline, and the knowledge that I—tiny, five-foot-nothing Scarlett Smith—could have that kind of power over him. The wolf wanted to kill Blue, but the mating instinct was too powerful, too heady for his beast to ignore. He had no choice but to give chase.

  I liked it when Mercer got like this. I loved his animal. Loved the wild man that lived within him. Yes, I was saving Blue from a grisly death, but I also wanted Mercer all to myself. Our time was short, and soon, we’d run out of it altogether. We both knew the day of reckoning would soon be here. Our need for each other had grown stronger and more frenzied by the day.

  So I ran, knowing instinct would grab hold of him and force him to chase after his mate. Me. A vampire. Sometimes I still couldn’t believe it, even though it’d been two weeks since we’d sealed our union in blood. And now, miles away from any other living soul, I’d finally let him catch me, let his wolf get the win, because soon, I would get a win too.

  “Calm down, big guy,” I said gently as I ran my fingertips over the scruff of his whiskered cheek. My heart—which had been nothing but a rock for decades—suddenly beat like a drum in my chest with my own burgeoning excitement and need.

  He settled his heavy weight over me, caging me in as he sniffed me with wild, animalistic aggression. He would never hurt me, even high on the mating need as he was. But I loved the thrill of knowing, if he really wanted to, he could rip me apart with his bare hands, he was so powerful.

  His head was in the crook of my neck as he breathed deeply, filling his lungs with the scent of us. Me and him. Like frost and fire, we were two opposites that had no business being together, but I would have killed anyone and anything that stood in the way of us. I had already once before.

  His long black claw slid down the center of my neck, making me hiss and writhe with the unbearable and exquisite agony of desire only he could have awakened in me. I’d had his body so many times since we made this thing official, and yet it still wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.

  Mercer—who’d given chase to me as a man—was now transformed into his beast form. Half man, half wolf, and all mine. I grinned, licking my own elongated canines, as his deep growl continued to reverberate through his thickly muscled chest. I wrapped my arms around his massive sides and gouged deep grooves into his flesh.

  He whimpered with his need for me too. To an outsider, Mercer was a thing of a nightmares—fur and fangs and monstrously proportioned. But I’d never been afraid of his baser form. I hissed when one of his fangs pressed against the hollow of my throat, so close that if I even twitched a muscle, he’d puncture me and bleed my precious fluids dry.

  I was a vampire. He was a shifter. Sworn enemies of old. Seeing us, those not in the know would think I was seconds away from a violent death. I moaned, the sound so sexually charged that my own beast flexed and writhed within me, carving out the hollows of my face, transforming me into a monster too.

  Mercer pulled back just a little, just enough so that the neon green of his eyes latched on to the bloody hue of my own, and a satisfied smirk stole across his halfway-shifted features.

  His cock pressed into my heat, probing and full. I gasped, wet and so damn ready that I was starting to whimper, biting down so hard on my bottom lip that my own fangs had drawn blood—his blood, which coursed through me.

  Satisfaction rumbled through his heavy chest, and the animal in him grew more frenzied and needful. He ground his hips into mine, and I whimpered, wrapping my arms so tight around him that I felt the breath forced out of his lungs. Color exploded behind my closed eyelids, and I moaned again and again, the sound full and throaty, as I lifted my clothed hips and met him grind for grind.

  I needed him to fill me, to pound into me again and again. I needed to be grounded in his taste. His touch. His want and love for me. Needed to remember, to be reminded that this was no longer a dream, but our new reality.

  We’d really done it. We’d defied everyone, ever
ything, and a lifetime of old hates and prejudices to be together. He was mine, and I was his.

  He chuckled. I thought I’d known what good sex was before, when James would take me and own me, when his deep strokes would make me cry and hiss with unbearable pleasure. But he’d been nothing compared to Mercer. Not even close.

  Sex with Mercer always took me just to the pinnacle of true death. So high were we on each other that had we been vampire and fae, we would have gladly killed one another for the temporary satisfaction of such absolute bliss.

  “Shhh, shhh, my silver flower,” he said in the voice of a delicious monster as he stroked the length of my neck with his wicked claw. “I’m here. I’m right here.”

  His voice caressed my flesh like an airy tendril of rusted razor blades, making me whimper and cry out from both pain and pleasure. I knew what was coming for me, and I could barely wait anymore.

  I needed him. Now. Right now. I circled my hips, lifting high and grinding hard, making him hiss and moan as he dropped his forehead to my collarbone and nipped.

  We were both so gone that we shouldn’t have been able to focus on anything other than the blood, the need to kill, and then maybe fucking whatever had the misfortune of being caught in our path. But the bond between us gave us clarity and focus, made us aware of each other, so that even our monsters played nice. All we wanted, all we needed was this. Skin to skin. Sex to sex. Thrust for thrust.

  What I’d had before had been the JV team compared to the masterful stroke and touch of my mate. I’d never been into soft sex, always liking it just a little on the rough side. But Mercer made me crazed. Wild. I was an animal when I was with him.

  There was nothing off-limits between us. He was creative. Inventive. And he owned me. I could deny him nothing. Not my body. Not my heart. Not even my soul.

  He bit down on my collarbone, just below the spot where he’d marked me as his back in OZ what felt like forever ago. I groaned as he shoved lightning through my veins, making my blood hot, hot, hot. I writhed and shuddered. He hadn’t even slipped inside me yet, but already, I was on the verge of an explosive orgasm. Already, I was throbbing, needing, like an exposed nerve. All he had to do was breathe on me, and I was ready. I was always ready for him.

  “Fuuuck,” I moaned as I banged my head against the hard earth, body electrified and raging with need.

  “I’ll tear his head off his neck for touching you,” he growled, voice grown deep and husky. Then he dropped a heated kiss on the hollow of my throat, tongue flicking out for just a second, burning me alive with desire. “You’re mine.”

  I groaned, hating how much clothing we still had on. I wanted him in deep, needing him to fill the spaces within me, needing to feel the connection, the warmth of his silky-steel brand me as he marked me as his.

  Hard fingers grasped my chin, forcing my eyes open. His were neon, glowing, but even in the wildness, I saw the man. I saw the love that was always there, always burning for me. I wet my lips, and he sucked in a shuddery breath as he ground his hips down harder on me.

  “Oh my fucking god.”

  “Say you’re mine,” he barked, continuing to rub me with his hard silk.

  Lashes fluttering as I fought not to roll my eyes to the back of my head, I nodded. “I’m... I’m yours.”

  Blue probably shouldn’t have teased Merc that way. He definitely shouldn’t have grabbed me up just as Mercer turned the corner from his office into the honky-tonk, and he damn well shouldn’t have kissed me like he was dying and I was his only cure. But that was Blue’s way. He was a rascal, and everyone knew it. Being a dark fae, he just couldn’t stop himself from starting a little chaos.

  We all knew he hadn’t meant it. Blue had always flirted with me, but it was just that—silly banter. It didn’t mean anything. He only did it because he knew what it would do to Mercer.

  All of Silver Creek knew Mercer and I had mated. Our unique scent was unmistakable. Our bond meant that we breathed the same, our hearts beat in tandem, I knew his deepest, darkest secrets, and he knew mine. I was him, and he was me. We started and ended in the same place. We were one.

  If I moved, he was just a step behind me. If someone hurt me, he would demand to know whose head needed to roll. He was my world, and I was his.

  Not to say it was all sunshine and roses because we damn well knew it wasn’t. Any day now, Clarence would be back. Any day now, the Alphas would summon us both. Rumors spread fast in shifter circles. If the whole Veiler world didn’t already know an Alpha had willingly taken on a vampire bride, they soon would.

  Mercer had his allies, but he’d lost a lot of people too. Emerson, his good-for-nothing brother, led the charge. On the best of days, Emerson had hated my guts, but now... now I was pretty sure that if he ever got me cornered and alone, I might be in big, big trouble.

  The den—my nickname for the town’s only watering hole—had lost nearly half its patronage overnight. Silver Creek had become divided—those for Mercer and those vehemently against us.

  I was nobody’s favorite here, but over the years, they’d begun to tolerate me. Now, I got nothing but vitriol and hate from the bitches and side-eye from the males.

  I hated it.

  But I wasn’t going anywhere. Not when I had Steven to watch over. And not when my man stayed. Where he went, I did too. For better or for worse.

  Yeah, maybe we were doomed to fail, but in for a penny, in for a pound.

  A dark rim of green circled Mercer’s already-neon irises. He was high on rage and sexual need, and his wolf was just a hairsbreadth away from snapping.

  It didn’t matter who found us now. Be they friend or foe, if anyone intruded on us, Mercer would kill them without question and without mercy. He needed his mate. The wolf was wild and unleashed, and the only way to bring him back down, the only way to breathe sanity back into him was for me to be right here, right now.

  I wrapped my arms tight around his neck. “Take me now,” I growled, voice silky and deep as only a blood-drunk vampire’s could be.

  That was all he needed to hear. Using his claw like a blade, he tore through the fabric of my jeans. Cold air wafted over my heated, slick flesh, making me writhe and groan.

  “Fucking hell,” he murmured, nostrils flaring as his wolf breathed me in deep. “Goddamn, you’re the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.” His voice was full of animalistic grit, and he was just barely keeping his wild in check.

  With a deft flick of his wrist, he tore through the front of his own jeans, shredding them completely, rendering them useless. I keened as I felt the heat of his firm flesh brush against my swollen center.

  He didn’t prepare me, didn’t croon to me that it would be alright, that he would be gentle. He didn’t need to. I was so ready. The moment he rammed into my tight heat, my spine arched off the ground.

  “Shit. Shit. Shit!” I hissed as the orgasm began at the soles of my feet, spreading like wildfire through my veins, up my thighs, and flaring in my wet center before shoving like a tidal wave up my torso and through my arms until finally, it exploded at the crown of my head.

  Squeezing my thighs and eyes tight, I screamed as Mercer continued to plow into me, making me feel as if he was cleaving me in two, as if he could kill me if he moved even half an inch to the left or right. I clawed at his back, shredding through his shirt, lost in the void of oblivion as the rising tide of orgasm consumed us both.

  He stiffened, roaring just a second before I felt the burst of hot seed flood through me. I screamed again, and stars exploded behind my eyes.

  It took forever for me to come back to myself, but when I did, I was slicked with his sweat and mine. We smelled of each other—musk and the wild and the coppery tang of blood. Mercer was still inside me, still long and full and hard.

  Shifters had stamina for days. Maybe that’s why, after I’d died, humans could no longer satisfy me. They were nothing compared to the size and strength of a full-blooded shifter male.

  I moaned, completely sa
tisfied and yet always ready for more. I rocked gently on him, milking the last dregs of pleasure from him.

  He groaned with me and dropped a tender kiss onto my forehead, pressing down hard, like a stamp. He was marking me, telling me without words what I meant to him. What I truly meant to him.

  “Look at me,” he said in a voice that sounded less like the beast and more like my male.

  I felt drunk and dizzy with the flutterings of aftershocks still rolling through me. The nails I’d dug into his flesh with frenzied need just seconds ago, I now ran tenderly over the contours of his toned obliques. I was finally able to pry my eyes open, and when I did, I saw his neck was coated in blood. I licked the tip of my fang and realized that, at some point, I’d latched on.

  I sniffed, a little mortified by my lack of self-control when I was with him. But he brushed his calloused fingers over my cheeks and shook his head. His cheeks blazed with life and warmth, and he wore a smile I knew only I would ever get to see. It was unfiltered, raw, and pure. It was love, pure and simple, and all mine.

  His eyes were no longer just neon green. Now they burned with a circle of turquoise blue, his normal color. His wolf had claimed me as his again and was now satisfied to slumber away. The beast was ridiculously simple to understand. Another male had dared to touch me in an intimate fashion, and the beast had needed to reassert his claim over me. Already, Mercer’s body was returning to more normal proportions, looking less like a beast and more like the man.

  As a vampire, I didn’t necessarily feel the need to mark territory or dominium, but having lived all my undead life among the shifters, I completely understood their instinctual needs. The wolf had once more declared me as his for all the world to see, but it was the man—my Mercer—who gazed down upon me with unspeakable tenderness.

  A lump worked its way up my throat, and I swallowed hard. He framed my cheek in his large, capable hand. Hands I’d seen tear other vampires apart limb from limb. Hands that’d grown tough and calloused through years of hard work. The same hands that had held me when my parents died and had glided as sensuously as silk over my marble-cold flesh in the heat of passion. I loved his hands.