Chapter 1

Abandon prudishness ye who enter here--fantasy violence and gay sex awaits.

There comes a time in every spoiled brat’s life when his spoiled-brat status comes back to bite him in the ass. Even when the brat in question is a world renowned vampire hunter. Especially then, I thought with a sigh.

“License and registration please,” said the cop at my window. He had one hand on his belt buckle in the universal, condescending way that cops seem to instinctually do. His dark glasses were tucked into the “v” of his black polo uniform shirt. If only he’d been chewing some gum he would have been the image of “small town cop” made flesh.

Keeping these thoughts to myself, I shifted my weight and dug my wallet from my back pocket. Reaching up to the visor, I pulled out my insurance card and handed them both to him. He studied them while I sat there looking wide-eyed and helpless. The helpless blond routine almost never failed on a rural cop, even if the blond was male. Fortunately for me, my car was pretty low to the ground. My six-foot frame would have made “small and hapless” tricky to pull off had I been standing.

“Regan St. James, huh?” he said. “Kind of a mouthful.”

Bashfully, I lowered my eyes and said, “Yes, sir.”

He chuckled. “Good thing you don’t have a middle name.”

Smiling like that was the funniest thing I’d heard all day, I was kinda surprised he hadn’t thought “St.” was my middle name.

“And where are we going in such a hurry, Mr. St. James?”

“The high school, sir,” I said. “I need to get there before it closes at four.”

He glanced at his watch reflexively. “What’s your business at the high school?”

“Equivalency exams.”

“What for?”

“I’m home-schooled, sir.” I peeked up at him the fringe of my longish blond hair. “I’m really sorry I was speeding. I should have been paying more attention.”

The cop surveyed me solemnly for just long enough to speed my heart up. Then he said, “I guess I can let you go with a warning this once.” He handed back my stuff.

“Don’t let me catch you speeding again.”

I beamed up at him in relief. “No, sir. Thank you so much.”

As the cop walked away my hazel eyes drifted closed and I pressed my hand against my chest in a totally futile attempt to still my wild heart. That had been a close one, too close. But it could have been worse . It could have been a total, unmitigated disaster.

Fortunately for me I had been carrying my legal identity on me, and I kept my registration on the visor instead of in the glove box. It would have taken some fancy footwork to explain away the unregistered 9mm. Since I was in my personal car instead of the old, beat-up bucket I used on jobs, the small arsenal in the back was absent. God, that would be all I needed.

Once the adrenaline had faded, I put my hands back on the wheel and started the engine up.

“God, what dumbass invented high school anyway?” I muttered.

With a quick glance both ways, I pulled back onto the road.

Being the heir to a family of vampire hunters hadn’t left me with a whole bunch of time for traditional schooling. Instead my father had registered for various programs and taught me himself as we traveled around the country kicking ass. But every so often, about once a year, he started feeling guilty about depriving me of the wholesome fun that was the public school system.

So he called upon his various connections, and boom—standardized test time. I should have known it was coming because he’d given into my latest request far too easily.

I sighed moodily as I rounded the last ridge that would begin my descent into town. At least one good thing would come out of this. As if one cue, the merry vibration of my cell phone flickered to life.

Grateful the cop wasn’t around anymore, I drew out my phone. The screen read MILLY, one of the depressingly small number of permanent friends I’d gathered over the years. I flipped it open.

“Hiya,” I said.

“Hey, Ree,” came Milly’s voice. “You here yet?”

Taking a second to balance the phone between my ear and shoulder, I answered, “Almost. I’m pulling up the ridge now.”

“Awesome.” I could tell she was psyched from her tone. “Am I looking for the clunker?”

“Eww, no.” My nose wrinkled. “I’m in the bug.”

Milly gasped. “The green one?”

I rolled my eyes. “Duh.”

On my sixteenth birthday, my father had given me a custom made mint green bug, with gray and purple interiors. For the first little while afterwards, it’d had purple chrome wheel covers to match. I didn’t drive it all that often, but somehow I’d still used it enough to make the covers need replacing.

“I haven’t seen it yet,” she squealed with excitement.

“So get prettified and we’ll go cruising around.”

“Prettified?”

“Yep.”

“Oh, Ree, never change.” I swear I could hear her grin.

I grinned back. “Don’t plan on it.”

“You’re Regan St. James?” the secretary asked me. I had just barely skated in before they’d locked the doors, so she probably wasn’t too happy I’d made it.

Biting back something smart-ass, I pulled out my ID. “That’s me,” I said cheerfully.

She studied my ID For a second before wandering over to make a copy of it. Surprisingly, she wasn’t some stout matronly figure, but was relatively young and attractive. She did have a case of nineties bangs going on, which led me to believe she was in her late thirties, yet in spite of it she was wearing a smart pants suit that flattered her curves.

“Principal Parker still here?” I asked.

“No, he’s gone home already.” She left the copier and bustled around her desk. When she came back she had a small stack of papers in her hand. She passed them to me. “You’ll need to fill those out and bring them back on Monday. I should be able to get you everything else then.”

I tossed her a winning smile. “Okay, thank you so much.”

She was a bit dazed as she smiled back. “You’re welcome.”

Snickering to myself, I stowed the papers under my arm and headed out.

Milly’s house was pretty much the same as I remembered it; nicely sized without being a sprawling architectural monster. I didn’t really have time to take in much more that. As soon as I pulled up the curb Milly came rocketing out of her house, dark hair streaming in her wake. I laughed and dashed around the end of my car to meet her. We slammed into each other’s hugs, laughing and making girly noises. After a bit we pulled back, a little embarrassed.

“Hey, Ree,” she said, her dark eyes bright.

I grinned back. “Hiya, Mills.”

“Safe trip?”

“It was okay.” I patted my car’s hood affectionately.

She turned toward my bug and squealed. “It’s so cute!”

“Isn’t it, though?”

With a laugh, she grabbed my hand. “C’mon, Mom and Dad are waiting.”

“Hey, wait a sec.” I snatched my hand back. “While we have a minute to ourselves, tell me where to go to…blow off some steam around here.”

Milly rolled her eyes. “Spent three hours in the car and need to loosen up, huh?”

I smiled, all self-deprecating. “Something like that.

She thought for a second. “Local boys just go get plastered in the mountains, like ya do, but college guys hang at this place called the Library.”

“College guys.” I grinned. “Even better.”