Shift Work (Carus #4) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Excerpt

  Praise for J. C. McKenzie’s

  Shift Work

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Epilogue

  A word about the author…

  Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  Instead of sinking into nothingness,

  I walked through a moonlit path in the middle of a forest, clothed in some long translucent nightgown probably dating back to the 1800s. Fog blanketed the ground and parted majestically as I walked. Warning bells chimed in my head instead of birds. The forest had no scent. No pine aroma laden with summer flowers. No crunching of branches or snapping of twigs as animals roamed through the dense, moss-coated floor. No rustling leaves in the wind. My bare feet padded along the rough rock and grass path without a sound, and without any pinched nerves.

  An artificial forest.

  Only one person…thing…would muck around with my mind like this.

  I rounded a large evergreen, and the path opened up into a large clearing. A man stood in the middle. Naked skin glowed in the moon light.

  Sid.

  “If this is how you seduce a girl, it’s not working.”

  His lips twitched and thankfully only that. I closed the distance between us and came to a stop three feet away. No need to get too close.

  “Relax Carus, I have no wish to make you mine.”

  “Good.”

  “No more than you already are…” Sid winked.

  I clenched the cotton material in my fists and squeezed. Attacking Sid in this realm, one under his control, would not be a good idea and wouldn’t get me the answers I sought. Smashing my fist into his kidneys would feel pretty good though.

  Praise for J. C. McKenzie’s

  Carus Series

  “SHIFT HAPPENS is a fast-paced, humorous, sexy paranormal. If you like your heroine to be butt kicking and brave, even though she is secretly scared to death, then you will love Andrea.”

  ~Annetta Sweetko, Fresh Fiction

  ~*~

  “BEAST COAST is a fun fast read that pulls you in with action and keeps you reading with a good story. J. C. McKenzie has a hit with her Carus series and BEAST COAST is a must read.”

  ~Shellie Surles, Fresh Fiction

  ~*~

  “Sassy, snarky action, packed with wonderful one-liners and irreverent laughs…”

  ~Katie O’Sullivan, Author of My Kind of Crazy

  ~*~

  “Ms. McKenzie has a fun style of writing, part humor, part sass that rounds out a good plot.”

  ~Karilyn Bentley, Author of Demon Lore

  ~*~

  “[CARPE DEMON] is a fast-paced action-packed novel that kept me on the edge of my seat from page one. I can’t wait to see what Andy gets herself into next. 5 fangs.”

  ~Paranormal Romance & Authors that Rock

  ~*~

  “If you’re looking for a blend of action, humor, and a cast of awesome characters with a side of romance, don’t miss out on this series. Seriously. It rocks.”

  ~C. J. Burright, Author of Wonderfully Wicked

  Shift Work

  by

  J. C. McKenzie

  A Carus Novel, Book 4

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Shift Work

  COPYRIGHT © 2016 by J. C. McKenzie

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by Debbie Taylor

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Black Rose Edition, 2016

  Print ISBN 978-1-5092-0589-9

  Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-0590-5

  A Carus Novel, Book 4

  Published in the United States of America

  Dedication

  To my sister, H, for her love of books.

  If you hadn’t devoured fantasy novels through adolescence, or I hadn’t followed you like a shadow wanting to do everything you did, I would never have discovered the world of urban fantasy.

  Thank you.

  Acknowledgements

  SHIFT WORK would not have been possible without…

  …the help and expertise of my critique partners and beta readers: Charlotte Copper, Shelly Chalmers, Karilyn Bentley, and Katie O’Sullivan;

  …my editor extraordinaire, Lara Parker, who continues to crack me up with comments like, “Holy crap!!! You killed her?? Ha, ha!”;

  …my publisher, The Wild Rose Press, for continuing to believe in me;

  …my talented cover artist, Debbie Taylor, for providing the most striking covers possible;

  …the readers, for their kind words and reviews;

  …and my family and friends for their unconditional love and support.

  Thank you.

  “The earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. This we know. All things are connected. Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.”

  ~Chief Seattle

  Chapter One

  “Weird is a side effect of awesome.”

  ~Abhishek Ghosh

  The skin of my inner thigh pebbled into hundreds of goosebumps as Tristan’s fingers slid up my leg to hook into my satin panties. His hot breath fanned the burning inferno in my core. At last! We’d waited for so long. Finally, I would feel him deep inside me.

  I gripped the silk sheets, twisting them in my clenched fingers. Piercing sapphire eyes, framed with porcelain skin and midnight hair, met mine before his gaze travelled down the length of my body to dip his head between my legs.

  Something in my mind twisted. As if setting off an alarm, only to get smothered before it could make any sound.

  “Can I join in, Andy?” a deep husky voice, chilled whiskey
over warm cream, shattered the silence. Wick stood naked by the door. His tall muscular body glistened with a sheen, his body hard and ready.

  Tristan waved him over. Hot damn! Two for one.

  Something niggled in my brain, like a worm working its way through an apple, but I shushed it and arched my back against the soft sheets. Wick appeared at my side, and his devilish mouth clamped on my skin.

  Something pulled at my neurons. This wasn’t me, was it? Two guys…silk sheets? Why had Wick appeared? I’d chosen Tristan, hadn’t I?

  “If I’d known your kinky little mind had a hankering for ménage, Little Carus, I would’ve suggested joining in a while ago.” Another voice fractured the air. An unwanted voice. A voice of intrusion.

  Sid the Seducer.

  Demon.

  I bolted upright in bed, my cotton sheets clinging to the thin layer of moisture covering my body. Sweaty, like Wick’s had been… I shook off the remnants of the dream and the fading sound of Sid’s laughter. The sickly sweet smell of perspiration soaked through the linen and wafted up in waves to my face; tiny bitch-slaps telling me to get a hold of myself.

  Threesomes would never be my thing. Never tried it, and never would. Despite having a choice of men, I would never become a supernatural who delved into the land of promiscuity. Just not my thing. That damn Demon knew it, too.

  Tristan mumbled in his sleep and threw an arm over my lap. Even in slumber, he tried to comfort me. We’d been doing more and more sleep-overs recently. Although the relationship progressed slowly because of me, we both craved the closeness. His citrus and sunshine scent, laced with honeysuckle, broke through the nauseating smell of my fear, and I breathed deep.

  Fucking Demons.

  Did Sid plan to torment my nights indefinitely? This was the third dream-nightmare in a row. Obviously, my blood gave him access to my mind, but what else did he gain from the connection? Aside from feeding off the sexual energy, what else could he do?

  My cell phone trilled in the darkness. I glanced over at the device, the latest i-something on the market that Lucien the Master Vampire had given me. I’d decided to keep it as a token of my service when I kicked Lucien’s bond to the proverbial curb. My phone trilled again, and I picked it up to look at the screen.

  Allan.

  My scalp prickled, and my hand clenched the phone. What the hell did he want?

  As Lucien’s second-in-command, his call meant nothing good. No longer tied to the Master Vampire, I cared what happened in that court as much as I cared about the true contents of a hot dog. I hit ignore, placed the phone back on the nightstand and curled up into Tristan’s heat.

  My phone vibrated with a message.

  And then started trilling again.

  “Mmmphh,” Tristan mumbled into my hair. His nose dipped down and rubbed against the sensitive skin on my neck. “Are you…hmrm…getting that, Andy?”

  “No,” I said.

  The silence had little chance to descend and carry me off to a hopefully Sid-free dream-land before my phone started making incessant noises again.

  I snatched my phone off the nightstand, punched the accept button and yelled into the phone. “WHAT?”

  Tristan startled and sat up beside me, hands flying to his face to rub his eyes.

  “Lucien’s dead,” Allan said and hung up.

  ****

  The torrential downpour pummeled the bay windows and signalled the end of summer. I sat up in bed and rested my back against the headboard. Less than five minutes had passed since Allan’s phone call, but my mind still reeled.

  “Lucien’s dead?” Tristan pulled himself up to sit beside me, then ran his hand through his disheveled black hair. “That’s all he said?”

  “Yup. I assume he means the Master Vampire is truly gone.” The neurons in my brain kept firing signals, but my body refused to react. Numb shock.

  Tristan leaned in and kissed my temple. “Didn’t give you a chance to point out Lucien was already technically dead, did he?”

  “No.”

  “You’re quite cute when you sulk.”

  “This is serious, Tristan. Why’d Allan contact me? If Lucien is gone, that makes Allan the new Master. What does he want with me?” My heart thudded in my chest. What would this mean for me? When blood bonded to Lucien, I’d been employed as an ambassador by the SRD to work as a liaison between the government and the Vampire horde. Remaining tied to a sadistic supe hadn’t been an option, and after I slipped the chains binding me to Lucien, I’d spent the last month avoiding the Vampires and looking for alternative job solutions. Naturally, I’d also been planning the ultimate revenge assassination for Lucien. With him taken care of… Maybe I could continue working as a liaison without a blood bond. Would it be that bad?

  “Maybe Allan called out of courtesy,” Tristan suggested.

  I gave him a dark look, made easier by the early morning hour and lack of caffeine. Unfortunately, my powers of bitch-face were totally wasted on Tristan because he watched his fingers slide up and down my forearm instead of watching my expression.

  “Maybe Lucien never told anyone you kicked his bond.” Tristan moved his hand from my arm and gently placed his fingers on my lips. His action stopped whatever denial I planned to fling out. “Think about it. Why would the Master Vampire let anyone know? It would make him look weak.”

  “Lucien hated looking weak,” I mumbled.

  “Exactly.”

  “But if I was still bound to Lucien, his death would mean mine.”

  The falcon in my head screeched.

  “Well, Allan’s not an idiot. Maybe he suspected and you answering the phone confirmed it.”

  I grumbled. On one hand, had I not answered the phone, the Vampire court would’ve assumed I died, like all those blood bonded to a Master Vampire. The horde certainly wouldn’t waste resources searching for me. In fact, the Vampires would finally leave me alone and stop thinking of ways to use me.

  On the other hand, I needed a job, and with Lucien dead, my main reason for avoiding the Vampires had been removed, quite literally. The horde now represented a potential employer. As much as I hated Vampires, I didn’t need to like them to take their money, but I would need a good explanation for my beating heart. No one blood bonded to Lucien would survive his death, including Clint, and… A shiver lanced up my spine and struck the back of my skull. Wick! “Oh, god.”

  “Shhhh.” Tristan ran a hand up my arm. “Wick and his pack aren’t blood tied. Just like my Vampire Master’s death didn’t kill me, Lucien’s will have no ill effect on Wick’s life, nor anyone in his pack.”

  Lucien had possessed certain skills as an older Vampire. His age and strength made it possible for him to bind two humans servants—me and Clint—and call wolves, any wolves, to do his bidding. This meant Lucien had controlled Wick and his Werewolf pack, just like Tristan’s previous master, who called leopards, had controlled Tristan and his pride. This special skill also meant Lucien had no need to blood bond Wick to make him do what Lucien wanted.

  A long breath escaped my lungs, and I tried to ignore Tristan’s intense scrutiny of my face. Tried. It didn’t work. Sometimes his perceptiveness freaked me out. He read me too well. I hadn’t spoken Wick’s name out loud.

  “It does have one effect,” Tristan said.

  My heart pounded in my chest again. “What’s that?”

  Tristan smoothed my hair down and tucked a strand behind my ear. “He’s free.”

  “Oh,” I said. The pronoun didn’t need a name. Wick’s tie to Lucien had ultimately led me to break things off with him. Too many times, Lucien had used the Alpha Werewolf against me, and I couldn’t take the pain anymore. Did his freedom change things? I looked into the deep blue of Tristan’s eyes, sparkling even in the dim light, and smiled. No. I’d made my choice a month ago. I leaned forward and planted a kiss on his full lips.

  ****

  The rain abated a little during the day while Tristan and I ran errands. The little things we did toget
her, like buy oatmeal and coffee on a lazy Sunday, brought us closer and melted my heart. He held my hand as we walked down the aisles and read labels as if we cared about caloric intake. As a Wereleopard and Shifter respectively, Tristan and I didn’t need to worry about what we ate like norms did. The transformation process took so much energy, we could binge on junk food every day and still look trim and in shape. The fashion world would love us except we often wore T-shirts and sweatpants for easy shifting.

  Tristan had been uncharacteristically quiet all day. Sweet, but not his normal talkative self. Not possessing the same perceptiveness as he did, I had no idea what had sent him into deep-thinking mode. Maybe he worried about my job prospects as much as I did. I’d been essentially unemployed since dispelling Lucien’s mark from my body.

  At the end of the day, Tristan and I went to the bedroom to change. Tristan for bed, me for Vampire Court. Since Allan knew I still stalked the mortal realm, I may as well find out if I could continue working as the ambassador between the Vampire court and the SRD without a blood bond.

  Tristan turned to me, gloriously naked. “Does this change anything between us?”

  “What do you mean?” I pulled a mint green shirt over my head. I tugged a pair of ripped skinny jeans from my bottom drawer and mentally selected the flats I’d match with the outfit. I could fly to Lucien’s, or Allan’s place, but I didn’t want to beg for a job naked or in a house robe. “I’ve been involved with the Vampire court since we met.”

  “Do I need to say his name? The one that still hangs heavy between us?”

  With my jeans still in my hands, I bit my lip. Well, something did literally hang heavy between us. My gaze drifted down Tristan’s toned body. I licked my lips.

  Tristan cleared his throat. “I’m up here.”

  I shook my head and forced my gaze to make eye contact. “No. I made my decision.”

  “Good.” Tristan’s shoulders relaxed and he stepped in close. His ran his hand up my arms to cup my face. His lips pressed against mine hard, and he quickly deepened the kiss while pulling me into his muscled body. The air sucked out of my lungs, leaving me breathless and lightheaded. He always had this effect on me—as if oxygen was inconsequential, as if I could live without air as long as we were together.