Bitten Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 3)

Her lips twitch, but she rolls her eyes. “At least you own it

. Fucking someone you want to sire only makes it that much harder to ignore the calling. You know that, right?”

“I’m stupid. Not clueless. I’m aware of the rules. Doesn’t change the past, and things got out of hand last night. Somehow I felt her when she needed me.”

Her eyes widen, and a slow smile spreads for a second. Then it turns into an exasperated sigh.

“Maybe I was wrong then. Read the book. For the record, you’re seriously fucked.”

She disappears, and I open the book to see a scrap of paper tucked inside that’s written in someone else’s handwriting. It’s not her indecipherable nonsense.

I look up to see everyone running away from the window. See? Bunch of nosy fuckers.

They have the gumption to avoid eye contact while feigning innocence when I walk in. Dice is even whistling, like that somehow makes him the most innocent of all.

“Karma,” I grumble, annoyed with all of them. “Kya had someone write down what you need.”

“What’s the deal?” Karma asks, clearing her throat. I swear she’s flushed.

“Damned souls.”

Everyone gets quizzical expressions upon hearing that.

“What?”

“Damned souls. It’s what you need to survive. The more irredeemable, the better. Essentially we need to take you for a walk on death row. You find the souls you can harvest discreetly and take them into you. They stop existing, they can’t go to hell, and you get stronger while no new demons get created. Sounds like a great plan to me. Not sure why Kya was worried about saying it aloud in front of us. The process is written down here if you need instructions.”

She jerks the paper out of my hand and reads over it, like I’m somehow seeing things wrong.

“So I just find a rotten soul of a human? That’s it? There are tons of pedophiles I’ll happily get rid of. I can see their souls and if they deserve it.”

She sounds giddy as she rushes over to her laptop.

“Kya thinks we’re self-righteous do-gooders,” Ella says, frowning. “That’s sort of what I got from Leah, even though she didn’t speak about her directly. I think she worries we’d kill her just for taking damned souls of humans.”

Karma doesn’t even bother looking up.

“What’s a mystery van?” Gage asks randomly, seeming genuinely perplexed.

“She calls us the Scooby gang,” I remind him. Leah let that slip.

“The what?”

“It was her favorite cartoon before they took her,” Karma says distractedly. “You coming with me?” she asks Dice.

“On a killing spree?” He grins as she closes the laptop. Something prints off to the side, and she picks it up.

“Pedophiles and rapists are my first targets. I’m about to power up so I can be of some use. We’ll be back.”

She grabs Dice’s hand, and they disappear from sight. Kya doesn’t know us as well as she thinks she does. We’re not PC humanitarians. Some lives don’t deserve saving.

“What’s the book about?” Chaz asks, coming closer.

I don’t answer, because he sits down and starts reading with me.

“Looks like we need coffee,” Gage says.

“And pie,” I add.