Courting the Darkness Read Online Free Page A

date, and they won’t wait long.”
    Mica sighed in resignation. “I’ll leave for Salem tonight then.”
    “Take your shape-shifter friend Caleb with you. Take the Express Van. Caleb can drive in the daytime while you hide out in the back.” Drake tossed him a cell phone. “Call me when you have her back; I’m on speed dial.”
    Mica looked at the tiny phone in his hand in disgust. “You know I hate these things.” He looked back up at Drake. “I prefer my privacy.”
    Drake barked with laughter. “Humor me.”
    Mica inclined his head. “I think I humor you enough already.”
    “Point taken.” He gestured toward the door. “Just take the phone and use it. Call me with your report. Sean has the keys to the Express Van. Tell him I said to give them to you.”
    Mica smiled in anticipation. “I look forward to it.”
    “Hey, go easy on my bodyguard.” He shook his head and placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “I know you’re itching for a fight. Save it for Hargrove. Never mind, I’ll get the keys from Sean.” Looking over at Mica again, he laughed. “You’re a lot of trouble. Do you know that?”
    Mica shrugged. “It’s a gift.”
    Drake rolled his eyes, leaving the room to retrieve the keys from Sean. He came back into the room, tossing the keys to Mica. “Call me.”

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Caleb Jenkins sat kicked back, lounging in his recliner watching the local evening news. He balled up a piece of paper, and threw it at the television screen. “People are idiots. I don’t know why I even bother watching the news,” he grunted in disgust. Taking the remote, he turned off the flat screen in frustration, throwing the remote back on the coffee table. He was bored out of his mind.
    His lack of patience and his obsessive compulsive tendencies left him exiled from his pack. He had made the mistake of becoming obsessed with the alpha’s intended mate. He didn’t know what came over him. When he found a woman that intrigued him, he obsessed about conquering her until she was finally his. Usually, once that happened, he’d lose interest. He had tried to explain that to the alpha, but he didn’t find any humor in that explanation. He barely made it out of there alive. He wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for Mica coming to his rescue. Now, that friendship between a shifter and a vampire was an oddity in itself.
    Caleb was born a shape-shifter. He had the ability to shift at will into just about any animal he chose. Although not immortal, his kind aged very slowly, generally living to be close to a thousand years before succumbing to old age. Caleb was still fairly young at age three hundred and fifty. He and Mica met when Mica was still a human and they lived in England. Mica was drinking in an ale house with his buddy Drake who was also human at that time. In a drunken stupor, someone had started a brawl. Mica wound up fighting side by side with him, loving the fight just as much as he did. They formed a fast friendship, watching out for one another and sharing the attentions of the ladies.
    Caleb never really liked Drake. He had the opinion that he was too arrogant and full of himself. At the time they met, Mica had no knowledge that Caleb was a shifter. It was kept secret until a particularly nasty fight where Caleb shifted into a panther to defeat a mob of burly men. Although Mica had been shocked at his secret, he remained his unbiased friend. So, naturally, when the vampire wars descended on the streets of England, Drake had been turned and he ultimately turned Mica. Caleb remained his unbiased friend as well. They had been friends for a hundred years when the incident with his alpha took place.
    Once, Mica rescued him from certain death by killing the alpha. They took a ship to the Colonies, because as long as he remained on English soil, he would never be safe from the wrath of his pack.
    Standing, he walked toward the door, grabbing his jacket along the way. “Maybe Mica will want to