CREAM (On the Hunt) Read Online Free Page B

more once he got started.
    His phone went off again. Jeliyah’s barrier intensified, casting the entire room in blue light. He shook his head as he answered the call. “What?”
    “You free, Teag?”
    Speaking of begging. “Not tonight. I’m at Kent’s.”
    “Shit. I knew that bastard would get to you first. Fine. I want you for the rest of the week.”
    “You got me, Lee. Hunts take precedence.”
    “Always. I know the deal. Three, tips, drinks?”
    “Three, tips, drinks and a guest.”
    “You’re bringing a guest? That’s a first. Never thought you would get serious about someone.”
    “She’s my partner.”
    “I thought you hated your partners.”
    “This one is fast changing my mind.”
    “Got you down for a guest. Tomorrow then.” The phone clicked as the call ended.
    Teaghan decided his phone going off was a good thing. Jeliyah’s shield meant he could leave and not worry about her being attacked. Not that he had been too worried about it when he took the first job. No one would have tracked him that fast and the report had said there was only one rogue in the area.
    He hung the Do Not Disturb sign on the knob on his way out the door. Jeliyah probably wouldn’t wake before he got back. If she did, she would figure out the deal without needing an explanation. Not that he expected her to miss him, not yet. Once he got her addicted to all the pleasure he could give her, that’s when the missing would start. That’s when he would get rid of her.
    He hopped into his car and checked the surrounding area for anything suspicious. Everything appeared normal. He started the car, gunned the engine a few times and then peeled out of the parking lot. His thoughts went to the many women who had helped him hone his bedroom skills over the centuries. Each relationship had ended on bad terms since Teaghan had cut the women lose when they started getting clingy.
    Needy women turned nosy and nagging, which graduated to interfering with his business. But that was a few months away, at least. Jeliyah would take time to come around. He knew that already. Once she got to the becoming-a-pain-in-the-ass stage, Teaghan should be close to retiring her.
    He didn’t know what necromancers did after they ended their partnerships with him. They called it retirement and he hadn’t bothered to ask. He did know no able-bodied necromancer would be allowed to take the money and go off to some tropical island somewhere. Necromancers were too rare for that. Retirement was code for something else. Something desirable that cost a lot money. Money Teaghan was on his way to get.
    He parked the car at the curb outside a three-story red-brick building with a wrought-iron gate for a door. The two enforcers standing on either side of that door nodded to Teaghan as he neared them. He returned the nod before pulling the door open and entering the building.
    The smell of burning torches greeted his nose. No fluorescents or other type of artificial light in the reserve. It was vampire owned and managed so everything was firelight—candle chandeliers, wall torches and lanterns. Though it wasn’t as though a vampire needed much light. The whole place could be pitch black and the vampires would be fine. The few humans who worked there needed the light though.
    Teaghan walked to first open teller and placed the bagged severed head on the counter. “Rogue seven-seven-five-three-eight.”
    “I thought you got pulled off that hunt to meet your new partner,” the teller, a human Teaghan had dealt with many times in the past, said as he slid the head closer and opened the plastic bag. He peered at the head and then at his computer screen.
    Teaghan said, “I did and you all didn’t waste time giving my hunt to someone else.”
    The teller shrugged his indifference. “The twins were on the premises when you got yanked. It looks bad for them that you managed to get sidetracked for—what?—an hour and still got the kill before them.”
    “My new