Mr. and Mrs. Monster Read Online Free Page B

the doors at the front and the side, but all were locked. There should be a service entrance at the back, and the doors there may have been forgotten. Reaching the delivery bay, Damien grabbed the handle of the small door nearest him and twisted, expecting to feel the resistance of a lock, except it turned without issue.
    “We have a winner.” He eased the door open and went in low to the floor, making himself less of a target. The inside hadn’t fared any better than the outside. Large cooking vats and tanks had been turned over and foul-mouthed graffiti artists had tagged all over the walls. Most of the writing was unreadable, especially in the gloom of early evening. The concrete floor had God knew what stains on it and the smell of a damp and musty interior sucked its way into his nostrils. Damien concentrated on that smell. It left a taint on the senses. A scent that he’d smelled before…
    Blood.
    Dead flesh.
    Rotting carcasses.
    All the things a carcass-rendering plant should have, but the feel of the place was wrong. Was…
    A sound distracted Damien from his cataloguing of the building’s interior. A scuff or a slap of feet on the concrete. Maybe he was about to catch a break. Crouching low, he ran for the cover of a stack of crates and peered in the direction of the noise. Where on earth was the guy? He could have sworn he’d heard him just a little way in front of him in the shadows.
    An intense itching spread across the back of his neck. He swiveled his head around to both sides. Some sense of intuition had him clenching his gun in readiness, but he still couldn’t avoid the hand that swept down with murderous ease and connected solidly with his temple. Damien hazily focused on the misshapen figure before him. A nightmarish blend of blood and fur, patches missing and skin gouged almost to the bone. A wolf’s deformed muzzle jeered at him as he stiffened and fell back on to the concrete, everything around him growing dark with pain and seeping blood. Damn, his own Wolf was going to kill him for missing out on this. She would make him pay. Some days he’d swear she was a woman.
     
    * * * *
     
    The policeman fell to the ground, blood slipping from his hairline. He hoped he hadn’t killed the human, but you had to take chances if you wanted results. He didn’t want Kyla on a blood hunt just yet. Wolves were so uncontrollable when they let their emotions get the better of them. He just wanted to leave the little captain a taste of fear and blood. Something to know him by. What did humans call it?
    His calling card—blood.
    The part man, part wolf smiled down at his erstwhile tracker. He was glad they’d found him so quickly. That made them acceptable hunters for him to toy with. His work was almost finished and his revenge soon completed. His latest victim would be found by now. He wished he could be there to see Artemis’ face, but still, everything was going to plan. And he had his special coat now. Had his change back.
    They would pay, all of them…

Chapter Four
     
     
     
    White-hot needles of pain eased off their frantic stabbing at her brain as she loped toward Olympus. The red-brown stucco of the police station wasn’t far away from the casino if you took the back roads, and four legs were still quicker than two. Kyla checked around before ducking into the alley where one of the victims had been discovered. She changed and strode toward the door. Since the first murder, they’d placed coded locks on all exits for the staff. A mousy assistant of Artemis had followed everyone around, handing out the cards. Poor woman had to chase non-stop to track all the wolves down. Missy, her cousin Eric’s annoying fiancé, had been kidnapped from the storeroom in the kitchen, so tighter security was a must now.
    Kyla swiped her card and stepped into choreographed chaos. Chefs, kitchen hands and serving staff swirled around each other in a classical ballet of movement. Noise ratcheted off the walls and