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  Wrong Side of Dead

  ( Dreg City - 4 )

  Kelly Meding

  Monster hunter Evangeline Stone woke up on the wrong side of dead this morning — and now there's hell to pay.

  Barely recovered from her extended torture at the hands of mad scientist Walter Thackery, Evy can use a break. What she gets instead is a war, as the battered Triads that keep Dreg City safe find themselves under attack by half-Blood vampires who have somehow retained their reason, making them twice as lethal. Worse, the Halfies are joined by a breed of were-creature long believed extinct — back and more dangerous than ever. Meanwhile, Evy's attempts at reconciliation with the man she loves take a hit after Wyatt is viciously assaulted — an attack traced to Thackery, who has not given up his quest to exterminate all vampires . . . even if he has to destroy Dreg City to do it. With Wyatt's time running out, another threat emerges from the shadows and a staggering betrayal shatters the fragile alliance between the Triads, vampires, and shapeshifters, turning Evy's world upside down forever.

  Wrong Side of Dead

  (The fourth book in the Dreg City series)

  A novel by Kelly Meding

  Chapter One

  Friday, July 25

  11:10 P.M.

  The rave was already in full swing by the time Phineas and I showed up dressed to blend, even though we weren’t there for a party. Illegal raves full of drunk college students and twentysomethings were the ideal hunting ground for half-Blood vampires, which made the transformed warehouse the perfect place for our little stakeout. But while any Halfie would do, I was hoping to see one particular target show up.

  The music vibrated in my chest, loud enough for me to know my ears would be ringing by the time I left. We paused just inside, and Phineas el Chimal, my squad leader and partner for the night, closed his eyes to orient his more sensitive were-hearing to the din. Ravers jostled past us, ignorant of the partygoers around them, caught up in their own narrow little worlds. They had no clue why we were there, or that death was mingling among the kegs, glow sticks, and gyrating bodies.

  No clue and no fucking manners. I was ready to turn around and slap the next person who elbowed me.

  Phin saved them by opening his clear blue eyes and smiling. “Ready to have some fun?” he asked.

  “Definitely.” I draped myself onto his arm so we’d look like the happy couple we were pretending to be, and his fingers laced through mine. We both knew we’d have to do some acting, and I trusted him to watch my back. He’d been doing it without fail since the day we met nearly three months ago.

  I stumbled a little in my knee-high boots, not used to the three-inch heels. My default shoes of choice were sneakers or combat boots—better for running and kicking. But the black leather boots I had on now matched my black leather miniskirt, and their knee-high length carefully hid a pair of serrated blades. The boots were the only place where my skimpy outfit could easily camouflage weapons, so I suffered the indignity of stumbling around in them. Anyway, it was also a good excuse to lean on Phin and put on a lovey-dovey show.

  At least Phin had the benefit of jeans and a black wife-beater, which showed off his toned physique and earned him appreciative smiles from a few female gawkers. I shot them possessive glares as we wove our way into the dancing, gyrating crowd. The air was thick with the distinctive odors of smoke, beer, and sweat.

  Phin tilted his head, pretended to nuzzle my neck, and whispered, “Team one, six o’clock.”

  I spotted them easily, dancing amid a tight cluster near the DJ’s stage. Gina Kismet and Marcus Dane were team one to our team two, and even from a distance they made quite the convincing (if mismatched) couple—Gina’s five-foot-two, pale-skinned, red-haired goth girl to his six-foot-one, black-haired, copper-eyed pirate.

  Okay, so I never actually called him a pirate to his face, but the long hair in a ponytail, the ruddy complexion, and the tendency toward scruffy facial hair gave that impression. Even if I hadn’t known that the man was actually Felia—a were-jaguar, to be precise—I would have suspected he wasn’t quite what he appeared.

  They were burning it up on the dance floor, completely into each other—at least to the untrained eye. And besides our two pairs, we had two single plants mingling around the rave, on the lookout for shimmering eyes and silver-streaked hair, or even a set of fangs that hadn’t been filed down. Half-Blood vampires have certain telltale signs that can be covered up with contacts and hair dye, but members of the newest crop of Halfies were bolder and smarter, and they weren’t as afraid of us as they used to be, back when an organization called the Triads existed and just our name sent them fleeing in fear. God, I miss those days.

  It didn’t really help that one of our own was now one of these bolder Halfies and seemed to be using our hard-learned tactics against us.

  Phin swept me through the crowd, and we ended up near the makeshift bar, where two guys with silver rings in their noses were filling cups from dozens of different kegs. Phin collected a beer for each of us to complete the fitting-in image. Beer wasn’t my favorite, but I’d guzzled worse in the line of duty.

  At least a hundred people were in the main part of the warehouse, and I imagined dozens more wandered around, getting into any unlocked rooms they could find. Initial surveillance told us that the place had a section of offices on the north side of the warehouse, as well as roof access from the main floor.

  Although I had officially returned to the field last week, after spending almost three weeks training and recovering from being nearly tortured to death (again) last month, this was my first big mission since … well, since my time with the Triads.

  And a lot was riding on finding the guy we were looking for.

  “Time to play,” I said.

  Phin grinned. The strobe lights lit his angular face in a way that accentuated the fact that he was a were-osprey—a predator in every sense of the word, but also a very loyal ally. Our relationship had its share of ups (me saving his life twice in the first two weeks we knew each other) and downs (him stabbing me in the stomach the first day we knew each other), but I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side for tonight’s operation. Except maybe the one man who no longer wanted to be there.

  We moved with the crowd, creating an easy dance of grinding and groping, while carefully observing the other dancers and sipping slowly at our beers. Gina and Marcus had disappeared. I spotted one of our single plants, a full-Blood vampire named Quince, dancing it up with a pair of girls in slinky dresses. He’d dyed his white hair dark blond and wore blue contact lenses to cover his glimmering purple eyes. That color was a very distinctive vampire attribute. The other was his long, lean frame, which he carried like a male model.

  Quince had joined our organization two weeks ago and proved, right from the start, to be eager and very trainable. Phin immediately asked to have him assigned to his squad.

  Before separating for the night’s mission, our working sextet had come up with a handful of signals, since using earbuds would be useless with the noise levels. Quince caught me looking at him and tugged hard on his left earlobe—shorthand for “I might have something.”

  I scratched my forehead along the hairline, motioning that I understood. “Come on,” I said to Phineas.

  We leaned on each other, pretending to be more tipsy than we were, as we threaded our way to the opposite wall, which was painted with Day-Glo stripes and splatters. Quince extricated himself from his dance partners and met us there, slapping Phin on the shoulder as if greeting an old buddy.

  “Rumors are circulating about a private party at midnight,” Quince said, his tone serious even as his expression remained playful. “It promises a narcotic experience that is both mind-altering and life-
changing.”

  It definitely sounded like what happens when humans are infected with the vampire parasite, which turns them into half-Bloods. Vampires are a species unto themselves; they aren’t made and they were never human. Their saliva, however, is highly infectious to humans, and a single bite alters a human being’s brain functions and physical nature. Many infected humans go insane from the change, but some adapt and are able to function with relative ease—relative given that they’re still driven by bloodlust and are at risk of infecting more humans. Which is why all Halfies are on our “kill first, don’t ask questions” list.

  But the functional Halfies were our target tonight. During the last two weeks, we’d stumbled across several places where a dozen or more Halfie corpses had been dumped after being beheaded. Word on the street said several functioning Halfies were looking to create an army of similarly functioning Halfies to take us on. And since two in three went bat shit crazy from the infection, they seemed to be building their ranks by trial and error.

  Which meant the bodies of the once innocent were piling up, and their makers had to be stopped. Of all the minor disasters plaguing the city, this was our most pressing. And the most personal, given the former Hunter who was helping to organize it.

  “Where’s the party?” I asked.

  “Meeting on the roof,” he replied. “For a brief inspection, I assume, before reporting the location to the chosen candidates.”

  “Awesome. What time is it?”

  Phin checked his cell phone. “Eleven-twenty.”

  Good, we had a little time. “Quince, I want you and the other plants to stay down here just in case things get rowdy. Phin and I will let team one know, then head up to the roof.”

  Quince nodded, laughed like I’d just told the funniest joke ever, then melted back into the crowd. He was a damned good actor, for a vampire.

  Phin crowded in and pressed his forehead to mine, like a lover going in for a kiss. His familiar scent, wild and clean like a raging mountain river, settled around me. “Think he’ll show for the roof meet?” he asked, mouth mere inches from mine.

  “Hope so,” I replied, “but I’m not counting on it.” I was keenly aware of Phin’s warmth and of every place our skin touched. I missed this kind of contact with a man—one man in particular, who made me crazy in the best and worst ways. But I couldn’t waste time missing Wyatt, or mourning our broken relationship. I had a damned job to do.

  “I’ll go tell Marcus,” Phin said. “Meet me by the roof access.”

  “Okay.”

  I lingered against the wall for the length of a song. That should be enough time for Phin to track down Marcus and Kismet and let them in on the new plan. The music changed. I eyed a path toward the far end of the warehouse where the stairwell (according to the blueprints) was located, aware of the pulsing throng between me and it.

  Which was why I didn’t notice my shadow until he’d sidled up next to me, leaning casually against the wall like he belonged there. I shifted sideways, prepared to tell him to get lost, and froze. Shit.

  “Hey, Evy.”

  He’d taken care to dye his hair back to its natural shade of brown, and donned a pair of lavender-tinted sunglasses to obscure the new shimmer to his eyes, but the face was the same. Felix Diggory, former Hunter and two-week-old half-Blood, grinned at me, his unfiled fangs gleaming brightly under the constantly shifting lights.

  I wasn’t sure how I’d react when I saw him again. I expected anger, grief, maybe even a little bit of shame, since I was there the night Felix got infected. Instead, all I felt was relief. Relief that he was here and I had the chance to correct my mistake. The mistake that allowed him to run free in the first place.

  I’d been cooped up for weeks, training to gain back what I’d lost when Thackery tortured me. All I’d wanted was a few hours in the city to kick back, eat a hamburger with Milo and Felix, and enjoy a conversation that didn’t revolve around tactics, weapons, or inter-species peace. Then we three made the idiotic decision to follow some Halfies onto a bus—no weapons, no plan, no backup.

  It was no wonder only two of us got off that bus still human.

  “Hey, Felix,” I said.

  “You look good. Still training?”

  “Yeah, getting back into fighting form.”

  He dragged his tongue along the front teeth between his fangs, as if he thought I hadn’t noticed them. “Saw you with Phineas earlier. You two on a date or are you working?”

  I considered lying—for about three seconds. “Working. Looking for you, actually.”

  “Me?” He tilted his head. “I’m flattered.”

  “Don’t be. You know why we’re here.”

  His mouth quirked at the corners. “Because I’m a big, bad Halfie now, and therefore must be slaughtered with extreme prejudice?”

  “Bingo.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  “You don’t think I can take you?”

  “The last time I saw you, you couldn’t take a house cat.”

  Okay, it was a challenge, then. Good. I needed to get him out of the warehouse and away from hundreds of potential human shields—or victims. Rumors were circulating. The newspapers were printing stories full of incomplete information, speculating on mutilated bodies and the extraordinary number of missing persons. People weren’t stupid, no matter what we did to try to convince them it was business as usual. I couldn’t kill Felix in front of so many witnesses without causing a huge mess—and not just of the spilled-blood variety.

  I shifted my stance and pulled back my shoulders. “I might surprise you. I killed three Halfies just last week, all by my little old self.”

  He chuckled. “Good for you, Evy,” he said, then let his gaze scan the crowd. “So who’s here with you? I know you and Phineas can’t be out hunting by yourselves.”

  “Marcus and Gina are here, and some new guys you don’t know.”

  His attention snapped back to me. Eyebrows arched and lips slightly parted, he was caught somewhere between surprise and excitement. “Gina’s here? Really?”

  The eagerness in those words broke my heart a little bit. Gina Kismet had been his boss, his Handler, for a little over two years. Their entire Triad had been very close, and losing Felix to infection had devastated all of them—Gina, Tybalt Monahan, and especially Milo Gant, whose feelings for Felix had once extended far beyond simple friendship.

  “Yeah, she’s here somewhere,” I said. I didn’t bother trying to be casual as I scanned the crowd myself, looking for familiar faces. But we were tucked against a wall with a sea of people in front of us, and the lights made it difficult to see far or well.

  “I wish I had time to say hello, since I never got the chance to say good-bye.”

  The last thing Gina needed was to see him like this, but I kept my disagreement to myself. “Someplace else you need to be?”

  “Yep.”

  “Okay, but you do realize that’s not going to happen, yeah?”

  In an instant, the predatory intensity was back. His nostrils flared, and he parted his lips just enough to let the tips of his fangs show. “You couldn’t kill me the last time.”

  “I wasn’t myself the last time.”

  “So what do you propose? We duke it out right here on the dance floor?”

  He was playing along nicely. “I was thinking the roof. You and me.”

  Felix cocked his head. His curious expression was so much like his old self that my heart hurt, and it made it difficult to remember this was no longer a man, but a monster. “Let me guess,” he said. “I win, and I get bragging rights on finally killing the unkillable Evy Stone.”

  I shrugged one shoulder. “As long as you promise to kill me and not infect me.”

  “You survived infection once before.”

  True, and I would probably survive it again. A unique healing ability, gifted to me by a gnome, helped me battle the vampire parasite, which infects humans and turns them into Halfies. The ability also helped me s
urvive too many near-fatal wounds in the three months since I died and was magically resurrected into my current body. An ability that part of me wished had been physical—something that could be duplicated and used to help others who were wounded or dying.

  Because sometimes being the one who always survives when your friends die all around you really sucks. “Then I guess we’re both fighting to kill,” I said.

  He ran his tongue along his front teeth, between his fangs. He didn’t seem particularly pleased by our inevitable throw-down. “Guess so. And I kind of still owe you.”

  “For what?”

  “For punching me in the head the night of the factory fire.”

  I snorted. “Somehow I think getting blown up in that fire is payback enough.”

  “Maybe.” He checked his wristwatch. “Well, let’s do this so I can still make my appointment.”

  The utter normalcy of the statement took me momentarily aback. For the majority of Halfies, the infection makes them go mad. They can’t think about anything except blood and death, and they rarely run around making plans and speaking about appointments. The normal conversation (so to speak) I was having with Felix was an anomaly. The insane Halfies were the ones we most often encountered and killed. It made me wonder again just how many other lucid Halfies were out there—and how many more Felix had made in the two weeks since he was infected.

  I just nodded.

  “Ladies first?”

  “You’re fucking out of your mind if you think I’m turning my back on you.”

  Felix smiled. “That’s the Evy I remember.”

  He pushed off the wall and strolled past me. Other partygoers, tired of the grind, slid quickly into our places. I kept my attention on Felix as I followed him through the smoke-and-liquor-scented throng, barely an arm’s reach between us. As much as I wanted to look for someone in my group, to signal them about my destination, I couldn’t risk Felix disappearing into the crowd. Now that I had him, I wasn’t about to let him get away.