Honkytonk Hell: A Dark and Twisted Urban Fantasy (The Broken Bard Chronicles Book 1) eden Hudson (best book club books txt) 📖

out my breath and headed for the house. I guess that breathing thing was reflexive, though.

It’ll stop after a while, Tiffani said.

When’s this freaking muscle crap going to stop? I asked.

It’s rigor mortis and probably a day or two.

Whatever it was, it felt like different parts of my body kept falling asleep. I probably looked pretty stupid busting in and out of vamp speed and limping along, dragging a locked up leg or trying to work the pins and needles out of my arms. I didn’t even know there was a muscle in my balls. That was a bad one.

And the breeze kept making me shiver. I’d thought since it was summer that being cold would feel right, like when you go swimming on a hot day. But it didn’t work like that. The grass was brown and it was too hot out for dew, but the chill kept going deeper into my muscles.

The shadows were getting sharper when I made it to the porch. Jax’s car was gone, but through the screen I could see him on the couch, talking on his phone.

“He wouldn’t have gone after Jason again,” Jax said.

I could hear Harper on the other end of the line like she was standing in the room, too.

“No one in the band has heard out of him,” she said. “And I just asked Logan. He didn’t see Tough around town last night. I’m thinking he’s got to be in Nashville.”

“Not with Kathan all over Desty like this,” Jax said.

“Is she back yet?” Harper asked.

“Yeah, she came back a few minutes ago to take a shower,” Jax said. “She ran into the Tracker over by—”

The Tracker? If he touched Desty… I hit the screen door open so hard it bounced off the wall.

Jax jumped.

“Scared me,” he said. He told Harper, “He’s here. Just walked in.”

“Thank God,” Harper said.

Hearing His name sent shards of ice stabbing through my eardrums, down into my chest, ripping open that part of me that wasn’t supposed to be connected to my body—my soul. Without thinking, I smacked the phone out of Jax’s hand.

“What the hell, man?!” He stopped and squinted at my mouth. Guess you couldn’t miss the fangs. “What…? Somebody made you?”

Tiffani had made me so I could do something, but it felt like my brain was having that rigor mortis problem.

You were going to save Colt, Tiffani said.

And make Desty, I remembered.

Yeah, so don’t you think you should get started before the Tracker finds you?

The Tracker. Desty wouldn’t have been taking a shower if he hadn’t put one of his slimy hands on her.

I turned toward the stairs.

“Where’re you going?” Jax’s voice felt far away. I could barely hear him over the sound of Desty. She’d just gotten out of the shower and she was walking down the hall toward my room. I could hear the bottom of the towel sliding over her thighs.

The vamp speed wouldn’t kick on so I jogged up the steps.

“Hey—” When Jax grabbed my arm, it was just reflex to knock him off.

He didn’t get back up.

Desty was standing in the doorway to my room. She smelled like oranges or grapefruit—something yellowish with a foamy buzz like beer—and under that, alive. Her heart bolted when she saw me, from a steady bass to a double-kick.

“Tough?” She smiled and ran for me. “You’re okay! I was worried that Mikal found you.”

When she hit my chest, her body heat soaked into my skin. If I’d had a voice, I bet I would’ve moaned. She hadn’t seen the fangs yet, but she shivered and goose bumps popped up all down her arms and chest.

“You’re freezing,” Desty whispered. She tried to step back, but I moved with her, my body instinctively following the heat. She burned like an overfilled wood stove. And damn if I wasn’t thirsty again.

Tough, back off, Tiffani yelled across the connection.

Then it was like another radio turned on in my head. That connection was weaker, second-hand or something.

Holy shit, he’s going to kill her! Mitzi.

What are you doing in my brain? I snapped. I thought this was just between me and Tiffani.

Heya, Romeo, Mitzi said. I haven’t heard your voice since Jason cut that track yesterday.

Stop it, Mitzi, Tiffani said. Something’s not right. He drank a whole person’s worth of blood, he shouldn’t be hungry.

“Tough?” Desty tried to push me away so she could look into my eyes, but I was a lot stronger than she was and I wasn’t letting go.

Tiffani saw the images flickering through my brain, a pornographic snuff film. Did it count as porn if the girl was dead for more than half of the fun?

Something’s wrong, she said. Don’t move until I—

The connection clicked off like somebody had hit the power button.

I’ll be damned, I thought, I did figure it out. And the sun was up, so there wasn’t any way Tiffani could get there in time to tear Desty away from me. Convenient.

Desty was staring at my mouth. With my tongue, I pushed at a fang. They took getting used to for me, too.

Her breathing was shallow. She hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday and I could smell me on her breath—the way I used to smell, like beer and sweat and body spray.

“But…” Desty shook her head. “You’re a vamp?” Her mood changed as soon as she said it out loud—scared to pissed in less than a second. She yanked her arm out of my hand and hit me in the stomach. “You’re a vamp! You stupid—damn—son of a bitch!”

That made me laugh. Desty cussed like a homeschooled third grader.

Downstairs, Jax’s phone started ringing.

Desty punched me again. The stab of pain from my broken rib was enough of a shock that I