Betrayed (Betrayed #1) Read online

  Betrayed

  BOOK ONE OF THE BETRAYED SERIES

  by Melissa Jupp

  Betrayed

  BOOK ONE OF THE BETRAYED SERIES

  by Melissa Jupp

  Copyright © 2013 by Melissa Jupp

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please do so through your retailer’s approved lending program. For permission requests please contact the author at [email protected]

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places and incidents in this book are fictitious and figments of the author’s imagination.

  www.melissajupp.com

  Preface

  "What would you do......

  If everything you've known your entire life was a lie. Would you curl up and cry, would you stand and fight, or would you be so pissed you run like hell? Well, the night I saw my partner Agent Rodgers shift into a huge wolf was the night I found out I was not human. In fact, I happen to be some kind of hybrid and no one knows what will come of me. The only information I got was that I’m part of an ancient old prophecy. So that was the night I decided to run. Don't take my running for being weak or afraid. I'm an FBI agent for Christ's sake, and not just any FBI agent, I work in the SID's branch, Species Intelligence Department. We are the judge, jury, and executioners of the supernatural race. A couple days ago my partner almost died from us executing and execution warrant; or so I thought. After that is when I found out everyone has been lying to me since the day I was born. So, I didn't run because I'm scared, I ran because I'm pissed and if I see any of them again there's no telling what I'll do. I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Jessica Barnes and I'm off to reinvent myself and forget this craziness ever happened."

  Follow Jessi in this new and exciting series as she struggles to learn a whole new life and comes to terms with the new her. She traveled to the last place anyone would've ever thought she'd be. Two years went by and Jessi has finally found her place in her new home. For once in her life she's happy, relaxed, and having the best days of her life. She's made new friends and even considers the old rancher she's working for to be the father she never had. But, good things don't last forever. Just as she thinks she's in the clear and nothing bad will ever happen again she runs, literally, right into the most infuriating man she's ever met. Nic, the rancher’s son.

  Preface

  CHAPTER 1: Dreams

  CHAPTER 2: CRUCIFIXION

  CHAPTER 3: INVITATION

  CHAPTER 4: INFORMANT

  CHAPTER 5: PRINCESS

  CHAPTER 6: BALL

  CHAPTER 7: All Work, No Play

  CHAPTER 8: HUNTING

  CHAPTER 9: ALMOST

  CHAPTER 10: INFOBESITY

  CHAPTER 11: SHIFTED

  About the Author

  1

  Dreams

  Ocean waves crashed against the rocks upon the cliff shore line. The sun was shining brilliantly bright and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It was such a perfect summer day just standing here letting the breeze blow through my hair. Dark clouds rolled in and the sun started to drop. The moon was full and raised high into the dark sky. I was running through the woods as fast as my legs would allow. I could smell pine and something musky. It’s kinda sweet and vanilla smelling, but still musky in a masculine kind of way. I could see dawn was coming through the forest trees. As the sun started to rise I could feel my skin burning. So hot, so, so very hot. It felt as though my flesh was being peeled from my bones by a million little ants working from the inside out. I held my face to the heavens and let out an ear splitting howl of agony.

  I woke up in a panic, screaming at the top of my lungs. My skin felt tingly and hot all over. I had to keep telling myself over and over again that it was just a dream. Being a FBI agent you would think a silly dream like that wouldn’t scare me at all. But, it felt so real. So real that I could still smell the pine and sweet vanilla musky scent lingering on my skin and clothes. I could almost taste it on the back of my tongue. I rolled over to look at the clock after I got my breathing under control. It was 5:30 in the morning. “Shit!” I yelled and continued cursing under my breath while scrambling out of bed. I was going to be late for work again. I walked over to my closet examining my lack of shopping skills. Everyone else in the bureau wore your basic black and white suit, including the females. Although some of the women do wear skirts. But I never found skirts, slacks, and dress shoes to bode well with my line of work in the field. So, I got dressed in my usual dark blue jean pants that hang right off my hips, very form fitting and have a slight flare at the bottom. Just enough to go over my loafer boots. A button down white blouse with my black blazer. But only because we have a meeting today otherwise I would have thrown on a cami with a black blazer. Then to top it all off with the famous standard issue black loafers.

  Good thing about going to work so early in the morning is that I get to beat the morning Miami rush hour traffic which is a nightmare all on its own. I parked my truck in the parking garage and walked into our state federal building. The elevator was packed as always and not only with bodies but all the different smells of deodorant, colognes, perfumes, and just the smell of people. Jesus did these people decide to drown themselves in smelly shit today or what my nose and throat felt like it was on fire. I got off on the ninth floor, took a deep breath to relieve the burning, and as soon as I step out of the elevator, there was my boss yelling at me as always. “You’re late again Jessi! How many times do I have to tell you to be on time?"

  “Sorry Boss, but I’m always on time everyone else is just simply early,” I said jokingly while pasting a big grin on my face.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Meeting in five damn minutes. Do you think you could be on time for that?” he asked glaring back at me.

  “Yes Boss,” I said.

  “Humph we’ll see” he said with pure sarcasm and stomped away.

  I say stomped because the man is just too large to do anything else. He damn sure isn’t going glide away like a ballerina he’s too damn big.

  Boss is the head of our department. His name is Jackson but everyone calls him Boss. Of course he’s not head of the whole bureau just the head off our division, “SID”, Species Intelligence Division. We basically are the police to all the bad little preternatural creatures. We are the judge, jury, and executioner. We mere agents don’t have to answer to anyone except Jackson. Jackson on the other hand has a long list of people he has to answer to. Like, the President of the United States, and let’s not forget the counsel.

  The counsel is seven figure heads of all supes. Why seven? Well, those are the only ones we are made aware of. But, we do know they have an odd number of council members to keep from having tied votes during their ruling debates.

  I went down the hall to my office. When I got to the door I stopped and stared. Something was different. Staring at my door I see a rectangle piece of silver with black lettering right in the middle of my door. Aw, they finally got me a nameplate that actually spelled my name correctly. It reads “Jessica Barnes”. Everyone called me Jessi for short. My mother did not approve of me being a FBI Agent. She said it is a man’s job, not a woman’s. She would prefer me to be married, giving her grandchildren, and having tea parties. My mother Belinda is a widow. I never knew my father James. He died while my mother was still pregnant with me.

  I walked into my office to retrieve notes off my de
sk for today’s meeting. Our crime rate in Miami has gone up by 20 percent in the last year. I’m glad I work the day shift because the crime scenes are not as bad as our night shift’s. I haven’t thrown up yet but I may if I have to see another mauled body. It seems like the crime scenes are getting worse the more I go on them. I went into our conference room and smelled a nice scent of fresh coffee; hmmm I do love these guys sometimes. I looked to my left and there was a table covered in Starbucks coffee cups. This meeting must be really bad or going to be really long if they are giving us coffee. I grabbed a cup and took a seat as far in the back as I could get.

  Jackson walked into the room with a man trailing behind him holding a black briefcase. He was handsome. He had black hair cut so short it could pass as a military cut. A nice square bone structure and he may even have dimples, if he actually smiled. “The tall, dark, handsome brooding type, joy,” I mutter under my breath while rolling my eyes. He’s definitely tall, about 6’ 2” and a nice lean build with piercing green eyes that almost seem to glow. Jackson turned on the projector which snapped me out of my thoughts. He dimmed the lights and introduced the man standing next to him. “This is Special Agent Jason Rodgers. He transferred from New York City. He will be helping us with our preternatural cases. Rodgers you have anything to add?” Jackson asked.

  “No Sir,” he said softly in a deep rumbling voice.

  “Well, then let’s get started,” Jackson hit the button on a small black remote in his hand. The first slide showed a man lying on the ground in what looks like a living room with two small puncture wounds in the nape of his neck. The second slide showed the same man with puncture wounds on both of his wrist and the third slide showed puncture wounds between the man’s thighs. Jackson flipped the lights back on. He blinked his eyes until they adjusted to the sudden bright lights, “Can anyone in this room tell me what you see in these pictures?” he asked. “The puncture wounds seem to be made with a tool’” Greg replied. Greg Watson is a fellow agent but his job is more along the lines of forensics. He’s older, going grey and way over weight. He has big brown eyes hiding behind small framed glasses. “Why do you say that Greg?” Jackson asked.

  “If this was a vamp kill then the puncture holes would be even, straight across from one another and the skin around the holes would be slightly bruised, purple. Also, the wounds would be directly over the main artery. The wounds seem to be in the right areas, the neck, the wrists, and the inner thigh, but none of the puncture wounds are over a main artery.”

  “Anyone else wanna add to Greg’s assessment?” Jackson asked.

  I looked around the room and it seemed like no one knew the answer or they just didn’t give a damn, either way Jackson is the type of person if you don’t answer his questions he’ll leave everyone in this room until he gets the answers he wants. Asshole, yeah well, that’s an understatement. He’s just that stubborn.

  I decided to speak up I really don’t want to be stuck in here all damn day. I do have better things to do, “The color of the skin is wrong. When a vampire drains the body of blood the skin tends to turn pale. Also if a vamp was feeding and lost control the body would be completely drained. But with the new laws out since the supes have gone public they’re too scared to fuck up that bad or too stupid. Either way we would’ve never found the body. If the vamp was in control he or she could have easily sealed the holes shut by licking the wounds closed.”

  Jackson just nodded his head as in agreement. He hasn’t been very happy with me lately because I keep showing up late to work. Ever since my 25th birthday I have been getting more and more restless. Mainly because I have some seriously fucked up dreams that make absolutely no sense at all.

  Jackson continued, “As you all know 18 days ago a bill passed through Senate to legalize all preternatural creatures. Ever since this happened we are finding more bodies every night just like this one. We do know that it is a human committing these murders. What you don’t know is that it is a different tool used every night. This leaves us to believe that there is more than one human committing these murders. So, today everyone gets to team up with a partner and go to each and every hate group. Ask questions and be polite. Jessi!”

  “What did I do?” I asked looking straight at Jackson.

  “You know what you do. Try and stay out of trouble and curb your tongue. By the way, you get to team up with Agent Rodgers here,” he said while smiling and patting Rodgers on the back, “Good luck with that one son. You’re gonna need it,” I just rolled my eyes and chose to ignore that statement.

  We all got up and left the conference room. I went back to my office to retrieve my attire for the day. My attire consist of my double shoulder holster that holds two Beretta 9mm with 12 rounds of silver shot in each clip and a long christened necklace with a cross. I got the smaller guns. They felt better in my hand and not as heavy as what most of the Agents carry. The barrels I had custom made in Italy. It was the only place I could find that would make a stainless steel barrel with a high silver content. That way if a vamp or were tried to grab it out of my hand it would burn them. It wouldn’t do much damage at all to them, but at least it will burn their skin enough for them to drop the gun or to stop trying to pull it out of my hands.

  I strapped the leather shoulder holster around my back and shoulders. It hung nicely in place. I put both guns in my holster and put my silver cross around my neck then strapped on my utility belt around my waist that holds titanium cuffs and extra ammo. Titanium seems to be the only thing strong enough to hold our preternaturals, at least long enough until we can tranq their sorry asses. Titanium will hold a normal to weaker creature but not our Alphas or Masters. We haven’t found anything made on this planet yet strong enough to hold a pissed off Alpha or Master. Alphas are the strongest of the were animals and Masters are the oldest and most powerful of the vampires. Ever since this new law passed legalizing preternatural creatures we are required to carry silver crosses and silver Glaser Safety Rounds. We usually only use the safety rounds which are solid silver if we want to bring them in for questioning but if we are on a hunt which is also called a kill order we use the Glaser Safety rounds with a liquid silver in the middle of the bullet. Once the bullet makes contact with its target it explodes causing the silver to get into the bloodstream. Once the silver is in the blood stream damn near nothing can stop it from getting to the heart and killing its prey.

  To kill a vampire you have to take out the heart, cut off the head or both and depending on how old the vampire is. It’s also safe to scatter the ashes over several different bodies of water. A Lycanthrope is a straight heart shot for the most part, but even the stronger ones can still come back from that. Lycanthropes are also human. They still have a beating heart. If the heart is pierced the wound usually won’t heal quickly enough for the wound to stop bleeding. Both creatures have amazing healing abilities. What normally would take weeks or months to heal, heals in a matter of hours. Unless the wound is done by silver then it will heal almost human slow.

  I heard a knock on my door. “Come in,” I called out.. It was my boss, also know as Jackson. He has a very square frame which makes him look very intimidating, all 6’3” of him. He has the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen. They are like an emerald green that seem to glow they’re so bright. They stand out a lot from his dark tan and salt and pepper hair. I also know the boss on a personal level. I guess that’s why I get away with a lot. He was best friends with my father before he died. They grew up together. Ever since my father died he looked after me and my mom. He’s the only father figure I know. He tried to keep me from following in my father’s footsteps by becoming a Federal Agent. But, he finally gave in and told me I was just as stubborn as my father was and never gave me a hard time about it again. My mother didn’t talk to him for months because of it. She had painted a different picture of my life for me. But, she came around eventually. She doesn’t like it but she deals with it.

  “Hey Boss, whatcha need?” I asked.

 
; “Well, for starters stop leaving your gun at the office and start taking it home. I want that gun on you at all times,” he said while pointing at the guns in my holster.

  “Ok Boss no problem.”

  “You're not going to argue with me on this one?” he asked.

  “Nope not at all. But, I am going to argue about having a partner and a newbie one at that. Why in the hell are you sticking me with Rodgers?”

  “I knew you were going to argue with me about something. You always do and I’m sticking you with Rodgers because I need two people that have actually studied preternatural creatures. I know he may not know as much as you do but he is a very bright young man. I think you too would work great together and maybe, just maybe some of our cases will start getting solved.”

  I felt my aggravation with his statement deep in my bones. For some reason this man knows how to push my buttons and likes doing it. “Are you implying something? Are you saying I don’t do my job?” I asked demandingly.

  “No that’s not what I’m saying! Look Jess I’m sorry I yelled. I’m just trying to say that your workload is getting thicker and thicker. You need help.”

  “If I need help I will ask for it,” I snapped back.

  “Even when you do need help you still don’t ask for it!”

  “Don’t tell me what I do and don’t need,” I stood up from my desk. My whole body was shaking I was so pissed. The frown lines on his face started to smooth out and he looked sad. I think I just hurt his feelings. Great this is all I need. Great way to start my day off. Pissing people off I can handle but not hurting people’s feelings. Yeah I’m a softy just don’t tell anyone, they wouldn’t believe you anyway.

  “How are you sleeping?” he asked exasperated.

  That one question stopped me dead in my tracks. I could feel all the tension slipping away from me replacing it with pure puzzlement. I must have let the surprise show on my face because he almost looked embarrassed that he asked.