Copyright © 2020 by Jessica Samuels
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No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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To my friends and family!
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
8. Mina’s Department Store Stories Chapter 1
9. Angeline Chapter 1
10. Ember Chapter 1
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Jessica Samuels
Chapter 1
Mina drove in her blue Ryder Strike to make her way to Nikki’s department store, and a feeling of dread overcame her. She had been working there for so long she dreaded going in since the customers tormented her on a daily basis with stupid questions, and treating her crappy over paper coupons. It was about 9:30 in the morning, and the blue sky was shining in the distance. Luxor wasn’t too busy roadwise since most of the creatures drove at night. She knew the way pretty well, and passed the drivers going under the speed limit.
Her eyes were red and puffy from crying herself to sleep, and she definitely thought it would be a three drink night tonight since it was too much. She broke up with her boyfriend, and it was devastating since she was in love with him. She thought she was going to marry him and he called her worthless. Once he pushed her into a wall it was all over since she couldn’t take the abuse.
Her dark grey eyes scanned the busy road, and creatures of all kinds drove to places. Luxor had a street called Main street. Besides being a no kill or spell zone, it is a place to shop, eat, and even relax. Stores for creatures of every kind. Nikki’s catered to everyone. Her hair was brushed out at least, and she wore her usual perfume to make sure she smelled good, and not like she hasn’t showered for days. She could make the weather rain and thunder if she wanted to, and she just had a container of blood to keep her blood lust in check.
The customers really tested her limit at times. Then again she was only half vampire, and the other half was a witch. She has the hunger but not as strong as a full vampire and she can feed off the elements, too. She kept
spare blood in her fridge at home and even had fangs that can retract, too. She dressed in a blue shirt, blue pants, blue sneakers, and she had her dark blue tag pinned to the left side of her shirt with the name Mina. Driving can calm her down at times and she needed to get out of the house or else she would think about everything.
Her ex left her in a bad spot. He even came to her work and tried to get her back, but to no avail. She remembered the way he looked the next day. He smelled like shit, too like he didn’t shower in weeks. But all the groveling wouldn’t change the fact that he pushed her and would expect her to drop what she was doing and answer his constant texts and calls. He got mad at her since he was drunk and wanted to argue about the fact that she didn’t want to move in yet. He thought it meant period, and physically pushed her when she was on the bed. Her head hit the wall, and it stunned her since it’s bad enough he yelled at her calling her worthless. He even had to belittle her since she just graduated and got a job at Nikki’s which was a waste. After all that it was game over, and she didn’t want anything to do with him. It wasn’t just a fight, it was the end for the last time and it wasn’t the first time he was physical either.
His family made it worse since they were acting like him pushing her was no big deal. It was and he even left a note on her car saying it was a minor thing taken to the extreme. Her grip tightened on the steering wheel, and she wanted it all pushed away. Tonight after she got off work she would cry one last time and have a few jack and cokes after work. As a last hurrah. She needed it since lately it sucked. Her heart still hurt her, and she didn’t even think she knew what real love was. She needed to stop thinking about everything.
A few streets and she was in front of the mall parking lot to Nikki’s. It was nearly empty except the cars belonging to the mall employees. She arrived there on time, and 15 minutes before they officially opened. She was happy to have some time before the real torment began. She has no choice but to work retail to get her head on straight. After being controlled, abused, and having someone constantly accuse her of being a cheater she needed air from it all. He was horrible, and for the longest time she stayed with him since she didn’t want to be alone. She hoped her ex was far away tormenting another poor soul. She chased him away with an order, and blocked him on everything. Her smartphone was in her pocket in case she was needed. She even changed her number to get away from him.
Her dad is a vampire leader and her mom a witch leader. Both their powers combined made her unstoppable. She was the one to unite the witches and vampires to make them see they need each other. It meant she had a mate somewhere out there, and she didn’t know if he was a vampire or witch. It was a lot riding on her shoulders, and her parents' numbers were on the phone in case she needed to stay with either of them. Maybe there will be a point where vampires and witches can be in peace? Maybe? She didn’t know. And she walked up to the locked doors of Nikki’s and punched in the code to get in after hours. She heard the click that she put in the right code, and she went into the empty, dark store. All the lights were off since the store wasn’t opened yet. They will come on at 10:00 when they officially opened.
There were parts of the department store where the clothes were folded neatly and it actually was sized by color and clothing sized. Then, there were tables where everything was mixed up and you couldn’t tell which ones were supposed to be there and ones that don’t belong since some asshole messed up the order. There were all kinds of racks there. Some were 50% off, 40%, 30% and even 25% off, and there were the regular priced and everyday values, too which coupons didn’t work on.
Nikki’s has a store card, and the card has all the coupons a customer needs so there is no need to ask for one! Some of the customers are so lazy everything is mixed in. Nikki’s has everything shirts, pants, skirts, jeans. Everything someone would need to go to events and wear casually. Even fancy dresses for young witches going to ceremonies, vampire formal dresses, and even stuff for werewolf full moon dresses and clothes that can change with you. There were sections for everyone: Vampire, witch, werewolf it didn’t matter. Even clothes for women to attract vampires and werewolf pheromones. Shoes that can fly. Shoes to make someone invisible didn't matter. They even sold makeup, perfume and accessories to go with the ensembles.
Mina stood in the Customer Service department, and went to a register to clock in. There were already employees talking about the latest stuff in their lives, and their morning drives. There were vampire employees that carried blood flasks on them in case the hunger strikes. That blood lust is a bitch, and Mina hated it but it was disappointing it didn’t make her bite her ex. She should have bit him, and drained him dry for the horrible person he was. Nikki’s has species of all kinds and different reasons for working retail. There is a certain amount of boredom one can face when you have an eternity looming around. Some are college students, some retired and some needed something to do out of the house.
She needed one to get by and take a break from it all. She needed space. Space would be good for her since it was a hard break up. She thought she was in love. He was the wrong person and he wasn’t a vampire but a plain ass witch who tricked her. He threatened her life and got into a fight with his family the day before his birthday and twisted her arm. Horrible.
And in a few min
utes when all the employees came in the bullshit morning meeting happened. She understood why they did it especially when they discussed numbers of the previous day and she tuned it all out like she usually did. She barely paid attention to them anyway. She especially tuned them out when the bitchy manager was speaking. She is very condescending and talks to people as if they were twelve. Mina really hated her badly. She yelled at her a lot and the recent incident was over stupid letters not getting handed out when she has more important stuff on her mind other than her bullshit. She also yelled at her for not getting racks done. Mina was pulled to the side by Kara, and bullied. If she didn’t need the job badly she would have quit sooner. Thankfully, Kara stopped talking and the boring meeting is over. She headed to the register in her department which is in the kids department to count the change before they open. And she got done in record time since it was time to open the doors, and let the sales/coupon zombies in.
And if they aren’t let in on time then you get rude old people who bitch about them being let in six minutes late, and they will be nasty over it. One lady asked her if she forgot, and she explained what happened. Then the lady bitched over lack of help. Mina apologized, but that was all she could do. She didn’t have control over everything else. Customers love yelling at retail workers over stuff, and what was worse were the ones who go ‘but I am not taking it out on you’…Yes, you the fuck are. They also say they don’t mean to take it out on you when in fact it is all a lie. They all lie. And they love yelling at retail workers if their coupon doesn’t work on an item.
And after Mina opened the doors a lady needed to pay her bill, and she served her then went to the rack behind her. It was a mess there yet she had to help with purchases, exchanges, returns, bill payments and orders while cleaning up. She checked her three fitting rooms every 30 minutes. And she answered questions about signs in front of her and the dumbass asking the question. It was a hard day. Especially since she was the only one for the first few hours. Someone came in at Noon and she left at 3:45 so that made six hours to get through. And she started going through the rack to organize the items. It was better to focus on organizing the rack by department since she had two.
It became a routine to her. Organize, serve more people yelling at her over coupons, organize, and put some items away. Answer questions about the restrooms. And in the middle of everything relief came. She loved working with the people in her department since she got along with all of them. This particular person she loved working with so she was happy when she came. She is one of the ones Mina became close to and they have fun exchanging drunken customer horror stories. She didn’t mind ringing up. Mina hated the shit out of it. And she always signed people up for Nikki’s cards without even thinking, even five or six of them … sometimes more. She made it bearable for Mina.
Her name was Carly, and she had long brown hair, and brown eyes. She was a witch and married a warlock. They had two kids. They could talk for hours, and they would have fun chatting in between customers. Mina also loved it when someone else came in so she could run stuff to other departments. She hated staying there, and running helped time go by faster. She gathered up the items by the hanger after she took her 30 minute break. And she began taking merchandise to other departments. She dropped stuff off at the vampire department, werewolf changing department, and witch ceremony dress department. There was even a department for dresses, witches in school, ceremonial robes, and even a special blood department where they have all kinds of designer blood to buy. She has even experimented some with the different blood flavors. She even talked to some of her coworkers as she dropped the stuff off since she was pretty close to some of them. It was fun for her.
She ran clothes and emptied her fitting room every 30 minutes. She didn’t let anything bother her either. She was unstoppable today even when an old lady wanted to yell at her since the coupon didn’t take off a discount for her spell ward kits. She didn’t care. She was her own little world, and the shift was a short one. Even when the messages kept going off since she was a part of the vampire coven for her dads messaging system and her mom’s she didn’t have a care in the world. Her shift was short. Creatures of all kinds shopped here, and there were very few carts.
And a lot of the customers treated the associates like idiots. She was smarter since she had a degree in spell casting, and she wasn’t the only one. Most associates already have degrees and were self-taught for some of them. Her element is fire, and she has been known to have mastery over all four and in spirit. Vampires were also drawn to her since she has vampire magic in her veins. Not that any of these customers cared. They yell a lot over everything. Mina could tell it was temporary since she didn’t care about the attitude toward her. She was happy when it was time to clock out and go home.
She headed home after she clocked out. She took off her badge, and put it in her pocket. She left the building of Nikki’s and headed to the parking lot toward her car. She looked around the parking lot, and it was busier than the morning. Everyone is more active and her senses came alive more toward the afternoon. Especially at night. She actually felt peace. And a familiar presence but she couldn’t quite feel it. Something was there, but it wasn’t something she could place. She looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary. She spotted her car, and unlocked it then went inside. She pulled out of Nikki's parking lot to make her way to the complex. She was tired. Very tired, and her feet were sore from all the running. Her way home was full of idiots who didn’t know how to drive, and she pulled up to the Covenless Witch apartment buildings and parked in a spot just for her in front.
She headed toward her door and pulled out her key and slid it in the lock. No one could break in since she had some of the strongest spells to deter thieves. She stayed at the apartment complex for witches without covens since she really didn’t belong to one. She had to get away from her previous one since she needed space from her ex.
Her mom even agreed that it would be good for her to get away, and get breathing room for some time. She didn’t want to step up to the plate yet as a witch member. She was supposed to help the vampires and witches in the battle but that got put on hold the moment her ex degraded her. She was one of the witch warriors to help fight in the battle since she is stronger than the normal witch or even vampire.
She grew up in the house with her mom and went to Luxor academy to train to become a fierce witch and continued to study defensive magic and various powerful fireball spells including the ability to call dragons. Now however, it might as well go out the window since all she wanted to do was cry. She sighed wishing things were different, but she was stuck here for now.
She also got money from her mom so she didn’t work at Nicki’s for just a paycheck. She is using it to think of her next move. She already had a degree, and she was thinking about the step after it. The break up had been weighing on her mind as a reminder of how she can make dumb decisions and use poor judgement. She lost her friends, too and had to cut off her guy friends because of the tool. He stressed her out nonstop and made her miserable. He even tried to get her to dump a friend she has known since childhood. A friend who warned her about him and she didn’t listen. That night is still a painful reminder. The throbs in her head still bothered her at times and her back, too. He did some damage to her. She tried to push it out, and it was no use.
After she made it in the door, she put down her stuff, and sat on one of the leather couches and cried. She let it all out, and let the tears fall. It was a nice apartment. too. It had a living room, kitchen, dining room, one bathroom and her master bedroom with various closets and furniture she bought from WitchRUs and some nice tables, too. One housed a huge TV with a gaming system and she even had a laptop, too. She had to keep in touch with the outside world and she blocked her ex on Luxor online, too. She was even a part of her old coven group on one of the Luxor online groups and her father’s vampire one. She’s a special witch and she could do spells the normal ones can’t. Of course, the vampires
could call on her, too.
However, they knew she was taking a break. After the events happened, they put her ex in jail for it since he committed assault. And she hoped he stayed there. It’s bad when a lowlife tries to control you and tell you that you are worthless. That is what she heard the most. How she was worthless and would never amount to anything. He even yelled at her for not hanging a towel right. At all. Still Mina gathered her clothes, and took a long how shower. She needed it to forget all the crap she had to deal with. It was a long ass day. At least it was over and that there was alcohol involved. She was happy to be off work if only for a short time.
She had some time off since she took some vacation days to get a mental break since it was needed. Very needed with retail since it can suck the life out of you. After Mina showered, she used love healing shower gel which she picked up at Gingers shop after the break up. She needed something for healing and they even came in shower gel form. Heartbreak is the worst so she needed something with a kick. It made her feel better and it also contained chamomile, jasmine, eucalyptus and spearmint. It had healing properties and helped soothe her for some time.
She planned on eating a lot, watching TV and someday drinking for her vacation … a lot of r and r even video games to take her mind off stuff. After her nice shower she went to the kitchen and got a nice glass. She poured Jack Daniels and coke. It was needed if only to forget the day and getting yelled at by old people over coupons didn’t help. Hearing them constantly bitch was something that made her insane. She wanted to finish another after this one. It was that long of a day. Two drinks are needed on certain days. Sometimes three even depending on the day. Retail isn’t for everyone and at least there was a spell block to prevent creatures from frying the employees after their coupon didn’t work.
Mina's Vampire Mate Page 1
