by Carmen Caine
The crowd fell back just as Anya slammed her SUV door shut. A moment later, she gunned the gas and the SUV lurched forward. The crowd turned their ire on her then, raising their hands and shouting at her as they dashed out of her way, falling like bowling pins. I took advantage of the distraction to slip away and sprinted across the street to my motorcycle.
I waited until I’d unlocked the cargo bin and dumped Brandy inside before talking. “That was a stupid thing to do, kid,” I grumbled. “Dangerous. Far, far too dangerous. She’s a witch. That could’ve been the end of you.”
She didn’t say anything. She just looked up at me with her puppy eyes and wagged the tip of her tail.
Damn. She was cute.
I pressed my lips together in a thin line.
“We’re gonna lay a few ground rules here,” I said, buckling my helmet and starting my motorcycle. “When I say you stay, you stay. You can’t follow me.”
Her tail began to wag a little faster.
“And you’re gonna have to stay in wolf form while I’m out and about. Can’t have the cops causing me trouble over letting a kid stay home alone. You’ll have to pretend you’re a dog until you’re big enough to go to school.”
The tail tempo quickened even more.
“And most importantly,” I added, stressing each word. “We’re not a pack.”
That was a lie. I don’t know why I even bothered to say it. We both knew it wasn’t true. But she was smart. She didn’t point it out.
“Good job, though,” I grinned and cackled outright then. “Glad you got a good bite in. She deserved it.” The pup was a scrawny one, but the wolf in her heart clearly beat loud and strong.
Brandy’s lips pulled back in a wolf grin, but then, she glanced over my shoulder, her little body tensing.
My hand instinctively dropped to my knife as I followed her line of sight.
Someone stood in the shadows a short distance away. I gripped the handle of my knife, but before I could even take a step his direction, he moved away in a blur.
I caught the flash of bare abs then and smiled. There could be only one vampire running around New York City without a shirt this night. Snorting, I relaxed and reached back to close the cargo bin. “Down, kid. Time to go.”
She obliged and lay down as I dropped the cargo lid and snapped it shut.
I pulled out onto the street and headed towards my apartment, taking a shortcut through Central Park, my motorcycle headlight forging a tunnel into the night.
As the wind rushed to cool my face, I calmed my whirling thoughts.
Fine.
I had a rat of a kid to watch over now.
It was kind of bad timing, but who can really plan on exactly when a kid arrives? Still, I’d have to be a bit more careful. Emilio obviously had a price on my head. And Jacques? Thoughts of him coaxed a rare smile from my lips. Jacques had thrown the whole weight of the Terzi clan behind me. I knew I could trust that. I’d heard the wolf in his voice. He spoke in a bond that couldn’t be broken. With Terzi protection, I had time, time to learn just how I could destroy my enemy, once and for all.
I rubbed my sore shoulder, tearing out the other end of the park and shortly after, pulled up to my crumbling brick mess of an apartment building.
I eyed it critically. Yeah. I was going to have to move. Find a better school district.
Snagging Brandy out of the cargo bin, I took to the fire escape. She followed, as best she could, I had to slow down a couple of times, but at the window directly below mine, she stopped, distracted by the Christmas lights blinking in the window.
I opened my mouth to bark for her to hurry up, but when I caught the wonder in her liquid brown eyes locked on the Christmas lights, I slowly sealed my lips. I couldn’t help but smile at her—just a little, and I let her stare almost a minute before climbing back down to pat her roughly on the head. “Time to go, kid. It’s late.”
Her tail thumped on the fire escape grating and she didn’t object as I snagged her by the neck. It wasn’t until I’d slid through my bedroom window and dropped her on the bed that I realized I’d actually stopped in front of that garishly decorated Christmas window.
I’d waited.
I’d even … smiled.
And I hadn’t winced, not even once.
Surprising.
I turned back to the window and stared into the dark clouds above as a few snowflakes drifted down. Behind me, I heard Brandy’s soft breathing. It was odd, having another wolf in the house. One who already had my back even at her young age.
And out there in the city, I knew there was another wolf I could count on, as well.
I closed my eyes. Yeah, I was still a bonepicker … but I no longer walked alone.
The End
The story of Raven and Jacques continues in the Cassidy Edwards “Monster” series.
About the Author
Click this link for a list of Carmen's books on Amazon
Like many of us on this planet, USA Today Bestselling and Multiple Award-Winning author Carmen Caine is from another world. She spends every moment she can scribbling stories on sticky notes that her kids find posted all over the car, house, and barn. When she’s not busy working as a software engineer or writing stories, she spends her time texting her kids on an insanely small, Keebler-Elf-sized keyboard (yes, she hates cell phones), trying to convince her Doberman that being jealous of the new Frenchton puppy just isn’t worth it (no luck so far), and tending to the barn full of animal misfits, including a runt lamb who sneaks inside the house and a rescue llama with a bad attitude.
Carmen is very terrible at tweeting and even worse about posting on Facebook (although she does make a New Year’s Resolution to improve every year). However, she would like to have you as a friend, please find her at the following places:
Carmen and Madison's Facebook Fanpage
Facebook friends with Carmen Caine ( aka Madison )
Carmen's Twitter
Carmen's website
Carmen’s Other Books
Monster – Cassidy Edwards, Book 1
The Bestselling Cassidy Edwards Series, Book 1
Revenge. It’s all I've lived for. Revenge against those who stacked the cards against me from the start. But I’m changing the deck now. I’m getting even. Born to a vampire, I wasn’t supposed to survive—but I did. My name is Cassidy. Cassidy Edwards. And I’m the first of my kind.
The Job: Trapping a sixteenth-century Scottish Highlander of a vampire who just might be seduction itself.
The Team: A firedrake with an attitude, a werewolf with a problem, and an imp in dire need of rehab.
The Boss: A dangerously powerful warlock as handsome as sin.
My Problem: Bluffing my way into a job, my first mission into the Charmed world opens a Pandora's box of betrayal and secrets ... along with attractions of the most lethal kind.
Spellfinder – Cassidy Edwards, Book 2
Revenge. Until now, my revenge was more of an idea. A fantasy. A mere whisper of what revenge should be. But it was a seed—and it was time for it to sprout. My name is Cassidy. Cassidy Edwards. And I'm the first of my kind.
The Job: Hunting a mysterious force attacking the House of Rowle with spells of the most malevolent, arachnid kind.
The Players: A wickedly handsome warlock-of-a-boss, a hostile Nether Reach Keeper hell-bent on my arrest, and a vampire who just might believe that he’s my father.
My Problem: As my new Spellfinding gig plunges me deeper into the world of the Charmed Mafia, destiny presents the king of all conflicts … forcing me to walk a tightrope of lust and betrayal as the monster inside me awakens.
Mindbreaker – Cassidy Edwards, Book 3
Revenge. After my first taste, I find I like it. But as I maneuver my way through danger, my idea of revenge is turned on its head. My name is Cassidy. Cassidy Edwards. And I'm the first of my kind.
The Job: Finding just who broke Dorian Ramsey's puppet curse and set the powerful vampire free. Only
I've got a personal conflict of interest this time--it was me.
The Team: A Drake itching for any excuse to pin the crime on me--guilty or not. A Keeper wanting to pitch me in a Nether Reach prison--just for existing. A Warlock I barely recognize.
The Curve Ball: Dancing my way through the evidence, I uncover an avalanche of answers regarding my past and discover nothing is truly what it seems.
Latchling Blood Moon – A Cassidy Edwards Novella, Book 3.5
Fate picked me to face an ancient evil. As a powerful Latchling of the Stonehenge Druids, I, Lady Elizabeth Rowle, walked the path of my destiny. I lived life battle-ready, training continually, and spending my days delving into the arcane, seeking any and all knowledge that might aid my quest. At last, I felt ready to face the evil haunting my dreams. But there was one thing I hadn’t prepared for. Love
Scotland, Fourteenth Century: When Lady Elizabeth Rowle discovers the ancient evil of the Mindbreaker has reawakened, she knows her time has come. Finding unexpected allies in the Scottish Highlander, Dorian Ramsey, and the French Devil of a vampire, Jacques LeBeau, she fights the battle of her life—only to discover that fate has other plans.
Highland Blood Moon – A Cassidy Edwards Short Story, Book 3.6
A message summons Dorian Ramsey home to discover his village ravaged by a mysterious Night Viper and his sister caught in web of treachery. To save her, he must make a choice—a choice that alters his destiny forever.
This novella also includes the short story: Bonepicker
My name is Raven. They call me a Bonepicker—a lone wolf, a wolf without a pack—but I’m no ordinary wolf. I’m a wolf of the Mists and I feed on carrion of a special kind, the Carrion of the Reaches. There’s not a Reach I can’t break into nor a place I can’t escape—in spite of having so many prices on my head, they’d confuse a calculator.
Christmas is a holiday I'd rather forget, but then I accept a job from Lord Lucian Rowle and everything changes.
Rebel – Cassidy Edwards, Book 4: Coming in March
Mindgames – Cassidy Edwards, Book 5: Coming out later in 2017
The Glass Wall Series (Complete four-book set)
What if humans were more powerful than they thought? What if an alien race had a reason to keep humanity entrenched in fear? And what if ancient beings that we've met before were still trying to protect us? And just what if the fate of Earth depended upon an average 17-year-old girl with a few secrets of her own?
Would she discover that the power of love was truly the strongest of all?
Heather House: Witch of the Moors (IPPY Gold, Ben Franklin Gold, Readers’ Favorite Gold)
Scotland, 1589 - As the spare for the heir, Alec Montgomery devoted his time to the pursuit of pleasure.
Lighthearted and fiercely loyal, Alec spent his days as his brother's right-hand man while avidly thwarting the king’s matchmaking attempts and his mother's desire that he join the priesthood. But on one stormy night, a mysterious crone and a chance meeting on the moors bring his fate full circle.
To escape a Montgomery raid as a wee lass, Sorcha Cunningham and her mother fled into the forest and stumbled upon the refuge of Heather House with its ancient stone circle. The dreams came to Sorcha that night, dreams that would portend the horrors of her future, forcing her to face a destiny written in the stars.
As the age-old feud between the Montgomery and Cunningham clans ignite, Alec and Sorcha walk a precipice of desire and danger as King James VI of Scotland ushers in the age of witch-hunting and the North Berwick Witch Trials threaten to rip them apart.
The Highland Heather and Hearts Scottish Award-Winning Romance Collection
The Kindling Heart - (Scotland, 1478) - Ruan MacLeod was through with women. They were nothing but trouble.
Leaving the rash life of his youth behind, he returned to Skye, seeking peace. He never meant to split the clan or start a war with the MacDonald of Duntulm. He certainly never foresaw an arranged marriage to the most scandalous woman in Scotland. Even though she was twice his age, the size of a horse and mother to more than one illegitimate child, he agreed to secure his sister's freedom.
However, even that plan goes drastically awry. On his wedding day, he finds himself faced instead with an enticing, green-eyed lass named Bree. A walking disaster, his bride immediately turns his world into chaos and threatens to melt his resolve never to love again.
IPPY Silver Award-Winning Novel: The Bedeviled Heart - (Scotland, 1479) Cameron Malcolm Stewart, Earl of Lennox, had made his peace with destiny. It was not his fate to love as other men.
Each of his politically arranged marriages had ended in disaster. And though he had never touched a one of his wives, he had come to believe that sharing his name would consign a woman to an early grave. So, on the sunny spring day Cameron encounters a delightfully devious, bright-eyed lass selling charmed stones in one of Stirling's alehouses, he tosses her a shilling, thinking only to steal a kiss. But it is a kiss that will change his life forever.
IPPY Bronze Award-Winning Novel: The Daring Heart - (Scotland, 1482) - To the scandalous Lord Julian Gray, marriage is a malady and nothing more.
How can a man even court a lass longer than a fortnight when there are so many pouting lips to kiss? Roaming the courts of Europe, Julian appears to spend his time drinking wine, wagering gold, and dandling willing lasses upon his knee. But no one knows the man behind the mask. No one knows that he is Le Marin--Europe's most daring and brazen spy.
But everything changes the night he finds a dagger pressed against his ribs and an alluring hazel-eyed minx in his bed.
The Bold Heart - (Scotland, 1488) - Ewan was a battle-weary warrior with haunted dreams. He no longer believed in love.
On the Isle of Skye, the raven-haired Merry MacLeod spends her days caring for the clan elderly and hurtling across the moors on the back of her black stallion. A high-spirited, adventurous lass, she is no longer troubled by childhood memories of the day the braw lad, Ewan MacLean, rescued her from her husband, the cruel MacDonald. But when she hears the very same Ewan is now confined in an English prison, she disguises herself as a lad and sets out to repay her debt.
After a bold, mysterious youth rescues Ewan and his men from the English, the group swiftly makes their way back to Scotland. But no sooner embarked on their journey home, a young Prince James sounds the call to arms, rises against his father, King James III of Scotland, and plunges Scotland into a dangerous civil war.
But as they journey to join the prince, both Ewan and Alec discover their rescuer's secret and both men find themselves falling unexpectedly in love with the raven-haired beauty.
