Taming the Vampire: Over 25 All New Paranormal Alpha Male Tales of Contemporary, Military, Shifters, Billionaires, Werewolves, Magic, Fae, Witches, Dragons, Demons & More

by Mandy M. Roth

  He stood, watching me. Then, I sensed he was about to do it—to walk away. Squeezing my eyes closed, I turned back to the railing, not wanting to watch as he left my life. I knew nothing about him other than he was a bloodthirsty predator, but he had helped bring me back to life. He had helped me break through my fear. And he sparked a memory that had been lost in time. I stared up at the moon, trying not to cry.

  Suddenly, the wood on the railing splintered. It sheared away from the wall, but I didn’t have time to move. The next thing I knew, I toppled over the edge. Down below was an empty concrete pool.

  Oh crap, I’m going to die and it’s because of a broken railing, Craig will laugh his ass off—

  I was falling then, arms flailing. As I tumbled off the balcony, I tried to conjure a spell that would set me down gently, but I had no time. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see my death approaching.

  The next moment, I was dangling in air. The freefall had stopped.

  I opened one eye and realized I was dangling over the empty pool. Somebody had managed to catch me by the laces of my corset, which were by now constricting my breathing given that I was hanging from them. I let out a gasp of pain as I was abruptly jerked upward and found myself back on the deck. Aegis shoved me toward the French doors, propelling me back toward the room.

  “Get off the deck. The wood’s probably rotten to the core.”

  I stumbled through the doors, falling to my knees as I realized how close I had come to dying. Panicking, unable to breathe, I tore at the busks of my corset, trying to get the damned thing off before I collapsed. It wasn’t laced too tight, but I needed air and I needed it now.

  Aegis was there, and the next thing I knew, he had managed to open the steel busks. The corset fell away, freeing my breasts from their prison. He lifted me, carrying me to the bed, where he gently laid me against the mound of pillows. I leaned back, watching the room spin.

  “Water?”

  I nodded, still unable to speak. He was gone before I could blink. The next moment, he returned with a glass of water. I could hear running on the stairs. It had to be Sandy. As I glanced over at Aegis, who was sitting beside the bed, I realized he was staring at my chest.

  “You could look at my face, you know.”

  “I could, but the view’s…so…lovely.”

  Suddenly embarrassed, I grabbed a throw and wrapped it around my shoulders. Then, quietly, I added, “You saved my life.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” Any sign of the smirk was gone. He held my gaze, this time without a challenge. “You almost died. You have to be careful with these old houses. They have a lot of hidden death traps.”

  “Including, on occasion, the odd vampire?” I managed a smile, realizing that we had just passed some kind of milestone. The energy had shifted—subtly but noticeably—and though the pull was still there, I no longer felt awkward. Aegis seemed more…human.

  Just then, Sandy burst into the room, her face drained of color. “Bubba said you almost fell off the balcony?” As she headed toward the French doors, the cat came bursting in behind her, leaping on the bed beside me. He took one look at Aegis and let out a snarl.

  “Don’t worry, little cat. I’m not going to drink you down, or your lovely mistress, either.” Aegis stared at him. After a moment, he swore under his breath. “You have a cjinn? Seriously?”

  “Yes, and Bubba’s my best friend next to Sandy. So you’d better get used to each other.” I paused, then added, “That is, if you’re going to be staying in town.”

  Aegis frowned, but slowly held out his hand to Bubba. “You heard her. So make with the paw and shake. I know you can understand me. I know all about cjinns.”

  Bubba sneezed on Aegis’s fingers. Then, with a disgruntled glance at me, he leaned forward and licked the vampire’s hand, letting out another sneeze. After a second, he flipped over and showed his belly, waggling his front paw suggestively.

  “He wants you to rub his belly. I don’t recommend it unless you’re good at clearing your mind. Bubba’s powers are all too dependent on his mood at the time.”

  “So instead of a lamp…”

  “Yeah, you rub his belly. And Bubba understands every word you say, so one slight misstep for those looking to cadge a wish, and boom…” I suddenly stopped. “Oh hell. He didn’t…” I glanced down at him. That drunken night when Sandy had first found the mansion on the net. I vaguely remembered asking Bubba for adventure and romance.

  “Who didn’t what?” Sandy came back in. “Honey, that entire balcony is rotted through. I’m amazed it didn’t go down before now. You’ll have to have it replaced, and while you’re at it, I’d check out the decks, too. Make certain they aren’t going to break under the weight of your guests.”

  “Guests?” Aegis frowned. “What guests?”

  I swallowed the rest of the water. My near-death experience was starting to wear off. I sat up, crossing my legs and shifting the blanket so that it still covered me but didn’t feel so bulky.

  “I’m turning this house into a bed and breakfast. I’m going to call it ‘Bewitching Bedlam’ and make it into a business for those who want a little taste of magic. Or a big scoop of it, I guess.”

  “A B&B? Really?”

  I had thought he was going to wave off the idea, but instead, he looked interested.

  Sandy gave me a soft smile—the one that always told me she was up to something—and said, “Well, you still need to hire a cook. Someone who can bake all sorts of goodies for breakfast.”

  I glared at her. “I know. I’ll put an ad in the Bedlam Gazette this week. But first, I have to find a good contractor to take on the rest of the renovations. The Alpha-Pack missed the state of the balcony, and with the rates they charge, and the work they’ve left undone, I’m not so keen on trusting them again.”

  Aegis cleared his throat. “So, you need help around here?”

  “Yeah, why, you offering?” I let out a laugh but stopped as I realized he wasn’t joining in. “Really? You’re one of the Fallen. You’re a vampire. You want a job?”

  He shrugged. “I’m in a band. That’s a job, isn’t it?”

  “It gets lonely, doesn’t it?” Sandy asked.

  Aegis jerked his head up. “What?”

  “It gets lonely, wandering through the centuries. When Apollo cast you out, he banished you from the light. But yet, you still wear his ring. You miss being one of his chosen, don’t you?”

  Sometimes, my best friend’s inner sight was so on target it scared me. We each had our own magical gifts, and one of Sandy’s was the ability to read people. And, apparently, vampires.

  Aegis sounded almost angry. “If you really must know, every night, I wake from my sleep hoping to find it was all a nightmare. A long, protracted nightmare. I can’t change things—Apollo will never forgive me—but I’ve learned to live with my remorse. I’m one of the Fallen. It’s a matter of honor to me that I don’t walk into the sunlight because of it. I will pay my penance, even though I don’t believe I des— Never mind.”

  At that moment, I realized that for all his threats, for all his anger and dangerous beauty, Aegis was lonely. He loved women. He loved music—a given, since he had been bound to Apollo.

  “You’re a Renaissance man, aren’t you?” I let the blanket drop away.

  He turned his face as I slid out of bed, going to my dresser to find a bra and tank top. I couldn’t go without a bra—my boobs hurt too much when I didn’t wear underwire.

  “Okay, decent now.” I returned to the bed. “I think I’m over my shock. Bubba, get off there!” Bubba had wandered over to the deck and was sniffing at the edge. I raced over to the doors as he turned away and bounded toward the stairs, giving me a look of annoyance as he loped past. I shut the doors so he couldn’t get out.

  Sandy was looking uncomfortable. “Do you two want me to leave? I could go and let you talk.”

  Aegis gave her a rueful grin. “No, you’re her best friend. She’ll just tell you what we said a
nyway.” I started to object but he waved off my protest. “I know women. You’re right in a way. I do love women. But the truth is…I’m not a womanizer. I’ve been looking…”

  And then, I knew. “For a mate. For someone to make the nights less lonely. You’ve been looking for someone to give your life meaning.”

  He stared at the floor. “It sounds pathetic, but when Apollo cast me out, he cursed me forever. But I’ve come to realize that I can still make a life for myself. I don’t have to let my disgrace rule me for eternity. But in order to do that, I have to have something to hold on to. To keep me from turning into a monster, because the hunger is there. The drive to feed. Though I do feed, for the past few hundred years I have only killed to defend myself, or to defend others.”

  “You want a normal life.” Everything was starting to fall into place. “Were you planning on forming the band already when you met me?”

  He nodded. “I thought I could hole up here and when Bedlam got used to me, I could reveal who I was. I was planning on buying this place when you showed up. You moved in and that upset the applecart.”

  A thought occurred to me. “Were you the one who opened the door to the basement, that first made me go down in the basement?”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “No, that was Franny.”

  I blinked. “Franny? Who’s that?”

  “Your ghost. You have a ghost in the house. She’ll introduce herself soon enough.”

  Great. So now I had a roommate. But I laughed. “As long as she doesn’t cause a problem, we’ll be okay.”

  “She’s okay. Don’t exorcise her. She lived a long time ago and is still trying to move on.” He paused, sobering. “You know, when I first saw you, I thought…”

  “Thought what?”

  Aegis pressed his lips together as though he might not be going to answer. Then he finally said, “I thought you were someone I knew a long, long time ago. You remind me of a woman I fell in love with while I was serving Apollo. That’s the real reason he cursed me and turned me into one of the Fallen. It wasn’t because I tried to usurp his power. It was because I dared to love a woman he had his eye on. Another one of his chosen. And you remind me so much of her. She had the same wisecracking sense of humor, the same spark. The same…feel.”

  “Did she return your love?”

  He hung his head. “She respected Apollo, of course. We all revered him and worshipped him. But…she didn’t love him like she loved me.”

  “Do you know what happened to her?” Sandy’s tone had gone from snarky to sympathetic.

  He shook his head. “Apollo punished me first. I never found out what he did to her. That was part of my punishment.”

  I shivered. Again, the sense of déjà vu swept over me.

  He turned to me. “Do you see why I reacted so strongly?”

  “Yes,” I said softly. “And you seem so familiar to me.”

  “So what do we do?” His voice was soft. No games, no threats, just a plea for understanding.

  I shivered, realizing that what I was about to say would forever change my life.

  “Stay. Please. I trust that you won’t hurt me. Stay and help me with Bewitching Bedlam. And let’s see what happens.” Before I could change my mind, I leaned over to press my lips against his. He pulled me onto his lap, kissing me deeply, and I felt like I could float in the energy forever. I didn’t even notice when Sandy left the room until, when I came up for air, I realized she was gone.

  “They’re in the kitchen. I can hear them,” Aegis said softly. “Are you sure you want to do this? I’m still one of the Fallen—a vampire. I could be lying, for all you know.”

  “But you’re not. Bubba would know. And one of Sandy’s gifts is reading people. And for all your curses, you’re still a person, vampire or not. If they felt safe in leaving me alone with you, then I trust you.”

  He began to sing, softly at first, but then his voice coiled around me and I lost myself in the melody. It rolled through me like a drug, buoying me up, infecting me with a joy that I hadn’t felt in a long while. I curled on his lap, my head on his chest, as he continued to sing.

  Sometimes, a fuzzy little cjinn could instigate a massive life-change, and sometimes, all we needed was a little blood music to make the world a bigger, brighter place. Even in the depths of the night.

  The End

  About Yasmine Galenorn

  The author of almost fifty books, New York Times bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance, science fiction, paranormal mystery, and metaphysical nonfiction. She lives in Kirkland WA with her husband and cats.

  www.Galenorn.com

  Hart Attack by V. Vaughn

  Hart Attack by V. Vaughn

  Maggie Evans listens to her transplanted heart, but it’s not telling her everything she needs to know.

  Maggie Evan’s heart used to belong to someone else, and when she received her transplant she got more than a vital organ – she got a piece of the donor’s soul. When Maggie sets on an adventure with a new job, her heart is more excited than she is, and once Maggie arrives at the Hart mansion, she’s determined to learn why. But she discovers far more than she expected as she’s drawn in by the two sexy Hart brothers, and finds her dream to live life in a big way just might happen.

  Chapter 1

  “This is so cloak-and-dagger,” says my best friend, Kristi. She’s talking about a nondisclosure agreement for my new job that arrived by registered mail. Her long, slender finger traces under a section. “I’m no lawyer, but I think this part says if you reveal anything, they’ll kill you.” She chuckles as my mother snatches the document from her hands.

  Mom frowns as she reads the part Kristi was referring to. “I still don’t like anything about this, Maggie. I don’t understand why staying here would be so awful.”

  Mom is against me leaving our tiny Maine town near the Canadian border, and I get her hesitation to let me go off on my own. She spent my whole life keeping me alive. But I’m tired of playing things safe, and when I went to the career-counseling center at my community college looking for any adventure my English degree would allow, I jumped at the chance to move away. Even if my new job is still in the same state.

  “Well, I think it’s exciting, Mrs. Evans,” says Kristi. “Didn’t you ever want to get out of here?”

  Mom sighs, and guilt tugs at me for a moment. This is more than me moving away--this means the one goal she had for the last twenty years is no longer hers. I hug her tight and inhale the faint lemon scent of her soap. “Mom, be happy for me. You’ve just gotten a doctorate in raising a child that was supposed to die into a woman that plans to live.” And I plan to live large.

  While my new heart is working fine, I won’t remain healthy for decades, and I’m going to make the most of the time I’ve got. The pen I grab is slick in my hand, and it scratches across the paper as I sign the nondisclosure agreement. As I tuck it into the preaddressed envelope, my heart flips as if I have a crush.

  It’s a strange sensation to have about a new job, but things that happen with my heart aren’t normal. Her heart. Five years ago I had a heart transplant, and since the day I got some girl’s vital organ, I haven’t been alone. I don’t talk about it to anyone, of course. While there have been stories about people suddenly liking food they hated, nobody’s ever spoken about the level of strangeness I experience now. I think I got a piece of my donor’s soul too, but I’m not about to become the latest guest on a talk show, so I keep quiet. I haven’t even told my mother, who is the only person I would trust with such a secret.

  My heart is the reason I’ve been able to get over the strange requirements of my new job too. Especially when one of the requests meant I had to go buy a pencil skirt and button-up blouse to wear for a full-body photograph of myself. That wasn’t something I shared with my mother either, because if not for my heart, I might not have gone through with the application. But the donor who gave me my life force pushed any trepidation
from my mind, and now I’m just as excited about my new adventure as my heart is.

  I clutch the overnight mailer to my chest and ask, “Who wants to go to the post office with me and help me seal my fate?”

  My jaw drops when I drive past the center of the coastal town of Port Porpoise and see the view. A vast expanse of ocean stretches forever on the right-hand side of the road, and the way the sunlight bounces off the water makes it appear as if someone spilled glitter. “Wow,” I say but immediately think that’s an understatement.

  “In one thousand feet you will have reached your destination, on the right,” announces the map program on my phone. I squint as if that will help me see the only house visible on that side of the road better. It looks as if it’s built on large rocks and perches on the top of them as if they were a throne. It makes me think the owner wants to command the high seas, and I hope I get a view of the ocean from my room. Though it’s unlikely since I’m just a lowly assistant. I chuckle to myself as I imagine a room set in a dark cellar complete with squeaking rats. Dramatic much?

  Sebastian Hart, my new employer, is a private man, and I got nothing more than his name for information about him. I’ve been hired as his personal secretary. Who calls it that these days? But considering the sizable salary for the job, he can call me anything he wants, and I suspect he’s some old rich dude who doesn’t care what anyone thinks.

  My duties will be to filter Sebastian’s correspondence and act on his behalf for the public side of his life. I had to take a typing test for accuracy and speed, proof an odd short story about vampires for grammar and punctuation, and then call a phone number and leave a message of me reading the short story aloud. He’d better not be a dirty old man who asks me to pick up pencils he drops, because I’ll be so out of there.