by Aliya DalRae
Malcolm shifted, and without acknowledging the Vampire’s presence, reached up into the tree for the sweats he had stashed there in happier days. Shaking off any accumulated bugs and bark, he donned the fleece, flipped his dreads out of his face and turned to the Vampire.
“So you’re the one caused all this trouble lately?”
The Raven look-alike was watching him, his only reaction to seeing a cat turn into a man in front of his eyes being the slight raising of his brow. In answer to the question, he merely shrugged.
“Thought you’d be long gone by now,” Malcolm said, wondering if this Vampire’s voice was as much like Raven’s as his face and body.
“You would think,” he answered with a sigh, turning his attentions back to the old farm house. And no, they sounded nothing alike. The timbre maybe a little, but this vamp was high class English all the way. Not like Raven at all.
Malcolm watched him watch the house and it hit him. It wasn’t blatant, what he was sensing. The guy wasn’t mooning or moping, but there was a general sense of melancholy about him that could only be one thing.
“Aw, Christ, not you too?” he asked. The guy looked a question at him. “Please tell me you’re not in love with her, too.” Malcolm shook his head as the male simply turned away. Would none of them ever learn?
~~~~~~~
Nox turned back to the house, ignoring the Shifter. He’d never seen anyone change forms before, and as fascinating as it was, he had other things on his mind. The cat’s question was interesting as well, but the answer wasn’t quite so simple.
Jessica was special to him, there was no doubt about it. For a quick minute he had even wondered what it would be like to love her, and to be loved by her. Not that love was something he fully understood. It was a concept, an idea put forth in novels and movies. But in the days they had spent together, he could easily have seen himself falling into that trap.
Right up until Jessica had offered her life to save his brother’s. That was the point when he woke the hell up and faced the fact that she would never be his. It had stung, no question, but not so much as he thought it might. If he were being honest, it was pretty amazing, seeing that kind of devotion.
What he was thinking about now was what it would be like to be in that house, eating turkey and laughing at jokes with people who didn’t hate him. People who would call him by name and slap him on the back in friendship and in jest. What would it be like to share a holiday with a brother and his girl, with her family and friends, and be counted as one of them?
The cat thought being in love with Jessica made him delusional, but were Nox’s dreams of family and acceptance any less a fantasy? He shook his head and the cat took that as an answer.
And an invitation to talk again.
“That’s good,” Malcolm said, shaking his dreads out of his eyes as he reached into the tree again and retrieved a t-shirt. “Because that girl’s life is about to get super complicated.”
There was more, but Nox wasn’t listening. His focus remained on the old farmhouse. The sounds of happiness, of joy and family, were floating through the windows and dissipating on the light breeze, carrying his illusory longings with them into the November night.
about the author
Aliya DalRae is the author of the Jessica Sweet Trilogy. Her debut novel, Sweet Vengeance, was published in February 2016, with the sequel, Sweet Discovery, becoming available in April 2017. The third and final book in the trilogy, Sweet Destiny, is well underway.
Learn more about Aliya, and her writing at:
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Once again, I thank you for reading Sweet Discovery, and encourage you to read and review books by Indie Authors every chance you get. Your words of encouragement or even constructive criticism help us all become better writers, and drive us to put forth our best work for you, our readers.
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Sweet Vengeance
Jessica Sweet is an orphan – Again…
At 26, the term may not truly apply, but having been abandoned by her birth parents at an early age, the death of her adoptive parents is like déjà vu all over again. Now she finds herself alone, facing a future that should be unsure; however, the visions she’s been plagued with since childhood are about to descend upon her, pulling her into a supernatural world where her deepest fantasies and most harrowing nightmares will soon come true.
A monster, even by Vampire Standards...
…Raven has spent the better part of his five hundred seventy plus years fighting the evil within. His capture by an ancient breed of Sorcerers, just surfacing in the Legion’s base town of Fallen Cross, Ohio, leaves him beaten and starving. Escape leads him to an old farmhouse, the single heartbeat within promising life. What he couldn’t know is that the blood he now seeks will sustain him in ways he could never imagine…
Order Book 1 in the Jessica Sweet Trilogy here:
Sweet Vengeance on Amazon
