Forget You Not: (A Havenwood Falls Novella)

by Kristie Cook

  About This Book

  Welcome to Havenwood Falls, a small town in the majestic mountains of Colorado. A town where legacies began centuries ago, bloodlines run deep, and dark secrets abound. A town where nobody is what you think, where truths pose as lies, and where myths blend with reality. A place where everyone has a story. This is only but one…

  Two years ago, Kaela Peters nearly killed her fiancé by ripping his throat out. Once she gained control over her vampire urges, she hoped to rekindle their love, only to find him on one knee again—now with her best friend. She can’t blame them for their betrayal, though. They’ve been compelled to forget that she even existed. But she can’t forget them, so when she receives an unexpected job offer far away in the Colorado mountains, she seizes the opportunity to escape her past and the painful memories.

  If only she’d known she was running right into her true past and memories that cut even deeper.

  Her real name isn’t Kaela Peters, Havenwood Falls and her new job are not what they seem on the surface, and the love of her life isn’t the ex in Atlanta. As she starts piecing together the fragmented memories of her past and her moroi heritage, the passion of old love reignites. Until she discovers that the triggering of her vampire gene may have been foul play with dire consequences—and Xandru Roca, the epic love she’d left behind, has something to do with it all.

  Forget You Not

  A Havenwood Falls Novella

  Kristie Cook

  Contents

  Other Havenwood Falls Books

  Books By Kristie Cook

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Other Havenwood Falls Books

  Fate, Love & Loyalty by E.J. Fechenda

  Old Wounds by Susan Burdorf

  Covetousness by Randi Cooley Wilson

  More books releasing on a monthly basis

  Also try the YA line, Havenwood Falls High, launching October 2017

  Stay up to date at www.HavenwoodFalls.com and subscribe to our newsletter

  Books By Kristie Cook

  Soul Savers

  A Demon’s Promise

  An Angel’s Purpose

  Dangerous Devotion

  Dark Power

  Sacred Wrath

  Unholy Torment

  Fractured Faith

  Genesis: A Soul Savers Novella

  Awakened Angel: A Soul Savers Novella

  Supernatural Chronicles: The Wolves (A Soul Savers Tie-In Novella)

  Wonder: A Soul Savers Collection of Holiday Short Stories & Recipes

  The Book of Phoenix

  The Space Between

  The Space Beyond

  The Space Within

  Copyright © 2017 Kristie Cook, Ang’dora Productions, LLC

  All rights reserved.

  Published by

  Ang’dora Productions, LLC

  5621 Strand Blvd, Ste 210

  Naples, FL 34110

  Havenwood Falls and Ang’dora Productions and their associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Ang’dora Productions, LLC

  Cover design by Regina Wamba at MaeIDesign.com

  Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the owner of this book.

  Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  For those who never gave up on me, who supported me, who believed in me

  And to the authors who have put their trust in me

  It’s wonderful to be back. Back among the mountains that remind us of our vulnerability, our ultimate lack of control over the world we live in. Mountains that demand humility, and yield so much peace in return.

  ~ Alex Lowe

  Chapter 1

  Nothing screamed badass vampire chick more than hiding behind a menu while your ex-fiancé and former best friend sucked each other’s faces three tables over and five booths down. I could hear their lips smacking and smell their horn-dog pheromones from my small table at the back of the restaurant. As if hiding wasn’t pathetic enough, I couldn’t stop stealing glances at them from over the top of the laminated cardboard in my hands, some sick part of me reveling in the painful twists of my heart and knots in my gut. That’s supposed to be me. My eyes squeezed shut to suppress the threatening tears as I slid further down in my seat.

  Ugh. I’m such a freakin’ masochist.

  “Kaela Peters, you are such a fucking masochist.”

  My eyes popped open at the sound of my roommate’s raspy voice to find the redhead plopping down in the chair across from me, her green apron bunched up in one hand. One of her brows lifted as she stared at me with big, blue eyes, gnawing on her plump bottom lip, painted as scarlet as her hair. The color was all the more vibrant against her unnaturally porcelain-white skin. Sindi was also a vampire; in fact, in a much more traditional way than I was. Her coloring, for example—pale like vampires should be while my skin was still the olive tone it had always been. Her eyes had stayed the same, except when she fed from the vein, and then they sort of glowed, but mine made a permanent change from brown to a greenish-gray when I turned. We hadn’t figured that one out.

  After enduring several long moments of her glare, I finally shrugged and widened my eyes with as much innocence as I could muster. “What? It’s not like I followed them here.”

  “Not this time.”

  My eyes began to drift over to the happy couple once more before I snapped them back to her. I didn’t fool her, though. She noticed, if rolling her eyes was any indication.

  “I guess you’re at least taking my advice,” she muttered as she unfolded her long legs and stood to tie her apron around her small waist. “But when the hell were you going to tell me?”

  My brows pinched together at the sudden change in her tone, from snarky to … pained. It took a lot to hurt Sindi’s feelings—her heart was possibly tougher than her indestructible body. Another of the differences between us. My body could heal itself in a short time; hers healed immediately. My skin burnt and blistered in the sun, but she’d burst into flames. I still needed oxygen (though not as much as a human), and she didn’t. My heart still beat, while hers was silent. But could it still be broken? What could I have done to do so?

  “I’m sorry,” I said, “but tell you what?”

  She blew out a quick breath. “It’s okay, Kaela, I get it. When you joked about moving far away from here and your past, I was serious when I said you should. I’ll miss you, but it’s what you need. But don’t lie to me about it.”

  “I really have no idea what you’re talking about.” Actually, muttering about moving away hadn’t really been a joke, but not something I’d done anything about. Yet. My eyes stole another glimpse of the cuddling exes at the thought of leaving, and I sighed. I really was too much of a masochist.

  Sindi’s hands landed at her waist, and her long fingers tapped against her hip bones as s
he let out another huff. “Whisper Falls Inn? Job offer? You left the email open on your laptop this morning. How could you not even tell me that you’d applied? And Colorado? Really, Kaela? Do you know how long that drive from Atlanta would be? I can only drive at night! You couldn’t find anything closer?”

  I stared at her, confused. “Why wouldn’t you fly?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You know why.”

  I opened my mouth to ask because I had no idea why, but then shook my head. How she got to Colorado didn’t matter.

  “Unbunch your panties,” I said instead. “I can’t have a job offer. I haven’t applied for anything new in ages. And definitely not in Colorado.”

  She glared at me for another long moment, and she must have seen the truth in my eyes because her baby blues began to soften and she started fiddling with the contents of her apron pocket. “Yeah, well, you shouldn’t leave your shit out and open if you don’t want me to know. But if you care at all about my opinion, I think it’s pretty perfect for you. You should take it.” She broke our eye contact as she glanced around the restaurant. “My shift’s about to start. Where are you tonight?”

  “Nowhere. I have the rare night off.”

  “Then get your ass home, and if you don’t take that job, find another—a real one.”

  “Hey! You bartend and wait, too. You can’t get any more real than those.”

  “Those. Multiple. When was your last day off? Three weeks ago? You really want to hold down two jobs for the rest of your very long life? And at a 24-hour, hole-in-the-wall diner and meat-market nightclub? You’re too smart for this, Kae. Go use your degree, for Christ’s sake.” She turned and headed for the kitchen.

  “Yeah, well, easier said than done. Not too many companies have night shifts for their PR teams.”

  I stood up and threw some money on the table, although I hadn’t eaten anything. I could eat food. Blood sustained me, but I still loved food. Just not while watching the Ryan & Heather Sappy Love Show starring the two people who’d been my favorite souls in the world at one time. They still kind of were. Sindi had nudged them into second and third place, but I still loved them both. It wasn’t their fault they’d fallen for each other. That was all on me.

  “Sindi,” I called out to her back as she retreated. She turned halfway and threw me an impatient look. It was all a cover, I knew. She’d never tell me I was one of her favorite people—she’d never open up enough to admit to that anyone—but she’d basically just shown it. “I’m not going anywhere. Relax.”

  “Don’t worry about me, doll face. You do what you need to do. I will be fine. Always am.” Her mouth curved up in a smirk before she tossed her red ponytail over her shoulder and disappeared between the swinging doors to the kitchen.

  I headed down the corridor toward the bathrooms—and the back door. Although I hadn’t permanently left the area in the two years since the night that changed my entire life, I’d been successful in avoiding running into them, and I didn’t want to change that now. I might have sometimes (frequently) watched (stalked) from a distance, but the thought of actually coming anywhere close to Ryan or Heather sent me into panic mode. Sindi had compelled them both to forget me and everything that had happened between us, but unfortunately her vampire power didn’t work on me, fellow vampire and all. I remembered it all—the good, the bad, and the very gruesome ugly.

  The cool night air of winter in the South was a welcome relief as I slipped into the dark alley and headed home, thinking about how Sindi had been my saving grace when I’d been a newborn vampire. She’d found me in this very alley covered in blood. My fiancé’s blood. Hence, the “ex” part of our relationship. I’d nearly killed him when I ripped half his throat out. Hey, I didn’t know what I was doing. Seriously. We’d gone to sleep after making love, and I awoke a couple of hours later with a throat-searing thirst. Water just didn’t cut it. I’d been overcome with bloodlust, although I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time.

  Yep. I’d nearly murdered my fiancé. The night he’d proposed.

  After taking care of him with the healing qualities of her own blood, Sindi whisked me away from civilization before I could kill anyone and taught me how to control the thirst. It took a while—and a lot of fights with Sindi and many nights locked up in her storage room to keep me from becoming a murderer—but I eventually grew to the point where animal blood sustained my body and actual human food satisfied my hunger. Once I knew I’d be okay, I thought I’d give the Ryan and Kaela Show another chance. But I was too late. He’d already moved on, of course. He’d moved right on top of my best friend. I couldn’t blame either of them, though. After all, they didn’t even know I existed. How could they know the betrayal I felt?

  Once inside the townhouse Sindi and I shared—well, she shared with me since it was hers long before she met me—I found my laptop open on the coffee table in the living room. A swipe of the trackpad proved the truth of her story: on the screen was an open email. Weird. I hadn’t seen it this morning. I dropped down onto the couch to read.

  Dear Ms. Peters,

  After reviewing your history and qualifications, we believe you are a perfect fit for the Night Manager position at Whisper Falls Inn in the beautiful mountains of Colorado, and we’re excited to offer you the job. We have outlined the terms of employment, including compensation, below. If you agree with our conclusion, we would like you to start as soon as possible. We understand you may need time to consider our offer, but we hope you will respond quickly so we may start making preparations for your arrival.

  Yours truly,

  M. Luiza

  The rest of the email outlined a modest salary enhanced by free lodging and meals but failed to provide any other details, such as an address or even city.

  “Spam is getting weirder by the day,” I muttered as I closed the email, cursing spammers and hackers. I wondered what this joker’s end-game was. What did they get out of a fake job offer?

  Not two seconds later, another message popped up, opening itself.

  Ms. Peters,

  We apologize that in our excitement of offering you the job, we failed to provide necessary details. Our inn is located in what we like to think of as the prettiest and most charming small town in the world. We are surrounded by majestic mountains and forestland with a larger variety of wildlife than anywhere else in the state, perhaps the country. While the area offers much to do, from skiing to hunting to art classes, we have safeguards in place that ensure our hometown remains a lovely place to live, not just to visit. We’ve attached a few pictures so you can see for yourself why we believe you will quickly learn to call it home and the people family.

  Yours truly (again),

  M. Luiza

  A slideshow began to play at the bottom of the message, featuring gorgeous photos of a small town nestled in a cradle of purple mountains with snowcapped peaks.

  “Awesome,” I muttered as my hand moved the cursor to X out of the window. “Virus must already be installed.”

  My finger lowered over the trackpad and was about to press down when the slideshow displayed a photo that made my breath catch, and not because of its beauty. A large Victorian manor, complete with turrets and gingerbread trim, forced my pause. How do I know that place? The sense of familiarity poked angrily at the back of my mind. The photo changed, focused in on the plaque by the manor’s front door: Whisper Falls Inn, Est. 1854.

  Home.

  The word floated through my mind, not as a premonition or wishful thinking as the letter promised, but heavily laced with nostalgia. The townhome’s living room in front of me disappeared as other, seemingly random images hijacked my vision. Images of what could have been the rooms inside the inn, followed by portraits and snapshots of people. Faces that I felt deep down I should know. A close-up of a woman with long, dark hair like mine . . . gray-green eyes, the same shade and shape as mine.

  Home.

  “What the hell?” I slammed my finger down on the pad, closin
g out the message, and shut the laptop before jumping back in my seat, as though the message could hurt me. My heart raced, and I struggled to breathe. I curled into a ball on the couch and glared at the offensive machine on the coffee table. After several moments, my heart settled and everything returned to normal. Another few moments and I couldn’t remember what had caused such a visceral reaction. “I’m losing my damn mind.”

  Sindi had warned me about vampires losing their sanity, but always in relation to being starved of blood. I was not starved of blood, nor of food. Well, I didn’t eat earlier. I unfolded myself from the sofa and headed for the kitchen to find something for . . . I glanced at the clock on the stove. 11:48 p.m. Something for brunch.

  As I cooked and ate, my mind wandered back to Sindi’s orders and the fake job offer. Maybe it wasn’t real, but it got me to thinking. Hotel night manager wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind when I switched my major from pre-med to business after I’d turned and then continued with night classes to earn my event planning certification, thinking event planners worked at night. They did, but, turned out, not only at night. But maybe there was potential here. After all, hotels hosted events and many at night. I’d taken the bartending job to grow into a special events planner at the club, but it’d been more than a year and that had gone nowhere. And this was a full-time, salaried position with benefits in a place so far away, it didn’t get reception for the Ryan & Heather Super Sappy Love Show.