Venom & Vampires: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by Casey Lane

  Why is a duke’s daughter – a vampire – going out into the forest at night with a were?

  Could they be lovers?

  It was an odd combination, but she’d heard rumors of such couplings before. Those pairings were, of course, of interest to her family. Any child that might be produced from such a union had the potential to have a new color of iris, be a new type of Graced. Naomi figured the odds of that happening were far slimmer than the production of normal yellow, purple or even Brown eyes, but no one ever asked her.

  No, they just wanted her to watch and listen, and then mete out ‘justice’ to the unfortunates. Too bad she’d broken with tradition. Oh, technically she was still a Hunter, but there were two factions now. One group believed everything different must be killed; the other thought that those who were different should be protected and studied, terminated only if they posed a risk to themselves or the Graced race as a whole.

  Some went a little too far with the observation mandate – Naomi had heard of a group of Graced that had held a werebear captive for a century, experimenting on the poor specimen until he managed to escape. Their goal had been to breed an immortal Graced from him. They were all dead now. Many by the were, and others by her sister, Faith.

  Deliberately mixing the races was frowned upon, with only one penalty. And her sister, who was normally level-headed and kind, was a zealot on this issue.

  Was death too severe? As far as Faith was concerned, the answer was no. But Naomi? Well, for her it would depend on how these race-mixers went about obtaining their goals. Falling in love and having a child that happened to be different? No, they didn’t have to die. Capturing a vampire or were and holding them prisoner and then forcibly impregnating them? Death was probably too kind a punishment. Rape was never okay, no matter how it happened or what the motivation. And when it came to working with Greens, they did it on a mental level far too frequently for Naomi’s liking. Just because she was Graced, that didn’t mean she thought her people were without flaw.

  Overall, however, a new type of Graced was something Naomi had no desire to see. Just imagine if someone managed to produce a vampire or were with Gray eyes. What then? With the madness that would surely come with age – they lived for thousands of years, after all – would come trouble. A snap of control, and someone’s neck would be broken, or their body shattered. Or down a building would go.

  Being a Gray came with a lifetime’s curse of obsessive-compulsive behavior. Everything had to be controlled, calm, unexciting, or bad things could happen. Add that to a lifespan of several thousand years? Well, even Naomi could see how that would be a bad idea.

  The faint sound of humans brought Naomi’s thoughts back to the moment. Maybe the were and vampire had ventured in the other direction to get away from a camp? But who would be out in the woods, when there was a city with lots of cheap accommodation right next door?

  Naomi hovered about the leaf-covered ground, her telekinesis floating her forward, more silent than even the trickiest of weres. She blurred the air in front of her, making it hard to lock onto her physical appearance and muddying her scent. Approaching the noises, she found a nice patch of deep shadow on the edge of a small clearing and looked around.

  Monique.

  And she wasn’t alone. There were another four people – two men and two women – in the open expanse, all seated before a fire that burned merrily in the center of a camp. Some small animal was being rotated over the flames on a spit. Two canvas tents had been erected off to the side, and a small pile of gear lay near the fire. A horse was tethered on the opposite side of the clearing, a blanket spread over its back.

  Quickly, Naomi made her thoughts as blank as she could, while still trying to listen in to their conversation.

  “I think it’s the one.” Monique leaned over and grabbed a pack from near her feet.

  “Are you sure?” This was from a man whose face was largely in shadow, but who had silvered hair. Did Naomi detect a hint of Gray in his eyes?

  “No, I was just making it up.”

  “We have to be sure.” This was from a woman who bore a remarkable resemblance to Monique, but an older version. A sister or even her mother?

  “It’s why I said ‘I think’, rather than ‘I know’.”

  The other two remained quiet, but Naomi had no doubt they were also Graced. What color eyes did they have? It was hard to tell from her position. Most Hunters were Greens and Grays. Blues struggled with the job – it was difficult to be an assassin when you could feel every emotion your victim was suffering as you killed them.

  “Is the brother still alive?”

  Brother?

  Naomi thought back to what she knew about the duke’s daughter. Yes, there’d been another child, but he’d died long before Naomi had arrived in Skarva. There had been rumors he’d been an albino, but nothing had been confirmed. Naomi had considered that the duke himself might have started the gossip, to give his family an air of mystery – potentially to match that surrounding the Duchess of Ravens and her ‘special’ child. Now, listening to this, she wondered if the story may well have been true.

  It was rare for vampires to have albino offspring, and that just made her all the more suspicious of Subject 2013. It was the eyepatch that had originally caught her attention – and the way the girl moved. She had the speed and agility of someone much older and more powerful, or like someone who had Gray eyes. Or a Gray eye. Everyone said that the girl had been injured as a baby, and that her covered eye had been damaged beyond repair. But what if she was hiding heterochromia?

  Naomi had been studying her to find out.

  “There is no sign of any brother,” Monique said. “If he truly was albino, he’s probably dead. You know how weres get. Even vampires. Our programming is too effective.”

  ‘Programming’. What a nice way to describe deeply implanted mind-control, mind-control so strong it was passed on as a genetic memory. The command didn’t work on those with natural mental shields, though, no matter if it was effective on their parents and siblings, but people with that handy talent were supposedly few and far between.

  “That leaves only the abomination.”

  Abomination?

  It seemed Naomi’s guesses about Subject 2013 had been correct. Hunters wouldn’t bother using that kind of language for a normal vampire. They didn’t like them, but wouldn’t go so far as to label them an ‘abomination’.

  “I just need to confirm it’s truly her, and then I will make the kill,” Monique said.

  “If you suspect,” said one of the previously silent listeners, “kill her anyway.”

  “She is the daughter of the Duke of Ashes. If we kill her and she isn’t the one we’re after, he will come after us.”

  “If she really is his daughter, and he’s harbored her here for all those years, he will seek justice anyway,” offered Monique’s mother/sister/aunt. “Kill her and be done with it. Make it look like an accident.”

  She’d changed her tune pretty quickly.

  “We don’t slay innocents.”

  Hah! That was rich, coming from Monique. She was a straight-out killer. Naomi doubted the woman had ever considered whether her prey was blameless on not – her definition of ‘innocent’ seemed rather skewed.

  “When will you learn? No one is innocent. Especially not a vampire-were hybrid. Kill the girl and then we can leave.”

  A vampire-were what?

  Chapter Fifteen

  They’d gone running every night for the past week, and Ari’s wolf still refused to emerge. It hung back in the corner of her mind, whining in pain and anger. Even though she was now willing to give it free rein, it just didn’t trust her anymore.

  Which was a sad state of affairs, considering that her wolf was part of her.

  But that was her life: things always went wrong.

  Standing under the arched stone entryway into the estate, she felt eyes on her again. She’d had the feeling she was being watched for days, and the only
time the sensation lapsed lately was in the estate proper, and in the forest. She had no idea who was following her – they were good – but she was getting mighty sick of their stalking.

  Leaning down, she grabbed Sebastian’s scruff. His pelt was warm in her hands, the fur ever-so soft. She pushed the sensations from her thoughts.

  Her voice quiet, she asked, “Do you smell anything?” Ari’s sense of smell was impressive, but she wore her human nose now. In wolf form, Sebastian’s might be a bit better right now. Although, if she’d shifted…but that wasn’t the case.

  The wolf lifted his nose to the air. Reluctantly, she let go of him and stepped back.

  A small whine. She took it to be a question.

  Crouching down, she murmured, “Someone is following us.”

  He raised his nose again, and huffed wetly as he took in the air. A small shake of the head. His bright eyes were sad in his sooty face.

  “Next time.”

  Opening the rear door into the estate, she nodded at the vampire guard on duty and headed toward the inner courtyard. Sebastian followed her quietly. Her hand was still hot from where she’d touched him. She’d avoided contact the entire time they’d been making these nightly runs, because she hadn’t wanted a repeat of what happened at the inn. Sure, he’d largely been in wolf form tonight, but he’d proven it didn’t take long for him to return to his human body.

  And that was the body she was most worried about.

  Early in the morning, when she’d return from her nightly rounds of the city, she would still smell his scent on her sometimes, taste his blood in her mouth, even though she’d only ever had that tiny sample. It made her body burn. She’d never endured that kind of hunger before, and it terrified her with its intensity. She shouldn’t want him – couldn’t want him, not like that. But she did, and she needed to avoid any contact that could create a spark.

  Oblivious to her thoughts, Sebastian followed her quietly as she made her way through the estate. She opened a door, allowing him inside the main building. “Would you like something to eat?”

  He shook his head, so Ari led him up the servant’s stairway and down the back corridors to her room.

  Is it wise to have him in your bedchamber?

  No, it wasn’t, but she’d stashed his clothes there, and she wanted to talk to him away from prying eyes. If they were in a parlor or a sitting room, her father’s servants would be nearby and their eavesdropping habits was almost as bad as hers.

  Once inside the room, she motioned to the bathroom. “Your clothes are in there.”

  Sebastian nodded again and then padded over to the ensuite, nudging the door shut with his head. Weres weren’t uncomfortable with nakedness, but she certainly was with his. She hung her cloak on a hook to avoid thinking about his eight-pack, and his broad shoulders, and his amazing butt…

  Failed.

  Part of her wished that he was affected by her as she was him. She didn’t have a scent, however, so there was no way he could react the way she did, every time he came near her. She knew he wasn’t attracted to her like that anyway: he always shifted at least once during their runs to command her to change, and he never got hard during the process. She’d checked.

  Too many times.

  Even unaroused, he was something to behold.

  Stop right there. You’re being a pervert.

  There was nothing wrong with looking.

  He’s trying to help you, but he’s still the alpha who let your mother and brother die.

  Perhaps she’d imagined the lust that had poured off him back at the inn that time, but she couldn’t understand why she’d make something like that up.

  “Who do you think is following you?” Sebastian stood in the bathroom doorway, his shirt loosely buttoned, and buckskin pants hanging low, the dark line of hair leading to his waistband visible. She snapped her gaze up to meet his.

  “I have no idea.” If she knew, she’d be hunting them down.

  “You should try and find out.”

  “No shit.” She wasn’t exactly free when it came to time, though. She had her evening jaunts of failure with her former alpha, and then there was her spying, which took up the rest of the night. And she needed to sleep. Not a lot, but enough that she had to make time for it.

  He changed the topic. “Your wolf should recognize mine as alpha and obey.”

  She growled, low. Just because he had once been her alpha, that didn’t mean that she still recognized him as such. Because she didn’t; she had no alpha and was most assuredly a loner.

  “Maybe that’s the problem,” she said. “My wolf trust doesn’t you. And doesn’t consider you her alpha.”

  “Your wolf doesn’t trust you.”

  She winced. That was no doubt true as well. “You keep blaming me, but maybe it’s partly to do with you.”

  He took a step toward her. “It’s not always my fault.”

  “I didn’t say it was.”

  “You pretty much did.”

  She tugged on the end of her braid. “Look, I don’t know why my wolf refuses to come out now that I am trying to get her to.”

  “It’s not ‘her’ versus ‘you.’ It’s you versus you. Maybe that’s part of the problem.”

  “So now you are saying that it’s how I think?”

  Would she never get a break? Was everything she did wrong?

  “Look, you’ve separated your identities for some reason, but they should act as one. The wolf is you and you are the wolf.”

  “Maybe that’s how it’s meant to be for a normal were. But I’ve never been a normal were.”

  Wasn’t that the truth?

  “I’ve always been different. My wolf has always felt…separate from me. Like we’re two halves of a whole. Maybe the best way to think of it is like twins.”

  Or triplets.

  Sebastian frowned. “I guess that could be possible.”

  “I’m half vampire. Of course it’s possible. I shouldn’t even exist, according to nature.”

  Although, considering that vampires and weres were rumored to have been created by humans, thousands and thousands of years ago, maybe nature didn’t have a whole lot to do with anything, anymore.

  “We could try with just focusing on small shifts – hands, or feet, or ears – for a little while. See how that goes.” Sebastian ran a hand over his hair, which was loose and shiny and ever-so silky-looking.

  Argh! What was wrong with her?

  “I can make claws.” Although not always when she wanted to.

  “Yeah, we want a little more than that.”

  A small silence, then she blurted, “Why are you doing this?”

  Oh, she didn’t.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Why are you doing this?” As soon as the words left her mouth, embarrassment turned her cheeks red.

  Sebastian winced; for him and for her. He suspected the answer ‘I don’t know’ wasn’t going to be good enough. After all, he wasn’t exactly sure why he had agreed to help her, either. Oh, there were plenty of reasons – guilt, atonement, the challenge, lust – but when he actually thought about it, they were all too simple.

  Just being near her made his body crave her touch, his skin tingle, and his inner wolf go crazy. Every part of him wanted her, and it was a building fire that was going to burn him alive. Her resilience, her mental strength, her physical prowess, even her bloody-mindedness, appealed to him on a deep, primal level.

  And the worst part? He knew she could never feel the same way back, for some very strong reasons. He was an idiot, led around by his cock. After all, how could he let himself want her? She’d been a child that should have been protected in his pack, but her family was murdered instead. He owed her more than a hard-on; he just wished he could convince his body to get onboard with that.

  She’s not a child any longer, and she’s attracted to you.

  No, she wasn’t.

  Why did she kiss you back?

  He’d wondered about that. A lot
.

  “Well?” She was tapping her foot.

  He shoved a hand through his hair, then quickly tied it back with a small piece of leather. “It’s not right.”

  “What isn’t?” Her stare narrowed.

  “That you can’t change.”

  He had to wonder if it was somehow his fault. Oh, she’d been able to fully shift as a child, but had she been able to since she left the pack? He didn’t know. It was something he really should have asked earlier, but she wasn’t the type to let him ask personal questions.

  “Of course it isn’t right. That’s why I am letting you help me.”

  “How long has it been since you shifted?”

  The flash of pain in her expression pierced him. “Ten years.”

  So she had been able to shift after she left the pack, which meant it wasn’t a lack of other weres that had caused the problem.

  “What happened a decade ago?”

  “Not going there with you.”

  Now he was on to something; she only clammed up when it was private. He moved right up into her personal space, but she didn’t step back. No, she just tilted her chin up in defiance.

  “What happened?” His voice was low.

  She has to be an alpha.

  The truth of it settled into his bones. Alphas were rare – only one was born in maybe every two or three hundred – and considering were birth-rates weren’t all that high to begin with…

  No other were could tolerate being so close to him without acceding to his dominance. Only another alpha would challenge him back, and she’d been fighting him ever since he walked back into the estate. Maybe half of her dislike of him stemmed from her wolf protecting itself, because two alphas together? A perfect match on paper, a terrible one in reality.