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

by Casey Lane

  “I doubt it was this hard. I don’t want to be a witch.”

  “You can choose not to practice,” Cade offered. “You’ll at least have that choice.

  That didn’t sit well with me. I’d still be a witch who could do spells. How could I accept that? Was doing spells addictive? Would I want to keep being a witch? I had too many questions about it and no way to ask anyone who knew the answers.

  “Can I say one more thing?” Cade asked, interrupting my thoughts.

  “What?”

  “We’re talking about survival here. The vampire will kill you if he gets to you,” Cade said simply.

  He’d kill Cade too. Truthfully, in the face of that fact, the logical answer was obvious. My feelings about being a witch or not didn’t matter. I needed to try and help protect us if I could. Cade had already put himself in danger for me. I could make myself a little uncomfortable to try and keep us safe. If this along with the garlic in the soup, stakes, and holy water would save us, I had to do it. It was a necessary evil even if it still didn’t sit right with me, personally.

  I looked at Cade, who was still watching me. I had my answer. I just had to choose to acknowledge the witch inside of me for a brief moment. I took a deep breath, trying to accept my decision. I would do the spell to save us. Besides, it was just one spell. That wouldn’t really mean anything. The important thing was that it would protect us. I had to focus on that. Too bad my logical brain was throwing up warnings that I was opening Pandora’s box. I ignored it. If I was going to do this, I had to do it wholeheartedly. I had to believe it or at least try my best.

  I reread the spell. It called for numerous items: a container, clean water, vanilla extract, jasmine, peppermint, a rose quartz stone, a strand of hair from the person being protected, and their name written on a piece of paper. All of those things needed to be then put in the container. Upon sealing it with wax from a white candle, it should also be sealed with an act of love like a kiss along with the incantation. This, my grandmother wrote, would offer protection from malicious energies.

  It looked simple enough, so why was I so afraid? I knew I could do this. Yet, it was the scariest thing I’d ever had to do.

  I shut my eyes and when I opened them I looked at Cade and said, “Okay. I’ll do the spell.”

  Cade looked relieved. “Great. What do we need?”

  I showed him the list and together we searched the cabin. We came up short. It wasn’t much of a surprise since Cade’s cupboards were pretty bare. Still, out of all the items on the list we found quite a few. He had a clean jar to use as a container. There was forgotten peppermint tea behind the soup in the cabinet. I hoped it would suffice for peppermint since there were peppermint leaves in it. Cade also had a white candle in his emergency kit and paper in a drawer in the living room. The strands of hair were on our heads and the rose quartz stone my grandmother had provided to us. We were still missing two things, though: jasmine and vanilla extract. It didn’t matter that we had everything else. We had to have all of them for the spell to work.

  “So, what do we do?” I looked up at Cade. “I can’t do the spell without the last two ingredients.”

  Cade shut the cabinet he had just looked into. “There’s a store in town. It’s kind of far, though. They should have vanilla extract, but I’m not sure about jasmine. That seems a little less likely for the local store.”

  “Well, do you know anyone with jasmine in their yard around here?”

  Cade thought for a moment and then his face darkened. “Yes, but I’m not welcome there.”

  “But there’s a vampire after us,” I reminded him.

  “But…” Cade started.

  “We can just sneak over and grab it. You don’t need to talk to your neighbor. And maybe one of your other neighbors has vanilla extract. People use it for baking. Then we won’t have to go all the way into town.”

  “But we have a problem. I’m not sure we can leave,” Cade reminded me.

  In my panic about doing the spell, I’d forgotten about the dead deer and the vampire waiting for us outside. “Yeah.”

  We stood in silence for a moment.

  “So, what are we going to do? We have to get those last two items to do the spell,” I said.

  Cade frowned. “I’m not sure.”

  “Do we have a choice?” I asked.

  We could either hide in the cabin with the vampire probably killing us at nightfall or we could leave the cabin and maybe get the chance to do a protection spell that would keep us safe. Neither was an ideal scenario. I was completely and utterly terrified of doing anything.

  I voiced my thoughts. “I’d prefer not to leave, but if he’s already found us then I feel like we have to try the spell.”

  Cade shook his head. “He could attack us in the car.”

  “He could attack us in the cabin.”

  “Then why hasn’t he?” Cade asked.

  “He threw the deer at the door,” I reminded him.

  “Yeah, but why warn us?” Cade thought for a moment. “Think about it. If he could have attacked us it would have been smarter not to warn us.”

  “Maybe he likes to taunt his victims? Maybe scared blood is better than regular blood.”

  Cade looked at me like I was crazy. “That’s ridiculous. Anyone about to be bitten by a vampire is going to be terrified, dead deer or not.”

  “True, but maybe he couldn’t attack yet. It’s still daylight. That’s an even better reason to get in the car and go get the last two items right now.”

  Cade shook his head again. “No. If he’s here, he followed us…in daylight.”

  “Well, maybe he’s stronger at night?”

  Cade was silent for a moment. “Maybe.”

  “Then we only have a few hours to get this spell done. Wait. Couldn’t we just run? Leave the cabin and just head for wherever?”

  Cade shook his head. “That should have worked this time. He’d just follow us.”

  “But maybe the deer did really just run into the cabin door,” I felt desperate.

  “It didn’t,” Cade said.

  “But…”

  “Sera, it was thrown.”

  I nodded. “Okay. So, then we’re going into town. We need something to fight him with in case he attacks.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “We need to do something,” I said.

  Cade thought for a moment. “I think we need to talk to your grandmother. I’m not sure what’s the bigger risk. Maybe she’ll have more insight.”

  “Okay,” I’d be glad to talk to her. I had about a thousand other questions for her. It was time for us to try calling her again anyway.

  Cade pulled out his cell phone and dialed. I watched him. He ended the call.

  “She’s not answering.”

  “Still?” That was odd.

  And I still thought it was weird that she hadn’t called to talk to me at all. My grandmother knew me pretty well. She should have guessed I’d have a hard time with this. Talking to me personally would have really helped. Plus, she should have tried to contact one of us to make sure that we were okay. Was she afraid of sending danger our way or was she in trouble too?

  I looked at Cade. “Something went wrong.”

  “Yeah. The vampire found us.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Well, yes that, but my grandmother should have called me by now.”

  “She said she was going to take care of things and…” Cade started.

  “And the vampire’s here,” I finished for him.

  “You’re right. That doesn’t bode well,” Cade said, meeting my eyes.

  I nodded. Dread filled my stomach. If my grandmother…if she died, it would be like losing my mother all over again.

  “Are you okay?” Cade stepped toward me.

  I had to focus. I didn’t know anything yet. I couldn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe there was something I didn’t know.

  I took a deep breath. “Yes. So, what do we do?”

  Cade
stared at me. “Well, first we have to figure out what to do right now. Let’s hope your grandmother is still working on things from afar.”

  I nodded, but I had a bad feeling. I ignored it. I had to survive this first. “Okay, so let’s think this out. What do we know about the vampire? Can we logically assume that we would be safe enough leaving the cabin to get the last two supplies?”

  “We know he can travel in daylight.”

  “Yes. And he drank the blood of the deer and then threatened us with the carcass for some reason,” I said.

  Cade followed my thought. “That reason might be important. Maybe you were right when you said he couldn’t enter the house without permission.”

  “But then why did my grandmother want me to do the protection spell?” I asked.

  “Because he can enter the house.”

  “Yeah, I think so too,” I said. “So, what else could he have been doing?”

  Cade’s face fell. “He wanted me to go outside without you.”

  I frowned. “What? Why?”

  Cade was silent for a moment. “To pick us off one by one.”

  “Like in slasher movies?”

  “Exactly like that.”

  “He’s a vampire. I’m sure it will take him about twenty seconds to kill us both, even together.”

  “Maybe he’s not sure about that.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  Cade hesitated. “Well, he might think you’re a really powerful witch.”

  “He can deduce that?”

  Cade shrugged. “Why not? He’s a supernatural being too after all.”

  I thought about that. Maybe the vampire had wanted to use Cade against me in case I tried to put a spell on him. It was too bad that I hadn’t even tried one spell yet.

  “We just need to make a choice. We’re going in circles. I think you might be right. Maybe there’s power in numbers or maybe he’s weak until dark. I want to risk it, but we have to do it together,” I said after a moment.

  Cade looked out the window and searched the yard for a long moment before he answered me. “Alright. Let’s do it together. Let’s try the closest neighbor first. It’s the safest plan. He definitely has jasmine in his yard, but I can’t guarantee he’ll lend us vanilla extract.”

  I nodded. Dread filled my stomach. I tried to ignore it.

  “And we should take all of the ingredients with us. We can do the spell in the car before we drive back. I’ll feel much safer once that spell is in place,” Cade said.

  “Okay,” I went to gather the items.

  Cade went into his bedroom. A few moments later, I was done putting all of the items in a bag. I added a couple of soup cans and a couple of wooden spoons. They weren’t as sharp as a stake, but they were wood. I looked around the room wondering how upset Cade would be if I broke one of his wooden kitchen chairs for an even better stake. As I was still pondering this, Cade came out of the bedroom with a hunting rifle.

  “That won’t be of much use against a vampire,” I warned.

  “I know, but it might still deter him for a second. If it alerts other people or the police maybe that would bother him too.”

  I nodded. “Good idea. And one question.”

  “What?”

  “Can I possibly break your kitchen chair and make some stakes before we go?” I smiled at Cade sheepishly.

  Cade gave me a long look. “No. I like those chairs.”

  “I had to try.”

  Cade sighed. “Well, if you’d really feel better with some stakes, there’s a woodpile on our way to the car. You can grab some wood from that. Now let’s go.”

  Cade slung the riffle over his shoulder and walked back through the living room. I grabbed my bag and followed him.

  He stopped in front of the cabin door and looked at me. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Positive.”

  Cade opened the door of the cabin and then stepped outside. I waited for an attack, but nothing happened. Cade motioned for me to follow him, then stepped around the deer. I did the same, trying not to look at it. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of death as I rushed past it. The scenery that had seemed so beautiful this morning, now felt ominous instead. It had definitely turned into a horror movie.

  We were very alone at this cabin. I listened for sounds. I could hear birds. That was a good sign, right? Didn’t animals react to supernatural creatures and run in their presence making the area unusually silent?

  Cade wasn’t stopping to analyze things. He was already getting in the car and laying his riffle on the floor of the backseat. I rushed after him, pausing to grab a few pieces of stacked wood next to the cabin stairs, and slid into the car just as he started it.

  “It should only take us five minutes to get there. Maybe less. I’m going to try for less,” Cade assured me, but I could still hear the tension in his voice.

  I nodded, but kept my eyes on the road around us. Was a vampire watching us drive away? Did he have supernatural speed? Or could he turn into a bat? I had no idea which parts of the myth were true.

  Cade drove a little too fast, but I didn’t say anything. I’d feel much safer when the spell was done even though I didn’t quite know how it would work. I scanned the trees. I didn’t see anything. I kept looking.

  After what felt like an eternity, Cade turned down a long unpaved driveway and we pulled up to another cabin. This one was bigger than Cade’s. It was two stories and definitely seemed much more like a house than a cabin. Cade turned off the car, but didn’t move to get out.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, my door already open, but I shut it again. Had Cade seen something?

  Cade looked at me. “I just don’t really get along with this neighbor.”

  I almost hit him. “Are you serious? We don’t have time for this.”

  Cade shut his eyes.

  I would not have pegged Cade as a drama guy. Wait. Was this neighbor an ex-girlfriend? But Cade had said the word he before. So, it was a guy, right? “Should we go into town then?”

  “No. This is closer. And safer,” Cade said.

  “Okay. Let’s do this then. I can do all of the talking,” I offered.

  “No. I’ll handle it,” Cade opened his door and got out of the car.

  I followed him. Cade walked up to the front door and knocked. I stood next to him, but I was looking behind us. Even though I did want to size up his ex, I felt like we were being watched.

  “Nobody’s home,” Cade said a moment later.

  I turned to look at him. “Should we go into town then?”

  “No. I told you, town is too far. We go in.”

  “Huh?” I asked.

  “I know where he hides a key.”

  So, it was a guy. Maybe they had a falling out over a girl, though. Instead I said, “I thought you didn’t get along.”

  “We used to be friends.”

  There was definitely more to this story and I was dying to know, but I didn’t press Cade. There wasn’t time to get the full scoop. I could ask him all about it once we were back safe inside his cabin with the finished Witch’s Bottle.

  Right now, I was just glad that we didn’t have to smash a window and add real breaking and entering to our day’s adventures. I followed Cade around to the back of the house. He reached behind a bush off to the right of the back door and pulled out a rock. Cade flipped it over and I realized it wasn’t really a rock, but one of those hide-a-keys. There was a combination. Cade entered it and it opened. A key was inside. He grabbed it and unlocked the back door. Then he quickly put the key back where he had found it. He walked into the kitchen and I followed. He locked the door behind us. Cade started opening the cabinets.

  “Hello?” I called out, but nobody answered.

  “What are you doing?” Cade whirled on me. “Nobody’s home.”

  “I just wanted to make sure. I don’t want to get shot because your friend thinks we’re burglars.”

  “Nobody’s here,” Cade turned away fro
m me and opened another cabinet. “Now, let’s hurry. I’d like to keep it that way.”

  I walked over to the other end of the kitchen and opened a cabinet. It was crammed full of canned goods. I opened the bottom cabinet. Even more canned goods, pasta, and a few jars of instant coffee. Cade’s friend had way more supplies stocked than he did. Maybe we’d be in luck. I checked another cabinet and found cereal, oatmeal, and flour.

  “I found it,” Cade held up a small glass container of vanilla extract.

  I smiled at him. “Now we need jasmine.”

  “Luckily, that shouldn’t be a problem,” Cade turned toward the back door.

  I was about to follow him when he suddenly spun around. The look on his face made me freeze. Dread filled my stomach. Oh no. The vampire had followed us into the house. I hadn’t even heard him. We were as good as dead.

  Chapter Five

  I turned around to face my doom and blinked at the man standing in front of us. It wasn’t Athan Delano. All this time, I’d pretty much assumed Athan was the vampire. If it wasn’t Athan, I’d still assumed I’d somehow recognize him. I didn’t. This vampire was dressed in a flannel and worn jeans. He was not in a Dracula costume. Well, I hadn’t really expected a Dracula costume, but he did look very much alive and not much older than Cade. Plus, he wasn’t pale. He was dark skinned, actually, but even so, his skin didn’t look dull or anything dead-like.

  I continued to stare at him as he looked between Cade and me. We all seemed frozen. I think I was in shock. I was about to die after all. I managed to glance over at Cade. He stood rigidly next to me. I got ready for a fight.

  “What are you doing here?” the man asked, finally breaking the silence.

  That unfroze everything. Cade stepped in front of me, his arm pushing me even further behind him. I looked around the kitchen. Would anything in here protect me from a vampire? Garlic! Why didn’t we look for garlic? And why hadn’t I brought in the soup or the stakes? Why hadn’t Cade brought in his gun?

  “I needed to borrow some vanilla extract,” Cade said.

  My head snapped back to look at him. Why was he telling the vampire that? I glanced back at the man in front of us. Oh. He was the neighbor Cade didn’t get along with anymore. Duh. I relaxed a little. This wasn’t life or death. It was just drama.