by Casey Lane
Sheriff Trent always unnerved Valko. He was quite possibly the most powerful being alive, yet right now, he was a little boy. He could turn into a seven foot horned demon any time he wanted, but as of right now, he was a child – a child that led a small town.
How long has he died and been reborn, forced to grow up again and again? Is he thousands of years old or even older?
“Take me to see them,” Gable ordered.
Valko shook his head. “No. This is something I should do.”
“They were my friends.”
Valko looked towards Alanna, who shrugged. He may as well get this over and done with.
Valko placed his his fingers around the door handle, hesitant. He could smell them the moment he set foot in the house. The scent was achingly familiar, but warped, desecrated.
“I can’t believe Rian just left them to rot,” said Alanna.
He turned to her, shaken. “I can’t do this.”
“They deserve burial,” she told him, stroking his cheek. “Their bodies need to be returned to nature. That’s the were way, right?”
He nodded, and opened the door. When he saw the mess his parents had been left in, he howled.
He patted down the last sod of earth with his hands. He’d done it all by hand. It may have taken him all night, but this was his right. It was his duty to bury his parents, and he would honor them.
He wiped at his brow and climbed out of the grave. He’d dug it eight feet deep, just to be sure. Here, at the back of the house and community they loved, they’d lay together, forever.
Alanna gripped his hand, ignored the dirt that had accrued on his fingers. He smiled into her loving eyes, focused only on her.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” he insisted. He could smell cow on her. “Why didn’t you tell me Bella had arrived? I kind of missed her.”
“She’s just getting used to her huge, new barn. She loves it here.”
“Be with me.”
He took his hand, held her close to his lips. She said, “You want to do it in the forest? With all the animals watching?”
“Nothing else exists but you.”
She laughed. It was a wonderful laugh and he loved it.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Life is funny,” said Alanna. “Life is brutal and unfair and sometimes, just so you don’t lose all hope, it’s funny.”
“Come on,” he said, and led her into the forest on the edge of his land. “It’s time to make you feel something other than amusement.”
When they were finished, the sun was coming up. The boughs of the trees were glowing and on the small grove where they’d made love, on a ground so frosty it nearly gave them ice splinters, they stared into the sky. Today felt like a new day, a new beginning, and not just because they’d won in their battle with Rian.
“My ass is cold,” said Valko.
They were laid on their torn off clothes, cushioning them. Their bodies were half intertwined, one with each other. Alanna had never felt so complete before. This was her life, here, with Valko.
It’s time he knew the truth about the artefact.
“I learned something about the artefact the other day,” she said, smiling as her breath misted on the air. “Something important.”
“I don’t want you to become human,” he admitted. “I don’t want you to be vulnerable.”
She sat up and fished around in the pocket of her coat. She pulled out the artefact, and held it reverently. Valko sat up too; he eyed the object in his hand like it was a snake.
“I wish I’d never found it,” he admitted.
“Everything living has a life-force,” she explained. “An energy of sorts. Not the soul, that’s different. This artefact can’t get rid of that energy. It has to go somewhere. It can’t turn me into a human. It never could.” She smiled, loving the confused look on his face. “When Desdemona used this, she had a choice to make; she had to become something else other than a vampire. She had a lot to choose from, but in the end end, she chose something with a limited lifespan. She chose to become a witch.”
He nodded, understanding. “So…”
Her eyes glowed with feral intensity. He fell back, shocked.
“I used it while you slept,” she said, unable to contain her excitement. “I’m a werewolf now.”
THE END
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About the Author
Cate Farren is from Sheffield, England. She writes paranormal romance, urban fantasy and steamy contemporary. She loved Dr. Pepper, spaghetti Bolognese, and dreams of retiring to the Italian Dolomites. She has one cat, a Russian Blue called Gracie, who runs her ragged with her excessive feline demands.
Kiss of Offering
A Mischa Tanner Novel
Taige Crenshaw and McKenna Jeffries
Kiss of Offering © 2017 Taige Crenshaw and McKenna Jeffries
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Kiss of Offering
There are some battles that will take a kiss of offering.
Captain Mischa Tanner has faced some dangerous adversaries yet this time it wasn’t only about life or death. They were after the very essence of each of them and what made her and her team who they were. Power wasn’t just made it was born from deep within. It would take a kiss of offering to save them.
To my mother, who has always been my number one fan. Because of you, I love to read and write. To my big sister and second mother who has always believed in me.
Chapter One
“Die you blood sucking fiend.” The man shrieked.
In disgust I listened to the trite phrase. In all the advances we had over the last couple of decades, that tired line was still the favorite to use when trying to slay a vampire. The would be killer tried to stake the pretend-vampire. The vampire used some fancy moves and lots of special effects to fight. When the supposedly mysterious red mist; that from the smell was soap with red food coloring cleared, the man was laying on the ground dead and the vampire was still alive. The vampire was actually the star of the vampire cop show, this latest craze of TV shows.
I was offended by all the hoopla. Times have surely changed since vampires were considered the boogey men - they were in a social class all by themselves- to be slain and turned to dust. Now vampires were not only considered citizens but viewed as upstanding ones at least until a crime was committed then they were just another criminal. Except with fangs. Long before humans discovered vampires were real; unbeknownst to the humans, they had their own society. Their own elected government for many years. The “we” I’m referring to was everyone else who the humans never knew about. Vampires, werewolves, fairies, elves, and anything else you can name. The secret society had it. Secret to the human population anyway. How do I know all of this?
I’m a part of the secret races and saw the building of our society. The leading body of the group worked as well, at least the best it could. We had our own problems just as anybody of people had. Criminals corrupted officials and don’t let me get started on the favoritism. We would have stayed that way; going about our merry way, if it wasn’t for the incident of 2018
or as I and the ones who were there when it happened fondly called it- ‘When the shit hit the fan and we were outted to the humans on the planet’.
It wasn’t such a bad incident actually. We were the good guys for a change. The president’s - for the life of me I can’t remember his name- at the time, kid had ventured into territory he shouldn’t have. He was up to his eyeballs in some blood thirsty Gridians – a mixed race gang with some bad elements of all inhuman groups. My group were, even back then, protectors and on patrol when we heard the cries for help. Darrell- the president’s kid- had quite a set of lungs on him. We may have super hearing but even without it his screams could have burst an eardrum.
With his shrieking we had no problem finding him and the trouble he had gotten into. After taking out or maiming most of the gang that hadn’t ran when they saw us. Darrell was so overcome with gratitude he fainted. The wuss. Since we couldn’t leave him there – like I wanted to at first- we took him home. All of my ten people team coming along for coverage in case those damn Gridians came back for wuss boy. Boy was that a mistake, we all lived to regret to this day. Old daddy was waiting for his innocent baby boy – Darrell was twenty at the time but when you reach my age that young- house and saw us. Yep saw us when we were invisible to the human eyes mind you. What we didn’t know was wuss boy was into some major mojo and a techno geek. He had all kinds of spells and equipment around his house.
The secret service and my team were on the way to having a major blood bath on our hands or a cross-cultural difference if you will. You see, I’m not only the big bad vampire I happen to be and not the pale skinned version you see on TV, I’m what I like to call a rich honey shade and drop dead gorgeous-no pun intended- if I do say so myself. If it wasn’t for Daddy President- which I have to say was nothing like junior and stood his ground like a man- the USA would have been short a few humans. Daddy President didn’t freak and being the ultimate diplomat he was willing to negotiate for his son’s release. We laughed in his face of course and turned over sonny boy who had by then come awake and was staring at us with a glazed look.
Daddy Pres wanted to reward us for saving his sons worthless hide – his words not mine. Knowing he wouldn’t remember us after we left I – oh so smart one – said flippantly. Make all of us legal citizens and left. For over two years nothing happened and we had forgotten all about it. At least until the day the story broke that Vampire’s are real and living in the world. People scoffed and laughed and I’ll admit I did to but not for the same reason. I knew I was one and no one would believe.
When someone says a picture is worth a thousand words they lie. It’s worth infinity costing you life as you know it. Wuss boy had some high tech camera – he still won’t tell me where he had gotten it- that not only picked us up but also offered proof of what we were. Hell I never knew some of the team wasn’t plain old-fashioned vampire. The mixture of fairy, werewolf, shape-shifter and some of the other beings in the genealogy pool of my team made us EOSB- equal opportunity supernatural beings. Thankfully I couldn’t be categorized. I know my genealogy pool but no one else did and I wanted it that way. Tyrnca and Arnon had also escaped the sensor reading.
Glancing at Tyrnca standing next to me, I saw the rude look on her face. Tyrnca is what you would call the total package- a bodacious body, intelligence up the wazhoo and a killer instinct. Unlike me who is the total package plus a lot of extra shit thrown in for good measure. You needed it to survive in this line of work. We’re the elite STIF- Special Tasks Investigations Force - created throughout each country from various life forms and some dead ones, to work with the various branches of governments for our respective places we live. STIF are basically the ones who go in and do the dirty work when the real – excuse me while I gag- police force can’t do it. When the FBI and CIA don’t have a clue.
My squad was the first and when the powers that be realized we couldn’t travel all over the world and country to solve everything. The powers started to recruit more beings to combat crimes they would never even think about. Teams were set up in almost each state, providence and country in the US and abroad. Being the first had its privileges and we had our choice of places and chose New York as our home base.
Who do we report to? The president and a few select beings from the different races. The locals like to think they have jurisdiction over us and are higher than us but we know the truth.
Each STIF team had their own set of offices – and underground facilities for the more secret operations- separate from the rest of the law agencies. It was slick, high tech and the envy of all other law enforcement agencies. Ours was the best and the rest of the STIF agencies with good-natured rivalry wanted it. We weren’t sharing.
With a quick glance around I checked on my team. Arnon was doing his doom and gloom routine leaning against the wall. He pulled it off too; he was dressed in all black. Against his ebony skin he seemed almost invisible. Looking for the rest of the team, that had come with us I noted their positions spread out through the studio including wuss boy- I tried to break myself of calling him that but so far I failed- who was our techno geek. Darrell had changed and filled out becoming a man and now he was a vampire, also at his own choice. At least that’s the story we are sticking to.
After the stunt he pulled capturing us on tape and with daddy pulling the strings to make us legal hit the news. The team and I had paid him a little visit. Tyrnac and Arnon had almost ripped his head off. Me, I wanted to lose him where no one dead or alive would be able to find him. The calmer head in the groups had prevailed and after he explained his position and a lot of cursing then fighting. Wuss boy had honed up his fighting skill since we last met. The agreement was set. At least until we tried to get it pass the Creimun – our version of a ruling body for all beings. They hemmed and hawed so much a year passed; another was slipping by until it was pointed out to them we were already known to the world, so why not capitalize on it. That shut them up and they started to work in earnest with not only the US but the UN to make everyone legal.
On a bright day in 2028 not only vampires but also all non-human beings had finally gotten rights to be considered a living being even though we were technically dead; we had come out of the dark literally. Vampires especially dispelled all those vampire myths. Garlic that fine old wives tale. We aren’t afraid of it. Actually I love the taste especially on some linguine.
The one about not going into a church. Not true. Vampires had their own religion. I for one am not a part of it. I’m a Baptist at least when I decide to attend church. Which is few and far between these days. My sister is praying for my soul and that my niece doesn’t turn out like me. A single old maid with only work to keep them warm. Part of what she said is true, I’m single. Old nope being over a three hundred is young in vampire years. My sister is over five hundred years and what she didn’t know; Synvic – my niece was more like me than her. My niece is the apple of my eye and a fledging. My sister had her the old fashion way. She gave birth to her. Yes, vampires can have children. To this day human scientists are still trying to figure that one out. When they do I hope they tell us. It isn’t something anyone knew. You were either blessed with kids or not.
After that shock, our elders decreed that no one was to revel one of our biggest secrets. It took years before anyone figured out that the biggest whopper- vampires don’t burn when they hit the sun. They can even walk directly in sunlight, and don’t sleep like the dead during the day. Once the cat was out of the bag we were all happy. It took a lot for us to be locked up in the house all day. You can only watch so much daytime TV before you went insane. Some people are still unused to seeing us in the day and don’t even know what to say or do. I wonder what everyone would say if they knew the rest about us. It doesn’t matter so much now. I wasn’t talking about it and the few who were left wouldn’t either. Most of the one’s who knew were dead already.
It was a sunny day in the summer of 2063 and I was stuck inside of a closed set for the final epi
sode of the season for the hottest running show to hit TV since Angel back in early 2000. Shasana Crite was the name of the main character and the show. Personally I have never seen and episode until today. The only reason I knew it was such a big show is all those atrocious billboards all over the place. I still had no idea why we were here. It came from high up and here we were. I’m sure some of the show fans would pay an arm and a leg to be on the set. Me, I just wanted to go home and get some sleep. Our last case had barely just wrapped up and I was still sore from the spikes the perp had decided to use on me.
The director called for another run through of the take. I wanted to take him out back and shoot him, my hand started to go for my gun to do just that when I glanced at Tyrnca. She was about to do the same thing. We looked at each other in total agreement and grinned.
“Ah, Ms. Tanner. It’s always a pleasure to see you.”
I could feel my face stiffen and my hand start to twitch to grab the gun, turn and shoot. My hair on the nape of my neck bristled as that annoying voice and slimy tone called my name again. Now I knew why we were here. The slime- Calvin Khan - had pulled some strings. Calvin and me, we had some history. He wanted to get into my panties and I told him not so politely no. He was persistent and just kept pissing me off each time he tried something.
Now who in their right mind would want to take on a pissed off woman who was a vampire to boot? Calvin did. Instead of being dissuaded, Calvin kept trying even using that old sexual harassment trick. “Sleep with me or you’re fired.” It didn’t work with me since he wasn’t my boss. Calvin was too stupid to know he didn’t have the clout he thought he did; at least until he was called to the carpet on his behavior. I didn’t tell on him. The telepaths on the council had felt it and came just in time before old Callvy was made into Swiss cheese.
