by KD Jones
Strange Lake Falls Vampire
Book 1 in Strange Lake Falls Series
By
KD Jones
Published by KD Jones at Smashwords
Originally published under DJ Cruz
Copyright 2014 KD Jones
All cover art and logo © Copyright KD Jones Publishing Publishing
All rights reserved.
Artwork by KD Jones
Published by KD Jones Publishing
Blurb
Warning: For Mature Adult Audiences. Contains language and actions some may deem offensive. M/F
In one night, Jackie Copley-Tegan’s normal ordinary life turned upside down. Her teenage daughter, Samantha, falls for the wrong guy, which nearly ended in tragedy. Both mother and daughter thrust into a new and unfamiliar world where werewolves and vampires are thriving among humans.
Jackie will have to draw on every bit of strength she has in order to protect her only child, and learn how to cope with the changes in her life. Amongst the chaos a single piece of stability in the form of a young-looking, gorgeous five hundred year old vampire, rattles her to the core, and leaves her wondering just where her place is now.
Adrian Belliveau rarely finds a reason to enjoy his life anymore, so when the pretty woman who is meant to be his mate enters the picture he embraces his destiny with open arms. They both will get more than they bargain for, as they combat lust, love, and jealousy to put down roots in an ever-changing world.
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Chapter 1
“Samantha Mary Tegan! Your date is going to be here any minute, and I want some pictures before you leave.” Jackie called from the bottom of the stairs.
“Ease up honey, the girl is nervous. She hasn’t been on a date before,” Mary said from beside her.
“I know. I should have let her go out on dates sooner, but she’s just so shy around boys, and, I wanted to keep her with me a little while longer.” Jackie ran her hand through her long hair. Only forty-five years old, and already the dark brown locks were streaked with silver. She looked up and smiled as her seventeen-year-old daughter Samantha walked down the stairs.
Samantha looked similar to her mother, with long brown hair and big brown eyes. However, she was taller than Jackie by a good two inches and much slimmer. Jackie was a size sixteen and had been since before she got pregnant with Samantha, while her daughter was a bit on the skinny side at a size two. Tall, and leggy, Samantha also wore dark rimmed glasses, which she hated.
“You look beautiful,” Jackie said, wiping a tear from her cheek, and her best friend handed her a handkerchief. Next to her, Mary was tearing up too.
“Really? You’re not just saying that because you’re my mother?” Samantha asked nervously as she looked down into her mom’s eyes.
“Really and truly, you’re beautiful.” Jackie said sincerely, wiping another stray tear. “Don’t you think so Mary?”
“You are lovely honey. I just wish that Connor was here to see you.” Mary agreed adamantly.
“Thanks. The makeup isn’t too much? Carter said to put some on, but I’m not used to this stuff.” Samantha went to check her face in the mirror.
“Carter? Your date told you to put makeup on?” Jackie frowned and gave Mary a look.
“Yeah. He said that I’m really pale, and some makeup would help soften my looks while adding the color I needed.” Samantha blotted her lipstick with a tissue.
Jackie wanted to say something, but just as she opened her mouth a loud honking horn interrupted her. The three women walked over as a unit, to the big bay window in the front room of their traditional two-story farmhouse. A flashy blue mustang was sitting in the driveway, and the driver was waving for Samantha to join him.
“He’s not even going to come to the door to pick you up?” Jackie was getting a bad feeling about this guy.
“Mom, that is so old-fashioned,” Samantha said with a roll of her eyes, before kissing her mother and Mary on the their cheeks and disappearing out the door.”
“You’ve got your phone with you right?” Jackie called out from the doorway.
“Yes Mom!” She waved without turning around and got into the car.
“She’ll be okay.” Mary reassured her wrapping her arm around her and pulling her into the house.
They didn’t say anything for a few minutes listening to the quiet of the house. She hadn’t really prepared Samantha for dating. She sheltered her and now, she feared that her daughter was going to have her heart broken. There was nothing she could do to prevent it.
“I think I need a drink.” Jackie walked over to a hutch in the living room and used a key to open it. She grabbed two shot glasses and a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“Oh, the hard stuff.” Mary commented as she followed Jackie out the back sliding doors toward the in-ground swimming pool.
Jackie flopped down onto a lounge chair making it squeak. Let the pity party begin. “I just sent my baby off with some stranger who told her she needed to wear makeup.” She poured herself a shot of JD and then poured Mary one.
“Well, I just found out that my accounting position at the Mini Mart is going to be obsolete now that they have a computerized system to keep track of the money.” Mary told her.
Jackie poured them both another shot and they drank it. “I was told by the bank that if I didn’t pay off the loan I took out a few years back they will put a lien on the property.” Two more glasses of JD were poured.
“Reverend Walker’s wife accused me of sleeping with him.”
“What?”
“Long story. I’ll tell you about it later, but I won’t be going to Strange Lake Fall’s Church of God in the near future.”
Jackie poured two more shots. She held up her glass but didn’t drink it. “Samantha wants to invite her father to her graduation.”
“Awkward.” Mary shook her head in sympathy. “Well, I think my Connor is gay.”
“Gay? What are you talking about?” Jackie asked with confusion as she put her last glass down.
“He doesn’t bring home any girls, he even doesn’t talk about girls, and he’s had plenty of opportunity to ask Samantha out. He dresses like a male model in a magazine and he’s super polite.”
“I don’t think any of that means he’s gay. He was brought up to be a gentleman, and he’s probably picky about who he dates, but would it really be a bad thing if he is gay?”
Mary sighed. “No, of course not. I love him no matter what. I just want him to meet someone, man or woman, who will treat him right, and love him at least half as much as his father loved me. Connor deserves that. I’m worried if he is gay he’ll be picked on. People can be so cruel.”
“Yes they can. That’s why I am glad we sent the kids to self-defense classes all those years ago, to help protect them from danger. But I guess we can’t protect them from everything in life.”
“No we can’t.” Mary agreed with her. There was a silence as they stared out into the night. “By the way, I love the pool.”
“It was the last thing Robert insisted on doing before he decided to leave me. He said that the pool would help me lose weight and that would help improve our marriage.”
“Glad you got rid of that asshole.”
“Yeah me too. But I kept the pool.” They both laughed.
“Has he come around lately? I know he went out of town for a while, but he’s back, right?”
“Yeah, he called and spoke to Samantha for five minutes before getting me on the phone. He tried to convince me to sell the farm.”
“What does he get out of it?
“Well, he gets nothing unless
I sell. The judge said that since the property had been in my family for years, and I planned to raise Samantha here, that Robert had no claim to the property, but, if I sell he gets half.”
“That’s just bullshit!”
“I know. But it won’t matter much if I don’t pay off the bank loan.”
“That bad?” Mary asked with concern.
“Yeah, I have been looking for somewhere cheaper for me and Samantha in case we have to move.”
“Oh my God! You’re not serious? Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I have a little money left over from Christopher’s life insurance policy. I could help.”
“No, that money is for you and Connor. We’ll be okay.” At least Jackie hoped that they would be. She and Mary took another shot of JD. “Both our lives suck. That calls for another bottle of Jack Daniels.” Jackie said pouring the remaining liquid into their shot glasses.
Chapter 2
Adrian Belliveau stood in the center of a large building that was undergoing construction, with an arrogant tilt to his head as he surveyed the work around him. He refused to put on the ridiculous safety helmet that everyone else was wearing. Humans were funny about taking all kinds of safety precautions. Good thing he wasn’t human. Sometimes being a 500-year-old vampire had its perks.
“What do you think?” The woman next to him asked with a slight Russian accent.
Elena Belinko was a long-time associate of his, long time meaning at least a hundred years give or take. He met her on the streets in a dark alley, feeding. Her maker hadn’t been there when she first awoke to help her with her first feed. She had been left on her own to become a monster.
Elena Belinko was a long-time associate of his. Long-time as in more than a hundred years. He could still remember the first time he met her. A newly made vampire, hiding in a dark alley, looking for a food source. Generally, new vamps needed to feed and fuck within the first few hours of awakening, and their maker was there to help them maintain control so they didn’t kill their first feed. Thus they kept their vampire nature hidden from the world, but in Elena’s case, she had been left on her own by her maker. Left alone she would have become a monster.
Adrian’s maker was a woman named Lila. She was beautiful and exotic but most of all, she was kind. Having married young he was devastated when he lost his wife and unnamed daughter in childbirth. Grieving so deeply that all he wanted to do was end his own life, he went to the local taverns to get drunk and offend someone in the hopes that they kill him. He hadn’t expected to meet Lila and if he had been even an hour late to the tavern he might not have met her at all.
Lila had been sitting in the dark corner of the room watching him. When he was about to shove a man to get into a fight, she suddenly appeared in front of him blocking him from his target. He smiled remembering that moment.
“Move woman!”
“Nay, you are too drunk to think clearly.”
“You don’t know me. Get out of my way!”
“I can help you. I know what you need.”
He’d glared at her in anger, but when the alcoholic fog lifted, he saw how gorgeous she was. She was wearing a low cut peasant blouse and a full skirt, and she made him hard. Angry for desiring someone new, he instantly hated Lila for making him want to betray his wife.
“Leave me alone.” He’d pushed past her out of the tavern, knowing that he wouldn’t die that day. Stumbling home, he collapsed onto the bed. Some time early before sunrise he woke in tears, as the pain of losing his wife and child broke free inside of him. A gentle hand brushed back his hair and spoke strange and soothing words to him. He didn’t know what it meant, but he knew the voice was the woman from the tavern. She had come to him like an angel and soothed his spirit, so that he could fall into a restful sleep.
The next day he went in search of her with questions, and the need to thank her. He still felt pain of loss for his family, but he had a renewed desire to live now, and it was all because of her.
The tavern owner said that the woman he described was named Lila Le’Claire. She came and went periodically but he didn’t know where she lived. He thought perhaps she had a cottage near the cliffs, as she often headed in that direction alone.
Adrian had found the cottage on the cliffs, but no one was there. He turned at the sound of voices on the wind. He followed the rocky trail to the cliffs. A steep path led to a cave opening. He followed the voices and found two men trying to put a stake in Lila’s heart.
Acting without thinking, he shoved the men out of the way and placed himself in front of Lila protecting her. The man holding the stake stabbed him in the chest. He could still remember the sharp pain followed by a burning sensation. It was not often a person is stabbed and does not remember it. He fell to his knees and things went black after that. When he awoke the pain gone, and in its place was a fierce need to feed.
“Here love. Drink of me.” His angel’s voice rang out.
She had placed her wrist in front of him, and immediately his incisors punched down and he clamped onto her vein. The first taste of blood was ambrosia on his tongue, and he fed until he felt drunk. Then a new need overcame him.
“You may have me.” She whispered baring herself to him. He did have her. Adrian took Lila over and over all throughout the night until he was sated, and fell into a deep rest. When the sun went down the next day, he awoke fully aware of what had happened, and knowing that his life as he knew it was over. He was now a vampire.
He had remained with Lila for over three hundred years. Sometimes he was her lover, sometimes he was not. They were not fated mates, and they both understood that, but they became more than maker and child, they became good friends. Adrian had been the last child that Lila made, but he had gone on to make close to a hundred of his own.
Lila was much older than him and being a vampire began to wear on her, so about two hundred years ago she decided to go to ground; something vampires did on occasion. They would go to ground and hibernate for years, before resurfacing. It was handy to disappear for 30 years, and then reappear as a relative to continue their business affairs.
Adrian knew that he was lucky to have had a maker who cared for him and taught him everything he knew. Elena Belinko did not have that type of maker. Her maker raped her before turning her into a vampire. She’d been nothing more than a wild animal when he happened upon her. He should have put her down after finding out what she had done to an entire family, but he’d been lonely and thought he could help her.
He was able to coax her into coming home with him, and he cleaned her up and taught her everything she needed to know. She didn’t like having to give up killing people, but it was safer for them both if she didn’t draw that kind of attention. They were lovers off and on, but they were not fated mates and he stopped seeing her as a lover long ago. Now he only saw her as a partner in his businesses. She was smart and very effective as a negotiator.
“When will the construction be done and when can we open it?” He was opening a nightclub in Strange Lake Falls. It was a small town in Massachusetts that was about three hours away from Boston. He had business all over the world but he always wanted something in a small area he could settle down in for a while.
“Just under a month. We'll need a couple of weeks to finish the construction then a couple of weeks to paint and decorate, and we will need to do marketing for opening night.” Elena told him handing him a folder with all the stats and numbers on it.
Adrian opened the folder and looked over the numbers. “Looks good. I’ll be heading back to Boston for about a month to finish out a deal I am working on.”
Elena motioned for the others to leave them. “When are you leaving? I had hoped to spend some time with you.”
“I fly out in two days.”
“Good. Come over to my place tonight. I want to throw a party for you.” Her sexual interest was clear in her eyes.
“I don’t know. I have to start looking for a place to live here in Strange Lake Falls.” He knew wha
t Elena wanted. She was always attempting to renew their sexual relationship. But he was hesitant to go there with her again. If he had felt more for her, it might be different.
“There’s no need. An apartment space has been allocated above the club. I’ll have the workers finish it up before you return. Tonight you should come to my place and we celebrate. I’ll have your favorite beverage available, O positive.”
He was thirsty. It had been a week since he last fed. “Fine, but not all night. I plan to make some calls to the local real estate agency.”
“But your apartment will be ready for you. There is nothing to do right now except enjoy my hospitality.” She pouted a little.
“I’ve been thinking about adding another blood warehouse, and there are some vacant buildings that might work.”
“Oh, I see. I will see you at my place tonight about 9:30 then.” She leaned up and kissed him lightly on the cheek before walking off.
Adrian took one more look around at the soon to be nightclub. Strange Lake Falls doesn’t know what they are in for, he thought on his way out the door.
Chapter 3
Samantha was shocked. She sat across the table at Steak Fiesta staring at her date, Carter Johnson. He didn’t look like a crazy person, but looks could be deceiving.
When she had first met him a few days ago she thought he was the sexiest guy she’d ever seen. He was six feet two inches of solid muscle, and he’d pulled up to the high school’s football game in his blazing blue mustang. All the girls were flirting with him, but then he turned his sexy smile on her she was palpitating. When he asked her out she stuttered her answer, but now she wished she had never gone to that game at all.
“Are you serious?”
The young man looked at her with a gleam in his eyes. “Yes. I’m a werewolf. I left my pack to go lone wolf so that I could search for a suitable mate. I’ve been gone for years. But now that I found you, we will return to my pack. I didn’t think I would ever find her, until I saw you. I know you have to be the one.”
