The Vampire's Spell:
Page 1
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
Chapter 13
Owned by The Vampire
© Copyright 2016 by Persia Publishing- All rights reserved.
(Untitled)
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 14
The Vampire’s Spell
The Dragon’s Kin (Book 9)
Lucy Lyons
© 2017
© Copyright 2017 by Persia Publishing - All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
The information herein is offered for entertainment purposes solely, and is universal as so. The presentation of the information is without contract or any type of guarantee assurance.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE 4
CHAPTER TWO 16
CHAPTER THREE 23
CHAPTER FOUR 41
CHAPTER FIVE 53
CHAPTER SIX 65
CHAPTER SEVEN 73
CHAPTER EIGHT 83
CHAPTER NINE 95
CHAPTER TEN 106
CHAPTER ELEVEN 116
CHAPTER TWELVE 131
CHAPTER THIRTEEN 140
CHAPTER FOURTEEN 147
CHAPTER FIFTEEN 158
CHAPTER SIXTEEN 168
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 181
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 190
CHAPTER NINETEEN 203
CHAPTER TWENTY 213
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 223
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 234
CHAPTER ONE
The voice over the airport PA announced the first call to board the flight into Boa Vista, Brazil, and I felt my first real tremor of excitement for the trip. I glanced at the woman sitting one to my left, the empty seat between us holding her bags. She had her eyes closed, but her muscles were taut as she listened to every sound in the terminal, from the loudspeaker to the scuff of shoes on the stone floor.
Her naturally auburn hair was brown now, dyed dark to help her blend in where the fiery sheen of red would draw attention that we couldn’t afford. Her long legs were crossed, baring most of her lean, tan thigh below her khaki shorts. They too would, sadly, be hidden away once we were in the rainforest among the dangerous flora and insects we knew we’d encounter, but for now, I could appreciate them alongside the numerous men I’d caught staring at her since we’d sat in the international terminal.
I hid a smirk behind my paperback as another businessman in a French cuff button-down and tailored, silk trousers took note of her and pretended to ignore his advance, following Ashlynn’s example as I felt her wish him away, her beast irritated by his self-admiration and bravado. He passed by for the third time before sitting next to her and leaning in close enough that I wanted to hold my breath to avoid his cologne, despite being three seats away.
“I couldn’t help but notice we’re on the same flight,” he began, and she sighed, directing an amber stare to his face. I coughed a little, almost feeling sorry for him—almost, but not quite, as he continued. “Are you vacationing in Brazil or going there on business?”
“Business,” she replied. “With my husband.” She held up her hand to show him the diamond ring she’d just picked out, and I watched his jaw tense. His smell was off-putting and not just from the cologne. Everything about his polish screamed imposter at me, and I fought harder to let Ashlynn handle him herself as he forced a smile and smoothed down his shirt, the rings on his hand sparkling in the harsh, fluorescent overhead lights.
His oily demeanor seemed to only bother Ashlynn, and I watched other women eye him appreciatively as they walked by. His tan was either from lamps or sunlight, and the way his muscles moved under his shirt made me think it was the former, a tan from a bed to go with his well-maintained physique. His jaw still worked under his skin, but he managed a broad, unconcerned smile that didn’t touch his eyes before he moved on.
I thought how hard it would be to bite off his fingers without accidentally swallowing one of the gaudy, diamond-encrusted rings. I felt Ashlynn’s surprise and mirth as my thoughts bled into hers for a moment, and in return, I received a telepathic image of myself, coughing up jewelry like hairballs, and I laughed aloud.
“Hey, you two, I hoped I’d make it in time, but ugh, these places give me the heebee jeebies,” Maria announced as Ashlynn stood to give her a hug. “You weren’t causing trouble, were you, Clay?” she asked me, glancing after the businessman, who was now schmoozing a couple of grandmotherly women who looked like they were headed home. One giggled and covered her cheeks as something he said made her blush, and I wondered if maybe my paranoia was the problem, not the man.
“I thought he was a creep,” Ashlynn muttered, and I scoffed. Just then he glanced at me, and the look that flashed across his face was cold and hard and anything but charming or friendly. Just as quickly, it passed, and I found myself gaping at the good ‘ol boy again.
“Uh, Maria, you won’t be on the plane with us, will you?” I asked. Airplanes weren’t a favored mode of travel for any full-blooded Fae—too much steel and electronics made most citizens of Fairy ill. Buckling her into a sealed steel box, 30,000 feet in the air seemed too risky for my comfort.
“No, I’ll leave you half-bloods to ride in that steel and iron death trap, thank you very much,” she replied with a mirthless chuckle. Maria shuddered and looked me over. “It really doesn’t bother you, flying?” she asked, and I shrugged. Fortunately, we werewolves weren’t quite Fae enough to be weakened by the cold touch of iron, even though we preferred the wind and stone and green of our mountain and the forest around it. Our mortality came with a few perks that made us strong enough that the Fae were cautious of offending us.
“Honestly, I feel more concerned that I can’t pull my gun up there. I can’t shift inside either. Nick had me try in his plane on vampire business trip. The wolf disappeared, and although I could still use my psychic ability, I couldn’t shift to save my life.”
“Hmmm.” Maria glanced at us in turn. “Keep that bit of knowledge to as few people as possible, OK?” Ashlynn nodded vigorously, and I glanced around, my eye catching the oily businessman as he checked out my mate again from a distance. He quickly looked away, speaking into his phone, and I tried to hear what he was saying, extending my power like fingers reaching out towar
d him.
I caught the flight number and something about an auction, then a woman’s loud voice over the PA system announced first class boarding for our flight, drowning out whatever conversation he was having. I forced myself to ignore the man, despite the weight he left in the pit of my stomach, and turned to my people, waiting for my turn to hug Maria before Ashlynn and I made our way to the jet bridge.
With our bags in hand, Ashlynn and I boarded and stowed our things and found our seats, and within minutes, we were sipping small tumblers of beer. I received one last text on my phone from Maria, her one concession to modern technology. When I’d given the phone to her, she’d been skeptical. But once she realized no one could reach her if she turned it off, as opposed to mirror-speak, which could be forced, she celebrated the switch to cellphone by breaking all her mirrors in the dumpster behind the warehouse.
Meet you at the base camp at Cabeludo, she wrote. I’ll have provisions for all your needs there, the text read. I showed Ashlynn, and she smiled faintly then returned to sipping her drink and focusing on not letting her nerves get the best of her before takeoff.
I understood that if Maria were going to beat us there, she’d be using some sort of Fae highway we weren’t allowed to use because we were mortal, even though werewolves were as long-lived as witches and could be immortal if we swore ourselves to a vampire. Maria was a Shedu, a protector Fairy who had once been a great warrior. Centuries before I was born, she’d started an elite fighting force called the Red Daggers whose sole purpose was to protect the lesser Fae from the high courts, which enslaved the physically weaker wee folk and treated them even worse than they did humans or animals. Her soldiers were creatures of legend, appearing “as if by magic” to come to the aid of her worshippers in times of need. No doubt they had been able to travel those same routes a thousand years before anyone had ever even imagined flying machines to transport men.
Portia, her captain, didn’t share Maria’s attitude toward the lesser Fae and “kin” as some had started calling us. The Cetan was an amazing fighter and a shifter like we were, but if she’d had any love for the lesser Fae, it had died long before I met her. I wasn’t surprised she’d failed to give us the protection we needed. Just the fact that I could be entranced by glamour would be yet another sign of my inferiority. Portia fought to protect the lesser Fae, but she believed that “lesser” meant their intrinsic value, not just their small size. She protected us the way a county shelter would protect dogs . . . right up until they put them down.
Ashlynn, my mate, had been glowing since we were asked to check on the intel the Fae had received about an influx of magic and possible Fae-related deaths in Roraima, a small rain-forest region of northern Brazil. Now she shook me from my habitual, silent cursing of Maria’s second-in-command with fingernails that bit into my upper arm. The pilot was speaking to us all, and the engines had just roared into life.
What if I change? Her thoughts entered my mind past my psychic shielding with no effort at all, as though her thoughts were just an extension of my own.
You won’t change. You won’t let it happen . . . I won’t let it happen. Just hold onto me, and I’ll help you if you need it, but I know you. I trust you, and you should trust yourself.
“I haven’t flown since . . . since my accident,” she reminded me aloud. I gritted my teeth against the pain in my arm and let her hold on until we were in the air and I heard the familiar whir and thunk sounds of the wheels being stowed in the belly. When I finally pried her fingers off me, I felt a wet trickle down my arm and swiped at the blood flowing from the half-moons her nails had left in my skin. Her eyes got larger and more round as she untied the scarf from her neck, dabbing the scarlet streaks off my arm as my skin closed over and stopped the blood flow.
“It’s nothing, Ash. Don’t worry about it,” I chuckled as she fretted over me. “It didn’t even take any active magic to heal.” Don’t draw attention to it. There’s nothing there now, and I don’t need people getting paranoid on the flight because I healed myself, I added silently.
“Sorry, Clay,” she muttered one last time, and I kissed her temple. It was strange for me too, flying with wild magic inside me. The magic hated the steel box we were trapped in, and I felt the need to be free, to burst out of the metal shell and run with the wind wherever I needed to go. Part of me even believed the wild magic could keep us safe if we did. But my wolf provided the anchor I needed to ignore the call of the wild magic, and I watched as Ashlynn’s eyes cleared of fear and her muscles relaxed a little as she wiped at my arm.
“It’s all gone, Ash,” I repeated myself, and she smiled at me, giving me a glimpse of the soft woman inside the wounded and hardened alpha wolf. Once, my wolf had recognized hers and known she was his mate, even though we couldn’t stand each other. Now I couldn’t imagine ever wanting another woman, in my bed or by my side.
“I know,” she replied. “I was just thinking that I’m pretty lucky to have such a tough guy,” she teased. “Was it harder to stay quiet when I bloodied your arm or when that douchebag,” she said, pointing to the seat one row up where the oily business man sat, “tried to flirt with me?”
“I know you can take care of yourself, Ash. I was just waiting to be your backup with that guy.” I thought ahead to the rain forest and the disturbing reports coming back from the villages at the base of Mount Roraima. “But if we hit real trouble, don’t expect me to stand back and wait for things to go south too far before I step in.” That guy set off alarms in my head like the smell of smoke in August announced a forest fire, but he was just a man.
I’d made the mistake of waiting too long before, and it had almost cost me my mate and my pack a valuable alpha wolf and her infant. Because of my hesitation, Ashlynn had once been captured by Fae who were torturing others like us to find the source of their magic. The pregnant wolf from our pack who Ashlynn had been trying to save all by herself had left us in the end, taking her mate and their newborn daughter with her, feeling safer with the queen of the vampires than she did with us. I couldn’t blame her.
The day that I’d released them from their oaths to the pack and blessed their journey, I’d made another promise to the rest of the pack—since the magic we now shared with the Fae had brought danger to us, I was going to be on the front line, making sure no member of our pack was taken again.
Of course, we’d brought Fairy to America, opening a doorway to the in-between where the Fae lived, a warehouse on the water in Seattle, which upped the ante for those of us who weren’t pure Fae. The fact that a mound had opened in an urban center was disturbing enough for me. The mound remained closed to all who were not the wee folk or the High Fae. To me and my wolves and the local vampires, that meant that if the Fae ever wanted to take us out, they now had a prime doorway to bring an army through, but we had no idea what was on the other side until then.
But life carried on for us. We were largely unaware of the precariousness of the balance as we went about our daily lives, with only trips like this to thrust danger back into the fronts of our minds.
Ash pressed my head back to the seat and slid her fingers over my eyes, silently telling me to sleep while she took first watch. In reply, I cautioned her not to eat the businessman who sat with tight shoulders ahead of us, fear rising off him in a perfume much more enticing than the heavy spice of his cologne.
We had a long flight ahead of us and nothing but the danger of the unknown to meet us on the other side. But I had a lifetime of courting danger and hunting predators with preternatural strength and cunning behind me, and it came as no surprise to me when sleep overtook me, even inside the great metal monster that defied the laws of the wild magic that coursed through my veins. I was a beginner when it came to leading the pack, and my understanding of the Fae was less than rudimentary, but hunting monsters was in my blood, and that was a comfort to me.
For all that was strange and new in my life as a werewolf and in discovering another layer to the world that rema
ined invisible to humans, there was a constant thread that told me where I belonged. As a werewolf, I was no longer welcome in the vampire hunter society that had raised me. But no matter where I went, the Venatores lamiae would always go with me.
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CHAPTER TWO
Ashlynn woke me when the inflight meal was served, not because either of us wanted to eat but because we needed the fuel to help keep our wolf forms at bay, especially with so much heightened anxiety around us from our fellow passengers. After a forgettable and miniscule meal of some form of red meat and limp vegetables, Ashlynn talked me into a couple more miniature bottles of beer. Then she ordered several snack items off the a la carte menu for us to share. The beer was served in small plastic cups that resembled pint glasses, only at a quarter of the size. Upon seeing them, my mate promptly ordered two more for each of us, and the flight attendant agreed to bring out more when our cups were emptied.
“I’d complain about how much that cheese tray cost us . . . if the Shedu weren’t picking up the tab,” she whispered conspiratorially as she carefully unwrapped a yard of cellophane from around the divided container of cheese, dried fruit, and crackers resting on her palm.