by Zara Zenia
First Fangs
A Diablo Falls Paranormal Short Story
Zara Zenia
Edited by
Valorie Clifton
Copyright © 2019 by Zara Zenia
All rights reserved.
Edited by Valorie Clifton
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the authors’ imagination.
Contents
VIP Reader Club
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
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Chapter 1
Ebony
Oh, baby! Tell me what it is that you want. I will do anything for you. You’ve been my everything and I will never leave you alone. I was listening to my favorite song with headphones while walking home. I felt buoyant as I bounced my way home, looking forward to seeing my man after a long day.
My phone beeped with a notification, and I pulled it out to see if it was him, wondering what was taking me so long. It wasn’t, which was a little disappointing. I switched my phone to camera view so I could check myself out before I saw him. I was tall, slim, and athletic, with wavy dark brown hair, black eyes, and medium-toned skin, and all I could think of was lying in the arms of Brian Massey, my pledged lover whom I greatly loved.
Brian was thirty-four, a psych professor at a community college in Seattle where we both lived. We had just moved in together and our life had been blissful ever since. I, at least, had no complaints. I saw Massey as my everything. I loved him way too much, probably more than I should, but was that really a bad thing? I was convinced that I was going to be spending the rest of my life with him because he was my soulmate. Who wouldn’t want to spend their life with a guy like him? He was truly the complete package. He seemed like the perfect guy for me. I had known that since the very beginning. He was of medium height with a medium build, though he was slightly chubby. But I liked his “dad bod”. It made cuddling with him very comfortable indeed. I didn’t have those hard muscles to lie on. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect guy. Massey was very sweet, too, always getting me flowers and paintings because of my love for nature.
I remembered how we’d met. I had forgotten my purse in a cab that we shared and didn’t even realize it until I got a call from him explaining how I’d left my purse behind in the cab and he’d had to pick it up for me for fear that someone else who saw it might steal it. He offered to bring it to my place. I felt like that was the nicest thing someone had ever done for me. It had been embarrassing that I had left it behind, but I couldn’t have appreciated his gesture more.
When he came, we got to talking and it was magical. I felt our hearts connect immediately in a way I could not explain. We talked about our lives, how we grew up, and our dreams and ambitions. It seemed to be fated, and when he finally left, I had a hard time getting him out of my mind.
Brian told me of how he had always known that when he found his soulmate, he was going to know instantly. We laughed, talked, and cracked jokes so much that we were oblivious of how much time had passed. A cellphone call for Massey was what brought us back to reality. He was about to start going after he saw how dark it was getting, and even though I didn’t want him to leave, I pretended like I was okay with it.
He was about to help clean the coffee stain off my cheek when our eyes locked, and we kissed so intensely that I felt my lips burn. I knew instantly that I wanted more, and without saying anything, I unbuttoned his shirt and he helped with the zip of my dress. He cupped my face in his hands and we kissed passionately. I tried to catch my breath, and all we could hear was the chirping of birds and the fan whirring. We had slept together that first night, and I had never regretted it for a minute. Technically, by the time he left the next day, we’d slept together more than once but I lost count after a while. We were finally exhausted and slept with me cuddled up against him. That was the best sexual experience of my life, hands down. I never wanted to leave him.
In the middle of the night, I couldn’t help myself as I kept staring at him just to make sure he was real because he seemed too good to be true. That started the beginning of our relationship, which blossomed as he became the best thing that had ever happened to me. My misplaced purse found me a treasure, my soulmate. All I could think of was going home to meet my lover.
As I opened the door to our bedroom, I realized that was the worst decision I’d ever made as I found Massey in bed with a girl who couldn’t be more than twenty. Staring at the two of them, I had no words. I couldn’t even believe what I was looking at. I stood transfixed for a moment, and my heart refused to beat. When it did, it was so loud that I felt like I was going to die. It’s amazing how love can make you feel like that sometimes, wanting to die. Tears flooded my eyes and there was so much pain and anger in me. There was definitely a strong part of me that wanted to blow his head right off, and the other wanted to ask him if he had only been playing with my heart all this while, but I did nothing, just allowing the tears to flow from my eyes.
Brian was freaking out, trying to stutter some words, but nothing he said made any sense to me. I couldn’t understand anything he was saying. It was like he was speaking in another language. He quickly ushered the girl to get dressed and leave his house. The girl, who had no idea that he was in a relationship, was so scared to death that I almost felt sorry for her. She looked like she’d just seen a ghost. The girl tried to put on her clothes, but her hands were shaking badly. She only managed to wear her underclothes and put on her coat. She ran out with so much speed, I could swear she would fall right down the stairs.
Brian looked like he’d just been hit by a car and tried convincing me that he was sorry and he didn’t even know what came over him and making a lot of promises that it would never happen again. I couldn’t help but smile at his weak platitudes. My heart was beating so fast. I had to stop and take a deep breath to try to control my own emotions because all I could see was red.
Out of nowhere, the pots from the kitchen flew into the room and violently hit Massey on his head. Blood poured out of his wounds. I didn’t understand what had just happened, but I could swear with my life that I was glad it had. It was just like someone had read my mind and acted it out. Without bothering to help him, I headed toward my car, still hearing his groans. I got behind the wheel of my car and just stared off into space. I could not have cared less in that moment whether he was hurt badly or not. There had been another girl in my bed, and she clearly had been a student of his, which sickened me even more.
For what seemed like forever, my head was on the steering wheel as I sobbed violently. Choking on my own sobs, I feared I was going to explode from the inside out. My whole body was shaking, and for the first time, I realized that I’d been a fool all along because I was sure that he’d only being playing with my heart. All of his flaws, which I had ignored right from when we had started the relationship, began to fall into place. I had been so much in love with him that I closed my eyes to everything else, te
lling myself that love would conquer all. So many things were running through my mind, and I couldn’t focus on any particular one. I thought of where to go as I knew that I wasn’t going back to the house we shared. Had he even loved me at all?
Then just like a flash of light, I remembered that I’d been thinking of taking a vacation in the mountains, Diablo Falls, a town where my grandmother lived and I’d visited as a kid. I remembered how fascinated I’d been when I’d visited as a young girl. My love for nature had always drawn me back there as the place had a lot of tourist attractions which included the Blackwater Mountain, the Clear Spring Mountain, and a host of others I couldn’t really remember. I instantly knew that this was the perfect time to go there. I could start over and take a break from everything. I thought of skiing in the Crown and clearing my head from all that bothered me, most especially, Brian.
I felt a deep depression beginning to settle in and I wasn’t sure what to do. I felt lonely and shocked by what Brian did to me, and it affected me immensely. This was someone I had seen in my future, and now he was gone. How could he have taken up with that young girl? Why had I not been enough for him? At the thought of that, I sobbed louder, producing a keening sound. I thought about all the great times we had together, how much I loved him, and how we had made so many plans for our future. We’d wanted to have two kids, a girl and a boy. We were going to travel on vacations, bringing our two children with us.
I felt betrayed as those thoughts came to my mind. Right then, I needed someone decent whom I could love and make me forget all the pain within me. I felt like I’d wasted my heart on a man-child who’d ended up shattering it.
I was on my way to Diablo Falls, a medium-sized mountain town that sat at the base of Blackwater Mountain. Population was roughly 4,000, including tourists, part-timers, and those living in the woods outside of town. Surrounded by forest, it was named after the waterfall at the center of the “Devil’s Crown,” which was formed by the Blackwater and Clear Spring Peaks. The town was founded by a coven of witches whose descendants lived in the area, but they no longer control it.
Humans sometimes came to Diablo Falls to hike the Devil's Crown. The town had a decent tourist industry, but that sometimes left them scrambling to cover for the more obviously supernatural occurrences. There were bed and breakfast locations, a movie theater, a variety of shops, stables and kayaking run by the shifters, skiing in winter, and a variety of cultural events. Vampires ran the blood bank, and many of the EMTs and hospital staff were vampires. Convenient, right? That made some of the locals a little nervous, but it meant that the vampires didn’t have to prey on humans, and that was the best news for everyone involved.
The one thing I hated about visiting the area was that cell service and electronics could go wonky in and around the town due to the high level of magic ley lines. This made cells and GPS systems very unreliable, especially for those from out of town, visitors and non-magical folks. It was annoying, to say the least. It made me feel like I was walking into the Twilight Zone when I would visit. To keep people connected, there was a free fiber-optic service in town and one internet cafe, but outside town, even shortwave radios could become glitchy.
I made the decision to drive there and not worry about the glitchy cell service. I had nothing else to do any way. If I started now, I’d get there before dark, and it wasn’t that far of a drive anyway. I could do it, no problem. I pulled the car out of the driveway and tried not to think about Brian’s bleeding head. He was lucky I didn’t call the dean at the school and let him know what Brian had been up to.
While I drove down the highway, I tried to drown out my thoughts with the radio, but even my favorite singer couldn’t seem to keep my mind off Brian. I was almost there when the car started to chug and lurch forward in the street. I pulled it off to the side as it quickly died.
“What the hell,” I whispered. I turned the key again to see if I could get it working, but I knew nothing about cars and it was pretty clear that I was going nowhere fast.
I had a lot going through my mind. It eventually seemed like every part of my life was breaking down. First Brian, and now this mess. I looked down the highway ahead of me. I was still miles out of town, and I would be forced to start walking. With the sun going down and a storm brewing overhead, things weren’t looking good for me.
I tried using my phone to get directions, but it was pointless as the network was useless. It was so weird that the storm just came out of nowhere. It hadn’t been there a moment ago. What I didn’t know in that moment was the storm had everything to do with me. My coming to Diablo Falls was actually not a coincidence but fate. It was bound to happen eventually.
I leaned back on the headrest and thought about the area. I never knew my family or what my ties to the area really were. I knew that I was a distant descendant of the old coven, but I didn’t know what that meant. I certainly had none of the powers that I’d read about in the family legacies. I was just a regular girl like many of the humans who roamed in and out of the town.
Could coming back to Diablo Falls be the answer I needed? Was it about time that I discovered who I really was, regardless of what I’d found out? What could be worse than finding out that your boyfriend’s a cheating bastard? Whatever else came my way, it couldn’t be worse than that, could it?
First, I needed to get walking. I sighed and started to pull myself out of the car with my purse in hand.
Chapter 2
Malcolm
I awoke feeling pretty rough. I might look like a young and spry vampire, but I was seventy-nine years old. That was the true beauty of being immortal, missing the aging process entirely. I had a good life, though, and lived in a town where my gifts were appreciated and where I had all the blood that a vampire could ever want. I was quite the psychically gifted vampire with a talent for tarot card reading at Diablo Destinies, one of three mystic shops in town. That particular one focused on crystals, divination, and New Age and psychic phenomena. I was a former Vietnam vet. I was turned into a vampire in the middle of the jungle by a squad buddy who was a vampire. Did I want to become a vampire? Not hardly, but that wasn’t a choice that I’d had in my life, so I embraced what I had in the best possible way that I could. I had a lot to be thankful for. I could have died in that jungle if he hadn’t changed me. I was alive and I had a good life, so how could I really complain? I didn’t wallow in pity that much compared to many vampires, in part because of the circumstances surrounding my change and in part because I’m generally a stable and positive person. I often got a little embarrassed by the drama other supernaturals got up to. I was trying to be a decent person—or vampire—in a life that I hadn’t chosen. I knew how to control my powers. I wasn’t one who got overpowered by my feelings.
I was quite simply a blood drinker, weakened by the day and burned by the daylight, with a wide variety of supernatural abilities and the power to transform living humans into vampires by sharing blood. Some might consider me to be evil, but I didn’t believe that I was inherently evil, just a little territorial and secretive due to years of being hunted. How could anyone blame me for that? You try being hunted and see how you like it. When it came to my job, I only worked in the night so as not to get burned by daylight, but I did love working as a tarot reader..
I had a lot of admirers but most especially, Gwen Liu, a psychically gifted human and bartender at The Cellar, a wine bar and fine dining establishment. She was thirty-one years old and she was saving up to buy the wine bar from the owner, Tom, who was eager to retire. I liked, snarky, insightful Gwen, who’d moved to Diablo Falls after a bad breakup and had developed her powers from exposure to the high magic environment. She was a pretty incredible woman. She was a telepath with some mild precognitive ability. Gwen was an industrious lady and very hardworking. Her resolve to buy The Cellar from Tom testified to that.
She and I had become friends when I started teaching her the fine art of Tarot. She was gorgeous with short black hair, narrow brown ey
es, and medium-toned skin. A true beauty, indeed.
She was quite attracted to me because I always made sure to be nice to her. Unfortunately, she misinterpreted my niceness for having feelings for her, which wasn’t true. She’d just recovered from a bad breakup and was desperate for someone to love her. Unfortunately, she’d gotten pregnant by the man who broke her heart. That was the most tragic part of her story.
It was five PM, and I felt worn. I often feel weakened by my sleep, and I rarely feel refreshed by it. I stood up and got out of bed and head to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I then moved to the kitchen where I rifled through the fridge and grabbed a package. The best-looking package that I had ever seen. I walked to the kitchen counter with the package and poured myself a cup of blood like a normal person would coffee. I got my blood from the blood bank which was attached to Diablo General Hospital. I was able to get it through the help of Caleb Watson, a vampire who is much older than me. He looks like he could be thirty years old, but he’s 240 years old. We had a fairly supportive relationship, if a bit distant at times. Our agreement for the blood worked in everyone’s best interest. I didn’t have to hunt when I had the medical bags in my fridge. It’s not the same as the hot flowing blood that I can drink from a human, but it keeps me safe as well. People left me alone because they knew that I didn’t hunt. Things might be different if I lived in a bigger city where people didn’t know me, but Diablo Falls was a small community where everyone knew everyone. I didn’t want to be a monster. I didn’t want to be feared. Caleb was a former Union Army surgeon with a soft spot for soldiers. He worked as the medical consultant for the EMT team at Diablo General Hospital. He had short brown hair, a trimmed beard, milk-white skin, and brown eyes.
