SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (2 page)
Read SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits Online
Authors: Erin Quinn,Caridad Pineiro,Erin Kellison,Lisa Kessler,Chris Marie Green,Mary Leo,Maureen Child,Cassi Carver,Janet Wellington,Theresa Meyers,Sheri Whitefeather,Elisabeth Staab
Tags: #12 Tales of Shapeshifters, #Vampires & Sexy Spirits
WELCOME HOME, VAMPIRE
by
Theresa Meyers,
Award-Winning Author
Corporal Cole Wagner lost his humanity in war – literally. When he lost his best friend, Jack, who’d been closer than any brother, he was selected by the military by a top secret project called Vector Force, to be changed into the ultimate weapon -a vampire. Nothing can stop Cole from taking Jack’s final letter, dog tags and wedding ring back to the woman they both loved – Kayla, but his trip home endangers them both when the enemy will stop at nothing to get their hands on Cole.
Table of Contents for Welcome Home, Vampire
About the Author: Theresa Meyers
In His Touch - Preview Chapter
VAMPIRE MAGIC
(Blood Genie, books 1 and 2)
by
Sheri Whitefeather,
National Bestselling and Award-Winning Author
VAMPIRE MAGIC offers two tenderly romantic, wildly erotic stories featuring supernatural hybrids (vampires/genies) who grant wishes for the exchange of blood.
Book One: As a teenager, Tessa Clarins was damaged by a fire, and now the scarred twenty-five-year-old virgin has been made beautiful by a wish. But Tessa’s wish is only temporary, and so is her affair with the irresistible gen-vamp feasting on her veins.
Book Two: Marie North has known about gen-vamps since she was a child, but she never expected to yearn for a wish or meet any of these sexy hybrids in person. Yet now she has come face-to-face with a bondage-loving gen-vamp, tempting her to fall for his bad-boy ways.
Table of Contents for Vampire Magic
About the Author: Sheri Whitefeather
Beautiful Musician - Preview Chapter
WILD NIGHTS WITH A LONE WOLF
by
Elisabeth Staab
,
Bestselling Author
Agent Sherri Walker needs a change of scenery. Her former lover nearly tanked her career, forcing her to take a leave of absence. A few drinks and a one-night stand with a sinfully hot stranger look like a great way to take her mind off her troubles, until that stranger’s past lands her in a new world of danger.
Asher Hughes left his outlaw pack but couldn’t ditch the bad blood. A lone wolf who’s always refused to bond, Ash is left wanting more after one night with a beautiful, spirited human. Worse, it puts Sherri in the crosshairs of an old pack enemy, and the only way to save her is to claim her as his own.
Table of Contents for Wild Nights with a Lone Wolf
About the Author: Elisabeth Staab
DIABLO SPRINGS
by Erin Quinn
Table of Contents for DIABLO SPRINGS
The Five Deaths of Roxanne Love – Preview Chapter
D
iablo Springs: Chapter One
Brendan thought lying to Analise’s mom would be the trickiest part, but Analise said she was spending the night at a friend’s house and she was such a good kid that her mother never even questioned it. No, the biggest challenge had been keeping their destination a secret from his Analise. He’d never considered how hard that would be. But that was the way he was. He didn’t see the big picture, didn’t realize he wasn’t seeing it until it was too late.
He’d been obsessed with the town they were headed to for weeks now, ever since he’d taken the detour and seen it for himself. Now returning to Diablo Springs was all he could think about. That and bringing Analise with him. It felt urgent, the need to bring her there.
Tomorrow they’d be breaking the news to Analise’s mother that her sixteen-year-old daughter was pregnant, but that didn’t seem as important as what they’d be doing tonight.
Tonight, they’d be sleeping under the stars in the back of his pickup. In Diablo Springs.
“We’re almost there,” he said, glancing at Analise as she shifted restlessly beside him.
“I wish you’d tell me where
there
is.”
“Just a little farther. It’ll be worth the wait. I promise.”
Analise’s mom had grown up in Diablo Springs and her great-grandmother still lived there, but Analise had never even visited. Every time she’d asked about it, her mother got cagey and shut her down. Not a big deal, except Analise suspected her father lived in Diablo Springs, too, and that her mom had been lying about not knowing how to find him.
He shifted, eyeing the sky. Lightning exploded across the surface and blackened clouds dipped low, scraping the mountains and teasing the parched and cracked desert floor with promises of rain it didn’t deliver. The air felt electric.
Rain would mess up all his plans.
At last the exit sign appeared, Diablo Springs Next Exit. Analise leaned forward, her lips moving silently over the name as she read it.
Her eyes widened and she shot him a stunned glance.
“I saw the exit when I was driving home from my sister’s house a couple weeks ago. There was construction and I had to take a detour.” He shrugged, grinning.
“And you didn’t say anything?”
He should’ve expected that, should’ve had a ready answer. “I . . . I wasn’t sure it was the right place. I didn’t want to say until I was.”
“Did you go there? Did you stop and see it?” Analise asked.
He could feel her gaze on him, but he didn’t want her to see his eyes. Just in case.
“I didn’t have time to stop. It was late and I had to work the next day.”
More lies. He’d swerved to take the exit, answering a call that had felt like a tug at his gut, a lure in his brain. He had stopped. More than that. He’d stayed so long that he never made it to work the next morning. Or the one after.
He couldn’t tell Analise that, though. She’d want to know what he’d been doing.
“I found something on the Web, too,” he said brightly. Another lie, but he couldn’t tell her the truth. “The town’s got a lot of history.”
Her jaw dropped. “You researched its history?”
Brendan flushed. “I didn’t
research
it. I just saw some stuff.”
“Like?”
He’d been hoping she’d ask. “Apaches used to live there before someone found silver in the mountains and chased them off. After that, it was all gunslingers and wild west. Like in the movies.”
His voice had grown wistful and a strange yearning formed in his chest. He could almost taste the air, as it must have been over a hundred years ago. He could almost see himself with a pistol strapped to his leg and a rifle to his saddle.
“The Apaches used the hot springs for sacred ceremonies. That kind of thing. The water’s gone now, though.”
“What do you mean it’s gone?”
He shrugged again. “I don’t know. Gone. There’s just a big dry hole there now.”
“How come?”
“I just said I don’t know.”
“Okay. Just asking.” Her eyes narrowed.
“Are you giving me shit because I didn’t read that far?” he countered, his voice sharp.
It stopped him for a moment. He never spoke to Analise that way.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked. “You’re acting weird.”
He swallowed, suddenly uneasy. “I just thought you’d be excited, is all.”
Analise reached over and squeezed hand. “You’re freaked out about the baby, aren’t you? It’s okay. Me, too. I’m scared to tell my mom. She’s going to have a meltdown . . .”
She kept talking but her voice faded as his thoughts returned to Diablo Springs. He could smell the dark lore, the sulfurous history, the hot violence. It’d been the kind of place where you’d either get screwed or killed, sometimes both. It fired his blood, imagining it.
“Did you hear me?”
Analise’s hurt tone snapped him out of his reverie.
“Everything’s going to be okay, babe,” he rushed to reassure her.
Apparently it was the right thing to say. She gave him her sweet smile and went back to looking out the window as they zigzagged into the mountains. Finally, they peaked and started down the other side into the basin where Diablo Springs squatted like a dirty smear on a pretty painting.
“It feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere,” Analise murmured, frowning.
Brendan shifted uncomfortably as doubt nudged through his anticipation. He’d been so excited to bring her here, but as they crossed the town’s border, a feeling of dread began to curdle in his stomach. He didn’t understand it.
He turned onto Main Street where one traffic light blinked yellow in all directions. The building fronts looked like they must have a century ago only now most of them had boarded up windows or FOR SALE signs on their doors. It looked desolate and ugly. It looked like the last place on earth he should have brought Analise Beck.
“Everything’s closed up,” Analise said, looking out the window. “It’s creepy.”
“I thought you were curious about where your mom came from,” he said defensively.
“Curious, yeah, but . . . I didn’t know you were going to bring me here. I thought we were going someplace nice, you know, like a hotel.”
Brendan swallowed hard. Of course she’d thought that. Only an idiot would think a surprise trip to a ghost town would make a sixteen-year-old happy. The big picture had eluded him again. Scowling, he clenched his hands around the steering wheel and kept driving.
* * *
Less than a quarter mile of open scrub and cactus stretched between the road and the place where the old springs had once flowed. A bridge and walkway used to lead from the Diablo Springs Hotel to the hot pools, and guests would make the short journey by foot. Brendan knew that decking had once surrounded the springs where bathers could sit and dangle their feet in the water.
Now the splintered railings poked up from the remnants like broken bones. It was all overrun, devoured by the hot sun and burning grit of the desert. As he pulled closer, he could see what was left of it, ruins around a black chasm.
Following the road to the huge hollow, he watched the horizon devour the last glow of sunlight. In the fresh dusk, he stopped and hopped out of the truck. Before he went around to Analise’s side, he took a deep breath of the seared air. Even the heat felt good.
Analise opened her door and Brendan hurried over to help her down. She was so small and fine boned; he couldn’t touch her without wanting to protect her. And now, with the baby coming, he had that much more to worry about.
He knew her mom thought he was too old for her. Too old with no future. He couldn’t blame her. He worked for a landscaper, which was a fancy way of saying he mowed other people’s lawns for a living. What mother wanted her superstar daughter attached to a man with dirt under his fingernails and grass stains on his clothes? Once they told Ms. Beck about the baby, she’d hate him. Actually, she’d just hate him more.
The air was thick and close, still a hundred degrees even at sunset. The low scrub crept down the surrounding mountains and right up to the sides of the dirt road. Beyond, a wild assortment of spiky and thorny desert plants sprawled out on the abandoned grounds, some blooming with wild pinks and corals. Not a blade of grass was in sight. The land was tough, barbed, dead inside. Abandoned and hard to love. He’d felt an instant bond with the place.