Contents
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
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Didn't Sea it Coming
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Also by Andie M. Long
About the Author
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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 the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Copyright (c) 2018 by Andrea Long
All rights reserved.
Cover by J.C. Clarke. Photo from Adobe Stock.
To Harry and Meghan
For showing us real life fairy tales happen.
Ebony
Friday 9 February 2018
I always saw my visions as a curse… until I lost them.
Last week I’d been in my clothing boutique in Withernsea as usual, unpacking new stock, and then the next minute everything had gone blank. My heart had lurched when I had realised my visions were gone, and I’d dashed out of the shop, crashing into Jax’s coffee shop next door. I thought the lack of visions meant my death was imminent, but thankfully my friend Frankie had assured me that was a myth.
After a few days of resting at my friend Shelly’s house where I felt like I was on holiday, I started to miss them. My thoughts were the company I had when alone, the glimpse into the exciting times ahead for people, the feeling of usefulness when I could warn of danger. Without them I was… redundant.
Finally it transpired that my vodka had been tampered with (a few voddies helped with the thoughts when they became too much, and helped prevent migraines), and my visions would return fully within two weeks.
It had been such a relief to discover that the blame lay with an errant warlock who was trying to prevent me warning my friends about the wicked plans of a rogue werewolf. Luckily he’d been thwarted and now while I waited for my visions to return, I was going to witness one of my predictions coming true. My friend Kim was marrying a werewolf called Darius. God, it had taken a while for it to sink in to the stubborn woman’s head…
Of course my visions would decide to return during the wedding reception. I guess it could have been worse but one minute I was dancing to ‘Celebration’ and the next the pain hit. I dragged myself over to the nearest empty seat and clutching the nearby table top I lowered myself onto the chair.
“Someone’s had a bit too much champagne.” I heard one of the new wolves of the Hogsthorpe Pack say.
“No. That’s Ebony.” The other replied. “Watch her eyes and face. It’s creepy as fuck.”
I knew what they’d be watching. My eyes would roll until the whites were exposed and my face would take on a grey pallor. I’d heard all the insults many times before: creepy, crazy, alcoholic.
The black haze came over and the vision played in my mind like I was watching on a cinema screen.
I let it play out and then I screamed.
Vision over, I opened my eyes to see that the new big burly werewolf was holding onto the other pack member for dear life. Idiot. But I had bigger problems. I ran outside to find Kim. Running through the edge of the woods, I entered the canopy of trees and ran into the centre where I spotted her with her new husband Darius. Thank God they weren’t in the middle of sex because this couldn’t wait.
“They’re back. Kim, the voices are back.” I yelled.
I caught the bitch’s eye roll as she told me I hadn’t needed to rush back to tell her that. No, ‘thanks so much for my handsome new husband, how can I now help you?’ She was too busy thinking of his dick, and no that hadn’t come to me in a vision, she was looking at his crotch like a dog sat by a Sunday Roast.
“But you were in my vision…” I needed her help this time around.
Darius looked worried, not surprising since his sister had recently had to kill two rogue werewolves. “What did you see, Ebony?”
“I saw a wedding dress. I was wearing it, and I was standing in a Church. Kim was my bridesmaid.”
Darius’ expression was a mix of relief and confusion.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to see your own future?” Kim queried.
“That’s just it, Kim. I could see I was getting married but I couldn’t see the groom! I don’t even have a boyfriend, so who the hell am I marrying?” I screamed again. It seemed I was having a bit of a panic attack when it came to my own future. Upcoming horror visions gave me migraines, my own wedding made me hysterical. I needed a little perspective, and more alcohol.
“Well, I don’t know, but I do know who I just married, Chica, so you go get a vodka and I’ll go get my man.” Kim winked. “We’ll sort it, Ebs.”
And with that she abandoned me in the middle of the woodland. If I had a future vision showing she was going to give birth to eleven-pound twins I would delight in telling her in great detail.
I walked back towards the hall where the party was taking place and took a seat on the steps outside while I tried to recollect my vision. But it was fading. With other people’s visions I could recall every detail, but my own was disappearing like a dream does when you awaken. Maybe it was because my visions were only just returning, or maybe it was because they were mine.
Then slam, another pain shot into my forehead like a brain freeze.
Shelley was having the baby! I had to go back to the farm.
I ran to the bar where I ordered a double vodka to ease the throbbing in my temples. Then I ordered a taxi.
“Goodacres Farm please, and can you step on it? It’s an emergency.”
And it was, but not for the reasons a normal person might think…
Shelley
You know how they say God doesn’t give you more than you can handle in life?
Well, fuck that, and if anyone says it to my face, then ‘do no harm’ rules or not, I’ll throat punch them and magic their mouth shut. Just when I think things can’t get any worse, my pregnancy gets accelerated during my turning into a vampire and a couple of days later I go into labour at my best friend’s wedding.
One minute I was moaning about having to wear the equivalent of a marquee—I mean my dress looked big enough to hold the wedding reception underneath it, glamorous I was not—the next my best friend ran in front of us in wolf mode having become a were and then she forgot herself and changed back, appearing starkers in front of everyone. It was hilarious. Well, until I thought I’d peed myself and then she got the last laugh by pointing out my waters had broken.
Then do you know what she did?
Left me to go boink her new husband.
Yes, her mother-in-law came to help, and yes my own husband was there, but what sort of bestie did that? Then again, her husband had also had a period of nakedness until someone passed him a robe and, well, I could see why she was distracted. Plus, she just escaped
having to marry a madman.
Still. I was having a baby.
“Oh my God, I’m having a baby.”
“Not now!” Yelled Theo. “It’s not coming now is it? Only I’m waiting for the taxi to come to take us home.”
I’d decided on a home birth. I had a midwife at the Caves where I’d been turned who would come to make sure everything went to plan.
“Theo.” I shouted at my husband who was running around the wedding reception like some kind of demented rooster, his head darting about as he questioned other guests. I watched as he collected unused napkins from every table.
“Theo!” I yelled louder, even though I knew with his vampire hearing he could hear me anyway.
He ran over.
“What are you doing?”
He pushed his dark hair back off his face. “They say towels and hot water don’t they? There aren’t any towels but there are napkins. I can grab a bottle of Evian too.”
Staring at him I rolled my eyes. “I’m not giving birth to a frikkin Barbie Doll. There’s a large melon coming out. The napkins will only be any use for you to wipe your sweating brow on if you don’t get a grip. Now, Theo. What is wrong with the fact you have ordered a taxi?”
He paused for a moment. “Erm, early hours of Saturday morning it costs double and there is a lack of available cabs?”
I went to grab my temple in frustration from his idiocy, but a contraction chose that moment to decide to sweep over me.
“Holy fucking Christ.” I took some deep breaths.
For crying out loud. I’d only had my last period pains a couple of months ago, then the pain of the turning this week, and now I was having these agonising labour pains.
I felt a hand stroking down my arm. “Breathe, darling. It’s okay. Just a little pain.”
God I would put laxatives in his O-neg when I’d had this child.
“Theo. I’ll see you at home. You take the cab if you want. Idiot.” I whizzed off. How do you forget you can travel at high speed? That was the first indication of the escalating panic levels of one Theodore Robert Landry.
“You alright, lovey?” My mother-in-law followed me into the living room.
“I’m in labour, Mary. Just need to phone Janice at the clinic and get her here.”
“Oh, I’ll do that for you. You get laid down on the sofa. Oooh, how exciting, my first grandchild is coming.” Mary went to pick up the phone and her hand passed through it. “Ooops, I think I expended too much energy watching Magic Mike this afternoon on DVD. I was trying to perfect that ‘Pony’ dance like his soon-to-be-ex-wife did. You know, just in case Channing’s looking for a new woman.”
Mary was a ghost, having been drained by Theo when he was first turned. It was a subject we tried not to dwell on. We therefore had a ghost perpetually in her late-thirties living with us and she’d just begun realising the freedoms that came from not living in the early 1900’s.
“Go rest, Mary, because I will need you later.”
“To care for the baby? I’m great with them. I was a natural with Theo you know? One reason my ghost heart was heavy when I realised he’d killed me.”
Theo whizzed in at that moment, banging his head on the door frame, then laying sprawled across the living room floor. “Yes, to care for the baby.” I replied. “The one right there.” I kicked him with my shoe and he groaned so I figured he was still conscious.
Picking up my mobile phone I called the clinic, and once I knew Janice was on her way, I sat back, resting on the sofa for a while and breathing through a few contractions. Theo sat at the side of me and as I noted the look of worry on his face, my mood just calmed. The guy loved me, he loved our baby, and he wanted us to be safe and well.
I took his hand in mine. “I love you, Theo Landry.”
“I love you too, Mrs Theo Landry.”
“What have I told you about that old-fashioned crap?”
“I’m 127. Bite me.”
That made me giggle. Looked like I was teaching Theo a thing or two about sass.
“Sorry, I’ve been moody. I’m just a little scared. I’ve not had a baby before.”
“Don’t worry, I’m used to your moods.” He patted my arm. “And this is about my hundredth baby.”
I shot back away from him. “What the what now?”
“This.” He pointed at my stomach. “I think.” He nodded his head. “Yes, I’m almost positive this is about the hundredth birth.”
My jaw went tight. “You. Have. Had. One. Hundred. Children?”
“Well, not me personally. The mother’s obviously. Oh you do crack me up.”
“And where are all these offspring?” I was going to drain the bastard in a minute. Not once had he mentioned previously having children.
“Offspring?” Theo’s brow creased. “They’re not my offspring. They are the babies I delivered while I was an Obstetrician in the 1960’s.”
I took a deep breath.
“Of course medicine was a lot different then, but still I shall offer my expertise to Janice.”
As my next contraction hit I used my vampire strength to its full capacity to crush his fingers hard. “Or maybe you could just be quiet and let me get on with the childbirth, my loving husband?”
“Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow.” He extracted his fingers as I let go. “I thought you were sorry for being mean?”
Tilting my head, I smiled at him, possibly reminiscent of the Joker in Batman. “I’m trying, but it’s the hormones.”
The doorbell rang. “Ah, I shall go get that. It will be the midwife.” He rushed off, still stretching out his recently crushed fingers.
Janice poked her head around the door. She was a small woman with a dark-brown bob, and she wore glasses. “How are you doing there?”
Theo walked past her and sat back down beside me on the sofa. “Well, my head is hurting from hitting the door frame earlier, and my fingers are hurting from where Shelley crushed them, but other than that, I’m doing okay.”
“She meant me, douche canoe.” I yelled as yet another contraction hit.
Janice smiled at me with a bemused look. “Gotta love the husbands. Now, don’t worry, Theo, we’re a team and we’re going to get that baby out safely. How far apart are the contractions, Shelley?”
“Every three minutes.”
“Right, let’s get you upstairs onto the bed and get everything prepared. You doing this without pain relief?”
“Well, that was the plan, but I might yet throw him out.” I glared at my husband.
“She’s going to use magic just before the birth to assist our daughter on her way. Her mother helped her to construct a spell.”
“Oh yes, we have that on the birth plan. Okay, Theo, why don’t you get your wife a glass of water? I’ll take a tea, and then you get whatever you need.”
“Common sense.” I mumbled under my breath.
“I can hear you.” Theo said. “Excuse me, Janice. Could I have a little word with you outside?”
She looked at me, cocking an eyebrow, and then turned to Theo. “Sure, sweetheart. Only a minute though, I need to concentrate on your wife. Shelley, can you change into this gown for me while we’re gone?”
“Sure.” I said as she followed him outside.
Theo took care to make sure I couldn’t hear despite my vampire hearing. It was a shame for him that he appeared to have forgotten I was part-witch. I made a hand swipe motion and a vision of Theo talking to the midwife appeared in front of me.
“Could you please phone an exorcist? I have the means to pay for one to travel here expeditiously.”
Janice leaned in closer to him. “You’ve lost me, Theo. Why do we need an exorcist?”
He gestured to the room. “Well, clearly, Shelley has been possessed. We were out at a wedding when she went into labour. I didn’t know all of the guests. One of them must have been an evil entity as Shelley has most definitely been taken over by something malevolent. I was an obstetrician for a while and never did I come across
such evil.”
“Your wife is acting perfectly normal for someone in childbirth.”
His eyes widened.
“She is?”
“Yes, so shall we get back up to her before she begins to give birth without us and then you’ll really know what evil looks like.” She placed a hand on his arm. “Stay calm, focus on your wife and baby, and soon this will all be over and you’ll have your baby girl.”
“And then my wife will be back to her nicer self.”
“With sleep deprivation and sore nipples?” Janice cackled with laughter. “Oh, Theo. You’ve a lot to learn for someone so old.”
I wiped the vision away and quickly changed into my gown before stroking at my stomach. “Hey there, baby girl. Not long now and you’re gonna be here.”
Then an almighty wave of pain spliced across my stomach. I felt like I was being sliced in two. My breath came in short gasps and I knew there wasn’t much further to go. As the pain receded, I said a few magic enchantments. A haze came over the bottom half of my body and when the next pain came, it was considerably lessened.
I laid back, pulled my knees up and pushed.
“Oh my God, she’s crowning.” Janice rushed back to my side. “Theo. Business end.”
I closed my eyes and pushed once more.
“Waaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.”
My daughter was checked quickly and then placed into my arms.
“Theo. Will you get that little baby hat from the top drawer? I don’t want her to lose any heat from her head.”
Theo brought the cute little hat over and placed it on our daughter’s head. He reached down and kissed my forehead and then ran a finger over our baby girl’s cheek.
Here for the Seer (Supernatural Dating Agency Book 4) Page 1