A Special Gift

by Alice Brown

  A Special Gift

  Vampires Among Us

  Book Two

  by Alice Brown

  © Copyright December 2013 JK Publishing, Inc.

  All cover art and logo © Copyright December 2013 by JK Publishing, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Kimberly Morgan

  Artwork by Jess Buffett

  Published by JK Publishing, Inc.

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales are entirely coincidental.

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  Dedication

  I owe a huge thank you to my husband and daughter for standing behind me. Thanks for not complaining and pitching in to help when laundry didn’t get done, dinner cooked, dishes washed, etc. Thank you so much for allowing me the time needed in writing and editing this book. I know it was a long one, and it has been a long road, but we did it!

  I also owe a couple of friends a big thank you for being my support system. Joy, Nancy, and Jessica, thank you so much. Your support, shoulder to cry on, guidance, and occasional kick in the rear is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

  Last, but certainly not least, a huge thank you to my editor. You took my dream and helped me make it into reality. Thank you! I could have never done it without you!

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  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 Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Epilogue

  The National Guard

  Books by Alice Brown

  Prologue

  Seven Years Ago…

  Her groom, Kevin, stood waiting for her at the front of the tent. Beside him, Mr. Atkins, and Kevin’s good friend, Davidrick, stood in silent support. Kevin’s father, Charles, would also be standing beside him, once he had completed the honor of escorting the bride down the aisle. Kevin’s best friend and coworker, Marshall, stood at the front of the tent. It had been transformed into a sanctuary, perfect for the ceremony that would bind Erica to Kevin forever. On the other side were Kevin’s three sisters: Jennifer, Kate, and Elizabeth.

  Today was her wedding day, the happiest day of her life. Two huge tents had been set up on the lawn of her soon-to-be-husband’s family home: one for the ceremony, the other for the reception. As she waited for the ceremony to begin, she took a moment to glance down at herself, smiling as her hand smoothed down the front of her wedding dress. She felt like Cinderella. Jennifer and she had spent many hours finding the one perfect gown, and they succeeded lavishly. Erica had picked out lavender bridesmaid dresses for Kate and Elizabeth, and had decided on a dark purple in the same design for Jennifer. It went well with her blonde hair. Even though she had decided on a sexy, strapless, tight fitting bodice for the bridesmaid's gowns, with silk ribbons lacing up the back of the dresses, she had chosen a much more conservative style for herself. A slight breeze blew through the opening, and she savored it. She was thankful the wedding was being held in the evening; otherwise, the long sleeves of her gown would have made her uncomfortably warm. She peered down at her hands. The sleeves of her gown ended in a V design coming down each hand with a small ring made of delicate lace at the end to go around the third finger of each hand. The dress itself was made of silk, with an overlay of thin lace drifting delicately across the floor behind her. Erica had never worn anything nearly as beautiful, or as expensive. She glanced up toward the front of the tent and caught Kevin staring unabashedly. His eyes told her he was ready to ditch the ceremony and haul her back upstairs to their bedroom. The love shining in his eyes made her gasp.

  Charles cleared his throat, as he adjusted his necktie. The frown on his face told Erica he was not comfortable in his formal clothes. He caught her eyeing him and gave her a quick smile of reassurance. “Are you ready, my dear?” he gently whispered.

  Although Erica’s stomach was full of butterflies, she had no reservations about her upcoming nuptials. She was marrying the man of her dreams, despite the fact he and his family were vampires. Considering her abusive ex-husband had also been a vampire, one would have thought Erica would have turned tail and run as fast as she could when she discovered she had been hiding from him in a house full of vampires. But Kevin and his family had shown her that not all vampires were evil, soulless creatures. No one who ran into any member of this family on the street would have guessed they were speaking to a vampire. This family and their supporting community blended in with the human society in every w
ay possible. Hence, a mixture of humans and vampires were sitting ahead of her, waiting to witness the upcoming event.

  She scanned the crowd of people before her as the traditional Wedding March started and realized she knew very few of those in attendance. Her new family was very wealthy and had many ties to their community, both human and vampire. Her soon-to-be mother-in-law, Rosetta, had taken care of the guest list, sending invitations to all the people whose feelings would have been hurt if they hadn’t been invited to Kevin O’Rourke’s wedding.

  Charles gave her arm a reassuring squeeze as he escorted her down the aisle. Erica shot him a slight smile as her eyes landed on her waiting husband-to-be. He looked stunningly beautiful in his black tuxedo, standing tall and proud with Marshall by his side. He smiled to her, and the love shining in his eyes had her knees wobbling.

  She glanced to the side as they continued approaching the waiting groom. Suddenly, her perfect day turned into an instant hell. Erica saw a face she recognized immediately, and felt her heart slam into her chest. No, that couldn’t be him! What in the world was he doing at her wedding? She hadn’t given a thought to this man for almost five years now!

  Sitting in the third row from the front, second seat in from the aisle was her ex-husband’s brother, Gary. As she glanced into his eyes, there was no joy. There was no smile on his face. In fact, if she had to name an emotion to fit what she saw, it would be hatred. Gary’s brother, Shawn, was dead, and judging by the look on his face, Erica was sure he blamed her.

  But it was Kevin and his vampire police force, the VCTF, who had brought Shawn down, along with the vampire judicial committee who had found him guilty of enough crimes to be punished by death. Erica wondered how much Gary knew about all that had happened, and how much he wanted to pin on her. She must have missed the remainder of her trip up the aisle as she suddenly realized she was being handed over to Kevin. She looked up into Kevin’s perplexed eyes, and noted Charles continued standing next to her, effectively blocking her view of the audience behind him.

  “Baby, what is wrong?” Kevin whispered as he gently reached out to run a finger down her worried cheek. Leave it to Kevin to know instantly when something was off.

  “Shawn’s brother is here, third row, second seat,” Erica quickly whispered, hoping to keep their conversation private in the midst of a room half full of vampires.

  Charles glanced back slightly, and then gave her a reassuring smile. “No worries, all is well,” he stated quietly, and turned to take his place behind his son.

  Erica gave her soon-to-be father an incredulous look. No worries, all is well? Who was he trying to kid? Marshall cleared his throat discreetly to bring her attention back to him and her groom. She glanced over to her husband’s second-in-command and good friend. He lifted an eyebrow as if questioning her if she were ready for him to perform the ceremony. She took a deep breath and smiled. She would learn what Gary was up to after the ceremony. As for now, she had the man of her dreams waiting patiently to make her his wife. She needed to concentrate on the ceremony, and let everything else go until later.

  Before she knew it, Marshall was announcing them ‘husband and wife,’ and Kevin swooped down to give her a heart-stopping kiss. When he broke off a moment later, he whispered, “I love you, Mrs. O’Rourke,” and the love shining through his eyes made her tremble slightly.

  He grabbed her hand, and they took off down the aisle. Marshall quickly announced the couple would be greeting everyone in the reception tent. As soon as Kevin had Erica clear of the ceremony tent, he stopped and wrapped his arms around her waist. He was just getting ready to kiss her again when they heard Charles fast approaching. “Erica, I think there has been a misunderstanding. That man you were referring to is your biological father.”

  And just like that, Erica suddenly felt her world turn upside down. She heard herself whisper, “Oh, my God, no, it can’t be!” Her mind started spinning, unable to process everything it was trying to sort out into reasonable and explainable compartments. She leaned into Kevin’s body for support. No, there was no way this was happening on her wedding day! She glanced over Charles’s shoulder to see the man in question quickly heading their way. She wanted to throw up.

  Her mind flooded from a scene in the past. There she was, standing as the bride, only with a different groom. Shawn had introduced her to this man right after the ceremony as his brother, Gary. She well remembered the man’s wicked grin as he looked down at her and sneered, “I look forward to getting to know you well.” The way he said it had sent a warning shiver up her spine, she just didn’t understand why at the time.

  When they had reached their room that night, Gary was already waiting for them. Erica thought this to be a little odd, but said nothing. She was young and naïve then, and didn’t want to upset her new husband. As she overheard the very heated conversation between the two men, though, it soon became apparent that unbeknownst to her, they had worked out a deal and planned to share her. But Shawn had suddenly become possessive and was backing out of the deal. Erica had escaped into the bathroom during the heated exchange, and she cracked open the door just in time to watch Shawn kick his brother out, stating he was keeping Erica for himself. Confused and scared, she wondered just what she had gotten herself into. Unfortunately, that night was only the beginning of her nightmare marriage to Shawn.

  Now, she was being told this man was also her biological father? Her stomach rolled, and if there had been anything in it at all, she would have lost it. Kevin brought her body up against his, keeping his arms tightly around her. “Erica, love, take deep breaths. There you go. Just keep breathing slow and deep,” he instructed quietly.

  Erica could only shake her head. She was physically incapable of speaking at the moment. As shame and guilt swept over her, she couldn’t bring herself to look up at her new husband. In trying to overcome her past, and having assumed that it was all behind her with the death of her ex-husband, she had seen no reason to share any of this information with him.

  “Wait a minute,” Kevin exclaimed a bit loudly, his voice booming out into the silence. The pieces of the puzzle had just come together for him. “Are you telling me that Shawn’s brother and Erica’s biological father are one and the same?”

  “Indeed I am,” Gary answered as he approached. He squinted, studying Erica for a moment. “Oh, don’t worry, stupid girl, Shawn was not my biological brother. We became blood brothers after we were turned.”

  “Erica, I researched this man’s past. He is the one who attacked your mother, but I found no evidence of him having any biological siblings. Many times our kind will form strong bonds with others and consider them siblings, even going as far as sharing blood to strengthen the bond. However, he is of no blood relation to Shawn,” Charles quickly assured her. It was obvious he had been as surprised as everyone else to realize Erica already knew Gary; it hadn’t taken much of a guess to figure out there was much more to this story than he knew.

  Erica gulped in a lungful of air and then turned to face the man who seemed determined to ruin her wedding day. “Why are you here? What do you want?” she demanded, clinging tightly to her husband for support.

  Gary glared over to her, and then flashed an evil grin. “You haven’t figured that out yet? Your new father-in-law was kind enough to give me amnesty for the unfortunate incident with your mother. I can only assume you were too stupid to tell him or your new husband anything else.”

  “What possible reason would I have?” Erica shot back at him. He was part of her horrible past, a past she had been desperately trying to forget about so she could move on with her life. Why did it seem to keep rearing its ugly head and haunting her? “Besides,” she continued, “I just realized less than thirty minutes ago who exactly you were, so what exactly was I supposed to tell them?” she countered.

  Gary sneered over to her. “You are the reason Shawn is dead, you stupid cow! I don’t care if I did donate my DNA to help conceive you in my prior life; you are now no
thing more than a disposable human!” He was hissing through his teeth, and Erica unconsciously shrank from his words.

  A quick glance around assured her that most of the wedding guests were safely tucked inside the reception tent, very few left outside to witness the altercation. Of the few remaining outside, Erica quickly recognized the VCTF members and her husband’s family, they were now forming a wide circle around the scene. Erica felt assured that one word out of Kevin’s mouth and his entire VCTF team would descend upon Gary immediately. It was then Erica noticed her elderly friend, Mr. Atkins, quickly heading their way.

  As Mr. Atkins joined the small group, Gary continued to spew vehemently hateful words. “You allowed your little society to bring death to Shawn, and I will avenge his death! It is my duty as his blood brother!” He took a quick step toward her, putting himself directly in front of her. A long, bony finger pointed at her chest. “A war is coming. Trust me, you little bitch, your society’s days are numbered.” Turning his body slightly, his attention now included everyone around him. “You all think you are better than the rest of us, and therefore have some sort of authority to deliver law. Ha! Nobody tells our kind what we can or cannot do.”