CONTENTS
Copyright
Dedication
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
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
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Published by Katie Epstein in 2018
Death Be Charmed (The Terra Vane Series) Copyright © 2018 by Katie Epstein
Katie Epstein has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988
The novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner.
Cover Design by Yocla Designs
Edited by Fair Crack of the Whip Proofreading & Editing Services
ISBN 978-0-9956252-6-6
To my husband Gavin,
Because he charmed me from the beginning.
CHAPTER ONE
THE HOLOGRAM POD in our boss’s office projected images that hovered for a few seconds before changing to the next. They were being repeated on a loop while my wolf shifter partner, Kaleb, and I made notes. We had case files spread around us that we had been rifling through for the past few hours. My hand ached, my back felt stiff, and my head hurt.
“Twelve escaped prisoners,” I said as I threw my pen down in frustration. “Where the hell do we begin?”
Kaleb looked up from his papers and leaned back in his chair. He stretched his arms high and let out an exaggerated yawn.
“Have you read through all the case files now?” he asked me.
“High level. I’ve got the gist. I’ll dig deeper once we select who we’re going after first.”
“I have a suggestion. But only if you promise not to snap my head off.”
“I won’t snap your head off.”
“Promise me? I know how it annoys you when you’re tied to a desk.”
“Fine.” I rolled my eyes and then crossed my fingers, keeping them out of sight. “I promise.”
“Alright,” he said with a twinkle in his blue eyes. His dark blond hair fell loosely around his handsome face, features that I had become semi-immune to over the years. He grinned before saying, “The vampire. We should go after him first.”
“Why the vamp?” I asked, trying to keep any form of snappishness out of my voice. Vampires were near the bottom of my list of Favorite Species of Portiside. I may have a good friend as one, but still …
“Why not? Many of these perpetrators are loners. And the others seem to have destroyed any form of alliance with their packs, clans or families. But the vampire …”
“You think he’s fled back to Darkwood?”
“I would say it’s a place to start. Unlike with the others.”
Flipping through the file on the vampire, I glanced over his details once more. “Romeo Lovejoy. Nice name.”
“And fitting. According to his background file he likes the ladies.”
“Yeah,” I murmured, half-listening to him while I read the file in front of me. “He likes them a little too much. According to this, they put him in prison because he decided to go on a rampage. He reaped vengeance on another vampire who broke his heart by going on a killing spree. He raped and murdered several women who looked like her.”
“A serial killing vamp. May as well jump in at the deep end.”
A sigh escaped my lips as I glanced at the images still popping up on the pod. “They’re all classified as the deep end. A wolf shifter assassin, a corrupt and murderous elf lord, a soul sucking demon—and that’s not counting the incubus who escaped. This is madness.”
“Only as mad as the case we recently solved,” Kaleb reminded me, and I allowed my head to drop into my hands.
“Yeah, I guess. And the case and the prison break have to be linked if we think the Consilium have some involvement. But that stays between us for now.”
The recent case of a serial killing wendigo had spiraled into something a lot more corrupt, and now we were suffering for it. Having discovered that the wendigo wasn’t the only creature to have escaped the Territorial Shifter Hold, we’d followed the trail to an illegal drug and a corrupt Ground Patrol force. The cheetah shifter club owner who’d been behind it all had let slip that someone higher up the food chain was involved when he’d kidnapped me. And the illegal Earthside weapons and drug he’d had access to hinted toward the same said club owner being linked to the Consilium. That meant something bigger, and potentially more devastating, was going on.
The Senates who made up the Consilium were responsible for governing our world—a world that was located on the other side of a portal connected to Earth (known as Earthside over here). They helped rule the different species who had taken to residing here over time.
They’d also been the ones to red flag the results of the drug we’d discovered during our last case. At first, we thought they’d red flagged them to avoid public panic in regards to both the wendigo and rogue shifters having escaped from the highly secure Territorial Shifter Hold. But that hadn’t been the case.
The Shifter Hold was a place where shifters, who had been unable to fully control their animal, were sent to live out their lives. It was a blended ecosystem of jungle and forestry to accommodate the shifters who had been frozen between the state of animal and human. Livestock was sent in there for them to hunt and eat. And, sometimes, a prisoner from Portiside Prison who had been given a death sentence would also be released there. But the escape from the Hold wasn’t our biggest problem right now. In fact, it had been a distraction for a much bigger coup. A break out from Portiside Prison.
Now we had twelve escaped prisoners on the loose. And it looked like they’d been gone for a while if the timeline of the rogue shifter escape was anything to go by.
“The reptile shifter …” said Kaleb as his chair creaked beneath his weight. His muscled body showed no mercy on its small frame.
“What about him?”
“Torroro of the Dark Hills. Part of the Dark Hill clan who live near Giant Pass in the mountains. He’s another option, but I don’t think he’ll be back with his family.”
“How come?”
“Check your notes. They’re the ones who put him in prison.”
Shifting through the papers, I found the notes I’d made on Torroro. All I’d scribbled was ‘Cannibal. Uncontrollable. Failed last review.’ Detailed, I know, but paperwor
k wasn’t my strong suit. I reached over for his file and began reading that instead.
“He couldn’t control himself,” I said, scanning the information. “They claim he isn’t the usual rogue shifter because he hasn’t frozen mid-shift like rogues usually do. The reptilian half of him dominates his mind and body, and he refuses—or doesn’t know how—to shift back into human shape. They put him in there for his own good?”
“And for the good of the people he was killing,” Kaleb said with understanding. “It’s always hard to think ill of a rogue because they’re only following their natural instincts. They don’t know any better, hence why they get stuck in the Territorial Shifter Hold to live out their lives.”
“But Torroro didn’t get put into the Shifter Hold. He was sent to the prison.”
“If you read on, it states they did so because they wanted to enroll him into the Evolver Program for study. They wanted to try and understand why he refused to shift and embrace his human half. His family thought him to have a disability, where he was immature and his mind hadn’t developed fully. They thought it best to confirm that through the Evolver Program.”
Evolvers were akin to scientists on Earthside. The labs where my stepdad and roommate, Rosie, worked hired many of them. But other Evolvers elected to work for the prison system, helping captured criminals to reform.
I wasn’t sure how any of the reform programs worked, but if it made our city a safer place then I wasn’t about to argue.
The noise of shuffling papers echoed around the room. I flicked through the file to get to the reform section. “It looks like the Evolvers at the prison were beginning to agree with the family,” I told him after a brief silence. “Torroro exhibited a lot of child-like behavior. He didn’t understand that what he was doing was wrong. It says here that he claims he was only looking for food, and he didn’t want to hurt anyone.” I looked up at Kaleb. “That doesn’t sound like someone who would play a key role in a prison break.”
“The others could have taken him for some other reason?” Kaleb suggested, shrugging.
“But why? He would be more of a hindrance than a help if he doesn’t understand things at a more mature or complex level. They would need stealth and a lot of planning to stay hidden after escaping. Taking Torroro is a risk. Why bother with him?”
“Who knows?” Kaleb sighed as he stood up and grabbed our empty mugs. “It’s going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack with every one of these. That’s why I’m leaning toward the vampire. They look after their own, and it’s rare for one of them to end up in prison. Usually, they see to any wrong doing their own way, keeping it under the radar.”
“I guess it can’t hurt to go to Darkwood and ruffle a few feathers.” I suppressed a yawn. “Go grab us a coffee and I’ll read through his file in detail to see if we can come up with some form of plan of attack.” I reached for Romeo’s file when a thought struck me. “Do you think Immigration Control have been notified?”
“You think they might try and head for the portals to access Earthside?”
“When dealing with twelve, very dangerous criminals who are looking for an escape, we need to approach all angles. It’s something to consider.”
The thought of any one of those prisoners breaking through into Seattle made me shudder. That’s where one of the main portals to Earthside led to. Humans weren’t equipped to deal with such an evil, the kind that could either raise the dead, or get off on sexual energy—even though I, myself, was a human. But I’d seen such horrors before having lived over on Portiside ever since I was a teenager. My Enforcer Field Agent status and psychic gifts helped in that regard.
“Cole will have that covered, I’m sure,” Kaleb told me. “Speaking of which …”
Shifter hearing was an amazing thing since two seconds later a hard knock came on the office door. Two more seconds later, Cole, the Enforcer Chief of the agency and our boss, came striding in.
“Update,” Cole grunted.
Kaleb grinned at his older brother and said, “I’m on the coffee run. Terra will fill you in.”
Kaleb left the room before Cole could stop him. It wasn’t fair that Kaleb had the family tie on his side to stretch the boundaries a little.
Wolf shifters had held the Enforcer Chief chair for as long as this world could remember. With Cole the Beta of his clan, he was patiently waiting out for the Alpha spot by looking after the agency. His younger brother, Kaleb, reaped the benefit of partnering up with me: the only human on the force.
With the door to the office now closed, the room felt ten times smaller. Cole was an imposing figure, and he was staring at me with his arms crossed over his chest. I hated that my mind, body and soul all reacted to him from the moment he entered the room.
Memories of the short-lived, yet passionate kiss, we’d shared earlier hit me from nowhere. So did the confession that he liked me in a way that was more than a boss should feel for his subordinate. Only this morning he’d backed me into a corner and finally I’d confessed that I liked him also. Well, not in so many words, but the kiss sort of hinted at it.
Kaleb’s timing at that point had been perfect as he’d chosen that moment to knock on the door. But Cole hadn’t been too impressed by the disruption—and neither had I if I had to admit it. However, it had broken the spell between us.
Cole wasn’t only my boss. As the next in line for the Alpha position he already had a suitor picked out for him, and he was too ambitious a man to step away from all that for the likes of me. It didn’t stop me from wanting to kiss his face off again as he watched me now though. Instead, I scrunched my fists tight and readied myself to give him an update.
“Kaleb wants us to start with the vampire angle. We’re going to begin by questioning a few people in Darkwood. We’ll go from there.”
“You won’t be able to question the vampires without an official request order,” he told me. “And that will need to be approved by both the Consilium and the vampires. It will take a few days, if the vampires play ball. Longer if they don’t.”
“I thought we had the jurisdiction to question anyone?” I asked furrowing my brow. Politics and I didn’t get on well, even if it had been the manipulation of shifter politics that had allowed Cole to force a killer off my back recently.
“Yes, you have the jurisdiction. But some things aren’t done if we want to keep the different species who live here happy. You go storming in there and asking questions and they’ll clam up. They’ll tell you nothing. There is a right way to do things.”
“You mean the pompous, egotistical, above-the-law kind of way?” I couldn’t help but retort. My mouth had a funny way of spurting out exactly what my head whispered to it. It had no loyalty to me at all. None.
“I mean the way that your boss tells you to do it, for once.” He came closer to me, crouching down next to where I was sitting. He held my gaze with his own, and the tilt to his upper lip meant he knew exactly what his closeness did to me.
Cole was so different to his brother, with his shorter hair and serious demeanor. He very rarely smiled, and if he did, it was usually right before he slapped a warning on my wrist. But earlier this morning, his veneer had changed. He had softened. And the contrast had me in a spin.
“Are you going to kiss me again?” I scoffed, hoping it would embarrass him enough to back off. But it didn’t. In fact it had the complete opposite effect.
“Are you asking me to?” he asked in a lowered voice that held a hint of honey glaze. His eyes flickered to my lips as he leaned in closer, and I gulped. I actually gulped.
“I’m not asking you to do anything.”
“That’s a shame,” he whispered. “Your kiss haunts me still.”
My body responded by growing hotter than spiced mojito and chilli fries. Not that you could get them over here in Portiside, but I have them when I go back over to Earthside sometimes. They’re hot all on their very own depending on where you go. But put them together, and boom. Body sweats. Damn it.
My head had decided to go off on a tangent causing me to lose complete control of the situation.
Cole put his hand on mine, and both of us stared at the contact. He played with my fingers as we both tried to test the boundaries between us. How could such a small action create such a great reaction in me? But it did. And I found myself wanting him too much for my liking. My body needed to get a grip and start siding with my heart. Going via this road meant taking a ride down Heartbreak Lane. And not only that, it could put my job at risk. It wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t.
Or was it?
Time seemed to slow down as Cole’s touch lingered. But then, before we knew it, Kaleb was opening the door and breaking the spell yet again. Cole yanked his hand away from mine as if it was on fire and guilt washed over me.
It wasn’t that long ago that Kaleb had confessed his belief that his brother was in love with me—even though I’d told him it was a ridiculous notion. But he’d also warned me, telling me that Cole would break my heart if I decided to go there. But I wouldn’t. I wasn’t. Oh, screw it! I needed coffee.
“Not interrupting anything, am I?” Kaleb asked as Cole stood up to full height.
“You’re interrupting nothing,” I said as I stood up to take the coffee from him. He eyed me suspiciously before sitting down, and I decided it was safer to study the brown liquid in my cup rather than the two shifters dominating the room. The coffee was very interesting to watch. The curious shapes formed as the coffee and milk blended together: it was very pretty. Very, very pret—
“I’ll raise the request order,” Cole said, his tone a lot sterner than it was just moments before. “You don’t move on the vampire prisoner until it comes through. Got it?”
“What request?” Kaleb asked.
I ignored him and replied to Cole, “Got it.”
Our Enforcer Chief left the room and Kaleb looked at me for an explanation.
“Politics,” was all I said with a shrug before I drowned my sorrows in caffeine. If only Cole was as easy to side shift.
CHAPTER TWO
Death be Charmed Page 1