Poison and Potions: a Limited Edition Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by Erin Hayes

  "Anything new?" I asked.

  Hunter swallowed the bite in his mouth and brushed his white powdered fingers against his Levi's. "The first part of the night was pretty active as they came and went, but they've slowly been returning. By my count, there's still two out there with four already inside."

  I surveyed the floor. It looked like they had all the gear and weapons we would need. "We'll wait a little closer to dawn then we'll go in. "

  I dropped into a chair and kept an eye on the small home. While I waited, I flipped a wooden stake into the air and caught it again. I continued this for some time, watching and thinking of Moira and how great it would be if she were here.

  Soon, darkness turned to gray. The last two vampires had returned nearly thirty minutes ago. This was our chance.

  "It's time," I said and stood.

  I tucked two wooden stakes into each sleeve and grabbed a crossbow, while the other two holstered electric guns. I slid my earpiece into place and ran through a couple of sound checks with the others to make sure equipment worked properly. There was no room for error in these missions.

  "I'll go in first," I said. "Alexa and Will, you two go through the back. Hunter, you're with me."

  After making sure the streets were clear, I motioned for the other two to advance. I waited a few seconds before it was Hunter's and my turn to go.

  The air was warmer than usual for this time of day, sunrise only minutes away. I hope that didn't mean we would have a hot summer. The weather could make everything so much worse. Already I was sweating through the thick material of my shirt meant to protect me from sharp vampire claws.

  I reached the front porch and crept up the stairs mindful of each step. The crossbow felt good in my hands. I couldn't hear them, but by now, the vampires had most likely sensed us and were waiting inside to tear us to shreds.

  I stopped at the door, tempted to just kick it down and start firing, but I remembered Henry's orders. He always insisted we gave vampires a chance.

  So I called out like an idiot, "We know you're in there. We don't want to hurt you, but we have to make sure you're not a threat to mankind. So if you are one of the good ones, drop to the floor and stay out of our way. Otherwise, we will dust you."

  There was a scuffling sound inside followed by a hard thump. I kicked the door down and managed to pull the trigger on my crossbow when I was knocked to the side. The bow fell from my hands and slid across the floor.

  Hunter jumped over my legs and fired his electric gun. A vampire collapsed to the ground, his entire body shaking uncontrollably. Hunter would finish him off.

  I moved to get up, but a vampire landed on top of me and lunged for my throat with his sharp claws. I lifted my forearm blocking the attack, while I jerked the stake out from my sleeve. I stabbed into his ribs but just missed his heart. He howled and rolled off me.

  Scrambling to my feet, I swung at him again, gripping the stake tightly. He ducked and shoved me into the wall faster than I anticipated. The force of it knocked the weapon from my hand. The vamp leapt at me and pinned me to the wall with his meaty hand around my throat while I swung a hard knee into his side.

  Behind me, Hunter had killed the first vampire and was fighting another. Alexa and Will had come in from the back and had fired at two vampires who lay shaking at their feet.

  There should be six.

  I scanned the room looking for the last one as my throat constricted even tighter. The vampire gripping my neck opened his mouth revealing long, shiny pointer teeth. I quickly removed the wooden dagger from my other sleeve even as stars exploded in my vision. Just as he struck forward to pierce the vein in my neck, I drove the wooden stake upward hitting just to the left of his sternum. I pressed hard until it reached his heart. He burst into ashes, and I fell forward into the cloud. I coughed and wiped at my face and eyes.

  "Look out!" a familiar voice called.

  I turned around just in time to catch a vampire mid-air with a knife in his hand pointed my direction. I sucked in a breath and stumbled back, knowing I wasn't going to be fast enough.

  But the vampire never met his mark.

  A long blade slashed through the air severing his head from his body. When the ashes cleared, Moira stood tall, grinning with her sunshine eyes.

  Chapter Five

  I didn't have time to address Moira at the moment because Will was on the ground with a vampire's fangs in his neck. Where had that one come from? I lunged for the devil and tackled him in the gut, keeping a tight grip on my only stake. We rolled across the hard floor, and I cried out when his claws dug into my side.

  With the stake in my hand, I jabbed it into his chest but missed his heart. He roared a deep and throaty cry. I pulled it out and stabbed again, still missing. I couldn't get a good angle on account of being beneath him. He cocked his fist back to punch me.

  I tried one last time, this time aiming for his head. I rammed the wooden point of the stake into his ear. It didn't slide in as easy as it had into his chest, but it was enough to stun him.

  As he fell over, I attempted to remove the stake from his head but it was stuck in his skull good. That's when I remembered my crossbow. I scrambled across the floor, the impaled vampire crawling after me, until the bow was in my hands. I loaded it quickly and turned to shoot just as he reached me. This time I didn't miss.

  Through his ashes, I spotted Moira swinging her sword as she cut off the head of another vampire who had been recently stunned. There were obviously a lot more vampires hiding in here than we guessed, but how many? Another dust cloud filled the room.

  Alexa cried out from a small kitchen. I hurried to her, grabbing a wooden spoon off the kitchen counter and snapping it in half. A vampire had her in his tight grip eyeing hungrily the blood pouring down her face from a deep cut in her hairline. I rammed the pointy edge of the spoon into his back, exploding ash and dust all around us. I whirled around, the broken handle held high in my hand, ready to fight whatever vampire appeared next. But there was none left.

  We all stood there panting and breathing hard. These things always went much harder then we expected. Most of the time we survived, thanks to excellent training from Henry who taught us all there was to know about vampires especially new ones.

  "Who the hell is she?" Hunter said, nodding at Moira.

  "Someone who shouldn't be here." I glared at her trying my best to control my temper. I didn't like that she had followed me.

  "It's a good thing I followed you, because you guys clearly needed my help tonight," she said as if she read my mind.

  "We would've been just fine without you." I walked past her to Will and looked at the wound on his neck. The two fang marks were a deep purple, which meant the vampire had drank a lot of his blood. "Are you good?"

  "I will be," he answered, but he stumbled when he went to take a step.

  I hooked his arm over my shoulder and helped him walk. "Let's get you back to the Deific."

  I stepped outside onto the front porch to join the others including Moira who was staring into the distance, her expression serious. I inhaled a great breath of fresh air. I hated the smell of vampire dust. It reminded me of the old mothballs my great aunt used to have saved in about everything she owned.

  "I have to say," Alexa said as she pressed a cloth to her head, "I'm glad this chick showed up. She saved our asses."

  "Finally, a voice of reason," Moira said, folding her arms.

  "Whether we needed her or not isn't the point," Hunter argued. "We don't know her. Since when did we let regular civilians jump in the middle of a vampire fight?"

  "You're right," I said and handed off Will to Hunter. "You guys head back to the Deific and take care of your wounds. We'll meet up tomorrow afternoon. Get some rest. You've earned it."

  After the others disappeared, I turned to Moira. "You shouldn't have come tonight. I can't make my agents work with someone they don't know and don't trust. If you want to be a part of this organization, then you have to go through t
he same process they all had to."

  She regarded me steadily then leaned forward, resting her elbows on the porch rail. "My full name is Moira Lareau. I was raised in Corinth, a small town in upstate New York. I had amazing parents and two awesome sisters. Feel free to confirm that. I'm happy to give you my social security number too."

  "Where did you learn to fight vampires? How do you even know they exist?"

  She leaned away from the rail and lowered onto the steps, exhaling a great breath. I sat down next to her and waited for her to speak.

  She swallowed and began: "Four years ago, when I was eighteen, I met a man at my local community college. This guy was amazing. He was kind, funny, and also a hard worker. We were instantly drawn to each other."

  My chest tightened, but I tried not to show any emotion at the thought of her with another man.

  "We dated for a few months and that's when I started realizing how different Sean was from other people. He didn't like to do things during the day, which wasn't too weird because he worked out of his home as a day trader. But there were other things."

  She paused and ran her fingers through her hair. "He was a light eater and would sometimes disappear for a while without telling me where he was going. Then one night, I found several bags of blood in a cooler out in his garage and even worse, a cup full of the stuff. When I confronted Sean, he made a bunch of excuses about starting work for the Red Cross. We got in a bad fight, and I took off. I broke up with him the next day, but I gotta tell you, that week apart from him, I was in hell. I truly loved that man. And he loved me. He showed up a week later and said he was ready to tell me the truth no matter the outcome."

  She inhaled a deep breath and twisted her hands in and out of each other. "Basically Sean confessed he was a vampire. Of course I didn't believe him. I even laughed in his face, which I feel bad about now. But then he showed me his fangs, and I pretty much pissed my pants. I thought about running from him, but then I remembered how I felt during that week we were apart. As long as I'd known him, he had never harmed anyone and never came close to hurting me. Did it really matter that he drank blood? I decided it didn't considering I like to dip my chicken nuggets in vanilla shakes. If Sean could accept my weird eating habits, then I could accept his."

  I stared at her in complete shock. A human relationship with a vampire? It was unheard of.

  She glanced at me and turned away. "I know it seems strange for human and a vampire to be together. I didn't realize how strange though until we'd been together for a while and never encountered anything like it."

  I didn't know what to say so I said nothing. It was something I couldn't wrap my head around.

  She sighed and continued. "During our time together, Sean taught me to fight. He wanted to make sure I could defend myself against any supernatural creature. He also taught me everything there was to know about vampires, shifters, fairies, witches you name it. But then things changed. Some new vampires came to town. They wanted Sean to join them, but he was much older and wanted nothing to do with their lifestyle. There was a lot of fighting during that time. Us against them. I'll spare you, or really me, all the details, but eventually they killed him."

  She swallowed and inhaled a hitched breath. "After that, I moved to the city and became a hunter. I vowed to kill any bad vampires I came across. And I do all this while I attend college to be a teacher. Now you know me."

  I wanted to reach out and rest my hand over hers, but I didn't. "That's quite a story. I'm sorry for your loss."

  She remained silent staring into the distance. I may not understand the relationship she had, but her pain was real. I waited a long moment before I spoke again. "Can I ask how you are able to tell? "

  She turned toward me, her eyes sad. "Tell what?"

  "The good ones from the bad ones?"

  She averted her gaze. "I just know."

  It wasn't much of an answer, but I didn't press the issue. Maybe later.

  "So will you let me join your club?" She looked back at me hopefully, and I had the distinct impression that she needed this in her life.

  "First, we're not a club. Our work can be incredibly dangerous so you shouldn't make this decision after only a day. Take some time and think about it, and while you're doing that, let's keep training." I really hoped she agreed to this. I wanted to see more of her.

  She nodded her head. "Deal."

  With that one word, I was overcome with a strong feeling that my life would never be the same.

  Chapter Six

  Time became something I cherished. Every second I spent with Moira something grew inside me, like a warm light filling the dark spots inside me. I didn't think anything had been missing from life until I felt that light.

  Moira showed up every day to train with me and the other agents. Everyone loved her. Even Henry seemed to be taken by her and within a couple of weeks she became an agent for the Deific. This was a great honor as it usually took a year to work up to the point where you could go out on missions, but Moira couldn't be denied. She knew more than most of us about the Supernatural world.

  After spending so much time with Moira at the Deific, it only felt natural to spend time outside of work too. It started with meeting for breakfast before work and eventually dinner followed. We became inseparable as friends. not as a couple, something I hoped to change in the future.

  I had never met anyone like her, but it wasn't just her awesome personality, there was something different about her, too. Sometimes I swear she could read minds or maybe was just really good at reading people. I asked her about it once, but she insisted she was just a regular girl. To me, she was anything but regular.

  It was hard to tell if she was enamored with me as I was with her. Sometimes she would look at me funny, as if I had said something wrong when I hadn't said anything at all, but other times she would smile out of the blue and even laugh. It had taken some time, but eventually I told her about me being psychic. She accepted it without question, not even one, which surprised but also impressed me.

  Our connection to each other was strong even when we were apart. Often times, I would feel a sudden rush of emotions, and I would instantly know they were hers. Sometimes these emotions were painful. I didn't like it when she felt this way, and I yearned to take the hurt away from her.

  It was almost dark when we arrived at the restaurant. I didn't even have to ask her anymore. It was just a given that we ate together almost every night.

  I let her choose the table, already knowing which one she would select. She liked to sit with her back to the wall and in a spot where she could keep on eye on the entire dining room.

  I asked the question I always asked her at dinner. "Are we safe?"

  She smiled. "I'm not sure yet. That guy in the red sweatshirt and brown hat looks highly suspicious. No one wears those colors together. And that older woman wearing the pearls by the window? She looks dangerous."

  I laughed. "Don't worry I will protect you."

  "I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to protect you, especially after the way I took you down this morning."

  "Did you ever think that maybe I wanted to be taken down?"

  She rolled her eyes as if I was joking, but I was doing anything but. I loved it when she slammed me to the ground and fell on top of me. Across the table, she blushed and grinned.

  "What is it?" I asked.

  She continued to smile but just shook her head.

  We ordered our food and talked about some of the classes she was taking in college. I loved to hear her talk about her passion for teaching children. After our food came, we had a brief few moment of silence while we ate our food.

  Moira looked up at me and asked, "Has anyone found anything out about this Dark Prince fellow yet?"

  "Nothing since that raid we had a few weeks ago. Maybe the vamp isn't in town yet."

  "I've been thinking about his name," she said. "It's kind of funny, don't you think? I've never known a vampire to give themselves a nickname li
ke that before. What kind of monster do you know that does that?"

  I chuckled. "An unstable one. It definitely shows he thinks a lot of himself."

  Moira started talking, but I was taken aback by a cold chill slowly walking up my spine, freezing my bones and making me nauseous. The nausea turned to fear. Instinctively, I reached out and clutched Moira's hand. Something was coming.

  "What is it?" she asked. When I didn't answer, she said, "You're white as a ghost. What's going on?"

  The feeling of dread became stronger and stronger, and I stopped breathing. I slowly turned my head toward the window and looked out.

  Walking down the street, getting ready to pass us, strolled a tall vampire, his hair sandy blonde and pulled back into a ponytail. He wore a black business suit with a red tie. There were two others walking just behind him.

  Time slowed as the vampire passed, and he turned his head staring me straight in the eyes. I weakened and, had I not been sitting down, I would have collapsed. There was so much power and strength swimming in his eyes. This was not a new vampire. This was an ancient one. But not just that. Darkness clung to him like shadows at twilight. Even light from the streetlamps above him were unable to penetrate the black force around him.

  As soon as he was out of view, air filled my lungs and I sucked it in greedily.

  Moira squeezed my hand. "Seriously. What is going on?"

  "Something very bad just came to New York, and I would wager everything I own that I just came face-to-face with the Dark Prince."

  She opened her mouth to speak, but my cell phone rang just then. The sound made us both jump in our seats. Moira giggled nervously.

  I glanced down at the caller ID. It was Hunter. He never called at night unless it was an emergency.

  I picked it up and held it to my ear. "What's going on?"

  "We've got a problem. Two bodies were found over on Fifth Street. Vampire kills."