Magic and Mayhem: A Collection of 21 Fantasy Novels

by Jasmine Walt

  "Okay, Mother! Just suck those teeth right back in your mouth and let's pump the brakes a minute, people. She is not going off willy-nilly, turning out more dead women with fangs!" Jeni put both hands on her well-supplied hips, her gray eyes shooting daggers at me. "You don't even know what the hell you're doing!"

  I gulped, my fangs retracted, and I wanted to run and hide somewhere, but I couldn't take my eyes off Resi's throat.

  "Oh shut up, Jennifer," my mother ordered. "I want to be young again! Bite her, Susan. Let's see if it works. I'm old as dirt, and if this vampire thing can make you look like that, I want a piece of it." Mom studied me with excited anticipation. Her sable eyes flashed mischievously. Spandex covered her scrawny body. Slate gray hair tucked under a black headband running across her wrinkled forehead stuck out in every direction.

  Shit! The louder they get, the faster their heart's beat, and the more I want…

  "Nanna, sweetie," Jeni pointed at the laptop on the table, her other hand rising and falling over her generous chest with each rapid breath she took. "Let's do a little research on the Internet and educate ourselves with something other than dime store literature before she does something really stupid."

  "Give it up Jeni. I want to die tonight," Resi said.

  With a matter of fact nod and a wave, my mother dislodged herself from the picnic table. Her feet, clad in tennis shoes, slid across the wood floor to the end of the table. She stood with her hands on her bony hips, directly under a deer head mounted on the wall. The tongue lolling from its mouth really added a bit of comedy to the moment.

  "Let's get this show on the road," my mother said.

  My stomach convulsed. My head pounded. I want blood, anyone's blood. I'm gonna kill one of them and I can't stop myself.

  "Hold it, damn it!" Gold highlights that etched Jeni's severe red bob whipped her cheeks as she jerked her head around to face me. "You don't even know if this is possible!"

  "It's possible," Zaire said.

  "It sure is," Resi agreed as she stepped a little closer to me.

  How do you know? How do you know it's possible? All I know is I'm gonna bite one of you any minute! "Where's the red trash bag?" I asked, my eyes frantically searching the room.

  "You don't need it," Zaire answered.

  "Everyone back it up and hit rewind. What if she kills one of you?" Jeni asked, then tried another angle. "And even if she can do this, there's a lot to consider here. Mom doesn't even look the same. How do we explain all the new residents to the neighbors?" Jeni's thin lips formed a tight line disappearing between her nose and chin.

  I started taking shallow breaths, my eyes jutting from one neck to the other. I'm dying here! Somebody shut her up before I latch on to the closest warm body.

  My mother took up the slack. "Screw the neighbors. Most of them are a damn hemorrhoid on the inside of my ass anyway! I've been sitting around waiting for death for the last ten years, hell twenty, and just like President Bush, I am The Decider." My mother stared challengingly at Jeni.

  I swear I could feel my own heart hammering in my chest. I thought vampires didn't have a heartbeat.

  "Blood! Blood! Blood! It's sickening!" JoAnn blurted. "And…and… she can't just gorge herself sucking on all of you. What if it kills her for Chr… heaven's sake?"

  Resi's laughter came out in high-pitched little jerks. "She's already dead, and I don't believe I've read anywhere, in any of my books, that you can kill a vampire with blood."

  I'm dead. I'm dead and my body is screaming for their blood.

  Resi slapped the counter and I jumped. Letting out a sarcastic sigh, she waved her arms at me. "She's immortal. That means forever. We'll all be dead and dust before we know it, and she'll look just like that…" Her hand pumped up and down the length of my body. "…for eternity…" She paused for effect, looking at each of the other women. "…and THAT is something we all have to think about."

  An eternity? Without them? I can't watch them die, then mentally chided, who the shit am I kidding? I'm standing here salivating.

  "Ah, vanity," Jeni said sarcastically. "So that's what this is really all about. Let's all just ignore the fact that she's already killed the family pet for a firm body."

  I wonder if cursing God for his humorous answer to my prayers would be appropriate at the moment.

  "And what if she kills one of you?" JoAnn whimpered, holding her ears.

  "There is that," Jeni said with a nasty smile.

  "She can do it," Zaire gave me an encouraging smile.

  My head started to spin. My stomach clenched with pain. My ears echoed with every heartbeat I heard.

  "How the hell do you know that?" Jeni asked.

  "I say we take a vote," Mom announced, raising her hand. "All in favor."

  "A vote? A vote? Jesus H Christ," JoAnn shrieked hysterically. "This is crazy. I am not going to live with a bunch of blood sucking zombies!"

  "Okay, enough with all the bullshit," Resi said. "I'm ready to die. So either drink the damn coffee or put it down and suck some blood. From right here." Resi pointed to her neck, shoving it in front of my face.

  My breath caught in my throat.

  JoAnn ran to the book basket on the floor by the couch, shuffled through them and pulled out Every Which Way But Dead. "Here, at least read this and see how to do it right."

  Zaire laughed. "Good choice, Aunt JoAnn, I'm sure it's in there somewhere. Why don't you start reading and let us know when you find it."

  Resi grinned at her and then turned to me. "All you have to do is suck a little of my blood and then let me drink some of yours."

  "Done deal," Zaire added.

  "Start sucking, Mom," Resi said.

  I looked into my daughter's eyes. I could feel the air in the room fill everyone's lungs and stay there as my fangs popped out of my gums.

  My mind screamed for me to walk away, but my mouth filled with saliva. My eyes slid to Resi's throat. I heard her blood flowing through her veins in short quick thumps. My stomach sounded like an angry tiger. If I don't turn away now it's going to be too late.

  The smell of excitement mixed with fear wafted toward my nostrils. Just suck a little blood and give a little back. That's what Resi said, right?

  I drew closer. My heart started pounding and I was scared shitless. I pulled her neck to my mouth and dug in.

  Jeni screamed.

  "Holy shit," Zaire yelled, locking eyes with mine as she jumped over the top of the table. She slid to a halt, standing directly in front of me. I began to draw on my younger daughter's throat. "Easy Mom, not too much," she said, sounding like one druggie instructing another. I shuddered and took another swallow.

  "Oh, God, I can't watch!" JoAnn made a hurp-hurp sound.

  "Stop her, Zaire," Jeni cried, hugging JoAnn.

  "She's doing just fine," Zaire said. I heard her heartbeat kick up about ten notches.

  How much? How much do I have to take?

  "Just till you hear my heart slow, Mom," Resi said in a soft whisper, like she was reading my mind, her eyes flashing to Zaire as she spoke drowsily, "ssss gon-nna beee finnn, baby."

  "Get the hell out of my way!" My mother pushed Zaire aside. "How do you feel Resi? Is there a lot of pain?"

  A voice in my head screamed with every beat of Resi's heart; Don't kill her. Don't kill her. Don't kill her.

  My idiot sister made it hard for me to concentrate. "I'm gonna be…oh God…oh God…" JoAnn, her hand over her mouth, gagged her way around the kitchen counter. I heard her retching into the sink.

  "Don't kill her, Susan. Take it slow. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it." My mother leaned over our faces with an eager grin, her instructions hanging in my gut like a midnight snack of nachos.

  Jeni stood frozen in horror as I listened to my sister puking.

  I shut my eyes in an attempt to shut out my mother's anxious face as she leaned in asking questions. "What does it taste like? It doesn't make you want to gag does it?"

  Her heartbeat
is slowing down. Damn it, waaake up!

  "I think she's getting drunk on the stuff." Mom breathed right in my face. "Look at her. Someone better stop her. Christ, I'm glad she's practicing on her first."

  My nostrils flared. Mom's breath smelled like a dirty cat box. Can't one of you grab her for Christ sake! I can't concentrate! I was frantic. I couldn't seem to stop.

  The garbage disposal came to life behind me, jarring me back to reality. I popped my eyes open to see Zaire's concerned face, my fangs still implanted in Resi's neck.

  "That's enough, Mom," Zaire cautioned.

  "I'll say. Jesus, she's sucking her like my old Hoover." My mother tried to pull me away. I swung at her, slapping her in the face.

  I could kill my daughter right now, just as easy as swatting a mosquito.

  "MOTHER! STOP THIS IMMEDIATLY!" Jeni's strong voice resonated through the turmoil in my mind.

  I jerked away from Resi's throat and fell back against the counter. Resi slid to the floor with a moan. I ran a hand across my lips and watched her body go limp. I could hear my sister panting in the kitchen.

  "Okay, okay, okay. I think maybe everyone better stand back," my mother said. She back-pedaled, shaking her head, hand over her mouth, eyes locked on Resi.

  Jeni put her arms around Nanna. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

  My mind franticly searched for answers. Did her heart stop while I was drinking? Is she still breathing? Oh God!

  "Oh, fucking shit, goddamn it. She's killed her own daughter." JoAnn was back on the bus of obscenities as she ran around the counter, and stumbled to a stop in front of Resi. "I knew this would happen! I just knew it! Somebody do something! NOW!"

  "Does she have a pulse? Oh God, is my sister dead?" Jeni whimpered.

  Zaire placed her fingers on my daughter's throat and the world stood still.

  5

  Paul arrived at the park just before sunrise. He slid his Corvette into a vacant lot on the opposite side of the street, got out and headed for the restroom.

  Spotting a place to shift, Paul ducked behind a cluster of trees on the side of the building and removed his clothes. Almost immediately his body began the transformation. He jerked and writhed under a soft rain in the pre-dawn humidity.

  Face, hands, and feet disappeared - paws and muzzle taking their place as he moaned and groaned with the change. In a matter of minutes he was no longer a tall, well-muscled man with crystal blue eyes and long black hair.

  He stood on four paws, lifted his hind leg and a small yellow stream fell to the ground at the base of one of the trees. He kicked up grass with his hind legs and leapt toward the restroom, head bobbing, nostrils flaring.

  Inside the door he stopped, shaking himself free of the tiny droplets covering his jet-black fur. Alert blue eyes darted about the area. Lowering his head, sniffing, he licked a few drops of blood on the tiled floor and whimpered.

  Padding through the restroom, his long tongue lolled out the side of his mouth as he carefully hugged the wall, avoiding the blood spatter on the floor. He came to a stop and his eyes darted around the wheelchair stall in the back of the bathroom, a low growl vibrating in his chest.

  Lowering his front quarter, he leaned behind the toilet, sniffing the floor. He snorted, his forepaw pecking at something behind the lavatory.

  Paul whined, pushing his muzzle in the small space behind the porcelain, nosing a woman's handbag on the floor. Gently he wrapped his teeth around the handle, picking it up. He backed out, setting it down outside the stall.

  He padded back to the other side of the toilet, sniffing and rubbing his snout on a trail of blood on the wall. Growling deep in his throat, he turned, snorted, and nosed the changing table. He snorted again, trotted out of the stall, his snout in the air, sniffing, head turned slightly. Shaking from muzzle to tail, he leaned down, secured the handbag in his mouth, and quickly pranced through the restroom and out into the night air.

  A tractor-trailer pulled into the center of the parking lot, its diesel engine hissing as the driver hit the brakes. A hefty human, enough to feed a whole pack of wolves, jumped from the cab. The mortal started toward the restroom, her form clearly visible as she walked through a haze of light rain and stepped under a light pole near the door of the bathroom.

  The wolf licked his snout, sitting on his haunches in a cluster of trees nearby. The purse and his clothes sat on the ground beside him. He watched in silence, ears pinned back, hair bristled on the back of his neck.

  The meaty woman ran from the restroom seconds later, a cell phone against her ear. "That's what I said. Blood. And it's everywhere. Someone definitely died in there."

  Paul ran his tongue across his maw, growling deep in his throat.

  The woman turned in his direction, cell phone still hanging from her ear, and sprinted toward the cab of her eighteen-wheeler. "Look officer, I got a run to make and I'm already off schedule. I'm not sticking around. I can give you my cell number if you have any questions and meet up with you later, but I'd send an officer out here pretty damn quick before some mother and her kid show up and all hell breaks loose." She reached her truck, yanked open the door, and pulled herself into the cab. The engine roared to life, chugging slowly out of the parking lot.

  The wolf circled the building, sniffed the air and headed for the lake. He stopped abruptly and latched onto a piece of clothing tangled in a gnarly bush. He hooded his eyes, pulled vigorously, hindquarters up, back paws digging in the grass for traction. He yanked the fabric free, dropped it by his front paws and nudged it with his muzzle. Picking it up, he sprinted off, depositing it under the trees with the rest of his things.

  Nose to the ground, the scent led him to a retention wall by the foot of the lake. He ran his snout up and down the cement, snorting and sniffing as he padded back and forth.

  He stopped, his tail wagging, as he licked a long tongue over a few drops of blood on the edge of the structure in front of him. A low growl emanated from his throat, eyes scanning the water in front of him.

  He turned and pranced back across the wet grass, pausing a few times to sniff the air as he headed into the trees.

  A few minutes later, fully dressed in a tight pair of jeans and a baggy T-shirt with a BassPro logo on the front, Paul stepped out of his hiding place. With the purse and shirt in his hands, he sprinted toward the Corvette, pulling his cell phone from his jeans, and hit speed dial. A voice answered almost immediately.

  "You better have something for me, Wolf," Dorius growled.

  "We've got a problem."

  Sitting in his car on a dark street across town, Dorius glared at his cell phone. "What kind of problem?"

  "A human died in that restroom, not an immortal. And Christopher's scent stands out. He was definitely there, also one other immortal. A trail of the dead human's blood led to the lake. I'm betting the body's in the water."

  "So, we definitely have immortal activity besides Christopher?" Dorius held the cell phone to his ear, his hand pulling his long black hair off his rugged face. His jaw was tight and he audibly ground his teeth.

  "Yes, and I found identification and clothing, same scent as the human blood. Angelina Westwood is the mortal's name."

  "Angelina Westwood? So, you have a driver's license, but no body?" His hands went to his forehead, a bit of hope in his voice, as he listened.

  "I'm sure there will be a body as soon as the police get here. A trucker just called the station."

  "Is there any sign of Christopher?" He let out a long sigh, finally accepting the inevitable.

  "No, and the trail will be gone if it keeps raining, but I'm on it."

  "Let the police find the body, but hang around. I want to be sure it's Angelina."

  "Do you know this woman?"

  "Yes. That's all you need to know right now. Tonight you can do a grid search. Hopefully you'll get a scent leading us to Christopher." Dorius leaned back and his eyes closed.

  "I think following Christopher's trail is crucial. You sure you
want me to wait until tonight?"

  "Yes. Call me later when you see the body."

  Dorius laid the silent phone on the dashboard of his Mercedes as a growl of rage spewed from his mouth.

  "I'm glad she practiced on her first," Mom said, standing over Resi's prone body.

  I pulled my hands away from my mouth, held my breath and whispered, "Why isn't she waking up? It's been twenty minutes. Are you sure she's alive?"

  "Give her a good slap," Mom suggested, "That might wake her up."

  "She has a heartbeat. Chill," Zaire said with a big grin. "She'll wake on her own, Nan.

  "Thank God, Susan," JoAnn said. "Because I was about ready to shove this cross up your-"

  "Oh, let's all thank God, why don't we," Jeni hissed. "It seems so appropriate."

  Resi's eyes popped open, her nostrils flared and she immediately started bitching. "Oh God, I hurt all over. I feel like shit. Your frigging heartbeats are giving me a migraine. Christ, can't you all tune it down a bit? I'm sooo damn thirsty."

  "Well Mother, it seems you've successfully changed Resi into a monstrosity just like you," Jeni spat at me sarcastically. "And she's thirsty, poor thing. Shame we've run out of pets."

  "Hey, I didn't ask for this! She did!" I'll just totally ignore the fact that I wanted the blood as much as she wanted to give it.

  Jeni's brows clashed. "And your parental approach to that request was to slap her on the proverbial train headed straight for hell."

  Resi hissed, "Jennifer, just shut the hell up. I'm in pain here!"

  "And I'm doing my damnedest to lengthen your little inconvenience with idle chit-chat," Jeni spat.

  Zaire looked up at me. "Time to bite something and bring it over here. She needs your blood first."

  "Yeah, move your ass, Susan," Mom said. "I wanna see what happens next."

  "Can we talk about this first?" JoAnn asked.

  Resi dropped a nice set of fangs and growled, "Bite your damn arm, Mom!" I was a bit put out that her fangs popped out so soon.

  Zaire grinned at Resi. "I just love this family."