Paranormal After Dark: 20 Paranormal Tales of Demons, Shifters, Werewolves, Vampires, Fae, Witches, Magics, Ghosts and More

by Rebecca Hamilton

  “Breathe, Selena. It’s just an e-mail. It seems pretty important and I really think you should read it.” Sterling’s voice had taken on a much more serious tone than I’d ever remembered hearing from him.

  Okay, I admit I can easily be a bit of a drama queen. But in my defense, I spend my days talking to a royal pain-in-the-ass and I was a bit stressed with the wedding and all. Who wouldn’t be dramatic?

  “I knew it! See, Mistress! Here’s your proof.” He scampered back and forth across my desk as if he’d just found an entire field of catnip.

  “Proof of what? Move over fuzzy-butt so I can see.” And boy did I ever. On my screen was an anonymous letter:

  “Dear Selena,

  You don’t know me, but I’ve been assigned to watch over you. I have been in the shadows ever since your parents’ unfortunate deaths. Though I’m sure you will have many questions, I cannot answer them at this time. You need only know this: Your fiancé is cheating on you, again. There are many things about him you need to know. The danger you are in, increases by the hour. I have attached proof because I know you will not believe me without it. Do what you will with this information, but understand you need to think clearly and realize how very serious this matter is. Your actions will be carefully monitored. I will be in touch.”

  “What. The. Hell?" I couldn’t believe my eyes! Now people were claiming to be guardians of some sort and sending me emails full of lies? When would it stop? “I’ve had enough of this garbage for one day! Sterling, go to your condo, now! I don’t want to hear a peep out of you.”

  Strangely, yelling at my familiar didn’t make me feel any better. In fact, I felt like shit. I knew he had issues with Shawn, hell, everyone had issues with Shawn, but damn! How much more was I supposed to tolerate?

  “We’ll just move. That’s it. If we leave town, they will have to leave us alone. We’ll get married someplace else. Somewhere that isn’t full of back-biting, conniving jerks! First, I’ll call Shawn. I know he’ll agree. I’ll pack everything up and find us a suitable home. Well, find us a home and then pack. Whatever. As long as I can get away from here, everything will be fine. I just have to remain calm.”

  I knew I had to leave Salem Ridge before I used my magic. I’d had all I could take.

  * * *

  STERLING HID IN his house, waiting for my storm of his mistress’s emotions to settle down. He knew she teetered on a very thin line. Not using her powers for over a year was a very bad thing. When she blew her stack, it was going to be bad, very bad.

  He could hear her cleaning and banging things around in the supply closet. His mistress only cleaned like this when she was angry, very angry. Most of the time, the house was spotless, so there was no need for heavy-duty housework.

  “It’s worse than I thought. She’s going to break. Goddess, help us.” He hid in the back corner of his favorite room and covered his eyes with his paws.

  * * *

  AFTER SCRUBBING MY kitchen and living room from top to bottom, I sat down on my sofa, hoping the wave of anger had truly receded. I’d used enough cleaners to get a slight buzz and my temples were throbbing.

  “It will be okay. No magic. No magic.” I willed myself to calm down, taking deep, calming breaths. “In with the good, out with the bad.” I knew if I opened the door to my powers it would be so very hard to close. There would be no going back.

  Picking up my cordless phone, I dialed Shawn’s international number. It took forever to be connected and it took all I had to suppress my irritation when the desk clerk answered and knowing what I did of Shawn’s cell service, I requested to be connected to Shawn’s room.

  “Room 211 please.”

  “Mr. Shawn is in a different room now. Hold please.” The nasally voice across seas replied.

  “He must’ve finally requested a larger room.” I knew he’d been disappointed with the smaller room they’d given him when he’d made reservations and he claimed he always felt claustrophobic if he didn’t have an open-floor plan space to sleep. Every time we spoke on the phone, he had to reiterate the same complaints to me. I’d mentioned switching rooms countless times, but he’d claimed to forget, got too busy or used whatever reason he could come up with. Sometimes, I swore he was one of those people who weren’t happy if they weren’t complaining about something. Strange that he’d waited until he only had two weeks left in Germany to change rooms, but oh well.

  I again waited for what felt like an eternity to be connected. I needed to hear his voice. I had calmed down quite a bit and hopefully talking to him would help. At the moment, I was still undecided whether to mention the ridiculous e-mail or not. Part of me wanted to cry and share this latest attempt at destroying my dwindling sanity with him and the other part of me just wanted to forget it had happened. The only thing I knew for sure was that I couldn’t take much more. In my own land of naivety, I had no idea how drastically my life was about to change. The e-mail was just the beginning.

  Chapter 6

  “HELLO?” A WOMAN purred. “Roberta and Shawn’s Passion Palace, how may we help you?”

  “Roberta? Roberta who?! What...” Who the hell was answering my fiancé’s phone?

  “Get back in this bed, you little Irish wench!” Shawn giggled, yes I heard my fiancé giggle in the background!

  “Roberta, I don’t know who you are but I’d like you to put Shawn…”

  The phone disconnected. “The bitch hung up on me!”

  I called back and the line was busy. “You’ve got to be farking kidding me!”

  How the hell was I supposed to bitch and get to the bottom of this if they didn’t answer the phone? Why was there some woman named Roberta in my future husband’s room, I had no idea.

  Maybe I’d misunderstood. Could I have heard the woman say Ron, John or something and only thought I’d heard her say Shawn? After all, I did have Shawn on the brain, so maybe it was all a huge misunderstanding?

  I knew better. I’d heard it with my own ears. The woman answered the phone in Shawn’s room, confirming a year’s worth of rumors, truths and my worst fears.

  “Roberta? And who freaking says; ‘Passion Palace’ when they answer a phone? Who says that? Gross.”

  In my gut, I knew it wasn’t some kind of sick, twisted joke. There was no way around it. When I heard Shawn tell Roberta to get back in his bed, I could’ve thrown up. For them to leave the phone off the hook was rubbing salt in a huge, gaping wound. They knew I’d call back. They knew I’d be pissed. I was officially a woman scorned and I had every right to cuss them out. How dare they take that privilege away from me!

  For an entire year, I’d dismissed rumors about Shawn and it’d finally taken its toll. In the attempt to alleviate my own guilt over ignoring my heritage, becoming someone unrecognizable to the people I knew and loved, I ignored every single truth they’d said about Shawn. And the worst part, I knew the entire town was right. I was a fool. The room spun and every story I had ever heard came crashing through my mind with the speed of a freight train. And just like that, I knew who the mysterious Roberta was. Roberta McManus, that dirty, nasty whore from Shawn’s company.

  I felt anger for the first time in my life. True, homicidal anger. How could he do that to me? What had I done to deserve what he’d done? Who the hell did he think he was?

  “Screwing that old biddy of a woman! He could’ve at least picked someone half-attractive!”

  There was a buzzing in my ears. It felt like a warm whisper singing a lullaby and I found comfort in the madness that rumbled through my veins. It comforted me and I had no idea why, but I needed more.

  “Selena, you need to calm down” Sterling was right behind me.

  “Forget calming down! Don’t tell me to calm down! He’s over there screwing Roberta McManus! Remember her? She’s that ugly, old, frumpy bitch-of-a-woman that works with Shawn at the factory.”

  I really thought I must be going crazy. Never in a million years did I imagine Shawn and Roberta sleeping together! My
fiancé was really cheating on me! What made it worse was, the woman was disgusting and vile. Though I had only met her once, that one time was enough.

  Last year, I met the home-wrecking whore. When we shook hands at a factory dinner party, I instantly disliked the woman and it took all I had to refrain from wiping her nasty hand sweat off on my skirt! She was so repulsive and acted like she was better than I was with her snide, condescending manner. Every word she said was loaded with a blatant tone of bitchiness. It was one of the worst parties I’d ever been to and I couldn’t wait to leave that night just to get away from her. A short one-hundred-and-thirty days later, I stood there deciding how to kill the slut.

  So many thoughts raced through my mind as I tried to decide what to do, causing my head to pound like an Aborigine drum. I wasn’t even crying. I had spent so many nights crying over the rumors that ran rampant around town and I was all out of tears. Shouldn’t I have been a snot covered, blubbering mess? Instead, I was pissed off!

  Did this prove I didn’t really love Shawn as much as I thought I had? My feelings leaned more towards betrayal and embarrassment than those of a jilted love-sick-bride-to-be. I swore at any given moment my forehead would explode and mental diarrhea would gush out everywhere, ruining my beloved hardwood floor.

  “What the f…?”

  “Tsk, tsk Selena. You swore you’d stop using f-bombs.”

  “Not now Sterling. What the hell just happened?”

  “You know what happened. Selena, you finally faced the truth. The truth everyone has been trying to get you to see. Now, please try to calm your thoughts. They’re racing again and I can’t handle all of it at once.”

  I stood there with my mouth hanging open, truly flabbergasted! My world just went to shit and Sterling had the nerve to complain about his discomfort? Seriously?

  “By the gods Sterling, please don’t say another word.” When I looked at him, he actually seemed frightened. Frightened of me.

  “Now Selena, I meant no harm, but…”

  “But nothing!” I roared and he ran from the room.

  I walked over to my desk and clicked on the anonymous e-mail and read it again. When I double clicked the attachment, thirty various pictures, starring my very naked fiancé and his very naked tramp, popped up on the screen. “I’ll kill him.”

  As I scrolled through the pictures, one in particular caught my eye. Roberta was grinning like Lucifer’s bitch and enjoying every second of it. Upon further examination, I realized something even more infuriating. Roberta wasn’t simply a home-wrecking hussy; she was also a demon.

  “Roberta is a troll? Sterling! Out here now!”

  He scurried out of his room and onto my desk. As he looked at the photos with me, he couldn’t hide his surprise. “Holy balls, Selena!”

  “Nice choice of words.”

  “Sorry. Wow! It’s about time. How did you miss this? I mean, we, how did we miss this?”

  “We missed this because I haven’t been using my powers. Hell, I haven’t even been wearing my crystal for protection! How could I have been so stupid?”

  “You wouldn’t listen. Just calm…”

  “Don’t you dare say it!”

  “Okay. Let’s think.” Sterling pleaded.

  “Screw thinking! I’m burning his shit, all of it!”

  “Now Selena, please wait. You can’t…”

  “Oh, yes I can.”

  My powers streamed through me, filling me with wicked desires. I wanted Shawn to pay and to pay dearly! After everything I had foolishly given up for him and for the way the town had completely abandoned me, a simple amicable break-up was not going to satisfy me. I closed my eyes, inviting the magic to flow through me.

  Something I sensed nudged me to open my eyes and the site before me could have knocked me to the floor. “I’ll be damned Sterling, look at this!”

  In one particular photo, the photographer had captured another shot of Shawn’s condescending smile that brought no light to his eyes as he pounded into Roberta once more. Hell, Shawn didn’t even have pupils!

  “Oh shit, Selena. This is bad, really bad.”

  “Yep. I’ve been sleeping with a demon, too! He didn’t want me to use my powers and this entire time, he was a scum-sucking demon. What a lying, deceitful hypocrite! Acting as if he believed, cared for and loved me all this time! Why would he do that? Why did he want me powerless? What could he possibly gain? He had to be after something, but what is it?”

  I paced the floor while murderous thoughts battled with the miniscule bits of sanity left in my frazzled brain. Did it really matter what Shawn wanted? I would never help a demon! But I had. I was bamboozled into being a part of every rotten thing he had done to the people in my town. Clearly, keeping me powerless was his way of controlling me. How long had he and Roberts been commiserating? So many questions about the last year popped into my mind, but there was only one answer. I knew there was only one way to stop him.

  “What are we going to do?” Sterling was pacing now, his normally sleek, gray fur now standing on end showed he was clearly agitated. His tail, now the size of a raccoon’s, twitched furiously back and forth, side-to-side. I could see anger in his furry little brow and fear in his eyes. My familiar was a conundrum of emotion.

  “The only thing we can do. We’re going to send them both back to Hell.”

  “But Selena, if you use your powers in anger and for personal gain, the council will come for you!” His green eyes bulged with alarm.

  I knew Sterling was right, but chances were pretty good that the Elders already knew I’d opened the door to my magic when I’d thought about frying Shawn’s things. The power had already begin its journey. I knew I would finish it. I had to. Shawn and Roberta could not live among the people of Salem Ridge. I’d do all I could to take them out.

  When the Elders came for me, I’d be bound and powerless. They would make me stand before a jury of my peers and imminently, I’d be found guilty of misusing my magic. The Elders would call a mystic who could bind my powers, sealing them inside my crystal pendulum. I’d be forced to wear the glowing, blue orb around my neck, showing the paranormal world I was convicted of crimes against them. Everyone would know what I had done. It would be worth it. If I’d never stopped using my powers, things would’ve never gotten so far. This was my fault.

  There was only way for a witch to regain her powers. Mercy of the Elders would unlock the spell that bound a witch. If she tried to access her powers before the sentence was up, the witch would be thrown into a dungeon, deep below the earth. She would spend the rest of her living days, alone and because witches live a lot longer than humans, that could be a very long time.

  “It’s too late. I’m sure they are already on their way. But maybe they will listen to reason after they’ve taken me into custody.” I’d already accepted the inevitable. All I could do now was finish what I started.

  “We will think of something, Mistress.” He rubbed against my ankles, trying to comfort me. “I won’t let anything happen to you. But please don’t do this.”

  “I can’t believe I never saw the truth. Everybody tried to tell me. I wonder how many people knew he was a demon.”

  “I have no idea. Honestly, you wouldn’t have listened. They tried to get you to leave him many times and it didn’t work. It doesn’t matter how many knew. The important thing is you know now.”

  “I still need to get rid of his things. I don’t want him to have any reason to come back here, ever.”

  “No magic.”

  “Does it really matter at this point? I’ve already alerted them by bringing the magic back to life inside of me. There’s no going back.”

  Chapter 7

  AS THE FIRST wave of power raced through my body, I felt nothing except pure desire for more. More heat, more pressure, more. Every movement seemed to intensify my senses. Each sensation crashing over me in enormous waves of ecstasy, I had never felt such intense pleasure. I hoped it would always be like this. This fee
ling could never end!

  I walked through my home scorching every photograph of Shawn and me. The simple act of imagining him burning quickly set the pictures aflame and melted his fake, sorry-assed smile out of existence. With a flick of my wrist the remaining photos flew off the walls, they were swirling around me as I made my way to the bedroom. They hovered, as if on invisible threads, dancing and I watched them with a detached sort of pleasure.

  My mother had told me secrets and spells for everyday living, and right then, more than ever, I was glad I could still hear her voice in my mind. “In order to break an emotional or spiritual bond with someone, you need to burn their personal belongings and anything you may have shared. Every item that person owned must be returned to the ashes from which it came.”

  At the time, it seemed like another lesson meant to drive me nuts with boredom. But I had listened, storing it away in the recesses of my mind along with the many other tidbits of knowledge she gave me. Now I understood what my mother said. Somehow she knew I would need lessons like this one later in life.

  “I should have listened to her about Shawn. She saw right through him.”

  I gathered Shawn’s clothing, every last bit of it and the floating photos followed me wherever I walked. Gathering the pile of pants, shirts and anything of his I found, in my arms, I carried the load into the bathroom. Dropping everything into my oversized, pure copper bathtub, I snapped my fingers and mentally willed the items to burst into flames.

  “So it is, so shall it be.” In mere seconds, the entire pile was nothing more than ashes.

  I heard thunder rumble in the distance and for a fleeting moment, I thought it was strange. No severe weather had been predicted, so I continued about my business. Again, the storm outside announced its approach. Though my element is air, I was too distracted to connect any of the elemental dots.