by Sarah Marsh
EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2017 Sarah Marsh
ISBN: 978-1-77339-317-9
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
First, a huge thank you to some awesome ladies who have read this book almost as many times as I have while it was being written. Amy, Elena, and Maia, I love you guys!
Second, thank you to my mother, who has put up with my sass and sarcasm all my life. Dori is basically a manifestation of the little voice inside my head that sometimes gets me into trouble, so perhaps by giving her an alternate outlet my mouth will start to behave. Either way, I’m pretty sure you’ve earned some kind of award for your patience mom…I’ll look into that.??
VIKTOR
Happy Evil After, 1
Sarah Marsh
Copyright © 2017
Prologue
My name is Pandora. I’m a dark Fairy Godmother.
What—never heard of a dark Fairy Godmother, you say? Well, that’s because only about one in every one million Fairy Godmother pregnancies result in a blending of wild magic that ends up with a deviant like me.
I still remember that day at health class in Godmother finishing school…
“Girls! Make sure you never trust a boy when he says, ‘Don’t you trust me, baby?’ And once you’re bonded, never have sex in any other position other than missionary!”
Yeesh, have you seen how the Fairy Godfathers dress around here? Prancing around in their pastel leggings and embroidered velvet frocks? No freaking thank you. I’d rather have sex with the Gnome gardener that was always peeping in the girls’ locker room than let one of those dandies get at me.
Apparently, it runs in the family because my mother was a badass, too. All she’s ever told me about my father was that on one spring break, she and her fellow sorority sisters, The Raging Blue Fairies, decided to do something crazy. They flew down to Florida, hit the paranormal bars that were “happening” at the time, had a few too many Mai Tais, ended up in the hot tub with a dashing male of the non-fairy variety. One thing led to another, and nine months later I came into the world. In a true fashion that only I can pull off, she said, I unfurled my smoke-grey and black wings and gave the head nurse the finger before starting to cry.
The ruling Fairy Godmother Council, of course, tried to make my mom give me up, since not only was she not bonded, but I was the epitome of all that could go wrong in the life of a Fairy Godmother. There was no such thing as a Fairy with black wings. “Darkling magic” they whispered. They wanted her to leave me in the woods for the Sprites to decide my fate and let the realm reabsorb my magic if that was its will. But like I said, my mom was badass, and she very politely, because she was still a Fairy Godmother, told them to shove off and curled her sparkly blue wings around me.
While my mom always made sure that I knew she loved me just the way I am, I never really did fit in with our society. It’s totally true what they say about me, I do create havoc and trouble where ever I go. And … I freaking love doing it! I spent most of my school days punking the other Fairy God-students, and even the teachers weren’t safe from my wrath.
Before you bring it up—I was not the one who opened that damned box of sins. The fucking thing was already open when I strolled into the girls’ locker room. I think those damned Pink Pixies set me up. It had only been a week since I drugged them in the chemistry lab and shaved off all their eyebrows. Who knew they would be so vindictive?
I almost felt like we could’ve been friends after that. Too bad.
Eventually, I did get kicked out of school, but not before I absorbed one very clear fact that I took great offense to within my mother’s society of do-gooders. They used their magic to help others find their happy endings, but not all others, just the “good” people who they decided deserved it.
Who were these pompous assholes that got to decide that, just because someone takes a less-than-understood path in their life, they were “evil” and not deserving of a happy ending? Well, I call bullshit on that, bitches.
See, I have my own brand of power, and I decided that I would be the Fairy Godmother picking up the slack for all the misunderstood “monsters and villains” out there. After all, they’re simply different just like me, right? And let me tell you, I make damn sure I get my happy ending on the regular if you know what I mean. *wink*
****
“Hey, Dori, what are ya writing?” Craig, the demon bartender, nodded towards my black matchmaking mastermind notebook as he slid my frosty Chi Chi over the bar. “Are you finally going to write a ‘How to’ book on having your pick of the para-men litter?”
“Har, har, Craig. You know, it’s a good thing you know how to use that tongue of yours for something other than sassing me or I might just have to wish it away.” I smirked at my sometimes-casual hookup, at least for the nights when I didn’t find anything better in this place.
The Pit is the most notorious paranormal bar around, famous for its deviants and surprisingly enough, Craig’s super delicious fruity drinks. I’ve been coming here since I was a teenager. It is an exceptionally good hunting ground when a gal wanted a little company of the temporary bad-boy variety. I know all the regulars, and I knew exactly who I would choose to be my first lucky project.
“So, Craig, tell me everything you know about Mr. Tall, Dark, and Bitey over there,” I said nodding towards the broody vamp in the corner of the bar.
Craig’s eyes went wide when he saw who I was asking about, and then he just shook his head at me.
“I think he might be a little too wild even for you, Dori. You don’t want to tangle with the likes of him,” he answered quietly, almost as if my quarry might hear him through this entire racket, even on the other side of the room.
Truthfully, I wondered myself for a second if he might be able to. Viktor Krescech was the monster under the bed for our kind. Paranormal parents scared their kids with stories of him at night when they were being bad and wouldn’t go to sleep. He was The Destroyer of Covens, a ruthless killer of anyone who got in his way. He was also notorious for his hatred of his own kind. Now that was just plain un-neighborly.
Being the selfless and dedicated overachiever that I was, I had already given my new career path a great deal of serious thought and of course realized that my so-called “clients” would most likely rebuff any offers of matchmaking bliss … no doubt violently. So all I had to do was find out what would motivate them to be exactly where they needed to be, the exact moment that my kick-ass fairy powers proclaimed as the lynchpin for their happy ending. It seemed easy really.
After all, I’ve always had superior “people management” skills … even if my mom just called it “being a shifty, little manipulator”.
Skills are skills; that’s what I say. How hard could this be?
Chapter One
“Hey there, Halle-cat, where are you sneaking off to?”
“Fuck, Tavin!” Halle must have jumped about four feet straight in the air, much to her brothers’ amusement, “Balls, why do you insist on sneaking up on me like that?”
“Because, you jump like a cartoon cat.” He smirked as he leaned against the wall
in the hallway with his arms crossed. “It’s too funny not to do it, really.”
“You’re such a dick—even for an older brother.”
“You’re avoiding the question. Where are you going? You know Dad wants everyone here for this dinner. He said it’s important.”
Halle sighed. Like her brother could really understand what it felt like to be her at these Pard events. To the males she wasn’t related to, she was untouchable—and therefore invisible. Why bother talking to the girl whose father would castrate you if you touched her? On the other hand, those men who weren’t part of her father’s pard only looked at her in two ways: like she was a curious science experiment or a female out to trap them.
After all, what shifter male wanted to take the chance on fooling around with a female who wasn’t his mate if there was a possibility of knocking her up? No one, that’s who. She was cursed by the Briggs family legacy.
“The vamps give me the heebie-jeebies, you know that.” She gave her big brother her biggest Puss in Boots eyes she could manage without popping something. “Can’t you cover for me, just this once?”
“Sorry, kiddo.” Tavin reached out and messed up her hair because he knew it drove her nuts. “The old man says it’s all hands on deck. Come on, we can get drunk on champagne and make fun of everyone.”
“Fine.” She smacked his hands away and tried to smooth out her unruly curls. “But we’re playing the ‘dub-over’ game, and if any of those blood suckers hear us you have to take the rap with dad.”
They’d been playing the “dub-over” game since they were kids every time their parents forced them to attend these boring dinners and parties. It was hilarious to choose their hoity-toity victims and then turn their no-doubt inane conversation into something that would have them laughing until they cried—but with shifter hearing being as good as it was, they’d spent a lot of hours grounded in their rooms because of it.
As they grew up and threw alcohol into the mix, not to mention a filthier vocabulary, the game changed into trying to get your competitor to lose his or her composure in front of a room full of guests. Halle was going to play extra hard this evening if Tavin was going to make her attend. Maybe there was a vamp in the crowd tonight that was looking for a little companionship of the male leopard variety?
Tavin didn’t swing that way, but damn, wouldn’t it be funny seeing him try to diplomatically rebuff a few unwanted advances. I am so doing this.
“Deal.” Her brother’s eyes narrowed in suspicion when she couldn’t contain her deviant grin, but it was too late for him now. Plan “Make the big bad vamps think Tavin likes a little sausage on sausage slap and tickle” had officially commenced.
“Now go get changed into something frilly.” Tavin’s eyes went huge as he ducked the boot that came flying at his head right before Halle slammed her bedroom door in his face.
Twenty minutes later, they were guzzling daddy’s finest champagne while trying to avoid actually interacting with any of the “guests”.
“Nice dress, kiddo, are you hitting a funeral later?”
“Oh, should I have dressed like that, do you think?” She looked pointedly in the direction of the group of vampires who’d just arrived, the females barely covering their assets in tiny dresses that looked to be made out of dinner napkins.
“Hell no, I’d have to gouge my eyes out if I ever saw you dressed like that.” Her brother cringed before taking a longer look at the lady-vamps. “But I’m not saying I’d kick them out of my bed for eating crackers—if you know what I mean?”
“First of all, idiot,” she laughed, “by the looks of those front two, they wouldn’t be eating anything in your bed that left crumbs. Second, just make sure you pay their pimp first. Daddy would be awfully upset if his male heir did happen to get eaten by hookers.”
“True enough, looks like the Coven Master has all the moves.”
They stood and watched from their perch on the second-floor balcony overlooking the foyer, as their parents greeted the smarmy looking vampire at the front of the group, the sickly thin females draped on each of his arms. Halle wasn’t overly fond of vampires to begin with—well, she didn’t know many in truth, but they just seemed so dramatically different than shifters like her.
Halle almost squeaked when her father motioned the vamp’s attention up towards her and Tavin. The noise turned to a snarl as the bastard handed his arm candy off to his henchmen like they were a coat and hat, not living beings, before the two men wandered off in the direction of the bar area, much to Halle’s relief. She’d been terrified that her father would bring him over to introduce them and she’d be forced to act polite, as if she hadn’t just watched the douchebag drop off his hoes-to-go for the evening. Ew. Her “polite face” only went so far.
“So how do you know that was the Coven Master?” she whispered to her brother.
“His name is Conrad Dair. Father has met with him before, and I went along with him last time,” he answered, his face oddly serious for her jester of a sibling. “I can’t say that I liked him very much.”
Halle took a long look at the man who walked beside her father. He was almost as tall as her dad, but nowhere near as wide, his frame was more wiry than buff. His short blond hair was slicked back with way too much product, and his face was clean-shaven. All in all, there was nothing about him that screamed “unattractive”—it was just something in his dark eyes that made her not trust him. He looked like one of those guys that after they snapped their bolt and mass murdered the entire neighborhood, one of their third-grade teachers would be interviewed saying, “Oh but he was such a quiet boy…”
Right before they entered the next room, Conrad Dair looked up and zeroed in right on her. His dark eyes staring intently at her in the most uncomfortable way, it felt like an eternity before he broke his gaze and followed along behind her father.
“Well, that was horrifying.” Tavin frowned. “I think it’s time to hit the tequila and then see if we can’t escape quietly.”
“Yes, please.” She grabbed onto her brother’s arm, desperately needing the reassurance of his touch. Never again did she want to be the undivided focus of that man’s attention if she could help it.
Chapter Two
It’s happening.
Dori sat straight up from the couch she’d been dozing on. Finally, it was time. Her magic was telling her that the clock had just begun on her first project, and now there was only so much time she had to manipulate her clients into making all the right decisions—or the Happy Ever After they sought would slip out of their reach forever.
“Ma! I gotta go out,” she yelled towards the kitchen as she gathered her phone and shoved it into her purse.
“Where are you going? I thought we were going to make some popcorn and watch Game of Thrones?” Her mom frowned as she popped her head around the corner to look at her. “If you take off, I’m still watching it. I won’t be the only one at work tomorrow not knowing what happened!”
“Fine,” Dori sighed, throwing her hands up, “I’ll watch it when I get back—alone, like a leper. But you’d better make damned sure that you don’t accidentally hit delete after you watch it, Mom!”
“I told you, I didn’t do that on purpose! It’s just natural instinct to delete the shows on the PVR once you’ve watched them.”
“I can never get back those episodes of Penny Dreadful! I only watched them once, and now that the last season is done there’s no telling how long it’ll be before they replay the entire series.” She pouted, and this time it was her mom’s turn to roll her eyes.
“Why don’t you just stream them online?”
Dori gasped, her hand coming up to her throat in shock. “What am I, some kind of hipster who’s trying to stick it to the ‘man’ by refusing to pay for cable? Ew, Mom, shame on you. I’m not watching Eva Green on a seventeen-inch computer screen like an animal. She’s better than that—we both are.”
“Fine! I’ll wait exactly two hours … but if you’r
e not back by ten I’m watching it!”
“Cool.” Dori smiled and headed for the front door, “See ya at 9:55—and don’t forget to make fresh popcorn!”
****
Halle looked back over her shoulder towards the ground that was two floors below her. Perhaps she had miscalculated on her inherent feline abilities to “always land on her feet”. If she dropped from this height, she had a feeling that her curvy body might end up in a chalk outline on the pavement instead of making the sneaky getaway she’d intended. She was hanging from her second story bedroom window and, to be quite honest, was more than a little bit stuck.
Well, fuck me, she thought.
Just as she was contemplating whether or not to alert her father’s guards and call for help, the window at her knees opened up and strong arms pulled her back inside the house that used to be her safe haven.
“What in the hell are you doing out there, Halle?” Tavin said, as he put her down on the couch in the living room just in time for her father to storm into the room.
“For Goddess's sake, Halle, are you trying to get yourself killed?” her dad yelled as he shut the window behind them.
“I might as well die. You’re condemning me to a life of enslavement. A life without a true mating by agreeing to give me to that criminal!” she yelled back, furious at the announcement her father had made at dinner tonight.
Halle almost felt bad at her accusation when she saw the look of torment on her father’s face before he looked away. She knew it couldn’t have been easy for him to agree to the terms of the Coven Master’s request. The entire Briggs family knew that fateful day when the leader of the North American coven had just “happened” to be in the right place at the right time to rescue Halle’s father from a group of rogue vampires, that one day he’d come forward to claim the blood debt and they’d be powerless not to agree to whatever he asked of them.