Tall, Dark and Paranormal: 10 Thrilling Tales of Sexy Alpha Bad Boys

by Opal Carew

  The largest population of the once mighty Etruscan race, maybe five thousand or so, lived here in Reading and Berks County, conveniently located over a ley line of earth power and smack up against the Schuylkill River. A ley line and running water to power their magic must have seemed like a hole-in-one to the first Etruscans who’d moved here from the old country in the early 1800s.

  They’d blended into the melting pot of nineteenth-century Reading but maintained their ancient culture. They lived outwardly normal lives but instead of adding to the collection of churches that stood on every other corner, they built hidden temples for their goddesses and gods.

  The eteri who shoveled lasagna and rigatoni at Marelli’s Trattoria on south Seventh Street would choke on their food if they discovered Uni’s Temple was built into the back of the building.

  Here, she and Leo were just another two faces in the Etruscan community. Two more bodies at temple where they sat in the back and kept their heads down. Until everyone lifted their faces toward the ceiling to ask for Uni’s protection for the Etruscan race. Then she begged for Leo’s safekeeping.

  But did Uni hear? Did She care?

  Hell, after everything she’d seen in the world, after her parents’ murders, Shea wasn’t sure the Great Goddess existed anymore.

  But monsters did exist. And for those, she had weapons.

  She lifted the attonitum from its spot on the bedside table. It looked like a cross between a revolver and an inoculation gun and would be useless in the hand of an eteri.

  But in hers… The iron grip warmed to her touch, while the quartz crystal concentration chamber pulsed with a pale pink light, responding to her arus, the magic inherent in the blood of all Etruscans. The solid copper barrel would focus that power wherever she pointed, strengthening it into a heated blast similar to a laser.

  There was nothing sleek about the attonitum, nothing like the Beretta Px4 Storm her dad had taught her to shoot and that she always carried. But the gun didn’t give her the headache the attonitum did.

  Such a failure.

  Using magic was always a lesson in pain. Her head pounded whenever she worked a spell or used her Goddess Gift to heal even a minor cut. And though she’d developed a mental shield to keep the voices to a dull buzz, a migraine was never far away.

  But she’d use the weapon, to protect Leo. She’d made a promise. And she knew, even in death, her mom would hold her to it.

  Like someone had twisted the volume dial, the voices grew louder, chattering over each other like angry hornets. Though she couldn’t understand them, Shea knew they were warning her. She and Leo were out of time.

  Reaching under the bed for the backpack always within arm’s reach, she pulled out her mom’s grimoire and a sheet of paper fluttered out from between the pages.

  She didn’t have to read it to know what it said. She’d memorized months ago what her mom had written before her death.

  “Too much to say and not enough time. Know we love you and your brother. In time, we hope you can forgive us for all we hid from you. Please understand that we did what we thought was right.

  The men who will kill us will come after Leo. These men work for Dario Paganelli. If Paganelli catches you, he’ll kill you, Shea. He’ll take your brother and pervert his powers to hunt the remaining Priestesses.

  Neither you nor your brother can fall into Paganelli’s hands. The consequences are unspeakable. Use the locator spell to find Mr. Brown in Reading, Pennsylvania. He’s a grigorio and a friend. He’ll protect you both. Tell him I sent you and that all is done in time.

  And always remember we love you.”

  Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them back.

  Their dad had been a grigorio, too, one of the legendary Etruscan warrior priests. Great warriors who could handle a sword as easily as a gun and who always had a ready smile. Her dad had seemed invincible.

  And Dario had killed him.

  The bed jostled and she turned to find Leo staring at her.

  She smiled at the drowsy look on his sweet face and ran a hand through his soft dark hair.

  “Hey, bud. How’d you sleep?”

  He shrugged but said nothing.

  Biting back a sigh, she leaned forward to lay a kiss on his forehead. “Think you’re awake enough to give me a hand with something?”

  Leo’s eyes widened as he nodded, but he held out his arms for his morning hug first. She was already halfway there and wrapped his skinny little body against her.

  So small. He was so small.

  No, she couldn’t let fear screw with her mind right now. They had a spell to perform.

  “Okay, then.” She opened the grimoire to the spell her mom had mentioned. “Let’s see what we need.”

  She and Leo headed to the window. Since empathic healing was her only Goddess Gift, and headaches and migraines hampered her spell-working abilities, she needed Leo’s unusual strength to feed most spells.

  It used to scare the shit out of her, that sense of helplessness she got whenever she tried and failed to work a spell.

  Her dad had always said, “It’s all right, sweetheart. You’ll get the hang of it eventually.” He’d never given up on her. Her mom…

  Since she couldn’t think about that without getting depressed, she pushed it out of her mind and focused on the task ahead. Setting an unopened phone book on the window sill, where the sun shone directly through, she dropped a pinch of saffron, a pinch of cinnamon and a topaz stone to draw the light into the bottom of her moon bowl, which would capture and hold the spell’s energy until she released it.

  Lifting her face into the sun, she said, “Usil, Lord of the Amber Light, hear our humble plea. Illuminate the abode of Mr. Brown with your soft breath.” She bit down on her bottom lips as a sharp pain knifed through her temples. “Okay, Leo, blow.”

  Leaning close, Leo blew the dry ingredients over the phone book, the scent of the spices strong in the morning air. When they’d settled on the book, Shea opened it somewhere near the middle.

  Please, let me have done this right…

  Shea breathed a sigh of relief when the soft breeze they’d called with the spell blew across the pages for several seconds. As quickly as it started, it stopped again.

  Starting at the left, she ran her finger down the columns of names and numbers. And there, in the center of the left page, listed under appliance repair in the yellow pages, was a number for G. Brown. A number with eight digits and a street name but no building number.

  It looked like a misprint, but Shea knew better. Since she couldn’t use a regular phone to make this call, she’d have to wait until she got to Harry’s to use the old black rotary phone in the dressing room. That phone was connected to the communication system only Etruscans could use.

  More waiting.

  Please don’t let it be too late.

  She turned to Leo with a smile, this one more natural. “Looks like it worked, babe. We’ll give Mr. Brown a call later, okay? You and me, we’re a great team, huh?”

  Leo nodded but he didn’t smile. He never smiled. He barely ever spoke.

  And it broke her heart.

  She took a deep breath. “Alright, then, how about some breakfast?”

  Leo’s big dark eyes, so like their dad’s, just watched her. Silent. Waiting.

  Shea wished she knew for what.

  * * *

  Another dead end.

  Gabriel Borelli slammed the front door behind him and threw his coat at the nearest chair. It missed and fell to the floor with a heavy thud.

  Fuck it. He’d check the weapons later.

  Right now, he needed a drink. That bottle of Mezzaluna vodka in the cabinet didn’t stand a chance. Not after the month he’d had.

  Four fucking-endless weeks chasing a rumor that turned into a dead end. The versipellis Harry had put him in touch with had been positive she’d seen a man who fit Dario Paganelli’s description in a restaurant in the Outer Banks. It’d been his first lead in more than
a year, but it’d been a damn bust.

  And now it was time to face the music for his absence.

  Bottle in hand, he took a healthy swallow before he picked up the black handset from the 1940s-era phone and dialed the eight-number code to get Phil.

  “May I help you?”

  As always, that high-pitched female voice made him think of the old Lily Tomlin phone-operator skit on “Laugh In.” His dad had loved that show.

  “It’s Brown. Messages?”

  Phil’s purely feminine sigh made his temples throb.

  Damn, this is gonna suck.

  “There are several, as you would know if you’d checked in every week, as you’re supposed to. Not once a month, Gabriel.”

  Gods be damned. He was a grigorio, a lean, mean, Etruscan bad-ass whose enhanced senses made it damn-near impossible for anyone to get the drop on him. His affinity for all metals but iron gave him the power to slap bullets out of the air with a simple spell. And his unusual strength made him hard to kill and nearly impossible to beat in a fight.

  And Phil was not his mother so why the hell did he, a twenty-eight-year-old man, feel like he had to apologize?

  No way. He wasn’t gonna do it. He didn’t need to—

  “Look, I’m sorry.” Shit, you’re an idiot. “I’ve been out of touch—”

  “And where exactly have you been?”

  Not in this lifetime, babe. “Personal business. What messages?”

  Phil huffed and, for a few seconds, he was sure he was going to have to apologize again and that might just make him chug the rest of the bottle.

  “Crimson Moon called three times.”

  Yeah, he’d figured his mom would call at least once while he was gone, even though she had his cell number.

  “Lupe’s Low End called twice.”

  Goddamn Quinn. His best friend needed to get over his distrust of cell phones, too.

  “And one attempt was made to procure your services.”

  Fuck. For Phil to forward an outside call to him meant someone had asked for him by name. That usually only happened when another grigorio wanted his help.

  “Who was it?”

  “Unknown.”

  Huh? “What the hell does that mean?”

  “That means,” Phil huffed, “she didn’t leave her name.”

  “And this female asked for me by name?”

  “Yes, she asked for Mr. Brown. When I told her you were unavailable, she hung up.”

  Well, shit. The existence of the grigori and the cursed streghe they protected was a carefully maintained secret, even among the Etruscans. The story of how the women had been cursed by Fabrizio Paganelli to unending life had become myth. How their sons were born grigori, the great warrior protectors thought to be extinct, a legend.

  For someone to ask for him by his call name…

  “Christ, Phil. Did you find out where she was calling from? Did you—”

  “Do you think I don’t know my job, Gabriel Borelli?”

  Fuck. Second rule of being a grigorio—Don’t piss off Phil.

  “Of course you know your job. I’m sor—”

  “Don’t bother,” she snapped. “I don’t appreciate your language or your insinuations, Gabriel. You are expected at ritual in four nights. I suggest you get some sleep before you get your ass over there. And the next time this phone rings, I expect you to answer it.”

  Gabriel took another slug from the bottle as Phil hung up on him. Loudly. And not before shoving a tiny spell through the line to make his head ache. Damn, that woman was vindictive.

  Still, he should have checked in. It was part of the deal. Grigori were to be available at all times, any time. His father, the former Mr. Brown, never would’ve missed a check-in.

  No, Davis Borelli had been one of the best grigori ever.

  Before he’d been murdered by Dario Paganelli.

  No, Dario hadn’t pulled the trigger. But the bastard was responsible for his dad’s death. Just as Dario’s father Fabrizio had been responsible for the curse that had arrested the lives of the streghe.

  Maybe Fabrizio would have been more careful if he’d known the curse would screw his son, too. The deities could be spiteful when they granted your wishes. Fabrizio had cursed the thirteen streghe but that curse had trapped his son Dario in eternal life, as well.

  And now Dario hunted the streghe with a bloody vengeance. The bastard had a lot to answer for. And Gabriel would make sure he answered in blood.

  Another few slugs and the bottle surrendered its last drop.

  Gabriel’s gaze slid to the cabinet. No more Mezzaluna. He had a bottle of Grey Goose, but on top of the Messaluna, it might be lethal.

  He sat there for a few seconds, wondering just how drunk he needed to be to take his mind off the fact that he wasn’t any closer to finding Dario and murdering him.

  Pretty damn drunk.

  He definitely needed a change of scenery.

  Chapter Two

  Gods be damned, there he was, Mr. Brown, their supposed savior, drinking himself into a stupor.

  For the third night in a row.

  Shea grabbed the pole in the center of the catwalk and gave the few men sitting in the Spyder Club’s front row a good view of her naked breasts as she swung around a second time. She needed the tips.

  While the midnight regulars lining the catwalk ogled her, Mr. Brown never glanced toward the stage from his table in the back corner. She didn’t think he even realized there was a dancer up there.

  The dark-haired man with the don’t-fuck-with-me expression probably wouldn’t recognize her if he fell over her on the street, which was a distinct possibility at the rate he was sucking down tequila.

  Great. Just great. What the hell am I supposed to do now?

  She barely heard the throbbing beat of the Black-Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” as she went through her bump-and-grind. She knew it well enough not to trip over her four-inch, stiletto heels. But the chill spreading through her body scared her.

  Four days ago, she’d called the number in the phone book, the one she and Leo had found using the locator spell.

  A female voice had said hello but when Shea had asked for Mr. Brown, she’d been told he was unavailable and would she liked to talk to Mr. Blue?

  Her mother’s letter mentioned only one name. Mr. Brown. Not Mr. Blue. She’d hung up without answering.

  That night after work, she and Leo had cased the street listed in the phone book. They’d scrutinized every building for ten blocks and she had known immediately which house was Mr. Brown’s. The Etruscan runes carved around the door like decoration gave it away.

  They’d parked and staked out the house, her ‘72 Dodge Dart blending in among the older Plymouths and Chevys on the street. Later that night, an unfamiliar dark-haired man had walked into the building.

  They’d left without knocking on his door.

  Tomorrow, she told herself. She’d approach him tomorrow.

  But the next night, that man had taken up residence at that table and begun to drink. And drink. And he’d returned to that table every night since.

  He hadn’t said a word to anyone except Harry. Of course, “Give me the bottle” wasn’t exactly conversation.

  This was the man her mother wanted her to entrust with Leo’s life?

  Uh, no. She didn’t think so. Not until she’d learned a lot more about him.

  * * *

  “Leo? Hey, hon, I’m back.”

  Shea shut the door to the dressing room behind her, walking through the cluttered space to throw the few scraps of material she’d stripped off on stage in her cubby.

  “Shit, you done already?” Vibia groaned at the makeup mirror, outlining pale blue eyes with black liner, dark hair already teased and sprayed into carefully tousled waves. “Guess I better get a move on. You know how Marci gets when I’m late. What a bitch.”

  Shea just shrugged her shoulder. No way was she getting between the two lucani versipelli. Skin-shifter tempers were i
nfamously short, particularly the Etruscan wolves, who had the whole Latin temperament going against them, too.

  The fur would fly, literally, if the women shifted into their wolves and went after each other.

  “Hey, Vi, is Leo in the bathroom?”

  “No.” The woman waved her hand toward the door. “Dilby came to take him DownBelow. Said the band wanted him to sit in on percussion. He’s got a gift for music, your boy.”

  Cold fear swamped her before she could prepare, stealing her breath and crushing her stomach in its grip. She nearly ran for the door before she stopped and took a deep breath.

  “Hey, sweetie,” Vibia said, frowning at her. “He’s fine. You know Dilby won’t let anything happen to him.”

  “Yeah.” She forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m sure he’s fine.”

  Dilby had been the first person to befriend them after Shea had gotten the job here. Shea hadn’t wanted to make friends, but Dilby had been relentless. In a good way. Always chatty but never nosy. The lead singer of DownBelow’s house band, Dilby had been the first person to put a musical instrument in Leo’s hands. She’d make sure nothing happened to him.

  Still, these past few weeks, Shea had become terrified to let him out of her sight.

  She refused to leave him alone in their apartment when she went to work. The kid was only six. But dragging him to a strip club nearly every night, even if he only sat in the dressing room, was no life for a kid. Hell, being on the run was no life for a kid.

  He deserved more. He deserved to grow up in his own home with his parents, free from harm. Safe. Cocooned.

  Suffocated.

  Like she’d felt.

  Oh, not at first. At first, it’d been heaven. Just her and her parents. A forest to play in. Books to read. Weapons to train with. Spells to learn. Not that she’d had much luck with that, but still…

  Until she was twelve, she hadn’t known there were living beings in the world other than her parents and the animals who roamed a forest so thick it blotted out the sky in spots.