Enigma, Maine, Bundle 1

by Iris Abbott

  “Selena is safely tucked away in my penthouse, and that’s where she’s going to stay. I know Julie’s address. I lived there until yesterday.”

  It was Alessandro’s turn to hiss. “Start talking, cat,” he demanded.

  Phillip laughed. “Sometimes vampires are too easy to tease. Relax. She thought I was a stray and took me in. I was sent by the council to keep an eye on them after they cast the mated souls spell. I’ve already claimed Selena, so you have nothing to worry about at least from me.”

  “Tell me where she lives,” Alessandro demanded. “If she’s home I’ll bring her back and keep her under lock and key if I have to until the council gets to the bottom of this and the threat is over.”

  Phillip smiled. “Good luck with that, Russo. Witches are an independent lot, and I observed Julie enough to know that she and her friends are three of the most stubborn women in this universe.”

  He started walking and motioned for Alessandro to follow. “I’ll have the council send someone else out here to talk to Mitch. I’ll help you find Julie. Selena would never forgive me if anything happened to her friend.”

  Alessandro didn’t bother with a reply. He’d take all the help he could get when it came to Julie. He followed Phillip out to the low slung high-performance sports car, black of course, and lowered himself into the passenger seat. “Nice ride. You cats always travel in style. Now make this thing purr, because I’m not going to rest until Julie is safe.”

  Phillip revved the engine and shot out of the driveway. “We’ll go by her apartment first. If she isn’t there, then I’ll call Selena and see if she’s heard from Julie. I don’t want Selena involved unless it is absolutely necessary,” he insisted.

  ****

  Julie waited until her captor’s back was turned and gave a few more hard tugs on the ropes that bound her hands together. Her skin was rubbed raw, but the pain was immaterial. She wanted out of the chair! She finally had a gap large enough to slip her wrists through. She held her breath when the rope dropped to the floor with a soft thud.

  He didn’t seem to notice. Julie quickly removed the gag and brought her hands in front of her in preparation for the spell she weaved together in her mind. She crossed her fingers and spoke the words to the spell she needed. “To the ropes that once bound me, find your way to the man that has hounded me. Tie him tight so I can escape without a fight!” She blinked three times and then held her arms up and open wide to embrace the powers of the universe.

  The rope flew across the room and wrapped itself around the legs of the vampire hunter. He tripped and fell onto the hard wooden floor with a crash and a curse. Julie grabbed the purse and keys that were carelessly discarded on the foyer floor.

  She wasn’t taking any chances. Julie wanted to be out of the house and away from the madman that had been holding her hostage. She needed to call the police, but she didn’t know what to say to them. What if they believed the hunter's tale of vampires and witches?

  Julie flung open the front door and was greeted by the loud screech of tires and the smell of burning rubber. She was a little afraid of who might be driving the sleek black car, but she still wanted out of the house. She slammed the door shut and made a run for her car and mobile phone. She ran smack into the waiting arms of Alessandro. He’d moved so fast she’d only seen a blur make its way from the opening passenger door of the black car.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight. “We have to leave, Alessandro.” She pulled out of his arms and grabbed his sleeve and began tugging him toward her car.

  Alessandro refused to budge, and he was soon joined by the driver of the sports car. He looked vaguely familiar to Julie, but she couldn’t place him. She pulled on Alessandro’s arm again. “You don’t understand! We must leave now. A man who says he’s a vampire hunter waylaid me at the front door and held me captive all day. He knows all about vampires and witches!”

  Alessandro’s eyes glowed red in the darkness. “Where is he now?”

  Julie felt a shiver run down her spine at the sight of those blazing irises. Dating a vampire was going to take some getting used to. “He tied me to a chair, or I would have been able to cast a spell and escape long before now.”

  Alessandro clenched and unclenched his fists. “He tied you to a chair?” Alessandro hissed, and the vibration of anger in his voice was probably felt by every paranormal being in a thirty-mile radius.

  Julie was almost shaking in her boots at the rage in his voice. Even though she knew the anger was on her behalf and not directed at her, it was still a frightening thing to behold! “Yes, but I tugged and worked my hands until I got them loose and then I was able to recite a spell that tangled the hunter with his own ropes.”

  ****

  Alessandro’s fangs lengthened as the bloodlust of vengeance scorched his body. He pulled Julie into a tight embrace. His lips crushed hers in a searing kiss. He had a primitive need to once again mark her as his, but that would have to wait. He had a more pressing issue. He had to see to her safety and his survival first. “Saint John, take Julie back to my home and please make sure she stays there until I return.”

  “Russo, you know that as a council member it’s my job to dispose of the hunter and clean up this mess.”

  “It’s also your job to protect all supernatural beings.” He glared at the cat shifter. “That includes witches.” He thumped his chest with a hard blow from his flat hand. “I will take care of the hunter because he threatened Julie. She was marked by me last night. I shouldn’t have to tell you that that makes this my clean up job.”

  He turned back to Julie and claimed her lips for a quick kiss before he reluctantly pulled away. “Julie, please let Phillip take you back to the castle. He’s one of the cat shifters, the guardians of the mystical universe that I mentioned last night. He’s also a member of the council. That’s a group of the twenty oldest cat shifters in the world. They maintain law and order and dispense justice when necessary. He’ll take care of you until I can return home. I promise you can trust him with your life.”

  Julie clung to him. “No way am I leaving here with someone I don’t even know. And I don’t want to leave you to face danger on your own. That man wants to kill you,” she shrieked.

  Alessandro bared his fangs and allowed his eyes to glow blood red. “I don’t need you to protect me, Julie. I’m a vampire, remember? I’m used to dealing with hunters, or I wouldn’t have lived more than four centuries. He’s going to pay for daring to lay a hand on you, and I’m the debt collector.”

  He placed a finger over Julie’s lips to stop the protest he knew was coming. “Go with Phillip. You’re better acquainted with him than you think.”

  “But…”

  “And I have a feeling your friend Selena would never forgive us if anything happened to Phillip.”

  At the mention of Selena’s name, a purring sound erupted from Phillip.

  A look of understanding crossed Julie’s face. “You’re the man in the cat costume that swept Selena off her feet at the Halloween party!”

  “Yes, he is. Now please get out of here. I don’t want to have to worry about whether you’re safe or not.” Alessandro stalked into the house without another word. He knew Saint John would take care of Julie. Alessandro’s preternatural hearing picked up the roar of the sports car as it revved to life and then shot away from Julie’s apartment. Now he could focus on ending the threat. The sooner it was done, the sooner Julie would be back in his arms.

  ****

  Julie restlessly paced around the sitting room. She watched as the cat shifter she now knew as Phillip Saint John interrogated Alessandro’s security team on the events of the day. Julie felt helpless, and dread caused nerves to knot in the pit of her stomach. She was making everyone around her nervous too, but there was no way she’d be able to relax until she knew Alessandro was safe.

  The front door slammed open, and everyone jumped at the sudden interruption. Everybody was on edge thanks to frayed nerves
. Julie held her breath until Alessandro came into sight. She took a couple of steps toward him and then she ran. He opened his arms, and she stepped into his firm embrace. She trailed kisses from his neck to his mouth. “I’m so glad to see you. I’ve been worried sick.”

  ****

  Alessandro burned with a hunger for this woman that he knew would never be sated. He swept her into his arms and began walking from the room. He turned to look at Mitch and Phillip. “The vampire hunter is no longer a threat, and he’s been properly disposed of.”

  He tossed a clear vial of liquid to Philip. “I couldn’t find out anything else about the drug, so the council is going to have to launch a full investigation. This was on the hunter, and maybe it can be analyzed and its chemical makeup determined. If there’s more out there, it could prove fatal to the well-being of all things paranormal unless the council can find a way to counteract it.”

  He didn’t wait for a reply. Alessandro strode up the stairs and into his secret resting chamber. He needed Julie, and he needed her now! If the lust that rolled off her in waves was any indication, she needed him too. He was going to spend the rest of the night sating their need for each other and then he was going to spend the rest of his life however long that might be making sure she never regretted casting the mated souls spell and being bound to him forever, literally till death do they part!

  ****

  Phillip Saint John’s fingers curled tightly around the vial of clear liquid that could spell doomsday for him and his kind. He needed to report to the rest of the council immediately. He thought of Selena, and his heart nearly jumped into his throat. He had to get to the bottom of this latest threat as soon as possible because now there was so much more at stake. Failure was not an option, not when Selena’s wellbeing maybe even her very life depended upon him stopping this latest menace to the paranormal world.

  A GUARDIAN’S LOVING CLAIM

  Enigma, Maine Series

  Book 2

  Iris Abbott

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  A GUARDIAN’S LOVING CLAIM

  Copyright © 2011 by Iris Abbott

  First E-book publication: October 2011

  Cover design by Iris Abbott

  Photos and illustrations courtesy of bigstockphoto.com

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters in this book are fictitious and exist only in the imagination of the author. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  Dear Reader,

  Halloween Candy! Treat yourself to a tasty morsel reminiscent of the holiday. A GUARDIAN’S LOVING CLAIM is short sweet and addictive just like the real thing! It’s Halloween candy for the romantic in all of us.

  Welcome to Enigma, Maine where sometimes things are exactly as they seem no matter how strange that might be! You're invited to the Halloween event of the year! A GUARDIAN’S LOVING CLAIM is part two of the Mated Souls Trilogy. Selena Hunt and her two sister witches have cast a mated souls spell to help them find Mr. Right. Who would have thought that Mr. Right would turn out to be a cat shifter who is also a guardian of the mystical universe!

  Now Selena has been claimed by the dark and dangerous Phillip Saint John. And to make things worse, there's an insidious plot to bring down the alpha of Enigma’s wolf pack. Instead of playing fair the traitorous wolves are using underhanded methods to achieve their goal. Now Selena and her friends are caught in the middle. Phillip must act fast to save not only his soul mate but other innocent paranormal beings too. Readers beware, lots of hot loving with a dash of spooky fun and just a pinch of spin tingling danger!

  Enjoy and thank you for reading,

  Iris Abbott

  PROLOGUE

  Selena Hunt, Julie Banks, and Brittany Sheldon met in the flowered meadow on the night of a full moon. It was almost three weeks before Halloween. Selena glanced around at her sister witches. She nervously clutched the pouch of gold dust she had in the pocket of her cloak. She’d been anxiously waiting for this moment ever since they conceived the plan and wrote the spell. It took them over a year to piece together what they thought would be the perfect mated souls spell. And now it was time!

  Her friend Julie interrupted her inner musings. “Does everyone have gold dust?” she asked with a shaky voice. At everyone’s nod of confirmation, she blew out a deep and nervous breath.

  “Okay, it’s now or never. Are you ready? Three of us performing this spell together should make it even stronger.”

  The trio closed in so that they were standing in a tight circle. They crossed their middle and index fingers together on both hands before joining hands to create an unbroken circle. Then three clear, robust voices chanted into the crisp night air.

  “A sprinkle of gold dust we entrust for an overwhelming lust. We conceive of and have dreamed of a love from above. May our hearts be touched by the darts of Cupid so that we recognize a love from which we shall never depart. We feel it in our soul, and it is our very goal. We cannot wait. We ask of fate, please send us each our given mate! And mated souls shall be our role from Halloween until the time that death takes its final toll.”

  The women blinked three times and then opened their arms to embrace the elements of the universe and the magic it holds. A cloud slithered across the full moon and covered them with darkness. “It’s done,” Julie said to her companions. “Now we wait until Halloween to see what the universe and fate have in store for us.”

  Selena stifled a frustrated groan. She was twenty-six years old, and she was sick and tired of boring dates with losers. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the total summation of her dating life after almost nine years. When she looked at things that way, what were three more weeks? She said goodbye to her two best friends and headed back to her apartment. She would be counting the seconds. Halloween couldn’t come fast enough for this witch!

  ONE

  Knots formed in Selena’s stomach from a bad case of nerves. Tonight was the big night. Halloween. It was the night she and her friends would find out if their mated souls spell worked. She glanced at Brittany and then back at the door. Imagine a witch going to a Halloween party dressed as a witch.

  “I hope at least one of us was more creative when it came to a costume.” She loved the outfit. It was sexy, and the stiletto boots were to die for, but it wasn’t very imaginative.

  Brittany tucked a strand of sleek auburn hair behind one ear and laughed. “I think we look hot, besides it is only fitting that we’re dressed as witches since tonight is the night our mated souls spell is supposed to work.”

  Selena offered her friend a weak smile. She didn’t want to doubt the power of their magic, but this was a life-altering event. What if they latched onto the first men they saw just because the promise of the spell was there? She heard footsteps and snapped out of her gloomy thoughts.

  The door opened, and Julie took one look at her sister witches and giggled. “Really?” she arched a brow at her two best friends. “Not only are the three of us dressed as witches, but we have the same dress. Unbelievable! The only thing different is the boots.”

  “Well,” Brittany jumped into the conversation feet first as she was known to do. “We are witches, and you know what they say,” she winked, “great minds think alike.” That sent all three women into gales of laughter. “You look gorgeous by the way.” She arched a brow, “and you thought to get a prop. I love the lighted pumpkin.” Julie just shrugged.

  Selena’s intuition told her that Julie was just as nervous as she was. Of the three, Selena was the quiet and reserved one. She wasn’t one to dive in and take impulsive risks, but that’s what she’d have to do tonight she silently reminded herself. It made her feel a little better not to be the only one on edge about what might happen that n
ight.

  Syn, the stray black cat that Julie found a few weeks earlier, came running when he heard the noise. Julie reached down and picked him up and gave him a big hug. “You hold down the fort, Syn. The girls and I are up for one hot night.” The cat looked at her with big yellow eyes and meowed in agreement.

  Selena and Brittany gave him a pet behind the ears. He purred unusually loud when Selena hesitantly scratched him under the chin.

  There was something about the cat that disturbed Selena. She snatched her hand back and warily eyed the black cat. She was almost relieved when she saw Julie turn toward the door with the animal.

  Julie put Syn back in the house and locked the door behind her. “I swear that cat loves you more than me,” she pouted at Selena. “And I’m the one that rescued him from the rain and took him into my home.”

  Selena wasn’t so sure about that. She didn’t think the cat liked her at all. She moved aside the neckline of her costume to show off the tiny scar where her shoulder and neck met.

  “Right! Have you forgotten that your cat bit me? It scarred too.” She let out a huff of indignation. “It’s the only scar I have too, because I’ve been able to heal everything else, but nothing works on this stupid bite mark. Even my magic came up short!”

  Julie and Brittany frowned at each other. “I didn’t realize it left a scar,” Brittany lightly touched it with a finger and jumped back. “Ouch,” she glared at Selena. “You burned me!”

  Selena gave her friend an affronted look. “No, I didn’t! Stop playing pranks and let’s get to the party. I can’t wait to see what happens tonight. I’ve been jittery all day, and that usually means something big is about to happen!” If only, she silently thought. She was twenty-six years old and so tired of being alone. Dating wasn’t easy for a witch. They had to be very careful about who knew of their natural ability to use magic.