Enchanted Immortals Series Box Set: Books 1-4 plus Novella

by C. J. Pinard

  Angel woke up screaming. Pascal bolted up. “What is it, love?”

  She inhaled a large breath and lay back down. “Nothing, bad dream.”

  He shook his head and rolled over, going back to sleep.

  Bastard.

  She didn’t sleep much that day, afraid of more bad dreams. They’d been increasing since she had been secretly seeing Brandon. She knew what Brandon and the others were planning to do, but she intended to take no part in it the violence. The only thing she will have to do is let someone inject Pascal with the sleeping drug, and that’s it. She didn’t care anymore that they wanted to kill him; deep down she felt a small twinge of guilt for sitting back and letting it happen, but the rational part of her brain knew that she couldn’t go on like this any longer. She didn’t want to be with Pascal. These memory-dreams she’d been plagued with lately were a sure sign of that. These past thirty years had been long and she’d mostly tuned out the abuse, telling herself that she really had nowhere else to go. But she didn’t need Pascal any longer. Even if it doesn’t work out with Brandon, she was confident she could do what she needed to, to survive – even if she had to go back to dancing. The thought made her grin. She’d be the only forty-eight–year-old dancer in the place. Her smile faded as she thought about what she really and truly wanted, though.

  Her humanity back.

  CHAPTER 18

  ∞∞∞

  Portland, Oregon – Present Day

  Thomas made his way to the back of Zach’s Gym to the fighting cages. As soon as he opened the doors, he heard someone yell out a curse. He walked to the cage where he saw Jonathan lying on his back on the cage floor, drenched in sweat.

  Thomas stood in front of the cage and laughed. “Ol’ Zach giving you a run for your money, boss?”

  Zach helped Jonathan up as Jonathan grabbed his ribs. Thomas saw they were bruised. Jonathan looked at Thomas and smirked wickedly. “Get your ass in here, Honeymoon-Boy.”

  Zach climbed out of the cage and removed his leather palm glove, wiped his sweaty hand on his gym shorts, then put it out to Thomas. “Congratulations, man.”

  Thomas shook his hand and muttered his thanks.

  Tyler, wearing only red boxing shorts and gloves, his caramel-colored chest covered in a fine sheen of sweat, stood by the cage door. “Welcome home. How was Mexico?”

  “It was awesome.”

  Thomas stripped his shirt off, tossed it onto his gym bag, and straightened out his shiny black athletic shorts as he climbed into the cage. Jonathan shook his hand. “Welcome home. Ready to have your ass whooped?”

  Thomas grinned and shook his head. “Nope. But you can try.”

  Jonathan’s adrenaline was on high and Thomas was still trying to recover from all the food he’d eaten on the bloat boat. He knew he was definitely going to lose this one.

  Jonathan kicked out and caught Thomas in the upper thigh, hitting that special little pressure point that brings a person to their knees. He got up quickly, though, remembering Jonathan’s ribs, and attempted a punch at him, but Jonathan slid right, narrowly missing the punch. Jonathan grabbed Thomas around the neck and tried punching his face, but Thomas put his hands up to shield it. How Thomas wished he could flash away from the situation and really hurt Jonathan, but he knew Zach and others were watching. This wasn’t fair because he knew Jonathan was using more than human strength on him right now.

  Thomas used his right foot to kick at Jonathan’s kneecap. He loosened his grip a little and Thomas kicked again, wanting to be free but not wanting to break Jonathan’s knee. The second kick did it; Jonathan let him go with a yell and Thomas moved faster than he should have and punched him in the gut. Jonathan doubled over but recovered quickly by kicking Thomas in the chest. Thomas landed on his butt and Jonathan was on top of him, pinning his shoulders down, one knee and one arm on each shoulder until Thomas was forced to tap out.

  Jonathan helped him up. “You’re no fun.”

  “Yeah, well don’t invite me next time,” he spat.

  “Are you mad?”

  Thomas shook his head. “No, man, just tired. Just got in today, you know.”

  They exited the cage and grabbed towels.

  “I know. Go get some rest. Tomorrow morning we’re heading to Pascal’s to check up on their baby sun vamps.”

  They departed the warehouse area and went back into the main part of the gym.

  “I’m gonna hit the treadmill and some weights. I gotta get back in shape, that cruise was too much!” Thomas said.

  “See you later,” Tyler said as he and Jonathan left the gym.

  ∞∞∞

  “You guys ready for this?” Brandon asked.

  Bryan, Eric, Vania, and Ray were sitting at the picnic table. Brandon’s medical bag was on the ground, next to the table.

  Brandon continued, “The sun will hit the tetherball pole at about ten-forty-five a.m. I want him tied to that thing before then, say around ten-thirty-five. I want him to know the sun is coming. I want him to see it and fear it. He won’t be able to do anything about it. It will be great.”

  Eric looked at his watch. “Okay, it’s ten a.m. now. Show me how to use the needle.”

  Brandon looked at Bryan. “Go inside and make sure they’re all sleep.”

  Bryan nodded and went inside and climbed the stairs, straining to hear any noises. Sometimes Pascal and Angel had loud sex in the mornings, but he didn’t hear anything but silence from both their room and Mike’s. He went back down to the backyard to report it.

  “Perfect,” said Brandon. He looked up to their bedroom window to make sure no one was looking outside, then he pulled out four syringes and four small glass vials of medicine. “It’s very easy. I’m going to pull the drug into the needle and all you’ll need to do is push the plunger down with your thumb.”

  Vania said, “Let me see that needle.” She peeled off the plastic wrapping and practiced pushing the plunger down.

  Outside, Thomas peered through a crack in the fence, hiding behind a bush just on the other side. He could see but couldn’t hear too well. He flashed back to the van where Kathryn, Jonathan, and Tyler were waiting.

  “They’re definitely plotting something back there. They have needles and medicine and a whole damn medical kit,” he reported.

  Kathryn shrugged. “Maybe they’re druggies. Vampires can get drunk, right? Maybe they can get high, too.”

  Jonathan sat in the driver’s seat and stared absently out front, his hand at his mouth. “I don’t know. Let’s hope that’s all it is. Still, I want to see what they’re doing. Let’s hang out here a little bit longer. Then we have to meet Jason Swift at the BSI headquarters later and fill him in.”

  “Where is he now?” Thomas asked.

  “He had meetings all morning,” Jonathan replied.

  Tyler adjusted his black and silver Raiders ball cap and looked up from his medical journal. “Hey, Tom, could you see what the drug was called that they were playing with?”

  Thomas shook his head. “No, couldn’t see that far.”

  “Let’s knock on the door,” Kathryn suggested. “Let’s just see what they’re doing. I might be able to get a read on one of them.”

  Jonathan nodded. “Okay. Just me and you, though. Thomas, you go stand by the gate, if they all come to the door, you zip in the backyard and try to see what drugs they’re using, okay?”

  “You got it.”

  Tyler stayed in the van while the three crept down the street. Jonathan knocked on the door. Thomas watched from the crack in the wooden gate while the five looked up toward the house, then at each other. “Who the hell is that?” Bryan asked. “Stay here, I’ll get it.”

  Damn, Thomas thought.

  Bryan and Vania answered the door. “Yeah?”

  “I’m Jonathan and this is Kathryn. Is Pascal here?”

  Bryan narrowed his eyes at them. “I know you guys, I saw you at the club. Immortal cops, right? You obviously know Pascal sleeps during the day.”


  Kathryn tapped into Bryan’s head. Pretend you’re human, pretend you’re human, he repeated over and over.

  “Yes, I do. So how is it that a little bloodsucker like you can be out in the sun and he can’t then?” Jonathan asked, arms folded over his navy blue dress shirt, which was folded up to his forearms. He could look quite intimidating if he had to.

  Bryan swallowed hard. “What do you mean? I’m just his little snack, nothing more.” Keep lying, keep lying…

  Kathryn heard Vania thinking, Why does Versed sound so familiar? Oh yeah, I think they used that on my mom when she had her gallbladder surgery…

  It was clear the visit from them was not bothering her one bit.

  “It’s okay, we’ll come back later,” Kathryn said, pulling on Jonathan’s arm.

  He looked at Kathryn then back at the young vampires. “Tell Pascal we stopped by.”

  Bryan slammed the door extra hard and went back to the backyard. Thomas was already waiting in the van.

  Kathryn got in and looked at Tyler. “Is there a drug called ‘bur-sad’ or ‘vor-sed’?”

  Tyler looked at her strangely for a minute. “Oh! Versed?”

  Kathryn snapped her fingers. “That’s it!”

  “Yes, it’s a drug we use for minor surgeries.”

  Jonathan asked, “What does it do, put you under?”

  “Sort of. It’s like a twilight sleep; we use it for minor surgeries so recovery is easier.”

  Jonathan shook his head. “Now what in the hell do they need that for? You wouldn’t get high with that, would you?”

  Tyler laughed without taking his eyes off his book. “No, you’d get very low with that.”

  Brandon and Eric stayed in the backyard as Vania and the other two crept up the stairs. Vania, a syringe in each hand, holding them in her fists like knives, crept into Mike’s room and he didn’t even rouse. She walked over to him and thought, If I could sweat, I’d be dripping right now!

  Mike was lying on his back, shirtless, with his arms above his head. He looked dead as he wasn’t breathing at all. Even though she was a vampire, it still creeped her out that they slept like that. She took a deep breath – a human habit she instinctively still used – and stabbed Mike in both his pectoral muscles, slamming the plungers down with her thumbs. He sat bolt upright and yelled, attempting to get up, but was quickly knocked out by the tranquilizer and fell back on his bed. Vania let out a terrified squeak, then yanked out the syringes and high-tailed it out of the room.

  Ray and Bryan were in Pascal’s room. Angel was not asleep but said nothing when the boys entered. She sat stock still as each young vampire stabbed Pascal in the sides of his neck and pushed the plungers home. He also sat up and yelled, looking at Angel, who wasn’t expecting him to wake up like that, so she did the only thing she could think to do; she screamed in mock horror. Pascal quickly flopped back on the bed, unconscious.

  “What in the hell was that!” Jonathan said, looking at the others in the van.

  “That was definitely a woman screaming and it definitely came from that house,” Tyler said, pointing. He dropped his book and followed the others, who were running down the street.

  Thomas, of course, got there first and as he peered through the gap in the gate, he saw Brandon and Bryan dragging Pascal’s lifeless body to the tetherball pole. They sat him up against it and pulled his arms behind his back and around the pole, securing him to it with handcuffs.

  “What in the…?” Thomas whispered.

  “Let me see.” Jonathan peered through the crack. “Oh, my God, they’re going to kill him. Look – the sun is about to hit him.”

  The vampires stood back as they watched Pascal start to rouse from his sleep. He lifted his head and looked around. “What the bloody…?” Then he looked up and saw the shadow inching away from him. He shook his head to clear it but couldn’t quite grasp what was going on. He looked at Brandon, who stood close by with his arms folded, smirking.

  He spotted Bryan and slurred, “You! I made you. I trusted you. Why are you doing this, boy?”

  Bryan said nothing, just turned away. The sun inched its way closer to Pascal.

  The Immortals had all found cracks to peer through.

  “Shouldn’t we be stopping this?” Tyler asked. “They can’t just kill him like that, can they?”

  “The Treaty does not have any rules against Fae killing each other. They just cannot kill or harm sylphs, humans, or Immortals, and we cannot kill them without just cause, like self-defense,” said Thomas. Then he looked at Jonathan, who did not look back.

  “Yes, but we can’t just sit here and watch this, can we?” Tyler asked.

  Just then, they heard a yell.

  The sun was fully shining on Pascal’s face and it was beginning to smoke and blister. The shadow moved down and began to expose the cruel sun to his bare chest. More smoking and sizzling.

  Then, his skin began to catch fire. Pascal was screaming in agony.

  Angel was watching from the kitchen window, tears streaming down her face. She put her hand over her ears.

  “Screw this!” Tyler said. He pushed open the gate and all five young vampires looked at him, alarmed.

  The other Immortals followed and watched as Tyler got right in front of Pascal, closed his eyes, and put both arms out and began to draw the fire off of Pascal. The fire would leap off of Pascal and jump into Tyler’s hands and he would toss the flames away into the air where they disappeared into ash. Tyler burned his hands but kept pulling. He would pull the fire off, and Pascal would heave and gasp, the smoke from his own skin choking him, but the sun would begin burning him again, and the fire would ignite once again.

  “What in the hell are you doing, man?” Brandon yelled.

  He advanced on Tyler and Thomas flashed over to him and pushed him as hard as he could, sending him flying backward. The other four just watched, frozen and unsure what to do.

  Tyler looked around the backyard and saw a small kiddie pool filled with rain water. He put his hands up and the water from the pool floated in midair. Every supernatural creature in the backyard stopped and stared in awe as the water went flying across the backyard at the command of Tyler’s arms, and doused Pascal, putting out the flames.

  Kathryn grabbed Tyler’s arm. “What are you doing? Leave them be. We can’t interfere in this!”

  Tyler shrugged her off. “I’m sorry. I took an Oath to Do No Harm. I can’t sit back and watch this.”

  Jonathan swore under his breath as he ran to Pascal and broke the handcuffs off and, picking him up, he tossed him into the shade under the nearest tree.

  Not sure what to do next, all eyes were on the very charred, but still not dead Pascal. Then they heard a bloodcurdling scream and turned around to see Angel run outside and over to Pascal under the apple tree, getting burned by the sun as she ran, screaming and crying. Brandon watched curiously in amusement as she feigned grief. Then without warning, she pulled a very large butcher knife out from under her shirt and with both hands gripping the handle, stabbed Pascal in the heart. His mouth opened in shock but no words came out; he turned brown, then gray then promptly disappeared into a puff of ash and smoke.

  You could hear a pin drop in the backyard as Angel choked back another sob, dropped the knife, and walked woodenly back into the house, skin smoking until she reached the shade of the porch.

  Brandon watched her in awe, and then turned back to everyone and said, “Well now it’s a party!”

  EPILOGUE

  ∞∞∞

  Portland, Oregon – 2001

  Jonathan and Thomas were sitting at a waterfront restaurant having dinner and drinks.

  “So what’s up with you and Kathryn?” Thomas asked between bites of pasta primavera.

  Without looking up from his steak, Jonathan replied, “What do you mean?”

  Thomas grinned. “Come off it, man. You getting back together?”

  “No. She and I will always love each other, but it usua
lly doesn’t work after a few years.”

  “Kinda like marriage?” Thomas asked, amused.

  Jonathan chuckled. “Something like that.” Suddenly, his face fell as he saw somebody entering the restaurant.

  “What?” Thomas asked, turning in his seat to see a couple walking in. The man had shoulder-length curly black hair and piercing blue eyes, and his date was very beautiful; a voluptuous blonde in a short red dress and very high heels.

  He turned back to Jonathan. “Do you know them?”

  Jonathan’s jaw clenched. “Oh, I know him. I’ve been looking for that no-good son-of-a-bitch for almost two hundred years.”

  Thomas’s mouth gaped open. “What!?”

  Jonathan threw his napkin onto the table. “That is a vampire named Sebastian and he killed my Emma.”

  “What! I thought you said you didn’t know who killed her? That’s what you told me in the fifties; remember when you told your story to me?”

  Jonathan was breathing heavy now, rage bubbling up and threatening to boil over. “I had a talk with Emma’s sister, Grace, a few years ago. She said she found out it was the brother of the vampire I killed to save Emma the night I met her. His name was Silas and that is his brother, Sebastian.”

  “Yes, Jonathan, but how do you know that’s him?”

  “He looks identical to the vampire I killed. I know it’s him. Look at the guy, he is definitely a vampire. I’m gonna go talk to him.”

  “Oh, no you’re not. Cool your jets, man,” Thomas said.

  Jonathan ignored him and stormed over to Pascal’s table in the bar section of the restaurant. “Up! Now, leech. Meet me in the men’s room or I will drag you in there.”

  Pascal looked up, alarmed, and then amused. Then recognition passed over his features, and the blood drained from his face. “As you wish,” he said.