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

by C. J. Pinard

  Rick the bartender nodded and wandered into the backroom.

  Leo was in his office, a smoldering cigar at his desk and a mountain of paperwork under the pencil he was holding. He was the bar’s owner and didn’t like being interrupted while he was balancing the books.

  “Boss, there’s a lady out here asking for you.”

  Leo looked up from his duties and narrowed his eyes at the bartender. “Tell her to get lost, I’m busy.”

  “All right.”

  Rick went back to the bar and informed the woman he wasn’t available.

  She let out a huff and walked to the back where she had seen Rick disappear to.

  “Lady, you can’t go back there!” Rick said, following her.

  She quickly found Leo’s office and opened the door without knocking. “Leo, I need to talk to you.”

  Rick entered a few seconds later. “Sorry, boss, I told her you were busy, but –”

  Leo didn’t even look at the bartender, as he stared at the woman. “It’s ok, Rick. Just close the door behind you.”

  He nodded and left, pulling the door with him.

  Leo leaned back in his chair and took a long drag of his cigar, staring at the woman, who had helped herself to a seat on the long sofa in Leo’s office. “So what’s it been, Pearl, about ten years?”

  She nodded, chomping on gum. She had a heavy east coast accent. “Yeah, I think so.”

  “So what the hell do you want? I’m busy.”

  “I’d like to know what happened to Howie,” she said, her arms folded. She smoothed her powder blue skirt and was tapping the shoe of her heeled black mary janes on his hardwood floor.

  Smoke wafted through the air and seemed to get stuck in her high, sleek black beehive hairdo. She waved it away and exaggerated a cough.

  “Who is Howie?” he asked, curious.

  She huffed. “My brother, you asshole!”

  “I’m still not following, doll. If he’s missing, check the local dog pound. Otherwise, I don’t care.”

  She stood up and stomped her foot. “He’s dead, you insensitive prick! Someone killed him in Lincoln Park and I know you and your little cops did something to him.”

  Recognition passed over Leo’s face and he smiled. “The human cops killed him, not us. Justice Department, in fact.”

  She swallowed down a sob but maintained her composure, slumping back to the sofa. “What do you know about it?”

  He measured his words carefully. The shapeshifters didn’t know about the BSI and the Immortals wanted to keep it that way. “I don’t know much, I was told that he shifted and attacked the cops, they shot him, end of story. Did they not explain this to you when you went to identify the body, or whatever else they called you to do?”

  “Yes,” she said quietly. “They told me what you just said. But it makes no sense. Howie wouldn’t shift like that and attack people, he had to have been provoked.”

  Leo set the cigar down. “Pearl, did Howie beat his wife?”

  She stared at him horror. “Of course not.”

  “But she was human, wasn’t she?”

  Pearl nodded. “Yeah, I told him he shouldn’t be getting involved with no human girl, but he married her and I thought they were doing okay.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “Why do you ask? What does it matter?” she asked suspiciously.

  Leo blew out a breath. “No reason.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t believe you. You know something and you better tell me!”

  “So how’s Morrie doing?” he asked in deflection.

  “Oh, so you haven’t seen me in ten years, but you sure know who the new clan leader is.”

  Leo laughed. “You are seriously deluded if you think I am not going to keep tight tabs on your shifter clan and the vampires. What do you think we do here?”

  “To answer your question, Morrie was just fine until last week when he lost one of his clan members. He sent me here looking for answers.”

  “I don’t believe you. He was your brother. You’re grieving and want someone to blame. You want to point the finger? Point it at Howie. He shouldn’t have shifted and attacked humans, especially in public. I don’t know what he was thinking, but it was the end of him.”

  She was looking at him, part mortified, part furious.

  “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m swamped here.” He pointed to the stacks of paperwork.

  “You’re a real dick, you know that, Leo?” she huffed, walking toward the door.

  He waved. “Give Morrie my regards!”

  As she stormed out, the door slammed shut, rattling the frame.

  ∞∞∞

  Christian and Annette were again staking out the creepy mansion of the supposed head of the local vampire clan. The house was quiet and so was Christian. Ever since the incident with Howie the shapeshifter, Christian had been less friendly and decidedly more quiet. Annette had tried talking to him but he said it was nothing, totally denying that he was acting differently.

  Men.

  She looked over at him, his face in the driver’s seat looking in the direction of the house, his fingers strumming absently on the steering wheel. She gazed at the back of his head and then looked back down at the magazine she was pretending to read. She took a listen to his ruminating stream of consciousness.

  I’ve got to get to the bottom of this. What if the Bureau has hired a shapeshifter? There’s definitely something off about her… I am going to figure out what it is. I wonder if I should ask her out on a date and see if I can get her in bed. While she’s sleeping, I can look around her house. I’m pretty sure at the academy they said that shifters have higher than usual body temps. I’ve only ever touched her once when I took her to the hospital, but I was too pumped up and panicked to notice. Maybe if I put my hand on her arm, or pretend to bump into her, I could feel her skin. But then I’d have to let my hand linger too long, and she’d definitely think that was weird…

  Annette suppressed a smile at his angsty inner monologue. So he thought she was a shifter. That’s kind of funny, she thought. It’s not as if he’d ever guess what she really was, though. There was no way she was going to tell him; he’d have to just keep speculating. She did briefly wonder, however, if he was going to come on to her and try to sleep with her.

  Not that the thought had never crossed her mind.

  But now she’d know it was because he was trying to find out if she was something other than human, and not because he was interested. She sighed loudly and Christian turned his head and looked at her.

  “Everything okay?” he asked, seeming concerned.

  She nodded. “Oh yes, of course. Just bored. Wish these vampires would keep a regular schedule so we wouldn’t have to sit out here all night.”

  Christian grinned. “We could try to break in or peek in the windows.”

  She looked at him curiously. “Ever been bitten by a Doberman?”

  “No, but maybe you should go. You seem to have the magical ability to fight off large animals,” he said. It was a teasing tone, but the snarky undercurrent wasn’t lost on her.

  And to heal very quickly from their bites and scratches! he added inside his head.

  He was now smirking and she stared at him without smiling. “You got something to say, Estes?”

  His smile fell. “No, why?”

  “Well, you’ve been acting weird and I think you should come out with it. I know the shifter attack freaked you out and everything, but I really am okay. As you can see.”

  Oh yes, much better than you should be.

  She frowned. Sometimes she hated her little ability. She decided to tune out his thoughts. She didn’t want to hear any more.

  “Vampires at ten o’clock,” she said, pointing at the house, grateful for the reprieve from the tense conversation. She hoped he didn’t want to continue it later.

  He pulled the heavy black binoculars up to his eyes while Annette put the camera up to her face and started snapping pho
tos. At least there was a full moon tonight and visibility was a bit better than it had been the last time.

  “They’re fixin’ to leave,” Annette said, still snapping pictures.

  He lowered the binoculars and looked at her with amusement in his eyes. “Fixin’?”

  She shrugged and pulled the stale gum from her mouth, wrapping it in a tissue. “I’m from the South, what can I say?”

  “Not fixin’.”

  She chuckled. “No promises.”

  The town car backed out of the wrought iron gates and the large bodyguard again shut the gates manually as the car slowly headed away into the night. The two BSI agents followed at a safe distance, this time determined to keep a tighter tail.

  ∞∞∞

  “You go around back,” Annette said, waving in the direction of the backyard. She had her gun drawn and was sneaking up to peer in the large front window of the quaint house the town car had stopped at, which had lights burning in it.

  Christian nodded and crept toward the gate, which thankfully wasn’t latched. He pushed it open a small ways and slipped through, disappearing into the backyard.

  Annette had her back against the house and slunk around to the front, ducking down behind a neatly trimmed rosebush, careful to avoid thorns. It was cold out so the bush wasn’t very hearty, but she wasn’t taking any chances. She looked toward the street again, seeing the vampires’ car and knew nobody was in it. Even with the blacked-out windows, her enhanced eyesight gave her the assurance that it was empty.

  She slowly peered into the front window. Thin, gauzy yellow ruffled curtains hung, and a large gap on the side let her see in clearly. One of the vampires, a male she recognized from the town car, and a human girl, were both sitting at the dining room table. A large man with huge biceps and a short black crew cut stood by the table with his arms folded. They appeared to be in a conversation. The vampire was looking at the girl hungrily, even licking his lips once or twice, but the girl, a smallish brown-haired girl wearing a fluffy white bathrobe, was sitting with her hands in her lap, not meeting the gaze of either man.

  Annette closed her eyes and tried to hear what they were talking about. She caught bits and pieces. “You know that’s the price, Jeremy,” she heard the big guy say.

  “All right, whatever,” Jeremy the vampire replied, waving his hand.

  Annette slipped a pen from her pants pocket and wrote Jeremy on the palm of her hand and slipped the pen back in her pocket.

  So professional, she chided herself.

  “Stand up,” said the big guy, using his fingers to motion for the girl to stand.

  She did as instructed and the vampire wrapped his arms around her. He looked down into her face and Annette watched as his light colored eyes turned jet-black, with no whites at all. Gleaming white fangs were suddenly on display, and he tipped her head back by grabbing her hair, and with a seemingly gentle move, he sank his fangs into her neck.

  “Oh, gross,” Annette said with a shudder, then realized she had said it at the exact same time as the big guy.

  A man’s yell interrupted her peeping and Annette tore off toward the backyard, where she found Christian pointing a gun at a very pissed off-looking wolf. It was snarling, drool swinging from his jaws, its legs stiffened in an attack stance.

  Annette pointed her gun in the direction of the wolf, and as she grabbed Christian’s coat jacket to pull him toward the gate, the big guy Annette had seen in the window came barreling out the backdoor, standing on the back stoop, staring.

  He looked at the wolf, then to the two agents. Then he did something odd. He addressed the wolf. “What the hell is going on here, Donny?”

  Crap!

  The wolf turned its head and looked at the large man, then back at the agents and continued to growl.

  Annette put her hands up in mock surrender. “I’m sorry, man. We were just leaving.”

  The large man stepped off the stoop and took a couple of steps in her direction. She couldn’t decide who to look at, him or the wolf, who was still snarling, but not moving.

  He shot Annette a murderous look. “What the hell are you doing in my yard, bitch?”

  “We’re cops,” she said. “We were chasing a suspect down the street and thought we saw him go into your yard. Clearly he is not here, so we will be leaving.”

  Just then, Jeremy the vampire came out through the backdoor, and looked curiously at the scene in front of him.

  Not wanting to be recognized, Annette quickly turned around and yanked Christian by the sleeve and shoved him through the gate and into the car.

  Chapter 10

  ∞∞∞

  Christian was biting his nails, not that he had any left. SAC Al Cartwright was reading over their incident reports, and Christian was nervous he was going to be reprimanded for the incident, although he wasn’t sure what for. He was irritated that Annette was sitting coolly next to him and seemed to be unbothered by the seriousness of the situation. He wished he had her confidence. He looked over at her, annoyed at her pristine appearance when he could barely pick out matching clothes this morning, he was so distracted. Her red curls were pinned up at the back of her head, her dark blue pantsuit, neatly pressed.

  “Well, kids, what have we learned here?” Al asked, removing his reading glasses and setting the report down, his eyes flicking between the two of them.

  Annette cleared her throat. “After I’d calmed down and Agent Estes and I talked, I believe what we walked in on was a blood donor’s house. I suppose if a human gives up their blood voluntarily, it’s not really a crime, right?”

  “As long as he doesn’t kill her by accident,” Al said.

  “But you said she seemed coerced by the big fellow,” Christian said to Annette.

  “Well, he was definitely her pimp. What else she gives up besides blood, we’ll probably never know.”

  “And the wolf?” Al asked.

  Annette took a deep breath. “Well, I staked out the house the next few nights after that.”

  Al and Christian both looked at in her shock. Taking in their faces, she waved her hand and added with a slight laugh, “Don’t worry, I stayed in my car. Anyway, I believe the home belongs to shifters. The girl is human, probably the girlfriend or wife of the big guy, and I believe he makes money off the vamps by loaning out his girl as a blood whore.”

  “That would make more sense,” Al said. He slid the typewritten report back toward Annette. “Revise your report and add that in.”

  Christian looked lost in thought. “Do you think vampires can drink shifter blood?”

  Annette knew the answer, and it was a big, fat no. Not that she could tell him that she had interrogated a vampire in 1920 who told her it tasted like bitter poison and he would rather die again than drink it. So instead, she smiled. “I don’t know, but we do know the vampires and shifters don’t get along too well, so I can’t imagine a shifter would let a vampire take blood, voluntarily or not.”

  Al nodded. “Good point.”

  As they were dismissed, Annette briefly wondered if Howie, the dead shapeshifter, had pimped out his human wife this way.

  ∞∞∞

  “What’s this?” Leo asked, pointing to the small slip of paper Annette handed to him. He threw back his whiskey and signaled Rick for another.

  “The address to the local shifter-slash-blood-whore’s house.”

  He studied the paper and nodded. “Wanna tell me what happened?”

  She started at the beginning, her excellent memory not leaving out a single detail.

  “That was stupid. A shifter and the head of the local vampire clan together in one house? You trying to get this kid Estes killed?”

  She shook her head. “Not at all. I had no idea shifters lived there. I thought it was a simple blood donor stop-off. I never dreamed a shifter would loan out his girl to a vamp.”

  “Times, they are a-changin’, girl,” Leo said, staring into her amber-colored eyes intently.

  She turned he
r head to the side. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He ran his finger along the edge of his shot glass. “It seems the shifters and vampires are getting along better these days. I think they’re calling some kind of truce, sort of an us-against-them thing.”

  She broke his stare and gazed absently at the couple on the dance floor of the small bar. They were dancing slowly to an instrumental ballad played by the live band, and she put her hand up to her mouth. “I see. That would make sense, I suppose.”

  “Pearl came to see me last week,” Leo blurted out.

  “Who?” she asked, still staring off into space.

  “Howie’s sister, you know, of the shifter you killed.”

  Annette’s eyes snapped back to his. “Well I’ll be damned. That’s why he looked so familiar to me in that diner. I knew he was a shifter, and aside from his thoughts, I couldn’t figure out how I knew… I just did.”

  “You got instincts, kid.”

  “Wow, what’s it been, ten years since you heard from Pearl?”

  He nodded. “Yup. Shocked the hell out of me, too. Didn’t even know she was still around. But she sure came out quick when she wanted answers about her brother.”

  “So what did you tell her?”

  He shrugged. “That her brother shifted in front of two feds and then attacked, and they shot and killed him.”

  “And she bought that?” Annette asked incredulously.

  Leo laughed. “It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

  A smirk kicked up on the side of her mouth. “A very loose version of it, I suppose. It’s what we told the BSI.”

  “Never let the facts get in the way of a good memo,” he said with a salacious grin.

  She laughed. “So what are you going to do about her?”

  “There’s nothing to do, she won’t be a problem.”

  Famous last words, Annette thought.

  ∞∞∞

  Annette couldn’t help herself; she had to stake out the shapeshifters’ house again. This time, though, she brought Christian along, and had asked Leo to stay in a car nearby in case she ran into trouble.