Page 58 of Midlife Vampire Unexpected
He groaned and rolled his eyes. “Seriously.”
“I know that was pretty bad,” I chuckled.
I smiled at him warmly. I had no idea where this relationship was going, but I was going to enjoy it every step of the way. I didn’t even know how to have a relationship, that’s how single I’d been my whole life. This was going to be a new adventure, for sure.
I looked around the backyard, where Jane, Mae, and Bianca were huddled together, chatting. My blood bond sisters. Hilda and Trina and all the guys. Everybody was there and what I realized was this was exactly what I’d been looking for my whole life, the warmth and support of true community and a true team member. I had a family around me a no matter what challenges we were going to face in the future. I was sure there were going to be more struggles, but we were going to face it together. Of that I was certain.
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Continue the adventures of Cougar Creek Coven inbook 5: MIDLIFE FAERIE UNEXPECTED
Or read on for a sneak peek!
CHAPTER ONE - KARTIKA
The storm clouds were gathering across the valley as the storm prepared to move towards me across the desert. I loved the massive desert lightning storms. I watched it now in the distance. It was one of the reasons why I originally moved to Cottonwood with my husband, to enjoy these thunderstorms. I had a feeling that the crystals would work better with the lightning storm present.
Now that my husband had divorced me and left Cottonwood. I found my only friend was Frank, who’d been around since my sons started soccer. He coached them on the local team. He was really into crystals.
It had never occurred to me that I should take the crystals seriously, but after my trip to Cougar Creek on an errand for Frank, I was completely charmed and enchanted with them. I’d come home and immediately asked Frank if he had more. My newfound interest made him happy.
His wife had died years before he moved to Cottonwood and after my divorce, we had taken to spending time together as friends. It was pretty cool. He was the nicest guy I had ever met. He was also one of the hottest guys I’d ever met, which made it a little difficult to be around sometimes, but I’d gotten used to it. Hot guys weren’t into me. Especially hot younger guys.
At forty-four, I certainly didn’t consider myself over the hill, but I wasn’t looking to date my children’s former soccer coach. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. That was one of the things about small towns that I discovered when we had moved here. Everybody knew everybody and they all had relationships. Around here, there weren’t that many options, so if I did pick one option, a world of other options would completely close up to me. And by world of other options, I meant like three.
That’s why after Eric and I divorced, I knew I had to remain single for the rest of my life. There was nothing wrong with being single and it would make life less confusing for my kids. They didn’t mind that their father and I were divorced. There’d been a lot of arguments when they were growing up and I could just imagine they were tired of it as much as Eric and I had been.
Now it was smooth sailing from here on out. All my own decisions, all my own choices, and it didn’t matter that I just found out at forty-four that I was adopted. That didn’t matter one bit. I ground my teeth together a little bit at the back at the thought of it.
I had to get these crystals right. The storm was coming in and I wanted to see what I could get them to do. I’d seen some crazy stuff in Cougar Creek. They’d laid out the amethyst in the rose quartz and the smoky quartz crystals in a variety of patterns. It was like they knew exactly what to do, the same as Frank.
I carefully finished putting the final touches on my form. I knew it was a little different than the way that they had done it at Cougar Creek and I could sense it, but I trusted my instincts. My guess was that the crystals attuned to the geography of the location they were in and because of that energy shift, the formations would have to be slightly different in order to channel at all.
I chuckled to myself. Life was funny. I looked out the window. The storm was about five minutes away. I quickly set up the crystals, dusted them off with my breath and then with my hands for good measure, because I’d seen Jane doing that up at Cougar Creek. It seemed like a bit of hoodoo gurus mumbo-jumbo, but I was going to give it a shot anyhow.
I sat quietly, waiting for the storm to come. When the lightning crashed down upon the house so loud it made me jolt, even though I’d been waiting eagerly in anticipation of it, it caught me by surprise. Electricity flowed through every space charging the crystals. I could feel it as they began to glow pink and lavender creating dark shadows. Above the crystals a screen formed. I took a deep breath and suddenly rethought my decision to sit on the couch right in front of the crystals. I slipped onto the edge of the couch as if it was going to do something to save me.
On the screen there was a single face, a dark-skinned man with slanted eyes and pointed ears. He was staring straight out as if he could see me.
“I am Morel,” he said. “Of the Tuath Du’an clan. The originals.”
I suddenly realized this was probably a PSA that was on a loop, but damn he was convincing. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
He continued speaking. “There has long been unfairness between the dark and light Fae. It must end.” Morel had the wise look of a warrior and I felt compelled to follow him.
As my feelings of compulsion grew, he suddenly walked toward the camera as if he was going to step straight through the screen and into my living room. That was when I moved. I got off the couch and backed up.
He peered in at me.
“Join the resistance,” he said, raising an eyebrow and making it sound much more like a command than anything else.
Suddenly the screen went black as lightning crashed around my house.
I screamed.
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