Yearn vampire beloved bo.., p.1
Yearn (Vampire Beloved Book Nine), page 1
Yearn (Vampire Beloved Book Nine)
By R. E. Butler
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Excerpt from Midas
Books by R. E. Butler
About the Author
Copyright
Chapter One
“Baby girl, I’m not even kidding,” Caprice said, chiding the two-month-old hellhound, Clio, who sat in the closet holding Caprice’s very favorite shoe.
Clio bit down a few times, as if trying to get the shoe to squeak like one of her toys.
It did not.
“Clio! Come on, I love those shoes. Drop it. I’ll give you a steak!”
Clio tilted her dark head, her red eyes looking at her curiously.
Hoping she’d be faster than the one-hundred-pound baby, Caprice lunged but missed the big beast as she careened with a whine out of the closet, shoe still between her jaws. Caprice rolled to her knees and heard the scrape of claws on hardwood and figured Clio ran to her den looking for protection from her mother, Styx.
Sighing, she picked up the other shoe and headed for the family room where she’d made the den for her hellhounds. There was no way the shoe wasn’t destroyed at this point. Clio had sharp needle-like fangs, and as a baby hellhound, her fangs emitted a venom that wasn’t deadly to supernatural creatures but was to humans. And it also acted like acid with textiles and would certainly melt her favorite heels.
Trudging to the family room, Caprice found Clio tucked under her mother, who stood at the entrance to the den. The den was custom-built to look like a cavern in a mountainside. It had padded flooring and soft interior walls, but the exterior looked like a pile of rocks.
“I give you all the toys you want, you little stinker,” she said, holding out her hand. “Clio, drop it.”
The big baby beast dropped the shoe and gave Caprice puppy eyes.
“I am literally the only person on the planet who thinks you’re cute, you know,” she said, picking up the shoe and groaning at the holes poked into the leather and the acid-like venom eating away at the material.
Clio whined and padded over to Caprice as she tossed the shoes in the trash. Clio bumped her head against Caprice’s leg and she squatted down and cupped Clio’s huge head.
Full grown hellhounds stood as tall as the average person, with a muscular frame covered with short, dark fur. They had jaws that could easily crush bones, thick fangs, and red eyes that glowed when they were angry.
Using a special blade, a person could oath a hellhound to themselves with their blood, and then the hellhound would only listen to them.
Caprice had found her first hellhound, Titan, when he was a puppy, abandoned in a ditch in the Fae Realm and left for dead. She’d nursed him back to health and fallen in love with the enormous beast. She’d been a fae back then, almost twenty years ago. The ruling council of her town had declared Titan too dangerous to live and ordered her to destroy him.
She’d refused and been banished to the Human Realm, losing her wings in the process.
Her back still ached whenever she thought about the sword that cut them off. She was no longer welcome in the Fae Realm and had lost most of her powers. She was now a nature nymph, and had some power over nature, but not like she’d had with her wings.
Rubbing Clio’s cheeks, she kissed her on the nose. “I forgive you, but holy hell, stop eating my shoes.”
There was a thud at the back door, telling her that Titan was ready to come inside. She hustled to the sliding door, which had a crack in it from when he’d once let her know she didn’t move fast enough, and opened it.
He snuffled at her as he walked by and she patted his haunches.
“Breakfast time, babies.”
Her phone buzzed as she headed to the kitchen to fix their bowls of raw beef, raw eggs, cooked sweet potatoes, and blueberries topped with bagged blood.
She saw it was her best friend, Selene. Pressing the speaker button on the phone, she set it on the counter.
“‘Sup, lady?”
“Traditionally people say hello when they answer the phone.”
“I think, actually, that people were supposed to say ahoy. So ahoy, lady.”
Selene snorted delicately. “You’re a nut. What are you doing?”
“Feeding the babies.”
“They’re not babies, they’re monsters.”
“Rude!” Caprice shut the refrigerator with her hip and set the things on the counter. “You’re only saying that because Styx growls every time she sees you.”
“I’m saying that because one of these days, they’re going to figure out that you’re made of bones covered in meat and eat you.”
“Never. They’re oathed to me, except for Clio because she’s too young.”
“How did the binding ceremony for Leto’s new owner go?”
The knife slid easily through the thick beef liver. She portioned it among the three big metal bowls.
“Good. Sad.”
She’d sold Clio’s older brother, Leto, to a wolf alpha in Connecticut. His mate was a wolf who could not shift, and that made her vulnerable to being used as a pawn to take over the pack. Leto was three years old and almost as big as Titan.
“You’re always sad.”
“Well, they’re like family.”
“But you’re a breeder. It’s literally your job.”
“I also train them.”
“So that you can sell them and live the lavish lifestyle you’ve become accustomed to.”
“Not lavish.”
“How much did you sell Leto for?”
“One hundred thousand.”
“Sheesh. That’s like an annual salary.”
“They’re rare, you know that.” Hellhound females only came into heat every other year, and often the babies didn’t survive. Since she’d rescued Styx about a decade ago, she’d lost two of her four babies. Leto had been sold to people who needed an extra layer of protection.
Nothing could get to the person who was oathed to a hellhound.
They were the most ferocious beasts on the planet.
“Anyway,” Selene said, “I just wanted to give you an update on the wedding.”
Selene was a vampire who lived in Cleveland, Ohio and belonged to a coven headed up by a master vampire named Mishka, who was potentially the sexiest male on the planet. Selene and Caprice had been friends for years, ever since they’d crossed paths in Pennsylvania. Selene had belonged to a coven in Jamestown, and Caprice had been traveling with Styx and Titan and looking for a place to settle down. She’d stayed in Jamestown for a while but ended up going to South Carolina and finding a place on Lake Murray, which she really loved. The pups enjoyed the water and trying to catch the fish that swam around the dock, and there weren’t many neighbors, so she had privacy.
Selene had joined up with Mishka’s coven a few years earlier and found her mate in a vampire male named Garth, who worked at a restaurant next door to the coven’s main business, a club called Fang.
Real original, Mishka.
“What’s the update?”
“Mishka is letting us rent out the club for the wedding!”
“That’s great. Wedding and reception?”
“Yep. And Harmony’s band is going to play for us.”
Harmony was Mishka’s mate and a musical muse. “Will there be real food there?”
“Of course.”
“Good.”
“Have you found a place to stay yet?”
“Not yet.”
“The wedding is in a week!”
“I know, I know. The hotels I’ve called won’t take the dogs. I was thinking of renting an RV and parking it somewhere, leaving the pups inside.”
“Geez. Let me reach out to Harmony and see if she has any ideas. There are apartments in the club, although I think they’re being used right now. But I’m sure we can figure something out.”
“Okay, I’ll keep looking and you let me know what you find.”
“Will do. See you Thursday.”
“Thursday? I thought the rehearsal wasn’t until Friday.”
“Um, you have to come for the bachelorette party. You’re my maid of honor!”
“Sorry, you’re right, I forgot. I’m still offering to let Clio be your flower girl.”
“No thanks. If she accidentally bit someone, they’d die, and I honestly don’t want to send the guests running away in terror.”
“They wouldn’t die if Clio bit them as long as they’re not human,” Caprice pointed out.
“Then I’m definitely glad I’m not human anymore, but I still don’t want to risk it.”
“All right,” Caprice said with a chuckle. “See you Thursday. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Ending the call, Caprice set the bowls on the floor for the hounds and patted their heads.
“You’re not monsters. You’re my sweet babies.”
Clio lifted her head and blinked her red eyes, then went back to eating.
“Exactly.”
Now she just needed to find a place to stay that would take the dogs. Because she couldn’t leave them alone for the week, and there weren’t any dog-sitting companies that would help her out with hellhounds.
She’d figure it out. She always did.
Chapter Two
Lake Robinson sat in Fang on Wednesday night and tried to focus on the music being played by the house band, Fluffy Venom. His mind was on anything but the sounds or people around him, or even the pulse of lead singer and mistress of the coven Harmony’s musical muse power, designed to improve the mood of anyone who listened.
For the last few weeks…hell, months, he’d been feeling out of sorts and out of place in Cleveland. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the area, because he did, crappy winter weather aside. It was simply that he was feeling like a round peg in a square hole.
“What’s up your butt?” Jefferson, one of the newest members of the coven, asked, taking a drink from a bottle of SyBl.
Lake glanced at the male, who’d come from a coven in Louisiana and joined the security team after being vetted by master vampire Mishka’s inner circle—the family.
“I don’t know. Why did you move up here?”
Jefferson hummed and put down the bottle. “The master of my coven took a mate, and she didn’t like me.”
“Why?”
He made a face. “We dated a hundred years ago, back when we were both human.”
Lake chuckled. “So not an amicable break up?”
“She set fire to my house, so no. I left town because she was batshit crazy. I was turned shortly after that and settled in Louisiana. I actually figured she was dead at this point, so it was a surprise when she appeared as a vampire and told her mate I had to go.”
“That sucks.”
“Well, it’s better up here anyway. The winters suck balls, but the opportunities here are worth it. But getting back to my question. You seem bummed. What’s up?”
Lake picked at the wrapper of his bottle of SyBl. “I don’t know. I’m not happy and I haven’t been for a while.”
“Happiness is what you make of it.”
“What?” Lake asked.
“It’s what my mom used to say. Are you sure it’s that you’re not happy here, or is something else going on?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Like, am I just tired of being in security or am I wishing I had my truemate by my side, or do I want to get the hell out of Cleveland because of the assholes who are trying to take over the coven?”
There were currently three threats to the safety and security of the Cleveland coven: Dargan, a master vampire who wanted to take out the family and take over; Aubriella, a dangerous and crazy fae who worked for Dargan; and finally, Jason Finnegan, an equally dangerous crazy human who hated vampires and tried to kill any and all he came across.
After Dargan’s polar bear shifter enforcers broke ties with him because two of the males found a mate in a Valkyrie who worked for Mishka, no one had seen hide nor hair of him or his fae since. Jason had publicly come after the coven after everyone thought he was dead, but he’d somehow come back to life.
“It’s nuts here,” Jefferson mused. “We had some humans who hated vampires in general down in Louisiana, but not like how Jason keeps trying to take everyone out here. And now he’s working with someone who hates shifters. I don’t really think anyone is safe in Cleveland, vampire or shifter.”
As he sorted through his feelings, Lake decided it wasn’t so much that he was tired of being a security guard, because he enjoyed working with the coven to keep everyone safe, and it wasn’t that he was lonely per se, but just that he couldn’t shake the jittery feeling he had that a change of scenery was what he needed.
“I should take a vacation. Clear my head.”
“Too bad the new hotel isn’t ready yet. That place sounds like it’ll be amazing.”
Lake hummed but didn’t say anything.
“You guys need a refill?” Leighanna, bartender at the club and fellow coven member, asked as she came up to their table. She tossed her long, red hair over her shoulder and smiled.
“I’m good, thanks,” Lake said.
“You don’t look good. You look like someone ran over your puppy,” she quipped.
“Just musing about the future,” he said.
“Maybe your truemate is in town.”
He looked at her. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged. “Supernatural people like us can be sensitive to changes in the air. Maybe your truemate is new to town and some part of you knows it, so you’re feeling restless about finding her.”
“It crossed my mind, but I don’t know if that’s it.”
“Well, you’re not leaving town. I forbid it,” she said.
“You heard the lady,” Jefferson said.
“Fine, fine,” Lake said. He pointed a finger at Leighanna. “You just better hope that my antsy stuff is related to my truemate coming to town. If I stick around and she doesn’t show up for a hundred years, I’m going to be pissed.”
Leighanna laughed and walked away.
“A hundred years? That’s a damn long time to wait,” Jefferson mused.
No shit.
Lake was turned at age twenty-three, one hundred and something-odd years ago. After a while, keeping track of the years just didn’t matter. If he had to wait another hundred years, or longer, to find his other half? That would suck.
“Could be worse,” Jefferson said. “I heard Mishka didn’t find Harmony until he was five hundred.”
“And Brone was a thousand when he met Arissa.”
“Damn,” Jefferson said, drawling out the word. “Hard pass on that long wait. I want my truemate to show up yesterday.”
Lake finished his SyBl and stood. “Me too. Even though I think it’s just time for me to move on in general.”
“Well, don’t make any plans yet. Maybe it’s just the winter blues.”
“I could move to Alaska. They have darkness for six months. It would be awesome to be outside anytime I wanted.”
“But the six months of sunlight would be a bitch.”
“For sure. See you later.”
“I’m working tomorrow. You?”
“Yep.”
“See you then.”
Lake nodded. He carried his empty bottle to the counter and handed it to Leighanna, then said goodnight. As he walked through the foyer toward the front door, someone called his name.
He turned and saw Brone and Rage walking toward him.
“You’re on the schedule for security at the club tomorrow night,” Rage said after they pulled him aside toward the coat check and away from the front door. “But we’d like to put you on special duty instead.”
His brows rose. It was always an honor to be asked for special duties, which could range from providing an escort for family or coven members to working a security post for one of Mishka’s other businesses.
“Of course. Where do you need me?”
“Report to my office after sunset,” Brone said. “You’ll be part of an escort for Mishka and Harmony for a night out.”
“I’ll be there as soon as possible after sunset.”
“Thanks,” Rage said.
Brone nodded silently.
“See you tomorrow,” Lake said.
He hummed to himself as he left the club, walking down the steps and stopping a few feet from the big building. He paused on the sidewalk and inhaled the cold winter air.
Winter in Cleveland sucked.
But it was pretty damn cool to be asked to be part of Mishka’s security team. It sure as hell beat standing at the front door of the club or walking the perimeter all night.
He headed across the street to the coven’s apartment complex, his mind straying to the conversation with Leighanna and Jefferson. He wondered if the strange way he’d been feeling lately really was some kind of cosmic romantic early detection system.
If that were the case, then maybe sticking around was the right thing to do. He certainly didn’t want to screw himself over by departing Cleveland and leaving his truemate alone without him.
He decided to give it a few more months before he made any move to change things. He could at least give his truemate ninety days to show up. In the scheme of forever, three months was a drop in the bucket.
