Paranormal Island Fantasies 2 PARANORMAL ISLAND FANTASIES Terry Spear Beverly Rae Anne Leland Kara Griffin Triskelion Publishing www.triskelionpublishing.com Published by Triskelion Publishing www.triskelionpublishing.com 15508 W. Bell Rd. #101, PMB #502, Surprise, AZ 85374 U.S.A. First e-published by Triskelion Publishing First e-publishing July 2005 ISBN 1-933471-36-0 Copyright © Various 2005 All rights reserved. Cover art by Triskelion Publishing PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Paranormal Island Fantasies 3 ADVANCED READER COPY: DISCLAIMER This Advance Reader Copy is the property of Terry Spear, Beverly Rae, Anne Leland and Kara Griffin. The Advance Reader Copy may not be sold, rented, loaned, or copied. This is an uncorrected copy and may differ slightly from the final published novel, which will be available from Triskelion Publishing in August 2005 This work is copyrighted as of 2005 by Terry Spear, Beverly Rae, Anne Leland and Kara Griffin. Paranormal Island Fantasies 4 DEDICATION: For fantasy and paranormal lovers everywhere, these stories are set in island paradises. Whether in contemporary or historical settings, the lovers attempt to unite against all odds. Come join them in their passionate struggles and enjoy the escape into our worlds. Paranormal Island Fantasies 5 SEDUCING THE HUNTRESS by Terry Spear St. John, an enchanting island, surrounded by sugar white sand beaches, iridescent shimmering blue waters, and blanketed in lush tropical vegetation, is one of the most pristine islands in the Caribbean. Over two-thirds of the U.S. Virgin Island is a U.S. National Park where not only the humans come to play, but hunters and vampires alike have made their home. Only there has been too much peaceful coexistence of late, and evil lurks in the shadows of the night to force a deadly change. Paranormal Island Fantasies 6 CHAPTER ONE “You challenge me to seduce which woman, Catarina?” Sarzoven asked, leaning back on his chair, the lights over the disco floor swirling around in a colorful surrealistic dazzle while heavy rock and roll blasted all around them, causing even their seats to rumble slightly with the rhythm. His sister smiled, her ebony eyes sparkling with amusement, her charcoal hair rolling over her bare shoulders, the black spandex shirt she wore accentuating her breasts; the garment--a vampire- enticing tease. She tipped her wine glass toward a voluptuous brunette seated at the jungle bar across the dance floor. The slinky, silk red creation the woman wore hugged her curves from her perky breasts down her narrow waist, over a firm ass, and past her knees. Her sandaled feet rested on a brass footrest, encircling the barstool, and rocked to the music. He couldn’t shake the image from his mind…naked, every inch of her, writhing under his tongue and fingertips, her blood calling to him, begging him to finish her off. She laughed, then leaned over and spoke to a red-haired female sitting next to her. The brunette looked good enough to eat. He’d expected his sister to point out a dog. Why would she assume the petite figure across the crowded dance floor would prove to be anymore difficult to seduce than any other human female? “She’s a huntress,” Catarina explained, reading his thoughts, her tone amused. He took a sip of his cognac. Now that tidbit of information shed a whole new perspective on the situation. Vampires normally did not seduce hunters or huntresses and live to tell of it. Not one to turn down a challenge, he considered the huntress further. Her dark curls draped over her fair shoulders, the thick, silky strands begging for his touch. She took a sip of a green frothy drink. Her lips shimmered from the liquid and her tongue licked the remnants away. Paranormal Island Fantasies 7 Immediately, his groin ached and his teeth itched to extend. “Well? Are you game?” Catarina taunted. They’d played death-defying games for six hundred years already with one another. Why not? What had he to lose? “What’s in it for me?” “My estate in the Grand Cayman Islands, my dear brother, that you’ve wanted for the last thirty years.” “And if I lose?” She smiled. “If you lose, I’ll get your estate in the Virgin Islands. After all, you won’t be around to need it any longer.” “I sense there’s something more to this huntress than you’re letting me know. Does she take a particular satisfaction in killing our kind?” “Let’s just say...she’s prolific.” “Oh?” Instantly intrigued, Sarzoven imagined this could be the game of a lifetime, or at least a highpoint of the year, which for the previous nine months had been the same as the last forty years…painfully the same, with no peaks or valleys to add interest to his dull existence. Not that he hadn’t tried. But nothing, not the blood-bonding parties, traveling across the world to find a soul mate, nothing had stirred his bloodlust like the woman seated at his bar, not since his beloved Sirina had been killed by a vengeful vampire one hundred and ten years ago. Something about the brunette called to his manhood, like a sexy siren’s song lured fishermen to their watery graves. He couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason for the attraction--maybe the fact she should have been strictly off limits--fanned the flame of desire deep inside him. “She killed ten of our blood-bonds last week. She seems to have a propensity for killing our kind and her reputation is growing daily,” Catarina said, breaking into his thoughts. He switched his attention from his sister to the huntress. Dimples appeared on her cheeks. How could such a looker, happy and seemingly oblivious to the world of crime, be such a menace to the killer vampires? And why would she be in his dance club, well known for its vampire patronage, unless she were scoping out one of the vampires here on her death list. “I take it the vampires she targeted were renegades, murdering without reason.” Catarina nodded. “Of course.” She patted his shoulder, then tried to solicit his agreement. “So, what will it be?” Paranormal Island Fantasies 8 “What’s her name?” “Miranda Landower, heir apparent to the estates of the greatest hunter around…Malvo Landower.” All vampires knew of Malvo Landover, a borderline genius and maniac, well respected by the hunter community, and the only hunter most rogue vampires feared. “Trying to beat her father’s reputation?” Catarina poked a black curl behind her ear. “I’d say that’s as good a guess as any.” “Has she selected a hunter mate?” If Sarzoven went after a mated huntress, the stakes were raised considerably, and he’d want more than Catarina’s Grand Cayman estate when he won the bet. “I imagine she’s been too wrapped up in eliminating those of us deemed requiring termination.” He drummed his fingers on the tabletop where embedded gold and silver coins shimmered under the lights in the glossy silicon surface. “She wouldn’t happen to have either of us on her list, now would she?” Catarina’s lips curved up. “You, dear boy. You.” Raising a brow, he stood slowly, his blood instantly heated. Why the hell would anyone have put him on a hunter’s list? Someone out for revenge…no doubt. And he wasn’t taking it lying down. He couldn’t help the way his mouth inched up. Sleeping with the enemy? He attempted to squash the smoldering desire threatening to derail him, and frowned. “Then I’ll have to remove my name from her list anyway that I can, my dear sister.” ***** Freda grabbed Miranda’s arm and said, “Ohmigod, Sarzoven is coming this way. I still don’t understand why you wanted to see him here before you terminated him. Why didn’t you just eliminate him in some darkened alley, like you usually do their murderous kind?” Miranda’s stomach tightened when she sensed the shark coming in for the kill. “He’s said to give human women an orgasm just by twitching his lips into a hint of a smile.” But that wasn’t the real reason she made it her mission to secure more information about him, from his lips, no others’-- something about his past forced her to believe someone in the hunter hierarchy wanted the vampire dead for his or her own dark reasons, and no way would she kill Sarzoven unless she learned he was indeed a rogue. Though Freda was her best friend, Miranda wouldn’t involve her in what she suspected. What if someone did want Sarzoven killed, and Miranda let it slip she knew the truth? Then she and anyone else Paranormal Island Fantasies 9 she told might be eliminated. The little bit she’d uncovered about Sarzoven’s past life showed he wasn’t the kind who murdered for the pleasure of killing. Determining if he had been set up, and if so-- by whom, and why--had to be Miranda’s primary concerns. Trying to clear a vampire’s name wouldn’t be easy though, especially as seductive as this one thought he was. Not that she’d have any trouble staying out of his octopus’s reach. But how to convince a bloodsucker she was interested in helping him, especially as high a profile as her vampire- terminator reputation was becoming, without giving him the idea she cared for him, sexually or otherwise—she shuddered at the very notion—was going to be bloody difficult. Snorting, Freda shook her head and finished her Bloody Mary. “Mind games. All vampires can seduce a human, male or female. So what are you planning? To see if he can try to seduce you, then kill him before he touches you?” The look on Freda’s face of utter disbelief made Miranda wonder if her friend suspected something else was the matter. Like Freda had said, going after a murderous vampire in a darkened alley was Miranda’s usual MO. No sense in changing it now. Freda waved a painted red nail at her. “What if it doesn’t work? If he has sex with you, no hunter will want you. And if he learns you’re to kill him, but he gets the upper hand, you’re dead meat. Speaking of which,” she whispered, “he’s nearly in range of our hushed voices, despite the noise in this place.” “Go ahead and leave, Freda. I’ll call you when the job is done.” Freda glanced over her shoulder and shuddered. “You’re making a big mistake with this one, Miranda. I feel it in my blood.” She hopped down from the barstool and patted Miranda’s knee. “Be awfully careful.” Then she faded into the crowd. The vampire stalked toward Miranda like a panther, moving closer on silent paws, stealthily, focused, intrigued. Dressed in a black turtleneck and black denims, his clothes looked like anybody else’s in the club, save one exception. A gold medallion embossed with a dragon, dangled at his neck. The one that showed he was an ancient vampire, the Count of Wallochia, Sarzoven, knighted in King Sigismund’s secret society, the Order of the Dragon, for fighting the Turks. Sarzoven--said to have killed seventy men in battle to protect the women, children, and infirmed of his village--was to fall at the hands of the ruthless Count Moriency, who desired Sarzoven’s beautiful wife and his lands. But Sarzoven didn’t die, instead was resurrected by a good friend, touched by the most mind-boggling plague. Sarzoven then became like his friend, an immortal, with a need to quench a blood thirst, six Paranormal Island Fantasies 10 hundred years and counting. Another bloodsucker slipped into Freda’s vacated seat--this one dressed in a black cotton T-shirt and jeans, a blond male and not half as dashing as Sarzoven--leaned over and said, “Talbot’s the name. I haven’t seen you around the place before, sweet thing.” She noticed Sarzoven stop, just slightly off to her right, waiting for her response to the other man, she assumed. Would he stop her, if she picked up Talbot? Dying to know the answer to that question, she leaned over and nearly touched the vampire’s lips with hers. “My drink’s nearly finished. Buy me another?” He stared at her lips for a moment, then smiled and glanced at the green froth on the glass. “What were you drinking?” “Grasshopper.” “Grasshopper. I would have thought a lady who looked like you would have been drinking something more…substantial.” “I have to keep a clear head for the kind of work I do.” “And that is?” She looked over at Sarzoven. “Let’s just say I take out the trash.” Sarzoven’s lips drew up just a hint while his dark brown eyes devoured every inch of her. “Alone?” he asked, brushing her leg with his, not waiting for an answer. “Sarzoven,” Talbot said, disappointment in his voice. “I was just buying the lady a drink.” “Drink’s on me,” he said, and Talbot bowed his head, acquiescing at once, then vanished. She fingered her empty glass, then set it on the polished dark cherry counter. “Maybe I preferred the company of the other man.” “Talbot?” Sarzoven’s eyes glowed with fire and he slid into the other seat, his knee touching her thigh. “He’s a nice guy, but I doubt he’d be your type.” “You think I’m not interested in nice guys?” She raised a brow, instantly annoyed he’d think otherwise. Having a job where she killed the bad guys, forced her interest in totally sweet guys. Well, maybe not totally sweet. In fact come to think of it, she hadn’t had any interest in any males for the last…she hmpfd to herself. She couldn’t remember how long. But if she’d had any interest in a guy, he definitely wouldn’t be some smooth-talking vampire Casanova, who thought he was every woman’s wet dream. He clicked his fingers at the bartender who immediately brought Sarzoven her drink. “Not if