Chapter 1
“Whatever you’re baking is making my mouth water,” Sabrina said as she sniffed the air, then took a seat at the small table in the corner of the vast kitchen of Fangri-La
“Cranberry orange muffins. We had a lot of leftover berries from the holidays.” Hazel finished washing up her mixing bowl, glad Sneebnap, their resident chef, and giant gnome, was off today. He hated people in his kitchen, and when things didn’t go his way, he became one big drama queen.
“Ohhh, how long before they come out?” Sabrina rubbed her large baby belly. “I’m starving.”
“Ten minutes.”
“I guess while we wait, we can talk.”
Hazel tried not to sigh. She didn’t want to talk because she knew precisely what the vampire wished to discuss. One small, very pissed off black cat.
“I like your outfit. It thrills me to see you wearing something other than bandages taped over your nipples.”
Hazel looked down at herself. She had felt tempted this morning to strut around in her usual half-naked attire. After all, she was a succubus, and sex appeal was everything in her world, but Sabrina had worked so hard to teach her how to dress properly. Considering Hazel knew Sabrina would be here this morning, she had donned a pink sweatshirt and black yoga pants along with a pair of fuzzy pink boots. January brought rainy weather to New Orleans with a temperature of fifty-six degrees. She had lit every fireplace in the house this morning to break the bone chilling cold. Demons hated anything below eighty.
“Thanks. I find this more comfortable in this weather than my normal attire.” She poured herself a cup of coffee. “Would you like some?”
“No, thanks.” Sabrina shook her large ice coffee. “Brought my own.” The vampire had one helluva addiction to her cold caramel brew and was a tyrant if she missed her coffee.
“So, what about Jack?”
“Ugh! I don’t want to talk about him.”
“Hazel, I promised him I would speak to you about his situation.”
This time, she sighed. “You did already, and as I said. We had sex end of story.”
Sabrina sipped her coffee and then spoke. “No, the end of the story is you took so much of his magic that he can no longer turn into his jaguar. He’s a fucking house cat, Hazel. Not exactly what the prince of the local jag clan needs. Just give him back what you took and all will be forgiven.”
Saved by the ovens buzzer, Hazel grabbed her pink oven mitts and pulled the pan from the heat. The scream that pierced her eardrums like a knitting needle caused her to drop the pan of muffins to the tile floor. Her creation ruined, but this time it wasn’t her clumsiness that had destroyed her work.
“For the love of all that is evil. What is wrong with you?” She rushed to where Sabrina—who was doubled over clutching her very large stomach—was. A puddle of liquid spread across the floor around her.
“I’m in labor. What the hell does it look like?” Sabrina growled, her fangs bared.
“Isn’t it a tad early?” She rushed to help her friend back to the nearest chair, wondering when Sabrina had gotten to her feet in the first place.
“How the fuck should I know? Never given birth to a vampire before.”
“I thought Moonbeam said you weren’t expected to give birth for another two weeks?” Moonbeam was Sabrina’s doctor who just happened to be a fairy. Fairies were never wrong about such things.
“Well, obviously…” Sabrina panted. “She was mistaken.”
“Oh dear. Tell me what to do.”
Her friend looked up at her and Hazel swore daggers flew from her eyes. “Seriously? A hospital might be a good start.”
“Where’s Christoph?” He was not only the king of the New Orleans vampire coven but also Sabrina’s mate and father of this baby, who desperately needed to hold off being born until someone else more suitable to assist was around. Today, of all days, Hazel was here alone with Sabrina. While she loved the vampire like a sister, Hazel wasn’t good at chaos. Oh, she could create mayhem with the best of them. After all, she was a succubus. A demon of the erotic persuasion, but she was also a certified klutz. So much so that Satan himself had kicked her out of Hell and that was how she had ended up here at the Fangri-La bed-and-breakfast. Christoph had taken her in as he had so many others that had… Well, had issues.
“At some stupid meeting,” Sabina bellowed quickly, followed by another blood-curdling scream. “We were not expecting our daughter so soon.” She blew out several breaths before speaking again. “My phone is in my bag over there. Grab it so I can call Christoph while you drive me to the hospital.”
So many thoughts raced through her head. Visions of her crashing the car into a tree. Driving it off the road. No, she was not about to get behind the wheel with Sabrina in the car. After all, she was a walking disaster. Becoming a driving calamity was not on her to do list at this very moment. Her nerves were already shattered.
“I’ll do one better.” She might be a world-class klutz, but she could still summon Satan. Nothing like having a god here to make things right.
Before Sabrina could respond, a puff of black smoke shot into the air, followed by a not so happy looking devil.
“What is the meaning of this summons?”
“Sabina is in labor and I’m her only help,” she blurted.
Satan raised a dark brow. “You did well to summon me then. Can’t have you in charge.” He put his focus on the vampire, busy panting like a dog in her chair.
“Wise move, Hazel. Satan, you can just pop me to the hospital,” Sabina said.
“First things first, before I go performing magic on you.” Another puff of smoke, but this time it was pink and filled with glitter and a very confused Moonbeam stared at them with wide lavender eyes.
She was quick to take in her surroundings and before Satan could even explain, Moonbeam was gliding across the floor to Sabrina.
“You’re in labor. A bit early, I might add.”
“No kidding,” Sabina shot back. Damn, but the vampire was extra bitchy today. Even demons were not this testy when giving birth.
“Did someone call my mate?”
Another snap of Satan’s fingers and the king of the New Orleans vampire coven was standing in the middle of the room, his gaze lethal enough to kill until he saw Sabrina. He rushed to her side and took her hand.
“Love, are we having a baby a little early?” His gaze had gone from deadly to concerned. There was no doubt he loved Sabrina more than anything else in this world. Even Satan feared the vampire king when it came to Sabrina.
Sabrina panted. “Seems so.” She cast her gaze back at Moonbeam. “Is the baby okay?”
By this time, the doctor had placed her hand on Sabrina’s belly and had closed her eyes..
“The baby is fine, but she is ready to be born.” Moonbeam straightened. “We must go to the fairy hospital. Satan, I assume you will take care of the transportation?”
“Wait, fairy hospital? Why can’t I just go to the regular one here in town?”
Moonbeam patted Sabrina’s arm. “Humans have no clue on how to deliver immortal babies and, being that you are having the first vampire, you need to be surrounded by magic.”
Almost as quickly as it had started, everyone disappeared, and the room grew quiet. Hazel flopped into a chair and surveyed the mess.
“Awesome. My muffins are ruined and my bestie leaves a puddle for me to mop up.” Where the hell was everyone today, anyway? She pushed herself out of the chair and went in search of a mop and bucket. At least she didn’t have to answer questions about Jack, the prince of the jaguars.
Jack paced the grounds just far enough away not to be detected, yet close enough he could sense her. That damn succubus! What the hell had he been thinking? Sex with a demon had sounded like fun, and it had been intense, but he should have known better. Plus, hadn’t his father warned him against thinking with his dick rather than the head on his shoulders? She had been so alluring, though. Her blonde hair was a contrast to a pair of green eyes. Those legs that went on forever, and goddess her curves. Hazel was sex personified and all he could think about.
He shook his head to clear himself from the sexual stupor he was spiraling into. Was her power strong enough to reach him even out here? He entertained the possibility, but what terrified him was her constant presence in his thoughts. He tried to tell himself it was because she had stolen so much of his essence that she had taken his shifting magic with her. Jack O’Lantern, prince of the jaguar shifters, was now nothing more than a household cat. Not even a big badass Main Coon cat. Just a scrawny cat, and only Hazel could restore his magic. Trouble was, she refused to even speak to him. Was it because she was ashamed of what she had done? Or did she not know how to reverse it? Maybe she just didn’t care and was being a bitch. He knew little about succubus other than they were sex demons and he had gotten in deep with this one. It was apparent the new vampire queen hadn’t been successful at any attempts to get Hazel to fix things, either.
Exasperated, he bound off the property before the vampire king got wind he was lurking about. Besides, he needed to get to town. Later this morning, he had a meeting with his designer to renovate the apartment above the building he had recently purchased on Decatur Street. He’d already rented out one half of the space below to a fairy by the name of Pixie, who was probably busy at this very moment setting up her new bookstore and spreading fairy dust everywhere. He was supposed to meet another potential renter this afternoon who was interested in the other half of the downstairs. At least he had something else to occupy his mind and take it off of his shifting abilities, or lack of.
Once on the other side of the property, he climbed into his glossy black mustang, revved the engine and sped off down the road. Taking the curve at an excessively high speed, he couldn’t help but think of Hazel once more. Maybe he was approaching this situation all wrong. What if he simply slept with her again? Could he get his magic back that way? Maybe Pixie would know something about his situation or have a book in that vast store of hers.
Yes, he was going to ask her as soon as he finished going over the designs for his apartment remodel.
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