Charles' Choice (Penny's Choice) (15 page)

“Oh well let him in here so I can meet him,”
Gramma
said, getting off the chair and heading toward the door.

“Well, you’ve actually met him before,” Penny said, shifting her weight uneasily. “He saved you while you were with those bad men.”

Penny’s grandmother stopped. She obviously remembered her rescue. Penny wondered what exactly had happened at the rescue that made her grandmother so uneasy to see Thomas again. Penny remembered the first time she had seen Thomas fight. It was a frightening thing to behold. Thomas was one of the most ruthless and calculated fighters she knew if someone he cared about was in trouble.

“Please don’t be afraid of me,” Thomas said, still staying on the porch.
Gramma
poked her head out of the door slowly. She starred at Thomas for a minute and then stepped out onto the porch. Penny and Charles followed.

“Well, I would have thanked you earlier for saving me, but you scared me to death,”
Penny‘s
grandmother said and then gave Thomas a pat on the shoulder. “You look much…nicer now than you did before…with the fangs.”
“I’m terribly sorry about that,
Gramma
,” Thomas said, taking her small hand in his. “I just get very upset when someone threatens my family.”

“Well, how about we all go inside for a bite to eat,”
Gramma
said and then looked apologetically at Thomas. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t attempting a bad joke,
it’s
just what I always say. I made some sandwiches.”

“I heard something about Cowboy cookies,” Penny said as she walked back into the house.

“Oh yes,”
G
ramma
said with a smile, I made several batches with Charles’s help this morning.”

“Chuck? Cooking?” Thomas said.

Charles punched Thomas in the shoulder gain. Charles flinched when his fist came in contact with Thomas’s shoulder. “I can cook…If I want to.”

“I hope
your
better at baking than you are with punching,” Thomas said, walking passed the group of humans and into the kitchen.

“I guess being separate species doesn’t keep the brotherly fighting at bay,”
Gramma
said, pulling out turkey sandwiches from the fridge.

“No Ma’am,” Charles said, pulling out plates from the cupboard.

“I guess that
explains
why your brother stole your girlfriend,”
Gramma
said. She stopped for a minute and looked out the window. “I remember you two girls fighting over boys all the time.”

Penny smiled at the thought. Even though she wanted to strangle her sister for stealing all of her boyfriends, she now remembered those fights fondly.

“No actually, I stole Penny in the beginning,” Charles said, setting the table.
Gramma
looked up and shook her head. She was old enough to have seen many fights of siblings over boyfriends and girlfriends. But the siblings always seemed to stay together and the boyfriends and the girlfriends always come and go.

“So, what were you two talking about all morning,” Penny asked, setting out the cups on the table. “
Gramma
seems to not be pretty far behind on information for you guys spending all morning baking cookies together.”

“Oh, I was just hearing lots of Penny as I child stories,” Charles said. “Saw lots of pictures.” Charles winked at Penny.

“Oh goodness,” Penny said. She rolled her eyes.

“Pictures?”
Thomas sat down on a kitchen chair and put his feet up. “I want to see pictures.”

“Oh, I’ll be sure to show you after dinner,”
Gramma
said. She laid the platter of sandwiches in the middle of the table. “Thomas dear, would you mind grabbing the chips on the counter over there?”

“Sure,” Thomas said, hopping off the chair. He grabbed the chips, got a bowl out of the cabinet, and poured the chips in the bowl.

“Do you eat?”
Gramma
asked Thomas.

“Yes, but not chips,” Thomas said, avoiding looking at Penny’s grandmother.

Penny knew that Thomas didn’t like talking about his vampire tendencies. They reminded him that he was a monster to many people. Penny didn’t really like to think about Thomas’s diet either, so she changed the subject.

“Hey
Gramma
,” Penny said, putting an arm around her grandmother’s waist. “Do you think that you could give the cowboy cookie recipe to Thomas? He’s one of the best cooks that I know. In fact, he should give his recipe for meatloaf. It’s my favorite meal of his.”

Gramma
sat down at the table after she finished putting the rest of the meal
on the
table.

Penny grabbed a sandwich from the platter and bit into it before she bothered to fill up the rest of her plate. She was starving. The banshees fed her, but the food was terrible and the on and off stench of rotting corpses over the last few days didn’t do anything to increase her appetite.

“Goodness sakes Penny, don’t the vampires feed you?”
Gramma
said. She passed a bowl of fruit salad to Penny.

“The vampires do and so do the goblins,” Penny said between bites of the sandwich, “but I’ve been with the banshees. They don’t have food really.” Penny stopped to take another bite of her sandwich. “Plus they smell like dead bodies.”

Penny’s grandmother wrinkled her nose and then looked at Charles in disbelief.

“There were a lot of different creatures that went into saving you from the Brotherhood,” Thomas said. He smiled at
gramma
, trying to encourage her to loosen up some and trust him.

The gang ate their food and caught up on old news. Penny’s grandmother filled her in on news from the town. Penny’s old boyfriend had married her best friend. Old George from down the street finally passed away. And the school superintendent was caught having an affair with one of the cheerleaders.

Penny enjoyed hearing about the old news. It was the humdrum drivel of gossip that she had missed. It made her feel almost normal even though she sat at a table with a vampire.

“Penny I am very proud of you,”
Gramma
said. “I am sorry that I didn’t believe you before.”

Penny just smiled. She could stay with her grandmother again, just like nothing had ever happened. Well, almost like nothing had ever happened. There was that pesky vampire that followed her around like a love sick puppy, his angst ridden vampire sister, and the kooky German mermaid.
And Charles.
There was always Charles. This was her family and she was happy to have them all in her life.

If you enjoyed reading “
Charles’ Choice
” (or even if you didn’t) please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com or wherever else you may have purchased the book.

Thanks,

Annette J. Archer

Titles by Annette J. Archer

-
       
Savior
(b
y An
n
ette J. Archer)

Angel (Angie) is a shy, quiet and somewhat awkward girl lost in the jungle that is middle school. Even Mason finds her a little awkward the first few times he sees her. Being the new guy in the school he is intrigued as to why she doesn’t seem to have any friends and sits alone even at lunch.

After a Science class in which they are paired together Mason decides to find out about Angel. Despite her obvious choice of avoiding social interaction in school something about her intrigues him.

It takes a while for Angel to open up but soon Mason finds out why she is the way she is. Mason is flabbergasted by what he hears but has promised not to tell anyone about it. The problem is it may one day cost Angel her wellbeing and ultimately her life.

Mason must now take it upon himself to be Angel’s ‘Savior’.

Purchase “Savior” from the Amazon Kindle Store @
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009KYMV90

-
       
Miracles
(sequel to
“
Savior
”
) by Annette J. Archer

In Miracles Angel finally gets to meet her long lost brother. Her relationship with Mason hits the rocks as they both struggle to come to grips with the feelings they have for each other. Even harder is communicating those feelings.

Purchase “Miracles” from the Amazon Kindle Store @
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009L4OFLQ

-
       
Penny’s Choice
(by Annette J. Archer)

Nobody believes Penny when she says she sees Vampires and Werewolves.
Including her family.
Even after her family is killed by some of them nobody believes her.
Even her own grandmother who she moves in with.

Now all Penny wants is revenge. The only way she can get this is by joining “The Brotherhood”.
An organisation that fights against Vampires.
Just one thing, they are not what she expects to find.

Charles is her mentor/trainer at the Brotherhood. He just happens to have lost his family in a similar manner to Penny. Oh yeah, and he just happens to be very good looking.

Penny soon learns to fight and starts getting some revenge for the deaths of her family.

After finding herself in danger with Charles Penny is rescued by a vampire who turns out to not only be Charles’ brother but also the vampire that had ensured she had not been killed on the day she and her family had been attacked by the group of vampires. Penny also finds herself falling in love with him. Now Penny has a choice to make.

When Angel goes to visit her brother’s place over the summer she finds a new home and family she was never even aware of but at what cost to her blossoming relationship with Mason?

Purchase “Penny’s Choice” from Amazon Kindle @
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009JY5CGA

-
       
Charles’ Choice
(by Annette J. Archer)
Book II of the Penny’s Choice Series

Charles’ Choice is book 2 of the “Penny’s Choice” series. After Penny escapes from the evil vampires and the Brotherhood, she lives out a dream romance with the man, or rather vampire, of her dreams.
Mostly.
Except for the fact that she has to deal with Charles, her
 
ex-boyfriend
 
and brother-in-law, on a daily basis, and two more surly vampires.
And that she spends most of her time globetrotting trying to evade the Brotherhood agents that are bent on revenge.

The family successfully evades the Brotherhood until one day in Berlin, the Brotherhood delivers an ultimatum: Charles retu
rns to the Brotherhood or they kill
Penny's grandmother. Charles must make a difficult choice. Does he turn himself in to save Penny's grandmother, knowing the fate that waits for him? But Thomas has another plan.
One that will bring otherworld Creatures from around the world into an epic, final battle against the Brotherhood.
 

-
       
Inner Beauty
(by Annette J. Archer)

Inner Beauty is a fantasy short story (7030 words).

What
exactly
is a Skrylen?

This is something
Kelsi
has to find out.

When
Kelsi
has a weird paranormal experience, that involves her skin glowing and a fire like feeling flowing through her veins on the day she visits her Dad’s grave at the cemetery, she is left in confusion. Jesse, the mysterious transfer, the heartthrob in her into her high school, ‘just happens’ to have witnessed the events. He tells her she is a ‘skrylen’. Not sure what that is
Kelsi
is left to find out what this means. Why has her mother kept this secret from her all this time? Will her mother now explain what this means?

One way or another
Kelsi
plans on finding out. It’s just that it may not be what she expected.

-
       
Belladonna From My Past
(by Annette J. Archer)

“Belladonna
From
My Past” is a romance short story. (5300+ words)

Jacob has always been good with women. That is until he meets “Amber Rose” at the coffee shop where he works.
The place where he has picked up so many women.
He knows “Amber Rose” is not her real name but can’t seem to get her real name from her. More worryingly he can’t seem to win her over.