DeLeina, Maya - Veil of Seduction [Ambrose Heights Vampires 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (71 page)

“So, you would like to be my mate?”

“I see the wheels turning in there, Mr. Evans. What did you have in mind?”

“Money. Power…” he said, staring into her eyes as he leaned in close and whispered, “…the ability to live forever.”

“Go on.”

“I am starting a new family, to overthrow the current leader’s reign here. I will appoint myself as king. And every king needs his queen. We will rule this town, this city.”

“Oh, Ryan!”

The young waitress leaned in close to his face, resting her forehead against his. She cupped her hands around his face and looked deep into his eyes.

Ryan readied himself for a kiss, but instead, she started to speak.

“Aphelion, my moonbeam, the dark side of the moon. This is our occultation. I bequeath myself onto you.”

“Oh yes, honey, bequeath onto me.”

“Like the lunar phases, so will become your fate. In full moon’s light, no longer will you fright. But by waning gibbous, you’ll once again fall hideous.” Charlene pulled down on the skin of his face with force, elongating his features.

“What in the hell was that?” He grabbed her by the wrist with anger.

“Nothing,” she said innocently, pulling back from his release, and got up from the chair, passing him his cocktail. “Here’s your drink,” she said as she turned to walk away.

Ryan stood up and shot glances back and forth at the drink and her, stunned. “Wait. Where in the hell do you think you’re going?” He grabbed her shoulder and dug his fingers into her flesh as his face started to twitch and spasm.

“Ryan, if I were you, I would spend this time heading back to the tunnels,” Charlene said, keeping her back to Ryan.

“I can’t just let you go. You know what I am and what my plan is,” Ryan whispered in her ear as his twitches intensified.

“The moon is no longer full. Seek the darkness. The transformation is quite excruciating.”

“The moon is no longer full?” Ryan turned her around. “Then what is that?” Ryan said, pointing to the moon’s brightness behind him.

“It only appears that way. The naked eye can’t determine the precise moment of the full moon phase.”

Ryan’s twitches relentlessly ignited along his face. A burning sensation ran along his body, just below the skin and penetrated deep into the bone. He grabbed his face. “What the fuck! What have you done?”

Charlene stood there quietly, pitching her head to one side, studying the small signs of morphing that were already occurring in his face.

Ryan gasped in terror as he realized his facial structure was disfiguring by the second. “What the hell…” Ryan stopped as he tried to form the rest of the sentence. “Era uoy?”

His eyes widened.

“Yhw ma I gniklat siht yaw?” Ryan screamed at her.

She smiled in response, shaking her head.

Ryan turned abruptly, clutching his face and ran off in the direction of the underground tunnel entrance.

* * * *

Charlene stood still, watching Ryan run frantically to his eternal shelter.

He screamed profanities, all backwards.

Once he was out of her sight, she turned around to face the lake, tapping slightly on her shoulder. On cue, a brilliant-white owl swooped down from the trees across the way and glided over the lake, settling on her shoulder.

“Good boy, Palmer,” she said as she ran her hand delicately down the owl’s wing.

“Charlene Diana?” a male’s voiced pierced the stillness in the air from behind the trees.

She smiled.

“One means a strong woman and the other, a divine woman. My mother was torn between the two names. She said that I was both strong and divine. So she combined them. Chariana.”

“Very clever,” said Alex as he fully emerged from the cover of the trees. He walked over and wrapped his arms around her waist. “And very fitting.”

“Thank you, my love.”

“Since when do you dabble in black magic?”

“I don’t. I just never forgot the spell Madeline cast on me. And in my readings, I found out that even though Anya restored my body, I still had to do a spell transference to make sure it could never be cast again.”

“Well then, good choice in the new candidate,” Alex said as he reached into his coat pocket. “Should we phone the good news to Steffan and Anya?”

“They’re in Hawaii. Let them have their honeymoon time without any more thoughts of Ryan. Let it be their welcome-home present,” Chariana said, resting her hand gently on his arm.

Alex nodded as he released the phone. “So I have to ask about the fortune you showed him.”

“What about it?”

“Did that come from the Chinese fusion restaurant here?”

“Yes.”

“And?” Alex probed.

“And what?”

“And so you just got this job at the resort.”

Chariana smiled. “Well, I didn’t exactly work for the restaurant when he saw me. I just slipped in and took the bowl of fortune cookies one night, a
full-moon
night that is. I caught him outside as he waited for his car.”

“You sly girl!” Alex held out his hand.

Chariana placed her hand in his as they headed for the exit that spilled onto the cobblestone-paved shopping corridor.

“Wait!” she shrieked.

Chariana released Alex and ran back to the rocking chairs, sifting through the magazines that lined the coffee table.

“I know I saw one here. I must’ve overlooked it,” Chariana said as Alex came up behind her.

“Ah! There you are!” she exclaimed.

Chariana grasped a copy of the magazine that featured the Ambrose Height’s home that Ryan had seen over one year ago.

“Let me see this,” Alex said as Chariana handed it over to him with a big grin.

Alex examined the magazine’s front and back cover. “He never noticed that it was missing the edition number, date, bar encoding like all of the real magazines out there? I mean, the logo is a bit wrong, too.”

Chariana just shrugged. “Did it not work?”

“Yes, it did,” Alex admitted as he flipped to the feature page and glanced at the article’s author and laughed.

By Charlene Diana
.

“Seems like your alias Charlene Diana is quite popular.”

Chariana smiled a devilish grin.

THE END

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