Vampires Seduction #1 (The Paranormal Town Romance Series) (2 page)

Calypso entered the room in a fluster. "There's
so much to do and so little time. I have summoned the coven and we are just
about to meet. What news do you have, Gunnar?" She extended her hand and
he took it. She cringed as she felt the ice transfer to her palm.
"And so?"

He released her hand, glancing at her nails that had
been filed into perfect points and painted with black tips. He saw that one
nail had a bright red dot on the end and he briefly wondered why.

"There's been a change of plans, Calypso."
He turned his back to her and walked away, turning slowly to finish his
comments, "I have decided that you will have to make another plan."

"What? Are you crazy? This has been in the
works for months. Years!
Zucar
Kendlesmith
is ready. Things have been set in motion." Her voice was high-pitched and
crazed. "It's impossible!"

He continued walking around the room, his heavy boot
echoing as he went. When he turned to look at her again his gray eyes had
turned to crimson. "Change of plans," he repeated.

"Gunnar, please, you can't do this now. The
whole town is ready. We even closed the stores early tonight in preparation.
The coven has waited for years for this moment." She locked her fingers
together in what might have been called a "prayer" in other circles,
but he saw her pointed fingers glistening and it was not a prayer, but a move
of desperation. "It could cause a war between the coven and the
vampires."

He turned precipitously toward her. "So be it,
Calypso." His voice dropped lower and caressed the air.

"But Gunnar, why?
Why are you doing this now? Everything is in place. I have even managed to
persuade a specialist on fertility to help us."

"Persuade?" Gunnar's laugh came from deep
inside and banged across the walls and the ceiling like a ball in a pachinko
game. "Where is he being held?"

Calypso ignored his question. "Gunnar, we are
old friends. We have lived here in this town for over 200 years. Hell, you
hand-picked this town. You even made a joke that you had laid under flowers all
your eternal life and you wanted to be in the flower seed capital of the world.
Remember?"

Gunnar turned his back to her and walked toward the
door. His hand poised on the door knob.
"A change of
plans, Calypso.
Your coven will have to cancel their sex orgy and return
the fertility specialist to his practice. No baby warlocks and witches this
year." His eyes narrowed. "Do you understand, Calypso?"

She rose off the floor and pointed her black tipped
index finger at him, emitting a spark from its tip. "I am not some amateur
you can push aside, Gunnar. I don't want to go to war with the vampires, but we
will. This is too important for our survival. There hasn't been a baby born to
a witch in years. We just have
Zucar
Kendlesmith
as our last warlock. Our situation is critical.
We will become extinct!"

Gunnar opened the door and slammed it shut behind
him, leaving Calypso floating twelve inches off the floor.

***

Anca
didn't pay attention to the scenery whizzing past her, but kept her foot steady
on the gas pedal. She had no clue where her destination was, only that she must
get as far away from the home she had shared for 19 years with her parents. She
saw the billboard for
Andersen's split
pea soup
and for the first time all day felt a tightening in her stomach.
She was hungry. She parked the car and went into the restaurant. She tried not
to look at the Christmas decorations on the right side of the
door which
only served to remind her that her parents would
not be with her for any holiday, ever again.

As she sank into the restaurant booth she felt a
sudden chill and looked up to see a man in the adjacent booth staring at her.
It wasn't that he seemed menacing to her, yet she felt cold and ordered hot
soup and bread. The waitress hesitated,
then
offered
her a chocolate or strawberry milkshake.

Anca
smiled.
"A milkshake with hot soup?
Isn't there
something wrong with that picture?"

The waitress laughed softly. "Perhaps, but a
little warmth with a little cold is sometimes a good thing."

Anca
nodded. "Okay,
strawberry shake
." She tried
not to look at the man across from her, but his dark gray eyes seemed to
penetrate into her. She glanced at his features, the square jaw, the trail of a
beard along his jawline, his perfectly straight white teeth framed by his full
lips. Was she crazy even THINKING about his lips? She turned to look into the
darkness outside her window. Car lights flashed by and she blinked at each one.
When she turned to look at the man again, he was gone. It was just as well. She
wouldn't have wanted to leave the restaurant for fear he would follow her.
These were strange times.

The hot pea soup seemed to lift her spirits and she
began to look at her surroundings. She liked this restaurant. It reminded her
of her childhood when her parents had brought her here when they were traveling
the 101 highway to some important meeting or to a dig in the Anza desert. She
felt a pang tug at her heart as she
realized again that today
was the end of that chapter of her life
. Her parents were truly gone.

She mused about Mr. Pearson. He swore by his
research and his use of mediums and special technology that he was very close
to having a
ghost-connection
.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if she could connect with her parents? Crazy thoughts…
She paid for her meal and was back in the car ready for the last leg to….? She
paused. Last leg to where? She looked up and saw a sign: Lompoc. She turned
right onto the two lane road, grateful that it was a fairly straight road on
this dark night.

She swerved suddenly to avoid something in the road
and ended up on the side of the pavement, slightly panicked. She heard the tap
on her window, "Are you okay, ma’am?"

A man was leaning down looking in at her, his blue
eyes sparkling with the car's interior light. He spoke to her again, "I
saw you swerve, so I swerved.” He ran his large hand through his sandy colored
hair quickly, "And luckily, neither of us hit that pig!"

"Pig?"
She found her voice and released her grip on the steering wheel.

"Technically, a boar.
Lots of them along this road at night looking for roots to
dig up."

She blinked and repeated, "Boar."

"Are you okay?" His voice was low and
soothing. "My name's Emil, I live in Lompoc."

"Lompoc?" She felt numb and dazed.

"The town you are headed for, it's spelled
L-o-m-p-o-c and some people say Lom pock, but it's
Lompoke
with a c not
ke
." He grinned and his dimples
appeared. "Are you lost?" His sand-colored eyebrows raised and she
could see some of the merriment drain from his blue eyes.

She felt her guard come back, "No, of course
not. Yes, I am headed for Lompoc."

"Well, it's not far now, about 15 miles or so
more. You can follow me." His sandy hair and sparkling blue eyes made her
feel safer than she knew she was.

"I think I will just sit here a few minutes and
compose myself."

He stood up and now she could just see his belly at
her level in the car, but he leaned down again, "Okay, well, you take
care. Enjoy your stay in Lompoc."

"Yes, thank you." She watched him get back
into his car, a fire engine red Stingray. Nice. She felt herself relax as she
watched him drive around her car and get back on the road. Lompoc was
definitely
her destination. He
disappeared into the dark ahead of her.

Slowly, she moved back onto the shadowy road.
Fifteen miles wasn't so long. She could make it, even though her eyelids felt
heavy. Then, there on the road she saw something that made her slam on her
brakes. She screamed.

A gigantic brown boar with his head held high and
tusks glistening in the car's headlights stood rock-solid in front of her car,
barricading the road. The car had gone into a skid, swiveled backwards, turned
forwards again, popping its right front tire. Her knuckles were white from squeezing
so tightly onto the steering wheel. She sat silently in the dark, looking at
the wild boar in front of her, not daring to get out of the car. She turned her
head to look behind and saw only darkness. "Now what?" she whispered
aloud. Unexpectedly, she saw the boar roll on its side, shake its legs wildly,
as if it was in dire pain, and then, change, right there in the road, into a
naked man. He was smiling and waving his white arms in the air wildly,
"Okay, it's done. Can I go home now?" Out from the blackness a puff
of smoke appeared. A shrill voice cackled, "Go home,
Roscoffulus
.
Good job." A woman dressed in a long black gown, teetering on spiked high
heels, waved her black tipped pointed fingernails, "Be gone." In the
same puff of smoke
Anca
had seen before, the
wild-pig-turned-naked man vanished.

The woman motioned with her hand and five other
women came out of the darkness, as if they had unzipped a curtain and walked
through. The woman in the black gown came to the side of the car.

"Open the door young woman." She commanded
firmly.

Anca
shook her head. The woman waved her hand and the door latch popped open.
"Get out."

Anca
shook her head again, not knowing what to expect. "Look young lady, my
name is Calypso and I am the leader of a coven. Do you know what a coven
is?" Her black eyes narrowed.

Anca
whispered, "Yes."

 
Another woman
stepped forward. "Don't be frightened, dear. We really don't mean to harm
you. I am
Nuanda
, the protector."
Nuanda
smiled. She had a warm round face, framed by stringy
dark brown hair that had the look of someone trying to curl it, but it just
fell flat. On her nose perched a pair of owl-like glasses. She peered at
Anca
with her head slightly tilted backwards. She wasn't
old, but she had the appearance of someone who shopped at the Goodwill and
wasn't good at it. Her dress clung to her round hips and draped shapeless
around her.

Calypso pointed her finger at
Anca
.
The sparks flew out from the tip as if she were ready to light a cigarette.
"You won't be harmed if you do as I say."

Anca's
words were teeming with panic. "What do you want with me? What is this?
Who are you?" She knew that they might be witches, not that she believed
in witches, but she had seen a pig turn into a man and fire did just come out
of the woman's index finger! "I will call the police. You have to let me
go."

Calypso rumbled with laughter. "Go ahead. Your
cell phone doesn't work out here, little girl." She laughed again and her
laugh reverberated throughout the trees alongside the road. "You are
coming with me." The woman raised her arms, twirled them twice, and the
next thing
Anca
knew she was in an unfamiliar
kitchen…
Calypso's kitchen.
Smells of ginger and
cinnamon filled the air. She felt the heat burn her cheeks from an oven having
heated the kitchen to a sweltering level.

"Now we can talk." Calypso pulled a chair
into the middle of the room. "Sit."
Anca
sat down with a thud. "The thing is,
Anca
, we
need you for a very important duty, which I am sure once you know what it is,
you will be delighted to oblige. We…" Before Calypso could finish her
words, the kitchen began to shake and moan and a bellowing voice echoed
throughout the house, "Release the girl, Calypso, or I will destroy your
house with you in it!"

"Not without a fight, Gunnar!" The witch twirled
rope quickly around
Anca
. "You stay put. You
have the best seat in the house. Watch this!" Calypso grinned, revealing
her jagged pointed teeth. She said some words under her breath and a huge wind
began blowing outside the house, whipping around the building until it picked
it up and drew it skyward in a huge black vortex. All the while Calypso cackled
and kept her arms high in the air.
Anca
could see
through the floor boards as if they were windows. She saw Gunnar far below
them, his fist banging at the air in anger, to which Calypso laughed even
harder. "A vampire is no match for the queen of all the witches."

Anca
repeated the words slowly, "Vampire.
Witches."
And then she fell asleep.

***

Calypso stood on a platform addressing the coven.
"She is here, the one who will bear the next warlock or witch. She will
begin her initiation into the coven to become one of us and then, Dr. Appleton
will help
Zucar
Kendlesmith
become a father again! It's a glorious day in Lompoc! Two hundred years we have
waited for a baby to be born and now we are on the eve of conception!” The
coven cheered and didn't stop until Calypso raised her arms to stop them.
"Her name is
Anca
and she will be the mother to
Zucar
Kendlesmith's
heir."
The cheers echoed again in the jammed stadium. "We will not be bullied by
vampires ever again. We are in power, not those blood-sucking leeches."
The crowd booed when she mentioned vampires. "Have no fear; we will
conquer those that would see us perish." The shouts of approval and praise
began again. The room seemed to rock from side to side with their hailing and
clapping and stomping. Calypso let them wail. She soaked in their joy, which
was her joy. She watched as
Anca
was led into the
room.
Anca's
bronze hair had been braided. She wore a
black silk formless gown befitting a novice witch. Her eyes were round circles
of fear as she heard the clamor becoming more deafening. Calypso raised her
arms and the rowdy crowd became silent.