Blood Diamond (58 page)

Evelyn saved my suit from ruination at the hands of a five year old using a wet paper towel. “Jacqueline, do you want to go with Daddy to his doctor’s appointment?”

“Is Daddy sick?” my daughter asked, holding her arms out to Evelyn, who took her.

“They’re making sure he doesn’t get sick,” Evelyn replied.

“The bad witch hurt him,” my daughter whispered, and I winced at her miserable tone.

“Don’t worry, little one,” Richard said, giving me a solid thumping on my back. I hissed in pain. “We’ll make sure your daddy stays out of trouble from now on.”

“Okay, Mr. Richard.”

When someone knocked at the door, Nicole skipped over to answer it. “Gerald!”

I groaned, leaning against the counter. “The drug dealer is here?”

“Uncle Jackson!” Beth and Ruth tumbled into the room, spotted me, and darted by Richard to collide with my legs.

I grunted, kneeling down to greet Gerald’s children. “Hello, girls. Where the girls are, their beautiful mother must be close behind.”

“Compliments will not save you, Jackson,” Maggie proclaimed, following her husband into the room. “And who is that cute little girl?”

“Daddy?” Jacqueline asked, her tone uncertain and full of worry.

Evelyn set my daughter down. “This is Ruth and Beth. They’ll be your friends. Ruth, Beth, this is Jacqueline. She’s Uncle Jackson’s girl. Treat her nice, okay? She doesn’t have many friends.”

Both Ruth and Beth’s eyes widened. “Hello,” Ruth said, clutching her bunny close to her chest before holding him out to my daughter. “His name is Sir Rufus Fuzzybottom. Do you want to hold him?”

When my daughter looked up at me for guidance, I patted her head. “I slept with him when I was at their house last. Go on and play.”

I wasn’t really sure how much my daughter knew about playing, but I extricated myself from the tangle of little girls, sliding around them to join Gerald and Maggie. Before I could say anything, Maggie caught me up in a rib-crushing hug. I wheezed, patting her back.

“You
jerk
,” she hissed.

“Bad word!” my daughter proclaimed, pointing at Maggie.

I ducked my head, choking back my laughter.

“Oops. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry, just wait until she really starts cursing,” I whispered into Maggie’s ear. “She’s just learning which words are bad and which ones aren’t. She’s had... a colorful education.”

“By colorful, what he’s trying to tell you is that she gave his mother a rather descriptive sex education lesson last night,” Evelyn whispered as she joined us.

Maggie gave me another hug. “Thank God, Jackson. She’s okay? Did she really? What did she say?”

“She did. It gets better. She discovered pizza for the first time about five minutes ago,” Evelyn announced. “It’s a good thing that she can’t spell and that her m-o-t-h-e-r is already d-e-a-d because when Jackson found out her diet consisted entirely of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I was certain there was going to be a m-u-r-d-e-r. We do not address S-u-z-a-n-n-e by name, nor do we call her m-o-t-h-e-r.”

“Has she been to a doctor yet?”

I sucked in a breath, turning to Evelyn. “Has she?”

“Several. Generally got a clean bill of health, although all three of them were worried about malnutrition. She’s a little small for her age. They think she’ll grow like a weed once she starts eating better. She’s six inches below average and about five pounds underweight for her height.”

“No wonder,” I muttered, glancing at my daughter. The three girls sat together on the floor in the kitchenette, whispering to each other. “I’m stealing your children to be her playmates, Gerald.”

“You are not! You may borrow them for short periods of time, but you may not keep them,” my friend replied.

“Spoilsport,” I rebuked, smiling at the girls. After a moment of consideration, I turned to Evelyn and said, “To answer your earlier question, both or either is perfectly fine by me.”

Evelyn’s smile warmed me.

Tales of the Winter Wolf, Volume One

Long before Nicolina Desmond manifested her powers as a wizard, she was a Normal girl with extraordinary circumstances. In order to prove herself and escape her father’s chokehold on her life, she’s determined to get on the fast track towards an independent life. 

However, she never anticipated how meeting Richard Murphy would change her life… 

Tales of the Winter Wolf follows the adventures of Nicole and Richard, predominant characters from Witch & Wolf #2, Winter Wolf. Spoilers for the novel are contained within! 

Volume One contains the following stories: 

Hunted
 

Nicolina Desmond should have known that her twin’s overly friendly behavior with the eligible Fenerec males would land her in trouble, but she never expected how far young, single werewolves would go to secure a mate. 

The Scent of Guilt
 

When Richard is invited to hunt Nicolina’s kidnappers with her father, he jumps at the chance. With Desmond lusting for blood and violence, Richard is forced to toe the line between mercy, justice, and revenge. 

Firecracker
 

Charles Desmond’s influence isn’t enough to stop those who are determined to take Richard’s rank through force. With Nicolina Desmond out on the hunt to kill him once and for all, he’ll need a lot more than luck to survive his stay with the Desmonds. 

Glitter
 

Richard Murphy has many sides, and Nicolina Desmond is dismayed to discover that he truly has the patience of a hunting wolf and his pranks are just as nefarious as hers. When the bodies of Fenerec turn up in her back yard, however, she might have to kill again, and her target is none other than Yellowknife’s injured Alpha. 

Hunted

Winter was the season of love, romance, and bonding for Fenerec, and I wanted nothing to do with it. In my gamble to escape, leaving my twin to fend off the wolves, I had graduated high school three years early, won early admittance into Stanford, and spent the vast majority of my time in California, far away from my Seattle home.

I had exams in a week, but that hadn’t been enough to deter my father.

It was bad enough having Fenerec parents, but for the next few days, all I had to look forward to was being toted around, put on display, and courted by every single werewolf looking to take advantage of my father’s influence. The werewolves couldn’t even handle the truth; calling them werewolves was a good way to stir their ire, and an angry werewolf had a tendency to hurt people, property, or, as the case often was, both. When they were hunting a mate, their volatile tendencies were doubly worse.

My sister, however, loved every moment of it. Lisa loved Seattle in the winter, with its heavy rain and occasional snowfall. She spent the rest of the year mourning her lost opportunities and lusting for the attention and thrill of being chased by testosterone-poisoned males hoping to win her affections and our father’s good graces.

I, on the other hand, knew better. I was the older sister; I should have been the one with a grip on things, but no. In the eyes of my family, I was the flake, the unreliable one, and the one too stubborn to give in and play the game their way. Attending Stanford at fifteen meant nothing to them, neither did my perfect GPA. I could be a doctor, a lawyer, or anything else I wanted, but that wasn’t good enough.

They wanted me to be the bride of a werewolf, and I wasn’t having it.

While Lisa dressed up when she knew they were coming, I dressed down. Before I had gone off to college, when ratty clothes and a surly temper didn’t work, I left for the city to spend the winter whenever possible, hopping from friend’s house to friend’s house until the werewolves left.

This year, things would be different. I put aside the ratty jeans and bulky sweater in favor of a black skirt and blazer with a pristine white shirt. I wore a silver charm bracelet with a single moonstone pendant, both an acknowledgment of my heritage and a mockery of it. The silver was old that even my father flinched away from it.

If a werewolf did decide to get frisky with me, I’d be more than happy to burn him.

Tales of the Winter Wolf, Volume One
is available from Amazon. (July 2015.)

To Susan, Sue, Alysha, and Ayoub,

Every author has people who support them from start to finish. Without you, I don’t think I would have survived writing Blood Diamond. Thanks so much for joining Dante and Evelyn for the wild ride. It’s been fun.

Let’s do it again sometime soon.

~RJ