Promise Me Anthology

Published by

Melange Books, LLC

White Bear Lake, MN 55110

www.melange-books.com

Promise Me Anthology, Copyright 2013
by Tara Fox Hall

ISBN: 978-1-61235-712-6

Names, characters, and incidents
depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or
are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of
this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States of
America.

Cover Design by Caroline
Andrus

PROMISE ME ANTHOLOGY

TARA FOX HALL

Table of Contents

With Every Goodbye (Sarelle)

Sarelle McGarran loves her new country life,
her pets, and her husband, Brennan. When she loses him to a tragic
climbing accident, Sarelle must fight depression, financial
hardship, and her family and friends’ good intentions to embrace a
new destiny all her own.

Heart's Bells (Theo)

College students Theo and Casey are in love,
but Theo’s father’s ambition for his artistic son stands in their
way. When Theo’s family is attacked by a werecougar on vacation, he
alone survives. Now afflicted himself, will Theo dare endanger the
one person he loves most, hoping their love will endure his new
animal nature?

Total Eclipse of the Heart (Heather, Devlin,
Ulysses)*

Heather is a hardworking college student
studying to be a nurse. When she meets the vampire Devlin Dalcon,
infatuation quickly becomes obsession. Will Heather heed Devlin’s
warnings, or let herself be destroyed by her dangerous desire?

Night Shift (Jordan, Heather) * and Just Business (Tony,
Thane, Danial, Devlin, Nate, David, Jordan, Angelica,
Lash)*

When the mortal teen Angelica witnesses
careless vampires draining accident victims on the hospital night
shift, she runs to her bosses, mobsters Tony and Thane, for
protection. While angered at the problem, Devlin also sees
possibilities for expansion with Tony and Thane...if he can
maneuver everyone into place in time.

Partners (Danial, Devlin, Angelica, Theo)* this is an
extended version

Vampire investigator Danial Racklan finds
more than his target when the suffering werecougar Theo crosses his
path one evening. For Theo is not only a man with a past as tragic
as his own, but also destined to give Danial something he’s never
had before: a partner he could trust.

State of Grace (Nate)*

Made a vampire by accident, timid Rodney has
been reduced to feeding on animals to survive. Befriended by a
veterinarian, Jackie, Rodney goes after her the night she attempts
to thwart a dogfighting ring alone. But can he kill others of his
own kind to save Jackie’s life?

Sonata (Devlin, Nate, David)*

When Nate challenges Devlin to seduce a human
woman using limited words, the handsome vampire agrees to the bet,
figuring to let a musical composition do the work for him. But Mary
Ann, the woman in question, has an agenda of her own.

Night Music (David and Krys)*

Grieving Krys Markman has come to lose
herself in family memories at Letchworth State Park, and try to
figure out her next step. Yet the unearthly beautiful music she
hears each night stirs her soul to romance. Can its creator, the
attractive vampire David Helm, heal her broken heart?

Tears and Rain (Terian, Kyle)

Terian has come west, seeking his friend and
former mentor Colin in an effort to forget his unrequited love for
Sar and increase his magical skills. Instead, he finds a harsh
lesson in the bonds of family, along with fresh purpose and
determination.

Heart’s Solace (Theo and Tasha)

When the badly wounded cougar comes to her
father’s country estate, Russian teen Tasha names him Nazdeha, the
word for hope. But as time goes on, Tasha discovers that the animal
is instead a werecougar named Theo, whose only thought once
recovered is to return to his family. Scared that Theo is doomed to
die if he leaves, Tasha bespells Theo with Heart’s Solace, a
magical love potion given to her by a mysterious cloaked
figure.

*These stories link together to tell a wider
story

About the Author

Previews

Thank you to Dark Moon, my
fellow WAH authors, and Melange Books, who helped launch the
Promise Me series in these short stories. And to fellow authors
Jenny Twist, Tori Ridgewood, and Jodie Pierce, for all your help.
To Deb the most wonderful hairstylist in the world, for requesting
a story about Terian. To my wonderful childhood friend Lynette, who
asked for a story on Sarelle. And as always, to Mom.

With Every Goodbye

“Make love with
me.”

I blinked, then turned over in bed. My
husband Brennan was lying next to me. Daylight streamed through the
double windows, giving his short light brown hair reddish
highlights.
Damn, but he always looks sexy in the sun.
“What
time is it?”

“7:23AM; the perfect time.” His warm blue
eyes blinked once, his facial expression teasing.

I stretched, yawning. “Have you been awake
long?”

“I don’t usually get up before you do,” he
said, chuckling. “I was watching you sleep.”

I snorted. “And you were suddenly inspired to
lust?”

“Something like that.”

I slipped my hand beneath the sheet,
searching. Brennan straightened suddenly, grunting.

I stroked his hardened flesh. “Tell me you
love me.”

Brennan made an attempt to look stern. “I
wouldn’t have married you if I didn’t, Sar.”

I let the corners of my mouth curl up just a
hint, my hand not stopping its motion. “Come on. Say it—”

“I love you. I’d go to the ends of the earth
for you.” He grasped my free hand in his, threading his fingers
through mine. “Don’t stop.”

“Sorry,” I said cheerfully, straddling him.
“Like you just said, it’s the perfect time for making love.” I
brushed my lips over his, then pressed harder. Brennan groaned
again, then pulled me close, rolling over onto me. I giggled, then
sighed in bliss, feeling his lips kiss their way lower.

God, it was great being married

* * * *

“Slowly! Go slowly,” Brennan shouted at me,
as I bore down on him atop my 55-HP John Deere tractor.

“I have things well in hand, just like I did
this morning,” I said loftily, easing past him through the doorway
with a foot to spare. “I’m getting very good driving standard.”

“Like hell,” Brennan called, as I parked the
tractor inside the woodshed. “You nearly drove over my foot.”

“Maybe you should have stepped back,” I
teased. After shutting the tractor off, I began to unload the wood
from the tractor bucket, piling it from one end to the other across
the length of the woodshed. Brennan came up beside me and began
helping, dumping wood in armfuls onto my neatly begun row.

Don’t tell him he’s piling it wrong. It’ll
just start a fight, and it doesn’t matter that much. “Thanks for
helping.”

“I’m your partner,” Brennan said, matter of
fact. He deposited another armful. “I’m supposed to help. Besides,
it’s not as if you’re going to be the only one sitting by that
woodstove come December. I’ll be right next to you.” A log slipped
through his fingers, landing on the dirt floor. He picked it up
with a grimace, tossing it haphazardly onto the stacked row. “It
was a good idea to put it in. That saved us a ton on heating last
winter.”

Heating with wood was a lot of work, between
the stacking, the splitting, the chainsawing into pieces, and
lugging trees out of the forest in the first place. “It does. I
don’t mind the extra work, knowing we don’t have a mortgage on the
place.” My words were awkward, like they were any time that I
brought up finances.

“I wanted you to be okay, if something
happened to me,” Brennan said, just like he’d said a hundred times
before. “I didn’t mind putting all my savings into the house, along
with yours. And we got the life insurance policies together,
too—”

“Your mom thought it was too soon for us to
think about dying,” I said darkly. “She still thinks I forced you
into getting them. That I forced you into paying off my house.”

“Let’s not argue about my family,” Brennan
said, his tone both defensive and supplicant. “My mom will come
around in time, then so will the rest of them. It’s our house now,
Sar.”

We stacked wood in silence, both of us
unwilling to bring up the matter that neither one of our families
had exactly embraced our marriage. Most days it was enough that we
had each other, and we were making a new life for ourselves
together. I reassured myself again that Brennan was right. It would
just take a little more time.

* * * *

“Why do you have to go?” I asked for the
second time.

“Andy,” Brennan said with false patience, his
jaw muscle twitching. “My best friend from high school. He flew all
the way down from Alaska for our wedding, remember? He’s getting a
divorce and he needs a friend.”

“I’m not talking about that,” I said,
shooting him dagger eyes. “I’m talking about the climbing
expedition—”

“You’re making it seem like I’m going to
Everest or something—”

“You told me it was a dangerous climb,” I
said louder, determined not to be dissuaded. “Now you’re acting
like it’s not. Which is it?”

“It’s not dangerous,” Brennan said. “He’s
done it before. And I’ve done a lot of climbing myself—”

“Not in the last year you haven’t.”

“Because I moved here to the East, to be near
your family and my new job,” Brennan said, irritated. “How am I
supposed to stay in shape climbing mountains when there are no
mountains, Sar? I’m not a novice. I’ve climbed most of my life. I
have close to a decade of experience—”

Go for the big guns.
“I just became a
wife. I want a few more years before I’m a widow.”

“I’m not going to take any risks,” Brennan
assured, hugging me. “Just because we took all those legal
safeguards doesn’t mean I want to test them out! I just want some
time with an old friend. Plus I can stop out West on the way back
home and see my mother, Sar. My family has been making noises about
me coming out there to see them this summer. I know you don’t want
to fly out there—”

The truth was that we couldn’t afford it
right now, not for both of us to go. And he did have a point that
this wasn’t his first climb. My husband had been a climbing guide
in both Wyoming and Colorado in his college days, even if he’d
never climbed in Alaska before. “You win,” I said reluctantly,
hugging him. “Just come home to me in one piece, okay?”

* * * *

“Be careful,” I said, hugging Brennan in the
airport lobby. “Remember you’re climbing for two. Four if you count
Ghost and Darkness. Six if you count Jessica and Cavity.”

“I’ll be careful,” he said solemnly. “You be
careful, too, okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I’m
not going to be hanging off the sides of mountains on thin
ropes.”

“Accidents happen,” he said ominously. “Just
be safe, okay? No chainsawing by yourself. And no splitting
either.”

“All right,” I said reluctantly. It wasn’t as
if I could get my chainsaw started by myself anyway; Brennan always
had to start it for me.

“I love you. I’ll call you as soon as I get
there.”

“I love you,” I said, then hugged him tight,
finishing with a passionate kiss. Brennan returned it with ardour,
then shot me a joyous grin, and headed into line, placing his bag
on the scanner as he walked through the metal detector. He went
through, then paused once to blow me another kiss before heading
into line to board. Then he was gone, vanishing down the
retractable tunnel to his plane.