Fighting For Her Soul (Book One In The Relentless Undead Trilogy)

By Karina Cole

Claire Jasper’s ordinary life suddenly becomes an extraordinary adventure. She’s being stalked by something mysterious and she can’t figure out what it is and the police are no help. Things are getting so intense and Claire knows she must look for a solution of a different sort. That’s where Victor Landeaux comes in.

Victor is a bounty hunter of the Undead. He takes on the challenge of protecting Claire from the Undead and fighting for her soul. They need to discover why she’s the chosen one to sacrifice for the New Year of the Corpus—a ritual that takes place once every six hundred years. It makes no sense to either of them.

Together, Claire and Victor embark on a journey to find out why Parafronas, the demon pursuing Claire, has chosen her. They are two very different people who are conquering the Undead and quickly realizing that their relationship is more than merely professional. Victor helps Claire bring out her bravery, smarts, and courage. As for Victor, he eventually cannot deny that he desires Claire and ensuring her safety is much more than just a job. It’s something he must do to protect the woman he’s falling in love with.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Karina Cole
• Release date: Aug 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476239415

Karina Cole

Karina Cole lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children. Since childhood she has had a love of reading, writing, nature and the outdoors. When she's not writing romance (paranormal and suspense) Karina can be found enjoying time with friends and family, cooking, or curled up by the fireplace with a good romance novel.

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Fighting For Her Soul

Karina Cole

PUBLISHED BY:

Karina Cole

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012

www.KarinaCole.com

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events. locale, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

The Lingering Fog

Victor Landeaux, Bounty Hunter

Storms in Savannah

A World of Strange Ones

The Lower Level Library

Watching Claire

Miami Mystique

Churchill Bar

The City of Seduction

Visiting Fayatta

Ravenclaw

After the Fight

Excerpt from Defending Her Soul, Book Two of the Relentless Undead

About the Author

The Lingering Fog

Claire was growing agitated and impatient, waiting for the management team of Thompson Enterprises to get to the conference room. She’d only just started the audit of their finances for another client, a potential buyer. She was slightly surprised that they hadn’t readily had the documents she’d requested available; after all, they’d been given the list. If DuPree Accounting was anything, it was thorough. They were all about the bottom line, and efficiency.

The temperature in the conference room was startlingly cold. Claire stood up to move around, hoping it would keep her warm. She could feel goose bumps forming underneath her ivory silk blouse. There was a large picture window looking out over the Savannah business district. It was quite a beautiful view, showing the many bright colors that come with spring, and all the blooming azaleas.

Claire heard a noise and quickly turned her head to see if somebody was coming, but there was nobody there. She took a step to see the corner of the room better. Oh no, not again, she thought. Evidence of a slight fog lingered in the corner. Claire immediately tensed up, knowing what was coming next. A chill surged through her body that was colder than the chilliest Arctic waters. She stood, frozen, hoping that it would pass before the pain made her scream or pass out.

The door to the conference room swung open. Miss Jasper, I’m sorry to keep you waiting.

Claire jumped, startled by the abrupt entry of the man. Just like that, the chill was gone, and Claire struggled to recompose herself. She couldn’t risk looking like she didn’t have self-control in front of the clients. Get it together, Claire, she scolded herself.

Um… no problem. Call me Claire, please, she muttered softly.

Are you okay, Claire?

Yes, I was just startled. I’d been admiring the blooming flowers below. There is quite a lovely view from up here.

Yes, it is rather nice, isn’t it? Well, if you don’t need anything else from me right now, I’ll leave this disc with you, and you can start your review. Don’t hesitate to let my assistant know if you need anything else. We want to make this as easy for you as possible.

I’m sure you do. Thank you, The manager started to leave, and Claire took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. Could you please leave the door open? She called out, I’m a bit claustrophobic.

Sure, Claire. The man smiled and walked away. With the door open, Claire hoped there would be no incidents. Thankfully, there weren’t.

A few hours later, she was ready to meet Dani at The Pirate House, a bar that Claire would never have dreamed of visiting without a little persuasion from her best friend. Dani was the receptionist at DuPree, and, on the side, was an aspiring playwright. At the moment, she was writing one of her crazier plots. It was about a female pirate who happened to be the true mastermind behind Black Beard, also known as Edward Teach. According to Dani, the tourist attraction bar put her in the creative spirit so that she could tap into the characters. Claire didn’t get it, but she seldom got Dani right away, despite having known each other for so long.

Dani was already at the bar, sitting in the corner and enjoying a rum punch—another thing that put her in the creative spirit. Claire did understand that.

Claire, you definitely look like you need a drink. What’ll it be, mate?

I think I’ll go for a Hurricane. Only one though; I haven’t eaten yet.

You okay? You look kind of weird, Dani asked, not holding back. She leaned in and closely scrutinized Claire.

I’m okay; boring day, that’s all.

Numbers never bore you, Dani commented. She paused and wrinkled her nose, eyes still on Claire. Fess up. It happened again, didn’t it?

Claire didn’t want to answer Dani, and she knew she didn’t have to. The lack of response said it all. The situation at Thompson Enterprises was nothing new to Claire as of late.

You’ve got to do something about this, Claire. How long are you going to keep counting on the police to help you when they can’t? They’re starting to think you’re crazy, and I think that it’s getting to you. You need to find someone with special skills: a psychic, or a mystic.

Dani, how exactly am I going to find someone like that? Do I look like I could ever go into the darker sections of the city without having a heart attack? You think I’m skittish –now—just imagine what would happen after that. Ugh! This is something that can be solved using logical means and methods.

Look, I know you may not want to admit it, but someone, or something, has been in your apartment and is following you when you’re at work and other places. They haven’t taken anything; however, they’ve left some sort of paranormal trail around there. I just know it.

I don’t believe in that type of stuff, Dani. It’s just not possible. You’re getting this from some romantic notion, or one of those crazy novels you like to read.

Look, there’s an entire world out there aside from your suburban Arlington upbringing, ideal parents, and stodgy –career—a world that defies explanation more often than not. What do you have to lose by finding somebody who specializes in such matters?

I could lose money from my savings betting on a quack. I could lose self respect and dignity. Need I go on?

I’d like to suggest that you could lose your mind, too. Is that what you want? Do you think DuPree is going to let an expected nut case of an external auditor out there to mingle with their beloved clients? Doubtful. You may not see it, but I do. All this is really having an impact on you. To be frank, you’re starting to look like crap. There are bags under your eyes, you’re seldom well rested, and you don’t have any of that determination that used to scare the hell out of people.

I can see how this is going to make me feel better, Claire said. A waitress set the Hurricane in front of her, and Claire took a huge gulp, wrinkling her nose from the strong wafts of rum that went up it. Then she turned her attention back to Dani.

Assuming that I do as you suggest, Dani, how would I even find the name of one of these people? I don’t think they’re listed in the Yellow Pages.

Well, I can help you out, there, Dani reached into her purse. Here’s a number that I found. This guy is said to have a way of deterring paranormal entities from terrorizing mortals.

How does somebody get into that line of work, anyway? Claire asked in disbelief. Apply in the back of Rolling Stone?

Not sure, but you should ask. Could I come along? I may be able to get some good information for a play.

If I decide to do this, which I may, just to prove you wrong, I’ll go alone. I don’t need your enthusiasm clouding my judgment or distracting me. Claire crossed her arms and leaned back, signaling that the conversation was over.

The simplest way to get Dani distracted was to talk about her dating life. She’d been having some difficulty getting over her most recent boyfriend moving to another city. He said it would be easiest if they dated other people since he’d be so far away and busy with his new job. Dani hadn’t been thrilled, yet she didn’t let it hamper her desire to find the real deal. She still held hope that it was John, the guy who moved. Claire, however, was not on the same page. Her hunches told her that he’d been cheating on Dani all along and she’d heard that he moved to Atlanta. Why would you lie about something like that if you really wanted to be with someone? Claire thought Dani was amazing for the fact that she never gave up on love, or her