The Vampire's Human

By Kiki Howell

The Willows is a resort town run by vampires, werewolves and witches. Here, their true identities are kept secret from humans, and intimate relations between the individual clans are strictly forbidden.

Unexpected close encounters, bodies ripe with need, and situations beyond their control lead to forbidden relationships. Now three vampires, a witch, a werewolf and a human must ride along the edges of the rules. They will attempt once unthinkable romantic entanglements despite all those who oppose their relationships, while fighting for their lives as well.

With the Willows full of violence and bloodshed, meetings and magic amiss, will the clans ever be able to find peace among them again? Or, will this war destroy the Willows?

In book 3, Devin, hides the biggest secret; he’s in love with a local human. In a moment of desperation – of love – Devin sweeps this human, Sara, away to his home in order to keep her out of harm’s way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kiki Howell
• Release date: Jan 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781927415146

Kiki Howell

Ever since she was young, Kiki Howell has loved to listen to a well-woven tale with real characters, inspired plots, and delightful resolutions. Kiki could spend hours lost in a book, and soon she knew that creating lives, loves, and losses with just words had to be the greatest thing that she could do. To that end, she pursued her study of literature and writing, earning a bachelor’s degree in English. She then followed in a Master’s program in Creative Writing. She has now had over forty stories published between eleven different publishers. She could not be more thrilled or grateful to see her creations polished and out in the real world. In May, 2011, Kiki was chosen as an Ohioana Book Festival author for her novel, Torn Asunder. She's also had three flash fiction stories win writing contests. In the fall of 2013, her novel, Hidden Salem, made the Amazon Top 100 Bestsellers Lists in Paranormal, Suspense and Ghosts; and in the fall of 2014, her novel. What Lies Within Us, made the Amazon Top 100 Best Sellers Lists in Gothic Fiction and Occult Horror. Releasing March 9th, 2015, Kiki coordinated and edited her first charity anthology, We Go On, with all proceeds going to veteran's charities. Kiki resides in the Midwest with her incredibly handsome and talented, singer/songwriter husband and two children. When she is not writing, she is spending time with her family, reading, watching tv or knitting.

Book preview

The Vampire’s Human by Kiki Howell

At War In The Willows: Book Three

ISBN: 978-1-927415-14-6

Smashwords Edition 2012

Published by: Naughty Nights Press (NNP)

http://naughtynightspress.com/

Edited by: May McQueen

Photography & Cover Design by Shane Willis, RAD ACT Photography

http://www.radactphoto.com/

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The Vampire’s Human by Kiki Howell

At War in the Willows: Book Three

Chapter One

Get the hell away from me, damn it!

Devin heard a female scream on his way back into the Willows, the resort town where he lived in the mountains of Tennessee. So hauntingly familiar, the voice made his whole body freeze. Not surprising though. He stood, muscles aching from stress alone, still on high alert after all that had happened over the last few days.

Hidden behind a clump of trees, careful of casting a shadow with the moon so close to full now, he saw Sara surrounded by her three brothers. The trio poised in fight mode, a semi-circle of testosterone-filled bullying, right outside Sara’s home. Just the sight of her took his breath away—even as a vampire, without need of air. His useless lungs raised in his chest, stuck there.

He passed this way nightly since Sara lived just a mile out from the cove where Devin worked and tended bar at a place called The Hunger. The joke was on the humans there as vampires owned and ran the place, so, of course, it stayed open all night. The vampires had some human day-shift workers as well.

Sara, a human, and her friends frequented the place late at night when Devin worked. She sat in the third seat from the kitchen door if it was available. She always had quarters for the jukebox, a new contraption made to look old, which got quite a bit of play at a bar in a resort town like theirs. With only one drink in her, she would sing Good Life by One Republic. With two, possibly three drinks in her, she screamed like an angel, I Will Not Bow by Breaking Benjamin. She usually wore the cutest flowing skirts, about knee length, and had a thing for lace on her tops. He’d made a study of the girl, marked to memory every fine detail she revealed about her life when she’d sat at his bar.

Tonight, Devin had taken the night off for official vampire clan work. He’d offered to help work this whole mess in order to get his vampire sister’s biological, human mother to New York where she could start a new life.

The woman had to be glamoured into forgetting all the horrific events that had occurred over the past two nights to her in the Willows since the witches had brought her in as an attempt at retaliation again his vampire clan. A new history had to be created for his sister, Amberlyn’s biological mother, new goals that mirrored the woman’s actual goals had to be planted, etc. It was a mess of planning to get it all just right. It had taken a few hours, and now the rest of the night stretched out before him. Work would be a welcome distraction tonight from all he had on his mind. He felt sorry for his sister right now. He was quite aware of the guilt she had over their maker’s death.

The Willows was in the midst of a war; clans of witches, werewolves, and vampires were all at odds since his sister, Amberlyn, had come out about her love for a werewolf, Kane. The news had gotten their maker, Drake, killed in a confrontation. Worse for their little town, an innocent witch had been killed in the crossfire, and so the witches had been causing all sorts of magical nonsense since then.

No, actually what was worse, his brother, Isaac had fallen in love with the witch, Winter, since the war broke out. But then again, as he watched the scene unfold between Sara and her brothers, he wondered what the hell could go wrong next. There had already been a killing of a human in the church when the clans tried to come together and work out their current issues. Guess that was proof of why relations between the clans had been banned in the first place. Plus, there was that unfortunate incident, at the Cove, where the witches had used their magic to make a vampire and a werewolf nearly come to blows and expose themselves to the humans.

This little resort town he lived in was a mess, to say the least. The last days had turned the place into a war zone for the supernatural creatures. Most of the humans had been blessedly left out of the incidents, at least to their knowledge. Now, standing here, watching Sara upset, his fingers clenched as tightly as his jaw while he tried not to get involved, not to make things worse. Last thing he needed was more discord between relations, blood or otherwise.

All of the crap he’d already become involved in too deeply for his liking was because of the tiny misfortune that a vampire and werewolf, Amberlyn and Kane, had fallen in love. Outside of work and public appearances to appear human, interaction between the clans remained forbidden. He had to remind himself of all of this now as he watched Sara. There were not even friendships, let alone relationships, between vampire and human. Of course from time to time you got the ones who rebelled, a vamp and perhaps a werewolf for a one-night romp, but those things worked themselves out with some intervention, a touch of harsh disciplinary action.

Now a vampire and witch, Isaac and Winter, had come out as in love too. The clans did not welcome these changes with open arms. Violence, heated debates, and the like had gone down all over the Willows. And now, here he was. He stood here in the woods, middle of the night, and secretly watched the human he’d tried for so long to deny his own love for. As he had said, things would get worse before they got better. He just hadn’t wanted to be part of the cause.

He secretly referred to Sara as his human. Stupid. Asked for trouble. He knew that. He’d made their connection, which had never been spoken of by either of them, stronger in doing so, even if only in his mind. Now she stood defending herself, backed up against the siding of the small house she shared with a couple of still single friends,. She faced her brothers, looked ready to pounce. He thought she looked as sexy as she did cute. She had that mix of innocence, purity, which towed that line, quickly turned into sultry.

Her long thin legs, separated a few inches in a protective crouch, pulled the hem of her short black dress up her thighs. Only, her three bonehead brothers who treated her as if she were five instead of twenty-five didn’t seem to be intimidated by her in the least. He heard her let them have it, declare herself able to take care of her own life. Her brothers laughed. Devin tensed. He wanted to rip their necks out, but eased up a little in his vengeful thirst for blood when he heard Sara let out a string of curses not suited to any woman’s mouth—well, any hot as hell, yet cute as a button, human woman like her.

What’s your fuckin’ problem? Her brother, Ethan’s voice resembled a low growl, one more fierce and intimidating just due to the deepness of his voice verses Sara’s. Hers sounded simply angelic while singing or speaking.

You’ve been a real bitch the last few days, Sis, her brother Jonathan snapped, which made Devin grip the tree harder. His fingers broke off pieces of the bark in his attempt to hold himself there and not defend Sara. Vance interrupted his annoying brother. And we want to know why! We also want to know where you’ve been tonight. We just spoke about this yesterday. This is a tourist town. You never know who’s staying here. You should not be walking home in some slutty dress at midnight… damn… o’clock alone! Shit, Sara!

The skinny tree trunk cracked in Devin’s hands as he heard them speak to her that way. Protective didn’t begin to cover the emotions that threw