Tarnished Beginnings: Soul Dance, #1

By Ann Gimpel

1700s Egypt is a melding pot for magic-wielders of all kinds. Vampires hold court, staying one step ahead of the priests and priestesses who want them dead. Shifters keep to themselves while gypsy caravans roam the Nile from north to south and back again telling fortunes, casting Tarot cards, and stealing from the gadjos.

Tairin Jabari was born in a caravan and has always believed she's Romani. Why wouldn't she? Her mother and father never suggested otherwise. The Rom have harsh rules. When Tairin's first shift catches her unaware at thirteen, her father disappears, and the elders move with deadly speed to punish her mother for mating outside the blood.

Hurt, lost, confused, and fearing for her life, Tairin runs away, leaving her mother's smoking funeral pyre behind.  Desperately unprepared for life outside her protected caravan, she and her wolf face hard choices.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ann Gimpel Books, LLC
• Release date: Jun 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386586753

Ann Gimpel

Ann Gimpel is a national bestselling author. She's also a clinical psychologist, with a Jungian bent. Avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography and, of course, writing. A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Her longer books run the gamut from urban fantasy to paranormal romance. She’s published over 20 books to date, with several more contracted for 2015 and beyond.A husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her family.

Book preview

Tarnished Beginnings, Soul Dance Book One

Historical Shifter Fantasy

Ann Gimpel

Edited by

Angela Kelly

Edited by

Diane Eagle Kataoka

Ann Gimpel Books, LLC

Contents

Tarnished Beginnings

Copyright Page

Book Description

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

About the Author

Tarnished Legacy, Book Description

Tarnished Legacy, Prologue

Tarnished Legacy, Chapter 1

Tarnished Beginnings

A Prequel

Soul Dance, Book One

Historical Shifter Fantasy

By Ann Gimpel

Copyright Page

Tarnished Beginnings Copyright © January 2017 Ann Gimpel

Cover Art Copyright © May 2018, Sly Fox Cover Design

Edited by: Angela Kelly and Diane Eagle Kataoka

Copyright notice: All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. 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.

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Book Description

1700s Egypt is a haven for magic-wielders of all kinds. Vampires hold court, staying one step ahead of the priests and priestesses who want them dead. Gypsy caravans roam the Nile from north to south and back again, plying their wares, telling fortunes, casting Tarot cards, and stealing from the gadjos.

Tairin Jabari was born in a caravan and has always believed she’s Romani. Why wouldn’t she? Her mother and father never suggested otherwise. The Rom have harsh rules. When Tairin’s first shift catches her unaware at thirteen, her father disappears, and the elders move with deadly speed to punish her mother for mating outside the blood.

Hurt, lost, confused, and fearing for her own life, Tairin runs away, leaving her mother’s smoking funeral pyre behind. If she could only find her father, he’d welcome her. He’s always loved her, hasn’t he? Only problem is he’s in a shifter settlement. With her mixed blood, they won’t welcome her any more warmly than the Romani. It doesn’t take long before Tairin discovers how desperately unprepared she is for life outside her protected caravan. With her survival on the line every single day, she and her wolf have some hard choices to make.

Chapter 1

Egypt 1740

Tairin. Get moving! The water buckets are still empty, her mother shouted. Long black hair hung in two braids behind her shoulders, and her dark eyes snapped dangerously. She stood over Tairin with her hands on her hips, staring down at her. Dressed in long, colorful skirts and a red, patchwork tunic, she dug her bare feet into loose sand. Beads and bracelets clanked against each other when she moved, and rings circled all her fingers and several of her toes.

Yes, Mother. Sorry, Mother.

Tairin rose from where she crouched on the shady side of one of the wagons in their Gypsy caravan. Midday sun beat down on her, making her dizzy and nauseated. She hadn’t felt right for days. A wolf—the same one that had haunted her dreams for years—was making its presence known with greater and greater frequency. Every time she closed her eyes, the creature was there, and she wondered if she was losing her mind. The thing was actually talking with her.

Urging.

Pushing.

Exhorting.

Appealing.

Shouting.

She’d always seen the animal as a special imaginary friend who visited her in the dream world, but it wasn’t content to remain in the shadows any longer. It was angry, fury evident in its snarls and raised hackles, and Tairin was frightened. She’d tried to talk with her mother, but Aneksi curved two fingers in the Romani sigil against evil and told her to throw herself on the goddess’s mercy.

Confused and wondering what any of the goddesses had to do with her problem, Tairin had asked which one to petition, but her mother shook her head. You cannot talk about such things, even with me. They are forbidden. For the sake of all that’s sacred, do not mention these visions to anyone else. They’ll think you mad.

Tairin pushed the unsettling exchange with her mother aside. It had happened a few days ago, but it still haunted her. Snatching up two buckets fashioned from goat hide, she trudged toward the Nile River. It ran fast and muddy not far from their encampment. Their caravan had just left Cairo where they’d done well telling fortunes and entertaining wealthy patrons with dancing girls and tarot spreads. Tomorrow or the next day, they’d head for Giza. They plied the settlements up and down the Nile, along with several other caravans. The elders set a schedule so not more than one group was in any given city at a time.

Her head spun and she shook it to clear black spots swimming in front of her eyes. What was wrong with her? She’d always been healthy, but she’d just turned thirteen. On the heels of her birthday had come blood and cramping pain in her lower abdomen. An uncomfortable bundle of rags bunched between her legs made it impossible to ignore her body’s betrayal. She wasn’t bleeding as much as she’d been a couple of days earlier, but this would happen every month. Forever.

Would she always feel this bad?

Tairin hoped not. Her body was changing, and she’d have to get used to the awkwardness of breasts and blood. It wasn’t as if she could alter anything. Kneeling, she dipped her buckets in the brown, murky waters of the Nile. Their weight made her stagger as she headed back to drop them off and get two more. Ten buckets twice a day provided enough water for her mother’s wagon. Tairin longed for brothers and sisters to share the chores, but no such luck. Her grandparents were too feeble to do anything requiring much effort, and her father wasn’t always around. Even if he were, men didn’t dirty their hands with menial tasks like carting water.

Not for the first time, she wished she’d been born a male. No blood. No breasts. No hucking water. She’d enjoy sitting in circles with the other men, drinking, smoking, and cracking jokes. And she liked taking care of the horses and goats, chores traditionally done by men.

May as well demand the moon on a platter.

Partway back, raised voices drew her to a halt. Her mother and father were arguing. They’d done more and more of that of late, but they always shut up fast when she drew close. Maybe this time, she’d actually hear something.

Tairin dropped to her belly in tall marsh grass that grew thickly in the Nile’s delta and shrouded herself in magic. She might earn a session with the whip for not delivering the water faster, but she wanted to hear what was wrong. Her father had left for a long time the previous month. He’d been gone so long, she’d been afraid she’d never see him again. Even though he’d returned, things between him and her mother had remained tense. The usual sounds of their lovemaking conspicuously absent.

Their voices vanished abruptly, but Tairin wasn’t fooled, nor did it deter her. They’d summoned a spell to hide their words. Not wanting to miss anything critical that might shed light on what was wrong between them, she snaked a tendril of magic outward and drilled through the ward enveloping her parents. She was careful to intrude near ground level to lessen the odds of her mother or father noticing.

We must leave the caravan, Aneksi. There’s no choice.

I refuse to penalize my parents for my bad decisions, Jamal.

So leave them the wagon. I’ll secure another for us. I found an oasis to shelter us. It’s what I was doing last month: hunting for a place we might settle. No one need know—

Maybe it won’t happen. Her mother’s voice shrilled. And we will have turned our lives inside out for nothing.

It will. Nothing you or I can do will stop it. Not only will it happen, it’s close. Closer than you imagine. I see it in her eyes, and my wolf walks with hers in the place where the animals all roam together. I must talk with Tairin. Prepare her—

It’s forbidden. You’ll do no such thing.

"It’s not fair to her. Whether she wills it or no, her first shift will catch her unaware if I say nothing. None of us are ever quite ready. If it