Midnight Tan (Midnight Tan Vampire Novella Romance Series Book 1)

By Atlas Opal

Shay Moon has just spent her last $50 on the harebrained idea of starting a vampire spray tanning business. With her first appointment booked at 12:01 a.m. with Ambrose Sunrose, she has no idea how her life is about to turn upside down.

Narrowly escaping her death, she discovers the next morning that Emma, the wife of her first love and ex-boyfriend Mark Peterson, has gone missing.

Fearing Sunrose is the cause, it sets her off on a wild goose chase only to be hunted down by Ethan Combs, the vampire lord who wants to discover why she is claiming to be under his protection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atlas Opal
• Release date: Sep 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370652051

Atlas Opal

Altas Opal was born a bookworm and started writing poetry and short stories in her early teens. She loves cooking, reiki, painting and getting outside with her family. Altas Opal lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, two sons and her puggle. She enjoys hearing from readers, so drop her an email at atlas AT atlasopal.com if you ever have any questions!

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Altas Opal

www.atlasopal.com

© 2017 Bejelly LLC

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact:

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Editing by Amy Stewart

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Contents

1. Open For Business

2. Knock Knock

3. Missing

4. Drive

5. Combs House

6. Walk In

7. Breaking the Rules

8. The Visit

Open for Business

Shay stared at Maisie as she twirled her tarnished silver spoon around and around in her chipped blue plastic cereal bowl. She kept her face blank, but Maisie's grimace was enough to tell her that she was not happy with dinner. Instead, she focused on the slow drip of the faucet that would not stop leaking no matter how tightly she screwed the nut.

Why don't we just skip buying milk all together and eat our generic O's with water? That's what this shit tastes like. I could get a some new eyeliner with the money we'd be saving.

Maisie was 13 going on 30 with same red hair as Vivian, their mother, cut into a pixie cut. She was thin as a rale and the only feminine feature on her was her wide, full mouth. It was a struggle to keep her from spitting out expletives every five minutes. It was going to be hell if she filled out like Vivian.

Eat your dinner. There are still nutrients in the milk, and you need them. Shay said.

I could sell my blood to the vamps so we could afford some damn milk. Maisie grumbled.

Maisie, I swear by all that is holy if you mention that again, I will tan your hide. Eat!

Shay was 25 with more gray hairs than she could count, and she was barely keeping it together. At 18, she had become the guardian to her sister when their mother had split, not that Vivian had been much of nurturer let alone a mother. Vivian had left them with a note saying that Shay was old enough to do the job she no longer wanted and five thousand dollars in unpaid real estate taxes on the beast of a Victorian they lived in. Thank God the house was paid off, or they would have been homeless that summer.

She stared at the faded blue wallpaper, that seemed to grace every wall, and the wide cracks in the pine floor boards. Most of the windows were now boarded up with plywood since Shay had discovered that the antique stained glass windows could fetch a good price on Ebay or Etsy. There was only one stained glass window left in the house, and it was in her bedroom. She couldn’t part with the patchwork of glass that had somehow comforted her during her childhood. Instead, she had sold off the antique bronze and crystal chandelier that had hung in the dining room. She had been shocked to discover something so valuable was in their purposefully neglected home.

Shay had never eaten a meal in the dining room. It was only out of luck and desperation that drove her to look online to see what she could sell the chandelier for. Thankfully, with her penny-pinching abilities, the chandelier had paid off the rest of the taxes as well as given her enough money to keep the pantry stocked and the bills paid for the a year.

Luckily, Vivian was not internet savvy and hadn't realized that the chandelier was worth over ten thousand dollars. Otherwise, she would have cut it down it herself.

However, when Vivian had lived with them, most of time there was a man around, who put food on the table and the electricity turned on. Therefore, Vivian’s only concern was keeping the current boyfriend happy.

Shay had never been carefree. Unfortunately, the last spark of hope that she could escape Benton had died when Vivian took off. That year had been tough. Not that it had ever gotten any easier, but then she had find a way to explain to a six year old why mama had left. She had hoped that Maisie wouldn’t ask why Shay’s skin was honey brown and her hair a riot of jet black curls.