Flying Fawna: Magic, New Mexico

By Rosemary Smith

A werelion, a sexy female and a maniac.

When Fawna Zanabio's marriage implodes without any hint of warning she becomes embroiled in a poisonous high-profile divorce. It shatters her soul, leaving her confidence lower than a snake's belly. 

She is different from everyone else. Her sense of empathy is sometimes overwhelming and every time she's going through turmoil, like she is now, books appear out of thin air. Unbeknownst to her, she is a descendent of a powerful Empathy Empress from Magic, New Mexico.

Two years to the day she's ready to release the acrimony, Alexandru's Kiss by S.E. Smith materializes right before her eyes so she brazenly says yes when her exotic flight instructor asks her out. Her divorce has left her bruised and battered, but not blind. He has a nice butt. She's moving on and carving out a new life for herself. He has other plans.

Chaz Xanadu, of the Red Fire Pride, is a werelion leader with no pack. Over two years ago, his foolishness cost him dear. As part of the Ancient Ripper Society, an order sworn to protect the Seven Realms, he hunts the souless.

Like the man he just sniffed walking passed him in the airport. The woman he's with has no idea she's walking arm in arm with death.

The innocence in her heart swirling around her recent wounds makes her vulnerable. With a split second to figure out how to save her from doom without revealing his shifter powers, both of their destinies depend on what he does next. Will he have time to save her and 206 innocent human souls without forever tainting Magic?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rosemary Smith
• Release date: Jul 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386746546

Book preview

Chapter One

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The twins, one wearing a tall black hat, the other donning a curved white one, galloped through the forest in Magic, racing to keep pace with the fairies they found sitting on the dandelions they were blowing. The Doppelgängers loved it when they sent the fairies twirling through the air.

They sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks when we make them laugh, Jonah giggled. The boys were only distinguishable by the hats they wore. Today, the one with the black hat ran fastest. They were the Drayton twins. Simon Drayton, a centuries old werewolf and reclusive billionaire, had fallen in love with Tory Carson, following her to the world of Magic, New Mexico. Like his English ancestors, he was elegant and tall, with pale skin, shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes.

The twin’s mother, Tory,  a beautiful vampire witch with an intoxicating radiance and deadly allergic reaction to any blood type except A, was so lovely their half-vampire, half-warlock grandfather, Charles Carson, had been known to toss boys off roofs and chase others down drainpipes to keep her from falling in love.  Tory’s father was protective because his daughter was as stunning as her mother Sophie, the absolute love of his life. They’d been married for over a hundred years.

Both boys had inherited the gift of poofing from their mother. Jonah decided to do it today because he wanted to find a way to get the jump on Joseph. And off he went. Poof! He transformed himself into a puff of smoke, flew passed his twin and reappeared.

We said we were going to run without magic, the other twin pouted. You’re cheating.

Poof. Jonah reappeared. No—I’m not, he walked backward so he could look at his brother.

"Mom said using magic for good is not cheating. And beating you is good—no matter how I do it," he chuckled. He could never resist the urge to tease his brother. His musical laughter pealed through the forest.

Joseph took his brother’s lead and began poofing himself in to a huff to chase him. They were soon disappearing and reappearing in puffs of smoke—racing each other. They soon forgot all about the fairies they’d blown off the daffodils.

Poof! Jonah, exhausted, transformed himself back into existence and began walking backward so he could face his brother who’d also grown tired of the game and was now walking. 

I just decided... Plunk. Jonah fell with a hard thud onto his bottom. His outstretched hand helped cushion his fall—a little.

Ouch! Golly! That hurt! He looked down at his hand which was buried in the soft emerald grass of the forest to see what was on it. Something feels squishy. He looked down. Wet, sticky, red—blood. He tried getting it off his hand by sliding it onto the grass.

He heard a distant moan nearer to the creek. Did ya hear that?

I did, brother. Could it be a wounded animal?

Maybe. Jonah sprung to his feet and listened. He followed the sound.

Mom will be mad at us if she knows we’ve gone this far into the woods, Jonah, said Joseph, a little afraid of what they may find. Maybe we should go back." Even though Joseph loved adventure as much as his twin, he was the more cautious one today.

What if an animal is wounded, or needs food? Maybe we can help. We’ll only go a little further, Jonah promised as he inched toward the sound. If we don’t...

Oooooooooooooh, another groan.

Both boys grabbed hands, looked at each other with fear in their eyes and gasped at the desperate sound.

Behind a felled log they came upon two beings. One was conscious and remained in human form. The other was semi-conscious, but he kept shifting between a human, lion and some sort of bird. His shifts were so vague, the boys had trouble deciphering all but the lion. And his hair—one minute it would be short, the next it would grow past his shoulders, almost like a lion’s mane. He seemed to be becoming more and more erratic—having trouble keeping a viable shape. The two boys looked on, not sure what to do next. Their instinct of helping animals kicked in.

At home, they had a menagerie of snakes, birds, hamsters and whatever else they could find. Tory, their mother, put her foot down when Jonah and Joseph tried to sneak a pony into their collection. Even though they’d shrunk it and snuck it into their bedroom, she and Simon could hear the horse whinnying. They’d explained to their look alikes that their powers would not permit the horse to stay little for long.

He’ll become big and anyway, you two have no hay, their dad had told them. Once the boys let the pony go, Tory and Simon couldn’t help but laugh at their ingenuity.

The twins loved animals. And they loved to heal them with magic.

Let’s get some water. The Drayton twins ran to the creek and Jonah removed his water pouch from his shoulder. He twisted off the top and sank the pouch into the running stream to fill it.

They dashed back to the wounded beings. Jonah tried giving the unconscious human water by pulling his lips apart with his fingers. When he found he couldn’t hold them and pour the water, he beckoned his brother.

Help me, brother. Hold his mouth like this while I put water in.

Joseph hesitated. What if he tries to bite me?

He’s too weak. Help me. Whoever they are, they are hurt. Look at all this blood. They might die out here if we don’t help them. Understand, brother?

Still hesitating, he eventually ran to his brother’s side to help. He took over holding open the human’s mouth. The being reacted to the water trying to go down his throat by coughing. He was still too weak to move.

They patted water on his face with their little hands then turned their attention to the human whose shifting was still erratic. Holding his mouth would prove more difficult.

Jonah decided it might be best just to splash water onto his face, then onto his mouth. Jonah reasoned, the beasts inside him may have more control over him than he does them. They needed to be careful. The water seemed to have a calming affect on him, as his shifting stopped, and he was able to stay in human form.

Thank you, he murmured, trying to sit up.

Don’t. Rest a minute. Your wounds are bad. Jonah told him.

But I must take care of my brother, Troy. Where is Troy?

He’s over there, the twins said it in unison then pointed to where the other injured man was lying.

The human looked over at his brother, who was still unconscious. Any fight in him left. He laid back, going limp. I’ve killed my own brother. I’ve killed him.  The Drayton twins looked at each other and started to move away. Why would someone kill their own brother? Jonah and Joseph both asked the question at the same time. They both looked back at the stranger with wide-eyed curiosity, and he continued.

I’m not fit to live. You must leave me here to die. When I am strong enough, I will bury my brother, but you must leave me here. Once I’ve told  you what I’ve done, you’ll know why you must.

Chapter Two

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The injured man began telling Jonah and Joseph what had happened in the forest. They sat across from him with their legs crossed and listened as he began, their big brown eyes transfixed on the stranger.

I’d just learned to master my shifting skills to transform into a hawk. I told my brother he soon would be able to change into a magnificent bird and fly high, like me.

Look at me! I boasted to him.  I yelled down and flew circles around him on our journey to The Cave of the Ancient Rippers. We are from the Red Fire Pride of werelions.  We are descendants of The Ripper Society.

What’s that? Asked Jonah. It sounds like some sorta spy mission.

It is a spy mission of sorts, my young friends. The stranger with little strength smiled at the twins. We are an order that goes back hundreds of years. We protect the realms from creatures who don’t belong here. He was careful not to scare the young boys with talk of souless men with hearts black as coal.

As he struggled for the strength to gather his words, his mind plunged back to the consequences that occurred when Rippers failed. The last  unwittingly unleashed Hitler onto the world. Everyone knew by now that men with hearts the size of Hitler’s do not deserve to walk among The Decents. He coughed, still weak. Jonah moved closer and gave him more water. His cough did not quiet for a while, and a shiver went through him, but he soon continued.

"It is an order of ancients that goes back thousands of years. Each of us have made a sacred vow to train deep inside the mouth of the Cave of the Ancients for years to become mighty and