Preternatural 2: A Sexy Paranormal Romance Collection

By Cara B. Connor

Read and enjoy three different paranormal short stories all about fantastical psychics, magical shape-shifters and even a teenage vampire too, that can be read as stand-alones or as a set. 

Stories included:

My Raptor: An Erotic Shapeshifting Paranormal Romance - A librarians world is turned upside down after meeting a magical shape-shifter.

Premonitions: An Erotic Psychic Paranormal Romance - A fantastic psychic encounters new mysteries about her past.

Desperate Wishes: An Erotic Vampire Paranormal Romance - A teenager encounters life-changing new problems after he makes a simple wish.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rapps
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014

Book preview

Connor

Book 1: Premonitions: An Erotic Paranormal Romance: Chapter 1

IN MY DREAM I WAS SEVEN years old again. The darkness in the closet felt like a living thing, pressing in on me with hot, damp hands until the door creaked open and a shaft of light flooded my shadowy prison. I almost wished the door had stayed shut so I wouldn't have to look at that sickly, yellow glow anymore.

My foster mother, Mrs. Barrington, stood in the doorway and loomed over me in that threatening way she always did. I stayed still, crouched down in my corner, the hem of my handmade dress dragging through a thin layer of dust on the cracked floor. The light threw her massive silhouette over me. With her thick legs, cumbersome gut and her ever-present hair net, she looked like a giant frog to me.

Well? Will your behave yourself now, Jenna Foster? She asked me. Her dentures slipped out of place for a moment and she snapped her jaws furiously to shift them back.

I nodded slowly and rose to my feet. I stepped out of the closet and tried to walk past her, but she grabbed my arm and jerked me backwards.

Answer me, you little bitch! she demanded.

Trembling, I slowly lifted my head to meet her gaze. Her slate gray eyes glared into mine through a curtain of thin, silver strands of hair that had escaped the sweaty, unruly mop plastered against her brow. Her silver hair lay plastered against her head, desperately needing a wash.

I’m sorry, Mrs. Barrington. I’ll be a good girl from now on, I promised.

I waited for her to release me, yet her grip on my arm only grew tighter. Sharp burning pains shot into my flesh. I glanced down and screamed at the gnarled, clawed hand that encircled my arm. It was at that point that I noticed that it wasn’t human.

Frightened tears raced down my stunned face as I looked up at Mrs. Barrington. Her elderly face was now a red mass of decaying flesh. Those cold, gray eyes had turned into cats eyes, yellow irises gleaming in the shadows. Her dentures stretched into fangs which dripped with gore and saliva. I felt blood seep through the cloth on my dress as her claw dug deeper into my tiny arm.

I sucked in a desperate breath and started to scream, only to wake up to hear the wind blustering through the trees outside my apartment. I sat up and rubbed my forehead, and my hand came away soaked with sweat. My tangled dark hair hung over my shoulders, covering the LSU logo on my gold sweatshirt. I knew without looking that my normally blue eyes were shot with red.

I had fallen asleep at my computer desk again. Damn it, I thought to myself, third time this month. Not only that, but the nightmares were getting worse. I eyed the half-empty bottle of prescription sleeping pills on the corner of my desk. I was up to two a night now, and they still weren't helping. And I was completely exhausted.

The flying angel screen saver floated gently across the monitor in front of me. I didn’t remember downloading it. Was this a sign that someone was looking after me? I slowly looked around my small office. The wild animal figurines, normally on the cabinet next to my computer desk, had all been turned around. Did I do that while sleepwalking?

I cleared the screen saver, called up my browser and navigated back to the adoption database website for another round of study. This time, though, searching turned up dozens of new results that I'd never seen before. None of the names looked immediately familiar, but somehow I had the sense that one of them would leap out at me this time.

It was so strange, though; right before I drifted off, I could have sworn I'd seen a No Results Found page for those same search parameters. Perhaps that was just a dream, too. Or maybe I was just completely wrong about the results from before.

I knew nothing about my real family because I'd spent all of my childhood in foster care. Mrs. Barrington was just one of the many foster monsters who'd made my life hell. I'd been shuffled from foster home to foster home for as long as I could remember. I stayed with my last foster family until I was eighteen, and then I went out on my own.

The only companion whom I could ever count on was Thomas Marshall, my best friend since the second grade. It was kind of ridiculous how much Thomas and I had in common. The older kids picked on us because we each seemed a little odd, and odd was always a good magnet for bullies.

We both loved the same music, read the same books, and we were both fascinated with the paranormal. I wasn't able to explain it, but I've always felt like Thomas and I had a special connection. Sometimes it felt so clear, I could almost sense where he was, what he was doing, how he was feeling. But I never told anyone, not even Thomas, about that... or the strange beings I saw at night.

I stood up to stretch my cramped legs and walked towards the office door, but I stopped when I felt something crunch underfoot. I reached down and picked up a white pin with an engraved image of a family riding in a buggy. The Family That Prays Together Stays Together, its inscription read. The sixteenth and twenty-eighth letters were scratched out, probably faded from time or wear.

But the pin wasn’t mine. Did the maintenance guy drop it when he redid the kitchen last week? I doubted it. He didn’t seem like a praying man to me. I grasped the pin in my hand as I listened to the sounds around me. I could hear the ticking of my bedroom clock two rooms away. I could smell the residue of the hazelnut coffee in my favorite mug in the kitchen sink.

Just then the autumn evening's bitter cold pierced through me, even though I’d already cranked up the furnace. The sound of the raging wind made me place my hands over my ears.

Weird! Man, I need some sleep. Now.

I plodded over to my living room and flopped onto the couch. My head rested against the wall as I leaned back and closed my eyes. I was so hyper and way too uptight, but I was also on the verge of passing out from fatigue. I told myself the night's weirdness was just in my head and it would keep until morning.

But still, sleep just wouldn't come. My mind felt wired, churning out thoughts and spinning at a thousand miles a minute. I needed to straighten myself out. I needed to figure out who I was... and where I really came from. And I needed to find my real family. Now!

Without warning, an image suddenly flashed into my consciousness like a lightning bolt. I squinted my closed lids as the word Colorado suddenly burned itself into my mind. The image stayed in my head, the letters a bright white against a black background. I opened my eyes and still saw the image of the word hanging there in front of me.

I gasped, as much from the force of the vision as from the shock of it, and leaped to my feet. My exhaustion was a distant memory as the vision seemed to quickly fade away. Without thinking I tried to follow as it floated away into the ether, but I forgot the minor issue that I was a lot more solid than words on the air.

I banged my knee on the coffee table, lost my balance and went tumbling to the floor and rolled onto my back. What the hell? I was losing my mind. Look, I never said I was the cool, graceful type, alright? But it was a little funny.

With the wind solidly knocked out of me, I paused to regain at least a little composure, then rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. At once, two new disturbing thoughts popped into my mind, although I