Zinfandel Affair - Magic in the Vineyards: Vines Feathers and Potions, #3

By D.N. Leo

Be careful what you wish for.

The experience from the days working for the Supernatural Law Enforcement teaches Jasmine that much.

A wish has been granted.

A life has been turned upside down.

A secret has been revealed.

Jasmine can serve and protect humans. She can arrest supernatural criminals. She can read human emotions.

But can she kill the man she loves if that is the only way to save him?

Zinfandel Affair is the third installment of Vines, Feathers, and Potions paranormal mystery series. If you like small-town charm, mystery, romance and supernatural conspiracies, this is the series for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Narrative Land Publishing
• Release date: Jun 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201394936

Book preview

Chapter 1

Croatia. Distant past.

Logan took a closer look at the ripe black-skinned grape in his palm. His fair British skin didn’t cope well with harsh sunlight, but something about this small vineyard in Croatia gave him comfort. There was something in the air, and the aura of the place was telling him that he was here for a good reason.

He chuckled to himself, amused by the changes in his viewpoint on science in the last few months. He was a doctor, so he believed in science. But when he had opened his mind enough to search for a more natural way to cure cancer, an alternative, there was a noticeable change.

His research suggested that the dark-skinned grapes could be used for more than making Zinfandel. He wasn’t a wine drinker, and he didn’t know the differences between vine varieties. But he knew the valuable properties of fruits and plants and the benefit of using them to make medicines.

The owner of the vineyard, a friend of an old friend, had been kind enough to let him stay for a few weeks to do his research, and it had been a fruitful trip. In a few days, he’d be back with his wife in their lakeside house in England.

He gently placed the grape into a small plastic bag. As he turned to walk back to the house, he saw movement at the far end of the row of older vines.

It was about fifty yards away, in one of the vineyards the owner didn’t use for wine because he thought the soil was contaminated, making the vines produce strangely flavored fruits. There was a disturbance among the vines and small shrubs in that area. From where Logan stood, it looked like a large animal had entered the area and was feasting on the bad vines.

It was a Sunday, so there would be no workers around the vineyard if he needed help.

I should just go inside, Logan thought.

Then he heard a female voice crying out, soft and whimpering, and the sounds of the large animal got louder.

Logan rushed into a nearby guard shed and grabbed a hunting gun then ran toward the abandoned corner of the vineyard.

The vines and shrubs were larger and taller up close than they had looked from up on the hill. He pushed tree branches and vines out of his face as he walked. A few steps more, and he stepped into a round cleared patch reminiscent of a crop circle. At the far end of the circle, a young woman in a bloody white dress pushed herself backward on the ground.

In front of her wasn’t an animal, but a man who stood seven feet tall. His back was to Logan. He approached the woman on the ground as she kept moving backward.

Hey! yelled Logan

The man turned and looked at him.

Logan staggered back. Based on the human shape of what stood in front of him, he supposed he could medically refer to it as a man. But the face looked like that of a vampire. Its eyes were bloodshot, and its fangs dropped down and started chomping at his bottom lip.

But the sun was still out. This vampire was standing there, unfazed by the sunlight. How was that possible?

Logan was a scientist, and he believed that vampires were pure fiction. But this thing in front of him made the last drop of his hard-core belief in science disappear.

The vampire looked annoyed at Logan for yelling at him but didn’t seem to see him as a significant threat. It ignored him and turned again to the woman on the ground.

Leave her, said Logan, or I’ll shoot you. Maybe this was someone in costume, and if so, he had some concern about pointing a gun when he had no authority to do so. But if this was truly a vampire, he knew the gun wouldn’t work. His gun would be useless.

As fast as lightning, the vampire turned around and charged at him. Logan pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the vampire in the chest. It staggered back, looked at the chest wound, which was already healing, and gave him a crooked smile.

Then it lunged at him again.

He saw it coming, like in slow motion. The bullet hadn’t killed it, so he was sure it was supernatural. From the speed of its movement, Logan knew if it hit him, none of the bones in his body would remain intact. As he stepped back, his hand brushed against a wooden stake used to stabilize the vines. He grabbed it, and as the vampire leaped at him, he pulled the stick from the ground and held its sharp end out in front of him.

It didn’t take any force on his part. The momentum of the vampire was what killed it.

As the stake pierced its heart, a roar echoed through the air. The vampire melted into a pool of black liquid that was absorbed by the soil.

He wondered how many vampires had died here in this way.

He scrambled toward the woman. She was barely conscious.

Do you speak English?

She nodded.

My name is Logan Hayes. I’m a medical doctor. I’m going to take you inside and check your injuries, is that okay?

She nodded again.

He gently and very carefully lifted the young woman into his arms. He was afraid he would break her. She was small and light and very frail. She leaned her head into his chest as he carried her inside the house. He lay her on his bed. Her white dress was soaked in blood.

He got her some water.

When she opened her beautiful light gray eyes, he said, I can get you to the hospital. But that will take time. I think your injuries are too severe, and you’ve lost too much blood to make it there. Can I take a look at you first? I’ll have to take off your dress.

She nodded.

Her dress was torn in several places, so it didn’t take much time or effort to remove it.

He had treated severe injuries before, but what he saw still made his stomach quiver.

She wouldn’t survive even if he attempted to get her to the hospital.

The majority of the wounds were on her back. Blood poured from a deep well at the top of her left shoulder. That seemed to be the most severe cut. He didn’t know what had caused it, but he knew he needed to stop the blood loss.

He grabbed a clean towel from his cabinet. By the time he returned, the majority of her wounds had healed, but the deep one on her left shoulder continued to bleed. Pushing his astonishment about the healing speed aside, he put pressure on the wound, hoping to staunch the flow of blood.

She shifted in the bed and turned onto her side to look at him.

He could see she was in a lot of pain.

I can’t heal that one myself. I’ll need your help.

A tear rolled down her face. Then the pain intensified. She turned back away from him, and a white feathered wing speared out from her right shoulder. She cried out. The wing flapped a couple of times, then flopped down to the bed.

Then she, too, fell onto the bed like a broken doll.

It didn’t matter what his normal beliefs in this world were—Logan knew he was looking at an injured angel, and the wound on her left shoulder was the stump of her left wing, a wing that was no longer in place. It had been torn off.

He was infuriated. He had never experienced a fury like this. It was so intense that he wished harm to whoever had done this to the young woman.

He wiped the tears from her face.

I know it hurts. If you can, collapse your right wing. It will be easier to lie down that way.

She did what he asked. He secured the towel in place to stop the blood from flowing out of her left shoulder.

Please, tell me how I can fix this.

I need holy water from the church.

I can do that. I’ll go to the village and get it for you. Do you want me to bring someone from the church to help?

No, no one can know I’m here.

Okay. That’s all I need to know. I want to give you some medicine, something I have to inject with a needle. The medicine will put a human to sleep and help with pain. But will it work on you?

She smiled weakly. Yes.

He injected a dose of anesthesia into her arm.

Before drifting off, she smiled at him. My name is Xapham. Thank you for helping me.

I’m a doctor. It’s the least I can do. Now you just stay here and rest. I’ll be back as soon as I can.

Chapter 2

C heers to Lucien.

Jasmine raised her champagne glass. Everyone else did the same. She loved the laughter and the festive atmosphere in the house. They hadn’t had that in a while. She wanted to make sure everyone had fun tonight.

Vines & Soul didn’t open for dinner, and it hadn’t opened that afternoon either due to construction work. Business was busiest at lunchtime, but their encounter with the supernatural in the vineyard had exploded an entire row of old vines. She didn’t feel right keeping the restaurant running with patrons having to go in and out of a construction site.

She took the opportunity to host a welcome back party for Lucien. He hadn’t exactly gone anywhere, but he’d been grounded in Beatrice’s bedroom after suffering a nearly fatal injury. Today was the first day Beatrice had let him out of the house.

His color was back, and Jasmine thought he had grown even more attractive since his werewolf gene had been triggered. Speaking of attractive, she glanced at Bertram, sitting quietly at the far end of the counter, and caught him looking at her.

He smiled.

She smiled back.

Why does he always look as if he just walked straight out of Vogue men’s magazine?

The analogy wasn’t hers but that of Fiona, a twenty-something-year-old apprentice at the vineyard. Jasmine hadn’t thought like that when she was in her twenties. And she didn’t think like that now. She didn’t even read that magazine.

But how else could she describe a six foot three man with a well-toned body, dark hair, and an angelic face with intense eyes that twinkled when he smiled? And none of those things was even his best quality.

He was a god of a kisser. Just the memory of his kisses made every cell in her body vibrate.

What are you thinking about? Bertram asked.

She didn’t realize he had approached her.

What?

You smiled to yourself. If I ever find out what made you smile like that, I’ll make it happen more often.

Are you saying I’m usually grumpy?

He chuckled. You do snap sometimes. But grumpy, no. He leaned in, either to kiss her or to whisper something in her ear.

No matter what his purpose, her heart skipped a beat. Whether a kiss or a whisper, she would welcome it. She loved the feeling of him close to her.

A sharp pain jabbed at her mind, making her wince. Her ability to read people’s emotions occasionally came at very inconvenient times.

But this pain had come from Bertram. He gasped lightly a second before she felt the twinge, and the glass he was holding slipped out of his hand and dropped to the floor.

Everyone turned and looked at him. Bertram smiled. She’s distracting! he said and pointed at Jasmine.

Lucien laughed. Come on, there are twelve cabins here you could use if you can’t make it to Jasmine’s place.

Nathan and Fiona, the vineyard’s two apprentices, chimed in with laughter and jokes. Beatrice was about to add to the conversation when Max, a husky puppy, did something to make Lucien yelp. The puppy and the newly turned werewolf didn’t always get along, and Jasmine could see they were competing for Beatrice’s attention.

Well, he’s taken up permanent residence at the Merlot Cabin. You’ll never have to worry about a shortage of accommodations at my resort, Lucien, Jasmine said, smiling at him and then signaling Bertram to meet her outside.

They stood on the patio that opened to the back garden. The garden lighting wasn’t great, but it was enough for her to see the pain still lingering in his eyes.

Saxa’s mark is causing you some discomfort, isn’t it?

He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt. On the inside of his right forearm, where the spirit they had been fighting with earlier had put a round mark, a dark purple bruise the size of a grapefruit was forming.

It actually looks worse than it feels. He examined the bruise. You think she injected me with something?

Jasmine shook her head. No, those spirits wouldn’t do anything like that. They’re from a different plane. And their mark shouldn’t cause you any pain, let alone induce a reaction like this in your body. She rubbed her thumb gently over the purple bruise. It wasn’t swollen, which was somewhat of a relief.

Bertram lifted her chin up. If there’s a problem, we’ll fix it. Frowning will only give you wrinkles. No woman wants that.

I don’t make a living from my appearance, so I’m not too worried.

Regardless, you’re beautiful. He leaned down to kiss her. And this time, it would be a real kiss.

They heard a low growl and looked back at the restaurant. At the door they had left ajar, Max sat, sulking.

I guess you lost your fight for Beatrice’s attention to Lucien. Jasmine smiled at the dog.

Here you are, said Mia and picked up Max. She looked at Jasmine and Bertram. Jasmine knew she hadn’t come out for Max. Mia missed nothing. She had the mind of an academic, not in the sense of being boring, but in the methodical way she looked at everything. She must have noticed Bertram’s reaction to the pain and seen the two of them heading to the back.

Mia smiled. I thought you guys were in the Merlot Cabin.

That’s act two, Bertram said as his phone