Stakes and Spells: Stakes and Spells Mysteries, #1

By Lynn Morrison

When a vampire inherits witch magic, you know a murder has to be involved!  

 

Every vampire knows better than to get involved with the witches.

But surely spying on one little Halloween ritual couldn't hurt, right? Wrong.

 

One minute I'm lurking behind a tombstone, the next a witch is dead and somehow I've inherited her magical powers!

 

With a dead body by my side and witch power in my veins, there's no way I won't get the blame. Especially once the Supernatural Bureau takes on the case.

 

Will a clever cat familiar, a witch with nothing to lose, and a grimoire of spells be enough to save my fangs from a future behind bars?

 

It'll take magic and a miracle to keep a certain sexy werewolf Special Agent from sniffing out my hiding place before I can prove my innocence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marketing Chair Press
• Release date: Oct 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201695866

Lynn Morrison

Lynn Morrison lives in Oxford, England along with her husband, two daughters and two cats. Born and raised in Mississippi, her wanderlust attitude has led her to live in California, Italy, France and the Netherlands. It’s no surprise then that she loves to travel, with a never-ending wishlist of destinations to visit. She is as passionate about reading as she is writing, and can almost always be found with a book in hand. You can find out more about her on her website LynnMorrisonWriter.com. If you want to chat with her directly, join her Facebook group - Lynn Morrison’s Not a Book Club - where she happily talks about books, life and anything else that crosses her mind.

Book preview

Stakes & Spells

Stakes & Spells

A Stakes & Spells Mystery

Lynn Morrison

Marketing Chair Press

Copyright © 2021 by Lynn Morrison

All rights reserved.

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No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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

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Cover design by DLR Cover Designs

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Published by

The Marketing Chair Press

Oxford, England

LynnMorrisonWriter.com

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

More magical reads

Spells & Fangs

Murder at St Margaret

Raven’s Influence

The Eternal Investigator

Also by Lynn Morrison

About the Author

1

The church bell pealed, its ringing tone marking the arrival of the midnight hour. Two witches danced around a bonfire in a small clearing in the church graveyard. Their long cloaks billowed around their slender bodies, nearly obscuring their bare feet. The firelight flickered, multiplying their shadows as I watched.

I had almost given up on the idea of finding my next meal. Hardly a person was stirring in this backwoods town of Podunk, Kentucky. It was a rare thing that I, Morticia Beaumont, couldn’t acquire a meal from a pulsing vein.

Halloween night or not, it was like they’d rolled up the streets of this backwoods town at ten P.M. Lightning bugs and a lone owl had been the only living creatures I’d seen in the last hour. Even the trick or treaters had gone to bed.

Finally, right as I’d edged on despair of finding anything which could slake my hunger, I’d spotted a plume of smoke rising from near the old church. Hardly daring to hope, I’d come to investigate.

I tiptoed closer, intrigued by the idea of seeing the witches at work. Despite being in my fourth century of existence, practically middle-aged for a vampire, I had never seen a witch ritual in action. Witches and vampires tended to eye one another with distrust at the best of times. I reminded myself to keep quiet so they wouldn’t know I was there.

A sleek black cat was the only other being in the area. It perched on the fence, its citrine eyes glowing in the dark. My movement caught its attention, and it turned to hiss at me, warning me to stay back. I stilled my motion, strangely enraptured by the witches’ lithe movements and unintelligible song.

I knew I should move on, but a thought held me in place. Wasn’t this exactly why I had set off on my cross-country adventure in the first place? After my friend Drusilla walked into the sunlight, I’d nearly succumbed to my depression. I’d forced myself into the car in a last-ditch effort to save my sanity. I was in search of something new and interesting. This certainly fit the bill.

The witches’ motions grew more furious, the flames from the bonfire jetting higher with every chant. Round and round they went, their arms outstretched as they moved in