Shadow Side Book Two

By Odette C. Bell

So, Luna is in a pickle. Still. Nothing has really changed. She’s just fallen further into the embrace of the shadows – and further into the embrace of the city’s worst party boy.
There’s just one problem. She has no idea what Lennox actually wants. He might be dedicated to cleaning the city, but what has it got to do with her?
Everything.
Absolutely everything.
She’s about to find out that, from the very beginning, Lennox’s life has circled around her. And his arms are about to do the same.
...
Shadow Side follows a plucky cleaner and the city’s worst playboy fighting dangerous demons. If you love your urban fantasies with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Shadow Side Book Two today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.
Shadow Side is the 7th Your True Vampire series. In a world where vampires know their true love at first sight, love brings trouble. Packed with action, humor, and a dash of romance, you can read them separately, so plunge in today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Oct 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215894644

Book preview

Chapter 1

Lennox wouldn’t let her go. Good, because unbeknownst to her, she couldn’t let him go, either.

As she lurched off the last stair of the police station steps, she had him by the hand, even though she wasn’t aware of it.

He grabbed her shoulder. Tell me what happened—

I went back to that lair. Crap, you don’t even know about it. Wait, how long was I gone for? she spat all those questions out as fast as she could.

In the distance, as that plume of smoke rose higher, she started to hear sirens. There would be closer police stations to the incident, fire stations, too.

Heck, for all she knew, maybe the sirens came from hell, and just as they had their own demon bus drivers, they also had their own demon first responders. There was only one fact, though, one mainstay. It was the mainstay of this entire story. She did not know what was going on. But she would not be on the back foot for long.

You know what she didn’t care about anymore? The fact she was still wearing a ball gown. It had become part of the background, and she understood how to move with the skirts, so nothing stopped her from jumping off the last stair and grabbing her vampire and pulling him with her. And no, she didn’t try to stop herself from thinking of him as her vampire.

She wondered if the press, however, would question that particular assertion.

They were everywhere. There’d just been an explosion. She’d also just brought the kidnapped children home. You’d think the journalists would have a thousand questions – and a thousand more distractions. Instead, they lurched in front of Lennox like he would always be their greatest find. The city could melt. As long as the Council’s worst playboy was slouching somewhere in the vicinity, they’d turn to him, not the real news.

… Okay, she’d used Lennox as a distraction, too, every single time she’d gotten that magazine and her coffee.

It had been… she wouldn’t call it fun.

It had just been something to do. And she understood that to suck in people like her, the magazines had to constantly generate more stories and more photos of Lennox. But seriously? Were they still going to focus on him at a time like this?

She felt herself bristling.

It had to be more than an internal reaction, because the next thing she knew, Lennox’s hand snapped forward and latched onto her shoulder.

His broad thumb pushed down hard.

Leave them, he grunted. To me, he added.

He stopped in front of her.

But you know what she didn’t do? What she couldn’t do? She couldn’t let go of his hand.

Something about the last half an hour told her that if she let go of him, a spell core would appear somewhere and transport her away. Alone. Again. And she wouldn’t do that, couldn’t do that. For two reasons. She was going to tell you the second, and you were just going to have to figure out the first on your own. Probably before she could consciously do it.

Something terrible was going on in this city. Some threat was building, a threat she had to face. And there was another shadow practitioner out there—

God, there was another shadow practitioner out there. It wasn’t just her.

This woman here, Lennox began, probably about to repeat the story of her calling him a dastard rogue to give the journalists the exact distraction they longed for.

The papers would love that. How he would explain she was holding his hand, she didn’t know. Maybe he’d tell them that she was about to drag him down to the closest dealership to replace her apparently mangled car.

But she couldn’t help herself.

There was a break in the sirens, a break in the constant chatter of the parents, too, and Luna announced in her loudest tone, I’m not the only shadow practitioner in the city. There’s another one out there, she practically screeched.

Two things were wrong with that admission. She should really let Lennox know in private first, considering, you know, he was an undercover spy and they had to do everything to hide his identity. Second? Not only did she reveal the fact that there was another shadow practitioner to the press only several centimeters in front of her frigging nose, but critically, she revealed she was one, too.

Lennox shuddered. It was a full-bodied, deep move. It came up from his feet, shot into his hand as it held her shoulder, then powered into his teeth. Momentarily, it wired them shut. He had to wheeze through them. It sounded like he was a lung someone had poked with a rose bush.

Apparently the paps could ignore a lot. They could not ignore this. One of them shoved a camera right in her face, and she meant right there. The lens smashed up against her cheek, and a hard piece of plastic actually cut her nose.

She had no idea how Lennox would play this. But apparently something inside him was ready to snap, just like her.

He had limits.

Who knows how long he’d been pretending to be a playboy for? Okay, she knew exactly how long. Five years. He’d moved in with his father five years ago as they’d followed the influx of vampires to this city.

Ever since, Lennox had been splashed across the pages of every single disreputable magazine – the reputable ones too – plying his particularly charming trade every night at every party.

That was a long time to keep up appearances.

Now it felt like he’d finally snap.

His hand tightened around her, and he took a hard breath at the fact she’d been injured.

It was just a little cut. But maybe it was the disrespect. Or, more likely, Lennox was ready to snap, and even the slightest provocation would be the last straw. Between his brother, the kidnappings, the explosion, and her – and she felt like she added most of the weight to his shoulders – he couldn’t take it anymore.

She didn’t know what would happen when Lennox snapped properly. Because she still didn’t understand exactly what kind of caliber of vampire he was. He was powerful. That much was clear. But just how powerful?

As powerful as Riley? He had to be more powerful than Riley. And Riley was touted as second only to Clayton.

But there was one question there. One question she wondered if she’d get her answer to sooner rather than later. What if Lennox was even more powerful than his father?

The answer was – if he was – and he went to town on the paparazzi, they’d be dust. And she really couldn’t afford any distractions.

So she did the only thing she could think of, and she snorted. Right against the camera.

She was about to tell you something that you would likely think was quite disgusting. If you didn’t want to read it, just move on.

When you’re a cleaner, you have to blow your nose frequently. Dust and other small particles get trapped up there all the time.

There is something called the bushman’s blow. If you lack a tissue and you’re outside, just close one nostril off with your thumb, then snort.

Fortunately for her, the camera was closing her left nostril off. Which meant the right one was free to unload several hours of dust, muck, and grime from fighting demons. All over the lens.

You should’ve heard the scream the journalist gave.

Sorry, Luna muttered, deliberately pushing into Lennox.

Lennox froze. She couldn’t see his expression, and she doubted she needed to. Because his stomach sucked in a hiccup of laughter.

I’m terribly sorry, she said. I’ve breathed in far too much dust today. Do you think I’ve ruined your equipment? Don’t worry, dear – it’ll polish off nicely with a cloth and a bit of lens cleaner. I mean, you were asking for it. You did shove it into my face, practically assaulting me on the police station steps, she began.

Her gaze flashed up to the journalist, and from the pointed teeth sitting against the lady’s bottom lip, she was a vampire. Do you know what you shouldn’t do to a vampire if you were only a lowly human? Try to catch them out with the law. They’d slip right out, turn right around, and hit you over the head with an even better law. Because as Luna had already told you multiple times, vampires were some of the most litigious folks in the world.

But Luna was certain she had the law on her side.

Just out of the corner of her eye, she could see Mary-Jane Winkler.

Mary-Jane knew Luna had brought the kids back. She hadn’t brought Timothy, though. And she thought she could see the word Timothy on Mary-Jane’s lips.

Luna’s stomach sucked in. Her back became hunched. She got the urge to lurch across the street and run toward that explosion. Maybe it was just a fire at a tire plant or some such thing. More likely, it was intimately connected to this twisted tale. And the sooner she got there, the easier it would be to search for spell cores.

Mary-Jane planted herself in front of the vampire journalists. Due to the sensitivity of this case, the press will now step back, she said in the kind of tone that suggested this wasn’t a request. Her voice didn’t go up. There was no question. There was just the look in her eyes to back it up with.

She must’ve dealt with the press on multiple occasions, because every journo took a massive step back.

… Mary-Jane wasn’t a vampire. That much was clear. Maybe she came from one of the powerful witch clans. Or maybe, even as an ordinary human, she knew how to throw around her weight anyway – and the law, too. Because unlike this journalist here, she actually worked for it.

That gave Luna the opportunity to lurch forward.

She had a choice. She could keep hold of Lennox’s hand.

Or… sorry, who was she kidding? There was no choice. When she gave her fingers the option to drop from him, they simply wrapped around his hand harder.

They pulled him down onto the curb. What exactly was she going to do? She couldn’t cast transport spells.

But she didn’t have to try to create a transport spell, and neither did Lennox. Because a car pulled up.

Okay, it wasn’t a car. They’d established that. What it was, was a beast.

It revved.

Mary-Jane had told the press to disappear, but at the same time she could see she needed to distract them so Luna and Lennox could escape.

No one had turned to them yet, quite likely because Mary-Jane took the opportunity to puff a very important breath out of her chest, and she opened her mouth with a snapping hiss to add, This city is in a serious situation. She had a voice an anchorwoman would be proud of. She hit the right notes, grabbed the right emotion out of her syllables, and had this look that said you would pay attention. Because if you didn’t, you’d miss the news of your life.

Luna slipped into the passenger seat, then realized Lennox wouldn’t have the time to run around to the driver’s side. So Luna just made this strange kind of jumping move and lurched into the driver’s seat. Weirdly, the beast didn’t throw her off.

It grunted.

Lennox, surprised at the fact she wanted to drive this unruly vehicle, got into the passenger seat nonetheless.

Buckle up, she spat.

She grabbed the wheel.

She hadn’t buckled up, but maybe the beast had taken that quickly spat command as an invitation, because the next thing she knew, a harness – not a seatbelt – sprang out of the seat and wrapped her against it so hard, it felt like she was a bug in a spider web.

Oh God, she managed.

Lennox winced. If you’ve never driven a high-powered vehicle, you can’t start with this one—

I own a hatchback, she clarified.

… It wasn’t an answer to his question. Saying you own a hatchback is kind of like saying you’re an ordinary mortal and you breathe ordinary air. This was not an ordinary car. Ordinary hands didn’t usually sit around this wheel.

This was an extraordinary, unruly vehicle, and as she flattened her foot on the accelerator, she shot forward like a bullet.

Oh God, she screamed.

Lennox went to grab the wheel before she could crash into the back of a black paparazzi van. But she did it herself.

Slowly but surely – okay, in the space of 0.1 seconds – she started to adjust to the vehicle’s speed as she slipped in behind a car and fortunately didn’t zip right through it, crash against the side of the road, and spin into a building.

She clenched her teeth. Where do you think that explosion was?

Close to the port. We shouldn’t head there, he said.

Why not?

He pointed behind her.

Damn, they were being followed by the paparazzi, after all. She’d kind of hoped that Mary-Jane would deal with them.

Luna swore. She looked at Lennox. Lennox was already looking at her. There was… an invitation there. Did she need to explain it to you? No. You weren’t the idiot. She was. The invitation was plain as day. It offered her to stop hiding. From the paparazzi. From her heart. And from him.

All she had to do was say the word, and he’d reveal the truth.

She clammed up so fast, it was as if somebody wrapped her up in a cold, wet blanket.

She grabbed the wheel harder. She dragged her thumbs over it. We have to hide from the press, she said. There wasn’t a question. We need to keep up appearances.

… He just watched her. Then his left cheek twitched. She’d seen that look before. Crap, she’d seen it recently. Though it felt as if a thousand years had passed, she’d seen it when he appeared in her lounge room. It was the look that had preceded him saying they’d take it slowly.

Just the memory of those words made her back arch, made her head grind into the seat behind her. She won’t tell you what happened to her stomach, for you were probably sick of her describing her guts.

She wasn’t. And she had to endure every single mule kick of nerves.

There’s something we should discuss— he began.

The dash suddenly lit up.

She wasn’t ready for it. She screamed, startled, but certainly didn’t crash the car.

While she was startled, Lennox was soon livid. Crap. What happened?

He swiped his hand from left to right across the front of the dash, activated some hidden laser, and accepted a message.

She heard his father’s gravelly voice. We just lost two enforcers, Clayton said, tone grim.

It took her mind a moment. Two enforcers… lost….

Two vampires had just died.

You wouldn’t think she would be so slow. But the reason she was slow was she swung her gaze over