Harbors

By Rafe Jadison

As a vampire, Canan Longblood has been around for long time. He's fallen in love and watched the men he loved die, time after time, never finding one who wants to go that long, eternal distance with him. When he returns to Baltimore on the advice of the man who gave him Evening Life, Canan hopes to find healing. Instead what he finds is a man so full of pain and laughter that Canan knows he must meet him.


Stafford Savoy has lost many people -- his father, his mother, the man he loved. At forty, he's determined to no longer pursue online dating, and swears the only way he'll fall in love again is the old-fashioned way, if chance and passion bring a man into his life. So when Canan Longblood comes knocking on Stafford's door, claiming to need a little help, there's only one thing Stafford can do -- invite the sexy man inside. But is an old-fashioned man really what Canan wants?


When ancient man and modern man collide, there's more than a little chemistry, but is it an explosion they both can stand?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Feb 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685500627

Rafe Jadison

Rafe Jadison is the author of Seduced by Shark Shifters, Seduced by Shark Shifters II: Logan’s Tail, Seduced by Shark Shifters III: Tom's Turn, Reap This, Blake Blacks Out, and Peter Passenger and the Mothman. He has a great love of the water and of people, and he hopes that shows in his writing. You can find out more about Rafe at rafejadison.com. He looks forward to hearing from people legally old enough to read the things he writes.

Book preview

Chapter 1: Departure

1782

It had just turned dark, and the man stood in the graveyard looking at the newly laid stone in front of him. Forty-five years. It was hardly fair, but then he had refused to allow Canan to help. Canan bent down and traced the letters and then the numbers on the grave. They couldn’t be made more perfect. This was all that he could do for Salem now. Canan had held him when he’d the left the world, but now Salem was gone, and Canan was all alone.

You’ve done beautiful work, a woman’s voice said from behind him.

But what macabre work, Canan said as he turned to see Rosetta. She was bundled in a black shawl covering a black dress. Her stomach protruded, and Canan thought of the life growing inside of her.

But necessary, Rosetta said. He would have loved it, as far as these things go. I like your choice. There’s not another like it, and this graveyard has filled fast this winter.

Canan looked at the grave stone. He had tried to make each of them unique when he had come to the island. So many in such a small place had perished so quickly, and for once, he had nothing to do with it.

May I touch it? Rosetta asked.

When Canan nodded, she stepped toward the stone. Her fingers traced the shape, surprised at how smooth the top was.

A heart, she said.

It’s what he was to me, Canan said.

Rosetta placed her hand on his shoulder. I know.

They stood in silence for a moment, looking at the heart-shaped gravestone, this last testament to the man he had loved, Salem.

Canan turned to her. The others, do they know as well?

We’ve always known. From the night you arrived, we saw the way you and Salem looked at each other. It was only a matter of time before you saw it yourselves. He spent every night watching you work until the late hours. This island is too small, and we are all too close for us to look poorly upon our neighbors. And so many of us are kin. As Salem’s sister, I’ve always known that it would be a man that drew him. We were all joyful when you found each other.

And the rest? Canan asked. Salem told you that as well?

He told me, but no one else. And he didn’t need to tell a soul. You’re not the first of your kind to come here, only the gentlest. When you came, we needed you. Someone needed to make our gravestones as this fever spread. You’ve never harmed us, and we learned a long time ago how to protect ourselves from your kind.

Yet you’ve never tried to harm me. You could have while I slept.

We know, but we never wanted to, and if we had, Salem would have stopped us. He watched over you like a hawk, Rosetta said. You’ve protected us from others who came to our island to do harm. We found the body of the man who’d waited for us in the forest, for us to be alone.

I hunted him down the first night Salem told me what happened.

And we are grateful for that. The girl got away, and you stopped the man from harming any others.

You weren’t angry when you saw what I did to him?

We would have done worse, Rosetta said.

Canan considered what she said. You’re a tough breed.

Like you, we’ve had to be. We’ve fished these waters of the Chesapeake for generations. It’s not always been easy, and from the stories I hear, it wasn’t easy for our ancestors who came here. Many of them were running from the same sort of intolerance that I imagine you face quite often. We believe in survival, for ourselves, and for others.

Canan considered what she said. He’d expected the island to be full of small-minded people, people whose ideas had never been challenged, but instead, he had found a place that had accepted him, and given him a love so beautiful, that now he could see nothing but a life full of mourning.

Canan looked at Rosetta. She had always been kind to him, and not just because of Salem. Before Salem, he had met her first. She’s the one who had put the ad in the Baltimore paper. She’s the one he’d corresponded with, worked the arrangements of what he’d need if he came to the island. She’s the one he’d been sent to when he arrived on the island that first evening.

You’re the leader here? he asked. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it before.

Yes, Rosetta said. Should outsiders ask, we say that it’s my husband, but on the island, it’s different. We’ve always believed in female leaders.

You practice the old ways? Canan asked. Salem never told me.

He took a blood oath not to share our history. Those who don’t are sent from the island when they come of age. We don’t welcome them back, and should they cause trouble for us on the mainland, they’re never heard from again. We don’t practice it like our ancestors did. It became inconvenient over the years, and we started to marry out, with people from the mainland. The ones we marry take the oath as well. The old ways are no longer our religion. Most of us don’t practice any religion, but we have the skills, and we use them when needed.

Canan laughed. I haven’t met anyone like you in a very long time.

Or so you believe, Rosetta said. Friends on the mainland recommended you. Many people wrote to me about that advertisement. You were the one we chose.

Canan shook his head. Because you knew I had a secret as well.

Yes, and we imagined you would be more worried about guarding your own than looking to see what things lie in our closets. Although we were a little surprised that you never recognized us. Our people, and your people have known each other for years.

Canan laughed. It explains why everything Salem did seemed so magical and free.

It was Rosetta’s turn to laugh, and she did with a deep laugh that shook her body, and moved her belly.

There was no one like him, she said.

"And