The Werevamp Diaries: Moon Dust (A Lynlee Lincoln Bonus Short) Read online

  THE WEREVAMP DIARIES: MOON DUST (A LYNLEE LINCOLN SHORT)

  Olivia Hardin

  All rights reserve. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Copyright © 2015 Olivia Hardin

  All rights reserved.

  THE WEREVAMP DIARIES: MOON DUST (A LYNLEE LINCOLN SERIES SHORT) © Olivia Hardin 2015

  I might not be a Neutralizer like my friend Lynlee, but that doesn’t mean I get to take it easy for Halloween. When Magical And Undead Creatures cross paths with humans, sometimes they get hurt. That's when this doctor to the paranormal world steps into action. What I never expected was to get an urgent call from my secret crush.

  Risking my life to grant him a favor might not be the smartest decision I’ve ever made, but sometimes love means taking chances.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Copyright Page

  The Werevamp Diaries: Moon Dust (A Lynlee Lincoln Short)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  About the Author

  TROUBLE doesn’t end here! Check out ALL of the Lynlee Lincoln Series in this suggested reading order:

  Yeah, another one. I swear when my membership for MagicMatch is over, I’m ditching this stupid dating site. Do they even screen these freaks? Tonight’s guy was the worst yet. Seemed totally normal online, so I agreed to meet him at that Chinese Buffet I like. I was really restraining myself—only on my third plate—when I realized he had been sitting there with one of his hands under the table since finishing his second helping. He kept staring at me with this glassy look, then all of a sudden I start hearing a shuffling sound.

  Dude was totally touching his junk at the dinner table! Freak!!! I am so glad I drove my car so I could high-tail it out of there. And then when I get home there’s a message telling me how I’m just not his type and the chemistry wasn’t there and to please not write him anymore because he won’t be able to respond. Uhm, can you say DELETE? Last time I go out with a genie. They never can keep it in the bottle. Lol!

  Chapter 1

  Rhiannon Blackstone yawned so wide her jaw popped then she rolled over and stretched her long limbs. The clock read 9:47 and she groaned in reluctant anticipation of what was sure to be a busy day. In one agile movement she flipped back the covers and leaped out of the bed straight to her feet. Her belly grumbled and she immediately grabbed a whole grain power bar from her nightstand before heading towards the kitchen to start the coffee.

  Werewolves were pretty much hungry all of the time, but mornings they were more voracious than normal. She bit off over half of the bar, crumbs exploding everywhere. After pushing the button to turn on the coffee maker, she dusted the oat morsels off her nightshirt and into the sink, then swept the ones on her counter into her hand and tossed them away too.

  “Halloween,” she muttered as she glanced at the monthly calendar on her refrigerator. She calculated she had maybe two to three hours before calls started coming in about MAUCs in need of medical attention. It wasn’t easy to be a doctor/veterinarian to the unseen paranormal world.

  Magical And Undead Creatures were warned to remain under the radar on October 31st and the days surrounding it. Humans’ perceptions of the paranormal were heightened during this time and with all of the attention it was like asking for trouble.

  But many MAUCs just couldn’t resist the temptation. There would be calls about minor injuries and scrapes, vampires with holy wounds and probably a few human injuries that needed the touch of someone with a medical degree and knowledge of the paranormal.

  Rhiannon glanced at her cell phone, plugged in on the bar between her kitchen and living area. The blinking light warned she had a message so she grabbed it and tapped the buttons with her thumb.

  Call me when you wake.

  It was her best friend Lynlee and after pouring herself a big mug of black coffee, she dialed her number. “What’s up girlfriend?”

  “Hey, Rhia. Uhm, hold on,” Lynlee said, then shuffled around with her phone a second before speaking again, “Sorry, was finishing an email. I can’t do that and talk at the same time.”

  Rhiannon snorted and nodded her head, “Yeah, I know.”

  And she did. Lynlee was great at multitasking, but for some reason typing and talking didn’t mix for her. She’d end up typing what she was saying and saying what she was typing. Which normally provided lots of amusement for Rhiannon.

  “Things may get hairy later–no pun intended–so I thought we could catch breakfast if you want.”

  “Are you kidding? I never pass up a chance to eat.”

  “Yes I know. Your eating habits are the bane of every woman in the world who wishes she could eat what she wants without getting fat.”

  Shrugging, Rhia heading to her bedroom to start getting dressed. “I can’t help genetics. So meet you at the diner?”

  “Darn,” Lynlee hissed and her friend had a feeling she knew why.

  “Getting a vibration?”

  “Hold on,” the irritation in her voice was palpable. She could hear her friend talking to whichever charge had buzzed her via her magical amulet, though she could only hear Lynlee’s half of the conversation. “Okay, okay. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Yes, I know.”

  “Standing me up?”

  “Sorry, but duty calls.”

  Glancing at her clock, Rhiannon frowned, “Duty sure is starting early today. I’ll try to check with you tomorrow ... after all the fun settles down.”

  There was little more than a grumble from Lynlee’s end of the line and then she was gone. “No one says you can’t go out for breakfast on your own,” Rhiannon told herself as she slipped into a pair of yoga pants.

  Chapter 2

  Weres were allergic to silver, no matter the species of origin. Be it a canine, feline or some other variety, they still were susceptible to the silver bullet. But what most humans didn’t know is that silver was actually dangerous to almost every type of shifter.

  Silver poisoning calls were still rare though, even during Halloween. Mainly because silver was such a valuable commodity these days that people didn’t tend to waste it hunting creatures that any self-respecting human didn’t even believe in.

  But teenagers are gullible and the ones who spent their allowance on a package of silver bullets believed the advertisement when it insisted they could take down a werewolf with them. Unfortunately for the kids, there aren’t any werewolves for at least two hundred miles of this particular section of woods in the Appalachian Mountains.

  But there were other MAUCs just as vulnerable to rogue bullets and Trip Drago was one of them. Yes, even dragons had kryptonite.

  Rhiannon dabbed at the blood seeping from the wound in Trip’s
back with a handful of gauze. Her wolf ears picked up the sound of movement and she looked up just in time to see Geraldine Fitzpatrick, approach them through the woods. The woman only came to about Rhiannon’s waist, which was actually tall for a gnome.

  “How’s the marshmallow doing?” Rhiannon asked, then grabbed Trip’s shoulder to haul him back to his seat when he began to whimper and squirm away. “Stay still. I know it hurts, but I can’t help you if you don’t sit down.”

  “How the hell would you know if it hurts?” he hissed and a puff of black smoke escaped his nostrils. “I’m the one with a bullet in me.”

  “Okay, let’s just be clear,” Rhia slapped a bandage onto his back wound and taped the edges down. She then took his hand and pulled it up to hold a similar strip of gauze to his front shoulder. “First, the bullets weren’t silver. Just lead, which isn’t fun, but at least not deadly. And second, you do not have a bullet in you. It went clean through and your magic is already closing up the wound. So man up. It could’ve been a lot worse.”

  “At least it’s not a silver bullet like you thought when you called me.” Geraldine grinned in amusement as she leaned against a tree and held up one of the unspent shots, examining it in the light of the setting sun. She was Trip’s Neutralizer, which meant it was her job to keep him out of trouble and to protect his true identity from the human world.

  “Those stupid kids said they were silver. How the hell was I supposed to know they were lying? This is my life on the line here.”

  “What I don’t understand is how you got close enough to attack that one kid,” Geraldine spoke as she took a few steps closer.

  “I didn’t attack him!” Trip screeched, “He attacked me. And he was all proud of himself when he advanced on me. I thought he was going to kill me so I had no choice.”

  Rhiannon snorted and grabbed her bag, “Which brings me to my original question, Geraldine. How’s the kid doing?”

  “Oh, the kid’s fine. He’ll wake up tomorrow with a clear memory of falling into his campfire and burning his hands and arms thanks to a little hypnosis. Just first degree burns for the most part anyway. And not a single memory of his encounter with a real, live dragon”

  With a satisfied nod, Rhiannon stepped aside and studied Trip for a few moments. There were little patches of greenish brown in his complexion and although he wasn’t breathing fire at that moment, wisps of smoke were still emanating from his nose and mouth.

  “Why are you green?” his Neutralizer asked him, then turned to Rhiannon, “Why’s he green?”

  “I gave him something for the pain so his ability to control his magic is reduced. Plus deep down inside, his dragon self is pretty pissed about this whole thing. That side of him wants to shift back into a big reptile and burn the forest down. You’d probably better go home and stay there for at least twenty-four hours.”

  Trip grimaced, but nodded his head.

  Just as Rhia was about to say something else her phone rang. She glanced at the screen and saw Lynlee’s name. “Hey, girl, what’s up?”

  “Monty needs you. Can you get out there to see him?”

  With dramatic flair she dropped her head and sighed long and deep, “Damn, Lynlee. Can’t you get that little perv to stay home at least one Halloween.”

  “It is what it is.”

  Monty Janek was a very old vampire trapped in a teenager’s body. Each year he managed to worm his way into a teen party and it was almost inevitable that he would at some point shift into a bat and buzz all of the young girl’s chests. And every time that happened Lynlee would show up and get him out of the bind. The problem was that once he was a bat, he would sometimes get so excited that he couldn’t transform back into a vampire. And that was when Lynlee would call her.

  “Yeah, I’ll try to get over to his place in a bit. I’m on another call.”

  “Thanks. I’ve already got another buzz too, so I’d better get going.”

  Ah the joys of Halloween, Rhiannon thought to herself.

  By the time she got off the phone, Trip had already left. Geraldine was patiently waiting so that she could magically transport Rhiannon back to her home. Werewolves had lots of nifty tricks, but magical transportation wasn’t one of them.

  “All ready?” Geraldine asked.

  Rhiannon nodded but just as the elf was about to start her magic, Rhia’s cell phone began to ring again.

  “Tell Monty to hold his horses. I’m just about to get home and I’d at least like a minute to eat.”

  “Rhiannon, it’s Sandy.”

  When she heard his voice it was as if the floor dropped out from under her and her mind started spinning. She glanced up at the waiting Geraldine, gaze pleading for help that the woman couldn’t possibly give her.

  She licked her lips and struggled to take a breath so that she could speak. But it was no use. Her heart was pounding so hard she was pretty sure it was about to thump right out of her chest.

  Her secret crush was on the line and she couldn’t seem to conjure a single rational thing to say to him.

  Chapter 3

  “Rhiannon, are you there?” There was a rattling sound and she had the impression he was probably shaking his phone as if they had a bad connection.

  She cleared her throat, then managed to mumble, “Mmmhmm,”

  “Can you hear me?”

  “Mmmhmm.”

  Geraldine took a few steps closer to her, waving her hand in front of Rhia’s face. “Are you okay?” she whispered.

  “Mmmhmm.”

  “I’ve got a problem with one of my kids. I think we need a doctor.”

  She blinked in confusion and pulled the phone away from her ear to frown at it a few seconds before resuming the somewhat one-sided conversation. “You’re a dad?”

  “A dad? No, I’m talking about my job. As a Sandman. You do know who this is, right?”

  Of course she knew who it was. He was Bartholomew Winstead, one of about fifty Sandmen throughout the world. It was his job to help children and sometimes adults find their way into dreamland. By night, when on the paranormal job, he used the name Sandy; the names were his version of Superman vs Clark Kent identities.

  But Sandy was more like the man from Krypton than just his penchant for nicknames. His looks were classically handsome with dark brown hair that was always coiffed just so and a nearly perfect body. His shoulders were broad above a narrow waist and he was tall enough that even she, a fairly tall werewolf female, had to look up at him.

  The truth was that he was so strikingly sexy to her that simply looking at him turned her limbs to jelly. And the few times he’d spoken directly to her, she’d been in dangerous risk of simply passing out cold.

  Yes, she had it bad for this particularly MAUC. Unfortunately for her, it was common knowledge that he only had eyes for Rhiannon’s BFF, Lynlee Lincoln.

  “Yes, Sandy. I know you. So what’s going on with your ... kid?”

  “It’s a long story, but I’d really like you to get here right away. Do you have time?”

  “Uhm, yeah. Sure I can do that,” she scratched at her belly to try to force away the butterflies squirming around in there. “Where are you exactly?”

  “It’s a cabin in Colorado. Pretty far from you probably, but if we called Lynlee...”

  “No!” she interrupted him a little too quickly and too loudly. She loved her best friend, but she knew the witch had absolutely no interest in the Sandman. And this might be her one and only chance to get to know him better without him being distracted by the girl he liked. “I’m just finishing a call with an elf. Let me give the phone to Geraldine and she can send me there.”

  The elf transported her to the cabin and then immediately disappeared, having been called to another of her client’s aid. As soon as she took a step towards the house, Rhiannon’s mental hackles went up. She hesitated, then raised her nose into the air and sniffed.

  Wolves. A lot of them. The property was surrounded and she had a pretty fair idea she knew w
hat that meant.

  “Hey, Rhiannon. Thanks for coming,” Sandy spoke from the doorway before he motioned her inside and she followed.

  “Does this family know we’re here?”

  When she turned in his direction, her heart lodged in her throat at the sight of him. The low lights of the cabin cast a golden light onto his face, making him appear mysterious and almost ethereal. She hadn’t thought he could possibly get any more good-looking, but she was clearly wrong.

  “The parents know I’m here, yes. The truth of the matter is that I’m babysitting.”

  A giggle escaped her lips and she slammed her mouth closed to stifle it. Her nerves about being in such near contact to him were making her feel giddy.

  “I know, I know. Laugh all you want, but I like kids and paranormal parents don’t have a lot of options when they need someone to keep their children. It works.”

  Rhiannon nodded, a grin still on her lips. “So these people are MAUCs. Were’s I’m guessing? And where’s the patient.”

  Sandy’s dark eyebrows pinched together in a frown. “No they’re not weres. Daywalkers.”

  “For real?”

  She had reason to be surprised. For one, daywalkers were exceedingly rare. They were unable to procreate, so a family of them was perhaps even more unusual then the creature itself. Known also as reverse vampires, it was still a mystery how these creatures even came to exist. Still, they were impressive beings with many of the same powers as regular vampires, but few of the weaknesses.

  “Well, Maria, Emilio and Felipe live as a family, even if they aren’t. Felipe was changed as an infant, over twenty-five years ago. He appears about eight these days. They age you know. Just very slowly.”

  Rhiannon nodded, “Yeah, I know.” Reverse vampires weren’t allergic to sunlight and in fact thrived in it. They fed on the chlorophyll from plants instead of blood. They weren’t so much undead, as they were semi-immortal, hence the fact that they did age. “So what happened to Felipe?”