Secret Worlds

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Taken by the Beast Copyright ©2015 Conner Kressley and Rebecca Hamilton
The Forever Girl Copyright ©2011 Rebecca Hamilton
Summoned Copyright ©2014 Rainy Kaye
Changeling Copyright ©2015 Debbie Herbert
Shiftless Copyright ©2014 Aimee Easterling
The Black Parade Copyright ©2013 Kyoko M.
Haunting Echoes Copyright ©2014 Caethes Faron
Purgatory Copyright ©2015 Susan Stec
Braving Fate Copyright ©2014 Linsey Hall
The Pandora Principle Copyright ©2015 Noree Cosper
Heart Song Copyright ©2015 Samantha LaFantasie
Trinity Rising Copyright ©2013 J.E. Taylor
Moonlight Copyright ©2012 Katie Salidas
Lash Copyright ©2013 L.G. Castillo
Between Copyright ©2014 Lisa Swallow
The Devil’s Fool Copyright ©2015 Rachel McClellan
Spark Rising Copyright ©2014 Kate Corcino
Hunted Copyright ©2014 A.J. Colby
Ruby’s Fire Copyright ©2013 Catherine Stine
Vigilant Copyright ©2013 Angel Lawson
Cursed Copyright ©2015 Lucy Leroux

Taken by the Beast by Conner Kressley and Rebecca Hamilton
Women who look a lot like Charisse are going missing. And the man this beauty is falling for may be the beast responsible.

The Forever Girl by Rebecca Hamilton
Sophia gets more than she bargains for when she finally decides to trust a shapeshifter.

Summoned by Rainy Kaye
Dimitri is determined to make Syd his, but he can’t explain the paranormal bond controlling him, and Syd won’t tolerate his secrets.

Changeling by Debbie Herbert
A changeling and a witch must work together to restore order in Fairy. Along the way, they discover love, like magic, casts its own spell.

Shiftless by Aimee Easterling
After years of suppressing her inner predator, Terra meets a shifter who forces her to reclaim her own wilder side.

The Black Parade by Kyoko M.
Poltergeist Michael is the key to saving Jordan’s soul from hell–but can she handle the cost of her salvation?

Haunting Echoes by Caethes Faron
Will Amaia’s clan kill her ex-fiancé before she determines whether he returned from the grave for love or for revenge?

Purgatory by Susan Stec
A sex-hungry myth with no name, no flesh, and no identity …unless it wears one of you.

Braving Fate by Linsey Hall
Diana and Cadan fight demonic forces and a passion that has lasted centuries. Their desire could be deadly.

The Pandora Principle by Noree Cosper
As a descendant of Pandora, Cassi must discover if her lover is one of the evil spirits she hunts before all her friends die.

Heart Song by Samantha LaFantasie
Relena never expected the incredibly handsome Marren to free her. But there’s a catch.

Trinity Rising by J.E. Taylor
Damian and Naomi are desperate for victory against the devil, but one wrong step could trigger Armageddon.

Moonlight by Katie Salidas
Good girls don’t wear fur, fight over men, or run around naked, howling at the moon. But Fallon’s not a good girl.

Lash by L.G. Castillo
Lash must choose where to place his trust–in a home he fought so hard to regain or in a forbidden love he can’t bear to lose.

Between by Lisa Swallow
Alek could kill Rose with a kiss. Finn, with a touch. Pulled into an intense affair with Alek, Rose discovers her connection to Finn threatens them all.

The Devil’s Fool by Rachel McClellan
When Eve meets Boaz, a vampire who gives her the one thing she’s never had–love–she falls into a world of greed and seduction.

Spark Rising by Kate Corcino
A runaway Spark and the agent arresting her ignite a revolution to end their people’s enslavement while resisting the electricity building between them.

Hunted by A.J. Colby
With Special Agent Holbrook’s help, Riley races time to stay ahead of a crazed werewolf. But Reed isn’t the only monster to worry about.

Ruby’s Fire by Catherine Stine
On the run from a dreadful desert cult, Ruby must decide which handsome stranger to trust with her heart and her darkest secret.

Vigilant by Angel Lawson
Ari stumbles into a world of crime and vigilantism while discovering the one man that sets her heart on fire.

Cursed by Lucy Leroux
Isobel has been hiding an uncanny ability her whole life–until the day she must use it to save herself from a madman.

I ran through the hallway, throwing open closets like a lunatic. Just shy of two hours—that’s what it had taken me to completely screw up what my best friend Lulu did daily with ease. In that time—one hundred and eleven minutes to be exact—I had burned three grilled cheeses, knocked over a vase that I hoped wasn’t too expensive, and (most importantly) ‘misplaced’ her three year old son.

It was safe to say I wasn’t the domesticated type.

“Jack, this isn’t funny!” I yelled, pulling open the final closet door and coming up empty.

My breathing came more labored now, and not just because I had been running nonstop for the last several minutes. This hall was my last chance. I had now officially covered every inch of this house, attic and all. The little guy was nowhere to be found, and my panic was quickly twisting into dread.

The doorbell dinged, at once breaking me from my train of thought and sending my heart into my throat. What if that was Lulu? What if she forgot her keys? I would have to explain to her how I lost her kid, and that would no doubt send her eight month pregnant butt right into labor.

It might not be Lulu, though. Maybe it was the cops. New Haven was about as big as a shoebox, and before I’d moved away from here all those years ago, it was certainly the kind of place where your wayward child could show up on your doorstep with police escort. Lord knows I had.

I kicked off my heels, because if my seventeen-year-old self had taught me anything, it’s that cops who have come to chastise you don’t really care for the hooker heel look. I doubted that would change just because I’d aged a decade since then.

As I got to the door, I bit my lip, bracing myself for one sort of confrontation or another. The doorbell rang again.
God, help me
. I twisted the handle and pulled the door open in a ‘rip the Band-Aid off’ sort of way.

Before me stood a polished woman, best guess mid-twenties, wearing a sundress and sporting the sort of unwavering blonde hair that could double as a hard hat if need be. Pearls circled her throat, a purse sat clutched between her hands, and she smirked as she looked me over head to toe.

“How very forceful of you,” she said, running her hand up and down the doorframe. “I would be more careful with it, though. It’s palmetto. Imported all the way from the Carolinas.”

I grimaced. Before I left for New York, New Haven was a farming town. We had two general stores, a diner, and a movie theater that was always three months behind the rest of the country. You could set your watch by it. I hated the town back then, but not nearly as much as I hated it now. Ten years away had seen this place morph into a sort of retreat for the newly wealthy. The general stores gave way to day spas, the diner was replaced by a Starbucks, and last I heard, the movie theater was vying to house an independent film festival in the fall.

And all of that would be okay. I had never been the type of woman to bat away progress, after all. But it came complete with people like her, and that rubbed me the wrong way.

“I’ll try to keep that in mind—you know, when handling it,” I said, trying hard to keep the smarm out of my voice. “Can I help you?”

“Other than refraining from treating my best friend’s door like a jilted lover, you could invite me in,” the woman said, and she brushed past me, completely nullifying the need for an invitation.

“Y-your best friend?” I stammered.

As far as I knew,
I
was Lulu’s best friend. Sure, she had been cordial with some of these
nouveau riche
housewives, but that was more out of necessity than anything else. It wasn’t who she really was.

“That’s right,” she said. “Though, to be honest, I’m a little peeved at her. Lulu promised to let me know before she hired a housekeeper. I had more than a few qualified candidates in mind.” She removed a pastel glove and ran her finger along the counter. She lifted her hand and looked at the pad of her pointer finger with disgust. “Not that you aren’t doing an adequate job.”

“I’m not a housekeeper,” I said, folding my arms over my chest.

“Oh, thank God,” she said. “I’d hate to think Lulu was actually paying you for this.”

“Who
are
you?” I asked, marching after the woman.

“Ester Jacobs.” She gave me a little nod.

“I see. Well, I’m Charisse Bellamy.”

“Oh,” she said, setting her purse on the chair, careful to miss the apparently dust-ridden counter. “Lulu’s new friend. I’ve heard of you.”

“Ha!” I scoffed more loudly than I intended. “Well, given that I’ve known Lulu since we were crawling around in the dirt, I’d say that makes
you
the new friend.”

“What a charming visual. Forgive me for not recognizing you at first. When Lulu told me her model friend from New York was coming for a visit, I naturally pictured someone a little …”

“Thinner?” I finished, noticing the way Ester’s eyes traced my curves. I posted my hands on my hips and dared her to look away. “In the real world, there are a lot of different standards of beauty.”

“Evidently.” Ester pursed her lips. “In any event, I’m here for Jack. Not that this interaction hasn’t been delightful.”

Uh-oh. That’s right. I still haven’t found Jack.

“I … He’s asleep!” I said before thinking.

“Asleep?” Ester said with narrowed eyes. “Why, it’s nearly four in the afternoon. Something tells me Lulu wouldn’t be fond of the idea of you throwing off her son’s sleeping schedule like this.” She made a clicking noise with her tongue. “Of course, I suppose that’s something only a mother would think of.”

I bristled, not so much because she had hit a nerve or anything. Sure, kids were something I wanted … in the far off future. It was sort of the way a person wanted to go to Europe or plan for retirement. I was going to think about it, just not today.

No, the thing that really pissed me off was the slithering notion that she might be right. Lulu
was
a mom, and I wasn’t. There were things that she went through that I wouldn’t understand, things that this stuffy witch apparently would.

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you. He’s asleep. Come back later,” I said, motioning toward the still open door.

“You sure about that?” She smiled.

My teeth clenched, wondering what she knew that she wasn’t telling me. But I didn’t have time to consider that. A shriek, loud and decidedly panicked, sounded from outside.

I darted to the door to find Lulu standing in the driveway, a spilled bag of groceries littered at her feet and her hands clawing at her temples, the way they did only
when she was really freaking out.

“Jack!” she yelled, her eyes planted on the backyard. “Jack get back from there!”

Leaving the groceries behind, she bolted toward the house faster than any pregnant woman this close to popping ever should.

“Lulu, slow down,” I said, flinching at the fire coloring her eyes. “The doctor said you’re supposed to take it easy.”

“And
you
were supposed to be watching him!” she said much louder than I had anticipated. She pushed past me, almost knocking me down with her momma bear bruteness as she made her way out the back door to the huge expanse that was her backyard.

I went after her, trying hard not to react to the smug satisfaction that Ester didn’t even attempt to hide.

“That’s the strangest nap I’ve ever seen,” Ester remarked as she followed me outside.

At first, I didn’t see him. The yard was completely empty, save for the customary swing set and sliding board that seemed to be everywhere now. God, people sure loved to procreate around these parts. But as I followed Lulu’s running (and bouncing) frame, that quickly changed.

Jack was beyond the white wooden fence that cut off the backyard and separated it from Bookman’s Woods, which had always traced the outskirts of much of the town but seemed bigger now than it had when I was a kid.

Jack splashed around, running his hands through a shallow running stream and laughing like some sort of carefree hyena.

I bolted toward them, easily catching up with Lulu as she made it to the fence.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” she yelled, moving down the fence, looking for the break that Jack had undoubtedly squeezed through. “Jack, you get back from there!”

She was breathless, holding her belly and wheezing.

“Lulu, calm down!” I said, scanning the fence. “He’s right over there. We can see him. There’s no reason to—”