Death's Hexed Hobnobs

  Death's Hexed Hobnobs

  January Chevalier Supernatural Mysteries

  Ruby Loren

  Copyright © 2017 by Ruby Loren

  All rights reserved.

  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.

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  Contents

  British Author

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  Books in the Series

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Read on for the first two chapters of Death’s Endless Enchanter!

  Death’s Endless Enchanter

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Books in the Series

  Free Book!

  Also by Ruby Loren

  British Author

  Please note, this book is written in British English and contains British spellings.

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  Grab your FREE copy of Death’s Reckless Reaper, the exciting prequel!

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  Books in the Series

  Death’s Dark Horse

  Death’s Hexed Hobnobs

  Death’s Endless Enchanter

  Death’s Ethereal Enemy

  Death’s Last Laugh

  Prequel: Death’s Reckless Reaper

  1

  The freezing winter air bit into January’s cheeks, introducing a little faint colour to her porcelain skin.

  The clearing in Witchwood Forest was empty. The first full moon of the New Year had not yet fully risen. January knew that soon the others would arrive. They would arrive in great numbers.

  She sighed and looked across at Ryan - a were-jaguar and her second in command. His tattooed sleeve rippled, and the Aztec style jaguar tattoo danced when he suppressed a shiver. Shape shifters ran hot, but it was well into the minuses in South East England that night.

  “Perhaps the cold will put them off,” she said, knowing it was wishful thinking.

  “You know it won’t. They’re tourists who’ve come to stare at you. The world could be about to end and they’d still fight tooth and claw to be here. You’re famous now.”

  January bit her lip.

  She had never wanted any of this.

  Last year, her younger sister Jo had started hanging out with vampires. January had left Paris and moved back to her hometown, Hailfield, answering her parents’ call to help with Jo. She’d thought it would be a simple matter of talking to her sister and ironing everything out with their parent. Instead, she’d been hauled headfirst into the affairs of the local shifter and vampire community.

  After a whole lot of drama, she was now the leader of a pack of mismatched shifters, and her life was currently under threat from a mysterious organisation - who used to pay her to kill vampires for them.

  Things were a bit of a mess.

  “You know Gregory said that there’s definitely a bounty on my head for not killing him? One of these ‘tourists’ could just happen to be a trained killer. How are we going to know?” January tugged on her short, white blonde curls and worried about how uncertain the future had become.

  Not that it had been certain before then. She’d worked as a bounty hunter, killing off the oldest vampires around. Or at least - what she’d thought were the oldest vampires around. A job like that doesn’t give you much time to think about future years - but now more than ever, January felt like her options were narrowing.

  “I still don’t see why that bloodsucker is still walking and breathing. Couldn’t we just…?” Ryan raised two brown eyebrows at January and tried to give her the puppy dog eyes.

  She glared at him.

  “I know you two aren’t ever going to be best friends, but remember this isn’t just about him. I’m locked in for life. Even if I managed to successfully stab Gregory with the pointy end, one day there’s going to be a vampire that I can’t beat - and I don’t want to die. It used not to bother me, but now it does,” January admitted for the first time.

  Her eyes found Ryan’s, and her hand slid around his broad back. He smiled down at her with his crooked grin. January sighed when the reddish-blonde stubble tickled her face and his mouth found hers. She momentarily slipped into a world free from worry, as the taste of cinnamon danced on her tongue, and a fire warmed inside her.

  A howl cut through the silent forest.

  “Typical,” Ryan said, pulling away. “The wolves would be the first to arrive. They’ve probably got another hundred complaints to register.”

  “I don’t know why they don’t just go their own way.”

  January frowned when the first grey wolf appeared on the opposite side of the clearing. She’d told every shifter that had been a member of Luke Bingley’s mixed pack monstrosity that they were under no obligation to stay. Wolves were the only kind of shifter that really liked to be in a pack, and she hadn’t wanted to force anything.

  Surprisingly, many of the shifters had pledged allegiance to her and decided to remain in the pack - even after she’d told them about the potential dangers of hanging around with her. She could understand those who relied on the shifter bar’s income as their means of survival sticking around, but there had been many more who weren’t financially reliant on the pack. She had no clue why they still wanted to be a part of this.

  The grey wolf twisted and writhed and a moment later, a bearded naked man stood in front of them.

  January tried hard to ignore the fact he was just hanging out. For a shape shifter, she wasn’t too comfortable with nudity.

  “Greetings, oh glorious leader… What does Your Royal Pointy-ness command?”

  Ryan’s knuckles cracked next to her.

  January sensed the shifting energy. The tension between animals rose to the surface, exacerbated by the full moon. She shot Ryan a look, warning him not to change, before she walked down the slope towards the rude wolf.

  “All on your own tonight, Adrian?” She said it as pleasantly as she could, but the big man still tensed.

  January allowed the flicker of a smile to pass across her face. She wasn’t afraid of the big bad wolf, but beneath the bravado, he was definitely afraid of her.

  “I’m just here to tell you that the wolves aren’t coming tonight,” he said.

  January noticed he was deliberately keeping his arms fixed by his sides. She thought he’d probably jump ten feet backwards if she made a sudden movement.

  “Are you saying that every single Witchwood wolf is currently sitting at home with a cup of hot cocoa?”

  The bearded wolf’s eyes slid away from hers.

  Apparently not. “You don’t have to be a part of this pack, but you know that you can’t start your own, unless you all leave the area. You know the boundaries of the territory. I don’t want there to be any bloodshed between shifters - and that means no challenges between packs. Tell the other wolves that this is a warning. If I hear so much as a whisper of a wolf pack, it will be stopped.” She stared the werewolf down, hating every second of it.

  She’d never wanted to be pack leader. This w
as exactly the kind of tough persona, intimidation tactic that had made her stay away from packs in the first place. She was turning into everything she hated most.

  “Noted,” Adrian said.

  He threw her a twisted smile before turning back into a wolf. His lips lifted a little, showing sharp teeth. January felt her own temper fray when she sensed the wolf’s temptation to attack. Instantly, a huge spotted jaguar was between them. The grey wolf yipped in alarm, before turning tail for the trees.

  “Do you buy any of that?” January said to the jaguar, who growled in response.

  It was a definite ‘no’. The wolves were up to something.

  “As if I needed something else to worry about…” She muttered, but had to sweep those worries aside, as the sound of branches snapping in the distance reached their ears.

  I hope there’s no one else out in the woods tonight, she thought, silently despairing at the noise level. That was another problem with all of these tourists - they drew too much attention. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the supernatural did not exist. January prayed that she wouldn’t be the one responsible for changing that.

  Time to start the show, she thought, with more than a little bitterness. The air around her moved, as she drew in the energy for the change. She emerged from the static air as a black horse with a horn sat square on her forehead. Shifters came in every kind of animal you could think of, but as far as she knew, she was the only unicorn to ever exist.

  That was why the tourists were here.

  She waited another half an hour, standing back up the hill at the edge of the clearing, while the moon rose higher and the forest filled up. It was a strange sight to see such a mix of animals in the same place. From big cats, to bears and lizards, any stranger to the scene would never mistake this meeting for something natural. January’s ears flattened when she tried to estimate the number of shifters in the forest. She could tell there were well over a hundred in the clearing, and from what she could hear, there were even more waiting in the trees for their chance to get a look at the mysterious unicorn shifter they’d all heard about.

  January wished she’d stayed in the closet.

  She waited until the moon was at its highest point and then she changed back, trying not to flinch at being completely nude in front of hundreds of other people. The jaguar walked up beside her and then she was no longer alone. Ryan was by her side again.

  January began by welcoming the visiting shifters, but that was as far as she got with the usual script. When her eyes went around the clearing, alighting on a huge wild boar, a ragged looking coyote, and then a sleek falcon, all she saw were unknown faces. Any of them could be a killer. She was no coward, but it was plain to see how easy it would be for pretty much anyone to walk into the woods and take a shot. From her own experience of being a hunter, she knew how fast things could turn against you when you were being hunted and didn’t even know about it. All someone needed was a single opportunity.

  “This has to stop,” she said, her voice creating quiet over the clearing.

  Ryan shot her a sideways glance but did nothing. They’d both heard what Gregory had said when he’d turned up at her door earlier that evening. Someone was coming to kill her. She couldn’t just wait around for them to do it.

  “The pack already knows this, but for the benefit of the visitors…” Who made up the vast majority of her audience, January realised, “…there’s currently a price on my head. It won’t be long before someone is going to try to kill me. They could even be watching right now.” She paused and looked for any reaction - or a lack of one.

  It was a dumb trick. Any killer worth their salt wouldn’t show their true colours.

  “Anyway, because of this… situation… from now on, no more visitors will be permitted at the full moon meets and any shifter new to the area must report to a pack member.”

  There was much shuffling as the tourists reacted negatively to the news that they were no longer welcome.

  “The show’s over,” January finished and let the energy of the night turn her back into a unicorn, before she slipped away through the trees.

  The tourists would no doubt consider it rude, but all that talk about assassins had really made her ‘spidey senses’ tingle. What are they going to do about it? Leave me a bad review on seetheunicorn.com? She thought, when she galloped across the empty fields on her way back to Hailfield. Home, hot chocolate, and a warm bed with Ryan in it was all she wanted from the rest of the night.

  Gregory Drax clearly had other ideas.

  “I thought you had affairs to get in order,” January said, changing back to human and stalking past the vampire into the house to grab some clothes. Unfortunately, Gregory Drax had seen her without clothing a few too many times already, but she really didn’t want to be thinking about that tonight.

  “My new second in command, Jane, has everything under control. It’s remarkable, considering it was just a few months ago that half of the vampires around here were plotting my downfall. Of course, her success could also have something to do with everyone having witnessed her crushing the skulls of the traitors with one hand, whilst gouging their eyes out with the other. Who can say?” He raised an eyebrow, but January wasn’t in the mood for Gregory’s charm.

  “Why are you here? I thought we’d said all that needed to be said earlier. We find out where the old vampires are and we go after them. Staying here is a bad idea. Tonight I had to ban all of the tourists. It would be a piece of cake for a killer.” January wrapped her long jersey coat around herself a little more tightly, starting to feel the cold. “I know it won’t stop them, but…”

  “No sense in making it easier,” Gregory agreed.

  January also sensed he was pleased that there weren’t going to be quite so many two-natured waltzing through his area.

  “I just don’t want this to turn into some paranoid siege situation where we batten down the hatches and interrogate every new face. It won’t end well,” she said.

  Gregory nodded, his blonde hair looking almost silver in the moonlight streaming through the open door. “In principle, I completely agree that we should hunt down these vampire elders. They want me dead and I’d like to return the favour. However, in practice, these vampires don’t exist. At least, not that I can find. The whispers I heard on my recent travels have so far proved to be exactly that – whispers. I haven’t found anyone who can point me in the right direction, or even the right country to start the hunt in.”

  “You let me say all of that stuff about taking the fight to them, when you already knew we had no chance?” January glared at Gregory. Was this all a game to him?

  “You were on a roll!” He said, smiling and showing a glimmer of fang.

  January wasn’t amused. “So, we’re stuck here waiting for bounty hunters to beat down the door and then beat our heads in. And everything I said about not wanting to turn into a paranoid recluse is actually going to be exactly what will happen.”

  Gregory paused for a second to think about it. “Yes. That is exactly what I am saying.”

  January didn’t even hear the gravel crunch but suddenly Ryan was standing behind Gregory in the narrow hallway.

  “Please tell me he isn’t moving in with us,” Ryan said, his facial expression not reflecting the joke.

  Ryan and Gregory didn’t see eye to eye. It was partially to do with their vampire vs. shifter loyalties, but mostly to do with them both having a certain level of interest in her. Although, when it came to Gregory, she wouldn’t like to say whether his ‘interest’ went beyond a sort of morbid curiosity.

  “Just a social call,” Gregory said.

  January felt like punching him. That was not what this was!

  “Speaking of moving in… I don’t believe your lease extends to extra occupants. You’ll have to renegotiate with my daytime man.”

  Ryan’s eyes clouded with confusion. “Why would…” He stopped and stared at January, who was studiously avoiding eye con
tact.

  She’d neglected to mention to Ryan that Gregory was the one who owned the property she rented. That was how he was able to enter the building at will without an invitation. She could have moved, but Gregory had told her he’d buy any property she tried to rent. She could have bought her own property, but she still wasn’t willing to admit that she would be staying in Hailfield for the long haul.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. Can he come in here any time he likes? I don’t know if I can handle this…” Ryan shook his head, his eyebrows knitted together.

  “There are ways we can keep him out,” January informed him.

  Gregory folded his arms. “Excuse me? I’m right here. You needn’t get your whiskers in a twist. I have no wish to walk in on you two.” His eyes opened wide with sincerity.

  As was the vampire way, January knew that what he had just said was the truth… but not all of it.

  “Let’s talk about this later,” she said through gritted teeth.

  Ryan crossed his own arms. Great.

  “Well, it’s getting late! I wouldn’t want to risk catching the sun. Goodnight, January. I’ll let you know if there’s any news at all.” He brushed past Ryan and then turned in the doorway, his large frame blocking the light. “Good luck,” he added and January thought he sounded a little apprehensive.

  That was definitely worrying.