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  The Vampire's Curse

  Mandy Rosko

  In a city that cannot be found on any map that is inhabited entirely by witches, warlocks, vampires, and werewolves, Kyle McKane is seeking a cure for a curse that turns him into a blood hungry vampire during the night, and leaves him an exhausted, sleep deprived human during the day.

  Jackie Moore is probably the worst witch in the city apart from her ability to heal wounds and illnesses with a touch of her lips. She rarely sees outsiders and is stunned to come face to teeth with Kyle when he finally succumbs to his hunger and attempts to bite her.

  Instead she grabs him by the ears and kisses away his curse before he can sink his fangs into her. The problem is that the cure is only temporary until Kyle turns again the next night, and then goes out in search of Jackie so that she can help him, whether she wants to or not

  The Vampire's Curse

  Published by Mandy Rosko at Smashwords

  copyright 2013 Mandy Rosko

  Cover Art and Photo by Kim Killion

  Discover more books by Mandy Rosko at her website rizzorosko.com

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this story are either products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Thank you for your support.

  ONE

  Jackie flipped shut the ledger, took the cash and threw it and the paperwork into the safe, then heaved a sigh when the clock chimed eleven at night.

  Finished. Finally.

  She ran her hand through her hair and crinkled her nose at the texture. "I need a bath," she moaned. Clearly, the charms she'd made to keep her hair in good condition during these twelve hour shifts had failed, and now she was in desperate need of a soak.

  There would be no time for that when she got home since her mother put her on the morning shift.

  Pat, Jackie’s mother, the proud owner of Patty’s Potions N’ More, treated her business like a favorite third daughter. So when Pat was too sick to come into work herself, Jackie needed to pull double hours to keep the place running smoothly, regardless of how much sleep she lost.

  Jackie would have to settle for a quickie shower, go to sleep, get up, and do her day all over.

  She looked out the shop window, cotton ball snowflakes raced to the ground with the wind. The vision was like out of Star Trek after the ship went into warp speed and the stars flew by.

  It hadn’t been doing that a few minutes ago.

  She had to walk in that?

  She snatched the remote to flick off the little TV behind the counter. The voices in the black box weren’t soothing anymore and she didn't want to hear them.

  “… Allegations of feral vampires in Griffon City.”

  Jackie stopped, her finger frozen over the power button.

  Feral vampires? One was rare enough but the fact that there could be several made her spine tingle.

  “… Griffon City Police are investigating any possible leads, but have not issued a warning to citizens.”

  The screen turned to an image of the police chief addressing a room full of reporters, answering questions to the wild pack with their microphones. Griffon city had only two private television channels, three local papers, and one radio station, and more than enough reporters for all of them. This must’ve been footage from earlier today. How had she not heard of this before now?

  Jackie paid no mind to the chief, but she did focus on her friend, Mike Carter, standing behind him.

  His face was neutral under a black cowboy hat. His imposing aura was strengthened by the bulging muscles under his dark suit jacket as he surveyed the people flashing cameras and jabbering out questions in front of him.

  Jackie breathed a sigh. If Mike stood behind the chief then that meant the feral vampire rumors really were an allegation. Probably kids making prank calls. It made her feel safe knowing the people in charge were taking precautions.

  He certainly didn't look worried on camera, and if Mike thought there was no cause for concern then Jackie would rest easy.

  As soon as she finished walking through the snow and got into bed.

  Jackie reached down next to the display of fake, lucky shrunken heads and grabbed a bottle of garlic spray from the box behind the counter. She ripped off the packaging and slipped it into her yellow purse.

  "Just to be safe," she muttered.

  She flicked the TV off, shut out the lights and bundled herself in her cotton lined denim jacket, scarf, and mitts. She exited and locked the front door to Patty's Potions N' More. Time to go home.

  She tilted her head down against the wind and curled her arms to her chest.

  At least she didn’t live far, but no one expected a storm tonight.

  Jackie’s body rocked when the bang of metal overpowered the howling wind in her face, the silence that followed felt louder than any bang of metal. The wind stopped as though it had never been there.

  She swallowed, frozen, and afraid to move. Male grunting and scuffling came from the direction of the clanging metal.

  It was close. Close enough to make the hair on the back of her neck stand. She gasped as a man soared out of the alley and flew all the way across the snow covered street. His body spun out of control and he landed on top of his head with a deathly crack.

  She screamed and grabbed her mouth to stop from making more noise. His body crumbled in slow motion after the head hit, and Jackie ran for him after her legs could move again. She knelt into the snow, blood soaked through the top of his hood and into the fresh white. He was still.

  With shaking hands she grabbed his shoulder, turned him over and launched back to her feet and stepped away. Her glasses nearly fell from her nose.

  His eyes were open, but they were entirely black, no whites or even blood vessels could be seen. His skin shone a bluish gray and his head was perfectly hairless, as if all the hair fell out rather than being shaved. His mouth hung open at a twisted angle and she could see the overgrown points growing jaggedly out of his mouth in rows.

  Like shark teeth.

  A feral vampire.

  He was dead. He didn’t get up and snap her in half so he had to be. She clutched her heart and nearly fell over, but the sound of something large colliding with a dumpster in the same alley from whence this vamp came, followed by an inhumane wail, had her fumbling for her garlic spray.

  She held the spray directly out, her arm locked and finger on the button even though no one stood in front of her.

  Not allegations. They were real and they were here.

  “Oh, God. I’m going to kill you, Mike.” Her feet ached to run but her brain kept them from moving. The feral vamp was dead, danger gone. Someone could be alone and injured in there, or being eaten by more of them.

  She shivered.

  "Hello?" She stepped over the vamp to have a look inside the space.

  Jackie inhaled to scream but bit her lips together at the sight of three more feral vamps laying in the snow, two more still stood. They surrounded what could only be a normal vampire, someone who was still conscious of himself and his surroundings with the way he'd handled four feral vamps already. He was too strong to be human, and too lean without enough hair to be a werewolf.

  A woman lay face down in the snow behind him. His knees were bent, his
hands out, poised to attack anyone who tried to get passed him.

  He was protecting her. His girlfriend...―or wife? Maybe, but his chest rose and fell quickly, and a sloppy punch easily dodged by one of the feral's told her that the fight with the previous four had tired him out. He wouldn't win against the last two.

  They still didn't see her.

  Jackie ran. She ran towards them, her feet moving without thinking and her spray pointed outwards. The two ferals heard her and turned too late, she let them both have a mouthful of garlic.

  Twin piercing screams, like dying birds, punctured the air like a needle. The garlic burned like acid through the head of the one vamp that got a mouthful while the other, who only took a light spray to the cheek, scaled the brick building behind him like Spider-man and fled. His indignant screams faded into the night. The wind picked up again when he left.

  Jackie breathed deeply. Her lungs burned even though the run through the alley was a short one. A hysterical laugh bubbled inside of her for the completely stupid thing she did, but she clamped her lips shut and held it back.

  The man she’d helped knelt in front of his possible girlfriend. Jackie couldn't see what he did so she stepped closer, anything to occupy herself and keep from laughing in this unfunny situation.

  "Is she okay?"

  "She'll live."

  Jackie blinked at the stiff response. Not a girlfriend then. If they'd been a couple he might have shown a little more worry than that.

  “Are you alright?”

  “I’ll live.”

  He didn't turn to look at her. She leaned over a little but she couldn't see his face because of the grey hood.

  "Do you have a cell phone with you?" He asked, his calm demeanor unnerved her considering he was nearly killed.

  The least he could say was thank you.

  "No, I left it at home." She didn't want to tell him that she didn't own one. She was probably the last woman in the world to not have one, but her mother was adamant that she not have one. Said they decreased a witch's magical ability, not that Jackie had much of that to begin with.

  "We need to get her to a doctor. My place isn't far from here, we can take her there and I'll call an ambulance."

  His back shook as he chuckled, then he stood to his full height. A head taller than she was, he was at least six foot two.

  Jackie stepped away, realizing that the warning bells in her head were still going off. She suddenly wished she hadn’t told him she had no cell.

  Even if he was a normal vamp, or just a person with a lot of strength, that didn't make him the good guy. He could easily have been fighting with those ferals for who could have the right to drink from the still unconscious woman.

  "Actually, it's probably a bad idea to move her, you should stay with her and I'll get the help." She turned to run without giving him a chance to respond, but he grabbed her with inhuman speed and all but threw her against the cold brick wall.

  She punched and struggled but his clawed fingers pierced her denim jacket. She screamed and wriggled harder but every move only sunk his claws further into her skin.

  "Stop it, stop struggling! I don't want to hurt you!"

  She did stop, her weak attacks weren’t fazing him anyway, and she looked up at him.

  She saw his face under the hood and forgot about the pain in her arms. His fangs were out, but the rest of his teeth were in the beginning stages of growing outward into points like the shark teeth of the other feral in the street. His eyes, also like that feral, were black, but still surrounded by the whites.

  His face twisted and his fangs lengthened, slurring his speech. "I'm so sorry for this."

  Panic flared to life inside her. She would not let him drink from her!

  She reached up and grabbed both of his ears and, clenching them tight in her fingers, pulled his mouth to her lips and kissed him.

  His claws left her arms and his shock froze him. Jackie could feel her magic pulsing through him, through her, in her ears and louder than a stereo turned up full volume. She felt the heat return to his flesh, the sharp teeth and fangs behind his lips being reduced to their normal size. Because her eyes were still open, as they stared at each other, she watched the black in his eyes diminish until they were of their proper size and surrounded by a golden brown.

  He shoved away from her and fell back into the snow. He still backed away from her as though she were the one to trap him.

  They watched each other for movement. Jackie stayed firmly pressed against the wall while he stared up at her.

  He finally brought his fingers, normal in appearance, up to touch his lips, then his teeth with his thumb. He looked at his hands, turning them about to see the normal color of his flesh and normal sized fingernails before running his hands through his head of thick brunette hair, his grin stretching the limits of his high cheekbones and showing her his perfect teeth.

  Her cheeks heated and heart pumped just a little faster. He was really cute.

  Jackie had to shake herself. Wait a minute. What?

  She grabbed her purse and ran while he was still distracted and didn't stop until she got to her apartment and had the door locked behind her. Her lungs were on fire as they struggled for air.

  Then she realized that she left that woman in the alley with that dangerous man.

  “Oh God." She ran for her phone and dialed 911, told the girl on the other end what happened and where to send the ambulance and the police, then she called Mike.

  He picked up his phone on the second ring. "Carter."

  "Mike! Listen, I saw on the news about the vampires—"

  "Try not to worry so much about that. We're looking into it now and if there's any reason to think it's true the public will—"

  "It's true."

  His reaction was immediate. "What?"

  "I saw them today, attacking a woman and ... some guy in an alley."

  His voice became ten times more alert, she could see him in her mind sitting up straighter and leaning into the phone. "Are you alright? You weren't bitten were you?"

  "No, I'm fine." The punctures in her arms itched but she knew that in itself wouldn’t turn her into a vampire. "I just got scratched, that's all."

  "Thank God."

  "I just called an ambulance for that girl. You should be getting buzzed about it any minute now, so I need to ask you a few questions before you head out."

  "Yeah, of course. You sure you're okay? I can go to your place and say I'm questioning the witness."

  She breathed deeply, his lawful voice calming her, making her feel safe. She was in her apartment, the door was locked, and a cop was on the other end of the phone. Nothing could touch her now, but she would still rather be alone. "I'm good, you don't have to come over, but I was just wondering, do feral vampires talk?"

  "What? Well, no. I heard they can, there's nothing wrong with their vocal cords, but they just don't. They do all their talking telepathically."

  So he wasn't feral. The impression she got when she saw him in those few seconds before he was about to bite her was that he was a vampire in the process of turning feral, but he looked a little too human when she finished kissing him. "Okay, and, can anything cure a feral vampire?"

  He sighed, the worry drained entirely out of his voice now that he knew she was alright. "Where's this going?"

  "Nowhere, I just wanted to know."

  "Did you do anything while you were there? That other guy, if he's a vamp and he's turning, you need to tell me so he can see a doctor."

  She should have known he'd catch on that something was wrong, but she didn't know how to say what she needed to say without sounding crazy. "I kissed him."

  "You what?"

  "Obviously not anything like that! Look, he looked like he was going to bite me, but he also looked like he was about to turn, so I grabbed him and kissed him."

  He groaned. "I know you can heal people like that but you can't cure vampirism with your lips."

  She was standing a
nd pacing and pacing now in her excitement. "I know but that's the thing, I think I did."

  "What? Damnit, I'm getting the call. Is anyone in uniform on their way to your place?"

  "I wanted to stay anonymous."

  "Okay good, I'll talk to you myself when I get the chance. You sure you were only scratched?"

  A flare of annoyance rose inside her. "I'd know whether I was bit or not."

  "Well you did kiss the guy, I needed to be sure."

  She heard the jealousy in his voice and tried to tone herself down. "I'll get myself checked out right after work tomorrow."

  "Pat can't take your shift?"

  Jackie opened her mouth but then quickly shut it again. Saying that her mother wouldn't be able to take the shift so Jackie could go to the hospital wouldn't sound so great, especially since the woman only had a cold.

  "I'll call her and ask."

  "Good, lock your doors and windows, clean any cuts you might have. ...Good night."

  She knew there was more he wanted to say to her since she knew about his feelings, and it made her nervous and guilty. "...Good night."

  Jackie hung up the phone and went to the bathroom and did as Mike said. she cleaned the punctures in her arms, brushed her teeth, washed her face, then put her glasses on the nightstand and flopped into bed with her clothes still on. That man’s face flashed in her head right before she fell asleep.

  TWO

  Kyle McKane stared after the girl as she ran from the alley, his eyes glued to the spot where she turned the corner long after she disappeared.

  He thumbed his teeth again just to feel their normal shape, how they didn’t cut his skin and he laughed and fell back into the fresh snow.

  Cured. He was cured.

  His hysterical laughter stopped when the sound of sirens soared through the air. He stumbled to his feet, adjusting to the change of not having the extra speed, stealth and strength that he was used to having at night and checked on the girl. She was fine, just unconscious.

  Good.

  He'd heard her screams and rushed to her rescue against those creatures. If that other woman, whoever she was, hadn't shown up to help him when she had, he might have been on their menu as well. Even if he had somehow managed to beat the last two after an exhausting fight with the first four, he probably wouldn't have been able to put a cap on his thirst.