Harley-Awakening
By Claudy Conn
2.5/5
()
About this ebook
Harley has everything a vampire-witch hybrid could want: wonderful
parents, a hunky sort-of boyfriend, and a clan of loving friends. When
that life is taken away from her, Harley doesn't want to serve revenge
up cold. She wants to serve it up now, and she wants to serve it up HOT.
Claudy Conn
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Claudy Conn is a multi published author who got her start with her bestselling historical/regency romances.She tells us that she fell in love with the fantasy/paranormal genre and created a world of paranormal.She hopes you will read and enjoy and join her on her facebook where she loves to interact with her readers.page.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Claudy-Conn-Paranormal-Romance-Author/135826686471445
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Book preview
Harley-Awakening - Claudy Conn
Contents
Harley—Awakening
Books by Claudy Conn
Copyright Page
~ Prologue ~
~ One ~
~ Two ~
~ Three ~
~ Four ~
~ Five ~
~ Six ~
~ Seven ~
~ Eight ~
~ Nine ~
~ Ten ~
~ Eleven ~
~ Twelve ~
~ Epilogue ~
Excerpt: Awakening—Bray (unedited)
~ Prelude ~
~ Prologue ~
About Claudy Conn
Read more about Claudy Conn’s books
Harley—Awakening
Books by Claudy Conn
available at smashwords.com
Awakening Series
Harley—Awakening (Novella)
Awakening—Bray (coming soon)
~
Legend Series
Spellbound—Legend
Shee Willow—Legend
Prince in the Mist (Novella)
Prince Prelude—Legend
Aaibhe—Shee Queen (Novelette)
Trapped—Legend
Free Falling—Legend
Catch & Hold—Legend
~
Through Time Series (time travel)
Through Time-Pursuit
Through Time-Whiplash
Through Time-Slamming
Through Time-Frankie
Through Time-Compulsion
~
Shadow Series
ShadowLove—Stalkers
ShadowHeart—Slayer
ShadowLife—Hybrid
~
Hungry Moon Series
Hungry Moon: Quicksilver
Hungry Moon: Destiny
Hungry Moon: Jodi
~
Witches, Warlocks, and Dark Magic
Dark Love
Netherby Halls
Lady X
Journey
Journey: The Reckoning
~
Risqué Regencies
Myriah Fire
Oh, Cherry Ripe
Rogues, Rakes & Jewels
Taffeta and Hotspur
Wildfire Kiss
After the Storm
Runaway Heart
Lady Bess
Lady Star
Serena
Mandy
Disorderly Lady
Madcap Miss
~
Multi-book Bundles
The Complete Legend Series
Through Time Series Box Set
Claudy Conn’s Bestselling Regencies
Harley—Awakening
By
Claudy Conn
Copyright Page
Harley—Awakening
By Claudy Conn
http://www.claudyconn.com
Copyright © 2015 by Claudy Conn
First edition edited by: Kathryn Riehl
Second edition edited by: Karen Babcock
Cover Artist: Kendra Egert
All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America
Smashwords editions
June 2015
This novella first appeared in Romancing the Paranormal, published May 2015
Unedited excerpt of Awakening—Bray
Copyright © 2015 by Claudy Conn
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Names, characters, and events depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
~ Prologue ~
I STOOD STARING at my easel, my paintbrush in my hand, and smiled, finally satisfied with it. My father caught my attention as he purposely maneuvered the wheelbarrow past me, winked, grinned, and called out, Are you hungry, baby? I am. Go see if you can steal me a plateful before the crowd gets here.
I laughed. You’re always starving, Dad. When will they all get here?
He stopped, put a hand through his chestnut curls, and sighed, Soon, I think, Harley, soon.
As though to prove him right, the sound of wheels on gravel came to our ears. We turned to see truckloads of people, our clan, driving up the pebbled driveway and parking along the grassy square near our three-car garage. It was a bright, sunny day, but they, unlike most of our kind, were unconcerned. They jumped out of their vehicles and into the sun’s full rays, laughing and exchanging quips with my mom, who ran over to greet them. All were in happy moods as they carried trays of food toward the picnic tables we had set up earlier.
Our clan, the McDagus vampire clan, was immune to the rays of the sun. Immune because of my mother, who was a powerful white witch. The only way her spell worked, though, was if the vampire gave up drinking human blood. Not all vampires were willing or able to do that.
Yes, vampires. Not ordinary vampires, but vampires all the same.
Over a hundred years ago, my dad acquired the deed to a huge stretch of land up here in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains overlooking Lake Placid, New York. He settled here with my mom and a few of their dearest friends.
The members of our clan enjoyed the privacy of their own homes, on plots they owned, all nestled in the five hundred acres surrounding my family’s land.
It didn’t take long for other vamps wanting what my parents wanted—peace and as much ‘normalcy’ as they could muster—to join them. Thus, the McDagus clan was formed, and they prospered.
Clan members set down their roots under my parents’ supervision—and rules. They owned and successfully operated stores and restaurants in the village and got on very well. To all outward appearances we were normal. To all outward appearances we were just like everyone else and lived our private lives just above the foothills.
Yeah, oh yeah, vampires must drink blood to survive. Sure, we drank blood. After all, as I said, we were vampires—except for my mom.
We didn’t, however, kill humans, and we obviously didn’t drink human blood. We hunted, and we survived, and life there was (I think) glorious. My dad had always run a tight but fair ship.
Harley!
I turned and saw William, who everyone considered my boyfriend. I suppose he was. He was big and beautiful, and he thought he was in love with me. He wasn’t. He couldn’t have been, because I didn’t feel that kind of connection with him.
Harley!
he called again, grinning like a bear who had found a pot of honey.
I waved at him and smiled when he stopped to chat with friends. Remember, I told myself. Remember this always. Even as this thought occurred to me, I wondered why it should. It was as though I knew.
Maybe I did.
My parents wanted us to make a match of it, but I hadn’t been able to say yes to William, even though he was quite a catch.
Something was missing—that something that would say ‘forever’. Oh, he was sweet-natured and giving, and, holy cow, the sex was good. He was a hunk of hunks, but … there it was, the ‘but’.
I was an oddity in our clan. I was born to my parents about twenty years ago. Vamps aren’t supposed to be able to have children, but witches, even immortal witches like my mom, can and do. The long and the short of it, my mom always said, was that something magical happened, and sure enough, there I was—part vamp, part witch.
Mom said that made me special and that I would one day have a purpose. I didn’t know about that, but I did know I had lots of abilities other vamps didn’t—more even than my mother, abilities she said skipped her but came to me from my ancestors.
All at once, a blast of fear snapped my head sharply towards the woods. I felt a threat in the air.
I tried to ignore it as I took a tray from Hattie, one of my friends, and carried it to a picnic table. And, yes, it was our drink of choice—bottles containing animal blood.
As I looked around I couldn’t help being proud of my mom as she laughed and hugged our guests. As always I was struck by her beauty. Her long red hair blowing in the summer breeze made her easy to find amongst the crowd of our friends. Dad liked to say I was her twin. I suppose I was, except for my eyes. I got his amber eyes instead of Mom’s green ones. I teased her a lot, telling her they were ‘witchy green.’
Dad pulled her in for a kiss. I made sure they saw me put a finger in my mouth as though to gag, and they laughed. They weren’t more than twenty feet away, and life at that moment seemed beautiful and perfect.
In a human’s heartbeat, all that changed.
A minute before they came, I felt it.
My mother and I had a moment together. I knew she knew as well.
We both shouted ‘Run!’ at the same time. But there was no time, none, because our clan didn’t understand. Even as they heard us tell them to run, they looked around and hesitated.
Escape was not an option. Total and gripping fear raced through my body.
A threat was no longer just in the air. It had arrived, surrounded, stormed.
Harley,
my mother screamed and ran to me. She held up a vial she had produced from her jeans pocket. "Drink this, baby—now. Hurry."
What? What is it?
I asked and saw something desperate in her eyes, those beautiful, witchy green eyes, and it scared the shit out of me. I knew in that moment that the worst thing ever was about to take place. Mom?
"Drink!" she shouted as she poured the damned stuff down my throat. I choked on the first swallow and then took the vial away from her and downed it like I was doing a shot.
I saw relief on her face.
Baby, I didn’t know it would be so soon. I knew, but I thought we had time. I’m sorry … I hoped I was wrong. I hoped we’d have more time. Today was supposed to be your big day, a party for your birthday. I am so sorry.
Tears ran down her lovely cheeks.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my clan begin to gather, back to back. Most of them were unarmed and unfit to take on what was coming, but the scent now was all around us.
Everything happened at once. I stood helpless … like when you reach out to save someone and right in front of you they are taken.
My world was shattered in that old cliché, that blink of an eye.
They came with wicked and bloody intent … they came. I had never seen werewolves that huge, vicious, and purposeful—and it was daytime. What the hell?
I stood for a moment, horrified, as I watched my beloved friends try to fight them off. These werewolves were as large as horses, each one with eyes crazed with a vicious ‘kill intent’. Blood splattered everywhere as they attacked from every direction. It was a chaos of screams, painful bellows, and victorious howls.
Some of our clan tried to scatter, some stood to fight. All were being taken down and brutally torn apart. Blood covered the grass …
The atmosphere had the stench of blood, vampire blood—my clan’s blood.
A few of our beta warriors, who had never before faced combat, managed to kill a werewolf or two as they bravely fought to protect us, but they were so outnumbered. I stood helpless as they, too, were mutilated and fell into their own pools of blood, their body parts everywhere.
I joined my mother, and we used magic and managed to take down a couple of the werewolves charging at us, but there were too many all lunging at once. A few of our female vampires went back to back with us, but I knew they were scared. The werewolves made a circle around us, drooling bloodied saliva from their sharp canines.
All at once, my dad tore through the circle, his sword of silver slicing any werewolf in his path. I had seen him run into the barn earlier, and I knew he’d gone to retrieve his sword. He shoved my mother, me, and the three remaining female vamps—my friends, akin to my ‘aunts’—behind him. Our beta soldiers had been destroyed right before our eyes, and we all knew this was the end, but we would go down fighting. What else was there?
I knew we were all going to die that day.
My mom touched my face and said, It will be okay, Harley—we will always be with you.
Her fingers stroked my eyes and then my forehead, and I experienced a charge of energy, her energy, enter my brain, but there wasn’t any time—I didn’t know at that moment what it meant.
A werewolf, very different from the others and larger than all the rest, stood and motioned for the others to be still. The six of us—my parents, three females vampires, and I—were the only remaining members of our clan.