Fangs for the Memories (Providence Paranormal College Book 2) Read online

  Fangs for the Memories

  Providence Paranormal College Book Two

  D.R. Perry

  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2016 D.R. Perry

  Cover by Fantasy Book Design

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

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  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  Version 2.0 April, 2021

  ebook ISBN: 978-1-64971-697-2

  Print ISBN: 978-1-64971-698-9

  Contents

  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

  Say Watkins?

  Say Watkins?

  Connect with the Author

  Other LMBPN Publishing Books

  Chapter One

  Henry

  The bronze circle looked burnished in the dim mezzanine light of the Nocturnal Lounge. I’d been exhausted when I finished it, and I couldn’t remember that happening to me before. I wondered whether it had. I might have wiped the memory, storing a copy in some object not too different from this one. Memory was my business; copying, recording, sometimes deleting.

  I could wash my hands of this project after sunset when I bound the amulet to the magus I’d made it for. She had Umbral Affinity, a rare talent that went with her magical energy. I’d had a friend with that talent up until 1989 just before the Big Reveal happened and the whole world found out about Extrahumans. She ended up dead in the same incident that made me a vampire.

  “Hey, Henry!” I glanced into the lower level at a wiry dark-haired guy in a trench-coat. I wrinkled my nose, getting it used to the gamy scent of a shifter. With the amulet in my pocket, I headed down, trying not to look as reluctant as I felt. Being an introverted vampire with psychic powers wasn’t usually a problem. Being one who had to go back to school after over so many years was a whole different ball of wax.

  “Tony.” I grinned at the cat shifter with my lips closed. He’d never seemed disturbed seeing vampire fangs before, but I didn’t like showing them off.

  “Lynn sent me. I’m here to bring you to your client.” Once Tony Gitano stopped talking with his hands, like a good Italian boy, he poured a cup of coffee.

  “Oh. Okay.” I watched him dump five packets of sugar in his cup. Sometimes he took it with just milk and other times black. Nothing I knew about Tony made sense. That was par for the course with most feline shifters. I never knew back then exactly what type he was or how much he'd been through.

  “You want some?” He stirred the cup briskly, then tossed the stirrer and empty packets in the trash.

  “I don’t drink…coffee.” I leaned against the counter, still feeling the languid heaviness in my limbs which meant the sun was still up. “It’s too early to leave. Not sunset yet.”

  “I know. But I figured It’d be nice to have coffee without all the estrogen.” Tony smirked. “Your client’s there with some female friends.”

  “I’ll be good to go by the time you finish that.” I glanced at the coffee, glad he’d poured it. Eating and drinking regular food worked, but all tastes paled in comparison to scent. Being a vampire was sort of like having a slightly burnt tongue all the time unless blood was on the menu.

  “Figured as much.” He splashed cream into his cup, making clouds in his coffee. “I got a question for you.”

  “Go ahead.” I hoped he didn’t have a terminally ill relative. That kind of thing was always awkward. Turning had strict regulations, and it didn’t get rid of the effects of most diseases the body couldn’t eventually heal on its own. Turn someone with stomach cancer, they’d be in pain for eternity. Turn someone with Alzheimer’s, they’d never recover their lost memories.

  “Why are you even here?” He blew on his coffee. “At school, I mean. Don’t want to get metaphysical this early in the day.”

  “I need a license if I want to keep my business.” It was mostly that simple, although I could have just gone to community classes. But I knew the Headmistress here and she'd arranged a scholarship.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard that. But how do you still take clients?” He sipped the hot beverage, glancing up at me over the rim of the cup.

  “They can’t stop me from doing piecework, but the law says I can’t advertise or claim any business expenses.” I shrugged. Even with Extrahumans added in, tax law was boring.

  “Fred’s dad didn’t have to get a degree to keep running Redford Renovations.” Tony raised an eyebrow. “Uses magic and enhanced materials, too. Unfair, huh?”

  “It is.” I grinned, trying to lighten the mood. “I can handle it.”

  “Seems lame. I mean, you’re a vampire and a Psychic which means double limits. You can’t go out in the daytime, and you’re a one-trick pony. Fred’s dad is a full member of the Goblin King’s court, with a pretty high rank. Redcaps are bad-asses. Way more there for them to worry about.”

  “You know an awful lot about this stuff for a freshman cat shifter.” Redford Renovations had big connections, which went a long way in Rhode Island as far as licensing goes. Being Unseelie just made him more powerful. The King’s power grew with every new changeling who tithed to him, and Unseelie was the way to go since the Extrahuman status quo changed with the Big Reveal.

  Tony laughed so hard he would have spilled his coffee if it wasn’t already half gone. He took a deep breath, then shook his head and ran a hand through his hair.

  “School of hard knocks.” He sipped. “I was an employee. Took two years off after high school to work there and save money. Also, I’m more curious than the average cat.”

  “So I’ve seen.” It was my turn to chuckle.

  Tony’s mouth stretched into a flat line. He crossed his arms and tilted his chin slightly up, a hard glint in his narrowed eyes. His coffee stuck out in the hand under his left elbow, still upright.

  “Not in a Psychic way, man.” I sighed.

  “It’s not you, Henry.” Tony’s voice came slightly muffled through his clenched jaw. “Turn your ears up and have a listen. Someone’s trying to break in here.”

  I tilted my head and focused my minimal daylight energy on amping up my hearing. I heard scratches and splintering wood. Someone was almost through one of the walls in the stacks directly across from where we stood. If they broke through, I’d be standing right in the last light of the sun.

  I would have leaped out of the way, but the best I could do was a trot. I was slower than a regular human in the daytime, even with one of my senses enhanced. Tony did better. He sprang off in
a burst of Extrahuman speed. Then, he leaned forward and rushed me. I hit the opposite wall underneath the mezzanine.

  “Blanket!” I glanced up at the emergency box on the wall above my head.

  “On it!” Tony shattered its glass front, then pulled out the leaden tarp inside and covered me with it.

  I huddled under a safety blanket for the thirteenth time in my unlife, wondering how one cat shifter could protect me from whoever wanted me dead bad enough to literally tear down a wall in the magically warded Nocturnal Lounge. That took raw physical power and strong magic. I thought I’d have just a few seconds, but time stretched on.

  I breathed to measure its passage, hearing more splintering crunches, shattering glass, and the noise of upholstery being torn. Some sounds were less than a yard away. Who or whatever had burst in was literally tearing the place apart looking for me. I had no idea how the attacker didn’t see the bright red blanket.

  After four minutes, the effects of the sun vanished. I leaped up, throwing the blanket aside to see a snarling jet-black form in the middle of the room. Wisps of dark smoke or soot curled up from its ears, tail, and claws. It went on four legs but wasn’t shaped like any natural or magical animal I’d seen. Its mouth was pitch-black, too, its roar a hollow sound more like wind through an alley than anything living. It had no eyes, only emptiness where they should be.

  Tony stood next to me, staring at the thing. He didn’t move, and the thing didn’t seem to see him. Tony slowly raised his arm, pressing a single finger to his lips. I didn’t dare open my mouth. Magic. How in all the Realms did a cat shifter know how to cast a spell? I held my tongue, watching and waiting. And Remembering.

  The best way to counter an unknown creature like this was to make a Psychic impression. I could erase regular memories, but not an impression. I’d never forget this particular attack for the rest of my nights, but an impression would let me find out what this thing was and how to stop it if it showed up again. Even better, I’d be able to share the experience with others as though they’d been there. I could get help as long as I could find willing people . Most just avoided vampires like me.

  I watched the thing sniff Tony’s fallen coffee cup, then the spot on the floor where I’d been standing. It raised its head to nose the counter-top, then followed my scent back up the steps and around to my usual table in the mezzanine. Its footsteps made no sound at all, but trails and tendrils of shadow clung to the spots where it placed its feet. Those shadows rose and dissipated in moments. Maybe a Magus would still be able to see them, but I was just a psychic.

  I saw Tony shake his head, pressing his finger even more firmly over his lips. Overhead, a crash and howl carried down to meet our ears. Scattering paper and sharp cracks echoed through the wrecked Lounge. For a creature that seemed insubstantial, it sure did a lot of damage.

  I breathed again to mark the time, straining to hear anything or anyone outside the breach in the wall. Normal traffic sounds from Thayer Street came through, plus the bleat of a siren further down College Hill. After another minute, I couldn’t hear the creature anymore. Tony kept his hand over his mouth but beckoned with the other. Then, he went up the stairs to the regular exit. I followed but looked over my shoulder at the hole in the wall. I made an impression of that and the completely decimated corner I used to work at. Almost nothing was where it had been before the attack.

  Tony increased his pace once we got outside, still gesturing for quiet. He led me down Thayer, then across to the dining hall. He went around to the back of the building and ducked behind a dumpster. After that, he snapped his fingers. I watched a particolored translucent membrane appear and then pop like a soap bubble. I remembered from a summer afternoon over forty-five years earlier.

  “We need to talk now.” Tony stepped back out from behind the dumpster but stopped at the corner of the building. He put his hands on his hips, elbows pushing the sides of his trench-coat out to either side. “I just saved your life. Not a peep about how I did it to anyone.”

  “You have my word.” I followed him, watching his shoulders and gait ease into their usual relaxed tilt. “How did you do it? I’ve never heard of a cat shifter with magic before.”

  “How’d I do what?” He stared at me, unblinking. “Make up whatever story you want, but keep it to yourself.”

  “Do you have any idea what that thing was?”

  “Grim.” He dropped his arms to the side, looking tired out all of a sudden.

  “Well, yes.” I rolled my eyes. Tony, like most cat shifters, was frustratingly dodgy when asked a direct question. “That’s a decent adjective to use for it, but—”

  “No. That thing’s called a Grim, an elemental, summoned, Pure Faerie creature.” Tony turned his head to look me in the eye as he opened the door to the dining hall. “They'll be back two more times.” He stepped into the vestibule, then went through the second door.

  “Well, that’s not so bad.” I followed him, glancing around the dining hall to see a trio of girls at a table in the corner. One of them looked familiar.

  “Oh, yes, it is.” Tony shut his eyes. “Every time Grims show up, they kill someone.”

  Before I could say anything about neither of us dying, the familiar-looking girl stood up and waved at us. It was Lynn Frampton, mate of the bear shifter I’d helped just before Fall exams.

  “Hi, Henry! ” She sounded much cheerier than usual. “Happy Winter Inter-session!”

  She had no idea. Then again, I barely did. All I knew was, things sure hadn’t started out happy.

  Chapter Two

  Maddie

  I’d sat with Lynn and Olivia, having coffee and giving the re-hash of who I was and why I was there. Re-run introductions were boring but essential. Nobody except my immediate family remembered me because of Umbral Affinity, the lamest magus enhancement ever. Lynn was my roommate, so her memory caught up with a bunch of the things I had to tell over again, but Olivia didn’t. She kept apologizing about side-effects from the medication to keep her on a diurnal schedule.

  “Seriously, I’m cool with repeating myself.” I curled my nearly always cold hands around the hot porcelain of the cup. “It’s just part of being me.”

  “I just didn’t want to be rude, is all. I should remember, too, with my photographic memory.” Olivia twirled a shiny teaspoon in her already empty cup. “If it were me everyone forgot all the time, I don’t know what I’d do.”

  “It’s not rude, it’s magic.” Lynn had a book as usual. She read out of it. “An enhancement to Magi of the Umbral school, Umbral Affinity is the tendency to escape memorability.”

  My roommate closed the book and looked up. Her face lit up a little, but I knew whoever had arrived wasn’t her mate Bobby. That would have made her eyes brighter than a Christmas tree. I watched her call out to Henry and Tony, waving them over. I didn’t bother turning around, just shuffled my chair over to make room for them.

  A strange tingle came from my right side as they sat down. I looked out the corner of my eye, wondering why Henry Baxter, the Psychic memory vampire, felt like Umbral magic. I turned in my seat to scrutinize any residual energy traces. Anyone who’d been around a spell in action or a magical creature had them.

  His gaze met mine only briefly, then he cut his eyes away. I saw wispy traces of shadow no one else at the table could sense except maybe by smell. Bright scraps of some other magic I couldn’t identify shimmered, fading just as rapidly. Under that, the gray static hum of unliving vampiric energy made a constant yet faintly pleasant drone. I couldn’t find a trace of Henry’s Psychic energy, which was normal with a side of regular sauce. Only dragon shifters and Tanuki saw both kinds. Magi like me needed a magipsychic device to get a look at that.

  “So where’s your roommate, Lynn?”

  I couldn’t help it. I laughed. Henry turned to look at me again, startling slightly so his mouth opened and I could see the tips of his fangs. I smiled back. My dad had been turned when I was little. Plus, I’m a little desensi
tized to anything dangerous. I’d grown up with an inherent fearlessness that comes from no one remembering who I am.

  There were a few exceptions, but unless my own family decided to go on a rampage, I’d be safe from just about anyone or anything besides Pure Faerie creatures or natural disasters. And if a Magus with Umbral affinity ever went rogue, anyone they wanted dead was a goner, anyway. No one would see or remember them coming until it was too late.

  All those thoughts happened in an instant before I was conscious of taking one breath. In the next, I noticed everyone staring at me. Tony was across from me next to Olivia. Both of them wrinkled their noses as though they both smelled something strong at the same time. I glanced back at Henry’s face only to find myself eye-locked with him. Vampires don’t have to blink, but he did.

  “I’m Lynn’s roommate, Maddie. Before you forget me again, I have to ask why you and Tony are covered with Umbral energy.”

  “That’s not important.” Henry kept looking at me right along with everyone else. I was a little south of comfortable.

  “It is.” I didn’t want to blink, so I used the trick Mother had taught me and narrowed my eyes, then glanced up. “I’m not letting you do the Psychic wooj on me until I know you didn’t tangle with anyone I’m related to.”

  Henry sighed. I could tell he didn’t want to deal with this, and I felt a little bad. He probably thought this was more discrimination, and that maybe I was a bigot. Circumstances during the Big Reveal had caused a rift between vampires and the rest of Extrahuman society. I’d heard the humans were even worse.