Supernatural Seduction (Book 2 of the Coffin Girls Series)

An Adult Paranormal Romance and Urban
Fantasy

Edited by Mary-Nancy’s Eagle-Eye Editing

Copyright © 2013 Aneesa Price

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal
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of this author.

Praise for Coffin Girls by Aneesa Price

“Coffin Girls is a fabulous beginning to what
is going to be an excellent series and I can't recommend this book
enough to anyone looking for a new read! I started this on Thursday
night and finished Friday afternoon! It was so good I dreaded
putting it away just so I could actually sleep!” ~ Reviewer, Carrie
Perkins-Cunningham for Trudy and Friends Book Reviews

Praise for Finding Promise by Aneesa
Price

“It is a romance, an adult romance at times…
But one where the characters are human flawed and smart enough to
know it. I loved the book for the fact that it is a real story. Not
a romance disguised as a story. I can't wait to read more by this
author.” ~ Reviewer and blogger, Wandah Panda of Book Mews and
Tattle Tales

Praise for Ghost & Lovers by Aneesa
Price

“The physical acts of making love in Ghost
& Lovers are written so well I reread them twice and may look
at them again in the future.” ~ Author and reviewer, Roy Murry

Praise for Home for Love by Aneesa Price

“She had a true gift when it comes to
portraying life, friendship, love, and sorrow.” ~ M-NSmith,
Reviewer and Blogger

Dedication

For Aaliyah, Zarah and Rashaad - with you I
am unmasked and irrevocably loving and loved.

Acknowledgements

Thank you Mary-Nancy’s Eagle-Eye Editing for
your accuracy and mad editing skills. Stephanie Nelson created a
cover for this book that surpassed my expectations.

I have had much to be grateful for regarding
the support I’ve received from authors I admire as a fan and
consider as friends. My sincere gratitude for your generosity -
Kelley Grealis, JD Nelson, CR Everett, Julie Cassar, AJ Lape and
Christoph Fischer.

Thank you to the wonderful bloggers, readers,
reviewers, and friends who so selfishly promote me as part of my
street team. I would like to especially thank Alisa Jenkins, Carmen
Ramirez Sanchez, Carrie Fort, Claire Taylor, Doris Orman, Jackie
Cervantes, Jennifer Garrison Trevino, Jennifer Garrison Trevino,
Jenny Bynum, Jessica Baker-Bridgers, Kelley Grealis, Krista
Pruitt-Wallace, Layla Darnell, Mary-Anne Steyn, Melissa Williams
Brown, Ronda Lynch, Sherry Boroto Cain, Sheri Kurtz, Sally
Goodhall, Tiffeny Moore, and Trudy Powers.

Thank you to Heather Heslip Alexander for
inspiring the character of Sylvain’s sister and to Krista
Pruitt-Wallace for pushing me to give the Coffin Girls more bite
and a helluva lot more kick.

A special shout out to the members of my
Facebook fan club. Thank you to the readers who encourage me with
their support. I am honored every time you read my work.

I hope you enjoy escaping to the magickal
worlds of Papillion Plantation and the fae hollows in this book.
I’ve added more steam, laced it with action, and finished it off
with realizations and learning that only love can provide.

Yours in romance and reading,

Aneesa

“No heartbeats. No smells. Just us. What’s
going on?” V, black hair slicked back in a ponytail, eyes
speculative, asked Anais.

They were in an alley between neglected
buildings in the largely-abandoned Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
The area had been a hive of activity until Katrina struck. Now it
was characterized by desertion, buildings indistinguishable from
each other, and lots conjoined by forests of ever-sprouting
greenery. They heard the frequent cry of a domestic animal gone sad
and wild or glimpsed the light of a ghost peaking at them from
behind shattered windows. But, other than the noises of the natural
and supernatural, there were no signs of man, human or
otherwise.

“I’ve no idea,” replied Anais, leader of the
Coffin Girls, as she crouched next to V behind the dumpster. “The
tip-off gave this place, this time, and that’s it. Mr. Anon said to
be ready to fight. I’m starting to think that Mr. Anon is the
perp.” A human would be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of trees
and plants asserting their presence from every possible surface –
weeds as high as rooftops, shrubs sprouting oleander and lantana.
It did not make visibility easy, unless you were a vampire, and
being one, Anais could easily sweep the area for any forms of life,
both human and supernatural.

“Something’s off,” V nodded in agreement,
acknowledging the uneasy feeling that had settled in her gut. She
caught a slithering movement to the side, tipped her head slightly
in that direction, and hissed at the garter snake that passed by.
The snake, sensing it was lower on the hierarchy, glided away.
Comically, a chorus of similar sounds momentarily erupted as more
reptiles decided to give the vampires a wide birth as quickly as
possible. It wasn’t the snakes that were bugging her – although
Anais had had to put up a few shields to feel calmer. What bugged
her subconscious was that something extremely dangerous was about
to happen. It was her mental Achtung! As a human, she'd often
ignored her intuition. As a vampire and witch, she’d learned
quickly, that it was a foolish thing to do.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Marie piped in as she
crawled up behind them, her myriad of curls tucked in a black
baseball cap. She’d come ready for action and was getting irritated
by the wait. What’s more, the darned ghosts in the area were
looking to get friendly with her. Somehow, her necromancy powers
allowed her to not only see the spirits of the departed, but it
acted like a magnet, pulling those who should have passed on
towards her. Marie spotted a ghost waving frantically from a
dilapidated neighboring roof top, trying to get her attention. She
closed her eyes and shook her head. Guilt ate at her – she really
should help them move on, which also meant that she’d need to begin
her training. “Well, time for that later,” she thought, “we’ve a
trouble-making supe to catch tonight.” Although trouble-making was
a mild description for the darn supernatural being that was causing
havoc in New Orleans.

“I’m not comfortable with this,” offered
Anais. “This smells like an ambush. Let’s head back.”

“Wait,” Sophie sent a mental message to her
fellow Coffin Girls. “I can’t see or hear any supes either, but
there are strong feelings coming through. And, they’re getting
stronger.”

“What feelings?” Anais sent back. Eyes, the
same shade of chocolate as her hair gave their surroundings yet
another once-over. “From where?”

“It’s weird,” Sophie, continued the
telepathic exchange.

“You’re telling me,” mumbled Marie.

V rolled her eyes and gave Marie a shove to
shush.

With the glare Anais shot at them, they
sobered up. “Carry on, Sophie.”

“The feelings are menacing, intent on harmful
mischief, but at the core, they don’t feel evil. They’re
excited."

“They?” inquired V.

“Yes,” Sophie replied, still communicating
through their link, courtesy of their blood bond. Sophie
concentrated on the emotions she felt and tried to pick out the
different ‘flavors’ of each emotion. It was her way of clustering
them. Her blonde hair, pulled back from her face into a ponytail,
showed her pixie-like face scrunched up in concentration. The
crease between her furrowed brows accentuated as she tried to feel
the situation. “I can’t pick out different clusters. It’s like
they’re all feeling in unison.”

“From which direction are they coming?” Anais
asked.

“Middle of the alley,” Sophie replied.

“We thought, maybe it was our vantage point
that was blocking us from seeing anything,” added Rose. “But, it
sounds like you’re as blind to it as we are.”

“Yes,” replied Anais, still communicating
telepathically, “and fighting blind is suicidal. I’m not putting
you all in jeopardy.”

“Let’s just wait this out,” V interjected.
“This is the first solid lead we’ve had the entire week.”

For the past week, New Orleans had been
plagued by odder than usual occurrences. A woman had tried to kill
her husband after accusing him of being a demon. A man had booked
himself into a state mental institution. He claimed that whenever
he entered his kitchen, blood poured down the walls and all the
food in his refrigerator turned into human body parts. They were
hacked and bloody, like a savagely torn buck at the mercy of hungry
predators. Party-goers claimed to be possessed by spirits when
their night-out supposedly turned violent. When the cops went to
investigate the sites of the alleged violence, they found nothing.
Naturally, the cops thought that the party-goers were on some kind
of new drug and booked them anyway. In the last two days, hordes of
children had begun to refuse to sleep. They were claiming that the
boogie man was waiting for them under their beds. It was a
sleep-deprived, grumbling, witch that sought assistance from
Conall, the witch prince, and Anais’ fiancé. This, in turn, had
involved them all. Plus, they really loved their hometown and it
pissed them off that some supernatural force was playing with the
locals. They’d searched the scenes of the incidences, used their
magick to canvas the heavily populated areas of the city, and then,
when they were about to bring out the magickal big guns, they
received the tip-off. If the anonymous tip hadn’t led them to the
alley, they would be back on the plantation, engaged in magick to
try and stop it. The witch half that resided in them preferred the
magick, but the vamp half liked the bloodiness of a good fight –
sometimes the vamp won the draw.

“There’s nothing solid about this lead,”
piped Marie. “Why the hell didn’t Mr. Frikkin Anon tell us more?” V
grudgingly conceded with a nod.

“I can still feel them,” Sophie reminded her
squabbling sisters, her voice dripping with disdain.

As if on cue, Rose blurted out, “Look. In the
middle of the alley. What is that?”

“
Dieu
! Sophie, you were right. Now
quickly, spit out what you’re getting from it.” Anais ordered,
whilst keeping an eye on the portal that was forming in the middle
of the alley. It glowed with an eerie light, started as a tiny
spec, and then grew by the second into a round ball of silver
light. “It’s a portal,” Anais observed. The rest nodded. It looked
similar to the portal they used to enter the Bayou Fae Hollow.
Unsheathing her solid silver sword, Anais checked but noticed that
V and Marie were ready for battle also - guns and swords at the
ready.

She was about to do a mental check with Rose
and Sophie to see if they had their weapons ready, when a dreamy,
Irish-laced, baritone voice interrupted her, “Anais, sorry we’re
late.”

“Where are you?” Anais asked, courtesy of her
own blood bond with Conall, her mate.

“Right here, love,” he replied from behind
her. Anais glanced back and was rewarded with a smile from the
handsome face marked with dark blue eyes and framed with shocking
black hair. Here was her man, and fiancé--the one who turned her
insides to mush.

“What’s going on?” Raulf, the alpha wolf
asked, making his presence known.

V shot Raulf a look, noticing his eager
anticipation for a battle. “Hungry, Raulf?” she asked, a brow
quirking upwards in inquiry.

“You got it, cher,” he chuckled in response.
V looked closer and noticed that his eyes had a feral light to
them, belying his playfulness. That was their Raulf, she thought,
and a seemingly charming rogue, but really, he was as fierce and
loyal as any wolf was reputed to be.

“We’ve no idea what’s going on,” Anais
answered Raulf’s original question, after she’d grabbed Conall’s
hand and had given it a quick, reassuring squeeze.

“Where’s Niul?” asked Marie.

“On his way,” replied Raulf.

“Well,” quipped Sylvain, “the portal’s fully
formed, but nothing’s coming out.”

“Sophie,” Anais sent out a mental call, “what
are you picking up?”

“They’re contemplative,” Sophie responded,
sounding like herself. “It's like they’re engaged in a game and
enjoying it, but trying to figure out the next moves as they go
along. They seem to think that they have the upper-hand.”

“I thought so,” Anais said, under her breath.
Tightening her grip on her sword, she turned around swiftly (vamp
speed, spurred by anger), and plunged the weapon into Conall’s
heart.