A Time of Demons & Destiny, page 1
A TIME OF DEMONS & DESTINY
THE VAMPIRE’S COURTESAN SERIES
SAMI VALENTINE
CONTENTS
Preface
Prologue
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
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Epilogue
Sneak Peak of A House of Fangs & Fate
About the Author
Copyright © 2023 by Sami Valentine. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by US copyright law.
PREFACE
Hello, gentle reader, I’m Sami Valentine and I welcome you to a paranormal tale set amid the shadows of Victorian age society. Your heroine is a witch, Juniper St. James. She knows world-shaking secrets that any vampire would kill to keep hidden.
This is the first of five books in the Vampire’s Courtesan series that will be published throughout 2023-2024. As implied in the blurb, my series depicts the darker side of historical life as well as vampires and the supernatural. Some content warnings include profanity, toxic relationships, sex work, drug/alcohol use, violence, coercion, poverty/class struggles, and mental illness.
If you haven’t read any of my books before like the Red Witch Chronicles, turn the page and start the novel. You don’t need to know anything about my other works to enjoy this one!
If you’re in the middle of reading the Red Witch Chronicles, then you already know about Juniper St. James, Lucas Crawford, Maxwell Baldacci, and other characters in A Time of Demons and Destiny. You’ll experience the drama behind the rumors and historical records in the Vampire’s Courtesan series. I suggest that you read to Black Market Witch (RWC Book 7) and then start this series. You’ll get a major revelation in that book so you can learn the full story when Red and her friends do.
Thank you for picking up this book. Reader support means more than you could know. 😊
The Vampire’s Courtesan Reading Order
A Time of Demons & Destiny
A House of Fangs & Fate
A City of Blood & Betrayal
A War of the Dead & the Damned
A Future of Souls & Smoke
PROLOGUE
April 23, 1893
England
Juniper listened for the vampires lurking upstairs. When would they return to their captives in the wine cellar?
Candlelight flickered over shelved bottles and the English detective beside her. He charged the cellar door, ramming his shoulder against it. The stout wood didn’t budge. It was barred from the outside. She’d heard the lock when they were thrown down here. The room was too small to hide in, much less merit another exit.
“That she-devil took my revolver,” Detective Eugene Pauly said, patting the pockets of his tweed suit. His British accent lost its polish in his agitation, so she could hear his origins—the rough industrial neighborhoods of Southwark by the Thames. He’d lost his hat too. No Victorian gentleman went anywhere without one unless under duress.
“A firearm wouldn’t be effective against our captors. This townhouse looks quaint from the street, but it could turn into a slaughterhouse soon.”
“I realize the gravity of our situation, miss.”
“If you truly did, you wouldn’t have come, Detective.” Juniper examined the sole source of precious light, a tarnished candelabra on a bent stand. How long would the flickering candles last before leaving the prisoners in total darkness? She extinguished five of the seven to save for later.
An unseen rat scurried behind a wine shelf.
She shivered. Great, all they needed was something else ready to bite them. Add a root canal, and it was in the running for her worst day ever. How long would vampires deliberate about the fate of their prisoners? Calm down, she told herself. You’re not dead … yet. She pointed to the only furniture in the room—a wooden chair. “If we break this, the legs will be more useful than your handgun.”
“I’ve heard better jokes.”
“I wish it was one,” Juniper said, eyeing her unlikely cellmate.
The Black man was in the London Metropolitan Police force and far from his jurisdiction. Did his superiors know where he’d gone? The stubble on his chin and bloody split lip hinted at the hard journey from the Old Smoke. He was a better detective than was good for him. A less competent one would have been safe at home now.
How had he discovered her anyway?
In her long skirts and high lace collar, she’d blend into any crowd. She erased her natural American accent months ago in elocution lessons. No one knew her real surname. She had ditched her last known alias to flee the vampires before they had recaptured her. He shouldn’t have any reason to suspect that she was more than she seemed. Yet he looked at her as if he knew more than he should.
The detective asked, “How do you know this incredulous fact?”
“Unimportant,” she said. The explanation would baffle him anyway. She walked in darker worlds than he could imagine. “Why were you tracking me?”
“I’m investigating a murder, and the evidence led to you once again. You’re not my suspect, but you could be his next victim. My supervisors wouldn’t care about a dead courtesan. You’re fortunate that I do,” he said, as if it was a burdensome charity.
She would have been grateful for his condescending concern if it wouldn’t get him killed. The supernatural was superstition to him. He didn’t understand the very real danger they were in. She said, “Worry more about yourself, sir. I am.”
“In five years with Scotland Yard, I’ve encountered crimes that made onlookers sick. Murderers have threatened me at trial. London can be ugly at night, but what that beast did to the ambassador’s daughter—”
“He will do that to us if he wishes,” Juniper said. The detective’s case had shocked the United Kingdom. She knew the culprit too well—a vampire hiding amid the splendor and corruption of high society. Despair tightened her throat. She’d tried so hard to escape before. Why would today be any different?
“You seem very calm for a trapped young woman. Lucas Crawford may be your patron, but he won’t save you from the ones that imprisoned us here.”
She knew that Lucas would try to defy his vampiric family. He was the youngest, but too unpredictable to count out. That was if he decided saving her was worth the hassle. “I’ve done my panicking. That is the resignation that you see.”
“They are vampires, aren’t they?”
Fear cut through her gloom. It was the truth, but he shouldn’t know so much. The more he knew, the less likely the supernaturals would keep him alive. She was a lost cause, but he wasn’t. “Who told you that word?”
“The penny dreadfuls, of course. They were once fiction to me.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as if he swallowed back his unease at the realization that monsters existed. “I didn’t believe my own eyes. Then I couldn’t look away from the clues. Whatever they are, they aren’t above justice.”
“That quest could kill you. You’ll have a celebrated career if you survive, I know it,” Juniper said. He was a good man who’d be missed. His death could make waves beyond London that would ripple into future consequences that she couldn’t even imagine yet. “Flee when you can, and forget what you saw.”
“If I abandoned this investigation and let these beasts walk free, I wouldn’t deserve any glory,” he declared. His words proved his worth. History would be lesser without him. The vampires would snuff out that potential before he could fulfill it.
Juniper knew how respected he could become in his career. His future was less of a mystery than her own. Or it was before he got himself captured. Knowledge was her burden. Her life was forfeit if the vampires learned a fraction of what she knew. “Your queen needs you to live and thrive in her service. When the door opens, I’ll provide a distraction so you can escape.”
Detective Pauly studied her for a moment as if deciding if she were lying. He gestured to the lone chair, offering it to her. “I daresay you would. I calculated the risks, then I came, miss. Your path has been entwined with this murder from the beginning. I must know how. There are too many in the morgue because of these vampires. I will not tell them what we discuss, even if we’re questioned separately.”
Maybe it was his earnest expression, or maybe it was because they could both die tonight, but she wanted to tell him. She’d carried these secrets for so long. It would be weirder than he could imagine. She said, “You can take the chair.”
“Er, is that a yes?”
“What do you want to know?” She sat on the hard stone floor, crossing her legs under her long black dress. It would feel like an interrogation if she was the only one sitting and he paced around her.
He eschewed the seat to join her level. “I know your aliases, but who are you, really? Where do you come from?”
“That story goes beyond the confines of your case. It would seem like a dark dream of treachery, heartbreak, and magic.”
“How could it be a lighthearted tale considering this end? However, I must know. Please believe in my training and skill. A small detail or a minute insight could be the fact that saves us.”
“Before I tell you, think about the many impossible things that you’ve seen since breakfast.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ll need an open mind for my story … To explain my past, I have to start in the future.”
“Pardon?” said Detective Pauly, rubbing his fight-bruised knuckles.
“I’m a time traveler, you see.” She added quickly as his eyes widened in shock, “An unwilling one. It will be slightly less confusing when I explain. I thought it was impossible when it happened. But the act that flung me through to your year wasn’t truly the start. I suppose the beginning was when Lucas Crawford saved my life in 2010 ...”
If this was her last confession, she’d make it a memorable one.
CHAPTER 1
Early April 2010
Charm, Oregon
Village Center Park
Juniper drove, pushing the speed limit, on north Main Street. Brick storefronts and ornamental trees lined the picturesque slice of Americana. Only a chain restaurant was open. Locals closed their businesses at nightfall in Charm, Oregon. If it wasn’t for her audition, she would’ve gone home at sunset like a smart human.
“I really did it. I got into the company,” she said, squealing in the empty car.
The director had made her promise to eat, sleep, and breathe historical trivia for the period pieces preferred by the Charm City Players. She couldn’t believe that she’d actually auditioned. Too scared before, she always chickened out when it came to acting roles. But her horoscope had promised that today would be the start of something that could change her life.
She stopped her dented, used sedan at a red light. The streets were usually quiet around Village Center Park at night, but it looked more dead than usual. On the radio, the announcer rambled in a too-long break between songs. Donate to the Bulldog Football Team! Where is your school spirit?
“Screw that,” she muttered. Life had sucked for the last few months because of rumors at school. She turned off the commercial. When she looked up from the radio, she jumped in her seat.
A figure in black robes stood at the crossroads. He lowered his hood to reveal a bone-white face and a monk’s shaved skull. His eyes glowed yellow.
“Nope,” Juniper said. She hit the gas, making a sharp right. She’d seen too many weird things in this town to gawk. “I don’t want any of that.”
With his pallor and freaky eyes, he had to be a vampire. Most of his kind tried to blend in with their prey and not look like a Ren Faire cosplay. The supernatural community hidden in Charm was small; she would’ve remembered a dude who looked like Friar Tuck. More vamps had come to town in the last weeks than she could ever remember.
She reached for her backpack on the other front seat to phone her best friend for backup.
Yellow eyes and fangs appeared in her side mirror. The monk ran alongside her speeding car. A fist punched through the passenger door window.
She shrieked and covered her face, keeping one hand on the wheel.
The undead monk crawled inside. He hissed at the cross hanging from her rearview mirror. His eyes returned to a human green color. He swiped at her, his face screwed up as if actively resisting the cross’s power.
Ducking her head, she swerved before straightening the wheel. What should she do? She’d never fought anyone in her car before. Driving was hard enough with this unwelcome rider. She yelled, “Get out!”
He dove for the gearshift, elbowing her into the door. Her head bounced against the window, rattling her teeth together. The monk forced the car into park. His cold breath brushed her cheek as he turned to her.
Juniper grabbed her bag and slammed against the driver’s side, forcing it open. “I’m not a regular human—”
“We know,” he said. A manhole lid lifted in front of the car. Another hooded monk climbed out. Four more jumped from the roof of a barbershop to block her return to Main Street or escape to Riverwalk Avenue.
She sprinted in red-faced, sweaty fear to the Village Center Park. Where had those freaks hidden during the day? That was the trouble with vampires. They looked like everyone else when they wanted to. Luckily, so did witches.
Juniper tapped into her power, calling on the natural elements. She whirled around to face the demons. Her skin tingled from the magic. She wasn’t afraid anymore. Conjured wind shook the trees and stirred up old leaves and a stray candy wrapper. The gust slammed into the one who’d stowed away in her car.
Landing on a bench, he shattered it on impact. He leaped up and bolted for her.
She traced sigils for a spell passed down in her family for generations. The symbols in the air glowed purple and green to her third eye. She visualized levitating a broken tree branch, and it manifested like telekinesis. The branch shot at him like a javelin.
The dead monk toppled in mid-run. Her makeshift stake impaled his heart through his back. That was every vampire’s weakness. Decapitation and sunlight worked on the bloodsuckers too. He decayed to bones on the sidewalk as his immortality vanished in an instant. The rest circled Juniper. They stank of dried blood and incense. Venom dripped from their fangs.
If one bit her, it could put her in a paralyzed thrall as it fed. Could she take on so many alone?
She raised a hardened barrier of air between herself and the vamps. A prayer to Hekate fortified it. She could make it last long enough to call for help and come up with a better idea. Her backpack held a few selenite crystals to amplify her power.
One of the hooded vampires jumped straight up. She craned her neck as he rose at least eleven feet in the air. He dropped through the only gap in her protection—the top.
She squeaked and lifted her ward to run.
Another vampire grabbed her around the waist and tugged her hair to the side, exposing her neck. Mortal terror fueled her concentration as she summoned a fireball in her hand. She slapped it against his face. His cheek sizzled.
Three monks leaped on her. They dragged her to the ground in a coordinated blur like lions with a gazelle, too fast for a spell. Fangs dug into her arm. Paralysis rolled up her shoulder and down her body.
She couldn’t cry out. Her brain blanked as the vampires’ venom went through her system. The pain grew distant, as if filtered through a morphine drip. Vertigo made the world spin.
A steel-toed boot flashed above her. The thrall made it seem like slow motion as it kicked a biter away from her. Blood spurted from her arm as the fangs ripped away. Her rescuer got Juniper on her feet and turned her around before she could catch a good glimpse of him.
“Run!”
She stumbled to a patch of trees off the sidewalk. As the thrall faded, her arm throbbed. Holy shit, she could have died. That was too close. Backing away from the fight, she tried not to breathe, hoping to be ignored until she could stop the bleeding.
