Vanessa-Van-Anderson knew life would never be the same after her mother and little brother were killed in a car accident, but instead of foster care, she's taken in by a man claiming to be her birth father. Abe Helsing is nothing like the father Van...
I promised a bonus chapter of some sort when I hit 1000 followers, and the book most requested was Forbidden. So, to answer a question I get a lot.- yes, there will be a sequel, and here is a look at the first chapter.
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Chapter One: Livy
He was screaming again. No. Wailing.
Livy nodded to herself in the dark. Wailing was a much more appropriate word to describe the sounds Abe Van Helsing made on and off all day-mostly on during the darkest hours of the night. He'd started not long after they locked him in a cell. Those who had been there when it began said it was like watching a switch flipped. One moment, he was unconscious on the cot, and the next moment, he sat up, eyes wide and mouth stretched in an endless scream. Only a strong sedative silenced him, and even then, he thrashed and whimpered.
She turned in her bed and stared at the paneled wall, for once wishing she had human hearing. The moonlight slipping through the curtain crack was weak and did little to beat back the darkness, but she could see clearly with half again as much light. Her night vision was even better than Luca's, something she used to enjoy rubbing in his- and every other male shifter's- face whenever the chance presented itself. Now, she knew it was because of the Protean blood running in her veins.
Sitting up, she stretched out her arms and watched as white hairs pierced through her human flesh, growing longer and thicker until all the tawny bronze skin was gone. Her blue painted fingernails fell away as thick black claws sprouted from the tips of her fingers. If she let the shift continue to its completion, the girl she was would completely disappear, replaced by the snarling polar bear she'd envisioned in her mind.
Livy let the shift go and drew her knees to her chest. Turning into other animals wasn't like shifting into her panther form. Her panther was part of her- a half of herself she kept tucked away until she could be safely released. But when she became a bear or leopard, or- she shuddered at the memory of the disastrous attempt at flying- a bird, it was only her changing forms, not trading places with the hidden part of her. She supposed she ought to be grateful. She couldn't imagine sharing headspace with everything she could become. Madness would be a certainty.
Xandra tried to help her understand. Shifters were as much the animal they became as they were the human they lived as. It was the Protean magic that gave them the ability to slip between forms. It was the magic that was a separate entity inside of a Protean, and thank the gods, it was not sentient.
Abe's wailing increased in volume. There was a scuffle, and then silence. The Supreme would be lucky someone didn't "accidentally" slit his throat to shut him up one day. Most people were unhappy with the decision to keep him alive, but Xandra made a valid point. Without him, it would be difficult to undo the years of brainwashing. Killing him would make him a martyr.
