Dark and Light: A Kindred Tales DUET Novel. Contains: Saved by the Drake AND Captured by the Kru'ell One Read online

  Dark and Light

  Saved by the Drake & Captured by the Kru’ell One

  Evangeline Anderson

  www.evangelineanderson.com

  Dark and Light, 1st Edition,

  A Kindred Tales Duet Novel

  Copyright © 2020 by Evangeline Anderson

  All rights reserved.

  Cover Art Design © 2020 by Reese Dante

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writers’ imagination or have been used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  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 person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to a retailer of your choice or evangelineanderson.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only.

  Any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  Contents

  Dark and Light

  Author’s Note

  Light

  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

  Epilogue

  The End

  Dark

  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

  Epilogue

  The End?

  Stone & Secret

  1. Emma

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  Also by Evangeline Anderson

  About the Author

  Dark and Light

  A Kindred Tales Duet Novel

  Two NEW Kindred Tales Novels in One Book!

  One Light and Sweet

  The other Dark and Sexy

  Which Kind of Kindred do you prefer?

  Read Dark and Light and decide for yourself…

  Light: In Saved by the Drake, Lucia Ramirez is having a terrible day when a huge, scary male confronts her on a dark street. But the scary male turns out to be a Kindred warrior—Raze. And he just needs help with the three motherless kittens he found under a dumpster. As a vet tech working at the Paws and Purrs Pet Clinic, Luci is uniquely qualified to handle Raze’s problem. But can she handle a much larger animal—his Drake? Read Saved by the Drake to find out.

  Dark: In Captured by the Kru’ell One, Allisandra Stone keeps having disturbing dreams of a huge Kindred warrior with mirrored eyes that reflect her soul. He tells her that he knows all her darkest desires and he intends to make them come true. Alli is certain it’s just a nightmare but when he comes to take her from her bed, she goes with him anyway. Soon she finds herself strapped to the Stinging Frame as Kane feeds on her pleasure in a way no other Kindred ever could or would. Can Alli escape the dark dream she has fallen into…does she even want to try? Read Captured by the Kru’ell One if you dare to find out.

  Author’s Note

  Several times recently I have asked my readers to send in ideas that interest them and that they think would work well in the Kindred universe. I promised to dedicate the book to the reader whose idea sparked my muse, but I got so many good ideas I couldn't choose! That's why this Duet Novel actually contains two Kindred Tales, both inspired by reader ideas. One is Light and sweet and the other is Dark and sexy. I had so much fun writing both of these and I hope you will have fun reading them as well. Without further ado, let's start on the lighter side, shall we?

  ; ) Evangeline

  Light

  Saved by the Drake

  Dedicated to Alyson Shorthouse

  One

  Lucia Rodriguez was having a terrible day.

  She sighed as she locked up the Paws and Purrs Pet Clinic and trudged to her car. Automatically, she reached for her keys and then remembered the reason she’d gone back into the clinic in the first place—the car was dead. After trying to get it to start for almost ten minutes, she’d gone back inside to call her mom—since her ancient cell phone was also dead—and let her know she would be late getting home because of it.

  Of course, most people would have called Triple A or whatever auto club they were a member of to get the car towed to a garage. But Lucia wasn’t a member of any auto clubs—she couldn’t afford it. In fact, as a single mom of three trying to live on a Vet Tech’s salary, she couldn’t afford much of anything—not even a cab or an Uber to get her home.

  Sighing again, Luci started walking towards the bus stop. The dead car just capped off her awful day.

  Well, at least the tire didn’t have anything to do with cats, she thought and shivered.

  Working at a veterinary clinic, Luci saw her fair share of bad things happen to good animals. The Paws and Purrs practice treated all kinds of pets from regular ones like dogs and cats to exotic creatures like sugar gliders and hedgehogs. This being Florida, they also saw their share of snakes and lizards—though Dr. Canody had drawn the line at treating someone’s pet alligator.

  But for some reason, today had just been a terrible day for cats.

  First thing that morning, a lady ha
d brought in a cat she’d hit with her car. The cat had obviously been a stray with ragged ears and fleas to show for it and the woman had been wearing an expensive business suit—not unusual since the Paws and Purrs Clinic was located in Downtown Tampa where a lot of corporations had their offices.

  The cat had been mewing weakly and the woman was crying, her mascara running down her cheeks in black smears. Her suit was stained with blood but she didn’t even seem to notice.

  “He ran right out in front of me!” she’d sobbed, holding the injured cat out to Luci, who took him carefully. “I couldn’t miss him! I tried to swerve—Oh God, I’m so sorry!”

  From there, the day had only gotten worse. Right after the tragic accident, Luci had had to tell a man his cat had advanced Feline Aids and didn’t have long to live. Right after that, someone brought in a kitten with flea anemia, so weak it had died while Luci was trying to get an IV into its tiny vein. And finally, as though to cap off the terrible day, she’s had to sit with Mrs. Wachowski—a kind, little old lady who had been bringing her cats to the Paws and Purrs practice for years—as the vet euthanized Bootsie, her favorite cat.

  Poor Mrs. Wachowski had cried like a baby and Luci had put an arm around her and tried to comfort her as best she could. She knew the pain of losing a pet all too well herself, and she also knew the older woman had recently lost her husband. Mrs. Wachowski had two more cats at home but losing Bootsie was a blow and she had looked twenty years older when she finally left the clinic.

  There had been some bright spots in her otherwise dark day, Luci tried to remind herself. Mr. Yoder had come in with Goofus—a Boxer with a heart of gold and a brain of brick—as Dr. Canody liked to say. The big, dumb dog loved everyone and it was always fun to see him wagging and panting in all his goofy glory.

  But all in all, it had been a pretty lousy day for her feline patients. And having car trouble to end everything didn’t help her mood any.

  How am I going to pay to get it fixed? Luci wondered, as she rode the crowded, smelly bus in the deepening gloom. She lived in a rundown apartment building at the edge of the downtown area, all she could afford since her ex-husband, Tony, never paid child support.

  He almost never came to see his kids, either, which was actually just as well. Tony had a hot temper and the antics of the three-year-old twins, Antony and Julio, always got on his nerves. He did better with their older sister, Francesca. But only because Frannie was extremely serious for a five-year-old and she usually got very quiet around her father.

  Unfortunately, that was probably because Tony shouted a lot when he was angry—which was most of the time. Frannie had developed the habit of keeping silent and shushing her little brothers whenever he was around to try and keep peace in the house.

  Luci had stayed with him for much longer than she should have. She had told herself that everything would be okay—that when the kids got a little bit older, Tony would go back to being the sweet, kind guy he’d been when they were dating. And besides, he only shouted at the kids—he never hit them. And he hardly ever hit Luci herself, just a black eye here and there and the occasional bruised wrist from where he grabbed her as he yelled in her face…

  Thinking of her rationalization now made Luci angry with herself. It wasn’t until she’d walked into her kid’s playroom one day and had seen the twins huddled, crying, behind their big sister while Frannie tried desperately to hush them that she realized she wasn’t the only one being affected by Tony’s rages.

  “Oh, Mommy!” Frannie’s face had relaxed from its fearful grimace as she saw her mother. “We thought it was Daddy coming,” she explained, as she soothed her little brothers. “And we were afraid he would be angry if we made any noise—so we were trying to be quiet little mices.”

  It was a wake up call for Luci—at that moment, she made up her mind to leave. Even though Tony had a good job and they lived in a pretty house in Carrollwood—a nice, upper-class area of North Tampa—and even though she knew she’d have a hard time making it on her own with three kids, it wasn’t worth it. She didn’t want her daughter to grow up frightened and her sons to think it was okay for a husband to hit and shout.

  That day she had packed up everything she could and moved to her mother’s place down in Ybor City—the historic part of Tampa. They lived there for a while, while Luci got a job and worked through the divorce.

  In order to keep Tony from fighting for custody of the kids—which he threatened to do, even though she knew he didn’t really want them—she’d had to give up almost everything. The house was still in his name and she didn’t get a dime from their shared bank account. About all she got to keep were her children, their clothes and toys, and the family dog, Lady. Well that and the crappy late model Ford Fiesta, which was currently dead in the Paws and Purrs parking lot, she reminded herself.

  As soon as she got on her feet, Luci had moved her little family out of her mom’s tiny one-bedroom, one-bathroom bungalow and into a small, cheap, two-bedroom in her current apartment building. She’d been able to do that because Dr. Canody had been kind enough to give her a raise and the extra hours she’d asked for.

  Though her mom had protested that Luci and the kids could stay with her as long as they wanted, there just wasn’t enough room and besides, she needed to be closer to her work. Also, her kids still got to see their abuelita almost every day, since it was her mom who picked them up after school and pre-school and kept them until Luci got off work at Paws and Purrs.

  Tonight had been her late night and now it was later still, she thought with a sigh, looking out the dirty window of the bus as it lumbered along the cracked pavement towards her end of town. Sometimes she felt like she was living life on a tightrope—just barely keeping her balance above the sea of debt and poverty which was constantly lapping at her heels.

  She made just enough at the clinic to pay her rent and utilities. As for food, she just barely qualified for assistance so she could keep herself and her kids fed. Her mom helped with childcare or Luci never could have made it—after school care cost a crazy amount, especially with three kids. She would have had to stay with Tony without her mom’s help.

  But Luci’s mom was barely scraping by herself. She was undocumented so she didn’t dare to apply for any assistance. Instead, she worked at a fashionable Mexican restaurant in South Tampa where she made the handmade tortillas they were famous for. Every morning she got up at the crack of dawn and went to The Blue Mesa to work for a pittance because they were willing to pay her under the table and not ask questions.

  Her mom got off work just in time to drive her rusted out Chrysler Cordoba to the kid’s school and pick them all up. Then, after her shift was over, Luci would come and get them. They usually ate dinner together and then she took the kids home, gave them a bath, read them a bedtime story, and put them to bed.

  Then she got up the next day and did it all over again.

  Only how am I going to do it without a car? Luci wondered worriedly. How am I going to get the kids to school tomorrow?

  She supposed she would have to get everyone up when her mom got up and drop her mom off at work before she borrowed her mom’s car to take the kids to school. Then she could bring the car back to her mom and take a bus to her own work. After work, she would take the bus to her mom’s house to collect the kids. But without a car, she would have to drag them all home on public transport and what would they do the next day? And the next and the next—without a car, her life became about a hundred times more complicated.

  What was she going to do?

  Luci sighed and put her head in her hands. Despite the hardships of living below the poverty line, she usually thought her divorce from Tony had been worth it. Frannie was starting to lose the timid, frightened look she’d worn all the time and the twins no longer started howling when someone walked into the room. Her children were happier and emotionally healthier and so was she. Also, none of them were walking on eggshells anymore, afraid that any little thing they did o
r said would set Tony off.

  Another good thing was that Luci got to work with animals, as she had always wanted to—and keep pets too, which Tony had never allowed, except for Lady, which her mom had gotten for the kids when he was gone on a business trip. He had flown into a rage when he’d seen the puppy but Luci had managed to sell him on the idea of the dog as a protector—to keep them all safe from burglars whenever he was out of town.

  Her ex had always hated the dog though, a feeling which Lady returned with a vengeance. She was one reason Luci had felt safe enough to tell Tony she was divorcing him in the first place. Though Lady was supposed to be the kids’ pet, she was fiercely protective of Luci herself. She had growled menacingly and wouldn’t allow Tony to lay a hand on Luci during the heated conversation when she told him she was leaving for good.