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eBook Category: Erotica/Fantasy
eBook Description: Even within a paranormal country town, love can be immortal, invigorating and incredible to behold. Come enjoy the romantic romps of wizards, witches, ghosts and even cupid himself, as they find love in such delightfully unexpected ways of wonder. Let your heart and body find satisfaction in these stories of wickedly wild romance and desire, which happens in Spellfire, Texas, around and on Valentine's Day. Drifting Desires, by Leanne Strange Heart Spells, by Mae Powers Candy Kisses, by Emery LaRue Haunted Love, by Tamara James Tricks of Love, by Mae Powers

eBook Publisher: Midnight Showcase
Fictionwise Release Date: January 2006

This eBook is part of the following series:

• Various Authors Midnight Showcase Series

20 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [876 KB], eReader (PDB) [161 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [140 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [126 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [168 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [184 KB], hiebook (KML) [392 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [220 KB], iSilo (PDB) [116 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [145 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [202 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [187 KB]
Words: 44349
Reading time: 126-177 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"Don't forget to fill the straw dispensers," Harpy Collins reminded the newest waitress at Sinful Sundaes Ice Cream Shoppe.

Harpy watched as Blaze Draconis, her mane of flame-red hair threatening to spill from the twist at the back of her head, picked up the box of Spooktacular Straws from behind the counter and scurried to the nearest table. Harpy thought that Blaze was doing well for only two days on the job, even if it was a few steps down from Spellfire Maintenance Engineer, a position Blaze held for years.

Not that there's anything wrong with waitressing, Harpy mused and brushed crumbs off her own waitress uniform. Nothing at all. She shrugged and looked down at the total of the day's receipts.

"Not bad for a Friday in February. The weather's been unseasonably warm for this time of year, and that's good for the ice cream biz." Harpy raked the piles of coins into a cash bag, and then added the stack of bills. "Thanks, Manny. See you tomorrow night."

Mano A. Mano, whom everyone called Manny, made the A-OK sign, flipped over onto the tips of two fingers, hopped off the counter, and disappeared, going wherever disembodied hands went after midnight. Probably down on Alligator Alley to tally receipts for all the joints and pubs. He was the best money-counter she'd ever seen. Manny's totals were never off by so much as one cent.

Cash bag in hand, Harpy called out, "I'll be in the back if you need anything."

She must have startled Blaze because suddenly Spooktacular Straws flew everywhere, in all directions, skittering across tables and scattering over the floor. Harpy shook her head and sighed. The dragon-shifter lost her nerve as well as her verve along with her fire and her job.

"Don't worry, hon." Harpy forced a smile when Blaze, her face as red as her name, looked up. "I'll help you clean up after I put this in the safe."

In the back, Harpy placed the cash bag in the wall safe. After closing the door and spinning the lock, she made the motions that the owner of Sinful Sundaes, Electra Spellfire-Ruveaux, taught her to cast, a warding spell that even an experienced mage would have trouble breaking. A normal thief, normal as in non-magical, would never be able to crack it.

The re-located ghost of Ishmaiah Hawkins, town crier, still walked his route through town, but according to how his hometown had once been laid out in colonial days back east ... which just happened to bring him right through the kitchen of Sinful Sundaes. He rang his bell and called out, "Twelve o'clock and all is well." Then he floated through the back wall.

All was always well for Ishmaiah, Harpy noted that whenever she worked the swing shift and saw him. But all was not well for her. Midnight brought in the janitorial service Electra contracted for the shop. Clean Sweep was a sideline business owned and operated by Electra's brother Derek.

Thinking of Derek made Harpy think of what might have been. Back in high school, when she was young and in love with her whole life ahead of her, she certainly didn't plan on making a career of waitressing. Not that she hated her job. She loved working for Electra and was proud of making head waitress and night manager within the past year. But it just wasn't what she thought she'd be doing at this point in her life.

Before she became too maudlin, the tinkle of the bell over the front door and the sound of rushing wind that followed signified Derek Spellfire was in the house.

Harpy steeled herself and stepped out of the back room. She saw the last of the Spooktacular Straws twirling through the air and into the box that Blaze held.

"Thanks, Derek," Blaze whispered breathlessly and blushed.

"No problem," Derek said.

Harpy wanted to puddle like a scoop of ice cream in July at the sound of his smooth, sexy voice. She shook herself. No puddling! She ducked her head over the cash register and busied herself. Maybe Derek would give the place a good cleaning and go away without saying a word to her.

As Blaze went into the back to get another box of straws, he blasted through the shop like a tornado, sucking up all the dust and trash in his path and depositing it in the wastebasket. Good. Now, he can leave and that will be that.

"Good evening, Harpy." Derek's smooth tones washed over her, igniting sparks of desire that had lain dormant for so very long.

"Hello, Derek," she said evenly.

A heavy crash sounded from the back, followed by the explosion of broken glass. Blaze's trembling voice said, "I'm sorry, Harpy. I'll clean it up."

Harpy closed her eyes and shook her head. "If I could get my hands on our esteemed mayor, Perry Normil, right this minute, I'd strangle him."

Derek chuckled as he gusted across her arm. "Lots of folks in Spellfire would like to do him in, but why right now?"

Harpy's eyes sprang open and she stifled a shiver. Her back itched something fierce, but she wasn't going to let Derek know. Oh, no, she wasn't going to tease him. They were over and had been for a long time. She didn't really want to go there again ... did she?

Harpy moved away from him, pretending to straighten up the counter. "For what he did to Blaze Draconis. It was bad enough he called for Blaze's resignation, but did he have to publicly humiliate her by announcing she could no longer breathe flames?"

Derek blew closer and need prickled between her thighs. "Didn't everyone know? I'd only been back in Spellfire a couple of weeks at the time, and I'd already heard the rumor."

"That's just it!" Harpy slammed down a salt shaker, and then lowered her voice so Blaze wouldn't hear. "It was just a rumor, but now everybody knows for sure. Poor Blaze is mortified. A dragon-shifter without her fire is like a--a vampire without fangs."

Or a harpy without the ability to fly, she could have added.

"Or an elemental sorcerer stuck in his elemental form," Derek contributed instead.

"It's not the same thing." Harpy frowned. "You still have your magic. That's why the mayor appointed you as Spellfire Maintenance Engineer after forcing Blaze to resign. And because you're a Spellfire."

Derek drifted around the counter. "Granted, Perry Normil is a suck-up. But Blaze can still shape-shift into a dragon."

"But she can't breathe fire. What's a dragon without fire?"

"True." Derek wafted even closer.

Harpy edged down along the counter away from him, still pretending to straighten condiment containers, but she was all too aware of his nearness. "Anyway, Electra and I are determined to see this through with Blaze. Everyone in town feels sorry for her because of the way the mayor treated her and they want to help, but she's lasted less than a week at every place that's hired her. She's easily spooked and painfully shy now, and she just can't seem to do anything right anymore."

Derek eddied along the counter with her. "Does she know how she lost her fire?"

Harpy shook her head and cleared her throat to be able to speak. Derek, even in wind form, was devastating to her furled wings. "She says it sometimes happens to dragon-shifters, but they don't know why."

"Has she asked Electra about a cure?" Derek drifted around to her other side.

He slid along her skin and tumbled her blond curls. Did he know what he was doing? Or was it accidental? She could light into him for getting too close, but what if he truly didn't intend to touch her? She would embarrass herself all over again for assuming she knew what just happened.

"Yeah." Harpy gulped and started moving back up the counter, toward the register and away from Derek again. "Electra has looked, but she can't find anything in the grimoires about curing lost dragon fire."

"My sister is the most powerful sorceress in town. If she can't find a cure then there isn't one," he said proudly.

"Shush, here she comes," Harpy whispered.

Blaze returned with a fresh box of Spooktacular Straws and starting filling the straw dispensers at the tables again. The bell above the door tinkled and a group of jackets and caps entered. The Invisible Man League always met the second Friday night of every month at Sinful Sundaes.

Harpy waved and turned to get their usual order, sparkling water with a twist all around because it was disconcerting to see colored soda or ice cream settle in invisible stomachs, but Derek shifted air around her and she couldn't move.

"Derek, please." Harpy inhaled deeply to keep from sounding breathless. "I have to get their order."

"When do you get off?" His voice was low and sexy and she felt a warm rush of air across her cheek.

Her body threatened to melt again, but she backed up against the counter. Her back itched madly. She wanted to scratch against the counter, but she restrained herself. "I get off at one, when the night shift comes in. Why?"

The air stirred around her, and he moved in even closer. "Come with me on a night flight."

Harpy clenched her jaw and withdrew her order pad from her pocket. She swung her arm through him, dispersing him away from her. "I can't fly and you know it!"

She stalked through what was left of him, his essence permeating the skin on her arms. She stifled another shiver and stiffened her back to keep her wings from unfurling. Damn him! Why did he have to bring that up? Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

"I'm sorry, Harpy. I thought by now you would be flying."

She shook her head while gathering glasses for the invisible men. "Nope. I'm only half harpy, and you know that, too. The witchdoctor told my mother when she got pregnant by my human father that I might never be able to fly. He was right."

"Maybe I can help." Derek swirled around her again. "I'm nothing but air. Let me take you out to Spellfire Park tomorrow. I can direct my wind exactly where you need it. Maybe you can fly. Let me be the wind beneath your wings."

For a second, hope rose in Harpy. To be able to fly like all her harpy relatives had been her greatest desire her entire life ... aside from her desire for Derek Spellfire. She squashed both flat. She couldn't fly and she couldn't have Derek. Not after what she had done to him. Even now, knowing she'd been dead wrong, she couldn't apologize. And she couldn't let him near enough to be the wind beneath her anything.

"No!" The word exploded from her mouth.

His air flowed around her, raising goose bumps on her arms. Derek caressed her skin and her hair, and he breezed past her ear. Her heart raced in her chest, and her breathing deepened. It was all she could do not to strip off her uniform and let him spin around her body until she--

"I'm not leaving until you agree to meet me in Spellfire Park tomorrow."

A tiny current of air tickled her ear and this time she did shiver. She would do anything to make him stop. "All right. Yes!"

"The Valentine Day Picnic is tomorrow at the park." Blaze came from behind the counter, and Harpy hadn't even noticed. "I'll see you two there."

Harpy narrowed her eyes.

Derek drifted away from her.

Harpy put her hands on her hips. "You fiend! I am not going, Derek."

"Too late, baby. You're already committed." He spun into a cyclone, but his trailing tail swept beneath her skirt as he headed around the counter. She jumped. The blasted bag of wind had goosed her!

Harpy stared at the door after he left and muttered under her breath, "Yeah, I ought to be committed."