Page 2 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

Jonathan lifted a hand, stopping her there. “I’m older than thirty.”

“Hmm, you have good genes then,” she replied.

It had more to do with him being immortal than it did with his family genes.

“Do you have the time?” she asked.

Reaching into the front right pocket of his jeans, Jonathan withdrew his antique gold Patek Phillippe pocket watch. It was on a chain that hooked to his belt loop. The item was something he was never without. His finger skimmed the engravings on the exterior of the case. There was a “J” engraved on the front of the watch along with ornate leafing that, over time, was slightly worn from his touch.

The watch had been gifted to him by his former employer, Peter Hawkins, to honor Jonathan’s passing of the solicitor’s exam at Lincoln’s Inn. Hawkins had been so proud of Jonathan, wanting him to take over his law practice eventually.

Jonathan had idolized his employer, seeing Hawkins in an almost fatherly light. He’d have done anything for the man. Traveling when Peter had fallen ill had seemed like the right thing to do. Jonathan had thought the chance to visit Romania the opportunity of a lifetime. Being entrusted with the task of overseeing the purchase of the Carfax estate in London by the eccentric and wealthy Count Dracula was the big break Jonathan needed to help him eventually become a partner in the Hawkins law firm.

Little did Jonathan know that life as he’d known it was going to come to a fast end. That he’d be plunged into a world of vampires, shifters, witches, and magik. That nothing would ever be the same once the blinders were pulled from his eyes. And that he, himself, would come out the other side of the ordeal as something more than human.

A monster.

Yet, that had been what had happened.

Fighting evil and monsters had never been part of Jonathan’s life plan. Hell, he’d not even believed supernaturals were real until he’d ended up one. Before everything in his life changed, he’d been thrilled to be a lawyer. He’d thought he’d become a partner in Hawkins’s law firm, meet a lovely young woman, settle down, marry, and have a houseful of children. Then he’d grow old with his wife and die. That had been the plan anyway.

The reality had been quite different.

Fate had a sense of humor.

He’d never married, never had children, and his aging had moved to a snail’s pace after he’d found himself sharing his body with a wolf.

His time in the Carpathian Mountains, over a hundred years ago, had altered everything. It had flipped his life plans on their head, forever changing them and him. He wasn’t the same man who had ascended the mountainside in a carriage long ago. He’d been doe-eyed and trusting when he’d found himself standing outside of Dracula’s castle.

Dracula had been the worst host imaginable. Jonathan hadn’t been treated like an honored guest. No. He’d found himself held captive by Dracula with prison guards who had come in the form of scandalously clad temptresses.

Deranged, sex-deprived, bloodthirsty hot chicks might sound appealing to most men, but the reality was quite different. The Weird Sisters, as they were known, had warped senses of right and wrong and only listened to Dracula, and even that was touch and go. As if they weren’t bad enough, Dracula’s best friend just so happened to be a wolf-shifter who served him, doing his questionable bidding without blinking.

Lucian Lupu managed to make Dracula’s ego seem small. If Jonathan had a name that sounded like a cheesy soap star character, like Lucian, he’d have been a bit humbler.

Not Lucian.

Not only was the man’s ego enormous, but his cold-hearted nature was also well-known in the supernatural community. Saying Lucian was ruthless was an understatement. He did the things Dracula didn’t like dirtying his hands with. He was the man in charge of the wolves who served Dracula.

The Romanian pack of wolf-shifters was massive. One of the largest in the world. And one of the most vicious when provoked. Jonathan didn’t know the full story, but he knew Lucian once served another master before Dracula and often wondered where the man’s true loyalties lay, especially considering who the other master was—Dracula’s maker.

Jonathan had assumed Dracula, Lucian, and the Weird Sisters were the worst of the worst. The evilest beings the supernatural world had to offer.

He’d been very, very wrong.

Shortly after encountering Dracula and being an unwilling houseguest of the vampire, Jonathan had found himself standing face-to-face with Dragos (the vampire who had sired Dracula), the wolves who served him, and the horde of ghouls he’d traveled with.

Jonathan hadn’t stood against the master vampire alone. He’d found himself making lifelong friends with men brought together by circumstance. He, Quincey “Quin” Morris, Arthur Holmwood, Dr. John Seward, and Dr. Abraham “Bram” Van Helsing had forged a friendship born out of darkness.

Wilhelmina Murray and Lucy Westenra had been wrapped up in the events of long ago too. Both women had been childhood friends of Jonathan’s. He’d cherished each of them, although he’d been closer to Wilhelmina, and often reflected on what he might have been able to do differently back then to keep them both out of it all.

Bram had been the only one of themenwho had come into the ordeal with knowledge of the supernatural. He’d been a natural-born hunter of evil, which was why Seward had asked for assistance on the ordeal to start with. The rest of the men had learned as they went.

Ironically, Wilhelmina had known about supernaturals long before Jonathan’s vampire troubles had spilled over onto her and Lucy. Her family was curators of supernatural artifacts and information and had been for centuries. Her parents had been killed by supernaturals, but she’d kept that to herself until the truth about vampires and shifters came to light for Jonathan.

When Dragos made himself known, it became clear that Dracula was the lesser of two evils. And that without Dracula’s assistance, they wouldn’t have stood a chance against Dragos. The mission shifted from killing Dracula to assisting him, the Weird Sisters, and Lucian, along with the other wolves, in standing against Dragos.

When all was said and done, Dragos had been locked away for hopefully good, unable to harm anyone else. Jonathan, Holmwood, Quin, Seward, and Bram had won the battle of containing the monster, but it had cost them their lives.

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