Covers.
Some covers take more effort than others, depending on what I want or how much work I'm willing to put in. Dragon's Guardian was an exercise in finding my limits as I have some Photoshop skills. The dragon egg was an amalgamation of a real egg and two different glass eggs that I layered on top of each other. The cracks in the egg are lightning. The eye was purchased. The original background was something I took three different pictures of and arranged and it was...not the best? After the fact, I found a much better background and swapped it out, but I did keep the hatching egg. I am quite proud of that egg.
Other covers were work that I added an element to but were mostly someone else's work that I purchased. But the Heir of House Corana series has actually been commissioned, which is why it's fancier than the rest.
I knew when I started this series that I was going to have a little fun with the covers. Because the covers are a hint. They're telling who the main conflict will be in the book. Maybe not the first conflict, maybe not the conflict you saw coming, but the one at the end. So Book 1 has House Corana's house symbol on it because (minor spoiler, but surely you've read it at this point in the blog, right?) the main conflict and source of the problems is Alex's own family. If you know that secret, (but why would you in book one?) then you realize at the very beginning who the final fight is with, or at least you can start guessing who it might be. Books 2 and 3 are a little trickier since I don't give you their coat-of-arms right away, but maybe you can guess. It'll be the same in books 4 and 5. I was intending on not sharing this until Book 4...but I know some people do love a mystery.
Speculate away!
Chapter 1
Weather-wise, March was an unpredictable month. It could be bitterly cold with far too much snow, and it could be nice and warm with a definite sense of Spring in the air. More often we bounced back and forth between the two until April when the cold finally gave up. Today was one of those nice days that made people break out the short-sleeved shirts and discuss how long the nice weather would last. I was taking advantage of the nice weather to sit outside and read a book while on babysitting duty for the House.
There were several major shopping centers in our city. The one I usually went to was an outlet mall that had the stores set around a large square parking lot, so shoppers walked outside to go from store to store. The shopping center I was at today was a strip mall. There was a restaurant in the same parking lot, so I’d walked over to get myself a drink and a snack before wandering back over to sit on one of the benches close to the strip mall, which was when I’d spotted a potential problem. As such, I hadn’t got much reading done. Sipping my lemonade, I glanced up yet again at the woman browsing the same rack she’d been browsing through for eighteen minutes. There wasn’t enough on the rack to hold anyone’s attention that long and she’d made at least four circles around it. She was obviously waiting for something or someone, I just wasn’t sure what, though I had my suspicions. I’d been watching her for the better part of half an hour, which was why I hadn’t made as much progress in my book as I’d intended.
The woman straightened, putting the jacket she’d been playing with back on the rack, and exited the store, walking down the sidewalk. Approaching her was a vampire, obvious because though vampires had mostly given up the uniform to try to blend in, they often wore sunglasses to hide when their eyes went red, and they wore them everywhere. As they passed, the woman stumbled, collided with the vampire, and smacked loudly onto the ground. Immediately, she started wailing and gasping in pain. The vampire took a step away, looking flummoxed, and the woman screeched, “Someone stop him! He’s trying to get away!”
Two people acting like good Samaritans jumped in, blocking the vampire’s way, the woman holding pepper spray. “Don’t you move!” the man ordered in a tough tone. “We’re calling the police!”
They wouldn’t have to wait long. The police often patrolled this area. But the scene they were causing brought more attention, and as the woman wailed on the ground, more people slowed or stopped to see what was happening, especially once they realized a vampire was involved. The vampire was doing the right thing in standing quietly and waiting, but the man and woman were taking his silence as an opportunity to accuse him, loudly, and the crowd was swaying towards their side.
It wasn’t long before two police officers came down the walkway, one already calling for backup. The two people who’d jumped in immediately claimed to be witnesses and promised they’d seen the vampire attack the woman who was still lying on the ground. With new people to perform for, the woman on the ground was now kicking up a wailing fuss and demanding an ambulance as she was helped to a nearby bench. The officers noted the bruises that the witnesses were quick to point out, and the vampire’s protests of him not touching her were ineffectual. I decided I’d have to intervene. Heaving a loud sigh, I snapped the book closed and rose right as the woman screeched, “He was probably trying to kidnap me to drain me dry!”
“No, he wasn’t,” I said before the angry crowd could add their opinion.
Gazes turned my way. “Heir Corana, were you a witness to this event?” the officer asked, recognizing me.
“Yes.” I walked forward a few steps and looked at the vampire. “I want you to know it pains me to have to do this because I really don’t like you.” I looked at the officer. “She’s faking. As are her two witnesses.”
“I am not!”
“She isn’t! How dare you…”
“You’re the liar!”
I waved a hand, cutting off their denials. “I’ve been sitting here for over an hour, and for at least thirty minutes that woman has practiced falling in that alleyway.” I pointed to the darkened alley. “That’s why she has bruises. Her two witnesses have been with her as well. If you’ll go talk to that convenience store, they should have access to that camera that should have recorded the woman practicing her falling and her two witnesses coaching her on how to do it better.” I pointed to a camera mounted on the roof of the convenience store across the way. “If you go check the alleyway, you’ll also find some Band-Aids with blood on them tossed on the ground because during their practices she fell on something sharp and cut her knee, then ripped off the bandage right before her final fake fall.”
The woman was spluttering. “How dare you…you can’t accuse me…you’re a witch!”
I nodded my head in agreement. “I am.”
“You’re supposed to protect us from them!” she pointed a manicured nail at the vampire. “Not side with the enemy and lie for them.”
“You’re not the first group to come out and try and scam your way into getting rich,” I told her. “And like I said, I really don’t want to help him, but if you manage to get a case against the vampire, the first place it’ll go is to the witches to see if this is a magical matter or a non-magical matter where I or my House will likely be called to judge. I’m not lying for you, and I really don’t have the time to go as witness or a judge in this matter. You want to pull your scams, do it in someone else’s city.”
The woman and her witnesses began to shout and scream at me, calling me all sorts of names. I stood there calmly and waited quietly. One of the officers had already traipsed across the street to check the cameras. The crowd, seeing a witch was vouching for the vampire, had grown quieter, unsure which side to take. The officers were trying their best to calm the woman down, and she finally did when one of the officers pulled out handcuffs and threatened to use them if she couldn’t control herself. She seemed to have forgotten about her injuries in her raging, but she remembered when the ambulance pulled into the parking lot. I could see some of the sympathy fleeing from the crowd as the woman suddenly sank to the ground and started sobbing about how badly she was hurt and how scared she was. Several people left. Others waited until the officer came jogging back across the street to join us. “Just as she said,” he reported. “She was practicing her falling. The other two were with her. I rolled it back and saw all three of them getting out of the same vehicle just over an hour ago.”
My work here was done. “If you need nothing else from me, I’ll leave you to your work. Thank you for your time, officers,” I said. “And good luck.” Nodding to them, I turned and went back to my spot, sitting and cracking open my book.
It took about twenty more minutes to deal with everything, mostly because the victim had to be cleared by the medics, and then the three of them were all hauled away in handcuffs. I wasn’t sure exactly what the charges were, but they were probably minor, just enough to warn scammers about trying to work in our city.
I was finally making decent progress in my book when a voice interrupted me. “Heir Corana.” The vampire I’d helped stood several paces away, backed by two more vampires from the Ortiz seethe.
“If you intend to ambush me, I will take great pleasure in wiping the floor with all three of you,” I said, not looking up from my book.
“That wasn’t my intention. I wanted to thank you.”
“Vampires have manners. Who knew?” I mused aloud.
I could see him bristling. “I’m trying to be courteous. Why are you making this difficult?”
“Because, as previously stated, I don’t like you. I don’t much like your House either.”
Now all three of them bristled. “We don’t owe you anything, if that’s why you did it,” I was informed in a snotty tone.
“It wasn’t.” I turned the page.
The lead vampire made a move to leave, then stopped himself, obviously giving into his curiosity. “I don’t understand your motivations.”
Ah, formality. They were trying very hard to play nice. I almost felt bad for them. Almost. “I know. You won’t.”
One of them bared his fangs at me.
I drew a short, vertical line in the air with blue magic and let it hang there. “That’s one threatening action. At three, I get the right to defend myself against the threat you’re presenting. House Cortez can tell you I don’t pull my punches.”
“Let’s just go,” the other said. “She’s baiting us into a fight.”
“I am,” I agreed. “And you’re probably arrogant enough to fall into the trap anyway. So stay and threaten me two more times, or go away and leave me alone. I’m perfectly fine with either outcome.” I picked up my drink and sucked down more lemonade, watching the vampires with my peripheral vision. I knew it irked them that much more that I wouldn’t give them courtesy of giving them my full attention, but I wasn’t in their House, and I currently had no reason to play nice.
“What trick are you playing, witch?” the snarling vampire demanded. “Blackmail? A scam of your own? Witches don’t help their enemies!”
I lifted my gaze from my book finally and pierced the vampires with a look. “Are we enemies?”
Now the lead vampire looked confused. “Of course we are. After I…” he stopped, as if unwilling to remind me of why I hated him.
“After you sent a cursed object through the mail addressed to Sage, who is part of my House,” I finished. “I do recall that, yes. I also recall you had an excellent lawyer or you would have been in prison far longer than the two and a half months you got.”
His eyes flashed red. “I was forced to be without magic, helpless, like a human for that time!”
It was as if he expected me to feel pity for him. “Yes, and if we were enemies, I’d make that time seem like a day at the beach.” My phone dinged a cheerful melody. I placed a bookmark in my book and silenced the tone. “Unfortunately, I don’t have time to engage in combat with you, so go home and try not to get roped into obvious scams again. It reflects poorly on the magical community.” I drained my drink and tossed it in the trashcan.
“Heir Corana.” The vampire stood where he was. “I’d like to understand why you acted on my behalf today.”
“Eh. More likely your liege will want to know why. Go to your liege; tell him if he’s really that curious to call Liege Vital. Explain exactly who you are to him, then ask him that question and maybe he’ll explain it to you. You won’t believe me, and like I said, I don’t have the time right now.” I dispelled the blue mark in the air and headed towards the arcade.
Inside the arcade, it was a deafening cacophony of game music, voices raised in excitement, and clinking of fake coins as credits were dispensed, and an equally blinding display of flashing lights, colors, and enough movement to draw the eye everywhere at once. I stepped a few steps in and called, “House Corana!”
In short time, the children from our clan were assembled and checking how many credits they had.
“Start cashing in for prizes,” I said, tapping my watch. “We have to be in the van in half an hour.”
“Heir Alex, we really want the laser tag set,” one of the kids said.
I looked over and saw that it was one of the most expensive prizes. “I hope you all got lucky, then.”
“We just need eighty-three more credits,” the oldest announced.
“Sounds like you’ll get it on your next trip, then,” I said.
“But we’re so close,” came a whine.
“And we have to go.”
“What if you played?” Katie blurted out.
“Yeah, you’re really good,” another chimed in. “It might only take one turn. Please?”
All the kids chimed in together. “Please, Alex? Please? Pretty please?”
I fought a smile at their pleading expressions and looked around. “Everyone agrees they’re willing to spend all their credits to get that laser tag set?”
Everyone nodded, chorusing yeses.
I pulled out my wallet. “Well, I suppose if I can knock this out, we can exchange it and still make it to the van on time.”
With yelps of glee, they practically dragged me over to the machine, where I input five dollars and put it on one of their cards. I looked around. “All right, where’s the music game?”
The crowd of children directed me over to where it was located. This one was set up like a piano, but it only had three keys and each was wider than my hand. Lights would show on the screen and I had to hit the keys in the correct order. It wasn’t much like playing a piano, but the game was hinged on reflexes and mine were really good. I swiped my card, sat down, and hit the go button. With all the kids cheering me on, I whacked piano keys as fast as I could, my eyes following the lights on the screen. When the game was over, about thirty seconds later, I was in second place, and the machine informed me I’d gained eighty credits.
I swiped again. “All right. One more.” This emptied the card and I handed it to the oldest as I hit the go button. The kids again erupted in calls and screams as I moved quickly, smacking the piano keys. I made one error, which cost me time, but when the game ended, I’d won sixty-nine credits, which was enough. The screaming turned to shrieks of excitement. I chuckled, picking up my purse as I got up from the game. “Go get it,” I said to the oldest. “Everyone else, out to the van. Make sure you have your things. Jackets! Marco, tie your shoes. Don’t run!” I yelled as they stampeded for the exit.
It did not take long before the last person exited, holding the laser tag set. The kids set up another cheer, then started chanting, “Laser tag! Laser tag! Laser tag!”
“Seatbelts!” I called, interrupting the chants.
The eldest passed me a candy package with sweet, zingy disks of candy inside as she held the laser tag set on her lap. “I bought this with the extra credits,” she explained.
“Thanks.” I opened the package, popping in two as I observed the children in the mirror, making sure seatbelts were being fastened by all. “All in?” I called.
At the affirmative answers, I put the van in drive.
“Can we stop for ice cream?” one of them asked.
“You’ve had pizza, hot dogs, candy, and soda, and you want ice cream?” I inquired, looking in the mirror.
He grinned cheekily at me. “Well, duh!”
I snorted. “I think if I give you any more sugar, your parents will hate me. Dinner’s in forty-five minutes. Try to survive until then.”
With happy chattering filling the car, I navigated home. The traffic was picking up, since we were just about to hit the evening rush hour, but I pulled up to our driveway without too much of a delay. The kids piled happily out of the van and headed inside.
“Thank you for this, Heir Alex,” Marlene said sincerely.
“No problem,” I said. “I may have tomorrow’s entertainment ready. They pooled their prize credits together and won a laser tag set.”
“I think I can set up the training area for that, and they can play all tomorrow,” she said. “And that should get us through the weekend until school on Monday.”
“I miss having a Spring Break,” I said. “It takes maneuvering to get a full weekend off, much less a whole week.”
“I’m trying to figure out what we’re going to do with them when school lets out!”
“We have a few more months before then. I’m not tackling that issue today.” I closed the front door and hung the keys on the hook labeled with HOUSE VAN.
“Heir Alex, there’s a call for you.” Tate approached. “House Vital is on the phone.”
“Their timing is impeccable,” I commented.
“No, Heir Alex, they called nearly twenty minutes ago. They said they would wait until you could speak to them. They’re on hold.”
“Are they really?”
“Yes. Liege Vital wants to speak to you.”
I had an idea of why. “I see. Transfer the call to my office.” I made my way up the stairs.
My phone was beeping softly as I flipped on the light. I dropped my purse on the desk and hit the speakerphone button. “This is Alex.”
“Heir Corana, please hold for Liege Vital,” came the ever-so-courteous voice of Nathanial. Apparently he’d worked his way into Vital’s good graces if he was talking to me. Or maybe having him wait on hold until I could talk was part of his punishment. I’d have to ask Sage if he knew.
Less than a minute later, the phone clicked. “Heir Alexandra.”
“Liege Rafael,” I acknowledged. “Was there something urgent you needed?”
“Not urgent, no. I was curious, however, about a phone call I received from Liege Ortiz.”
I suppressed part of the snicker. “Did he happen to have another vampire present during that conversation?”
“He did. He relayed an event today involving you protecting him from scammers trying to accuse him of assaulting and injuring one of them. Apparently you told him I would explain why you would do such a thing for a vampire who attacked Sage.”
“And were you able to shed some light on the situation?”
“I reminded him that such actions were not out of character for you since you have acted fairly and kindly to vampires before. I am not entirely sure why you insisted I would shed light on your actions, however.”
“Because no matter what I said, they wouldn’t have believed me. To be fair, I said you might explain.”
“I’m not entirely sure they believed me either.”
“Trusting a witch is difficult for some,” I said without rancor.
“Protecting a vampire is not usual for witches,” he returned, also without rancor. “Especially for someone who holds a grudge against that particular vampire. Though I’m told you made it very clear how much you didn’t want to act.”
“I did. But fair is about doing what’s right, so I did what was fair.”
“House Ortiz would like to be assured that you don’t intend to ask for a favor or claim a debt is owed for your actions.”
“I don’t. Should I assure them of that or is that something that needs to be heard from a vampire?”
“I will relay that.”
“I appreciate it.” I changed the topic. “Sage tells me Trisha and the other rescued vampires from House Bernard appear to be back to normal.”
“To the best of our knowledge, yes. There was another interview with the investigators from the Magic Council. They informed me the witch who made the illegal Mind Alterers was arrested and is being charged.”
“Charges went through late this morning. There will be an announcement on the evening news, but she’s had her magic license revoked permanently, and she’ll be spending the next fifteen to thirty years in a magical prison. All her magical items are also being confiscated, and if anyone else comes forward with information about other illegal potions she’s created, it’ll increase the minimum from fifteen years. Money she has left from the sale of the illegal potions will be split amongst the victims.”
“How is it you already know the judgment of the court? Is this an announcement that witches received?”
“Don’t look to be offended, Liege Vital. My House was required to testify, so we were there for the judgment as well. Judy stayed to witness the decision and informed me. You will likely receive either a call or a visit Monday morning with the recompense for whatever victims are in your seethe. Magic Council decisions aren’t always on the news, but with the number of victims, this one likely will be since it’s a quick way of ensuring word gets out as fast as possible. It will also be in tomorrow’s paper.”
“I will be on the lookout for it. Thank you for the information.”
“No problem. Do you need anything else?”
“I do not. I will let you return to your evening.”
“Thank you. Have a good evening as well.” Pleasantries exchanged, I hung up.
“Okay, I’m dying to know,” Annalie said, coming in. “What did the Vital vampires want?”
“Were you eavesdropping outside my office?” I wanted to know.
“Only because I didn’t want to interrupt. If it had been important, you would have closed the door,” she reasoned.
“Snoop,” I teased.
“They agreed to be put on hold for an indefinite amount of time. We’ve been tossing theories around since they called. So what happened?”
“Do you remember the Ortiz vampire who sent the cursed knife to Sage?” I asked, opening my desk drawer.
“Yes.”
“There were some scammers in town, and they tried to stage an attack by the vampire on one of them. Unfortunately, they also happened to try to pull their scam right in front of me.” I closed that drawer and opened another.
“And you had to speak up,” she said sympathetically.
“I cannot tell you how much I did not want to, but I was a witness, so I had to. The Ortiz vampires, of course, didn’t understand why.” I closed that drawer and opened the third, rifling through it.
“I’m almost following. If they didn’t know why, it should have been Ortiz on the line.”
“I told them to ask Vital. I figured they weren’t going to believe me. Vital told me Ortiz is expecting me to call in some sort of favor for my good deed today. I assured him I wasn’t.”
“Dinner!” came the yell from downstairs.
“What are you looking for?” Annalie wanted to know.
“The list of venues for Brandy’s quinceañera. We have to take the Riverside Ballroom off the list. They already have another event scheduled.”
“I think Gerald came and got it from your father. They decided some of the food was going to have to be catered, and that was on the list too.”
Brandy, for some reason, was insisting her fifteenth birthday party be held off House Corana property. It wasn’t unusual considering how big the party was going to be, but we’d had quinceañeras on House property before. Mine had been, but it was Brandy’s party, so we’d helped her choose alternate locations. “Did they get a dress?”
“Mom has it ordered,” Annalie said.
Since the list clearly wasn’t here, I closed the drawer and got up. “I’ll let them know about the venue.”
At the dinner table, the children were happily chattering about laser tag and already choosing teams for tomorrow. I seated myself by my father. “The Riverside Ballroom is out,” I said. “They already have an event booked.”
“It’s looking like the library will have to be our venue,” my father commented. “Their event space is large enough, and they are willing to provide tables and chairs.”
I looked at Aunt Dina. “Do we know what kind of tables the library has so we can get tablecloths?” I asked.
“I have an appointment to look at everything on Tuesday.” She turned to her daughter. “Unless you want to reconsider moving it to one of our properties?” she asked. “We could hold it here.”
“No. The library is perfect,” Brandy insisted.
“All right,” Aunt Dina sighed. “I’ll go put a deposit down.”
“As soon as you do, we can get the invitations printed,” Marianne said.
“Yay!” Diana squealed. “This is going to be great!”
“What did House Vital want?” my father asked as Brandy and Diana chatted about the quinceañera plans.
I relayed the story to him. “Ortiz wanted assurance I wasn’t going to claim they owed us. I also relayed the judgment so Vital could be prepared for visitors from the Witches’ Council. He says the vampires are all back to normal.”
“Good. As much Emotional Manipulation as that witch made, I’m surprised there weren’t more issues with recovery.”
Agatha entered the dining room. “Dinner tonight is grilled salmon with garlic mushrooms, parmesan-crusted asparagus, and fruit salad,” she announced.
“What’s for dessert?” one of the kids wanted to know.
“Rice pudding.”
Trays were brought in and placed on the table, and we all began serving ourselves. “Is there a plan for the weekend?” I asked as I cut the asparagus into bite-sized pieces.
“I have some meetings outside the house. I need you to stay and handle House matters.”
I nodded. “On it.”
“What’s the news on the courthouse renovations?”
“The windows have finally arrived,” Tate said, scooping another piece of salmon onto his plate. “As soon as they’re placed, we’ll be contacted to finish up.”
“They may make it before the end of March after all,” my father commented.
“Any word on the Bernard properties?” Marianne asked.
“Nothing yet. The vampires aren’t through sorting everything out, apparently,” I responded.
“They’ve been meeting at the city meeting hall two times a week for six weeks now,” Marianne said impatiently. “How long does it take?”
“Bernard probably had hidden assets,” Uncle Gerald pointed out. “It’s probably taken this long to uncover everything.”
“Maybe they’re waiting for the witch’s trial regarding the Emotional Manipulation to be finished,” Aunt Dina suggested.
“If so, that was wrapped up today,” Judy stated from her place farther down the table. “The Witch Council moved quickly on this case.”
“After the vampires’ insinuations about how we might just sweep it all under the rug, I’m not surprised,” my father said dryly. “Though that was almost all of the sniping at the Magic Community meeting, so it went better than I thought it would.”
“We made our point with the attacks on Sage, and they’re trying to be on their best behavior to make humans like them. Since we have the bigger influence right now, I’m sure they’re trying not to make us angry so we don’t rile the humans.” I forked a mushroom and the garlic flavor was deliciously strong as I chewed it.
“I’m sure Bernard is a sore point no one wants to bring up either,” Marianne commented.
“They have a lot of work to undo that reputation,” my father said. “The sooner they get rid of anything that holds to his memory, the better for all of us.”
Since I had helped with Bernard’s fall, significantly, it was in our best interest for the vampires to bury Bernard’s memory so no one got too interested in what part I’d played. Not only would backlash fall on me, it would fall on Rafael. House Isles might get some of the backlash as well, but Rafael had been the one to lie and say I was never there when he’d escorted me in personally. “After dealing with Witches United and Bernard, I’d just like things to be calmer for a few months,” I said.
My father chuckled. “Don’t get your hopes too high, Alex,” he told me. “There’s always a new crisis around the corner.”
As the daughter of the Master of our clan, I knew all too well how true that was.