Must Love Familiars: A Paranormal Chick Lit Novel (Sable Cove Book 1) Read online

  Must Love Familiars

  Sable Cove Book One

  A Paranormal Chick Lit Novel

  By R. E. Butler

  Copyright 2020, R. E. Butler

  Must Love Familiars (Sable Cove Book One)

  By R. E. Butler

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book 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 recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  Cover by Gwen Knight

  This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.

  Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.

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  Edited by Sarah Dawn Johnson

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  Thanks to Joyce, Shelley, and Ann for beta reading.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Best Paranormal Chick Lit Books

  Coming Next from R. E. Butler

  Contact the Author

  Other Books from R. E.

  Coming Next in the Sable Cove Series

  Must Love Familiars (Sable Cove Book One)

  By R. E. Butler

  Heroine with a heart for abandoned animals? Check.

  Hero with fangs? Check.

  Danger in a seaside, magical town? Double Check.

  When an abandoned familiar appears on the doorstep of the Sable Cove Familiar Rescue, witch Delaney St. Charles knows just what to do with the scared feline. If only her love life were as easy to deal with as her love for familiars.

  Vampire Brody Carmichael hasn’t been living in Sable Cove long, but he likes the quietness of the small, seaside town. A transplant from a big city, he’s enjoying the laid-back attitude of the townsfolk and trying to figure out how to get to know the gorgeous witch Delaney. When a warlock tries to abduct an abandoned familiar and it appears that Delaney’s life is in jeopardy, Brody will stop at nothing to protect her and get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the kitten.

  Will Delaney get an opportunity to find out what Brody looks like underneath the uniform, or will her life be snuffed out before she even has a chance to discover what it’s like to kiss a man with fangs?

  Chapter One

  Delaney St. Charles smacked the top of her alarm clock a third time and rolled over. She was definitely not a morning person.

  Maybe if she didn’t stay up late reading, she’d enjoy getting up early and wouldn’t have to drink two cups of coffee before she could even greet someone without snarling like a pissed-off lioness.

  A little growl sounded near her ear, and she opened one eye and found herself being glared at by her painted turtle familiar, Mimo.

  “I hit the snooze, go away,” she said, closing her eye.

  He growled again and then nipped her nose.

  “Ow, dang it, Mimo!” She rubbed the ache and opened both eyes this time.

  Rising to one elbow, she clicked off the alarm and sighed. Mimo liked to be fed at a certain time, and if she hit the snooze too often, he’d climb out of his aquarium and make sure she got up.

  “I love you, but you could let a girl sleep in once in a while,” she grumbled at him.

  Throwing off the covers, she picked up Mimo and grabbed her phone off the charger. She climbed out of bed, stepped into her fuzzy slippers, and shuffled into the kitchen. After feeding Mimo and popping a pod into the coffee maker, she waited patiently for the coffee to brew. She checked her messages and discovered several emails related to the animals available for adoption at the rescue she and her two besties ran.

  The Sable Cove Familiar Rescue had five familiars for adoption, and their website had photos and details about each animal. While anyone could look at the website, only a witch or warlock was eligible to adopt one of the animals. One of Delaney’s powers was being able to intuitively tell which person and familiar belonged together. But the animal was the final decider, accepting or rejecting the person. The relationship between a master and their familiar was special. They were more than a pet; they were helpful in spell casting and were attuned to danger.

  Delaney had found Mimo when she was walking along the Sable Cove beach as a teenager, looking for sea glass to add to her collection. She’d picked up a pretty shell and found baby Mimo in it. She’d known immediately that he was her familiar.

  Since then, he’d even saved her life once. She’d been casting a spell when a storm came out of nowhere. Mimo had alerted her to danger, and she’d grabbed him and headed inside. A few minutes later, lightning struck the tree she’d been sitting under—it would’ve crushed her as it fell apart.

  Fixing her coffee, she carried it into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

  A text from one of her two besties appeared.

  Did you see the video from last night? Hadlee texted.

  I just got up, so no. What’s up?

  Someone left a box on the doorstep of the rescue.

  Unless you or Kinsley were expecting a delivery, it might be a familiar someone dropped off. Could also be a real animal since humans don’t always understand what we mean by familiar.

  True. No deliveries that we know of. When are you heading in?

  A half hour. You?

  I’ll be late. I have to run to Twilight Lake to gather some plants for a protection spell someone ordered and Kinsley was going to go with me.

  Okay, I’ll let you know when I see what’s in the box.

  You could always ask Chief Brody to help you out. The statement was followed by several GIFs of people leering and waggling eyebrows.

  Even though she was alone, Delaney’s cheeks flamed at the teasing remark. She was one hundred percent attracted to the chief of police, who’d never been anything but professionally polite to her. She wanted to ask him out on a date, but she didn’t have the guts.

  It’s daytime. Chief Brody was a vampire, so he stayed indoors from sunrise to sunset.

  Oh well! Let us know what happens when you get to the rescue.

  Will do.

  She hopped into the shower, using her favorite piña colada shampoo that made her want to skip work for the day and go hang out on the beach. She couldn’t of course, but maybe she’d take her lunch to the beach. Even if she didn’t get to go for a swim in the dark waters of Sable Cove, she could at least enjoy the sand between her toes.

  After she was finished, she wrapped her hair in a thick towel and headed into her bedroom to find something to wear. They didn’t have a uniform at the rescue, but she didn’t generally wear nice clothes because she’d end up with cat fur all over them. Of the
five animals currently housed in the rescue, two were birds—an owl that had belonged to her mother before she passed away, and a raven that had belonged to a warlock whose nephew dropped it off after his death. The other three animals were cats—a white one, an orange one, and a gray one. All three enjoyed leaving their fur everywhere.

  Choosing khaki shorts and a pink shirt, she dried her hair, applied some makeup, and dug her favorite sandals out of the bottom of her closet. The last thing she did before she left was pick up the protection bracelet that Kinsley had made for her. The leather and bead bracelet was imbued with protection properties and would alert her if something dangerous was around.

  “Ready?” she asked Mimo as she placed him in the travel habitat. He let out a grunt and settled under the plastic palm tree in the corner of the plastic container with the bright green lid.

  Delaney lived in the house she grew up in. Her mother, who had passed away the year she graduated high school, was a powerful witch with the same powers over animals that Delaney had. Her mother’s power trended toward birds more than mammals or reptiles. Her familiar was a barn owl named Galahad, who lived at the rescue. Familiars could take on a new master if theirs died, and vice versa. But though it had been several years since Delaney’s mom passed away, Galahad hadn’t chosen another master.

  She walked to her two-door coupe and opened the driver’s door, easing inside and setting Mimo’s habitat on the front seat, securing the seat belt across it. Sable Cove was a small, north-eastern town of just a few hundred people. Most of the town’s residents were human, but there were plenty of supernatural people as well, from her own small coven of witches to the merman who lived at the lighthouse to the wolf shifter brother and sister who ran the diner.

  She headed to the rescue, her windows down and her summer playlist blasting from the speakers. Parking at the rear of the rescue, she unlocked the back door and walked through, greeting the animals and turning on the lights as she made her way to the front. She set Mimo on the counter and unlocked the door.

  Just as Hadlee said, there was a large cardboard box on the front porch, tucked partially behind a concrete planter stuffed full of colorful pansies. Delaney closed her eyes and held her hands over the box, not touching it, letting her senses open to see if she could get a read on the box’s contents.

  Her power prickled in awareness a moment before she heard a plaintive meow from the box.

  Smiling, she peeled off the tape from the lid and opened the flaps. A little black kitten peered up at her with yellow eyes, meowing again. She reached for it and brought it close, letting her power free again.

  “Well, you’re a familiar, aren’t you?” she murmured. There was a white and blue baby blanket in the bottom of the box, and she picked it up and gave it a shake, hoping a note might fall out. But there was nothing in the box at all, save for the blanket and the kitten.

  She put the blanket back into the box and carried it and the kitten into the shop. She put the box under the counter and set the kitten next to Mimo’s habitat. He lifted his head and looked at the kitten, then tucked his head back and went to sleep. When the kitten shook itself out, there was a tinkling sound, coming from the red sparkly collar on its neck adorned with a bell.

  The collar didn’t have a tag on it or any identifying information written on either side.

  “Where did you come from?” she asked.

  The kitten meowed.

  “Sorry, kits, I don’t speak cat.”

  Giving the kitten a little scratch behind the ears, she took a picture and texted it to Kinsley and Hadlee. She then called Dr. Yasmine, a selkie shifter who loved animals and was the resident vet-on-call for the rescue. She’d give the kitten a clean bill of health—or give it any medical attention it needed—and then Delaney could put it on the website.

  When the female answered the phone, she said, “Hey, it’s Delaney, how are you?”

  “Great, the sun is shining and the rocks are sure to be really warm by lunchtime for a nice nap. How are you?”

  “Planning to eat lunch on the beach myself, so maybe I’ll see ya there. Otherwise, good. Someone left a familiar on the porch of the rescue. Can I bring her by?”

  “Sure thing, how about in an hour?”

  “You got it.”

  They ended the call, and Delaney took the kitten into the back and gave it a quick bath in the sink, dried it with a towel, and put the red collar back on. She opened one of the empty cages and put the kitten inside. It immediately went to the little scratching post in the corner of the cage and began to tug its claws down the twine-wrapped pole. After putting fresh litter in the box and filling the food and water dishes, she shut the cage and tended to the other animals.

  Galahad hooted at her when she offered him her arm. He stepped off his perch and onto her arm. He had a tight grip, but he never hurt her. She remembered her mother used to walk around with him on her shoulder like some hippie pirate. Opening the back door, she wished him a good hunt and set him free. He took off into the air, wheeling in circles a few times with a happy hoot before heading for a nearby stand of trees to hunt. He was nocturnal by nature, but her mother had gotten him in the habit of hunting in the mornings for breakfast and then again at nightfall, and Delaney had been happy to keep the tradition going. Especially since it meant she didn’t have to thaw any dead mice for his meals.

  She stared into the sky for a few moments, inhaling the saltwater scent that lingered in the air all the time, before turning back to the animals. She closed the bottom of the Dutch door to let in fresh air. After the three cats had eaten their fill, she let them out of their cages to roam, then took Bruno the raven from his cage to a perch in the main room and filled the metal bowl on the stand with fruits and nuts for him to snack on.

  The phone rang, and she hurried to the counter. “Sable Cove Familiar Rescue, this is Delaney, how can I help you?”

  A woman’s voice came through the line. “I saw on your website that you have an orange and white cat for adoption, and I’d like to come see it.”

  “The first and most important question is, ma’am, are you a witch?”

  There was a pause. “Excuse me?”

  “This is a familiar rescue. We only rescue familiars, and familiars can only be adopted by witches or warlocks. Are you a witch?”

  “Um, no. But don’t you want to give the cat a home?”

  “She wouldn’t accept you.”

  “I think I can take care of a cat,” the woman said, sounding miffed.

  “I’m sure you can, ma’am, and I’d suggest you look into a normal rescue agency for non-magical animals. Have a good day.” She ended the call before the woman’s protests could reach her ears. It never ceased to amaze her how many people checked out their website but didn’t look at the name of the place or the warnings posted on every page that the animals were only available to magical persons for adoption.

  “Another looney?” Hadlee asked as she walked in from the back.

  “You know it.”

  Kinsley called out, “Is this what was in the box?”

  Delaney walked with Hadlee into the back and smiled as Kinsley took the kitten out of the cage.

  “Yep.”

  “Aw, who would abandon a sweetie like this? And she’s so young, too,” Kinsley said.

  “Let’s check the video and see what the person looks like,” Hadlee suggested. They moved to the desk in the corner of the room. Hadlee sat down and wiggled the mouse on the pad until the computer turned on. She opened the video camera program, which turned the cameras on whenever there was motion detected. There were three videos from last night. The first one was a neighborhood cat who liked to sleep on their porch sometimes, the second was a low flying bird, and the third only showed the top edge of the box as it was pushed onto the porch from the side.

  “Aw, dang,” Hadlee said. “They must’ve known there was a camera and stayed out of view. No note?”

  “Nope,” Delaney said. “I’m going t
o get her checked out by the vet. You two think of a cute name.”

  By the time she got back from visiting Yasmine with the healthy kitten she’d pegged at seven months of age, her besties had come up with the kitten’s name: Flora. They took videos and photos, and Delaney put up a new page on the website featuring Flora in all her furry glory.

  Hadlee’s familiar—a black cat named Osiris—stretched out on the back porch in the July sunshine and let little Flora climb all over him. Kinsley’s familiar, a cat with soft tortoiseshell colored fur named Nysa, circled Kinsley’s feet as she cleaned up the front room. They had two people coming in to look at the familiars—a warlock and a witch—both from out of the area. While she’d hate to see any of the animals leave because she thought of them as part of her family, she also knew that familiars weren’t ever really happy unless they were aligned with a master.

  Galahad swooped in and landed on the Dutch door. He hooted loudly, and Delaney hurried over and took him to his cage, dropping the cover down over it so he could rest.

  “Sweet dreams, Gally,” she whispered. He hooted at her once and then closed his eyes. She tugged the cover all the way down, then went to check on Mimo. “It’s been a busy morning, my friend. What do you think of our new familiar?”

  He yawned and blinked slowly at her.

  She smiled and busied herself checking emails, taking care of the animals, and scouring want ads to see if anyone had a familiar for sale or adoption that didn’t realize there was a rescue agency just for them. Her mind flitted to Flora, and then to Chief Brody. Should she give him a call and let him know that someone had mysteriously dropped off a box while keeping out of view of the camera?

  Toying with the phone, she decided not to call him. There wasn’t anything he could do anyway—not only because it was daytime, but because no laws had been broken. While it might be shitty to leave an animal in a box on a porch overnight, it wasn’t illegal. Besides, the kitten had only been there for a few hours in the box with air holes punched all around it.