My Sunrise Sunset Paramour: A Vampire’s Romance Read online

  Contents

  PART ONE:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  PART TWO:

  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

  To Be Continued

  Books in this Series

  Follow J.J. McAvoy

  MY SUNRISE SUNSET PARAMOUR

  Copyright © 2021 by J.J. McAvoy

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work, in whole or in part, in any form. This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, organizations and products depicted herein are either a product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.

  Dedicated to

  * * *

  The women like me, who wanted

  more books like these…

  “What must come, must come.

  What must be, must be.

  Nothing can stop fate,

  Not even thee.”

  * * *

  My mind was full of quotes from dead men.

  Everyone is a moon and has a dark side, which he never shows to anybody, said Mark Twain.

  No matter how hard you fight the darkness, every light casts a shadow, and the closer you get to the light, the darker that shadow becomes, thought Plato.

  Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before, wrote Edgar Allan Poe.

  Their words flooded my mind instantly, almost as if they were trying to protect me, trying to block the words Theseus spoke from reaching me. Trying to keep me from giving in to this…this horror I felt rising inside me. But nothing could stop it, could stop his words from ripping through me.

  “You took my memories…You killed me, Druella,” he said before his whole body collapsed into the arms of his brother, Ulrik, who grabbed on to him tightly. Even if Ulrik weren’t a vampire, his size alone would be enough to carry him on his own, which was why watching them all rush to Theseus’s side was so striking. They weren’t just trying to catch him. They were trying to protect him—from me.

  It was clear from the look on everyone’s faces.

  Rhea stood beside her mortal and immortal sons, her gray eyes boiling over with rage as she glared at me. Melora, Ulrik’s mate, who had linked arms with me just a few hours ago and called me sister, now looked as if I were not good enough to touch the same earth. Hinrik, Arsiein, and Atarah were like a wall around Theseus, the man who was supposed to be my mate, protecting him from me because…because apparently, I had hurt him, and I did not remember how or why. Why would I hurt someone I cared about? I didn’t understand. Theseus was good to me. I wasn’t sure about anything else, but I knew that fact. So, if I had hurt him, killed him, was I the wrong one? What—who was I?

  A former Omeron witch turned vampire.

  Everything I had seen, heard, and learned about the Omerons was their deep-seated hate for vampires and their unwavering desire to kill them. Before I was a vampire, I was one of them. So did I have that hate and desire to kill vampires before, too? The more I thought about it, the more my head and heart hurt.

  They hurt a lot.

  I should go. I need to go. That thought kept running through my mind.

  “And where exactly do you think you shall go?”

  I turned back to the only member of the Thorbørn family not protecting Theseus from me, Sigbjørn, the head of the Thorbørn family. The king of Ankeiros. He stood at the library table, dressed in a white linen tunic and dark trousers and his long Nordic hair and braids let down around his shoulders. He held on to the black and white composition book, or what he had explained was a grimoire—my grimoire, the thing that had caused my current misery. His tattooed hands flipped the empty pages, running over them as if there were something there to read.

  “There is more here to read, young one,” he stated, reminding me of his mind-reading gift. “However, it has been enchanted and thus, hides itself. Come see it if you can unlock it, as you did the first page.”

  “Father, because of the single page, Theseus—”

  Only then did Sigbjørn lift his gaze from the pages in his hand to Arsiein, who stopped speaking immediately. A dangerous chill was suddenly in the air.

  Sigbjørn shifted his stare to me, placed a small smile on his face, and stretched out his hands. “Come, young one, show me.”

  I stood still.

  Fear was in me because I did not understand. Why was he acting so differently from everyone else? Didn’t he hear Theseus? I had…I had hurt—no, I had killed Theseus, his son, a member of his family. He should be ripping me part. He should be locking me up or something.

  “I would rather not be on the other side of Theseus’s rage once he awakens,” he said to me. “Even now as he dreams, he dreams only of you.”

  I hung my head, that ache, that burning in my chest returning, and I shook my head. “I don’t…I do not understand. Why would I hurt him? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Which is why I wish to make sense of it.” He lifted the notebook for me to take, and now I think I feared it more than I feared him. What if I found out I was some—

  “Blood-drinking monster?” Sigbjørn asked with a grin.

  And for whatever reason, his indifference to the fact that Theseus was currently unconscious, wounded by whatever spell I had done and tried to undo, bothered me.

  “How can you be so—relaxed!” I cried. “Obviously, something is wrong here. But your biggest concern should be Theseus! Whatever it is in that book is irrelevant! You should be locking me up, questioning me. At least, for God’s sake, glaring at me like your mate. I am—”

  “Did Theseus tell you I killed my first mate and my second?” he questioned me at random, his head cocked to the side, his pure-green eyes watching me coldly. “The first thought to betray me, for she did not know the extent of my gift. The mere thought enraged me to such a point that I ripped her limb from limb and set her ablaze. The second, well, the second wife had a child who sought to kill Hinrik, and thus, I killed them both. I felt no guilt for either of them, for I had not loved them. In my long eternity, I have taken many lives, some for the good of my lands, others for the good of myself, and some for no good reason at all. Thus, had I believed you were my enemy or a true threat, Druella, you would have died at my hands before ever registering a thought.”

  He stepped forward, giving me the book. “Whatever actions you took against Theseus, against all of us, I am certain it was not for harm. But should I, for the first time, be mistaken, you shall be dealt with swiftly. Does such action satisfy your desire for punishment?”

  In a bizarre way, it did.

  So, I took the book from his hands, staring at my name, my real name on the front in crayon—Druella Zirie Omeron. I flipped open the first page again, and the words were still there.

  My name is Druella Zirie Omeron,

  I am eight years old,

  I am from Bymoor, Virginia.

  My dad is Dovev Omeron.

  My mom is Zirie Omeron.
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  They are gone, so Uncle Axel takes care of me.

  He teaches Simone and me magic.

  Simone is my best friend.

  We learn magic because we are witches.

  I am a witch.

  Witches protect witches from the monsters.

  I will protect us from the monsters.

  But all monsters aren’t monsters.

  Cuz I met a monster.

  I think he is nice. He saved me, but when I tried to see him, he was gone.

  He doesn’t know, but I tagged him, so I can find and thank him.

  “Monster, monster, stay longer, stay longer, shine bright all night, like the moonlight at midnight for a witch’s sight,” I whispered that part again and looked at Theseus.

  But he was no longer in Ulrik’s arms. He was now lying on the couch in the corner of the library. Rhea sat on the end of the couch next to him, and I knew it was wrong, but I was little—

  Jealous. Sigbjørn appeared in my mind, and I looked back over to him. His eyebrow rose, and the corner of his mouth turned up slightly. She taught me such emotion. None alive can eclipse Theseus, not even her own wishes. But that is a conversation for another time. Come now, read, Druella, we must go on even as he sleeps.

  I nodded, also noticing everyone had come back around, except for Rhea. They were all still tense, clearly unsure of what to make of me now, but I assumed they trusted Sigbjørn and were now around me. I focused back on the pages, flipping them, and noticed there were pages ripped out, but that was less important than the words that were clearly on the page but somehow jumbled and dancing off each page. When Sigbjørn had held the book, there was nothing there. Now, in my hands, it was as if every letter had been dumped onto the page at random—every word jumbled and confused.

  How was I supposed to read this?

  Undo the magic. The silvery voice of a woman I did not know came to mind again. She popped up whenever she wanted to, her voice like a whisper in the wind.

  How do I undo the magic?

  She did not answer because she obviously had other pressing things to do and preferred just to come and go as she pleased! Okay. What did I do last time? A spell. A spell to undo whatever magic spell was on it. What was I supposed to say?

  “Hidden pages…Show me the phrases?” I cringed at how bad that was. Nothing happened, either, nothing except for Ulrik snorting. I looked up to him, and he bit his lips together. Melora elbowed him so hard it caused strands of her slicked, short, black hair to fall forward. She nodded for me to go on as Ulrik glared at the side of her face, and when he glared, he glared from within an inch of her face, entirely in her space, and she ignored him.

  Their playfulness helped but not by much.

  Sighing, I looked back down.

  “Words unseen, written before I was teen…” I paused, not sure what to say next, the words leaving me. And feeling all of their eyes on me didn’t help. I didn’t want to do this right now. It was all so freaky. Why was this happening? Why was this always happening to me now? I couldn’t even be a normal vampire!

  “You know what, forget it. I can’t do it. I haven’t taken a course in spells. Or at least I do not remember! I am too upset to think of one magically.” I grumbled, tossing the book onto the desk. “Besides, aren’t grimoires supposed to listen to their witch or something. Mine wants to mess with me. And I want to set it on fire!” Instantly, the book went up in flames, and my eyes grew wide.

  “No!” I screamed, grabbing it. I felt the heat for a second before it went away, and when I glanced down, it was already a pile of ash in my hands.

  Oh, no, no, no!

  Shit!

  I stared at it in horror and shock before looking up to Sigbjørn, his face void of any emotion, and I wondered if I would be joining his first and second mate. He opened his mouth to speak, and I closed my eyes, wishing I had never touched this stupid book to begin with.

  “I do not wish to rush you, sister, but homicidal witches are hiding in wait about our country,” Arsiein stated impatiently.

  When my eyes snapped open, I saw Atarah elbow him. Everyone was now around me, everyone, and Rhea now stood beside Sigbjørn.

  “Druella?”

  At his voice beside me, I jumped away. When I turned, there was Theseus, his gray wolf-like eyes staring down at me in concern, his chiseled jaw right in my line of sight. I spun toward the couch, but of course, he wasn’t there, so I looked over all their eyes. They were now looking at me like I was part of their family again. One by one, even Rhea’s gaze was softer. It was only when I met Sigbjørn’s gaze that I saw understanding. He watched me slowly, reading my face.

  “You went back,” he whispered, and I could only nod.

  “I went back,” I agreed, my eyes still wide as I looked at the grimoire, which had gone back to disguising itself as a February 21, 1663 sermon. No, it had never undisguised itself because I had traveled back in time to before I had touched it—as I’d wanted to.

  “Went back?” The sound of Theseus’s voice caused my heart to ache. “You twisted time again? Why? What happened?”

  I could not even look at him. I just stared down at the grimoire, my hands at my side, not wanting to open it again, not wanting to hear this truth again.

  “But you must,” Sigbjørn spoke. I kept my head and my mouth closed. “Druella, we do not keep secrets from one another in this family.”

  How could anyone with you in everyone’s minds?

  Precisely. It is a burden, for sure. Nevertheless, it is how we are. We trust one another with the truth even when it’s uncomfortable., for the secrets we keep can become weapons in the hands of our enemies.

  “What if the truth is a weapon in my hands!” I snapped, looking at him. My eyes were now stinging as I fought back my anger, my frustration, and my tears. “I did not want any of this. I was fine in my little apartment, in my little city. I wasn’t hurt, and I wasn’t hurting anyone. No one was after me, and I knew who I was. I was fine!”

  “Druella, speak to me. What is the matter?” Theseus asked, gently reaching for my hand, but I flinched, moving away and shaking my head.

  If you will not speak the truth, I shall, Sigbjørn’s voice stated in my mind.

  I just looked to him, wanting him to give me a break and seeing that he wouldn’t. His face was harsher now than in the past.

  Do you not trust him? Do you wish for him to hear from his father, in front of his whole family, that his long-awaited mate betrayed him—

  “I did not!” I hollered, and the library shook so hard that a few books fell from the table and the shelves around us.

  Again, I froze, everyone shocked except for Sigbjørn and me.

  “Father, I beg of you”—Theseus turned to him—“have these conversations aloud.”

  “For the sake of my library, at least,” Hinrik muttered, looking over his fallen books with concern.

  “I have said all that needs to be said to her,” he replied, his gaze now fixed.

  Theseus sighed, frustrated at this. “I do not understand what is happening.”

  “Oh, goodie, and here I thought it was just me,” Atarah stated. When she caught almost all of our attention at her poorly timed sarcasm, she shrugged. “I wished to break the tension, but I see I have failed. So, I shall be silent again.”

  “No, you did well.” Arsiein smiled at her.

  “You would say she did well if she belched between every word,” Hinrik stated, causing Ulrik to laugh and what a laugh, his whole chest moving with it.

  “Must you be so loud?” Melora grimaced, plugging her ears with her finger, but Ulrik tried to pull her hand away to laugh in her ear.

  As they laughed and joked, my shoulders relaxed a bit, not entirely, though, because of Theseus, who watched me with a pained expression on his face. Even when I was trying not to cause him pain, I still caused him pain.

  I opened my mouth to speak, but the words were heavy, and I hung back. “I went back in time, Theseus, because I bu
rned the grimoire.”

  “You burned it?” he questioned.

  I nodded, messing with my hair a bit.

  “Why did you burn it?” he pressed.

  Forget it.

  I would just tell him.

  I’ll rip the bandage off.

  After taking a breath I didn’t need, I met his gaze again. “I burned it because I was mad and frustrated…and…and worried about you.”

  “About me?”

  “Yes!” I snapped. “When I touched the grimoire, it said my name was Druella Zirie Omeron. There was a spell in it, and when I said it, you shone, then you were in pain, but you said your memories were coming back. Before you collapsed, y-you said… You said I took your memories and that I killed you. And I…” I shook my head over and over again, the tears I was holding back finally coming forward. “I don’t remember what I did or why, but I hurt you, and I’m so sorry.”

  I was so happy my heart was dead because I was sure it would be pounding. I wanted to run far away—

  “Why do you look so pained? There is a reasonable explanation, I am sure.”

  My head snapped back up. When I looked into his eyes, he smiled down at me and reached over to cup the side of my cheek, using his thumb to clear the tears from my eyes.

  “What if there isn’t?” I asked.

  “There is,” he replied.

  I sighed, pushing his hand away. “Theseus, have you ever thought that you might be too trusting!”

  “I do believe this is the first time any being, mortal or immortal, has ever said such to me.” He grinned.

  “I am serious!”