Affinity (Halfblood Club Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Carnival: Esmerelda

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  About the Author

  When Esmerelda is exposed as a siren by the elven council, her family moves to protect her. Her talent of Affinity turns her into the dream lover of any male she allows to approach, so they decide to make her choices for her.

  The first two lovers they select are duds, one elf has another woman in mind the whole time, and the other... shudder. The third lover is a bit of a surprise—two men.

  Boral and Orlyn have been friends for hundreds of years. All they are looking for is a woman to take them both on. Will Esmy give in to the temptation of two handsome elves, or will the human morality of her mother’s people send her running for the hills?

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  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Affinity

  Copyright © 2017 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-4874-1451-1

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

  Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

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  www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

  Affinity

  Half-Blood Club Book 2

  By

  Viola Grace

  Dedication

  To anyone with a close group of friends. You know, the ones that you can see every week or once a year, and it is like you were never apart.

  Carnival: Esmerelda

  Esmy wanted nothing more than to hide in her room. Her grandmother had just visited, and the sheer power of her personality just wore Esmerelda out.

  Hiding her developing elf characteristics was exhausting, and Esmy wanted a nap and a soda, preferably in reverse order.

  “Esmy. Get down here.” Her mother’s voice was stern.

  She groaned and pushed herself out of her nest of bedding. With a grimace and a grunt, she stomped downstairs.

  “What, Mom?”

  Her mother was standing with a grim smile on her face and her purse over her shoulder. “Get your shoes on. We are going out.”

  Esmy pulled her shoes on and followed her mom out to the car. “Where are we going?”

  Instead of answering her, her mom asked, “Do you want me to stop your grandmother from visiting? I know it upsets you.”

  “It doesn’t upset me. It tires me out. I am changing, and I don’t want her to know. I want to keep living with you and being human.”

  Her mother sighed and drove away from their house. “I know, baby, but you aren’t human. If I could do it over again, I would still have chosen your father.”

  Esmy grimaced. “He’s handsome.”

  “He’s kind, friendly, has a great sense of humour, and some other attributes that you have inherited. The beauty is just part of it. You are half me, and half him, and I wouldn’t change that for the world.”

  “It gets harder to hide myself every day.”

  “I know, Esmy, but once you are an adult, you can control the situations you are in. You will only have to hide when you need to.”

  Esmy nodded and looked out the window. “Where are we going?”

  “There is a carnival in Seeton. I am going to drop you off, give you money and leave you there for the day. I will collect you at six.”

  Esmy blinked. “You are just going to dump me?”

  “And give you two hundred dollars. You can go on rides and just enjoy being on your own. Consider it an assignment from your human half. Go and be human for an afternoon, meet people, make friends.”

  Esmy sulked until her mother dropped her off with the promised money in her pocket, and then, she got in line as the silver vehicle pulled away.

  The voice behind her in line made her whip around.

  “What are you looking for?” A young lady with dark hair was smiling helpfully at her.

  Esmy turned to face her. “Oh, I was just looking for lemonade.”

  The girl looked at her with consideration. “Um, the lemonade stand is two down on the left. I can show you if you like.”

  Esmy blinked slowly and then smiled. “Thank you. That would be nice.”

  The girl linked arms with her and leaned in to whisper, “Your right ear is showing a little.”

  Esmy lifted her hand and smoothed the hair down around the point. It was habit already. The girl obviously knew an elf ear when she saw one. “Thanks. You know what I am?”

  “Not exactly, but I have met folks with ears like that, and they are rarely at carnivals.”

  The lemonade stand was shaped like a huge cup of lemonade, and when Esmy was sipping slowly, the girl introduced herself.

  “Hi. I am Isobel.”

  Esmy shifted the cup and wiped the condensation off her hand before she extended it. “Esmerelda. You can call me Esmy.”

  “Izzy.”

  They clasped hands and smiled.

  Izzy chuckled. “Would you like a culinary tour of the carnival? I am about to eat my way from one end to the other.”

  Esmy blinked. “That sounds more interesting than what I had planned. I was just going to wander around until my mom picked me up.”

  Izzy chuckled. “In that case, let me introduce you to the wonders of deep fried cheesecake.”

  Esmy’s mind latched onto that idea, and her stomach rumbled. Esmy laughed. “Tell me more.”

  They linked arms again and wandered up and down the food stalls until they were exhausted and looking for a place to sit.

  Esmy kept her glamour up, making sure that none of the men gave her more than a passing glance. It was the first thing that her mom had her learn, and it had been handy ever since.

  Izzy suddenly changed direction and hauled her over to an area that was sparsely populated.

  The two girls had the strange grace of shapeshifters, and Esmy wondered what the hell Izzy was hauling her into.

  Hours later, they spilled out of the carnival and went their separate ways. Esmy’s pockets held the sacred and treasured phone numbers of her new friends, and she was grinning wildly when her mother picked her up.

  “Esmy, what happened?”

  Esmy did up her seatbelt and smiled. “I met a friend who wrote a spell and another one who cast it, all while I was sitting next to an actual dragon!”

  She reached out and squeezed her mom’s hand. “Thanks for today. I think I made actual friends.”

  Her mom looked worried. “Do they know what you are, dear?”

  Esmy laughed. “T
hey are all weirder than I am! This was an amazing day!”

  On the way home, she smiled at everyone she saw, secure in the knowledge that something very new, very precious and very long lasting had just begun.

  Prologue

  Moonlit skin writhed on the silken sheets. The couple on the bed had been twisted together for hours, their magic swirling in the air around them in a wild cloud.

  His lips caressed her throat while his hips worked in a steady beat. He groaned his release against her ivory flesh as his body shuddered in completion. Councillor Wyx fell to the side of his companion and closed his eyes as he struggled to regain his breath.

  “So, my granddaughter will be tested by the council?” Isowyn fixed her gaze on her companion and arched one brow. Sweat ran down her sides and coated her willowy limbs with a fine sheen that made her glow in the darkness. Her silvery hair was tucked behind one delicately pointed ear.

  “Yes, my dear Isowyn, at the next full moon your granddaughter will be brought before the council.” He opened his golden eyes and met her steady gaze. “You do realize, however, that I am not guaranteeing her passing the tests, only that they will be administered.”

  “I understand that, Wyx, but I need her to have this chance. She is all that I have, and there is no guarantee that Erak will ever reproduce again.” She brought her lips down to meet his, and in a few seconds of duelling her tongue with his, he moved to cover her once again.

  “A pleasure doing business with you, Isowyn.” His hips rocked forward, and his turgid member slid home once again.

  She arched her back, welcoming her fey lover. This was what her kind did best. Those of the faerie were very good at sex—after all, they had plenty of time to practice.

  Her son had pursued pleasure above all, and he had presented her with a grandchild who was afraid of her own shadow. Esmerelda’s fear of intimacy was a holdover of her father’s abandonment.

  Her granddaughter needed to know the pleasures of her own kind, and Isowyn had just ensured it.

  Chapter One

  “Okay, Gran. How is this outfit?” Esmerelda Hawks pivoted in front of the mirror, her aqua silk dress flaring out at the hem then drifting to caress her legs gently once again. The scooped neck showed a hint of her impressive cleavage, but the long, flowing sleeves gave the dress a demure cast. She knew her grandmother would hate it.

  “Don’t you have anything that shows more skin?” Isowyn’s voice came through the mirror. She was always a little exasperated by her granddaughter’s choice of clothing. She prided herself on being in the height of fashion at all times. Esmerelda’s fashion sense had never ceased to cause her despair. It showed every time that they were together, and she tried to convince Esmy to let her buy her some new outfits.

  Esmy rolled her eyes at her reflection. “Gran, it doesn’t matter what I wear. These tests are only to confirm that I have the talents of a fey, remember?”

  It was amazing that a voice that was reminiscent of chiming bells could be so condescending and tense. “It always matters what you wear in the courts and clan functions. You know how appearance-fixated the fey are. You have enough of a disadvantage being born to a human without looking too much like one.” It was another of her disappointments that Esmy hadn’t taken after her father’s golden good looks. As far as she was aware, Esmerelda had ended up on the human side of the coin toss.

  “No kidding,” Esmy muttered under her breath. Then louder, “Gran, I just wanted to warn you, I am going to drop the glamour as soon as I get into the council hall. I look a little different than I did the last time you saw me.”

  “Nonsense, I am looking at you right now. You look like your mother, but you have your father’s complexion.” Isowyn was impatient now. “I will see you in precisely three hours. Don’t be late.”

  As the mirror flared and then stilled, Esmy sighed. Her grandmother had not seen her true face since she had learned to disguise it. That had been over twenty years ago. She had overlaid her more delicate features with a slightly sturdier, more human version. She downplayed her height and flattened out her figure with the aid of magic.

  The glamour she learned to use let her run and play with other children from the age of seven. No one could tell that her lineage was not completely human unless she let them see the real her. As her power grew, she took on the task of cloaking her friends in the Half-Blood Club. The group of women, which George had assembled after they all met at a county fair, felt like a second family. Each of the others had a reason similar to Esmy’s for wanting to blend in.

  George wanted to choose, not be chosen. As a dragon of impressive strength, she was a desirable mate for any of the males in the clans and councils. Her mother’s choice had been to hide her daughter from the notice of the Dragon Council.

  Arabel had mated while in dragon form then laid an egg. When the egg hatched forty years later, Graylin—George—had been born fully grown with all of her mother’s knowledge. Her father did not even know she existed, and Arabel had no intention that he ever know. His position in the High Council of Realm would make her daughter a prize for any of the shapeshifters of the dragon clan.

  Though George was physically an adult, she was emotionally immature when they met, and the girls had formed an instant bond. This was in part because, even though George was only fifteen years out of the egg, she could drive. It opened the options for travel, shopping, and mischief for the club.

  In contrast, Jinx was relatively free of obligation. Her mother, Emily, was born to a werewolf clan but left when she was eighteen to join the mundane world. As a beta female, she had the enhanced senses but was unable to shift her form to that of a wolf. Her rank in the clan was a low beta, so no one challenged her decision to leave. She took a job working in a bar as a waitress and fell in love with the bartender. Two years later, her daughter was born. Emily’s clan had no interest in the half-breed child, and aside from inviting Emily alone to the annual events and meetings, they had no further contact with the family.

  Melissande—Jinx—developed her peculiar talent at the age of ten. She could write spells. New spells. Spells that no one had even conceived of before.

  After some research, the club had figured it out. Jinx was an Archive. All magical knowledge was hers. The trick was that she could not use it herself. She could only write the spells that her friends requested or the ones that were dictated by the moment.

  Jinx had needed to hide strictly because of what she was, not who. Having her as a clan or council member would instantly give any clan an advantage over the others. Her ability to create completely new spells—never before recorded or cast—was one that was rumoured to occur every thousand years. The last Archive was locked in a room by the Magus Guild and forced to create new spells on command.

  Jinx did not want to end up that way.

  Hex was helping Jinx. She provided her with wards on all of her properties and her car. Hex was an extremely powerful witch, born to a mother who had minor talents in healing and a father who had been destined to rule his clan until he met Isobel. When Isobel turned up pregnant, Sirus left his clan to marry her. His arranged marriage was cancelled, and the rest of the Marlin family disowned him. When Izzy Junior was born, he was ecstatic. His little darling was the jewel of his existence. When she began to display hints of magical talent, he took it upon himself to teach her everything he knew. Soon, she eclipsed her teacher.

  When Hookey met her at a fair, they formed an immediate friendship, giggling and making up names that would not trigger any listeners from either the fairy or warlock councils. This let them discuss magic freely.

  With her fey hand-eye coordination, Hookey was on a winning streak that had brought them an avalanche of stuffed toys. Hex had known what she was the moment that they met, and the acceptance was a strange sensation for the half-elf.

  Esmy smiled as she thought about her friends. Hex was based on the German word for witch, Jinx because her luck seemed to be destined to be bad with men,
magic, and any government paperwork she happened to touch. She had been audited more times than anyone Esmy had ever known. George had gotten her name from the tale of Saint George and the Dragon. They had all had a good laugh at the tale, as the true history of the encounter had been somewhat skewed. The dragon had been female, and the historical George had definitely not been a saint. Enough said.

  Hex had christened her Hookey the time that the boys from the local high school had begun to flirt with them and Esmy had used her glamour to turn invisible. The boys had been startled, to say the least. Hex ended up using a memory spell that Jinx had written for just such an occasion, sending the boys on their way.

  Esmy sighed again. Watching herself in the mirror was causing melancholy. Everything ended. Even the closed-in, tight-knit group of friends. They would no longer be in a bubble alone, hidden from the outside world. They would be open, exposed, and vulnerable, and it was all her fault. Shaking her head, she checked her watch. Two hours and forty-five minutes to go. She had better be on her way.

  She got into her car. She drove a sensible navy sedan that made her grandmother cringe. Seatbelt in place, she began the two-hour drive to the Realm High Council Hall.

  Two hours and fifteen minutes later, she sat in the parking lot of the High Realm Magical Council. After turning down what most would see as a dead-end lane, she was through the quicksilver portal and in Realm. It was an alternate dimension used for centuries to hide the more exotic magical species and those who had to flee persecution in their homes. Different species had different means of arriving in Realm. Some used mirrors, and Esmy could as well if she so chose. But she preferred to drive. It took longer and helped her to steady her nerves.