Free Tricks & Treats: A Romance Anthology by Alexis Abbott, Candace Osmond, Kate Robbins, JJ King, Katherine King, Ian Gillies, Charlene Carr, J. Margot Critch, Kallie Clarke, Kelli Blackwood Page B

there. I accepted this calling instead.”
    “Then it called you for a reason.”
    “Yes.”
    “But you also chose to accept it,” she points out. “If I were you, I'd remember that.”
    “I will.”
    “Okay, I'm ready now.”
    “Everything is about to go dark,” he explains. “Darker than a dreamless sleep. Let the darkness take you. Drift into its embrace. Imagine it's guiding you along the current of a cosmic river, a current you've in fact been on your whole life. It will lead you to the great beyond, the glittering shore that awaits you there. I'll be by your side until the first light of the great beyond flickers across the darkness. When I leave, others will take my place to help guide you the rest of the way. They may be souls you've encountered. Family and friends and animals you've known on your earthly journey. That is the end of my domain and the beginning of yours...”
    Moments after he leaves her to her fate, he's already intensely curious about his next assignment. His next rendezvous. It's another woman. Blythe is her name. And though he's never met her, he can feel the touch of destiny awaiting. It's a sense that maybe something even more extraordinary can happen. If he lets it.
     
    The End

 
     
     
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    Story Four
     
    Eyes Have Seen by JJ King
     
    Katherine smoothed the red satin dress over her hips and turned to take in her image in the full length mirror. She grinned.
     
    Thanks to her cousin Damien, her chin length auburn hair had been temporarily darkened beyond recognition to a deep onyx black that shone beneath the lights in her bedroom parlor. It had been slicked back, severely, emphasizing the cut of her cheekbones. With the help of more makeup than she’d ever used in her life, she’d highlighted and accentuated some parts of her face and blended others into the background until she looked like a different version of her normal, more casual, self.
     
    The dress she’d chosen was perfection and not at all what she would normally choose for an elegant affair like tonight. With her flaming red hair, she often went for deep blues, royal purples, and her personal favorite, emerald greens. Tonight, though, in honor of the masked ball her parents were throwing to celebrate Halloween, she’d stepped outside of her comfort zone and chosen to wear a deep red satin gown, one that hid very little of her attributes.
     
    She looked like sin itself, she thought, smoothing her hand over her flat stomach. This new century was proving to be quite entertaining, if only for its advances in fashion. Thank the Old Ones she was finally interested in fashion. A hundred years ago she’d spent most of her time dressed as a boy when in her human form.
     
    That was one of the best things about her parents, she thought, they had never pressured her to adopt societal norms, although her mother had regretted not getting to dress her little tom boy in beautiful period dresses. The early 1800’s fashion in France hadn’t been too bad, she remembered, but her hatred of all things haute couture had arisen early with the advent of bustles and corsets. Wolves did not enjoy corsets.
     
    Her wolf liked this new style very much, mostly because the slippery fabric skimmed her body and could slide right off with a minimum of effort. Plus, it felt nice on her skin.
     
    Katherine reached for the lipstick she and Damien and painstakingly picked out to perfectly match the shade of the dress and carefully applied it, careful not to get any on her teeth. The result was stunning. She looked like a completely different woman.
     
    Maxwell wouldn’t know what hit him.
     
    If they were human there’d be no