Fangs and Fur- Beta Read Along
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2025 by LA Magill. All distribution rights reserved for the exclusive use of Wicked Women LLC.
Dili yelped and flung herself away from the strange voice. She whipped her head around to see a tall, gaunt, and pale figure gliding through the open door behind her.
The witch stumbled further back, away from the intruder. She pressed her hand over her pounding heart. Her throat felt too dry to speak, her chest too tight to breathe.
By contrast, Toad sauntered after her, appearing quite relaxed considering the heavy tension in the air. He butt his head against her legs again and began to purr.
Dili couldn’t take her eyes off the intimidating stranger, but instinct made her knees buckle. She scooped Toad up in her arms—thankfully, he didn’t try to evade her that time—and she held him close.
His familiar weight instantly soothed the fear making her pulse race, but…
He felt too cold in her arms.
His fur felt unusually silky soft.
And when she finally tore her wary gaze away from the stranger, she looked down into new blazing green eyes and extra long, extra sharp fangs.
Time seemed to slow for a second, and everything else in the world faded away. Dili felt her own heartbeat pounding in her jugular—and felt nothing but pulseless cold between her hands.
Shock froze Dili to the spot, wiping out her fear. Toad pushed his head against her unmoving hands, asking for affection, but all she could do was stare, dumbstruck, into the vivid green eyes of her definitely dead cat.
Toad blinked, and mewled at her, using that cute, higher-pitched sound he reserved for polite and proper guests. Clearly, the faithful familiar had no concerns whatsoever about his wellbeing or about the unwanted intruder.
Dili lifted a hesitant finger and stroked Toad’s head. The cat purred loudly, blinked slowly at her, and snuggled up against her chest.
She pet her familiar twice more, then gently set him on the kitchen counter as fury replaced her shock.
The witch trembled. She reached sideways and grabbed whatever she could get her hands on. Clenching the iron handle of the pan, she slowly pivoted to face the towering gaunt figure who had followed her into her home.
The mountain breeze tugging at them through the open door pulled long white-gold hair from the hood of the intruder’s cloak. It fluttered over skin so completely perfect, so impossibly pale.
The vampire grinned, not bothering to conceal the two long canines that looked eerily similar to Toad’s new fangs.
“Good evening, I—”
Dili hurled the cast iron pan at his face from close range before he could utter his name.
The vampire, though clearly starved, snatched the pan from mid-air with blindingly fast reflexes. It looked small in his grip, even though his fingers, hand, and wrist looked extra bony.
“Rather unnecessary, don’t you think?” he asked, sounding bored.
“You. Turned. My. Cat!” Dili screamed back at him.
The vampire chuckled, a deep sound that sent fresh shivers down her spine. He dropped the pan, and it clattered to the floor. He advanced just one step, lightning quick and whisper silent, and before Dili could do anything about it, he closed the space between them.
Too close.
She backed up involuntarily and bumped into the edge of the kitchen counter. She couldn’t help it.
The vampire gave her no quarter, following so close it made her skin crawl. The cold oozing off his skin chilled the air. His breath could have frosted her cheeks.
Sparkling green eyes appraised her—the same neon green as Toad’s new eyes. She didn’t want to meet that unbearably similar gaze, but she couldn’t turn her head and offer her neck. Not to a vampire.
Dili did her best to hold eye contact without focusing on the details. The less she knew about the vampire, the less he could slide inside her mind with his blood magic, and she felt she already knew too much.
So, she refused to acknowledge just how long those fangs were, even though he rudely shoved them in her face. She wouldn’t scrutinize his bone structure to guess at his ancestry. She ignored the scent that lingered on his skin.
But she couldn’t help noticing his lips—palest pink, though they looked so dark against such skin. So soft around such sharp fangs.
Dili gulped, and the vampire leaned down, pressing even closer.
“Your familiar sought me out and asked me to turn him,” the vampire said. “Which made me wonder… what do you want?”
Magic imbued his deep voice that time. As the words filled her ears, phantom feelings licked across her skin, imaginary tastes teased her tongue, and false pheromones tempted her reason.
Dominus venator.
She may not have had her composure, but she had everything she needed to counter a common cast already in her pockets. She snapped her fingers, and broke the vampire’s spell.
The vampire hummed his curiosity as the broken spell washed over her with no effect, a sound that was strangely more appealing to her than the sensory illusions he’d cast. It sounded low and sultry, so deep as if… he was purring.
Over her.
“Well, well, well… It’s been a long time since anyone rejected me.” He bit the edge of his bottom lip with the tip of his fang. “Are you single?”
Dili sneered up at the vampire. “Get out of my house, or I’ll exorcize you.”
The vampire bent down so his face was level with hers, and only an inch apart.
“You will try,” he whispered.
The arrogance in his deep voice triggered rage Dili hadn’t felt in centuries. Power she kept buried underneath layers of civility and compassion welled up inside her. Every inch of the witch’s body prickled, as if her skin burned with the fire she felt within.
“This is your last warning,” she snarled.
The vampire’s eyes bore into hers. He licked those eye-catching pink lips slowly.
“I know you’re lying. I can smell your—”
Dili smashed her palms together. Orange lightning sparked between her hands and rippled over her skin until the magical element encased her whole body.
For one satisfying moment, Dili saw shock wipe the smug expression off the vampire’s face—and she really saw him.
The slope of his strong jaw went slack as his pink lips parted. She noted the stubble along his jaw and the hints of shadow along his upper lip, several shades darker than the fine hair that was either the blondest-white or the whitest-blond; she couldn’t decide. Wisps of those platinum locks framed severely hollowed out cheeks. His pallid skin stretched tight over a long aquiline nose and protruding brow. Thick eyebrows arched high as his black pupils contracted into paranormal slits. Surprise made his horrible green eyes glisten, but it couldn’t wash away the sheen of desperation of all hungry things.
He was unquestionably beautiful, and she hated knowing it.
“Get out!” she screamed.
The lightning convulsed around her once, then shot forward from her joined palms straight at the vampire’s chest. Even with his supernatural speed, he could not avoid the direct hit. The orange bolt rocketed the vampire out the back door, past the garden wall, and hurled him off into the darkness, leaving behind only the lingering sound of his dismayed shout.
Dili panted and slumped onto the kitchen floor. It had been over a decade since she had to cast an epic spell, and the effort nearly knocked the wind out of her.
Tendrils of the orange lightning curled up from her skin before dissipating into the air. It would surround her home in a protective shield for a few days. She just hoped that would give her enough time to figure out how to get rid of the beautiful, starved, and absurdly audacious vampire for good.
Next chapter coming Friday, August 22.