Fangs, Fate, & Mondays (The AzRIO Files #1)

Chapter 1

FRIDAY

IN WHICH DESSA IS DEFINITELY A FAILURE

She’d left her hometown of A-Springs at eighteen in a storm of grief and failure, only to return in much the same manner. Except now, she was twenty-three without the college promise of a fresh start to catch her.

Ugly, hot tears flowed from her criminally puffy eyes as she drove by the house she’d grown up in, the “sold” sign still planted out front while elementary-aged children shot hoops in the driveway.

The happy scene just added insult to injury.

Dessa couldn’t even cry her way home anymore.

Instead, she drove to the RV camping ground on the border of the state park. An amalgam of aromas flooded the car—jasmine, citrus, and petrichor—the scent of a dozen different magics jumbling together, marking the territory of the paranormal community.

Thick trees crowded the road, and beneath their branches, Werewolves raced after each other in all three forms, changing seamlessly between overgrown wolves, their two-legged beast forms, and young, laughing humans.

The lane approached the lake where a Vampire couple strolled in their usual formal attire—the man in a day suit and the woman in a long green dress.

The woman held the man’s elbow while he brandished a parasol over them both, their expressions hidden behind dark glasses to protect them from the vestiges of the sunset.

In the shallows, a gaggle of children splashed and squealed, but by the way the water wriggled in finger-like waves, it was safe to say there was at least one Magicker among them.

Dessa sniffed and wiped at her nose, her mouth curving in a reluctant smile.

These were sights a Nescient—a human ignorant of the paranormal world—would’ve skimmed over, their inflexible minds explaining away the extraordinary as a trick of the light.

But for her, it was a sign that she was back in the only town she’d ever called home.

Which was like taking a blender to her already mixed feelings. Especially considering that she’d both left and now returned to this place with a broken heart. At this point, she was ready to take out the pieces and skip them across the lake.

Palm trees and a lush green lawn lined the drive as she searched for her parents’ recently acquired RV.

At last, she spotted the maroon-and-white vehicle shaded beneath a thick copse of palms, her smiling mother waving her down from a lawn chair beneath the RV’s extendable awning.

Aglow with joy, her mom shouted something at the RV, and her dad stepped out with an identically huge smile stretching across his weathered face.

Dessa waved at them in turn, drinking them in for the first time since Christmas nine months ago.

Even at a distance, she could tell they were a world away from how she’d left them her senior year.

The four decades of long hours they’d put into their food truck had finally paid off, and now they were on the first step of their lifelong dream of traveling the country.

Though her mother’s hair was more gray than brown now, and her father was completely bald, both of them with the padded bellies of joyful lives, they were at last opening a brand-new chapter.

A bright, dreamy one that promised laughter, adventure, and plenty of well-earned rest.

It was something to smile about.

Which only made this annoyingly harder.

I will not cry. She sucked in deep lungfuls of her car’s stale air.

She could not cry. Not when her parents were so happy.

She wasn’t going to burden them with the dumpster fire that was currently her life.

A brave face was necessary here, one that would free them to start the journey they’d always planned.

There was no reason to tell them about Aiden or the start-up, because that way, they could leave with the confidence that she’d be fine here.

Somehow. Dessa threw her old Toyota into park and straightened her shoulders before getting out of the car and pasting on a smile.

“Dessa Blue! My baby’s home!” Her mom ran to her with open arms while her father jogged behind.

Dessa’s lips twitched. Though she’d deserted that nickname and her signature blue-tipped hair when she’d left for college, here she would always be Dessa Blue.

She barely took a step forward before her mother’s strong arms wrapped around her in a bear hug.

In another second, her father’s arms folded her in too.

“My goodness,” her father said, his voice thick with emotion. “It’s so good to see you, sweetheart. The McKinneys are back together.”

And apparently, that was all it took for Dessa’s noble plans to dissolve into a blubbering, sobbing mess.

“Oh no!” Her mom held her at arm’s length while she exchanged a knowing look with her dad. “Come here, baby, and tell us all about it. What happened?”

“N-n-nothing.” Dessa scrubbed at her face with her hoodie sleeve and tried for a wobbly smile. “Just emotional about coming home, I guess.”

Her mom parked her in a lawn chair in front of their campfire and raised an eyebrow at her dad. Running an anxious hand over his bald head, he blinked his big owl-like eyes three times before finally clocking the hint. “Right. Let me, uh, get us some hot tea.”

With her father trundling off, her mother pulled up her own lawn chair and took Dessa’s hand, fixing her with a warm brown gaze. “Baby, Aiden’s mom called me and told me the whole thing.”

“Nooo.” Dessa hid her face in her hands with a groan. “Why would she do that?”

Though, in truth, Dessa didn’t have to ask why.

When her mom and Britney Phillips met on college graduation weekend, they bonded instantaneously.

Britney and her mom had cooed and fantasized about future wedding plans and grandchildren and family trips.

After spending the week together, they’d already declared each other besties-in-law, and Dessa was well aware they’d even started a virtual book club.

Still, the bomb had only dropped two days ago, and she hadn’t exactly expected Aiden to spill all the details to his mother within the first forty-eight hours.

“Britney said her ‘idiot son’—her words, not mine—told her he’d cheated on you with your start-up’s project manager, and you called the wedding off.” Her mother rubbed Dessa’s shoulder as her dad placed two steaming mugs of mint tea on the side table. “She was worried about you.”

“That about sums it up.” Dessa picked up the hot ceramic mug and blew out a long breath, the air mercifully cool for the first day of a Florida October. How was it that the catastrophic derailing of her whole life could be boiled down to one sentence?

“How did you find out?” her mom asked.

“In the classic way…” Dessa stared into the dark ripples of her tea. “They were working late on a pitch, and I dropped in to surprise them with dinner, only to find her in his lap with his tongue down her throat.”

Now she’d have to live with that stupid memory for the rest of her stupid life. Like seriously, if he was going to be a jerk, couldn’t he have just sent her a breakup text and spared her the retina scarring?

Her father swore as he settled into the chair on her other side, and her mother squeezed her knee, leaning closer. “Poor baby. What did you do?”

“What could I do? I stormed in, and they jumped apart. Then I slammed my engagement ring on the table and said they could have it, my resignation, and my half of the bed. Luckily, our apartment is tiny, so I didn’t have much to sell, and then I packed the rest and drove down here.

” Dessa squinted at the last rays of sunlight stretching across the blue water, so jarringly beautiful against the unsightly backdrop of her upturned life.

“You’re done with the start-up, then?” her dad asked, the frown sagging deeper into his round face. His impossibly blue eyes, the same ones he’d given to her, shone with gentle worry.

Dessa nodded, the fresh pain of it stabbing into her.

After all, she and Aiden had built their eco-accounting business from the ground up.

It was their little brainy heart-child. They’d poured everything into it, and there’d been so much potential.

Over the last year, they’d put in ten-hour days, seventy hours a week, and they’d been so close to making it fly.

“It’ll be okay, baby,” her mom said. “I always thought you worked too hard anyway. You just take a break while you get your feet under you again. I’m sure there’ll be tons of folks looking to hire a crack-shot finance manager. And Aiden, well…”

Pain flashed across her mother’s soft features, and Dessa winced. She and Aiden had been engaged for over a year and had dated for two more before that. Her parents had taken him in like a son, so losing him had to be a blow for them as well.

“He didn’t deserve you,” her father said, his voice gruff. “Good riddance to him, and he’d better hope not to cross me on a dark street.”

Dessa had to smile as she leaned into her teddy bear of a father. Her dad wouldn’t take on a feral chipmunk, much less a human being, but the words were comforting all the same.

“I’m sure he’ll live to regret it.” Her mom sipped her tea, the deep brown of her gaze swirling thoughtfully in the firelight. “But don’t you worry, we’ll stay parked right here as long as you need, baby.”

Dessa snorted, already feeling better as a cacophony of frogs welcomed the dusk with their chirrups and belches.

Here, a world away from New York City, from Aiden, from her old work, she could pretend she wasn’t that betrayed person anymore.

Like everything had happened to someone else.

It was the same trick she’d pulled off six years ago with at least some amount of success. All she needed was a distraction.

A really, realllllyyy good distraction.