The Lemonade Stand has spent so many years bringing you the best the Twilight fandom has to offer, and we are very excited to have the chance to offer you even MORE. We've watched stories grow and develop from first post through COMPLETE, and now we're lucky enough to share previews of the stories that will soon be your new addiction.
When fandom favorite MrsSpaceCowboy mentioned she was working on 'a scary little something' for Halloween, we couldn't wait to showcase her efforts! The author of legendary fics like The Give Away Girl, Down Home, and Rest My Soul, is breaking away from her norm and giving us a horror fic. Are you brave enough to join us as we read The Sonoran Inn?
Banner by Lizzie Paige
The Sonoran Inn by MrsSpaceCowboy
Summary: Somewhere, just off an Arizona highway in the Sonoran Desert, there’s an inn carved into the rocks. The owner and her staff are beautiful and eager to please… until it’s time to leave. There’s no way out, and beauty is skin deep.
This is not a love story.
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I’m a “sunshine and rainbows with a sprinkle of angst for good measure” kind of girl. Those are the stories I like to tell. Most of the time.
Then there are plot bunnies like this one that hit with the force of a blunt object and make me WTF myself. Horror? How did that happen? Well, it started a few years ago with a contest I couldn’t write for at the time, and then, like so many of my other stories, there was a song.
So here we are.
The Sonoran Inn is not a love story. The villainess of this story doesn’t want a redemption arc. She is unapologetic, and that’s okay. This story isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay, too. There will be non-canon pairings. There will be character death—yes, major character death—because this is not a love story. The first chapter(s) will post Sunday, and the rest will follow over the next few days. We’ll wrap up on Halloween.
Have a spooky week, y’all.
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They rented surfboards in Santa Cruz and caught waves bigger than any they’d ever seen at La Push or Westport. Edward’s pasty skin bronzed as the days passed, and his dark hair lightened under the sun. Girls in bikinis and moms in swim dresses approached the boys if they stayed on the sand too long, so they spent as much time as possible in the water.
And at night, Edward would take his phone and walk out to the patio chairs next to the hotel pool and call his girl to say goodnight. Once or twice, he had to soothe her through ugly bouts of vomiting and longed for the second trimester to hurry. They’d been told she might feel better then.
Edward was counting on it, because he wanted her there when he graduated from boot camp. He wanted to take her to a hotel that night and bend her over every piece of furniture in the room and then fall asleep with his ear against her belly.
He tilted his head back and listened to the waves licking at the beach, inhaled deep briny gulps of air, and stared at the stars as he listened to her talk about her days. The dirty looks. The judgmental stares.
“Fuck those people,” he told her. “We’re going places, you and me. Eventually, I’ll be able to request where we live. We’ll have beach babies and forget rainy Forks ever existed.”
“Sounds good to me,” Tanya replied. Then she dropped the phone to throw up again.
The guys pulled out of Santa Cruz early the next day and hit every beach they could until they woke up days later, shortly after noon in San Diego with eleven days left until showtime.
“I’ve got an aunt in Tucson,” Jasper said. “Ever been to Arizona?”
Edward shook his head, and they tossed their duffel bags into the backseat and hit the road instead of the waves. The sun began to sink as they sped through Yuma, kicking up dust and pointing at odd, phallic-shaped cacti and gorgeous tile-roofed cottages in every size and color. The dummy light kicked on a few miles outside of Gila Bend, so Jasper eased the Jeep off the highway at the first Love’s Travel Stop along the way.
The sky was golden pink in every direction when Edward’s feet hit the concrete next to the gas pump. He reached for it and stretched on his toes. Then he twisted his neck back and forth and grinned.
A tiny brunette in tinier denim shorts peeked around the pump and eyed him from head to toe. Edward smirked and nodded. “What’s up?”
Her red lips curved into a wide grin, and she lifted her sunglasses to rest on top of her head. “Hi.”
Edward swiped his card and waited a few moments before keying in his PIN. He lifted the nozzle and hit the button for regular unleaded. Then he waved at the cutie and followed Jasper inside to take a piss and maybe grab a candy bar.
A pleasant floral and berry scent hit him in the candy aisle a moment before a soft voice greeted him. “Where are you headed?” the brunette from outside asked after reaching for a bag of Sour Gummies.
“The clouds,” Edward replied. His eyes dropped to the edge of her calf and back up to her creamy thigh. He plucked a Snickers from the display and turned on his heel, willing his dick to cut him some slack.
She followed him through the store and over to the short line at the register. “I’m Isabella,” she said.
He glanced back. “Edward.”
Jasper saved him by cutting between them with his arms loaded with candy and sodas. “It’s going to be a long night, and some guy in the shitter said the next gas station is on the other side of the desert.” He noticed Isabella and lost his train of thought at the sight of her cleavage against the orange tank top that clung to her slim waist. He licked his bottom lip, and Edward’s hand twitched at his side.
Edward shoulder-checked his friend to turn him around so they could pay and hit the road. His head cleared the second he breathed in fresh air. The harsh smell of gasoline greeted him back at the pump. There was a small puddle next to the back tire of Jasper’s Jeep.
A tall guy in swim trunks and Chacos popped his head around the tank. “The auto-shut off failed,” he said with a shrug. “Sorry I couldn’t stop it sooner.”
Edward groaned when he saw the charges but reached out to shake the stranger’s hand. “Thanks, man.”
“Anytime.”
Isabella’s perfume danced on the breeze. “Let’s go, Felix,” she said, folding her tiny frame around her companion’s thick side. “I want to get back before dark.” Felix nodded and checked the ties on a tarp covering the back of their rusty, old pickup truck. Isabella turned to Edward and smiled. “Be careful out there,” she said. “The desert can get a little weird after dark.”
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Remember to put MrsSpaceCowboy on alert. The Sonoran Inn starts posting October 27, 2019.
