by Laken Cane
Stolen
By Laken Cane
Copyright © 2019 Laken Cane
All rights reserved.
Dedications
To the ones who shine a light into the darkness.
Fight on.
PLAYLIST
1. BAD THINGS (Meiko)
2. JUNGLE (X Ambassadors)
3. ANGELS OR DEVILS (Dishwalla)
4. DESIRE (Meg Myers)
5. HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN (Five Finger Death Punch)
6. JEKYLL AND HYDE (Five Finger Death Punch)
7. DEEP BELOW (Mama Kin)
8. INTO THE WILD (LP)
9. CLOSER (Nine Inch Nails)
10. DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS (Disturbed)
11. FLESH (Simon Curtis)
12. BLACK & BLUE (The White Buffalo)
13. HOPING (X Ambassadors)
14. LET GO (Beau Young Prince)
15. WRONG SIDE OF HEAVEN (Five Finger Death Punch)
16. BREATHING UNDERWATER (Emeli Sandé)
17. CHANGE ON THE RISE (Avi Kaplan)
18. BLOOD // WATER (Grandson)
19. SAY SOMETHING (A Great Big World)
Pronunciations, etcetera:
-Ricci: REE-chee
-Triganoth Deorthorak: Trig-uh-noth Dee-ORTH-or-ak
-Vogdris: Vohg-dree
-Bhorn: Born
-CIA: Council on Interdimensional Access
BOOK ONE (Marked) RECAP:
*The Edgefield Slayers series is an urban fantasy reverse harem.*
Main players and secondary characters (in no special order):
Krista Lennox—Bloodspeller. Our ass-kicking, demon-slaying, born exorcist heroine.
Maggie Lennox—Krista’s daughter.
Michael Lennox—Krista’s ex.
Asa Flynn—Exterminator, works for Kyle Ricci, completely loyal to Krista. Her heart.
Luke Lawson—Silverspeller. Demon slayer, dangerous exorcist whose past is a mystery. One of hers.
Talon Delacorte—Moonspeller. Youngest of the Edgefield slayers, animal lover, empath.
Barbie Keller—Firespeller. Demon slayer who is fearless, loud, rude, and mean as a two-year-old.
Triganoth Deorthorak—Demon lord who marks Krista. One of her loves.
Stella Bishop—Krista’s wealthy childhood friend. Dog rescuer. She seems to know everything—and what she doesn’t know she can find out.
Amy Berry—Michael’s girlfriend.
John Archer—Krista’s dad.
Beth Archer—Krista’s mom.
Kyle Ricci—Asa’s employer, owner of Ricci’s Pest Control.
Vogdris Rozas—Demon lord. Krista mistakes him for Trig in the church.
BLURB for Marked, Edgefield Slayers book one:
When her world is invaded by an influx of demons, slayer Krista Lennox calls upon something even worse to help her defeat them.
Too bad he's more inclined to cause her trouble than to fix her problems. And too bad he thinks she's...interesting.
As the city begins to lose hope and Krista's situation becomes dire, she knows two things for sure.
Magic is not enough.
And time is running out.
RECAP of Marked, Edgefield Slayers book one:
Krista gets into a whole lot of trouble when she discovers she’s one of those rare exorcists who can be possessed by demons. When she’s hurt in Roseshade and Asa carries her—and her demon—across the lines, the lines break and the demons pouring through the broken veil begin to rush from the village—and into her world.
Needing help, she summons a demon lord—Trig. He is fascinated by her and marks her so he’ll have an easy and guaranteed way back into her world whenever he wants to appear.
Because a possessed demon slayer can be overpowered and her power stolen and used to kill humans, Krista will be imprisoned—and likely killed—by the council (CIA, Council on Interdimensional Access) if they find out. She has no choice but to keep it to herself and hope she can figure shit out.
Talon manages to surround Edgefield with the magical lines, and the slayers combine their power to call the demons into the city, where they will be trapped, hunted, and killed.
Luke Lawson is forced to end her when he discovers that she’s carrying a demon—which can’t be exorcised from a slayer—but Trig comes at the moment she “dies” and saves her life. Because Luke hits her with his magic, killing her, her demon is expelled.
Trig sends the help Krista’s daughter needs to rid herself of the horrible bhorn, saving Maggie’s life, as well.
The council repairs the huge tear in the veil, and all is well…
Until now.
In Stolen, book two of the Edgefield Slayers series, Vogdris the church demon is back.
And the slayers may not survive his return.
Blurb for Stolen:
A dangerous enemy returns and threatens the city and everyone Krista loves, and the only thing that might stop him is sacrifice.
The question is, whose?
When a powerful demon lord discovers he has the ability to steal souls to gain power, Krista Lennox and the Edgefield Slayers must face a darkness like they've never known to protect the city's most vulnerable humans.
Surrounded by the men who love her and beginning to accept the desires of her heart, Krista embraces her life—hard battles, hot nights, powerful magic…
And dangerous darkness.
Is she strong enough to resist the darkness, or will she finally surrender to its seductive call?
Table of Contents
Dedications
PLAYLIST
Pronunciations, etcetera:
BOOK ONE (Marked) RECAP:
Part One
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Part Two
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
Epilogue
From Laken:
About Laken Cane
Laken’s books:
Part One
1
“Unfortunately, you must take responsibility for your crime, and you will be sentenced here today. You must be punished. You do understand.” The man who spoke was thin and balding, with a mournful, unsmiling face and a disappointed stare.
Krista stood with her hands behind her back, calm, silent, resigned. She’d known from the moment she’d summoned a demon lord, gotten possessed, and broken the lines of Roseshade—and worse, kept it from the Council on Interdimensional Access—that her time of reckoning would come. Still, she couldn’t help the spark of anger that caused her to open her mouth, despite her determination to stay silent and compliant. “Keeping me from my daughter for three weeks—that isn’t punishment?”
The one woman on the CIA board leaned back in her chair. “Oh, Slayer Lennox, no. That is not punishment. Being stripped of your power, your freedom, and your duty and spending the rest of your life in isolation is punishment.” She smiled as Krista paled.
Krista tried to swallow but her throat was too dry. “Could I get some water, please?”
The woman—Mrs. Anne Smith—gave an abrupt nod, and one of the aides standing at the back of the large room poured water from a frosty pitcher and then hurried forward to hand Krista a brimming glass.
She took a
long drink, muttered her thanks, and then handed the nearly empty glass back to the aide. The thirteen council board members stared impassively from behind the wide table, patiently waiting to continue with what was hopefully the end to a long, stressful—at least for Krista—hearing.
They’d come to fetch her from her house early one morning three weeks earlier, transferred her to CIA headquarters in Virginia, and had held her ever since. They’d taken her phone, put her in a cell—a comfortable and rather large room, but still a cell—and refused to allow her visits, calls, or mail.
The only outsider she was permitted to see was her counselor, Kyle Ricci, who stood beside her as she waited for her sentencing.
Asa had convinced him—somehow—to support her, and Kyle had done a good job. He’d stood at her side during the questioning and had kept her from feeling so alone as she’d faced the people who held her fate in their hands.
As Ricci was in the life, and also an ex-attorney, the council was willing to approve him. Asa had applied to be her rep, but they’d turned him down flat. He was her boyfriend and could not be part of the proceedings.
She was given an update once a week about her daughter Maggie, but she hadn’t seen or talked to the girl since the day CIA ops had come to pick her up.
She missed her badly, but she didn’t really worry about her. Maggie had Asa, Talon, Stella, and Barbie looking after her. Luke Lawson, as well, though he did his looking after from afar. Krista hadn’t seen him since he’d driven out of Edgefield, leaving her and the city behind.
But not forever.
The mournful-faced man—Mr. Alfred Jones—picked up a stack of papers and tapped them on the table. “Yes, then, Ms. Lennox. We appreciate that you were so forthcoming and honest during these last few difficult weeks. We realize you did not deliberately set out to become possessed or break the lines or free the demons from Roseshade. But keeping that from us and carrying the demon to the humans was deliberate. Had the demon taken control of you and your power, many human lives would have been lost. Many lives.” He paused to don a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles and give her time to reflect upon the gravity of her appalling mistakes.
Kyle put his arm around her shoulders. He said nothing, but he was there, and that was enough. Krista tried to smile at him but was pretty sure she failed miserably. Her face was frozen.
She had no idea what they’d do to her, but she didn’t think they’d be exceedingly rough. No humans had died because of her demon, which would give them the flexibility to be lenient. She just wasn’t sure it would give them the desire to.
Jones cleared his throat. “Krista Avery Lennox, born exorcist of Edgefield, the Council on Interdimensional Access sentences you to Darkwell Correctional Institution for a period of five years.”
And it was like she heard a gong of doom echoing through the room.
She swayed on her feet. There it was, then. Five years in a dark prison cell. Maggie would be eighteen years old by the time she was released.
But before she could sink too deeply into her despair, Smith spoke. “We are willing, however, to make a deal with you. Complete successfully a certain task—community service, if you will—and we will forgive you your crime, commute your sentence, and leave you free to serve your city.”
Kyle squeezed Krista’s arm. “Details, please,” he said, when she could not speak.
Five years.
It could have been worse, of course. The council knew everything that had happened, except for two things. And both of those things would get her into hot water with the council.
After she and the other slayers had joined power and called the demons into the city to be trapped and killed, something had changed inside her. She seemed to have retained some of that demon-calling ability.
It wasn’t strong, but it was there. She felt it like an eyelash stuck in her eye. And she liked it about as much. Finally, she’d tested the theory by focusing on calling demons—nothing had happened, not at first. But then, a possessed human had hurried toward her, frowned in confusion, then turned to run away. Apparently, she needed to be close to the demon in order to attract him.
Heart beating hard and fast, she’d put that particular nugget of information away and hadn’t tried again. She’d told no one.
In training, one of the professors had told them about an exorcist from 1850 who’d had the ability to steal magic from anyone who touched him with their power. Anyone who shared it with him. He’d gone nuts and began attacking humans to get slayers to go after him. And when they fought him, he took their power. The more he took, the more he needed. Eventually, he’d literally exploded, but not before leaving a trail of death in his wake.
And she’d become terrified that she was just like him.
Maybe it wasn’t true. Maybe she just absorbed a little something extra and that was that. But if the CIA found out, they’d take control of her without hesitation.
They also didn’t know she’d summoned a demon lord.
There wouldn’t have been a trial for that. There’d have been one day of accusations, and then they’d have carted her off to Darkwell—a place a hell of a lot less cozy than her current lodgings. For life.
Oh, they knew about him, of course. They knew a demon lord had come into the city, had attacked her, had marked her face.
But they didn’t know she’d made herself a target by calling him in the first place.
She didn’t regret the summoning. If it hadn’t been for Triganoth Deorthorak, Maggie would still hold her horrible bhorn. The demon lord had saved her life.
Still, the council would not have been sympathetic or indulgent. Not about that. She was half afraid to even think about Trig for fear they would read her guilty thoughts.
And as though they had, Mr. Jones removed his glasses and sighed. “There’s the matter of a demon lord,” he said.
“Shit,” Krista whispered. Had there been a chair behind her, she would have collapsed into it.
“Ms. Lennox,” Smith said, concerned despite her sternness, “are you quite all right?”
She wet her lips. “Demon lord?” she murmured.
“Ah,” Jones said. “Indeed.” His stare landed on her scarred face. “You understand the dangers of such an evil power.” He pursed his lips and gave a tiny shudder of disgust. “It is one reason we think you might be able to help with the problem. You were marked by one of them.”
They didn’t know, then. They didn’t know she’d summoned him. If they had, she wouldn’t have been standing there. They also didn’t know she wore Trig’s ring, a ring that had melted into her flesh and had become impossible to remove. It was as much a part of her as the mark on her face.
She straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath, and forced herself to get a grip. “What exactly is the problem?”
“Two days ago,” Jones said. “A demon lord began killing children.”
She put a hand to her chest. “My God. No.” She glanced at Kyle, wondering why he hadn’t told her.
“He doesn’t exactly kill them,” Smith said. “And he is not attacking only children. He is attacking pureness. He is drinking from them. Drinking their blood. And when he does, he makes them—”
“Zombies,” Jones interrupted, a bit dramatically. “He takes their blood, and he leaves mindless shells behind. He won’t weaken whilst stealing the souls of children.”
“He is making himself more powerful,” Smith said, “and we believe he is gearing up for some battle in the underworld. He doesn’t care about the children, of course. He will leave them wandering lost and alone in the red-dark once he’s achieved his goal.”
The red-dark.
She shivered as a cold chill swept over her body. She hadn’t heard that term since she’d been a child in the CIA’s academy. The red-dark was the demons’ world. Most people just called it hell. Hell was the red-dark.
“We need you to track him, kill him, and bring us his head,” Smith said. She leaned slightly forward, her stare intense
and dark. “And we need you to bring us the one who summoned him. You won’t have long, as the demon lord will begin absorbing the souls and they cannot be saved when that process begins. Destroy him before he absorbs the souls, and you will not spend one second inside Darkwell.”
Krista stiffened as she understood what they were really telling her. “You know I will likely fail. Even if I somehow succeed in killing a demon lord whose power is growing by the second, finding his summoner will be impossible. You want me to work for you, and then you want to imprison me anyway.” She looked at each of them. “Admit that, at least.”
“Ms. Lennox will do everything she can to kill the demon lord, find his summoner, and save those children,” Kyle Ricci said. “But for the attempt, we would like her freedom. Not for the success of that attempt.”
“We stated our terms,” Smith said. “You will have your freedom for the next few days. Use your time wisely, Slayer. We do not doubt your abilities.”
“Then free me to do my job,” Krista said. “Or put me in jail now.”
Kyle nodded in agreement.
“Are you refusing the tasks, Ms. Lennox?”
“No. I am agreeing to do the job in exchange for my freedom. Pardon me, and I will do my absolute best to bring you the demon lord’s head and find out who summoned him.”
Although yes, she’d feel a bit guilty about that, seeing as how she’d done the exact same thing.
Smith stood and gestured at the two men standing against the wall. “Take her to holding, so we can prepare for her transfer to Darkwell.”
Krista closed her eyes, then stiffened her spine and stared them down. “How long do I have?” she asked. “Can I least say goodbye to my daughter?”
Smith gave her a grim nod but didn’t meet her stare. “Someone will bring you a phone.”
The two bailiffs grasped her arms and led her from the room, and Kyle followed behind. “Krista…”
She shook her head. “No. It’ll be harder on Maggie if I go home just to run around the city trying to kill a demon lord for a few days. I don’t want her to have to watch as I’m either killed by the soul-stealer or hauled away by the council.”