Shadow Realms- The Complete Series

by Kelly Carrero

  Max spun around and tore across the compound’s grounds, heading toward the boundary where there was a gaping hole in the fence and two men and a woman stood in front of a black van, hands outstretched and bolts of blue energy pulsating from them, keeping the black smoke at bay.

  They had to be witches.

  Blue light meant good, right?

  Bounding through the broken fence, Max rushed past the freaky, hand-glowing people and slipped into the open door of the van, collapsing onto the floor, holding me tightly against his heaving chest.

  The three unknowns followed us a second later, and the van rumbled to life, its tires screeching as it pulled away from the curb.

  “Is she hit?” a familiar voice said, reminding me we weren’t alone.

  I rolled my eyes to the side, confusion sweeping over me as my gaze landed on not only Kade, Mason, and Finn, but also my father, who was out cold in the back corner with a cast reaching halfway up his forearm.

  Max swept my hair away from my face, stealing my attention from my family, tenderly caressing my cheek with his fingers. Blood soaked through his shirt from a bullet wound just below his collarbone, yet here he was, worried about me.

  “I think she’s okay.” Max adjusted me in his arms, his body going rigid as his hand swept across my back.

  Pulling his hand out from under me, his face paled as he stared at the blood coating his hand. “Kali’s been hit.”

  “Shit,” both Finn and Mason said, in unison, Kade remaining unusually quiet.

  “No,” I mumbled, trying to shake my head but wobbling it instead. I tried to tell him I was fine and he was the one who had been hit—multiple times actually. It was his blood on his hands, not mine.

  The woman with long blonde hair, who had shot blue lightning from her hands to aid our escape, hurried over to me as Max slipped his hand under me again and readjusted me, pulling my face closer to his chest, exposing my back to the unknown woman.

  “She’s got a bullet wound to the right of her spine,” she said, lifting up my shirt.

  “Did it pass through?” Finn asked, shifting closer to me.

  Max lay me in his lap and lifted my shirt, exposing my skin up to my bra. He shook his head. “No exit wound.”

  “The bullet is still in there,” the woman said. “We can get it out when we reach camp, but until then, keep your hand clamped over the wound.”

  Camp? Nothing about what was happening made sense, least of all the fact that they were claiming I had a bullet stuck in me when I didn’t feel it.

  Trying to move my hands to my sides so I could lift myself into a sitting position, I sucked in a sharp breath as I realized I couldn’t move and there was a very real chance the bullet was the cause.

  The woman shone a small flashlight at Max’s shoulder. “You’ve been hit also.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Max said, dismissing her, his gaze remaining on me, piercing my soul with the sheer intensity in his eyes.

  She grabbed the hem of his shirt and peeled it down. Blood trickled out from a hole in his upper chest, further damaging his already scarred body.

  Finn wrapped his hands under me and drew me into his arms. If I had control over my body, I would’ve punched him in the gut for ripping me away from Max.

  Instantly, I felt guilty over my thoughts. Max needed attention, and he wasn’t going to get that while he was cradling me against his chest.

  The man with glowing hands knelt beside me and placed a first aid box on the floor. “Let’s take a look at it.”

  Rolling me over, Finn laid me onto the floor of the van.

  Feeling humiliated at being treated like a baby, my gaze landed on Mason—or more so, what Mason held in his hand for me to see.

  His hiking bottle.

  He quickly undid the lid, letting the aroma of the vampire blood hit me. “Want some?” he mouthed.

  That was the stupidest question of the century. I needed that blood like I needed air, deprived of the very thing that kept me alive. My insides begged me to consume, feed the beast within.

  Mason shuffled forward and placed the bottle against my lips as the others attended to my wound.

  He gently squeezed the bottle, shooting a spray of blood into my mouth.

  My eyes rolled back as the blood coated my tongue, pulling me into the euphoria of the hit, the ecstasy that filled my soul with every drop I consumed.

  Within seconds, I could feel my energy return, once again gaining control over my body as I ravenously feasted on the life of the damned.

  “What the hell?” Finn said.

  “It’s closing up,” the male voice said. “Hold it open, Finn. I need to get the bullet out.”

  Although I couldn’t see what they were doing, I could sure as hell feel Finn pulling at my skin and the pain radiating through my back as whoever the hell this brown-headed guy was, tried to get the bullet out.

  A second later he said, “Got it.”

  The pressure around the wound disappeared as Finn fell back into a sitting position and shook his head at me. “You’re healing way too quickly. Next time, maybe lay off the blood until we’ve gotten the bullet out.”

  I barely registered his words as I consumed the tainted blood, feeding my soul with the very thing I craved above all else.

  “I think that’s enough,” Mason said, pulling the bottle away from my lips.

  My hand shot out and wrapped around his wrist. “More.”

  He shook his head. “You need to keep some for later. I’m not sure how many vampires there are where we’re going.”

  “We’ve only got one so far,” the man said. “We weren’t expecting Kali so soon.”

  Expecting me?

  The fact that I was surrounded by people I trusted was of little comfort. I had no idea who these other people were, where they were taking me, why Lana wasn’t with them, and most of all, why Max had essentially kidnapped me from the cause he had sworn his life to.

  19

  With every second that passed as the vampire blood flowed through me, I could feel my energy return until I was at full strength. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for Max. His face was pale, and the area surrounding the bullet wound was covered in smoky lines.

  I pulled myself into a sitting position, no longer needing any assistance. “What’s wrong with him?” There were a million more questions I needed answers to, but this one was the most pressing. To see Max in this state was like someone was squeezing their hands around my heart, ready to rip it out at any given second.

  “The bullet must’ve been laced with a spell. We need to work on a spell that will counteract this one, but first we must figure out what it is,” the man said.

  The woman ran her fingers over the web-like pattern around Max’s wound, making him wince in pain. “I think I might know what Orphelia used, but we’re going to have to stop the car.”

  I wanted to kiss her.

  The thought of anything happening to Max was crippling. “Then stop the car.”

  “No,” Max said through gritted teeth. “We need to get you as far away from them as fast as we can.”

  “If we do that, you’re as good as dead.”

  “Keep goi—”

  “Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” I said, jumping to my feet, my chest heaving with anger at how easily he was willing to put my life above his own. That was just stupid. And selfless. But mostly stupid. Because I wasn’t sure I wanted to live a life without him, the man I had loathed, the one who had wanted to rip my throat out the first time he met me, the one who had saved me, and the one who’d captured my heart.

  I rushed forward and put my hand on the driver’s seat. “You better stop this car before I make you.”

  “Kali,” Finn said. “Max is right. We need to get you to safety. We all knew what we were risking when we agreed to this mission.”

  Ignoring Finn, I pressed my hand against the driver’s neck, curling my fingers around him, and squeezed hard enough to let him kno
w I would snap his neck if he didn’t do what I said. “Stop the car.” My voice came out with authority that left no negotiation.

  The driver nodded, pools of sweat forming on his brow.

  I snapped my head to the cabin of the van just as I saw Finn and Kade standing, glancing at each other, concocting a plan to take me down. “You two are going to get your asses kicked if you so much as try to stop me.”

  Mason chuckled. “You better listen to the woman. You know how crazy Kali gets when someone stands in the way of protecting those she loves.”

  Crazy didn’t even begin to describe the fury that consumed me when they were talking about letting Max die. That shit just wasn’t happening while I was—

  I froze as Mason’s words hit me, fear striking me to my core as I realized Max had heard my brother declare my love for Max. I wanted to see the look in his eyes, to know his reaction, but at the same time I was scared he didn’t feel the same way.

  “Do what she says,” the woman said, breaking me from my thoughts.

  Now wasn’t about the way Max did or didn’t feel about me. It was about saving his life.

  The driver kept going then pulled onto a small dirt track a quarter mile up the road, stopping under a thick blanket of trees, hiding us from anyone traveling on the road.

  He killed the lights and got out of the car.

  Ignoring the hammering of my heart, I kneeled down, slid my arm under Max’s arm, and lifted him to his feet as the driver opened the back door.

  Kade supported Max on his other side and helped him out of the van.

  “Lay him down there, against the tree.” Blondie pointed to the trunk of an old gum tree.

  Max groaned as we sat him down, careful to position him so he wouldn’t fall over. He looked so weak, and all I wanted to do was rip the bullet out and give him blood. But that wouldn’t help Max. He wasn’t vampire-gifted like I was. His healing abilities came from Orphelia, and it seemed she also had the ability to screw him over, temporarily stripping him from the powers that previously allowed such wounds to be inconsequential.

  As I slipped my hand away from his back, Max caught my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, sending a flurry of questions through my mind, none of which were important right now.

  “You can’t be touching him,” the woman said. “There needs to be a clear separation between his energy and yours.” She quickly added, “Or anyone else’s.”

  Letting his hand slip from mine was torture, and I hoped to high hell I would once again feel his hands wrapped around mine—or some other part of me that also didn’t matter right now.

  The woman kneeled and grabbed a fistful of dirt, letting it slowly slip through her fingers over Max’s legs. Then, she placed one palm against the ground and her other on Max’s shin. Her eyes glazed over into a pearly white, muting the color of her irises.

  A small tremor erupted around her. A few moments later, a shimmering ice-blue light spread across the ground, up the tree, and snaked its way around Max.

  My heart leaped into my throat as I watched in a mixture of awe and fear at the display of magic before me, hoping whatever she was doing would undo that of Orphelia’s spell.

  Kade came up beside me and dropped his arm over my shoulders. “He’ll be fine. Nessa will fix him.”

  Nessa. I had a million questions for Kade about who this Nessa was, what they were doing with these people, and why they’d broken me out of the compound, but for now, all that mattered was Max.

  He had to be okay.

  This was the second time he’d risked his life for me, and I wanted to punch him or kiss him for being so stupid.

  That bullet had most likely been meant for me, not him. Or maybe the both of us.

  A fine spray of that blue white magic rained down over him, covering his body in a shimmering mist of light.

  “Now,” Nessa said.

  One of the other men kneeled beside Max, holding a set of pliers in his hand. He pressed his hand against Max’s shoulder and plunged the pliers into the wound.

  Max’s face twisted in agony, his teeth clenched, wincing in pain, and I would’ve done anything to take that away from him.

  “Got it,” the man said. He ripped the bullet out of Max’s body and placed it into a small sample jar he had ready. He put down the pliers, twisted the lid on the jar, and held it up for Nessa to see.

  “Just as I thought.” She took the jar from him and studied the slimy green bullet inside before turning and handing it to Finn. “This was most likely meant for your sister. It’s a binding spell that would’ve trapped her within their grounds.”

  That would be right. Orphelia never wanted me to leave. She wanted to trap me like a caged animal, completely at her mercy.

  I’d been shot by a bullet, but somehow, I was lucky enough for it not to have been one of Orphelia’s, which seemed more than a little strange.

  Confusion swept over Finn’s features. “Why would they risk killing Kali if they need her?”

  Nessa stood. “It wouldn’t have killed Kali. Only prevented her from leaving them. It didn’t work on Max because he didn’t already have the other half of the spell inside of him.”

  My eyes widened in realization. “Is that what that smokey green shit she shoved down my throat was?”

  She nodded. “And that’s what we’ve been slowly stripping from you with the little amounts of blood we could smuggle into your cell.”

  My mind exploded with questions. Who was this woman, and how did she know so much about me? Why was she risking her life to save me? But before I got a chance to open my mouth, she said, “We need to keep moving. The spell I cast to hide our location will start wearing off shortly, which means they’ll be onto us soon.”

  20

  Kade and Finn helped Max back into the van, and we continued down the road, heading to who knew where.

  I sat on the bench seat that ran along the side of the van, military style, with Finn keeping an eye on our drunk-ass father, who was still passed out on the floor and had no idea what had just gone down. I guess he’d somehow slipped some more alcohol into himself without any of them noticing. The guy wasn’t above any form of alcohol. Once he’d even downed a whole bottle of hand sanitizer during a hospital stay. This time, it had probably happened on Finn’s watch, as he hadn’t been around to know just how low our father would sink to get his fix.

  Max was laying on the other half of the floor leaning against the back of the passenger cabin seat, the color slowly returning to his face. Mason sat beside me, and the witches lined the bench seat opposite me.

  My gaze darted between the three. “I think it’s about time someone tells me what’s going on.”

  Nessa nodded. “I understand this will be a lot to take in and I know you will undoubtedly have a lot of questions for both me and your friends, but I will try my best to explain what I can. We are members of the Circle of Embers, the true keepers of the demon huntress descendants. We come from a long line of mages who have sworn our lives to protect the ones that will banish the demons from this world.”

  My mouth dropped open as my face scrunched up in confusion. “Hold up. Did you just say ‘the ones’ as in there is more than one?”

  “That is correct. Contrary to what you have been told, you are not the only one. There are many descendants of the great huntress. You are but one, be it the first in a long time that showed promise during your early years.”

  Eyes widened, I stared at her in disbelief. “So there are more like me?”

  She nodded.

  “And you’ve known what I am since I was little?”

  “Correct,” she said. “When it came to light that you possessed not only the markers but also your powers had started to ignite, we placed a spell on you that would bind your true powers and identity until your eighteenth birthday. Your mother was instructed by the coven to disappear, take on a new name, and not say a word to anyone about your true identity. Then return when you had awoken.”

 
“A what spell? And you’re saying that my mother knew what I was?”

  “We bound your magic until you were old enough to possess the power needed to defeat the demons,” she explained. “And yes, your mother was a very powerful witch whom we suspect met with foul play.”

  The world spun around me as her words circled my mind on a never-ending loop. My mother was a witch, and she knew who I was. My gaze darted to the drunken man passed out on the floor.

  Finn leaned forward and rested his forearm on his bent knee. “If you’re wondering if he’s your father, the answer is yes.”

  Mason chuckled. “Believe it or not, he carried the gene of the huntress, coupled with Mom’s, and you were born.”

  My mind was blown. I thought I knew it all, and clearly, I was still very much in the dark. Then again…

  I snapped my gaze back to Nessa. “How do we know we can trust you?”

  A warm smile spread across her face, softening her hardened features. “Because we’re not the ones trying to contain you. The supposed prophecy about you having to wait until your eighteenth birthday for you to open yourself to the huntress is a lie. You already are exactly who you were meant to be, only we’re missing the one item that can prematurely break the spell we bound you with when you were an infant.

  “The Society needed to keep you bound, waiting until the exact moment the spell became ineffective, allowing one of the demons to slip into you during the split second that your soul would reopen. Then they would be in possession of one of the most powerful beings to ever walk this land.”

  Holy. Shitballs.

  I wanted to believe everything she said, but after trusting Lana, her parents, and Orphelia, I was having a hard time accepting what anyone said at face value. People lied. People had ulterior motives.

  “You don’t believe me,” she said. “That’s fair. Neither did your brothers or their friends.”

  Finn’s expression hardened. Then he nodded. “She’s telling the truth. Nessa finally found Mason and me when we were in the hospital. They’ve been trying to track all of us down for years.”