by Raven Steele
"Where's Kristen?" I asked.
The tall man smiled and spoke in a French accent. "First thing first. It's nice to meet you, Aris. My name is Bastian Chenote. I worked with your father in what feels like a lifetime ago. He was a great man. I was thrilled to learn his son still lives. I think we can do great things together."
There was something about Bastian, a power that emanated from him. I could practically feel it, much in the way I felt the heat from the sun's light.
"And how exactly did you know my father?" I asked. I glanced at Victor in time to catch his fingers curling into fists.
"Jonas helped me with an important project while it was in its infancy," he said. "I hope to continue that work soon."
In the distance, Kristen was escorted out of a boat, sandwiched between two men gripping her arms. Her head was slumped forward, her hair covering her face. The men practically carried her as her feet shuffled along the wooden planks.
My heart dropped into my stomach. I moved to help her, but the sound of several guns cocking stopped me.
"Don't even think about moving without our permission," Victor growled.
Bastian looked between Victor and me and then down at his wristwatch. "It's been lovely to meet you, Aris. I hope we can work together soon. I'll have my people contact you soon."
"And who are your people?" I asked, trying to learn as much as I could about this new stranger.
"You'll know them when they find you." He turned to Victor. "Take care of this tonight. My patience has worn thin."
Victor grimaced like the words had caused him harm. "It will be done."
Bastian walked by me without another word. The woman trailing behind him slowly looked at me in passing. Her haunting gray eyes, the color of an old gravestone, seemed to suck me into a smothering darkness that filled me with hopelessness. My legs grew weak as I forced my gaze downward.
Victor chuckled. "She has that effect on everyone. You'll learn not to look her in the eyes."
I cleared my throat, shaking the dread from me.
Victor looked past me, his eyes trailing Bastian as he disappeared into a limo at the end of the pier. "I don't know how you're alive or where you've been, but I wish I would've known. Things would've turned out so differently."
"Just let the girls go," I said, glancing at Kristen. She still hadn't lifted her head. "We can talk after."
His left eye twitched as he regarded me steadily. "Kristen kept you from me. She lied to me. I can't just let that go unpunished."
"You will not harm her," I said.
"Let's go for a walk," he said and turned toward the ocean.
When I didn't move fast enough, one of the guards slammed me in the back with the butt of an AR-15. I stumbled forward until I fell in step with Victor.
"I didn't believe it was you," he began, "even after you left my house. Kristen has been a very convincing liar all of these years."
His eyes flashed toward her as we approached them. She lifted her head and stared at me, her eyes sad. Her right eye was black and swollen and her lip was split. Despite Victor's warning, I rushed toward her and shoved the two men away. She collapsed into my arms, and I held her tight.
"Hold your fire!" Victor shouted at his men. He looked back at me. "Let her go, Aris."
I slowly looked at him, taking in his whole body. He’d taken her and tortured her. Even now, her body trembled against me, weak and helpless. He would pay with his life. "I will kill you for this."
"I don't think so." Victor nodded at the two men at the end of the dock by Emma. One of them withdrew a knife and held it to her throat. Its shiny metal surface reflected the moon's light.
"Let's finish that walk, shall we? I would hate for things to get messy."
Rage overwhelmed me, and I curled my fingers into fists, still holding my only family close to me. It was my fault she was hurt, all because I hadn’t prepared myself enough. I needed to be faster, stronger, to kill Victor. And she suffered because I couldn’t commit to my true destiny.
I looked up at Victor. I wanted to beat his face in, slit his throat and watch the life force drain from his eyes.
Growling low in my throat, I gently placed Kristen on the dock and whispered in her ear, "I will be right back. Everything is going to be okay."
She didn't have the strength to look up at me.
Taking in a breath to calm my raging heart, I met Victor across the way, and he guided me down the dock toward Emma. He stopped in front of her.
"Meet Aris," he said to her. He snatched her arm and jerked her to me. "Although I have a strong feeling you two already know each other."
I pulled her to my chest, needing to feel her touch one last time. Heart pounding, I leaned down, brushing my thumb over her cheek. "Are you okay?"
She searched my eyes, and I felt fire coming from behind those glossy orbs. "I always knew it was you."
I sucked in a breath, feeling the ground shaking beneath my feet. And yet, she stood straight and proud, a rock of strength. My chest burned, the connection between us fusing us together. I loved her and nothing would ever change that.
Closing my eyes, I pressed my mouth to her ear, breathing in deeply. She smelled like squeezed lemons and sugar. "No matter what happens to me tonight, know that I will never leave you."
Victor ripped her from my arms, and I tried to clasp her to me, just one more time. But he continued to pull her away. I turned to stare him down.
He met my gaze with cold, steel eyes. "Consider that a courtesy. So you know what's at stake if you try anything against me."
He continued to walk, motioning with his hand for me to follow. I reluctantly walked after him. He didn't stop until he reached the very end away from everyone else. We stared out over the ocean. Moonlight left a silvery trail across the watery darkness.
"I don't know how much you've been told about your past," he began, taking a gentler tone, one I had never heard from him before. "But I want you to know that I loved your mother. She was the most incredible woman I had ever met. Her only fault was falling for a narcissistic asshole. Jonas had always been that way. Confident, self-assured, even cocky. I think that's one reason why Daisy fell for him in the beginning. He believed the world was his, and he could accomplish anything. But then he took V, and those qualities were amplified. He couldn't control the power."
I glanced back at Emma. Her arms were wrapped around her body, and she was visibly shivering. She wore only a t-shirt and short shorts like she had been taken right out of bed.
Victor continued speaking almost as if to himself. "This city was bleeding under his control. He stopped listening to me. He stopped listening to Daisy."
I shifted my gaze to Kristen. She had moved to her knees, but was still slumped over. I needed to get them out of here.
"Do you think you are doing a better job?" I asked.
His jaw muscles bulged. "I'm doing what must be done."
"And flooding the city with drugs and crime is necessary?"
He turned and looked at me. "It's better than the alternative."
I snorted and shook my head. "What could be worse than torturing and killing people?"
His expression darkened, and he leaned toward me. "You may think I'm a monster, but you have no idea. The evil growing out there would make skin suits out of people like you and me."
A cold chill broke on my skin. "What do you want with me?"
He exhaled a long breath as if he had been waiting forever to say his next words. "Your presence has given me hope. I want you to join me."
"That will never happen."
"But it must." He turned back and looked at Emma. "You will do it for her. I've seen how you look at her. I recognize the emotions behind it."
Emma was watching me, her eyes sad. She was shivering uncontrollably now.
"I will do it," I said, knowing that whatever vow I make won't matter in a few minutes. "But on one condition. You must let them both go. Kristen only did what she thought was best fo
r me."
He shook his head. "I wish I could, but I have my orders. She must be punished, and you need to see it so you will remember what happens to those who go against me."
I growled, stepping towards him, but he moved away from me. He looked behind me, snapping his fingers. One of the men grabbed a fistful of Kristen's hair and yanked her head back.
"Stop!" I shouted, turning towards her. "You've hurt her enough!"
I ran towards her, but Victor grabbed me. I yanked out of his hold, desperate to get to her. I ran a few steps but Victor was on me again. This time his hold on my arm was like a vice, squeezing it tight. I nearly dropped to my knees from the instant pain.
Kristen's eyes shifted to mine. "I love you, Aris," she whispered, knowing I would hear her. "Remember who you are. You have a good heart."
“No!” I screamed. I fell to my knees, trying to crawl to her. Victor kicked me and pain exploded in my stomach. I looked up at him, willing to beg if it was necessary. "I'll do anything! Whatever you ask!"
"Kill her," Victor said to his men, his expression cold as he stared down at me.
I jerked up as hard as I could, shaking free from his grip as I landed on my feet, and sprinted to the man holding Kristen's head back. He raised a knife high above her. I was close to passing Emma. Tears spilled onto her cheeks. I was too far away to get to Kristen in time and everyone knew it.
The knife came down and slashed across Kristen's neck. Blood spilled from the wound and ran down the front of her white shirt. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but the words never came. Her eyes glazed over. The man behind her shoved her head forward, and she fell face first onto the old, dirty boards.
Rage surged through me like never before. The darkness I had been taught to repress, I now embraced. Raw anger burned through my body, pumped through my blood until my mind exploded with fierce, uncontrollable power. I lunged for the two men near Emma first and snapped their necks before anyone realized what was happening. Then, as gently as possible for the way I was feeling, I tossed Emma into the water between two boats where she would be safe.
Bullets whizzed by me as I ran down the dock toward the man who had killed Kristen.
"Don't shoot him!" Victor's voice roared, but they didn't listen. They recognized the look in my eyes. None of them would live while I was still breathing.
I zig-zagged to avoid the bullets spraying through the air. One tore through my calf. Another drilled into my shoulder.
Just before I reached Kristen's murderer, I dropped into a roll and grabbed the dagger from my boot. I came up in front of him and stabbed it into his gut. I jerked upward all the way to his chin, filleting him wide open. Two more bullets drilled into my back. The one closest to my heart hurt the most.
Victor was still yelling, screaming at his men to stop.
I lunged for the next guard, slashing my knife across his throat. Blood sprayed the air in front of me. Blind with rage, I jumped through it and moved to my next victim, stabbing him into his ear.
I didn't need to become a vampire to become a monster. I just needed to get pissed off.
Another bullet pierced my thigh, and another plunged into my chest. I violently killed two more men while warm fluid filled my lungs. I gasped for air and dropped to my knees. Blood poured from my open wounds and puddled onto the wooden planks. I stared down at it as it ran through the cracks and into the water below.
Victor ran toward me, his hand outstretched. "Leave him alone!"
The Physician appeared at my side and pressed the barrel of a nine millimeter to my head. "We don't need him that bad."
I glanced toward the boats where I had thrown Emma. She had climbed up a ladder and was peeking over the edge, her hand to her mouth in horror.
If only I could have told her the truth. This was not the end for me. But it was the end of us. I would never put her life in danger again.
A loud crack filled the night air and pain exploded in my head. I fell over sideways, and my eyes closed. I expected it to be a quicker death, but I could still hear everything going on around me.
"You fool," Victor growled at the Physician. "You will pay for what you've done."
The Physician chuckled. "Bastian won't care. We already have what we need."
"Cops are coming," an unfamiliar voice said. "What do you want to do with all the bodies?"
"Leave them for the police," Victor said. "None of this is our concern anymore."
My mind began to fade as an approaching darkness snaked its way through my body. I could feel it all over, stretching as if it had woken from a long winter nap. It was cold inside me and wrapped around my heart. Was this death or me becoming a vampire?
The faint sounds of footsteps walked away from the pier, but someone remained. The presence was dark and familiar.
"If only I had found you sooner,” Victor said, close as if he were right above me. “Things would be so different. I'm sorry I failed you and your mother. I wasn't strong enough."
There was a moment of silence, then he turned and left me alone while the blood of the dead dripped into a sea of filth.
The darkness inside me grew, smelling of sulfur and burned corpses. I didn't struggle against it.
The time for being a hero has past. A monster must be born.
This was my destiny, after all.
* * *
The End
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Continue on to book two, A Monster's Birth
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“The only monster you need to be afraid of is the one inside of me.”
Aris Crow returns to Coast City not as a hero, but as a powerful vampire determined to kill the dark creatures who destroyed all that mattered to him. But, as a monster himself, he'll have to conquer his own demons and also unite with old enemies if he has any chance of saving his city.
"Tread lightly and be prepared for things you think you know to smack you in the face with what you don't know." Amazon Customer ★★★★★
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Other books by Raven Steele:
Raven Steele is a coauthor pen name for Rachel McClellan. You can find her many other books on her website at RachelMcClellan.com.
The Devil Series
The Original Series
Fractured Light Series
Unleashed Series