by J. Thiele
“There is no need to call out, No-one can hear you but me.” A female’s voice from the darkness spoke.
“Who’s there? Are you tied up as well?” she asked the woman who responded with an evil laugh before appearing in front of her. Her fangs exposed.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“Plenty of time for that my pretty.” she said as she stepped up close enough for Kara to look into her emerald eyes. She drew her lips back and prepared to sink her teeth into Kara’s neck.
“NO please, No don’t ...NOOOOO!
###
Line of Descent
Copyright 2014 J. Thiele
Published by J. Thiele at Amazon
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places and events are either the
product of the Author’s imagination or used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments,
events or locations are entirely coincidental.
Amazon Edition License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Amazon.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
CONTENT WARNING
The following eBooks contains Adult (18+) Themes, including graphic sexual scenes and language that may offend or disturb some readers.
All characters are fictional and portrayed as mature adults 18 years old and over.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
About J.Thiele
Other books by J. Thiele
Connect with J. Thiele
Acknowledgments
Important Links
Dedication
Melissa Bell, you asked me for a vampire story, and I gave it to you in a trilogy.
This is the finale to that story, so yes, this one’s for you.
But the next one…………… ;-)
Acknowledgements
A big thankyou to these three amazing women, who tirelessly read and reread by work, correcting and swapping words to make legible for you, the reader.
Melissa Bell ~ Cover Design
Sue Denman ~ Proofreader/Editor
Michele Thompson ~ Proofreader/Editor
Melissa Bell ~ Proofreader/Editor
Thank you.
Chapter One
Casey lay in her bed after a restless night; her arm stretched out to the empty side of her queen ensemble, and finally coming to rest on the pillow that would usually be occupied by Kara. A tear escaped from her lashes when she acknowledged that Kara had been gone for almost two weeks, and she missed her. According to Genesis, they should have been able to find her based on instinct, but after discovering that the ceremony of drinking from the Holy Grail had failed, she’d asked Sarah to put out a location spell, but that too failed. Sarah told her that failure meant only a few things: she was either too far away, someone had put a protection spell on her, or she was…” Casey refused to believe there even was a third option.
The team worked tirelessly to find her. Ray and Brandy scoured the city by night, while Casey, Pearce and Rick went searching by day, although there was no sign of her. It was as if she’d just disappeared.
Dominic was busy focussing on the number of deaths rising once again in the city. After the battle between Victor and Genesis, and with only a handful of soldiers left; he feared that if there was another threat to the city, they wouldn’t have the manpower to protect it. He was desperate to find out who was at the bottom of the murders. Sarah was convinced that Kara’s disappearance, and the murders, were somehow connected, but wasn’t certain as to how or why.
Getting the team together while they were so focussed on finding Kara was almost impossible, and the stress of everything was impacting on Pearce’s health. Rose was worried he was pushing himself too hard and putting himself at risk of suffering another heart attack…or worse. The words that Sarah spoke whilst looking into her empty cup of tea leaves, played heavily on everyone’s mind. “I too, have had a sign. The tea leaves never lie, the fourth is coming, and someone will die.” Everyone was at risk and everybody was on edge.
*****
Casey stormed into the building and headed straight for the weapons locker. She was dressed in semi commando gear, with a look of determination in her eyes. Rick jumped from his seat when he saw the arsenal she was pulling out; everything from a flame thrower to automatic assault weapons. There was even a grenade launcher. Casey meant business.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” he said as he took the last weapon from her, just as she reached for the cross bow. “Casey, what’s going on?”
“I can’t sit around waiting for Ray and Brandy to come up empty handed again. I’m going out too.”
“You know the rules. No-one goes out alone, especially at night, and especially humans. What? Have you got a death wish?” he asked, just as the phone over his shoulder started to ring.
Pearce was quick to jump up and answer it. His face paled as he reached for the phone’s speaker button and motioned Rick and Casey over to his desk.
The voice on the other end was loud and clear. “Reject me once, shame on you. Reject me twice, watch what I do.”
From nowhere, Dominic showed up and stood in front of Pearce’s desk, listening as the voice continued. “I have something of yours. If you want it back, you’ll do as I say.”
“What do you want Saligia? Dominic asked.
“Oh very good. Your witch is talented. You know my name, so you must also know what I am capable of,” she responded.
“I asked you what you want,” Dominic repeated through gritted teeth.
“Hmm… Personally I’d like to keep feeding on your little friend here, but she’s fast running out of supply, so I’ll take your place in the hierarchy of the realm instead,” she bantered.
“If you’ve hurt her you bitch, I’ll personally rip your fucking heart out and feed it to the wolves.”
The voice broke out in an evil laugh that filled the room, mocking Casey.
“Oh you must be Casey, the lover that young Kara has been threatening me with. You’ll be pleased to know that the challenge has been accepted. She’s really quite delicious you know, as shifters go anyway.”
The room fell silent. “Oh, she didn’t tell you? Well, it took a lot for me to get it out of her too, so much so, that I’m not sure even she herself knew what she was, until her eyes began to twitch and her bones began to reform. You have an hour to play amongst yourselves. I’ll call back and let you know where you can find your little birdie while I clean out your living quarters.” Then the phone went dead.
“Who or what is a shifter?” Rick asked.
“A shape changer,” Sarah called from the loft. “That’s probably why I couldn’t locate her. Chances are, she was in transformation at the time I was doing the spell.”
“Okay, so what the hell is a shape changer?” Rick added.
“Just t
hat. She changes shape and it depends on her line as to what shape she changes into.”
Casey sat shocked by the revelation. “You didn’t know?” asked Dominic.
“I had no idea.”
“Your girlfriend changes shape and you didn’t know?” Rick asked.
“She probably didn’t know herself,” Sarah interjected, sensing Casey was already feeling a little vulnerable and in need of protecting. “Sometimes, if a shifter has been raised away from its parents, it could grow into adulthood without any knowledge of its ancestry. It is often a shock or something very traumatic that will trigger the first change.”
“This is bullshit! Vampires is one thing, but witches, and now fucking shape shifters? I don’t know how much more of this shit I can take,” Rick blurted out, running his hand down his stubbled cheek.
“Easy son, she’s one of our own.” Pearce tried to settle him down, fearing his outburst might escalate to an unhealthy level for all of them. “We need to keep a level head.”
“A level head you say? One of our own? Well I don’t know about you sir, but my own are at home watching the Simpsons, not turning into vampires and dogs or God only knows what. This is not what they trained me for when I signed on at the academy.”
Casey stood up abruptly as she confronted him. “If you can’t handle it, go home and watch 'The Simpsons.’ She may not be your family, but she is mine!”
Rick had just stood to meet her challenging stance when Ray and Brandy entered the room. They sensed the hostile tension and noticed the weaponry sitting by the open cabinet. “What’s going on?” Ray asked nervously.
Dominic had just finished filling them in when the phone rang again. Everyone’s eyes immediately raced in the direction of the disturbing tone. Pearce picked up the phone, “Pearce here.”
A few seconds later he put the receiver back in its cradle. “She’s in the abandoned tunnel on the South-side.” Everyone knew that tunnel. A few years earlier, some teenagers had been hanging out in it when one of the walls collapsed. All four perished before anyone even knew they were missing. It was meant to be a new subway that the city was building, but it had lost its public appeal after the incident and the project was never finished. City Council was supposed to seal it off, but red tape had kept it on hold for years.
Casey checked that her Glock was fully loaded and put an extra clip in her back pocket, before she snatched up as much armoury as she could carry. Finally, she held an automatic assault rifle out in Rick’s direction and smirked, “Well? Are you in, or out?”
Rick snatched the rifle from her grip. “Let’s go get this bitch!”
Chapter Two
They arrived at the entrance to the tunnel in record time. Sarah rode shotgun in the first vehicle, guaranteeing green lights all the way as they drove across town.
Dominic called for a brief meeting before entering, reminding them that Saligia was probably the oldest living vampire on the planet, so her powers would be unsurpassable. Everyone was to keep their guard up, and make sure they stayed in their designated groups of two.
Just as he was winding up, he noticed Casey was already marching blatantly into the mouth of the tunnel with her weapon locked and loaded. It was too late to interject, all they could do was catch her up and cover her. Any strategic approach that Dominic had in mind was just thrown out the window when Casey marched into the tunnel shouting, “Kara! Kara! I’m here honey. Can you hear me?” Her words echoed back at her. She drew her flashlight as she got deeper into the darkness of the tunnel, fearing it had all been a hoax.
“Kara!” she continued to shout out.
Dominic reached for her elbow. “Shhh.” His sensitive hearing had picked up on moans just around the bend. He listened intently again, while Casey held her breath. “She’s here,” then he was gone. Casey ran after him, with no chance of keeping up. By the time she and Pearce had reached them, Dominic had already freed her from the chains that had been restraining her against the damp wall. She was weak, and had lost a lot of blood, but she was alive.
There was no sign of Saligia or anybody else in the tunnel. It was as though she had left Kara there for them just as she’d promised, even though something didn’t feel right. Dominic told them to exit swiftly, fearing she may have set a trap, but they all escaped unharmed. They made their way back to headquarters as quickly as possible, so that Rose could tend to Kara’s injuries.
On the way back, Kara began to cough up blood. Casey looked at Dominic fearing they may lose her before they arrived.
Dominic opened his wrist with his nail and pressed it against Kara’s lips. At first she resisted, but Casey held her still and clamped her nose, forcing her lover’s mouth open and the blood into her system. She would let her argue about it later. Right now, she needed to stay alive and Dominic’s blood was the only thing that could do that.
*****
Rose was ready and waiting with hot water and bandages, when Kara and the team all came in from the night. “Kara? You’re walking. How?” she asked.
Kara was still too weak to explain, but the look in her eyes spoke volumes.
“We had to act fast. We were losing her,” Casey told her.
Kara spoke in little more than a whisper, “Then I should have been lost. You know how I feel about these things.” She was beginning to regain her strength.
“Can we talk about this later?” Casey asked.
Just at that moment, the door flew open and a gust of cold night air blew in with the force of a hurricane. Paper blew all over the place and office chairs rolled across the floor, blown by the ferocity of the gale. Dominic’s senses were heightened, and every hair on his being stood at attention.
Suddenly, the wind stopped, and a figure appeared in the open doorway. It was the figure of a woman, dressed in clothing from a time, long ago. She was an attractive woman, but there was something sinister in her eyes, something evil.
“I have come to claim what is rightfully mine,” she informed them.
“There is nothing here of yours Saligia. The words of the great Genesis were clear. Damon Cartwright is the master of this realm. You are not welcome to enter these premises. You have shown aggression and hostility. Leave now or be judged accordingly.”
Saligia gave them an over exaggerated laugh, before her voice turned serious. “Who do you think you are talking to?”
No one noticed the fear in Kara’s eyes, nor did they see her slink into the background and up to the safety of the loft. She remembered the wrath of Saligia from being held captive in the tunnel and fear tore through her body, as she recalled every torturous bite, cut, whip and beating that she endured whilst trapped in her own living nightmare.
“I am almost four thousand years old. One of the original four that stem from Genesis’s immediate bloodline. You, my friend, are merely a descendant, a distant relative, and absolutely no match for me. Now as I said, I am here to take my place as your leader.”
“Stay out of here,” Casey demanded. “You are not welcome. This establishment belongs to us, and you have not been invited in,” Casey informed her.
Saligia turned her attention to Casey, “Ah Casey, we meet at last.” She tilted her head sideways in an almost awkward position, then stepped one foot over the threshold. She looked down at her foot, then back up at Casey and smiled, “Oops, I’m in.”
Sarah began to mumble a chant, when suddenly Saligia held Casey by the throat in mid-air. She moved at a speed that even Dominic had never witnessed. The team went to make a move when Saligia’s voice shot out, “Stay back! Or I’ll snap her neck like a potato crisp.” She pulled Casey in close to her, still gripping her throat. “Do you like potato crisps Casey?”
Casey struggled to free herself, but Saligia’s grip tightened even more. “Oh come now, I’m just trying to get to know you better. After all, I have to show Dominic that I’m not hostile and aggressive, don’t I?”
Sarah began to chant louder. Saligia’s grip was loosening, and she began t
o slide across the floor toward the door but still retained enough of a hold to take Casey with her. “Stop it witch, or when I come back, I will feast on you first.”
Sarah continued to chant and blood began to seep from her nose. Saligia was more powerful than she thought, and it was taking all her energy to force her out of headquarters and to free Casey from her hold. She was beginning to weaken.
A strange sound came from the loft, an unusual sound, but it was loud and ferocious. Sarah was about to give in when a massive shadow engulfed the room. An eagle from nowhere swooped down at Saligia, freeing Casey and leaving claw like gashes across the face of their intruder.
Saligia’s face healed faster than any vampire known. She was going to be a force to be reckoned with. She glared at the gang. “You may have won this round, but the battle has only just begun,” she hissed before vanishing into thin air.
Casey gasped to regain her breath, while Kara lay naked and unconscious on the floor.
Dominic sped to scoop up Sarah before, she too, collapsed on the floor.
Chapter Three
The sun was beginning to rise. Casey lay next to Kara in one of the cells upstairs, unsure of what to expect when she finally woke up. It didn’t take long before she found out.
Dominic called her on her cell phone, asking her to come downstairs; the noise of Casey’s ring tone must have woken Kara. Just as Casey reached the cell door she was stopped by Kara, who spun her around with tears of blood in her eyes and said, “I’m so hungry Casey, forgive me,” as she sank her fangs into the nook of Casey’s neck.
“Stop Kara, what are you doing?” Casey struggled to free herself, but Kara was too strong and had already started siphoning Casey’s blood.
“Help, somebody get up here!” Casey managed to screech out.