by Wendi Wilson
SHADOW LAKE VAMPIRE SOCIETY BOOK THREE
The War
WENDI WILSON
KATIE FRENCH
Copyright © 2020 by Wendi Wilson and Katie French
All rights reserved.
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Wendi Wilson
Also by Katie French
Chapter One
Please don’t pass out. Please. Don’t. Pass. Out.
The words cycled through my mind as I stared at the scene around me. Dead vampires littered the lawn of the Thornberry Estate, black blood oozing from their desiccating bodies to soak into the pristinely manicured grass. Death and destruction at every angle, yet none of it registered as my eyes refused to return to the reason black edges were encroaching on my vision, threatening to pull me into unconsciousness.
“Piper, please look at me.”
My breath hitched in my throat, depriving my lungs of sweet oxygen and making my tunnel-vision even narrower. That voice…
I thought I’d never hear it again.
A hand on my back startled me, making me jump and whirl to see Levi standing beside me. I’d forgotten he was there. I’d actually forgotten he’d even existed, along with the rest of the world, when I laid eyes on the man standing before me.
My father.
My dead father, who’d been killed by a vampire while I hid under the floorboards below him. My eyes began to burn as memories of that night assailed me.
Hot tears poured down my cheeks as my father screamed in agony. I pushed at the wooden trapdoor again, this time putting everything I had into it. It still didn’t move. No! I had to get out. I had to help him!
Suddenly the noises stopped, a heavy silence falling over the cabin. Fear paralyzed me, my frozen blood clogging my veins as I struggled to breathe. My ears pricked, listening for…anything.
The scrape of wood against wood as Dad moved the furniture off the trapdoor. The squeak of hinges. His sigh of relief at the sight of me, unharmed. His voice, telling me everything was going to be okay.
But none of those came.
The tears overflowed and began to drip down my cheeks, my heart cracking open all over again as I remembered.
My lungs screamed for oxygen and yet, I still refused to give in and breathe. Dad was going to pop open that door any minute. He’d laugh and tell me it was just a wild dog or a bear cub. He’d tell me he’d overreacted when he’d shoved me under the floor and ordered me to be silent. We’d go home to Mom, then laugh and laugh as we retold the story, embellishing it with funny voices and wild hand gestures.
As my lips tried to curve up into some insane version of a smile, something dripped onto the apple of my cheek. I reached up to wipe it with a fingertip. It was warm and wet. Another drop landed, and as I wiped it away, it was replaced by another. Then another and another, until a steady stream of drops pattered against my skin.
His blood had coated my face as I lay in that hidey-hole for two days. I’d spent the last year trying—and mostly failing—to come to terms with what had happened, and yet, here I stood, face-to-face with the man I’d mourned so desperately that I’d become a shadow of my former self.
“Piper, I know this is a shock, and I’m sorry to have to spring it on you like this.”
Finally, I looked up and met his eyes. Brown eyes, the same exact shade as my own, filled with compassion and something else that looked a little like hope.
Hope.
I felt the urge to scream. To tear some shit up in a fit of rage over the months I agonized over his death. The guilt I felt for not being able to save him. The fear that his sudden death had left me clinically insane, believing something strange had happened to him while everyone in my life tried to convince me it had been a bear attack.
The hope that it had all been a very long, very bad dream from which I would awaken any moment.
A little voice inside my head reprimanded me for being angry. I should’ve been over the moon, elated that I’d received such a miracle.
And why are you even surprised? the voice taunted. I resided in a world where vampires existed, each and every one of them rising from the dead…including my best friend, Coco.
My eyes flitted to my right where she stood staring at my dad in awe. Like even having come back from death herself, Coco couldn’t believe he stood there in front of us.
Yeah. I hadn’t actually processed her sudden reappearance in my life, and here I was, standing within hugging distance of the man I’d dreamed of hugging one last time for the last fourteen months or so.
So why wasn’t I leaping into his arms?
My anger fled as I lurched forward with that thought. Nothing else mattered as I crashed against Dad’s chest and his arms tightened around me. My tears flowed more furiously than before, great sobs wracking my body as I wailed out my agony and breathed in his scent.
His choked voice whispered words of comfort into my ear. Soft words I couldn’t comprehend, but their meaning didn’t matter. What mattered was the timbre of his voice, the sensation of his arms around me, and the love I could feel radiating off his body.
“Daddy,” I breathed between sobs. “Daddy, I missed you so much.”
“I know, bug. I missed you, too.”
“Why didn’t you come home?” I asked, flinching at the hint of accusation in my voice. I didn’t want to ruin our reunion, but that anger I’d felt before was simmering somewhere deep down in my gut.
“You know I couldn’t,” he said gently.
Of course. He was right. How could he have come home to Mom and me, when we believed him to be dead? Slaughtered by a bear, his remains barely recognizable when it had finally been found two days later… along with me, my mind broken, my body trapped in the crawl space beneath him.
“Let’s take this inside,” Levi suggested as I finally pulled out of my father’s embrace.
Arms, legs, torsos, and heads littered the landscape, and bile churned in my stomach as ruggedly-dressed mountain vamps began collecting the body parts and stuffing them into trash bags. I wasn’t sure why they even bothered—the remains would turn to ash soon enough, anyway.
“Anderson,” Dad called out, getting the attention of a nearby vampire, “finish up out here, and then meet me inside for further instruction.”
“Yes, sir,” the vampire responded before continuing with the clean-up.
My eyes travelled over the group surrounding me, taking in the faces. At some point, True
had caught up to us and was standing to my left. Dean Purty approached with Sasha, Zelda, Amelia, and Rose, all looking worse for the wear with bloodied faces and torn clothes. I’d seen them tied up on the ground, but the mountain vamps must have released them after they’d killed or chased off the members of The Society.
“Naveen and Miranda?” Levi asked quietly as the dean stopped beside him.
Dean Purty shook his head sadly, and something deep in my gut clenched. I hadn’t been close to either of the vampires, but their deaths drove home just how close I’d come to losing those who meant the most to me. Save for my mom, everyone I loved surrounded me, and I made a silent vow to do whatever it took to keep them safe.
I couldn’t lose anyone else… even if they kept popping back up like I was living in some kind of zombie movie.
The thought made me giggle, and I found myself on the receiving end of several worried stares.
“I’m okay,” I assured the group, at large. “This has all been overwhelming, to say the least, but I’m coping. Can we go inside now? I have questions that need answers.”
My dad nodded, then his eyes darted to my left, and his mouth fell open. I followed his line of sight to see Coco rocking from side to side, her hands fidgeting as she kept her eyes trained on the ground.
“Oh, Coco,” Dad said, his voice laced with sadness as if he only just realized what she’d become. “I’m so sorry, honey.”
A tug on my hand pulled my attention from the pair, and I turned to see Levi trying to guide me toward the mansion. Dean Purty and the other camp vampires were already headed that way, followed by True. I let Levi lead me after them while I watched over my shoulder as my dad hugged Coco. Keeping one arm around her shoulder, he fell into line behind our straggly group as we walked up the front steps of the Thornberry Estate.
Everyone gathered in the kitchen, where the scent of burnt garlic still hung in the air. As Dean Purty passed out bags of blood he pulled from the refrigerator, memories of Warren Thornberry in this very room, cooking a meal as he offered us beverages and spoke so nonchalantly about killing Xander—which had been a total lie.
Xander Banks had attacked us as we tried to leave the building. True had killed him, herself, after I’d… Oh, my God, in all the craziness, I’d totally forgotten!
“I compelled a vampire,” I called out, and everyone in the kitchen froze.
Of course, Levi, True, and Coco already knew, but the others dropped their mouths open in shock. The room sprang back to life, several vampires shooting off questions and shouts of denial at once. I flinched at the cacophony, but the noise died as Levi lifted his hands into the air.
“It’s true,” he said in a solemn voice. “Xander and I were fighting, and Piper disabled him with a command.”
“Xander?” the dean cut in. “I thought he was already dead.”
“Warren lied. Everything out of that man’s mouth was a lie,” Levi replied.
I looked at my father as Warren’s claims scrolled through my mind.
“As you know, we tracked the vampire who killed your father to the Siskiyou Mountains after the murder. I’ve had two of my most trusted guards scouring the area, and they found something.”
I dug into my pocket and pulled out my father’s wedding band, the item Warren had claimed his men had found around the neck of a mountain vampire. I stared at it as the others shot theories back and forth to explain how I’d had the power to compel a vampire. Their voices blurred together as I stepped forward, holding my hand out to Dad, the ring resting in my palm.
He stared at it with watery eyes for a few seconds before delicately plucking it from my outstretched hand and sliding it onto his finger. He mouthed the words “thank you” with a grateful smile as he wrapped his fingers around mine and squeezed.
“Everyone, please,” Dean Purty called out, ending the noise. “Let’s all sit down and talk. All of our questions will be answered, eventually, but we need to start at the beginning.”
He looked at my dad, who nodded as we all filed into the dining room and settled around a long, wooden table. The vampires slurped on what I hoped were bags of animal blood as Levi handed me and True glasses of water and plates of fruit and crackers, saying something about keeping our blood sugar up.
I wasn’t sure when or where he’d gotten the snacks, but I smiled at him gratefully. I was suddenly ravenous after everything we’d been through in the last few hours.
“The day I was killed,” my dad began, garnering everyone’s attention, “I remembered something I was never supposed to.”
My eyes burned as that night played over again in my head, but I shook off the pain and anguish. I could process everything later. Now was the time for facts. For answers to the questions that had been plaguing me for months.
“When I was a teenager,” Dad continued, “I worked as a counselor at Camp Shadow Lake. One of the girls I worked with showed an interest in me, and we started a tumultuous summer fling.”
“Sarah,” I breathed, and Dad’s head snapped toward me. He nodded, looking on the verge of asking how I knew, but must have thought better of it and continued his story.
“She was a vampire, and fed on me all summer while compelling me to forget. After a month of it happening, I started breaking free of the compulsion. I had a dream that I’d been attacked by a monster, and it seemed so real, I ran to the camp leader about it.”
His vision. I wonder if he knows what it really was now.
“The dean brought me here to the estate to meet Warren Thornberry. Warren took matters into his own hands, compelling me to forget everything—the feedings, the dream, even my visit to this estate. I spent the rest of the summer in glorious ignorance and went home with nothing but fond memories of my summer job at Camp Shadow Lake.”
“Why didn’t Warren just kill you then?” Rose asked in her usual brusque manner.
“Because, unlike the orphans who attend the camp, I had a family. Parents who would miss me if I disappeared and would call the police to investigate.” Dad’s gaze locked on me with his next words. “I didn’t remember any of it until we went on that trip, Piper. I think it was my subconscious driving my decision to rent that particular cabin, so close to the camp. Once we got there, memories started coming back to me in flashes.”
“What happened that day?” I asked.
“I’d gone out with the intention of heading into town for supplies, but something pulled me toward the camp. I turned onto the property, thinking it would be a sweet, nostalgic walk down memory lane.” He paused as if collecting his thoughts. “I never even made it to the parking lot. I saw her… the girl I’d been involved with… Sarah. She looked exactly the same as she had two decades before. She was still a teenager, leading a group of campers to the softball fields.
“I thought I was crazy. Then I thought maybe the girl was actually Sarah’s daughter. Just when I decided that must be it, she looked over and saw me. Her face morphed into a scowl, her teeth gleaming in the sun as her fangs elongated. I spun the car around and hauled ass out of there, but the damage was done.”
“You remembered?” I asked, my airy voice barely above a whisper as the others remained completely still and silent.
“Everything,” he replied. “By the time I got back to the cabin, all the memories that had been erased by Warren’s compulsion had flooded back to me. It was getting dark, so I decided it would be safer to wait to leave until the morning. I thought we’d be safe in the cabin. Piper, I thought I was keeping you safe.”
“You did keep me safe, Dad,” I muttered, my own tears flowing in response to his watery eyes and cracking voice.
“In the crawlspace,” he said, nodding. “I’d noticed it when we arrived, and it was the only place I could think to put you. The vampires didn’t know you were out there with me, so I hoped whoever was coming for me wouldn’t think to look for someone else.”
“Who was it?” I asked, Levi’s description of the frail mountain vampires he’d encoun
tered popping into my head. He’d obviously been misled, as my dad seemed to be some kind of leader in that community.
“I don’t know,” Dad replied. “I’d never seen him before. He was an ugly son of a bitch, though, with scars crisscrossing his cheeks and the blackest eyes I’ve ever seen. And he smelled like a rotting corpse.”
I gasped for breath as his words poured over me. Several people called my name, but I was trapped in a memory. A horrific face, the awful smell. His body, grinding against mine as his teeth tore into the flesh of my neck.
The taste of ash on my tongue as I stabbed him with the vampire dagger.
Pulling myself out of the memory, I looked at Dad for a moment before turning my eyes to Levi.
“You didn’t kill my father’s murderer,” I said, swallowing thickly against the ash I could still taste in my mouth. I looked back at Dad. “Levi thought he killed him, but he’d been lied to. He killed the wrong vampire.”
“How do you know?” Dad asked.
“Because the vampire you described attacked me on this very property,” I said, laying my palm along my neck where a scar still puckered the skin, “and I killed him, myself.”
Chapter Two
“Thank you for gathering in remembrance of Naveen Talwar and Miranda Paul. If you’ll have a seat, the dean will offer some words.” Sasha Ali pointed to the three rows of chairs stretched out under the camp’s outdoor pavilion.
Levi gestured to a row, and I nodded, making my way to the end to sit. He followed with True and Coco behind him, the other counselors and staff trailing in as well. Seeing everyone in black with their heads bowed as the sun sank behind the trees nearly broke my heart.
Behind the sad processional, the mountain vampires kept silent watch as they stood in a semicircle at the back of the pavilion. My father, at the center, caught my eye and smiled. I smiled back before turning to the front, but I felt cold. The late summer night air was chilly, and, if I was honest, I’d been to one too many funerals lately. Unlike the others, I had a feeling this one would stick. Naveen and Miranda’s bodies had begun crumpling to ash on the grass of the Thornberry Estate last night.