by Joelle Ayers
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
The Blood Files
Case #1: Before I wake
Joelle Ayers
The Blood Files
Case #1: Before I wake
Copyright © 2017, Joelle Ayers
Cover design by Joelle Ayers
Edited by La Kata E.K.
This work is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including, but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Joelle Ayers.
This e-book is licensed for personal enjoyment only. This e-book 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 person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Description
My name is Violet Cicero and, lately, the dead can’t seem to leave me alone.
After a freak accident nearly ended my life, everything changed. My best friend, Josh, saved me that night on the bridge, but I had no idea there would be consequences.
Strange ones.
It started with terrifying nightmares of Liz Hardy, a young college girl whose death tore my family apart. Only, it didn’t end there. Those nightmares have begun to bleed into reality as Liz pushes me toward the answer to a mystery everyone else has stopped searching for… the true identity of her murderer.
It’s clear she won’t stop until justice is served and she’s at peace, but what will be my fate if I fail her?
I pray I never find out.
[WARNING: THIS SERIES INCLUDES DEPICTIONS OF GRAPHIC VIOLENCE AND THE OCCASIONAL GORY SCENE ONE MIGHT EXPECT WITH A STORY OF THIS NATURE. SENSITIVE READERS, PROCEED WITH CAUTION.]
The Blood Files is an upper YA/NA crossover. It’s the ideal paranormal mystery for fans of crime fiction and witty, female protagonists. Readers who enjoyed Conjuring Quantico (The Federal Witch) and The Witches of Hemlock Cove will be enthralled by this blend of humor and heartache, thrills and terror.
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—Chapter One—
“Told you he’s a douche. In fact, he is hereby dubbed Bryce Monahan, first Duke of Doucheville.”
Josh laughed, unable to find fault with my argument, I’m sure. Not after seeing how my stepdad had gone out of his way to exclude me from most of the ‘family’ photos tonight.
“So, what’s that make your mom?”
I turned to Josh, grinning. “The Duchess, of course.”
A mop of blond hair moved across his shoulder when he turned to glance out the window, trying to hide a smile. He’d been my silver lining tonight like so many other nights before it—through my father’s death, through my brother, Cody’s, trial. This time around, the cloud that hung over my head was brought on by being forced to endure my stepfather for the evening. You’d think that, after being married to my mom for the last decade, we would’ve figured out how to get along by now, but no dice.
Hate him as much today as I did the afternoon he dragged me home by my collar for ramming my bike into the back of his Mercedes. I guess, when you look at it like that, I’m kinda at fault for the meeting. However, I like to blame the bee that stung me, causing the crash in the first place.
“Well, at least you don’t have to live with the guy anymore,” was Josh’s offering, completely ignoring the fact that I still had a mother under that roof. Meaning, there was hardly ever a time I saw her and didn’t have to see him.
When I said nothing, Josh stared. I knew what he was thinking, but ignored the pull to refute his idea that I only hated Bryce because he wasn’t my dad. There was so much more to it than that. So many more reasons to loathe him other than the fact that he was nowhere near even half the man my father, Victor Cicero, had been.
I turned onto Old Mill Way, heading toward the bridge that separated us from the long stretch of road leading back to campus. City life had grown on me. Whenever Josh and I returned to our hometown, I looked forward to again leaving the miles of endless cornfields behind. Right now, our surroundings were unnervingly dark, but many, many miles ahead—too far to see from here—were tall buildings and a buzzing nightlife.
To me, that distant place smelled like freedom.
Freedom from the life I couldn’t wait to leave behind when it came time for college two short years ago. Moving out was all Josh and I could talk about from our junior year of high school up until we were loading our boxes into the moving truck his father chartered. He’d always been in my life, so it only made sense that we’d get a place together off-campus. His parents had more than enough money and agreed to cover the rent, which only sweetened the deal. Sharing a space with him was about the most peace I’d had since… well… since that day I crashed into the Duke of Doucheville’s chariot.
“As far as anniversary parties go, it was a nice shindig,” Josh said, drumming his hands on his thighs to the beat of a song I didn’t recognize. He typically took over the radio, forcing me to listen to whatever he had queued up on his iPhone.
I shrugged. The decorations were nice and the food was decent, but my time there still sucked. The one nice thing was seeing my mom smiling and dancing like she was twenty-five again. When Dad died, I thought I’d never see her happy again, but that was the one thing Bryce got right. The bastard treated my mother like a Queen, which was the only reason I kept my feelings to myself and dealt with the underhanded comments and subtle way he’d been slighting Cody and I since as far back as I could remember. His kids, Megan and Jeff, on the other hand, could do no wrong in his eyes. Meanwhile, my brother and I had always been troublemakers.
That hadn’t been true about me since I was maybe sixteen. Four years later, I’d like to think I’ve matured a bit. However, in light of recent events, it’d become increasingly difficult to vouch for Cody…
“Just promise you’ll be my date when their next decade rolls around and they decide to throw another one of these parties. I mean it, J. Even if you’re married with two-point-five children by then. Promise me the future Mrs. Joshua Parker will take a backseat to my selfish needs for that one evening.”
He laughed, but I was dead freakin
’ serious.
“You have my word, Vi. I vow that, on this day ten years from now, I’m all yours.”
I smiled. “You’re so agreeable. Watch, when I find a guy, he’s gonna be all macho and pushy and I’m gonna freak out because you’ve got me spoiled.”
Josh passed an offended glare my way, but he could barely contain the laugh brewing just underneath it. “Are you implying that I’m not macho?”
I turned down the radio. “That’s not what I meant, but… you let me have my way a lot and a girl could get spoiled,” I concluded. “It’s why our friendship works.”
He laughed at that, but didn’t disagree. “So… what you really meant is, I set the bar kinda high for whoever this future, mystery guy will be and… I’m basically a great catch.”
I nearly choked when I snorted. “Whoa! Toot your own horn much?”
The second part of my statement was going to be a well-crafted insult, one I’m sure Josh would have found even funnier than I did.
But I never got the words out.
The air was sucked out of the car like a vacuum. There was a blur of headlights and shadows and glass. Everywhere. It was hard to tell which end was up and which was down as my four-door Honda rolled and tumbled too many times to count. My body whipped around like a ragdoll until we were suddenly airborne, drifting through the air in a cone of silence before… water.
It filled the car through broken windows, dousing my feet and legs in an instant, then surrounding me everywhere.
I was pretty sure I should have been in pain, but, at the moment, I felt nothing. My lungs filled with water until they ached and stung like lava surged through them.
It was dark, completely, but I wasn’t alone.
My hand was clasped and, as I drifted deeper into the nothing, my only comfort was knowing I’d die with my best friend at my side.
*****
Cold.
Freezing.
That was the only thought that would register. My dress was soaked against my torso, but I couldn’t feel much else.
Off to the right, there was a noise I couldn’t place at first, so I turned, blinking several times at the silhouette of a tall frame hunched beside me.
“…Josh.” My voice was raw and nearly unrecognizable. At the sound of it, he turned. The wetness on his face was a mixture of water from the lake and… tears? That couldn’t have been right. Joshua Parker was not a crier. He, the strongest person I’d ever known… Did. Not. Cry.
I attempted to lift my head as a rush of adrenaline falsely convinced me I could stand, but Josh gently held my shoulders in place.
“Don’t move, Vi. Just… don’t move.” His deep voice carried into the night.
If we were out of the water and, obviously, still very much alive, why was he so upset? What was wrong? What was I missing?
“I need to get up. We have to get out of here, we—”
An ominous hissing to the left made me shift away from Josh, laying eyes on an overturned sports car. Scattered near the edge of the bridge… a spread of broken beer bottles. The details were beginning to come to me as smoke billowed from the hood of the stranger’s vehicle.
This was bad. So, so bad.
A tear streamed from the corner of my eye, racing toward my hair as I lie motionless on my back. I wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible. I knew Josh thought it’d be best if I stayed put, but I had other plans.
With every ounce of strength in my body, I pushed up to rest on my elbows, feeling the sting of glass shards as they pushed into my skin. I didn’t care, though. I’d deal with whatever injuries I had once we made it to the hospital.
But then… I looked down, seeing what had Josh choked up. My legs. They were twisted and bent on the pavement, extending from my body like the limbs on a broken doll—ankles and knees turned every-which-way with purple bruises and blood staining my skin. I should have been in agonizing pain, shouldn’t have been able to even think straight, but… nothing. That’s when the grim reality hit.
“I… I can’t feel my legs. I can’t… Josh!”
His hands gripped my cheeks and air filled and left my lungs so rapidly I became dizzy, felt like I’d float away—mangled legs and all. His forehead pressed to mine and I gripped and clawed at his back, trying to get closer, seeking comfort in this terrifying moment. I wanted it to go away, wanted it to stop.
I couldn’t say for sure that I’d even live through this, but I was at least positive I’d never walk again. The damage was far too extensive.
Josh’s shoulders heaved with each breath he took, and then there were words. A confusing promise I thought I misheard. “I can fix this, Vi.”
Yes, I must have misheard. Things were very strange and surreal, so that had to have been it.
But then, he spoke again, repeating the same impossible words. “I can fix you,” he said quietly, a single tear dropping from his cheek onto mine as he kept me close. “But you have to tell me this is what you want.”
My eyes were wild with confusion and terror. “What do you mean? What does that mean?”
I didn’t have time for cryptic statements and parables at the moment. It felt like my entire world was drifting away in the blink of an eye, whatever hope for a future I had was running down the drain as the seconds ticked past. All it took was a split second to change my life.
“I can take it away,” Josh explained. “I can… do things. But I need to hear you say it.” Each word left his mouth with pain dripping from it. Not physical pain, but… pain. Although, he sounded stronger now, more resolute than before. “I can make you just like me. I can fix you, but… everything’s gonna change.”
With him cradling my head, I couldn’t see the state of my legs anymore, but I certainly hadn’t forgotten. I was certain that whatever he was referring to couldn’t possibly change things more than they already had.
But what did he mean he could ‘make me just like him’? How were he and I different?
There was no time for questions. Already, I felt the numbness creeping up my lower back.
“Do it!” I said with quivering words. “Just… fix it, Josh.” The last of my plea was strained as more tears fell and his green eyes settled on mine.
He hovered above as his embrace tightened. I panted and gasped, still wondering what would happen next. Even as he drew closer, I was disoriented and shaken. And then his lips pressed to the side of my throat. I was on the cusp of questioning him, asking how this was supposed to help, when a white-hot burn covered my skin when teeth—teeth that felt more animal than human—sank into my neck.
I wanted to scream, wanted to call out for help, but words never came. Only darkness.
Inside.
Out.
Everywhere.
Darkness.
A question flickered into what was left of my consciousness and I focused on it as drifted away for the second time tonight:
What on Earth have I agreed to?
—Chapter Two—
He saved my life. I couldn’t fully explain everything, but he did. He saved my life.
Still, a week later, I hadn’t forgotten the look of horror on my mother’s face when she saw the damage to the car. It was pulled from the river in pieces. More than once, as we stared at the wreck, Mom chanted a tearful, “You could have been killed, Vi. You could have been killed,” as she squeezed me in her arms.
Only Josh and I knew she was one-hundred-percent right. Only Josh and I knew the state of my body before he healed me in an instant. I, literally, walked away from the scene of an accident that should have ended me.
When he pulled me from the river, when he bit me, he also saved my mother. She’d been through so much already with losing Dad and Cody being in prison, I wasn’t sure losing me wouldn’t have broken her. But, thanks to Josh, we would never know.
I understood now—about what he was, what he could do—and it was still confusing. I was among the living, had use of legs that were once broken and useless, and
I knew that was the most important thing, but… being alive by human standards was, perhaps, the most perplexing part. There was a long list of how’s or why’s that would drive my analytical journalist’s mind crazy if I dwelled on them for too long. However, the bottom line was, I hadn’t turned.
Should have, but didn’t.
Josh had spent several days of the past week trying to figure out why I was still just regular-old-Violet, and not a vampire like him. Neither of us reached a plausible conclusion, but he was seemingly more bothered than I was. So, he watched me. All the time because, apparently, he never slept. Even while I did, he watched me. That’d become his new job since the accident and he was on his post again tonight. From the chair in the corner, his eyes gleamed in the moonlight as I settled beneath my comforter, pulling my hair into what I was sure looked like a blonde nest on top of my head.
I smiled his way. “I’m fine, ya know.”
“You should’ve turned by now.”
“Maybe I have turned and we just haven’t noticed.” Josh didn’t laugh, but I did. While the comment was meant as a joke, there was an air of truth to it. I mean, after all, my best friend being a vampire had completely gone over my head for years.
How the heck did I not notice that?
He wasn’t cold to the touch, wasn’t hard like stone, and I’d hugged him often enough to know his heart still beat. The one time I shared my theory, he explained it—after telling me I watch way too much TV, of course. He’s a dhampir—half human, half vampire, possessing the full powers of a vamp, including the ability to turn another human. But he didn’t have the typical ‘tells’ that would give away his secret. For example, he aged. Apparently, that’s something he can eventually turn off, but for now, he grows and changes just like everyone else.
I reached for my lamp and the room went dark.
“Night,” I yawned.
“Night.”
I lie there, grinning against my pillow as another corny joke came to mind. One too painfully childish to keep to myself.