Last One Standing: Dark Paranormal Tattoo Taboo Romance (The Chronicles of Kerrigan Book 11)
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The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Last One Standing
Book XI
By
W.J. May
Copyright 2016 by W.J. May
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2016 by W.J. May
Cover design by: Book Cover by Design
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Book I - Rae of Hope is FREE!
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B1NNFR0
Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILAwXxx8MU
Book II - Dark Nebula
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Book Trailer:
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Book III - House of Cards
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Book IV - Royal Tea
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Book V - Under Fire
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Book VI - End in Sight
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Book VII – Hidden Darkness
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Book VIII – Twisted Together
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Book IX – Mark of Fate
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Book X – Strength & Power
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Book XI – Last One Standing
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Book XII – Rae of Light
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F5MXY7S
PREQUEL – Christmas Before the Magic
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Chronicles of Kerrigan Prequel
A Novella of the Chronicles of Kerrigan.
A prequel on how Simon Kerrigan met Beth!!
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Description:
Last One Standing is the 11th Book of W.J. May's bestselling series, The Chronicles of Kerrigan.
Rae Kerrigan and her friends have finally crossed the line, and this time, there’s no going back. After a violent standoff with the entire Privy Council, the gang wakes up under the protection of the last people they ever expected to see: the Xavier Knights.
Old bridges are burned. New alliances are formed. There’s a storm brewing on the horizon, and unless they unite together—it will overtake them all. What they need, is time. But an unexpected visit from an old enemy sets off a spark, and suddenly, Rae’s entire world is in flames.
Can she and her friends get the people they need together in time? Even if they can, will they ever be strong enough? More importantly, are she and Devon strong enough to survive what’s about to come?
A dangerous game has begun and the only question that remains is: who will be the last one standing?
Contents
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Chronicles of Kerrigan Prequel
Find W.J. May
Description:
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
Rae of Light
Note from Author
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
CoK Prequel!
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TUDOR COMPARISON:
If you so choose, even the unexpected setbacks can bring new and positive possibilities. If you so choose, you can find value and fulfillment in every circumstance.
Ralph Marston
Chapter 1
If you so choose, even the unexpected setbacks can bring new and positive possibilities. If you so choose, you can find value and fulfillment in every circumstance.
Ralph Marston
Yeah…I’d like to see that guy get stabbed in the stomach.
Rae opened her eyes a little at a time, testing out them out slowly. She didn’t understand much of what was going on around her.
To start, instead of being crumbled in an underground office somewhere, bleeding out on the floor, she was in a hospital bed of some sort. A rather nice hospital bed, where someone had supplied her with a generous stash of extra blankets and pillows. Warm sunlight streamed in from a row of windows lining the far wall, and from what she could see from beyond her curtain, there were other beds similar to hers, stretching all the way out to the door.
Yet, she wasn’t in a hospital.
The beeping machinery above her and the wires strung across her body like Christmas lights were all hospital-grade, to be sure, but she’d been in enough infirmaries to know the difference. She was in a state-of-the-art facility somewhere. Except it wasn’t anywhere official. And from what blurry fragments she remembered of her Privy Council-welcome yesterday, she was pretty sure it wasn’t at Guilder. Which begged the question…
“Where the hell am I?” she muttered, her mouth dry and her lips cracked as she moved them.
Her tongue stuck in her throat, and she tried to rub it against the roof of her mouth, with no success. She had been palsied by drugs and shock, and while she couldn’t yet put her finger on it she had a nagging suspicion that there was something strange going on in her lower abdomen.
Before she could twist around to find out, the biggest surpri
se of all floated into view, haloed by the lights above her head.
Devon.
Her mouth fell open in child-like confusion as her brow creased. “You’re…”
“You’re awake,” he interrupted frantically. His voice had that manic tone she knew too well. The one where he was trying desperately to control his emotions and appear calm, but the edges of all his sentences were still tilted in panic.
Oh, my poor Devon. You wear your heart on your sleeve. How is it that you ever became a spy?
The corners of her lips tilted up and she tried again. “You’re—”
“Hold on, Rae, don’t try to talk. I’m going to get you some water, okay?” A warm hand slipped behind her head and helped prop her up towards a plastic cup. A gentle stream was coaxed into her mouth and she swallowed gratefully. “How’s that? Do you want some more?”
“You’re—”
“Let’s try for some more, okay? Just a little bit. I know you don’t want to, but the sooner we get you drinking liquids, the better you’re going to—”
“Devon.” She cut him off with a smile and tried to catch her breath. “You’re not hurt,” she managed weakly, still studying his face.
“Nope,” he glanced down at himself automatically before looking back up with an apologetic smile, “not this time.”
“For once.”
He gave a short, strained laugh. “Yeah, I thought of that.”
She smiled again, before her eyes found his.
“And…you’re here.”
His face softened instantly and he knelt down so they were on the same level. “Of course I’m here. Where else would I be…but right here?”
He kissed her knuckles gently, and she realized they were holding hands.
“Julian texted you,” she guessed, slowly piecing it all together. “In the park, that was you he was texting. He told me it was Carter…”
Devon smiled, stroking back her hair as delicately as though she was made of glass. “Of course he texted me. I’ve had him on paid retainer to spy for me ever since you graduated.”
“I’ll have to keep that in mind.” Rae tried to laugh, but a sudden searing pain in her stomach made her reel back. “What…?” With trembling hands, she slowly peeled back her blanket to see a wide, blood-stained bandage peeking out the side of her hospital gown.
For a second, she just stared.
Strangely enough, it wasn’t the severity of the wound or its debilitating location that had her so surprised. It was the fact that she had a wound to begin with.
In a drug-addled haze of complete confusion, she squinted painfully at the windows once more. It was morning. Morning light was streaming in from the east. She’d gone to Guilder the previous day. That meant that, in at least twelve hours, this cut still hadn’t closed.
How…was that possible?
When she finally looked back up, Devon looked as pale as she felt.
“It was Mallins,” he hissed in a shaky voice. “The bastard…he stabbed you.” He seemed to be having a lot of trouble saying the word.
Rae was having just as much trouble turning it over in her foggy head. “Stabbed me…?”
It sounded ridiculous. Almost funny. Like some bad joke she or one of her friends would make about her insufferable ability to walk through a wood-chipper and live to tell the tale. It didn’t sound like anything that could actually happen. Like anything that had happened…
Finally, she asked the only question her morphine-addled brain could compile. As simple as it was accurate.
“How?”
Devon’s jaw clenched and his knuckles flashed white, but he kept his face a carefully controlled mask—free of all conflicting emotion. “He’s a hybrid. I came in right as he said it. He’s telekinetic, yes. That one we knew about. But his second power is an immunity of sorts. Your powers didn’t work on him. My powers didn’t work. So when he stabbed you…”
“…my healing power didn’t work,” Rae finished quietly. She considered this for a long time, eyes flickering occasionally to the window as she pieced things back together, one by one. “Well, at least now we know a way around my damn immortality, right? I know Mallins is already like a million years old, but we can keep him around just long enough for me to have a long and fulfilling life, and then when it’s time, I can just ask him to smother me or something.”
Devon was not amused. He simply squeezed her hand even tighter—the one he was still holding. The one she was willing to bet he hadn’t let go of since they’d brought her here.
Whoever they were. And wherever here was.
She was about to ask, when she played back his words with a slight frown. “Wait…you said your powers didn’t work on him either? What exactly did you—?”
“I don’t need my powers to throw a good punch.”
She looked up in shock. “You didn’t…”
“I broke his nose. And his jaw. And possibly a whole mess of other things.” For the first time since she’d opened her eyes, a look of vicious satisfaction cracked the carefully crafted bedside façade. “I would have finished him off completely if Fodder hadn’t come inside at the same moment and pulled me off.”
Fodder. She frowned again, trying and failing to pull herself higher up on the bed. What the hell was Luke doing there, and why was Devon calling him by his last name?
“Fodder…?” she asked softly, straining with the effort of trying to lift herself up. “What are you—?”
“Hey, let me help you with that,” he said quickly.
A pair of soft hands reached down beneath the blankets and lifted her higher up on the pillows from her hips—putting no pressure at all on the wound. Once she was settled, he pulled his chair closer to the bed and gazed down at her with that same gentle smile. She forgot her question entirely and leaned back in contented exhaustion. She could stare at that smile for hours.
“I don’t want you worrying about anything right now,” he murmured, taking her hand once more and holding it in both of his own. “You just focus on getting better.” He leaned in to brush back her hair again, and she saw the dark bruises of a sleepless night in the hollows beneath his lovely eyes. “I know you have questions, but just know that, right now, I promise you’re in a safe place. I’m not going to let anything happen to you—”
“I know that,” she interrupted quietly.
She didn’t mean to speak in such a low voice; quite the contrary. But for the life of her, she couldn’t seem to pull in enough air to make the words even a little louder. It simply took too much energy. Energy she didn’t have.
But now was no time for weakness. Shell-shocked and sluggish as her mind was, she needed to know what happened yesterday. She needed to put it together.
She squeezed Devon’s hand again. “Please tell me. I can handle it. Fodder—”
As if on cue, the door opened and Rae heard a pair of footsteps coming their way. Devon’s ears perked up as well, but he didn’t change his position. Instead, he simply angled himself slightly towards the curtain as his shoulder fell with an inaudible sigh.
“Looks like you’re about to find out.”
The curtain pulled back, and in walked a man who looked exactly like Luke…only thirty or so years older. Rae stared at him curiously for a moment, before her skin turned pale.
“Oh, no…how long was I out?”
Much to her surprise, the man chuckled softly. Even Devon had to smile.
“Rae Kerrigan, meet Mr. Anthony Fodder. He’s Luke’s dad.” Devon seemed a bit reluctant to go on, and Mr. Fodder shot him a bemused glance. “And…the Commander of the Xavier Knights.”
Rae blinked in amazement, not entirely certain whether the drugs were starting to get on top of her a bit. “Well, Luke certainly neglected to mention that.”
Devon laughed softly. “Molly’s all over it. Apparently, he also neglected to mention her to his family—for obvious reasons. So tensions around here have been pretty high…”
Standing behind them, F
odder cleared his throat and Rae hurried to extend her hand. It was difficult, what with the tangle of wires stuck to her body. Even more difficult with the loss of blood and the fact that her entire stomach had been essentially cut in half.
But the second she started trying, Fodder rushed forward to make up the difference. Her hair went flying back at the speed of the movement, and she understood—even before she felt—what his particular tatù was. It was the exact same ink as a boy named Riley who had graduated a year before her. Speed. More particularly, the speed of a cheetah.
“Miss Kerrigan,” he shook her hand incredibly gently, eying her speculatively all the while, “I’m very glad to see you’re doing better.”
Over the years, Rae had made an unofficial science of determining how a person felt about her, and where they stood in the world of tatùs by how they said her last name. It had gotten to the point where she could pretty much figure if just the word ‘Kerrigan’ had blown any attempt at an understanding in the first few minutes. But Mr. Fodder was not so easy a read. He was thoughtful and serious, sure. But her name was neutral. Like he was waiting to be swayed either way.
She realized now that the chuckle she’d heard earlier was a rare thing. This was not a man who smiled often. Not that he was harsh, but he was most certainly stern. And not at all friendly.
Not at all like his son. Luke was a virtual ray of sunshine, smiling every day.
“Thank you,” she murmured, trying to pull herself even higher and get a handle on what was going on. The opiates they had been pumping into her system weren’t making it very easy. “I’m sorry. I’m not really sure what’s—”
“They have you on a high dose of morphine,” he interjected, eyeing her IV with a trace of sympathy. “I would imagine things are still a bit fuzzy. You had already lost a rather phenomenal amount of blood by the time we found you.”
“You found me…” Rae repeated, eyebrows pulling together as she stared up at him. “Devon said you pulled him off of Mallins. You,” she couldn’t believe what she was about to say, “you were at Guilder?”