Ryze Series: Books 1 & 2

by N. Isabelle Blanco

  I hear the wraiths cackle from within them. The man’s screams come next. Followed by more pleas, and strangled groans.

  Then the sounds of his flesh being torn right off his body.

  Mavrak wants to turn around, to bask in the punishment being dealt. I somehow make my body stay still, not needing to see.

  I want to heave. To scream. I’d sworn never to let this happen again. Even worse? I’m so aware this time. Through the roars, through the agony, and the never-ending assault of images, I know what’s happening.

  Last time Mavrak roamed the Earth, he had been in full control. Memories of that time are fragmented. Tiny pieces of hell.

  This time, I see it all.

  I have no clue how I manage to leave that alley. All I know is that one moment I’m there, and the next I rematerialize behind an abandoned church near the river.

  There’s no need to worry about leaving a mutilated body behind. The wraiths are still there, and they won’t stop until there’s nothing left.

  Once finished, they’ll return to whatever motherfucking nether realm they reside in, waiting for the beast within me to summon them again.

  I stumble and land against the church’s outer wall, barely catching my weight before accidentally bringing the entire, deteriorated thing down.

  One of the main problems with being a god. I’m built like a human bodybuilder, but all the condensed energy inside me makes me as heavy as a fucking semi.

  Shaking, I look around. This late at night the streets on this side of the small town are practically empty. The only sign of life is the occasional car on the road, the gas station several blocks away, and a few stragglers spilling out of bars.

  Sliding down the side of the church, I sit on the ground. Leaning my head back, I close my eyes and wrestle my brain into submission.

  I’m fucking lost, but not so far gone that I can’t force the bastard inside me to obey me now that I’ve allowed him the kill he wanted.

  Yeah fucking right. Allow. As if he didn’t just take it.

  Fuck my life, man. This is bullshit.

  I have to distract myself, and quick.

  Running a hand through my hair, I focus back on the road. The number of abandoned buildings in this town is staggering considering its actual size.

  The population? Not so much. Less than three thousand people live here in Brownsville. For the umpteenth time, I have to wonder if Ianthen got the location wrong. But the God of the Hunt never makes a mistake.

  Ian tracked Enteax, and the trail led him here. Neither of us know what that blue-skinned bastard is up to, or why he’s in a small, ex-industrial town to begin with, but I don’t really care about that.

  What I care about is what Enteax and his brother Lisrn did to my female.

  The only gods damned thing Mavrak and I agree on—they’ll both die in the most miserable ways possible for what they did to her.

  Just thinking about those assholes putting their hands on Evesse has Mavrak twitching again. He pokes, scratches, and hisses his way down my spine, looking for the override switch.

  When I refuse to cede control to him, he holds up images of the world’s sins to me like a flashcard exhibition of crimes.

  Hours ago, I shut down my tranquility grid to block it all out, but it hasn’t helped. All it did was leave room for Mavrak’s vengeance grid to take over.

  He forces me to watch every single injustice he sees.

  There’s the woman ten blocks away, going swipe-happy on a counterfeit credit card. The account it’s linked to belongs to another woman in North Carolina. That woman will most likely not be able to feed her four kids come tomorrow. She’ll be without money, at least until the bank finishes investigating the credit card fraud and refunds her.

  And the guy up in Maine? He just stabbed a man behind a school. The victim’s wallet lays on the table before him as he twirls his blade and contemplates where to strike next.

  I grind my teeth, trying to push the images back. Every second, a new one pops up, a fucked-up circuit of pure shit that lights up every area of the map.

  I literally hear Mavrak huff right before the prick pulls out the mother of all “sin flash cards” and slaps me across the face with it.

  Atherton, California. Two boys, no older than seventeen, just successfully drugged and raped a fifteen-year-old girl. They’ve already set their sights on which girl will be next.

  If only I could blame the rage that I feel solely on Mavrak. However, that baby’s all mine. The urge I have to Sweeney Todd those little bastards is coming from me.

  I imagine slicing into each of them with my blades, ripping their guts out with my bare hands.

  Me, the same being that inspired every peace-loving religion on Earth.

  It started out with one small settlement near the border of what would become India and Nepal. My teachings eventually spread. In time, I became friends with two of the greatest men who ever lived.

  Siddhartha and Jesus.

  What would they think of me if they could see me now, if they could see into my thoughts? A great triumph in the peace department. Right.

  I’m a fucking hypocrite.

  “For the millionth time: will you stop being so damn maudlin about it?”

  The world around me is ripped away in an instant, my body and consciousness flung through the fabric of existence. The sounds of the world echo behind me as I’m dragged against my will through the dimensions.

  My body slams back together painfully, grass reforming beneath my feet. It changes colors in waves while, above my head, stars glow too brightly, the Universe exposed.

  To my right, the Earth hovers like one massive ball of blue, green and brown.

  I straighten and twist my torso to search out the owner of the giant, floating satellite I now stand on. To my knowledge, no one has ever been in the Haklanayasas while awake.

  For me to be standing here now? “You’re getting frighteningly powerful.”

  “Not quite. But working on it.”

  Nylicia rounds a boulder, her cream-colored dress floating around her in a wispy wave of gossamer. Her heeled feet float above the grass with each step. Her form is still as see-through as ever, the stars behind her glittering through her.

  I haven’t seen her in the flesh since the last time I was forced to put her back into an induced coma—her seventeenth induced coma.

  Seventeen times in the last thirteen-thousand years, I’ve had to stand over her flesh-and-blood form, a decayed, internally scarred, husk of a body, and I had to take from her the one thing she wanted above all—her freedom to exist in the physical plain.

  Seventeen times I had to withhold Mavrak from breaking free and hunting down the male responsible for the Fieren that’s consumed Nylicia.

  She needs to be avenged!

  He’s my friend, you asshole! I mentally yell back.

  She’s been trapped for millennia!

  He isn’t lying about that. That female before me was on that final brink of death, at the very end of a cosmic existence that has somehow survived the insurmountable. I put her under for the seventeenth time and this time she never came back out. That was almost three-thousand years ago.

  But her projection, it seems, is everywhere. I can’t freaking escape her.

  “I really wish you’d stop being such a pussy when it comes to Mavrak.”

  I glare at her. “You’ve obviously been watching me this whole time—”

  “Nah. Got things to do. Shit to see.”

  “Nylicia . . .”

  She stops next to me and tilts her head back to stare at me with big, multi-colored eyes. “Fine. I saw what you did to that guy in the alley.”

  I grind my teeth, lips pulling back in a snarl as my anger rises. “And you have the power to rip me away. To stop me.”

  Nylicia blinks, looking confused. “Why would I? I enjoyed that. Lots. Do not ask me to feel sorry for the bastard. He deserved every bit of what you gave him.”

  “Then y
ou go down there and punish those you see fit,” I say, growling from behind my clenched teeth.

  That’s the crux of my problem: I know there must be punishment dealt out to those that do wrong, I just don’t fucking want to be the one to do it.

  Not again.

  Not after what this body did back when it was still Mavrak.

  She gives me that wide-eyed stare once more. “I told you: I’m working on it.”

  I run a hand across my forehead. “Just tell me why I’m here.”

  “Well, you should really be with Eves—”

  “She’s awake?” I try to dematerialize straight to Enzyria, but a little hand latches onto my shirt and manages to hold me in place. “The hell? Let go of me, female!”

  I all but contort my back, scowling down at the tiny fingers fisting my t-shirt. She’s translucent, damn it, yet she’s still grabbing me.

  She’ll rise once again soon. The thought goes through my head with absolute clarity. There’s no way she’s regaining this much power and won’t awaken.

  “What is your problem?”

  Nylicia sighs, refusing to let go of my shirt. “She’s not awake. But she’s somewhat aware. Staying away from her isn’t helping either of you. I mean, I know you’re busy running and fleeing, hunting down Enteax and Lisrn, fleeing again, and running some more, but—”

  “I get it. I’ll go.”

  Hearing that Evesse isn’t awake kicks me in the balls, deflating all my excitement and hope. Doesn’t matter. I’ve made up my mind to go to her. Now, nothing will keep me away.

  Nylicia squeezes down on the fabric of my shirt. “One more thing before I let you go. Stop hunting him down.”

  I have no clue what the hell she’s talking about. For about two seconds. Then it hits me. “Why the hell would you ask me that?” I’m so close to her now that my teeth are practically in her face.

  She stares between my mouth and eyes, blinking rapidly. “Um, pretty sure Evesse might have an issue with this if she saw us right now.”

  “Damn you.” I reach for her wrist. Instead, I’m met with thin air. Yet she still has my shirt in her freaking grip. “Let. Me. Go.”

  “As soon as you promise me that you’ll do as I say.”

  That’s it.

  I rip my shirt off, leaving her holding the mangled fabric. She stares between it and my naked chest, a look of appreciation crossing her face.

  “Very nice. Very. Again, though, I’m pretty sure Eve would definitely have a problem with this.”

  I ignore her, dematerializing out of the Haklanayasas.

  The last thing I hear is her voice trailing after me.

  “I mean it, Zen. Leave him alone! Don’t make me make this difficult for you. You aren’t going to like it!”

  CHAPTER 7

  – Enzyria

  ZENIEL

  I clench my fists and try to come to terms with the sight before me. I spent weeks running from the female on the bed, weeks trying to escape what she awakened in me.

  And for what? Nothing stopped Mavrak’s slow but steady fight for freedom.

  One look. That’s all it took. A single look into her glorious brown eyes destroyed centuries of calm—which is one hell of an irony.

  Though I hadn’t remembered it at first, it was a vision of Evesse that called me out of the darkness of Mavrak’s psyche. It was her mocha-colored eyes that sparked consciousness in me.

  I probably never would have been reborn as the God of Tranquility had it not been for her.

  And all these years, I’ve existed with an emptiness in my soul that crept up on me at random times.

  Nylicia’s answer every time I asked why I felt that way?

  “What do you want me to do? You will remember when you are supposed to remember. It is not my fault I cannot remember what vision I showed you the day we first met. A long time has passed since then and I am a very busy female.”

  Filthy little liar. She knew. She made sure that I was the one sent to fetch Evesse weeks ago.

  That day changed everything. I stared into Eve’s eyes, and even from across the street the Etaeryb had opened. The moment my mind connected with hers, I saw everything.

  Her whole life leading up to that point and every one of her struggles. Her small hands pushing at her stepfather’s face and her frenzied breaths as she struggled to pull away. The vase breaking and her bloody fingers holding tight onto the shard that saved her and ended that piece of shit’s life.

  She fought like a true warrior to save herself that night, and then, because I was too scared of Mavrak, of how he hungered for her, of how her presence in my life kept strengthening him, she died anyway.

  I can’t stop thinking that had I been with her, she would have never run after Ismini that night. And if she had, I could’ve been there to protect them both.

  No. Instead, I cowered like a pussy, trying to regain the tranquility I began losing the moment she entered my life.

  Fucking POS that I am. Worthless. Weak. My job is to protect her. I waited thousands of years to meet her, and I failed her like this.

  Mavrak’s reemergence may have good reason, but it doesn’t make accepting the truth any easier. My fear of Vengeance is too ingrained in me. The broken memories of the things I once did cut too deep. The guilt even more so.

  Yet, I understand that my life was meant to come to this moment. I’m meant to stand before my female, struggling with the darkness within.

  It’s the most humbling realization of my existence. A real knock-me-off-my-feet-and-glue-my-ass-cheeks-to-the-floor moment.

  Even understanding the facts, fear keeps gleefully pony-riding my synapses. If Mavrak takes over before I gain any form of control, total Armageddon will come next. There’ll be no escaping it. I’ll be triggered, and in the aftermath . . .

  Fuck. I shudder to think of all the other beings that will be awoken in the chaos I’ll unleash.

  The only way to stop me at that point would be to kill me, and therefore kill Mavrak.

  Before Evesse, that might have been a viable option. Now that she’s begun to mate to me, and I to her?

  I’ll unleash retribution on the whole Universe before I allow anyone to take my life. If it’s tied to Evesse’s, no harm will ever come to me.

  What a messed-up predicament to be in. I swore to destroy myself before I ever allowed Mavrak to regain control again.

  Stop focusing on it. Not now. You’re just adding to the frustration.

  Much, much easier said than done. Staring down at Evesse, remembering why she’s like that—remembering my failure to protect her—sends a whole lot of adrenaline and anger surging through both me and Mavrak.

  Just what the bastard needs to grow nice and strong.

  I need to leave. I’m putting everyone in danger just by being here. But I can’t go without touching Evesse and trying to get through to her.

  I approach the bed, heart hammering as I take her in. The covers are tucked around her waist. Her chest rises and falls with each breath.

  Fuck man. That perfect face. Her pert nose. Even when closed, her eyes retain their Asian-like tilt. Her small but plump lips are parted as she breathes. The thick strands of her black hair fan out around her, covering her small shoulders.

  “So beautiful.” My voice comes out as nothing more than an awe-filled whisper.

  The female was stunning when she was human. As a stronger, more powerful being, she nearly broke my resolve to stay away from her.

  Now, she’s been resurrected with the powers of a goddess—powers that glow beneath her creamy skin.

  I have no idea which powers are coalescing inside her, but whatever it is, I want it. All of it. Her energy is calling to me on every fucking level possible.

  Careful not to jar her, I ease down on the bed next to her. I wish I could keep my hands to myself and not disturb her, but that’s impossible.

  I’m a sick bastard for what I’m contemplating, but I have no control over it.

  Touch her
. . .

  Instinct gives the command, merging with the voice of the demon inside. Mavrak has been on a mission since I locked eyes with Eve and saw her past. He’s determined to do what he considers important above all.

  Take her.

  Devour her.

  Avenge her.

  And I can’t even hate him for it, because I feel the same exact way.

  I let my eyes trace the curve of Eve’s upper lip, then the lower one. They both fall open, as if she can feel my stare on them, and I forget to hold my breath. One sweet exhale from her nearly makes me fall over.

  I feel weak in a way I’ve never felt before. Not even when I first awoke as Zeniel, after centuries of torture and starvation, did I feel as light-headed as I do now.

  Stop breathing, you moron. Stop.

  But I can’t. Panting, I lean closer, eyes frozen on her mouth. Just one taste, that’s all I need—one deep, thorough taste.

  A small gasp leaves Evesse and the air flutters across my lips. Lips that I find myself licking as I get caught up in the sudden desire to suck on her tongue and taste her.

  Touch her, damn you! Mavrak cries from within.

  No, damn you. And shut the fuck up.

  Still, I give in, obeying the orders and hoping for some relief. My hand seems ridiculously large when I lift it towards her face. The closer I get, the more her aura roars beneath her skin. Red, yellow, and sparkling black swirl, reaching out towards me.

  My fingers are shaking by the time they make contact. Slowly, lovingly, I trace her thick, black eyelashes. The colors follow my move, almost as if they’re begging for my touch. Her aura flares, reaching out and intertwining with my red, gray, black and blue one.

  So fucking gorgeous.

  So mine.

  She is. Fate decided it. The way her body is reacting right now confirms what Nylicia told me; this sexy female is all mine.

  I run my fingers across her cheek, watching the colors coalesce. Heat literally pops out of her, her aura seeming to boil. The walls and floor of the room begin to shake again—a clear sign that she’s still in there. That she can feel me.

  My chest rumbles at the thought. Hunger attacks once more, almost robbing me of every ounce of civility I possess.