Series Firsts Box Set

by Laken Cane

“Gray told me I can kill the demon with Silverlight and a priest. But…”

  “But you don’t want to kill the priest.”

  “No,” I said, honestly. “I really don’t.”

  “You slaughter vampires.”

  “Not the same thing.”

  “Someday it will be,” he said, his voice flat.

  “Maybe, but not tonight. Tonight I have to sacrifice a man in order to save God knows how many humans. That’s…” I swallowed, then blew out a quiet breath. “That’s fucked up, Amias.”

  “There will be a lot of fucked-up things before this night is over,” he predicted. “Your priest will be the least of them.”

  I shuddered and tried not to think too hard about his words.

  “I don’t need you to lead us there.” Honestly, I was worried that Angus would jump the master, and I did not want to deal with that. “Tell me where he’s hiding.”

  He didn’t change expressions, but I had a strong feeling he knew exactly why I wanted to go without him.

  “Give me your cell phone.” He walked closer still.

  Finally, I slid Silverlight back into her sheath and let him come, but when I handed him my phone, his fingers brushed mine and I recoiled so violently I knocked the phone to the ground.

  He said nothing, just picked up the cell, slid his long finger across the screen, and then handed it back to me. And he was careful not to touch me.

  “I put the address into your GPS, Trinity. Go now. I will be there when you arrive.”

  “Wait…” I said.

  He waited.

  “It might not be a good idea for you to be there. I’ll have the supernaturals and—”

  “Trinity.”

  “What?”

  “I will be there when you arrive.”

  He slid away, quicker than a shadow.

  Before I could follow, my cell phone vibrated. “Hello,” I answered. “Clayton?”

  “Trinity,” he said, his voice cold but somehow urgent, “I’m on my way to you with the exorcist. Something has happened.”

  “What’s wrong?” I tightened my grip on the phone. “Are you okay?”

  “When Angus took Gordon in, they tried to arrest him.”

  I stopped walking and stared into the darkness, suddenly terrified. “Tried to arrest Gordon?” I asked, stupidly.

  “They tried to arrest Angus,” he said. “The butchered bodies of eight human women were discovered. They were flung into a pile behind someone’s house. The demon is losing his mind.”

  “My God,” I whispered. “Amias was just here. He didn’t tell me.”

  “Stay with the others. I’ll be there in ten minutes unless I’m stopped. We have to end this tonight, or the Red Valley supernaturals are all going to die.”

  Then he was gone.

  When I shoved the phone back into my pocket and looked up, Miriam, Rhys, and Shane were standing in a line a few yards away, watching me.

  I wasn’t surprised that they’d followed me when I’d gone to find Amias. They all thought they needed to watch me every second, apparently.

  “Who were you talking to, Trinity?” Miriam asked, but I could tell from the look of dark anger in her eyes that she already knew.

  But there was no time to care.

  “Eight human bodies were found,” I said, striding toward them. “They tried to arrest Angus. Red Valley is rounding up all the supernaturals, so you have to stay here.”

  “He called you,” she said, coldly, as though that were the only thing she’d heard. She pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at it.

  “Fuck that,” Shane said, his voice thick with disgust. “Clayton and the priest are on their way?”

  “Yes,” I murmured. “Unless he’s stopped, he’ll be here in a few minutes. Do not leave these woods. They don’t have the manpower to come in here and take on the vampires. At least not yet. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “Where are you going?” Rhys asked. “You can’t leave, Trinity. They’ll likely see you as one of us. If you’re detained, we don’t have a chance to kill the incubus.”

  I knew that, I did.

  But they were after Angus. And his kids.

  “I have to help Angus,” I said. “I’m safe. Captain Crawford won’t want me. He knows I haven’t killed anybody.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Shane said.

  Rhys and Miriam looked at each other, then at me. “Those kids know where to hide,” Miriam said. “They’ll be safe. Just get to Angus. If he loses control, he may kill one of those officers.”

  “He can’t come back from that,” Rhys said.

  “I’ll find him.”

  She nodded. “We’ll wait here for Clayton and the exorcist. Go fetch our bull, Trinity.”

  I raced away, Shane at my side, my heart in my throat.

  I wasn’t sure Angus could be saved.

  I wasn’t sure any of us could be.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  I called Crawford as we sped down Raeven’s Road, then left a message when he was unavailable. He was probably in the basement torturing the hell out of Gordon Gray.

  I didn’t want to think about that, so I switched my thoughts to Angus. He was an obnoxious asshole, but I could admit to myself that I cared about him.

  Maybe a little too much.

  “Did you try his phone?” Shane asked.

  “Twice. Went to voicemail.”

  “He’ll be heading home,” Shane said. “All that matters to him is keeping his brood safe.”

  “Drive faster,” I told him.

  Lights from police cars swirled, coloring the darkness over Bay Town, and I had a moment to wonder how it’d gotten bad so quickly. Then Shane skidded to a halt and I jumped from the truck almost before it’d completely stopped.

  We raced toward Angus’ house but kept to the shadows. All around us were police cars, lights pulsing, screams, shouts, and barking dogs.

  They’d taken over Bay Town.

  For a second I was transported back in time, drifting in and out of consciousness as I was carted away from my sister’s house. I hadn’t known Amias then. Hadn’t known his name or his life or that he was a master.

  I knew only that he was a vampire—and there were a lot of those.

  The police assumed he’d died from whatever had been ailing him when he’d attacked me. I’d assumed the same.

  When I saw him again, he’d been secretly watching me for God knows how long, and I was his obsession. The rage had exploded inside me and I’d wanted nothing more in life than to kill him. To hurt him.

  I hadn’t understood the pain that had ripped through me when I’d gone after him, death in my heart and rage in my brain. I’d thought it was some phantom pain from the trauma I’d experienced at his hands.

  Little did I know he’d made himself my master.

  Someday I would kill him, but right then, I wished he were there, helping me find Angus.

  Shane grabbed my arm and pulled me into the shadows. Across the street, the police were dragging a screaming couple from their home. I pressed my fist hard against my teeth and stayed silent as bones cracked and blood sprayed.

  “Wolves,” Shane whispered.

  I nodded. Bay Town was full of supernaturals. None of them were safe, and many of them would die that night. “Let’s go,” I whispered, when finally the cops threw the wolves into the back of a cruiser and sped off, siren wailing.

  The humans were scared, and they were angry.

  They were dying.

  And supernaturals would suffer for that.

  Ten minutes later we arrived at Angus’s house. I was nearly certain he wouldn’t be there—surely he’d hide with his children. Angus would know how to avoid the human police.

  But he was beside his front door, and he wasn’t alone.

  He had Derry pressed up against the wall behind him, and he used himself as a shield while the police advanced, screaming, shotguns aimed.

  I’d seen those guns befo
re. The police didn’t bring the usual human weapons to Bay Town. The shotguns fired long-range electroshock projectiles, powerful enough to take down a shifted supernatural.

  “He’s dead,” Shane said. “We need to go. There’s nothing we can do for him now, Trinity.”

  “I’m not leaving,” I whispered, fiercely. “Don’t fight them, Angus. Don’t fight.”

  But he was Angus, he was a bull, and he was protecting his kid. He was going to fight.

  He began to shift, as did his daughter, and he was fast. His animal was impressive—enormous and black with long, sharp horns and massive hooves. And he was mad.

  He charged the cops. He stomped one and gored another, then rammed his huge body into the third. The cop flew through the air and landed with a bone-crunching thud, as though he’d been hit by a truck.

  Two dozen cops came running. They surrounded him, and every single one of them began to shoot.

  It was torture to watch. I wanted to look away. I needed to.

  But I wouldn’t.

  Derry had abandoned her shift and crouched against the wall, her arms over her head, screaming.

  “God,” I murmured.

  “Trinity, let’s go. We can’t save him. If we kill the demon, maybe we can—”

  “Shut up,” I cried. “No!”

  Angus went down, his body jerking from the electricity they hit him with, and when he was on the ground, they rushed him. Yelling, vicious, mean. Bloodlust had taken them, and they began kicking the shit out of him. Beating him with the butts of their shotguns. Killing him.

  “Oh, you bastards.” And before Shane could stop me, I began running.

  Not for Angus. I wasn’t stupid. I couldn’t help him.

  I headed for Derry. I would save his child.

  The cops were busy brutalizing her dad, and they weren’t even thinking of the young girl cowering against the house.

  I grabbed her arm, yanked her up, and ran back the way I’d come. She sobbed, but she ran with me.

  “Trinity,” she cried. “They’re hurting him.”

  I didn’t try to tell her he’d be okay. I didn’t believe he would be, and neither did she. Supernaturals were well versed in the ways of the human world in which they lived.

  Even if some of the younger ones had never been hurt by the violence of a human, they’d been born beneath the constant threat of it. That never went away. They knew what could happen to them. They saw what could happen to them.

  So Derry didn’t flinch when she had the chance to flee. She held my hand with a strength that nearly broke my fingers, and she flew over the ground so fast that in the end, she was pulling me along.

  Shane followed behind us.

  We watched as more cops, dressed in riot gear, marched down the streets, broke down doors, dragged out screaming, crying, begging supernaturals. Most of the residents didn’t even try to put up a fight. They knew better.

  When two cops stepped out in front of us and demanded that we stop and get down on the ground, Amias appeared suddenly behind them and ripped out their throats before they even realized what had happened.

  He glanced at me, then at Shane. “Get her to the woods.”

  “Doing my best,” Shane said, then shoved me away when I would have stood there staring down at the cops, frozen.

  “We’re almost there,” he said, but to himself, as though he didn’t believe we’d actually make it.

  But we did.

  With Derry between us, we sped away from the death and destruction, grim and shocked, with the girl’s soft sobs sporadically breaking the silence.

  Finally, I squeezed her hand. “Derry, where are the children?”

  “They went into the tunnels with their nannies,” she whispered. “But I saw my dad running, and I didn’t want him to be alone. I wanted him to come with us.”

  “Tunnels are under the house?” I asked.

  She nodded. “I should’ve told you.”

  “No, Derry.” I put my arm around her and drew her close. “You shouldn’t have.”

  “Your dad will be okay,” Shane said, surprising me. “He’s strong.”

  “The human women,” she murmured. “Things were shaky because of the women getting killed, and then when they found a pile of them, we knew what was coming. But it came so fast…”

  “A demon is killing them,” I told her. “We’re going to end him tonight. Then everything will be okay.”

  “No,” she said. “Nothing will ever be okay.”

  I didn’t argue, because she was right.

  But I was going to make sure that I helped make things as okay as I could.

  Hang on, Angus.

  Hang on.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  “The humans will want proof,” Amias said.

  We stood in a line in front of a decrepit house in the woods, watching the door as though the demon might come bursting through it at any second.

  And we hoped he would.

  The exorcist—a slight, balding man named Joseph—had formed an intricate demon trap outside that door, then had chanted beneath his breath for what felt like an hour as he’d sprinkled salt in a circle around every potential exit point of the house. All windows and the back door had been sealed. There was only one way out for the demon—through the front.

  And we were waiting for him. All of us but Angus. Amias stood at my back, watching my every move, and I tried to forget he was there. The emotions were clashing and clamoring for attention, and I needed to focus on the demon, not the vampire.

  Amias’s impatience was strong—in less than thirty minutes he would have to hide from the sun, and he wanted to see this through. He wanted to keep me safe.

  Bastard.

  I shoved the thoughts of him away.

  The trap was waiting.

  I was waiting.

  “When a demon is sick,” Joseph told me, “and then he gorges on a human’s essence—in this case, several humans—it doesn’t make him stronger. It keeps him alive, but it makes him sluggish even as it takes away the pain. Sort of like a human taking huge doses of painkillers after a trauma.”

  I knew all about that.

  “If he eats regular humans,” Rhys said. “If he munched on our Trinity, he’d get his power, wouldn’t he?”

  “Indeed,” the exorcist agreed. “But we won’t let him have Trinity.”

  “He munched on me once,” I said, shuddering. “Why is he still weak?”

  “I was told he got only a small taste.” Joseph waited for my nod before continuing. “You gave him the strength to kill eight humans. You gave him the strength to continue with his quest. Nothing more.”

  I stared at him. “I didn’t give him shit.”

  His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “Just…” I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to kill you. Surely there’s another way.”

  “You went over this with him already,” Miriam snapped. “It has to be done.”

  Joseph nodded, his face serene, but his eyes…excited. Hopeful. “Don’t hesitate, Trinity. You’ll have only seven minutes before he frees himself from me—those minutes will go quickly. Aim for my heart, once he’s inside me.” He swept his gaze over all of us. “Do not go inside the circle. When the demon falls and the seven minutes are over, you’ll be safe. Not a second before.”

  Apparently, when the demon possessed Joseph, the demon’s body would be left behind. Not his glamoured body, but his true demon body. That would be the proof human law enforcement would need to clear the supernaturals.

  I hoped.

  Joseph looked at Clayton. “Start it.”

  Joseph’s one request was that the scene be recorded. He wanted the world to see his sacrifice. They wouldn’t see Seth Damon until his spirit left his body to enter the exorcist. Then it would appear, as its un-glamoured physical entity, and could be recorded.

  At least that was what Joseph said when he unfolded his tripod with the camera facing
the door.

  I wasn’t sure I believed him.

  The exorcist gave me a quick, eager nod. “Call him from his sleep, Trinity.”

  The world took a deep breath, one that would not be released until this night had ended.

  I stepped forward, drawing Silverlight—Joseph had salted and blessed her, and I’d been nearly certain I could hear her silently screaming—my toes at the edge of the trap. I opened my mouth to call out, but my voice wasn’t needed at all.

  He didn’t need to hear my voice. He needed only to feel my presence. I was close, and I was his everything.

  Silverlight burst to life, lighting the house, the sky, the ground. She wanted the demon as much as I did.

  “Open yourself up, Ms. Sinclair,” Joseph screamed. “Offer yourself to the incubus!”

  “How do I…I don’t know how to open myself,” I said.

  But then suddenly, I did.

  I dropped walls that had been built the moment I’d been born. Walls I hadn’t even been aware of. Walls I’d begun instinctively raising after the incubus had attacked me in the woods. I planted my feet, straightened my spine, and I welcomed the demon to come claim me.

  And he came.

  I felt his pull, now that I’d opened myself to him, but likely not nearly as much as he felt mine. I felt his need, even through my terror. As the door flew from its hinges, the demon raced to peer through the opening, and his glowing stare found me immediately.

  I felt his lust.

  And I felt mine.

  “Take her,” Joseph roared. “Take your whore!”

  The incubus planted his stare on the exorcist, and Joseph’s thick glasses cracked. He ran his fingers over the broken lenses, laughing maniacally. For an instant, the demon wasn’t the scariest thing in our midst.

  Joseph the exorcist was off his rocker. I just hoped his trap was true.

  Cold terror spread through me. “What if it doesn’t hold?”

  “Then he will take you with him to hell.” Joseph turned his head to look at me. “Quite possibly where you belong.”

  The incubus howled, and his face began to crack as Joseph’s glasses had cracked.

  Only the whites of his eyes showed, and he clung to the doorframe so hard the house creaked. But he couldn’t withstand the power the exorcist had grown, and he couldn’t fight his need for me. With a howl, he flung himself toward me and straight into the trap.