by W. J. May
Coven Master
Paranormal Huntress Series, Volume 2
W.J. May
Published by Dark Shadow Publishing, 2017.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
COVEN MASTER
First edition. August 30, 2017.
Copyright © 2017 W.J. May.
ISBN: 978-1386622628
Written by W.J. May.
Also by W.J. May
Bit-Lit Series
Lost Vampire
Cost of Blood
Price of Death
Blood Red Series
Courage Runs Red
The Night Watch
Marked by Courage
Forever Night
Daughters of Darkness: Victoria's Journey
Victoria
Huntress
Coveted (A Vampire & Paranormal Romance)
Twisted
Hidden Secrets Saga
Seventh Mark - Part 1
Seventh Mark - Part 2
Marked By Destiny
Compelled
Fate's Intervention
Chosen Three
The Hidden Secrets Saga:The Complete Series
Paranormal Huntress Series
Never Look Back
Coven Master
Alpha's Permission
Prophecy Series
Only the Beginning
White Winter
Secrets of Destiny
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Rae of Hope
Dark Nebula
House of Cards
Royal Tea
Under Fire
End in Sight
Hidden Darkness
Twisted Together
Mark of Fate
Strength & Power
Last One Standing
Rae of Light
The Chronicles of Kerrigan Box Set Books # 1 - 6
The Chronicles of Kerrigan: Gabriel
Living in the Past
Staring at the Future
Present For Today
The Chronicles of Kerrigan Prequel
Christmas Before the Magic
Question the Darkness
Into the Darkness
Fight the Darkness
Alone in the Darkness
Lost in Darkness
The Chronicles of Kerrigan Prequel Series Books #1-3
The Chronicles of Kerrigan Sequel
A Matter of Time
Time Piece
Second Chance
Glitch in Time
Our Time
Precious Time
The Hidden Secrets Saga
Seventh Mark (part 1 & 2)
The Senseless Series
Radium Halos
Radium Halos - Part 2
Nonsense
Standalone
Shadow of Doubt (Part 1 & 2)
Five Shades of Fantasy
Shadow of Doubt - Part 1
Shadow of Doubt - Part 2
Four and a Half Shades of Fantasy
Dream Fighter
What Creeps in the Night
Forest of the Forbidden
HuNted
Arcane Forest: A Fantasy Anthology
Ancient Blood of the Vampire and Werewolf
Paranormal Huntress Series #2
Coven Master
By W.J. May
Copyright 2017 by W.J. May
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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.
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Copyright 2017 by W.J. May
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Paranormal Huntress Series
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Coven Master
Alpha’s Permission
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Coven Master Blurb
The wise learn many things from their enemies.
The city of Calen has fallen.
The forces that once held the city as one are scattered and drained of power. Adelaide, one of the witches who has haunted and threatened the peace once made by the elders in the territory, has regained her power by releasing the hybrids she’s created. She’s determined to destroy Calen and all those who stand in her way.
Atlanta, the Druid huntress, responsible for unlocking the hybrids and the murder of her uncle, tries to come to terms with what’s happened. Determined to try to set the wrong right she enlists the help of her kind, willing to risk everything, including her life, to stop Adelaide.
Suddenly she finds herself in a different town, fighting the witch and facing secrets about her past that leave her overwhelmed and vulnerable.
Meanwhile, Ryan and Marcus are in Calen, uncertain of what’s happened to Atlanta and desperate to find her. They must face the hybrids over and over as the waves of power press down on them.
The fate of Calen rests in too few hands. Divided sanctions, Vamps, Wolf, and Druid, must unify—or each race stands no chance of survival.
Contents
Paranormal Huntress Series
Find W.J. May
Coven Master Blurb
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
Epilogue
Alpha’s Permission Blurb
Paranormal Huntress Series
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More books by W.J. May
Ch
apter 1
A blaze of velvet red pierced the fine white sky. Silhouettes of birds and echoes of their morning song resounded in the air. They soared high, as if escaping some sullen malice that lay underneath. They formed an array of poetic welcoming for the rising of the sun in the broad and warm skies of the city of Lisbon.
The waves surrendered to the magnetic call of the shore’s lips. The mountains behind spoke in silence as they were swallowed by grey skies. At the base of the mountains, on the other side from the shore, a slim figure strolled through the rocky steeps. His movement so silent that, even within the stillness that surrounded him, the echo of his footsteps was a mere whisper.
He walked with purpose, eyes set on a destination in front of him, unblinking as the winds curled and tossed around him.
The rocks on the mountain ahead of him were in shades of dark grey and reddish brown. He gazed at them for a moment from afar, then turned his head to a nearly twenty-foot-tall yellow rock formation to his right. He approached the rocks while constantly scanning his surroundings, making sure he wasn’t being followed. He listened for the sound of footsteps or even the tremble of stones nearby. Nothing could be missed.
Satisfied that he was indeed alone, he knelt before the limestone rocks and reached out to a dirty greenish rock that sat alone, engulfed within the yellowness of the rocks. He pushed the rock into the wall. In seconds, a passageway right behind the rock formation was revealed and he became swallowed inside it.
Surrounded by darkness he swiftly made his way down the narrow passageways, deeper into the mountain.
It didn’t take him long to reach the end of his trek. He pressed his hand against a glass door and waited patiently until it slid open. Instantly bathed in fluorescent lights that shone whiter than snow, he blinked and let his eyes adjust. He walked in, through the tunnel of light, and down a second passageway much clearer than the first. His footsteps echoed as he picked up speed. His high black boots rang with the sounds of metal chains.
It was like a maze of tunnels bathed in brightness. He opened doors, turned left and right, and almost robotically moved toward a destination known only to him. The force with which he pushed the doors open gave the impression that the thin man was either quite angry or agitated. The shades of red on his forehead and the sweat running down his cheeks were both a sign of distress and the product of the endless walking he had to endure.
But even though his breathing was heavy and labored, he didn’t stop to rest. For nearly thirty minutes he roamed the tunnels, pushing through one door after the other, driven by instinct and an obscure purpose known only to him.
He finally stopped at a hallway with three doors. He fixed his gaze on the one right across from him, marched towards it, then hesitated.
Wrong one.
He turned and pushed the bar on the door to his left and swiftly slipped inside.
There were mirrors on every wall and on the ceiling. The floor was adorned with a plush, bright-red rug. The room was hexagonal in shape and the lights inside burned a bluish white that made his eyes water. The floor and the bars that hung on every corner looked like those in the basement of the Skolars back in Calen.
The man finally took a moment to stop and catch his breath before walking towards the small brown door in between two mirrors.
He pressed his finger on a small round button to the right and waited. “It’s Raul,” he said.
Seconds later a buzzer sounded and the lock on the door released. Raul pushed the door open into a room similar to the one he’d just left. But, unlike the mirrors on every wall, this one gleamed with portraits and paintings in golden frames. Each painting depicted a man or a woman in crimson red or dark blue suit. The paintings were engraved with dates that went back centuries.
A round table in the middle of the room caught Raul’s attention. Four people sat, two on each side, their attention drawn to a fifth man standing on his own. The conversations had stopped as everyone turned to look at the newcomer.
“Raul?”
Raul looked at the young man in charge of the meeting and swiftly made his way to him. “Sorry for interrupting,” he said, the urgency in his voice grabbing everyone’s attention. “I know it isn’t my place, but I have some terribly important news.”
Not that entering a hidden building and barging into a secret meeting wasn’t important.
This, however, couldn’t wait.
Raul didn’t wait for a response. “It’s about the city of Calen.”
Chapter 2
Calen
Midnight was a glimpse away; the hours passed as if minutes were dust that flew out of a broken hourglass. There were desolate shafts of light that would peek into the streets, trying hard to shed themselves over the darkened corners of the city, all in vain. The dust filled the air, casting its shadow over the towers of Calen. If one would gaze at the city from afar, they’d think that a sandstorm had caught the pillars of every building with its rough claws.
Along with the darkness, there wasn’t a single moment of silence. Not a second passed without the heavy sound of cracking, or confused screams, or the zapping of wires ripped out of their circuits. The city itself was crumbling, along with the people inside it.
In the suburbs, the Skolar house sat in ruins. Shingles were strewn about on either side of the house, and the grass looked as if it was reaching out to swallow the crushed skeleton of what remained of the house. Half the grass had yellowed from lack of sun, but oddly continued to grow. The other half had been scorched. Only the basement was the only part that laid untouched, unharmed by the constant hail of fire that fell from the gargoyles’ breath onto the streets of Calen.
Further into the city, the majestic gothic structure of Calen High stood proud. Oddly, with minor damage done to it. As Adelaide’s hybrids roamed the dust ridden corners of the city, Marcus waited inside.
We’re all doomed.
Marcus stepped out of the principal’s office, where he had spent the past few days regaining his strength. He stretched, letting his fangs elongate and retract, as if making sure they would still obey his will. He gazed down the dark, empty hallways, wondering how this could have happened.
It’d been nearly two weeks since the door had been opened.
By the end of the first day, it was no secret the hybrids were out. Adelaide made sure everyone—mortal or supernatural—knew her forces were taking over the city. Marcus remembered it clearly, as if it had happened just yesterday. He’d been in his thirteenth-floor office, surrounded by the best of his guards, when the heavy roaring of the wind first began to howl through the city. It was followed by the sound of shattering windows and the fusion of metals bombarding into one another.
Marcus had stepped out onto the terrace of his office, surrounded by a thick blanket of dust and wind that prevented him from seeing anything further than a few feet away. He had felt the grains scrape against his skin and eyes, threatening to engulf him, making sure Adelaide’s hybrids could operate under its shroud unhindered.
He knew he could not be compelled by the hybrids, knew that the elders of the Vampire clan were immune to the beasts’ trickery. Still, there was little they could do when they couldn’t see, or sense, the enemy.
Adelaide had clearly been counting on that.
She’s bloody planned every step. Been planning for years.
The memory still burned in the back of his mind. How he’d walked back into his office to find his guards dead. How the wind had howled all around him and red eyes had peeked through the clouds of dust surrounding him. They’d come for him, three of the beasts, eager to rid themselves of the threat Marcus posed to their dominance. They were a formidable force, but he had no intention of letting them win. In the end, he’d gotten the better of them. He could still feel their green hearts pounding in his palm before he crushed them.
If only we could’ve controlled them.
Marcus barked in laughter and shook his head. Even now, alone and without a plan, he was
thinking of how he could use this attack to his advantage. The desire to be the dominant race, to be king of all, was etched in his every bone, and the fact that he was now prey to something even more superior bothered him tremendously.
The Druids. I need to find the Druids.
But even that idea seemed senseless. James was the last Druid, and he hadn’t seen the man since the nightmare had started. Atlanta was missing, too. Marcus knew James was dead, but Atlanta... what had happened to her?
Not that I would know. I’ve been locked up in here for a fortnight.
Even though the hybrids had fallen, he had taken quite a beating. It had taken all his strength to storm out of the lair and find his way here, to hide in the shadows and regain his strength. His healing had taken time, more time than he was used to, and he knew it was because of the poison that coursed through Adelaide’s hybrids.
He’d been frozen by her charms before.
An anger burned deep inside him as he walked down the empty corridors of Calen High. Every few steps, his eyes would catch the decaying corpse of a fallen human. He had fed on the ones still alive when he’d arrived.
Students torn to shreds, teachers gasping blood. They were going to die anyway, and he’d needed all the blood he could get to recover. Now their corpses looked like mangled pieces of flesh, the rot they emitted burning his sinuses.
We need to regroup.
Marcus scoffed at the thought. Regroup where? And how? He didn’t even know if there was anyone alive who could fight alongside him. He knew he couldn’t trust anyone other than the elders of his own group, yet he doubted even their survival. He was going to have to find out either way. They would need everyone able to fight against Adelaide and the hybrids.
Inside the nearly unmoving corridors, the whistling sound of water running down the broken dispensers barely muffled the screaming outside. The costume of the school mascot lay on the floor of the hallway, torn to pieces. Marcus walked on the ceramic floors that were tiled in blue and red squares, between open lockers with their hinges scattered around the floor. Pages torn from books were dust-ridden and flying about. He made his way to the back exit of the school.