Lavos

by Laurann Dohner

  Lavos

  VLG – Book Five

  Vampires, Lycans, Gargoyles

  By Laurann Dohner

  Lavos by Laurann Dohner

  Jadee Trollis knows a little something about things that go bump in the night. Thanks to a father obsessed with myths, legends, and the paranormal, Jadee was dragged around the world in his pursuit of everything from ghosts to Sasquatch as a child. She got away from all that craziness in her teens, seeking a normal life as an adult. A trip to Alaska to visit her father quickly turns into a nightmare. Jadee ends up trapped in her father’s tricked-out RV, hiding from the dangerous Vampires outside.

  Lavos is the hottest man she’s ever seen when he comes to her rescue. He growls, has some seriously strange but beautiful eyes, and he’s not human. But returning to the lower forty-eight might not be the safety net she’s expecting, and the normal life Jadee craves more than anything means never seeing Lavos again. When she finds herself in need of his help, it seems her new normal may be back in Alaska, waiting in her VampLycan’s arms.

  VLG Series List

  Drantos

  Kraven

  Lorn

  Veso

  Lavos

  Lavos by Laurann Dohner

  Copyright © February 2017

  Editor: Kelli Collins

  Cover Art: Dar Albert

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-944526-79-5

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal, except for the case of brief quotations in reviews and articles.

  Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is coincidental.

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Lavos - VLG – Book Five

  By Laurann Dohner

  Chapter One

  Jadee unlocked the RV and stepped inside. “Dad?”

  The silence seemed ominous but the lights were on. She entered and did a quick search of the interior. He wasn’t there but his bed had been made. She paused in the kitchen area, studying the gun sitting on the surface of the table. He usually kept his weapons locked up. The security shutters were all down, blocking out the sunlight. It was odd. A prick of apprehension stabbed at her.

  She turned, going to the open door to peer out at the woods. It was late afternoon and the sun was going down fast. There was no sign of her dad or his car. She closed the door and locked it. There could be bears or other wildlife she didn’t want to meet up close and personal.

  She walked to the front and sat down in the driver’s seat. The bad feeling increased tenfold as she stared at the metal over the windshield and side door windows. Why were they down? She turned on the CB and made sure it was on the channel her father usually used.

  “Dad? Come back. It’s Jadee.”

  She waited, hoping he was within range. The mountains were rugged and she doubted the antenna on top of this mobile tank would reach far. He might have gone to pick up supplies, but he’d been expecting her. Something was off.

  “Jadee? Is that you, hon?”

  The voice didn’t belong to her dad. The usual irritation rose as she identified the southern accent. “Mark?”

  “Where are you?”

  “Dad’s RV. Where is he?”

  “Lock the doors. Do it now.”

  “Don’t give me orders.” She leaned back as bitter memories of her childhood flashed through her mind. She always had that reaction to her father’s research partner. “Where’s my dad? Is he with you?”

  “Listen to me, damn it! Lock the doors—and are the shutters down? Please tell me you didn’t open them. You’re in danger.”

  “I locked the door after I came inside.”

  “Are the shutters still down?”

  She stared at the thick metal. “Yes.”

  “Good. We didn’t know your father’s code to get inside. We’d hoped you would go there first whenever you arrived, and then reach our camp before the sun went down.”

  Mark’s droning voice grated on her nerves. “Where is my dad?”

  “Um…” Mark grew silent.

  She tensed. “What’s going on?”

  “They got your father,” he stated softly.

  “What are you talking about?” A list of reasons why she hated Mark Tarnet filled her head, beginning with the way he could never just spit something out. He seemed to take pleasure from annoying others. “Who has my father? Was he arrested? What for this time? Did he trespass on private property again?”

  “Do you see his tablet? Open it and let’s do this live.”

  “Tell me what the hell is going on and where my dad is!”

  The silence was on purpose. He refused to answer.

  She cursed, hanging up the CB and rising from the seat. The tablet was charging on the kitchen counter and she turned it on. Within seconds, an incoming request came for video chat. She clicked it on and glared at her father’s research partner.

  His appearance stunned her. His hair was wild and his usually rounded face looked slimmer. He sat in what appeared to be a metal room, and she saw two people crouched behind him. Peggy didn’t appear as if she’d brushed her hair in a good while and Brent’s normally clean-shaven face had days of growth. The siblings both seemed exhausted.

  “You look like hell.” Jadee lifted the tablet, making sure the plug wasn’t pulled, and took a seat at the table in front of the gun. She used it to help prop up the device. “I take it that’s the interior of that new trailer my dad told me about? It looks industrial.”

  “What did your father tell you about why we’re here?” Mark leaned in closer.

  Jadee wasn’t in a mood to play games. “The same crap he always says. He thought he was finally going to have proof about his theories. I only came because he was so worked up. He’s already had one heart attack. Someone needed to talk some sense into him. I would have called to ask how to find him faster but my cell couldn’t pick up a signal. Speaking of, how come we can get the internet here?”

  “It’s a short-distance signal we set up.” Peggy bent lower, peering at the camera over Mark’s shoulder. “Are you sure the doors are locked and the shutters are still down? It’s important.”

  “Let me guess. It’s getting dark and you’re expecting visitors.” Jadee became more annoyed. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told my dad. Nobody in their right mind would want to live out here—including Vampires. They theoretically would stick to large cities with lots of people since they’re supposed to drink human blood. This was a bullshit trip you made. There isn’t even a hospital near here. What are you geniuses going to do if my dad gets sick again? Somebody has to look out for him since none of you will.”

  Brent leaned forward, hogging the screen. “I’m so sorry, Jadee. We believe your dad is dead.”

  The shock felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. Denial was instant. “What do you mean you think? What are you talking about, Brent?”

  Mark shoved him aside, intently peering at her. “We found damaged night walkers.”

  Jadee was about to lose her temper—big time. “I don’t want to hear this crap! Is he lost in the woods or so
mething? Did you call in search and rescue?”

  “It’s true,” Brent swore. “We were contacted by a reliable source via our website about a sighting of Vampires. He also said some people he knew had disappeared. He was certain the Vampires were taking them.”

  Jadee resisted rolling her eyes. “Oh, someone from your website said so? It must have been true. How do you know he was reliable?”

  Brent hesitated. “Well, he sounded sincere and he had specific details, so we packed up and headed here. We lost contact with him after that though and were worried that something happened to him. We arrived six days ago and set our trap a day later. We caught four of them!”

  “They’re Vampires,” Peggy whispered shakily. “Real ones.”

  “They were more animalistic than we expected,” Mark added. “They seemed mentally unstable too but they’re allergic to sunlight. It burns them. That’s why you’ve got to make sure you’re locked in and the shutters are down. It’s too late to reach you. It’s already getting dark. You’re going to have to stay there until morning.”

  “The Vampires escaped!” Peggy blurted. “Your dad had already called you and you said you were flying here. We weren’t sure when you’d arrive and we can’t get cell service, so we weren’t able to warn you to stay away. We didn’t even know they’d escaped until we woke two days ago. They were too strong to handle at night so we were only running tests on them when the sun came up. Th-that’s when we discovered your father missing.”

  “We locked ourselves inside every night, thankfully. Otherwise we’d all be dead.” Mark paused. “I’m so sorry, Jadee. They got him.”

  “His car is gone. He must have driven to get groceries.” Jadee wondered if the extreme isolation had made them jump to the worst conclusions possible.

  “They pushed it into a ravine,” Peggy whimpered. “The first thing they did was trash our cars. And we found tracks where they pushed the big rig that hauls this trailer into the river. They’ve stranded us!”

  “Right.” She was fed up. “This guy who contacted you probably has friends and they’re seriously messing with you.”

  “No! It’s all true!” Peggy swore. “This isn’t a hoax.”

  “The RV is fine.” She glanced around.

  “The undercarriage isn’t. We checked it during the day once we realized we were trapped. The RV’s impossible for them to move. There were signs that they’d crawled under it so we took a peek. Your father had activated the emergency pillars on the motor home. They are six footings that flatten to the ground. It’s a precaution for high winds and bad storms. The wheels won’t roll. We have the same setup here. It’s why they haven’t managed to kill us yet.”

  Jadee was officially fed up. Their paranoid delusions had finally gotten the best of them. Her father ran for supplies often and his hunk-of-junk tow car had probably broken down again. He refused to spend money on it. “The RV has power. Notice the lights on?”

  “It’s the solar panels. I’m telling you, we looked under it and they ripped out the oil pan on the motor home. It wasn’t shielded as well as the hood is with the reinforced steel.” Mark shook his head. “We’re stranded. They’ve taken out all our vehicles.”

  Jadee clenched her jaw, ready to start screaming at the idiots. They were so gullible. “Have you guys been smoking pot? Been adding a little LSD to it again? Is that it? Or have you totally lost your damn minds? Dad probably went to a bigger town because he needed his car repaired. Remember New Mexico? You called to tell me you thought he’d been kidnapped by an army of ghosts. Instead, he was waiting on a new transmission to be installed in some out-of-the-way repair shop.”

  “Wait until darkness falls,” Mark said, suddenly looking exhausted. “They tried to break into our trailer for hours last night.”

  Peggy leaned in, her face close to the screen. “Do not let them in! I know you don’t believe us but damn it, we found Vampires, hon. These are real! They kill their victims by tearing out their throats and drinking the blood.”

  “Show her the evidence,” Brent urged. “We found a few bodies of the locals. They decapitated them postmortem. We believe it’s so they won’t turn, if legend is accurate about their bites transmitting the Vampire disease. Maybe we should ask her to rush outside and make a run for it in her rental car. She could come back in the morning to rescue us.”

  Jadee frowned. “I rented a truck from the airport, not a car. Dad said I’d need one to get to your camp.”

  “It’s too late,” Peggy moaned. “It’s miles to the main highway. You’ve seen how fast those things run. They’d catch up to her and attack. Hell, they’d probably be on her before she made it ten feet out the door. Look at the cameras. The sun is too far down. It’s already dark enough for them to be awake and moving around in the shade of all the trees.”

  “They have us cut off,” Mark agreed. “She’d never get out of here in time to escape.”

  A bad feeling settled in the pit of Jadee’s stomach but she didn’t want to believe what they had to say. In decades of searching, her father and his team had never found anything real. They sure weren’t going to locate a nest of Vampires in the middle of the Alaskan woods. “Hey, loco researchers,” Jadee interrupted. “I’m done playing this game. Where the hell is my father, really?”

  “Maybe they won’t go to the motor home since they already took Victor.” Mark ignored her to instead stare at Peggy. “It’s possible they won’t find her rental if we make a lot of noise and keep them occupied. At first light, we can make it out together.”

  “That means they’ll attack us again!” Peggy backed up and bumped against the wall. The terror on her face appeared genuine enough as she frantically looked around. “Can the exterior take it?”

  Mark stood, approaching her with his hands outstretched to grip her by the shoulders. “The trailer shell is two inches of solid steel. We’re safe. Stay calm. We built it to withstand a Sasquatch attack. They’re supposedly bigger and stronger than night walkers. We made it the last two nights, didn’t we?”

  Jadee rolled her eyes. “Sasquatch?”

  Brent dropped into Mark’s empty seat. “We were on Bigfoot’s trail, and your dad had designed this trailer after hearing about how the creatures were breaking into cabins. He wanted us to be safe. It’s a nine-by-twenty-five-foot container with all our monitoring equipment. We even have a toilet and two pull-down bunks for taking naps.”

  “Oh my God. Does it have windows? Maybe you guys are experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning or something. Open a door and let in fresh air. How long have you been locked in there?” Jadee wondered if that was the reason they’d lost their minds.

  A loud thump sounded over the speakers and all three people on the screen looked upward toward the roof of the metal container they were inside. Brent’s eyes widened as he gasped, “They’re back!”

  Peggy began to sob.

  Mark hugged her against his chest. “Quiet!”

  “Where’s the trailer?” Jadee stood. “I’m coming over there to prove that you guys are nuts. Or your so-called source is just some asshole having fun at your expense. You’ve lost it. You need to open the doors and I’ll take you to a nice hospital where they’ll treat you for whatever the hell is wrong with you.”

  “Hook her into the outside monitors,” Mark hissed. “Show her what we’re seeing.”

  “Did you hear me?” Jadee’s frustration rose. “Tell me where you guys set up in relation to the RV and I’ll come to you.”

  Brent twisted to the side and suddenly her view changed. She could tell by the gray-toned images that they were using the night-vision cameras. The trees were crisp and clearly outlined, and they seemed to be set up in a small clearing without any signs of civilization. The image switched, going to another camera angle.

  A man stood on top of what appeared to be a shipping trailer, the kind usually hooked to a big rig. It was a view from the top of the roof looking down the length. Jadee frowned, staring at the back of the per
son. He wore slacks and a ripped-up dark shirt. His hair was shoulder-length and scraggly. He turned, facing the camera as he jumped once, seeming to test the roof of the trailer. The night camera made him look really pale, and his eyes appeared black as he scanned the top of the roof.

  She gasped when a second figure suddenly seemed to drop from the sky next to the first man. The sound was loud when he landed and it happened so fast, she hadn’t expected it. It was another man, his hair almost as stark white as his skin. He wore a dark t-shirt and jeans.

  Jadee gripped the tablet with both hands and sank back into the seat.

  The image changed to a view of the back of the container. It had double doors, just like any other big-rig trailer she’d ever seen, and a woman in a long black dress was trying to pry them apart with her bare hands. Her hair was dark, hanging down to her ass in a ratty mess. The angle was from above, and she looked up, almost as if peering into the lens. Her mouth opened, revealing some gnarly, sharp-looking fangs.

  “Holy fuck,” Jadee whispered. Shock kept her gaze glued to the screen.

  The woman resembled something right out of a horror movie with that scary open mouth. It got worse when she bent, suddenly jumping. Her body passed the camera at least twelve feet above her, her clothes a blur. She was gone from view in a flash.

  The camera feed switched back to the top of the trailer, showing all three of them on the roof. They jumped around, the sounds loud and relentless. Their erratic, weird movements reminded Jadee of marionette dolls being jerked upright, only they didn’t have strings attached, helping them to leap that high. They fell hard enough that it made her wince every time their feet hit metal. It should have hurt, possible even broken their bones.

  The feed changed again, showing Brent’s face very close to the camera. “Did you see them? Make a run for it,” he hissed. “While they’re here.”