by Casey Lane
Trial by Heist
Preface
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
About the Author
Venom and Vampires
A collection with bite!
Prepare to sink your teeth into 23 Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy stories featuring vampires, shifters, witches, demons, chimeras, and more from today’s NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and internationally best-selling and award-winning authors!
With over one million words of fiction and over 100 hours of prime reading material, this exciting collection will treat you to brand new worlds and inventive re-imaginings of our beloved monsters-in-the-dark. You won’t want to miss out on these stories with bite. We’re certain you’re gonna love it…to death!
Crimson Reborn
Casey Lane and Bryan Cohen
Crimson Reborn © Copyright 2017 Bryan Cohen & Casey Lane
* * *
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Crimson Reborn
It’s her destiny to hunt vampires. It’s his to keep her safe.
Lyra is the latest in a long line of hunters. She’s saved countless lives by keeping the vampires at bay. There’s only one problem: vampires have become public knowledge, and their protection is the world’s top priority.
Her second career in the Chicago Police Department takes a turn when she’s forced to work with an FBI agent who boils her blood. When she finds out he’s the descendant of her highest profile kill, she has no idea whether to trust him, love him, or stake him through the heart…
Chapter One
Lyra Thorne's hand grazed her gun holster as she wondered if her incompetent partner could possibly comprehend that the perp they were chasing wasn't human. Even through the locked door on the seventh floor of a run-down apartment complex, she could smell the unhuman creature in the air.
Even though it had been four years since she joined the Chicago Police Department, Lyra knew there was no way she could tell her partner, her commanding officer, or anyone she worked with about her true identity. If she told them the reason she could smell or see or run better and faster than anyone else with a badge, she would go to jail for a laundry list of countless crimes. She wondered how many people her murderous transgressions had saved before her purpose was outlawed and her life was changed forever. She looked up into the eyes of the tall, muscular partner who was much more likely to put two weights together than to do the same with two thoughts.
Carl used his apelike knuckles to rap against a door marked 7C.
His forehead wrinkled as his almost prehistoric brain conjured up the words. "Chicago PD! You better open this door, Spencer, or we're gonna break it down."
Lyra raised an eyebrow. "You know, you could've been a little nicer. After all, we only want to lock him up for three to five years. It's not like he killed a litter of kittens or anything."
Carl grunted. "I'm a dog guy myself." He mimed looking at a watch that wasn’t there. "That's been long enough."
Her partner did a bit of a shoulder roll and a hamstring stretch before he wound his leg back and slammed it with all his might into the door. It didn't budge.
Carl looked absolutely dumbstruck. At least, more dumbstruck than usual. It was as if this was the first time his strength had ever failed him. Though Lyra had heard a rumor that other parts of the gorilla's physique had let him down before.
The larger officer huffed like an Olympic weightlifter as he slammed his meaty foot once more into the locked entryway. This time, the door seemed to shift a little, but it remained unopened.
Lyra smirked. "Six days a week at the gym not enough for you?"
"That thing is reinforced with steel or something." Carl wiped the sweat from his forehead. "If I can't knock it down, then there's no way–"
Lyra nudged her partner aside and made her own attempt at the feat of strength. When she let her kick fly, wood splintered and metal creaked as the door broke away from its jamb and zipped into the room where it came crashing against one of the apartment's interior walls.
Carl wrinkled his nose. "I loosened it. Good job, Thorne. Follow my lead."
Lyra decided to save her gloating for after they had gotten a hold of whatever creature it was who had been committing these robberies.
As she followed close behind her partner, the superhuman senses she had been blessed and cursed with kicked into high gear. The unhuman smell grew in intensity, and it didn't take her long to identify the source.
Carl strafed around the corner of one wall and lifted his weapon into the air. "Stay down and put your hands up!" Lyra's partner opened his eyes wide as if he'd never seen such an incredible sight. "What the hell are you?"
As Lyra slipped behind her partner and got an eyeful of the perpetrator, she could understand his surprise. While Matthew Spencer, the apartment's inhabitant, was wearing a normal outfit including a pair of khakis and a blue polo shirt, it was what was inside the clothes that mattered. Lyra raised her gun and pointed it in the direction of the green, scaly creature who sat on the couch in front of them. The reptilian man before them didn't seem the least bit fazed by his new visitors. He even wore a slight smile, though it was difficult to see where hi scales ended and his lips began.
The green creature stood up slowly. "Welcome, Officers. Can I get you something to drink?"
"Put your hands up!" Carl's arms shook, his weapon moving back and forth with them. "What did you do to yourself? Why is your skin green?"
The lizard-like creature turned his attention away from the confused ape, and stared straight into Lyra's eyes. "I've been waiting for you a very long time."
The tone of his voice gave Lyra goosebumps.
She stared right back into his reptilian eyes. "You know, I've been down at the station for years. You always could've come down to see me. In fact, how about you come with me right now, and the two of us can catch up."
Carl looked back and forth between his partner and the perpetrator. "I don't understand. Do you two know each other?"
Lyra rolled her eyes. "Can't you tell a little bit of friendly banter when you hear it?"
As Carl's confusion intensified, Spencer stepped away from the couch and began circling toward them. Lyra and her partner rotated away, but they kept their guns poised on the suspect’s body.
Carl's hands shook twice as fast. "Stay— stay where you are! I will splatter your green blood all over this apartment."
But the creature continued to pay no mind to Carl. "You may not realize this, but you're part of a greater plan." The perp kept circling around the apartment. "My master and I have been waiting for the right moment, and now that you've found me, the greatest moment in this world's history can finally begin."
Lyra took a step forward. "That seems a little dramatic, don't you think?"
The lizard stopped in front of a large, clear window that led out into the alleyway. "If you only understood your true place, Lyra. Only
then would you know that this is the beginning of something spectacular." He took a step back. "A new age is beginning." He gave a quick tilt of his head. "But this age isn't going to start quite yet."
As Lyra attempted to decipher his words, the creature bent his legs and sprung backwards through the window. Glass shattered throughout the apartment as the reptile fell through the Chicago sky.
Carl lowered his weapon as his jaw slacked open. "I have no freakin’ clue what’s going on."
Lyra could have easily used her partner's language against him. She could have gone back to the precinct and written a report about an escaped, green, scaly creature. But that's not what she did. Instead, her instincts told her to holster her gun as she sprinted across the hardwood floor and dove through the empty hole into the outside world.
Chapter Two
Lyra's sharp senses hummed as the air flew by her cheeks. She heard her partner call out for her as fire escape after fire escape passed by. By the time she finally landed below, unharmed of course, she felt something she hadn't experienced for years. She felt a little burst of purpose.
As she looked up from her crouched position, she saw the reptile sprint around the corner and out into the street. She sprung from the ground, running to catch up. She turned the corner, relieved to see only a handful of civilians on the sidewalks in front of her. The sun had peaked over the horizon within the last hour, meaning only the earliest workers had left their homes.
A couple of hours later and this could've gotten messy.
She inhaled the lived-in air of her adopted home, following the green arms and neck of the creature a block ahead of her. She accelerated beyond a regular human's capacity. As she pumped her legs faster and faster, she ran the creature’s words over and over in her head.
What the heck does he mean by a new age? Is he part of some kind of cult or something? Is this an unhuman gang?
Lyra watched the creature turn east, and when she reached his exit, she did the same. Most of the businesses they passed by had yet to open their doors. Pedestrians sleepily moved aside as she and the creature engaged in a high-speed foot chase. The shiny, metal amphitheater of Millennium Park came into view beyond the beige, unsightly elevated train tracks.
Maybe he isn't talking about a group, but some sort of magical date coming up. It'd be nice if Piers was here to go through one of his ancient books.
Lyra's handler and mentor had vanished years ago without a trace. In fact, it was only 24 hours after the news broke that completely changed both of their lives. She was left alone to fend for herself in a life she no longer recognized.
Her lungs continued to function at superhuman levels as she started to gain ground on the green creature. But just when she could pinpoint the exact path she'd need to take in order to bring the creature to the ground, Lyra spied something out of the corner of her eye. A large man wearing a brown trench coat was dashing across the sidewalk just as fast as she was. She wouldn't like to admit it, but he might even be going faster. Whoever he was, he appeared to be headed for the exact same destination as she. She looked up briefly and saw his eyes trained on the lizard creature who attempted to evade her. The sprinting man had a steadfast purpose in his eyes, and it didn't look like he had any interest in taking the lizard alive.
Lyra grumbled at the loss in focus of her own target. "Who the hell is this guy?"
As she took another glance at the creature's other pursuer, she watched him take out a weapon the likes of which she'd never seen. It was a gun, but it had a futuristic look to it. Almost as if it were from another age.
Lyra didn't think twice. She changed her trajectory and dashed toward her new target. Her hamstrings and quads worked at three times their normal levels to take her across the street in record time. As the man with the gun took aim, Lyra dove over a parked blue sedan and slammed her body into the weapon. A blast of blue light exited the gun, though her interference sent it zipping past the lizard. As she regained her footing, Lyra picked up the man by the middle of his trench coat and slammed him hard into a brick building before lifting him into the air.
Chapter Three
Lyra pressed her hands firmly against the man's throat as he let the weapon clatter to the ground beside him. Now that she was standing still, she could see the devilishly handsome grin up close. A few inches taller than she, the creature's other pursuer had a five o'clock shadow that worked so well with his face, she wondered if it was permanent. The strong jaw and the penetrating green eyes would've melted most women. She thanked her stars every day that she wasn't like most women.
She put more pressure on the man's throat. "What the hell do you think you’re doing?"
The man looked up with a cool grin. "You know, he's getting away."
Lyra had to admit, his eyes staring into hers did make her heart flutter a bit. Then again, that may have just been the hard sprinting she'd been doing for the last several minutes.
She gave him the stink-eye. "Don't you worry about him right now. You're the one who just fired some freaky space weapon in public trying to kill him."
"It wouldn't have killed him. It would have just knocked him out."
"And why am I supposed to trust you?"
His grin widened. It was incredibly captivating. "I have a trustworthy face. Isn't that enough?"
Lyra could feel the muscles in the man's neck flex against the pressure she applied. Only there was something strange about the way his body felt against hers. Yes, it was slightly exciting, but there was more beyond that. During the short time in which she'd been pressed close to his muscular body, she hadn’t felt a single heartbeat.
He looked deeply into her eyes. "You know, all this chitchat is going to let him get away."
She gritted her teeth. "And what does a vampire want with a reptile at six in the morning?"
He chuckled softly. "Probably the same thing a hunter wants."
Lyra relieved some of the pressure on the vampire's neck. He’d called her a hunter. It'd been nearly a decade since anyone had used that word with her, and now two unhumans on the very same day seemed to know exactly who she was.
So much for a secret identity.
Her eyes burned into his. "Stay out of this, he's part of an ongoing investigation." As Lyra turned to look in the direction of the perp, she saw a fleck of green scaling up one of the buildings adjacent to the L tracks. "I don't want you to move a muscle until I come back."
The vampire shifted his midsection toward hers. "You may need my help."
As he exhaled, she could feel her hips instinctively shift toward his. There was a part of her that wanted to move her mouth closer to his and taste a vampire for the second time in her life. But, it didn't take long for her to remember that she was on the clock and had work to do.
Before another second could go by, Lyra pulled out a pair of handcuffs and locked the vampire's wrist, attaching the other end to a nearby metal pole.
"Though my partner would tell you different, I work alone."
The vampire pulled at his now-encumbered wrist. "I don't think you understand."
Lyra raised her eyebrows. "Enlighten me later. I’ll be back."
As much as she would hate to admit it, Lyra and her body both appreciated the short respite as she ran back toward the perpetrator. When she reached the building the lizard had climbed, she easily scaled up brick by brick. Her mind contained a few trace remnants of the vampire she'd handcuffed down below. She couldn't tell whether her heart pounded from the treacherous climb, or if it was the image of his face imprinted into her memory.
Remember Lyra, the last time you shacked up with a vampire didn't end up so well.
She did her best to shake off all the feelings that came with those recollections, as she finally reached the top of the building. She saw the lizard standing on the edge of the far side of the roof. He was looking down toward the L tracks, as the familiar sound of the Brown Line came churning around the corner.
"Oh no." She ran in his dire
ction. "Stop! I'll shoot you!"
Spencer turned back to provide a salute and a wink, as he leapt into the air. Lyra reached the edge just as she saw the beast land directly on top of a speeding train.
Chapter Four
Lyra was somewhat impressed when she saw the lizard maintain his footing on the moving target below.
She shook her head. "Giant lizard on a train. What is this, Tokyo?"
As she watched the train speed up, Lyra sprinted along the top of the building, attempting to keep pace. When she ran out of real estate atop the roof, she pressed down into the earth and leapt high into the air, landing with a somersault on top of the next building. She lost sight of the lizard momentarily while she kept moving forward. As the train passed another building, she pushed herself into leaping and landing once again. By the time she'd gotten to the fourth and fifth building, her hips and ankles started to ache from the impact. She knew she'd been born with superhuman abilities, but even she had her limits.
She spied the lizard once again coming out of the front-most car of the train. In the midst of her dash across the rooftops, she saw the next curve in the tracks coming up.
I don't like hitting a moving target. But I guess I have no choice.
Lyra willed her legs to work harder, and with a death-defying leap, she flew through the air. The world seemed to move at twice its normal speed as she watched the train approaching quickly below. As she stretched her arms out, she caught the railing at the top edge of the final Brown Line car. Despite her best efforts, her midsection slammed hard into the metal below her. But she was able to maintain her grip despite the pain that shot through her back and legs.