Unleashing Vampires: A paranormal revenge novel (Unleashing Series Book 2)

by C. J. Laurence

Grandad grinned and flexed his fingers. “I’m pretty sure we can make it work.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Lucifer glared at Lilith from over the great width of his black wooden antique desk. His dark eyes burrowed right through her shallow depths.

  “What have you got to say for yourself?” he said, throwing a handful of belladonna berries in her direction. “Did you think you were being clever?”

  Lilith shook her hair back from her face and squared her shoulders. “Do I get bonus points if I say yes?”

  Lucifer slammed a fist down onto his desk. His cheeks burned red with anger. “This is not a game, Lilith. I run things in a specific way down here for a specific reason. I don’t need you interfering and upsetting the balance of it all.”

  “All I did was make things interesting.”

  “No, Lilith. You fucked up. You do realise those girls are not coming back to your little cult, hmmm?”

  Shock flew across Lilith’s face. “What? Why? They were two of my best assets.”

  “They’re barely out of nappies, Lilith. What did you think you were going to gain by allowing them to keep their memories?”

  “All that raw emotion—it was beautiful, Lucifer. They were so full of life and wanting to do damage. Did you not see what they did topside? Even my best girls only manage one a night.”

  “Hell is a rehab centre, Lilith. Allowing people to drown in their negative emotions and then encouraging them to act based on that is against my rules. You’ve acted illegally.”

  “So spank me, darling,” Lilith replied, winking.

  “I’m afraid our past…interactions are exactly that, Lilith—a thing of the past. I only made do with you because I can’t have your sister.”

  Lilith’s pale skin flushed with darkness. Her sultry brown eyes flickered to the colour of coal. “You bastard.”

  “Consider your operations shut down with immediate effect. You can go back to your lair and tell your girls how you’ve just made them all very hungry for a very long time.”

  “How dare you! You can’t do this to me!”

  “I just did, sweetheart. Now, out.”

  “I want my girls back!”

  “They’re not yours, Lilith. They never were.”

  “You utter piece of trash. I’ll get you for this. You mark—”

  Breaking one of his own rules regarding no magick in Hell, Lucifer flicked his hand through the air. Lilith disappeared back to her lair, leaving Lucifer in peace at last.

  He stood up, straightened his shirt, checked his watch, and then headed topside for an important meeting.

  Arriving at the back of The Black Iris, where Lina had made her first kill, Lucifer listened to Spencer making his arrest.

  “William Wilkins, I am hereby arresting you on suspicion of the murder of your son, Anthony Wilkins, his wife Anna-Rose Wilkins, and their two young daughters, Lina and Arana Wilkins. You do not have to say anything—”

  “You pig,” the man shouted. “You can’t arrest me—I’m an MP!”

  “But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”

  “I paid you a lot of money,” Wilkins hissed in Spencer’s ear. “And this is how you repay me?”

  “I simply followed the evidence, Sir. The fact you tried to bribe me will only serve to help the case against you.”

  Spencer, having left his handcuffs in his car on purpose, turned his back on the infuriated man to retrieve them.

  He opened the car door and leaned across the driver’s seat, reaching for the silver item currently laid on his passenger seat.

  Wilkins looked around him, not seeing Lucifer because of his magick, and realising he had a prime opportunity, ran for the car door.

  With Spencer half-in and half-out of the car, Wilkins jumped on the open car door, crushing the metal against Spencer’s body.

  He beat the door repeatedly against the detective’s body until Spencer collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

  Wilkins dragged him out but left his head in the open space between the door and the frame of the car. He grabbed the door again, intent on smashing it into Spencer’s skull.

  “I think you should stop right there,” Lucifer said, making himself known.

  Wilkins screamed in fright. He turned and looked at the frightening bulk of a man slowly walking towards him. He jumped backwards and tripped over Spencer’s body.

  “I…it was an accident…I…I was just about to call an ambulance.”

  “No, you weren’t,” Lucifer said, waggling a finger from side to side. “Stop telling lies now, that’s not nice.”

  “I…I was, I swear.”

  “No, you weren’t. You were going to kill this man and attempt to get away with murder.”

  “I can pay you,” Wilkins said, his grey eyes darting about like a wild animal. “How much do you want?”

  Lucifer threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, you couldn’t afford my prices.”

  “I have lots of money,” Wilkins said. “Just name it—name your price.”

  Now only a stride away from his victim, Lucifer flashed him a sharp-toothed grin, giving Wilkins a hint of the devil that lurked inside.

  “My price is your soul. How about that?”

  Wilkins shrieked.

  Lucifer reached out with a clawed hand and smacked the man’s chest. Like a puff of dust, his soul floated up and out of his body, hovering in mid-air for a milli-second.

  Seeing his prize treat, Lucifer grabbed it and swallowed it, grinning. He leaned down and sent a surge of magick through Spencer’s body, healing his injuries and awakening him from his sleep.

  “Nice doing business with you,” Lucifer said. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.”

  With a bow, Lucifer exited the scene in a flurry of leaves.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Kyla

  Spencer returned to the Worthington house, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Worked perfectly,” he said. “Right about now, the body of William Wilkins will be being discovered hanging from the ceiling in the middle of his club.”

  I gasped and tried to stem my flow of giggles. “You’re joking?”

  He shook his head. “Everything went to plan. You’re safe and sound to wipe their memories.”

  “What about the case? The original one you hired me for?”

  Spencer cleared his throat. “William Wilkins murdered his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters in a fit of rage after his son threatened to out his father’s gay activities.”

  I burst out laughing. “Gay?”

  “Mr Wilkins then proceeded to ‘clean up’ any potential evidence of his homosexual activities by permanently silencing those who he had been intimate with.”

  I doubled over with laughter. I couldn’t believe it. This was music to my ears. “And it’s actually going to stick?”

  “Well, after I tell my boss I know he’s been in Wilkins’ pocket, I think it’s safe to say that I will be looked upon very favourably.”

  Grandad grinned and slapped Spencer on the back. “Nice job, kiddo. Well done.”

  The whole thing hadn’t taken long to put together and whilst Grandad had dealt with Lucifer and the negotiations, I’d spoken to my sisters and told them of our plan.

  “So, just like that, you can wipe our memory of you, of everything sick and twisted in this fucked up world?” Arana said.

  “Well, of everything supernatural, yes. The human world will still be what it is, unfortunately.”

  “What about our parents?” Lina said. “What will be the explanation for that?”

  I pressed my hands together. “It will be that your paternal grandfather killed them.”

  “But I thought Spencer had arrested him on suspicion of our murder too?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s easily gotten around, it’s all just details. Simply a case of you ran away, scared, and were found some
place. There’s a woods not far from your house, you could have been hiding out in there.”

  “For three months?”

  “Ok, how about you have no memory of them at all?”

  Arana narrowed her eyes at me, a streak of anger flitting through them. “Then that leaves us in no better position than what we are now. I want to remember love, laughter, hugs and smiles. How it really used to be.”

  I scratched the back of my head as I tried to figure out the best way to say what I wanted to say. “I’m not being funny but once your memory is gone, it’s kind of not going to matter.”

  “It matters to me now,” she said, her voice curt and sharp. “I’m telling you what I want and you’re being a funny cu—”

  “Whoa, ok,” said Lina, clapping her hands. “Time out. I think what Kyla’s trying to say is once she’s replaced your memories, you won’t remember wanting the happy smiles and everything else because life will just be as it was.” She pursed her lips and took her sister’s hand. “And it wasn’t all as perfect and rosy as what you seem to think it was.”

  “I know. I’m not stupid. But it was a damn site better than what we have now.”

  “Was it though, really? Look at us, Arana. We’ve graduated puberty in thirteen weeks and we have amazing magickal powers at the ends of our fingertips in a world that’s so much bigger than the human world.”

  “But it’s all so complicated. Maybe I wanted to struggle through teenage years, suffer with hormones and periods and first kisses with boys who I’ll never see again. Isn’t that all supposed to be part of making people who they are?”

  Lina considered her sister’s words for a moment. “You have a point, yes. So, what exactly are you wanting?”

  Arana sighed and then burst into tears. “I just want my mum and dad back.”

  My heart broke then. I felt awful for what I’d done. If we went with the theory that William Wilkins killed his son and daughter-in-law, all of these feelings that Arana and Lina had now would still mature, they would just be directed at someone other than me. That wasn’t fair.

  “Ok. I can give you love and laughter and everything else, but not with the parents you currently remember.”

  Lina frowned. “So with who?”

  “We can put you into an orphanage. Your story will be that you ran away from home, got into an accident, and lost your memories. You don’t know who you are or where you’re from. You’ll be adopted out to a nice family that can give you everything you ever wanted and dreamed of.”

  The two sisters looked at each other and nodded.

  “How are you going to reverse our aging?”

  “That’s quite simple. I can draw Lilith’s magick from your bloodstream. The accelerant will leave your system immediately so the most you’ll have lost is these last three months.”

  Lina let out a short breath and then smiled. “Ok, let’s do this.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Kyla

  Two weeks later

  I still feel awful about what happened with my sisters. But, as I sit here watching the news report about two young girls found wandering through the woods just outside of Minster Arch, I know we did the right thing for all of us.

  Sure, I’ll always have the burden to bear of what really happened in their lives, but considering what I did to them, I think that’s a small price to pay.

  It never ceases to amaze me that despite our actions, or our best intentions, the butterfly effect one act can have is immense.

  I can take comfort in watching them from afar, ensuring they get the life they wanted and deserved. Maybe one day, they’ll grow up and fall into the supernatural world another way, but by then they’ll be different people.

  In the meantime, I have a half-brother to teach my limited knowledge of elemental magick to, a best friend whose curse needs fixing, and a potential boyfriend who is currently ringing the door bell, waiting to take me out for dinner.

  Maybe I’m wrong for entertaining the thought of Dylan, but if I’ve learned one thing from this journey with my sisters, it’s that life really is too short to indulge in anything but your own happiness.

  Does that make me selfish? Maybe. But no more so than the person next to me. Being supernatural doesn’t give me powers to better my human emotions, it just gives me powers to act on them, sometimes in the wrong way.

  For now though, all I can do is live for the moment because you never know when that moment may end.

  Acknowledgments

  Well, the most important acknowledgements need to go to you—the reader. Without all of you guys, authors would simply be mental people with voices instructing them of words in their heads, so thank you for sticking with us.

  The indie world is not an easy one to be in with so many of us being looked down on because we’re not traditionally published but your constant support is relentless and appreciated so much more than you know, so thank you!

  XXX

  Where To Find C.J. Laurence

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  Craving Forbidden by Crave Publishing

  Versipellis Lupus Venandi – The Grim Sisters 1

  COMING SOON:

  Forest of the Dark by Enchanted Anthologies

  Unleashing Werewolves

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  Gamechanger