CARNAL (EXILED Book 1)

by Victoria Danann

  Carnal

  Title Page

  PROLOGUE

  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

  Carnal

  Exiled, Book 1

  Victoria Danann

  Copyright 2015 Victoria Danann

  Published by 7th House Publishing

  Imprint of Andromeda LLC

  ISBN 978-1-933320-82-3

  Read more about this author and upcoming works at VictoriaDanann.com

  So far …

  This series is also a serial saga in the sense that each book begins where the previous book ended.

  There is a very old and secret society of paranormal investigators and protectors known as The Order of the Black Swan. In modern times, in a dimension similar to our own, they continue to operate, as they always have, to keep the human population safe. For centuries they have relied on a formula that outlines recruitment of certain second sons, in their early, post-pubescent youth, who match a narrow and highly specialized psychological profile. Those who agree to forego the ordinary pleasures and freedoms of adolescence receive the best education available anywhere along with the training and discipline necessary for a possible future as active operatives in the Hunters Division. In recognition of the personal sacrifice and inherent danger, The Order bestows knighthoods on those who accept.

  BOOK ONE. My Familiar Stranger:

  The elite B Team of Jefferson Unit in New York, also known as Bad Company, was devastated by the loss of one of its four members in a battle with vampire. A few days later Elora Laiken, an accidental pilgrim from another dimension, literally landed at their feet so physically damaged by the journey they weren't even sure of her species. After a lengthy recovery, they discovered that she had gained amazing speed and strength through the cross-dimension translation. She earned the trust and respect of the knights of B Team and eventually replaced the fourth member, who had been killed in the line of duty.

  She was also forced to choose between three suitors: Istvan Baka, a devastatingly seductive six-hundred-year-old vampire, who worked as a consultant to neutralize an epidemic of vampire abductions, Engel Storm, the noble and stalwart leader of B Team who saved her life twice; and Rammel Hawking, the elf who persuaded her that she was destined to be his alone.

  BOOK TWO. The Witch’s Dream:

  Ten months later everyone was gathered at Rammel's home in Derry, Ireland. B Team had been temporarily assigned to The Order's Headquarters office in Edinburgh, but they had been given leave for a week to celebrate an elftale handfasting for Ram and Elora, who were expecting.

  Ram's younger sister, Aelsong, went to Edinburgh with B Team after being recruited for her exceptional psychic skills. Shortly after arriving, Kay's fiancée was abducted by a demon with a vendetta, who slipped her to a dimension out of reach. Their only hope to locate Katrina and retrieve her was Litha Brandywine, the witch tracker, who had fallen in love with Storm at first sight.

  Storm was assigned to escort the witch, who slowly penetrated the ice that had formed around his heart when he lost Elora to Ram. Litha tracked the demon and took Katrina's place as hostage after learning that he, Deliverance, was her biological father. The story ended with all members of B Team happily married and retired from active duty.

  BOOK THREE. A Summoner’s Tale: The Vampire’s Confessor

  Istvan Baka was captured by vampire in the Edinburgh underground and reinfected with the vampire virus. His assistant, Heaven McBride, was found to be a "summoner", a person who can compel others to come to them when they play the flute. She also turned out to be the reincarnation of the young wife who was Baka's first victim as a new vampire six hundred years before.

  Elora Laiken was studying a pack of wolves hoping to get puppies for her new breed of dog. While Rammel was overseeing the renovation of their new home, she and Blackie were caught in a snowstorm in the New Forest. At the same time assassins from her world, agents of the clan who massacred her family, found her isolated in a remote location without the ability to communicate. She gave birth to her baby alone except for the company of her dog, Blackie, and the wolf pack.

  Heaven was instrumental in calling vampire to her so that they could be intercepted and given the curative vaccine. Baka was found, restored, and given the opportunity for a "do over" with the wife who had waited for many lifetimes to spend just one with him.

  BOOK FOUR. Moonlight: The Big Bad Wolf

  Ram and Elora moved into temporary quarters at Jefferson Unit to protect mother and baby. Sol asked Storm to prepare to replace him as Jefferson Unit Sovereign so that he could retire in two years. Storm declined, but suggested twenty-year-old trainee, Glendennon Catch for the job.

  Litha uncovered a shocking discovery about the vampire virus by accidentally leading five immortal host vampire back to Jefferson Unit. Deliverance struck a deal with Litha to assist Black Swan with two issues: the old vampire and an interdimensional migration of Stalkson Grey's werewolf tribe.

  In the process of averting possible extinction of his tribe, the king of the Elk Mountain werewolves, Stalkson Grey, fell in love with a cult slave and abducted her with the demon's assistance. He eventually won his captive's heart and took his new mate to the New Elk Mountain werewolf colony in Lunark Dimension where the wolf people’s ancestors had settled centuries before.

  Throughout this portion of the story, Litha's pregnancy developed at an alarming rate. Since there had been no previous instance of progeny with the baby's genetic heritage, no one knew what to expect. The baby arrived months ahead of schedule. The birth was dramatic and unique because Storm's and Litha's new daughter, Elora Rose, "Rosie", skipped the usual delivery with a twelve inch ride through the passes and appeared on the outside of Litha’s body.

  BOOK FIVE. Gathering Storm

  Book Five opened with Storm and Litha enjoying quiet days at home at the vineyard with a brand new infant. Sol shocked Storm with the news that he was getting married to Farnsworth and asked Storm to help Glen run Jefferson Unit so that he could take a vacation – his first ever – with his intended. Storm agreed, but when Rosie reached six weeks her growth began to accelerate drastically.

  Deliverance was to pick Storm up every day, take him to Jefferson Unit so that he could spend two hours with Glen and supervise management of Sol’s affairs, then return him to Sonoma, but the demon lost his son-in-law in the passes en route to New Jersey. Every paranormal ally available was called in for a massive interdimensional search. Finally, Deliverance was alerted that Storm had been located.

  The demon picked him up and dropped him in Litha’s bedroom, but it was the wrong Storm. B Team, Glen and Litha all undertook a project to do a makeover on the fake Storm so that nobody would find out that there was a huge flaw with interdimensional transport.

  Jefferson Unit was attacked by aliens from Stagsnare Dimension, Elora’s home world, with nobody there to offer defense except Elora, Glen, the fake Storm, Sir Fennimore, the non-combat personnel and the trainees.

  BOOK SIX. A Tale of Two Kingdoms

  The book opened with a look behind the metaphysical scene. It seemed that the strings governing Earth-related operations were being pulled by a group of misfit adolescent deities who were, eons in the past, given the planet and its derivative dimensions as a group project.

  Kellareal led the elves and fae to discover the truth
that they were once the same people, but were separated in the distant past because of a tragic estrangement of siblings. After believing that they had escaped the politics of their families, Duff and Song were captured and separated. With the angel’s help, however, they were reunited. Meanwhile, Aelsblood, Ram’s older brother was removed as monarch and his son, Aelshelm, succeeded as king in name only under the agreement that Ram’s father, Ethelred Mag Lehane Hawking, would reign in Helm’s place until he was old enough to decide whether he would join the family business and accept a career as king.

  BOOK SEVEN. Solomon’s Sieve

  Sol crossed the veil, but raised so much hell in the afterlife that the Council was persuaded to place his essence in the body of a Black Swan knight that had recently been vacated. He returned to Jefferson Unit with every intention of concealing his true identity, but intentions often go astray.

  Dr. Mercy Renaux was a professor of archeology hired to investigate a vampire tomb unearthed in Bulgaria. She took the job thinking she would change her life and find something to blot out the guy she couldn’t forget, Sir Rafael Nightsong, bad boy member of the infamous Z Team.

  She found him even harder to forget when Raif’s team was assigned to escort her on a mission to contain irrefutable evidence that vampire existed. After being trapped inside a mountain together and presumed dead, Mercy and Raif decided the spark that had exploded a New York speed date could be used to ignite a more pleasurable and lasting connection.

  PROLOGUE

  From A Tale of Two Kingdome, Book 6, Knights of Black Swan

  Thursday night Storm and Litha carried on a silent conversation at dinner while Rosie intermittently pushed food around her plate. She hadn’t really expected that Glen would respond to her ultimatum and, perhaps on some deep core level she might have known she wouldn’t have respected him if he had.

  In some ways, having been born with her parents’ education and memories, Rosie was both knowledgeable and wise. In some ways though, she was as immature and inexperienced in how to manage life in the world as any twenty-year-old. She was too proud to admit that she’d made a mistake by proclaiming a high stakes, winner-take-all tug of war with Glen over his career choice, and didn’t know how to admit that she’d been wrong and back away from her actions, so she’d determined that she was going to dig herself further into the sinkhole.

  Rosie put the fork down and sat back. She looked between the two other people at the table, closer to the physical age of peers than parents. Her eyes flicked to the clock one more time.

  “I have something to tell you. I need to go away for a little bit.”

  “What do you mean ‘away’?” Storm hadn’t wasted any time slipping comfortably into the role of father and nothing about the unusual character of their situation seemed to deter him.

  “I mean I’m going to take a break from what I’m doing.”

  Storm choked out a laugh. “Take a break from what you’re doing? And what is that? You aren’t doing anything.”

  “Storm!” Litha’s tone was full of reproof.

  “Well, it’s true, isn’t it?”

  Litha stared at him, angry because she was afraid he was hurting Rosie’s feelings and wanting very badly to be able to argue the point. The fact that he was right didn’t make him more endearing at that moment. Sometimes being consistently right was his most infuriating quality. This was one of those times.

  Oddly they really had never gotten around to discussing what Rosie might do with her time. In the beginning every day of her existence was a new miracle, right up until those daily miracles were overshadowed by a missing father and a look-alike under house arrest. While everybody was thinking in terms of hour to hour, everybody forgot to talk to Rosie about what she intended to do with her splendid array of abilities and inconceivable list of possibilities.

  Rosie wasn’t accustomed to the challenging accusation of paternal disappointment and had flushed pink in the face, either from anger or embarrassment or humiliation. It was impossible to tell.

  Storm narrowed his eyes. “Does this have something to do with Glen?”

  Rosie’s eyes jerked to Storm’s so quickly that she might as well have shouted yes. “Glen is no longer part of the picture where I’m concerned. Anyway, as I was saying, I’m going to be gone for a while. You’re not to worry.” She looked at Litha. “If there’s an emergency, Lally will be able to find me.”

  She kissed Litha on the cheek and gave her a hug. Litha looked a little stunned, but patted her forearm and stroked her hair once, twice. Rosie approached her dad, who sat stiffly. She bent to kiss his cheek and hug him in the same manner. When she put her arms around his shoulders, he melted. He pushed back the chair, stood and put his arms around her.

  “Do I need to kick his ass?”

  She put her arms around his waist and shook her head. With her cheek against his chest, she said, “No. You went right to the heart of the problem. All I want to do is be with Glen and I tried to force him to feel the same way about me. Maybe, if I spend a little time away… Maybe I need to think about doing something myself. I love you, Dad.”

  “I love you, Rosie.”

  And she was gone.

  As Storm’s empty arms dropped to his sides his mind presented him with a snapshot it had taken on a day when he’d been fourteen years old. He was in the car with Sol, pulling away from his parents’ house. They stood together in the shallow front yard holding hands and watched him drive away. His limited post-pubescent understanding had registered the look on his mother’s face as sadness, the sort that would be forgotten by the time she reached the kitchen and started thinking about what to make for dinner.

  Now he knew that look wasn’t something so inconsequential as sadness. It was the face of loss as devastating as the discovery of a missing limb. He made a vow to himself that he would replace the years his mother lost with time and attention. Never too late.

  He turned to Litha as his mind replayed part of the earlier conversation. “Who’s Lally?”

  Rosie had waited longer than usual on a tabletop boulder on a windswept mountaintop of Prescient Dimension where she went when she needed to contact Kellareal. She spent the time rehearsing how she was going to explain that she wanted a change of environment, where she could take a break from her life and rethink the direction of things.

  She knew she’d pushed things too far with Glen, but she also believed that, despite her feelings and desires to the contrary, the relationship wasn’t serious and wasn’t going to be. Not for a while. He’d made his decision. He was going wherever Z Team went and at least she had enough pride to know she wasn’t going to follow along like a camp whore. Even if he’d let her. Which he probably wouldn’t.

  So she’d take a lesson from that and maybe look for a little adventure of her own while she was young. While she was young.

  The breeze that blew her wild hair back from her face grew a little softer. Kellareal appeared to float down from the sky wearing a long white robe that billowed around him, arms outstretched as if inviting embrace, and landed in front of her soundlessly. She knew he would want to be congratulated on the theatrical entrance, so she clapped.

  He bowed.

  “Lally. How long do you think I’m going to live?”

  “You called me for that?” He picked up a pebble, sat down beside her, and threw it out over the canyon overlook. “We may have to rethink your summoning privilege if you’re going to abuse it, young lady.”

  “No, that’s not why I called, but since you’re here…”

  “Well, your elemental side is very long lived, meaning eons. Your human side is cursed with short life under the best of circumstances. Then there is the issue of fragility, the moment to moment uncertainty, the… risk, if you will, of being human. I tell you, it causes me to marvel constantly at their courage. Living under those circumstances, I’m not sure that I wouldn’t just curl into a ball and hope for sudden death to put an end to the suspense.”

  “If
they only knew how cynical real angels sound, you would never get your own TV shows.”

  “Hmmm. No doubt.” He grinned. “But a few feather sightings would bring them right back around.”

  Rosie giggled. “You’re hopeless.”

  “And is that why you wanted to see me?”

  “No. I need to get out of town for a while, change of scenery. Maybe I need to broaden my experience.”

  “Get out of town,” he repeated drily. “What does your mother think of this?”

  “She thinks she can get in touch with you if there’s an emergency and that you’ll know where to find me.”

  The angel pursed his lips, stood and paced for a while. “Vacations are fun. Sabbaticals are informative. Quests are enlightening, sometimes cathartic. Retreats are rejuvenating. Treks are adventurous. This?” He stopped and looked at Rosie. “This sounds like running away. Hard to put a noble spin on running away.”

  “I’m not necessarily asking for your blessing, Lally. Just a place to…”

  “…hide?”

  Rosie flushed. “It’s a favor.”

  Kellareal looked at her for a long time. “I can’t decide without hearing the whole story. I want to know exactly what it is you’re running from and what you’re hoping to gain.”

  By the time Rosie finished spelling it out, she was sorry she had started the whole thing. Spelling out what had brought her to that mountaintop sounded spoiled, selfish, childish and silly, even to herself as she said it. She supposed that was one of the angel’s goals in having her connect the dots out loud. She hoped that the worst of it, humiliation-wise, was over.