by E. J. King
“Can we quit this charade? I’m tired of fighting with you.” I polished off the last bite of toast and sat back. “It’s not fair that you keep looking at me with those eyes of yours.”
“I’m sorry. Should I be looking at you with someone else’s eyes?” she retorted.
“It’s a good thing you’re my friend or I’d leave you in this diner.” My heart wasn’t in my rebuke. I didn’t like fighting with Grace. “Alright, explain your plan to me one more time. Maybe this time it won’t sound completely insane.”
She spun her coffee cup in a slow circle. “The Guardianship has been looking for me because of the prophecy about me being the only one that can close the gates of hell, whatever that means. They think that William was looking for me because he wants to prevent that, but we know that isn’t true. If we go to the Guardianship now, I can make a deal that I will help them carry out the prophecy and in exchange, they will leave the Darkness alone.” She held out her hands in a gesture of triumph. “Everyone wins.”
“Nobody wins when you make a deal between the Guardianship and a bunch of vampires,” I said.
“Okay, look. I don’t want to do this, but I will.” Grace put her hands flat on the table and closed her eyes. I felt a strange sensation in my head, like it was filling with water. Then my hand moved involuntarily toward my glass of water.
“What’s going on?” I asked, panicking. My hand curved around the glass and brought it close to me before turning it over and dumping the water right into my lap. “What the hell?”
“Sorry.” Grace smiled sweetly at me. “Now, do you want to take me to the Guardianship or do I have to make you do it?”
I stared at her, stunned. “This is your power? You can make anyone do anything you want?”
“Not anyone,” she said, throwing a stack of napkins at me. “Supernatural creatures. At first, I thought it was just vampires. I wasn’t sure it would work on you, but Hunters also have supernatural blood. Turns out my bag of tricks works just fine on you.”
“That was trippy,” I said, dabbing my pants. “No wonder the Guardianship has been looking for you. And I imagine that little trick comes in handy with William, too.”
“Focus, Sanders.” Grace leaned forward. “My power works on you and that means it works on all Hunters. The Guardianship won’t be able to control me. I can get them to make the deal to stay away from the Darkness and I won’t have to concede anything.”
I had to admit, her weird controlling power did change my feelings about her plan. Grace was virtually unstoppable, and it would be useful to have her embedded in the Guardianship where she would be able to draw out more details about their overall mission. “Are you sure about this?”
“I am. I only need you to take me there and if you don’t want to do that willingly, I’ll make you do it.” She put her hand on top of mine. “I don’t want to do that, Cole. I want you to be onboard with this plan.”
“If we’re going to do this, we need to get our story straight. I’ll tell them that I was able to infiltrate Drake’s posse and found you in the Darkness. We escaped together during the chaos of the Guardianship attack.” I convinced myself that what I was saying made sense, but it would still be easy for them to poke holes in the story. “You were never in a relationship with William. You were not staying in the Darkness willingly.”
“They aren’t going to understand why I will want them to stay away from the Darkness,” she countered.
“You’ll tell them that you made a deal with William. You promised not to use your powers on him and in exchange, he would agree to fight with you when this whole gates of hell thing happens.” I looked her right in the eye. “It’s very important they not suspect you are in love with him, Grace. If they find out, they will use him to control you.”
“Okay,” she nodded, her face grim. Then she stuck out her hand. “Do we have a deal?”
I sighed and took her hand, shaking it firmly. “We have a deal, Wick.”
While I wasn’t thrilled about our deal, it was nice to have a plan for a change. Sitting around waiting for the Guardianship to find us was incredibly aggravating. I liked the idea of being proactive and forcing something to happen, I just hoped it would turn out the way we wanted. That wasn’t a guarantee.
We weren’t far from the Seattle headquarters. I suggested we park a few blocks away and walk there, giving us a little more time to prepare and assess the area. It might also give us a small element of surprise by strolling casually up the road.
“William is going to kill me,” I muttered as we got closer to our destination.
Grace looped her arm through mine, reluctantly matching my slow and measured pace. “He will not. William doesn’t kill humans.”
“No, but he probably kills guys that run away with his girlfriend,” I said.
“Fair enough.” She grinned at me. “I’m sure your new vampire girlfriend will protect you. I think Kathryn might be able to take William in a fight.”
“Kathryn is not my girlfriend,” I said firmly. “But yes, she’s scrappy and much stronger than she looks.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to know how you know that,” Grace muttered. She stopped abruptly. “Is that it?”
In the distance, the large, stone mansion loomed like a prison. My heart started racing. “That’s it. Home sweet home.”
Grace didn’t hesitate, walking swiftly up the driveway. I followed close, scanning the area for any signs that we were about to be ambushed by Hunters. Everything was oddly quiet and still.
“That’s not a good sign,” Grace said, stopping in front of the porch. The front door was cracked open.
“That is a very bad sign,” I agreed.
The Guardianship would never leave that door open. They would never leave it unguarded. Something had gone very wrong.
Grace exchanged a look with me, letting me know with her eyes and a tilt of her head that we were going inside. I wished that either of us had brought our knives. Grace had thought we would be operating in bad faith if we brought weapons with us. If we were about to come under attack, we were seriously at a disadvantage.
She nudged the door open further with her foot and stepped inside. If Grace was anxious about being unarmed, she didn’t let it show. I kept expecting Mac and the other Guardians to jump out at us, but not even a floorboard creaked.
In the same large dining room where I had first met Mac, at least a dozen bodies were scattered around the room. There was blood on every surface and the stench of death hung in the air. I saw Mac’s body sprawled across the center of the table, gutted from pelvis to throat. His mouth was open in a silent scream.
“They were massacred,” I said through a shaking breath. “Who would do this?”
Grace pointed to a symbol that had been drawn on the table in blood. Her hand was shaking and she looked like she might pass out.
“What is that?” I asked, struggling to see it clearly through my own foggy haze.
“A family crest,” she said. “I’ve seen it before, in the Darkness.”
“Is it one of the royal families?” I only slightly understood the hierarchy of vampire clans in the Darkness, but I knew the Blackwoods were only one of three royal families.
“No.” Grace looked at me, blue eyes wide and clear. “That’s the crest of the Covington clan.” She looked slowly around the room, hands clenching into fists. “This is the work of Victoria Covington.”
To be continued in Book Five –
Destroyed by Darkness
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About the Author
E.J. King is a dreamer and a storyteller. She combines these two loves to spin engaging, wild stories. She's an avid reader of all types of genres and writes what she loves to read. E.J. writes contemporary romance, urban fantasy, romantic thrillers, and paranormal stories.
Her urban fantasy/ paranormal romance series "Dark Souls,” h
as seven books and two short stories. She is also the author of three other paranormal/urban fantasy series. “The Blackwood Vampires” is set in the Dark Souls world and “Shadow Hunters” and “Shaded Falls” explore new worlds of monsters and Hunters.
For a full list of all E.J. King books and links to buy, go to:
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Keep reading for an excerpt from
DEAD AT TWILIGHT
CHAPTER ONE
I ran out of gas just a mile outside of town. I could see the signs of small-town life ahead, just out of reach. My car barely made it into the station before sputtering to a stop next to an ancient gas pump and I stepped out into blistering heat. The sun was beating down unrelentingly.
I slipped on a pair of scratched aviators and stuck the gas nozzle into the tank, relieved when it gurgled to life. The gas station looked like something out of an apocalypse novel. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the pumps had been dry.
Naturally, the pumps didn’t take credit cards, so I had to pay inside. A lone clerk sat watching a baseball game on an old television. He barely glanced at me as I slapped a twenty on the counter. “I love what you’ve done with the place,” I said, glancing at the nearly empty shelves.
“New owners taking over next week. I’ll be leaving town,” he replied, pursing his lips. “You always so sassy?”
“I’ve been told I am.” I frowned. “You do a lot of business out here?”
“Enough. What brings you to the area? You ain’t a local.” His bushy eyebrows arched as he appraised me for the first time.
“Moving to be closer to family,” I said dryly.
His eyes narrowed at me. “Shaded Falls is a dangerous place for a pretty, young thing like you. You best be careful.”
“Is that a threat?” I snapped.
“A warning.” He leaned over the counter, locking his gray eyes onto mine. A ragged scar cut through the graying hair over his right eye. “And here’s another– don’t go out after dark. When darkness falls, stay inside.”
“Good tip,” I muttered, backing away. “Have a good life.”
“Stay alive,” he said before turning back to the game.
Stepping out into the stifling heat was a welcome break from the chilly reception inside. I was beginning to think that this entire trip had been a mistake. It had seemed like such an obvious solution to my situation– a newly orphaned 17-year-old trying to find a place to live for her senior year of high school. When Uncle Jim had invited me to stay with him, I accepted after only a small amount of deliberation.
It wasn’t like I had a lot of options. My mother had been an only child and Jim was my father’s only sibling. My grandparents had all died years ago. It was either Jim, or come up with enough money to get my own place. While I hadn’t spent a lot of time with Uncle Jim lately, I remembered being around him as a kid. He always had candy and money in his pockets to bribe me. I still loved both of those things.
I pulled the car sharply back onto the highway and items shifted in my backseat. All my essential possessions were packed inside the car. The rest of my parents’ stuff was in storage. Maybe someday I would go back for it, but I doubted it. If it was up to me, I would never go home again. Too many bad memories.
A sign near the road welcomed me to Shaded Falls. Fading of the sign made it look more like Shady Falls, which sounded more accurate based on the greeting I had received at the gas station. At first, it looked like I was entering another small town, just like the dozens of others I had passed through on my road trip. A downtown area that looked like it was from the past, children running around on playgrounds, and houses with picket fences. But on the edge of town, where Uncle Jim lived, I began to understand how Shaded Falls got its name. Large white oak trees, bigger than any trees I had ever seen, lined either side of the road. The road was almost completely shielded from the sun and the air blowing through my open car window seemed to drop fifteen degrees.
The right side of the road cleared and I could see a series of waterfalls in the distance. It was a stunning display of nature and I was staring so hard at it that I missed the gray blur rushing into the middle of the road. I turned my head back just in time to let out a curse and slam my foot hard on the brake.
The smell of burning rubber filled my car and I was breathing hard as I stared into the yellow eyes of a hulking wolf. Its gray fur shone like silver in the sunlight that filtered through a break in the trees above. The wolf lifted a lip in a threatening snarl that revealed bloody fangs. It blinked its gold eyes three times and then slowly, in a very human-like way, backed out of the road until it disappeared into the trees.
It was another full minute before my heart rate had slowed enough that I could think clearly again and I cautiously eased my foot onto the gas pedal. That wolf had been twice the size of any dog I had ever seen. I wondered what animal it had eaten to cause so much blood to coat its mouth. I then wondered if it had even been an animal at all.
“Get it together, Jones.” I exhaled hard and pushed away the negative thoughts that had begun to fight their way to the surface. “Leave the past in the past,” I muttered.
I made it to Uncle Jim’s place without further excitement and breathed a sigh of relief once the engine was turned off. It had been a long drive and I was officially exhausted. I got out of the car and took a closer look at my new home.
Jim had always taken pride in his bachelorhood and I had expected him to live in a trailer or rustic cabin. Instead, I found a modest ranch-style home with a neatly trimmed yard and flowers planted in window boxes. I was certain I must have the wrong house and triple-checked the address.
“Hey, weirdo, are you going to stand out there all day or what?”
Somehow, I had missed Jim’s appearance in the doorway. He stepped onto the porch and I felt a small catch in my throat when I saw how closely he resembled my father. The likeness was uncanny.
“Just trying to figure out what body snatcher situation must’ve happened to get you into a nice house like this.” I gestured to the flowers.
“Only the best for my favorite niece,” he said with a smirk that was identical to my own. He came across the yard in an easy saunter.
“I’m your only niece, Jim,” I reminded him.
“That makes it pretty unfair that you went and grew up on me when I wasn’t looking.” A somberness passed over his face. “Goodness, Izzy. You look just like your mother.”
I flinched. “It’s Isabel.”
“Right.” He nodded once. “Whatever you’re called, I’m glad you’re here.”
“You aren’t worried that I’m going to cramp your lifestyle?” I teased.
“I think you’ll be surprised to see how cramped my lifestyle already is,” Jim said, throwing a strong arm across my shoulders as he steered me toward the house. “I’ll come back for your things in a minute, but let’s get you into the air conditioning before you melt.”
“Is it always this ungodly hot?” I asked, already feeling my skin growing clammy where his arm was pressing down.
“Only when it’s not snowing.” Jim held open the front door for me, his arm falling away and making it instantly feel five degrees cooler. “Sadie says this weather is good for the skin. Keeps you moisturized.”
“Sadie?” I had only taken one step inside, but the blast of cool air felt heavenly. “Is she your facialist?”
“Do I look like I have a facialist?” Jim said, running a hand over his two-day old stubble. “Sadie is my fiancé.”
I had been about to take another step forward, but his words made me freeze. Uncle Jim, the same guy who had proudly boasted that he would never get married, had a fiancé?
A feminine voice with a slight southern twang called out, “Is that her? Is she here?”
“It’s either her or a stranger that has mastered the Jones’ sarcastic wit,” Jim called back. He put a hand on my back and nudged me forward. “Since when are you shy?”
“Since about the same time you
became whipped,” I said.
Jim had moved us far enough inside that I could now see through the doorway on my left. Again, I was surprised by what I saw. The living room walls were covered in a pretty pale yellow paint that couldn’t possibly have been selected by my uncle. The furniture was equally homey and the stylish throw pillows on the couch further emphasized the truth– Jim as a kept man.
“Izzy?”
The woman in the center of the room was even prettier than the home she had created. Her hands fidgeted as she looked at me, her eyes nervously darting between me and Jim.
“It’s Isabel,” I said, trying not to sound too annoyed.
“Oh.” Now, she stared at Jim accusatorily.
“It’s not his fault,” I explained. “Everyone called me Izzy growing up, but I go by Isabel now. You must be Sadie.”
She nodded. “I told Jim he should tell you about me when you first called about moving in, but he thought you’d like the surprise.”
“It’s definitely a surprise.”
“Come on in. Have a seat.” Sadie waved an arm toward the couch. It certainly did look inviting. “I’ll get you some iced tea.”
“Thanks.”
Jim went back outside to retrieve the meager possessions I’d brought with me while Sadie played hostess. As I sipped a large glass of overly-sugared tea, I was peppered by her overly-sugared sweetness. She asked dozens of questions about my childhood and my life, skipping over the last year like a pro. Clearly Jim had filled her in on the important stuff even if he had forgotten to tell her my correct name. A little while later, after listing my favorite books and movies, Jim showed me to my new room.
They had set me up in a large room toward the back of the house. It was far away from Jim and Sadie’s bedroom and I was grateful for that. I even had my own bathroom.
“You’ll have this part of the house to yourself most of the time,” Jim said as he set my bags on the floor. “There’s another bedroom across the hall where Sadie’s boy crashed for a bit, but he’s got his own place now so I doubt he’ll be around.”