by Amy Cross
I quickly start patting out the flames on my arms, but when I try to get to my feet I realize the venom in my body has caused too much damage. I wince as I drop back down, and for a moment all I can do is take several deep, ragged breaths as the flames build nearby and the heat becomes unbearable. Looking over at Keller, I can see immediately that he's dead, and for a moment it occurs to me that maybe I should let the inferno claim me as well. After all, I'm so badly hurt, I don't even know if I can recover from such a huge dose of venom. I lower my head, as if I'm bowing to the inevitable, as if all the pain and suffering has been too much and I no longer have the energy to keep fighting.
Turning away from Keller's corpse, I tell myself that I'm too exhausted to keep fighting.
Suddenly there's a sharp pain in my back, and I feel something bursting through my ribs. Looking down, I see the tip of a spider leg ripping its way out through my chest, impaling me and then slowly lifting me up off the ground. I turn and see that Keller, with his final act, is trying to make sure I don't escape. Reaching down, I take hold of the tip and try to tear it away, and finally I rip his leg open and fall down, free but bleeding heavily. I look back over at Keller and watch as his broken leg writhes. It takes a moment before I realize that even though he's dead, his body still lashed out at me, as if attacking vampires had become part of his muscle memory. Terrified that another part of his corpse might attack, I wait, my eyes fixed on his burning body until I see that there's almost nothing left. The main part of his body is crumbling, and one by one his legs are turning to ash. The pain in my chest is immense, however, and when I lean back against the wall, I realize that I no longer have the strength to get up.
And then I remember my brother.
Struggling to my feet, I stagger past the huge burning spider and make my way out into the corridor. My chest is filled with pain and I feel as if I might collapse at any moment, but somehow I manage to keep going as I limp toward the steps. To my shock, I spot a hand reaching up toward the top step, and when I get closer I realize that even in his ravaged and injured state Jonathan has managed to crawl all this way. I reach down and pull him the rest of the way up, and then – figuring that I have no other option – I somehow find the strength to put my arms around his body and lift him. Turning, I start carrying him along the corridor, past the door that leads into the room where Keller's corpse is burning, and toward the building's large entrance hallway. Each step is agony, as if it might be my last, but finally I get to the front door and I carry my brother out into the night air as the building burns behind us.
Epilogue
Absalom
After slipping a fresh dried tea flower into a glass pot, I add hot water and then sit back, admiring the way the flower seems to come back to life as the water uncurls each petal one by one. I know the whole thing is an illusion, of course, and that the flower only appears to be revived, but still, the sight is absolutely beautiful.
Plus, after precisely three and a half minutes, I'll have a perfect cup of tea.
“Sir,” a voice says nearby, “you have a... You have two visitors.”
“Who is it?” I ask, feeling a little rattled by the idea that someone thinks they can just come to my home without an appointment while I'm preparing for breakfast. Everyone knows that I'm particularly particular when it comes to breakfast, so as I rise from the chair and turn to make my way across the yard, I'm already planning what to -
Stopping suddenly, I see her.
Abby Hart is standing in the doorway, her whole body covered in cuts, bruises and even scorch marks from a fire. There's a wound on her chest, too, as if something tore through her. In her arms, she's holding the body of someone who appears to be in an even worse state. She steps forward, limping on her damaged ankles, and then she starts to stumble.
Hurrying over, I grab her arm and keep her up, but then she starts to kneel. I watch as she sets the injured man down onto the cobbles, and then she pauses breathlessly for a moment before getting back to her feet.
“Abby,” I say cautiously, “what -”
“I'm ready now,” she gasps, her voice filled with pain. She stares down at the body of the stricken, barely-breathing man, before turning to me. One of her eyes has been split open, and I can see in the other that something is very different in her soul now.
“Abby...” I pause for a moment, before realizing that the injured man must be her brother. “Abby, listen -”
“I'm ready,” she says again, clearly struggling to stay conscious. “I'm ready for the training now. The training you offered me before, the journey to the plains of Jagadoon, everything... Are you...” She lets out a faint gasp, as if the pain is momentarily too much, but somehow she finds the strength to keep standing. “So,” she continues, “are you going to help me or not?”
“Abby -”
Before I can finish, she slumps forward, collapsing in my arms. I manage to grab hold of her, before lowering her to the ground and setting her down next to her brother. Taking a step back, I stare at their ravaged bodies for a moment before realizing that I have no choice. I can't turn to anyone else. Either Abby Hart defeats the spiders at Karakh, or their vast empire will rise again.
Also available
EVOLUTION
(Demon's Grail book 2)
Far from the other worlds, far from humanity and spiders, Abby Hart finds herself undergoing her greatest test yet. The plains of Jagadoon offer a chance for her to train in preparation for the upcoming battle, but there are great dangers lurking and if the training fails, Abby's life will be lost.
Elsewhere, dark forces are massing, preparing to raise an army that will reignite the most horrific war of all time. Soldiers new and old are standing shoulder to shoulder while their generals plot a course. All that remains is for them to locate their lost homeland, so that their power can increased a thousandfold. At the heart of this struggle, Emilia is about to learn the true nature of her father's plans.
THE 13TH DEMON
(Demon's Grail book 3)
Unable to hide from her destiny any longer, Abby Hart heads to the great spider palace of Karakh. She knows she's prophesied to die there, but she also knows that in the heart of the palace there lurks a danger far greater than anything the world has faced before. An ancient race of demons has begun to stir, and they have a prophecy of their own to fulfill.
When she reaches Karakh, however, Abby starts to realize that she has been drawn into a trap much longer in the making. The demons are determined to make up for their old mistakes, but in doing so they bring Abby to her knees as they set out to reclaim their former position as the most powerful race in existence. By the time Abby understands the horrific truth about their plan, she might be too late to do anything except watch the world burn.
OTHER BOOKS
BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE
Horror
The Farm
Annie's Room
Take Me to Church
3AM
Asylum
Meds
Tenderling
The Girl Clay
The Prison
American Coven
The Night Girl
Devil's Briar
Ward Z
Ward Z: Revelation
The Devil's Photographer
Fantasy / Horror
Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3
The Hollow Church (Abby Hart 1)
Vampire Asylum (Abby Hart 2)
Dead Souls Volume One: Parts 1 to 13
Dead Souls Volume Two: Parts 14 to 26
Lupine Howl series 1 to 4
Grave Girl
Graver Girl (Grave Girl 2)
Ghosts
The Library
Journey to the Library (The Library Saga 2)
The Ghosts of London
The Vampire's Grave
The Werewolf's Curse
Thriller
Ophelia
The Dead City (Ophelia 2)
Fallen Heroes (Ophelia 3)
> The Girl Who Never Came Back
The Dead and the Dying (Joanna Mason 1)
The House of Broken Backs (Joanna Mason 2)
The Pornographer's Wife
Other People's Bodies
Dystopia / Science Fiction
The Shades
Finality series 1
Mass Extinction Event series 1 to 4
Table of Contents
Prologue
Part One
New Blood
Part Two
Identity
Part Three
Childish Things
Part Four
Fractured
Part Five
Ascension
Also by Amy Cross
THE FARM
No-one ever remembers what happens to them when they go into the barn at Bondalen farm. Some never come out again, and the rest... Something about them is different.
In 1979, the farm is home to three young girls. As winter fades to spring, Elizabeth, Kari and Sara each come to face the secrets of the barn, and they each emerge with their own injuries. But someone else is lurking nearby, a man who claims to be Death incarnate, and for these three girls the spring of 1979 is set to end in tragedy.
In the modern day, meanwhile, Bondalen farm has finally been sold to a new family. Dragged from London by her widowed father, Paula Ridley hates the idea of rural life. Soon, however, she starts to realize that her new home retains hints of its horrific past, while the darkness of the barn still awaits anyone who dares venture inside.
Set over the course of several decades, The Farm is a horror novel about people who live with no idea of the terror in their midst, and about a girl who finally has a chance to confront a source of great evil that has been feeding on the farm for generations.
Also by Amy Cross
ANNIE'S ROOM
1945 and 2015. Seventy years apart, two girls named Annie move into the same room of the same remote house. Their stories are very different, but tragedy is about to bring them crashing together.
Annie Riley has just broken both her legs. Unable to leave bed, she's holed up in her new room and completely reliant upon her family for company. She's also the first to notice a series of strange noises in the house, but her parents and brother think she's just letting her imagination run overtime. And then, one night, dark forces start to make their presence more keenly felt, leading to a horrific discovery...
Seventy years ago, Annie Garrett lived in the same house with her parents. This Annie, however, was very different. Bitter and vindictive and hopelessly devoted to her father, she developed a passionate hatred for her mother. History records that Annie eventually disappeared while her parents were executed for her murder, but what really happened to Annie Garrett, and is her ghost still haunting the house to this day?
Annie's Room is the story of two girls whose lives just happened to be thrown together by an unlikely set of circumstances, and of a potent evil that blossomed in one soul and then threatened to consume another.
Also by Amy Cross
ALICE ISN'T WELL
(DEATH HERSELF BOOK 1)
“There are lots of demons in the sky above London. The problem is, this one came crashing down to earth.”
Ten years ago, Alice Warner was attacked and disfigured by an attacker in her own home. She remembers nothing of the attack, and she has been in a psychiatric hospital ever since. When she's finally released, however, she starts working as a security guard at an abandoned shopping mall. And that's when she starts to realize that something is haunting her, keeping just one step out of sight at all times...
Meanwhile, seventy years earlier, a little girl named Wendy is left orphaned after a World War 2 fighter plane crashes onto her house. Taken to a monastery, Wendy is quickly singled out by the nuns for special attention. They say she has been possessed by a demon, and that there's only one way to save her soul. Fortunately for Wendy, however, there's someone else who seems to know far more about the situation.
What is the shocking connection between Alice and Wendy, reaching out across the years? Does a demon really lurk in the girl's soul? And who is Hannah, the mysterious figure who tries to help Wendy, and who seventy years later begins to make her influence felt in Alice's life too?
Alice Isn't Well is the first book in the Death Herself series, about a dark figure who arrives in the night, promising to help deal with the forces of evil whenever they appear.
Also by Amy Cross
MEDS
(THE ASYLUM TRILOGY BOOK 2)
“Welcome to the Overflow. And remember, all roads lead back to Lakehurst.”
At the edge of a ruined town, a burned-out hospital houses one final, functional ward. There, a small group of doctors and nurses tend to patients who have been consigned to the Overflow. Unloved, forgotten by the people who knew them, these are the patients who will never receive visitors. If something happens to them, no-one will ask questions.
When she starts work at Middleford Cross, Nurse Elly Blackstock thinks she's getting a second chance. She soon discovers, however, that this particular hospital is unlike any other. In one of the beds, an old man grapples with the horrors of his past, while in another there's a woman condemned to a life of darkness and silence. Ghosts stalk the corridors, and more ghosts are on the way. And watching over all of this is the hospital's administrator, Nurse Kirsten Winter, a woman who is desperately searching for someone named Annie Radford...
Asylum: Meds is a dark horror novel about the lengths one woman will go to as she searches for the truth about the voices in her head.