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The Arcadia Falls Chronicles
Vampire Apocalypse
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BY
JENNIFER MALONE WRIGHT
Copyright 2014 Jennifer Malone Wright
Smashwords Edition License Notes
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Visit the website of Jennifer Malone Wright
www.jenniferwrightauthor.com
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost I thank my husband. Trying to raise five children, even together, isn’t easy, but we manage to do it together and support each other in our work. But, when it comes to writing, he is not only supporting my work, but my dream.
I also want to thank my good friends who take part in the creation of these books. Rose, Tracy and Shawn, Kym, and Willow, thank you for always being there for me to run ideas by or simply to support me.
A huge thank you goes out to my street team, I love you Double Trouble team members, especially our hard working team leader Jeni, without whom I would never know what was going on with the team.
And finally, I would like to thank my cover designer Paragraphic Designs and my editor There for You Editing Services.
CONTENTS
Prologue – Chloe’s Diary
The Arcadia Falls Chronicles book 3: Vampire Apocalypse
Excerpt from the Arcadia Falls Chronicles book 4
Excerpt from Savior (A Higher Collective Novel)
Other books by Jennifer Malone Wright
About the Author
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The Arcadia Falls Chronicles
Vampire Apocalypse
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Prologue - Chloe’s Diary
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When I was a little girl, we moved around a lot. Therefore, I never really had many friends. I was always the loner in school, mostly because I knew that eventually we were going to leave again. At the time, I had no idea why my mother moved us so much, but in the long run it made us super close. She was pretty much my only friend … my only anything.
One thing that occurred to me as I made my way through all of the different towns, different schools, and different people was that I didn’t have any inkling of what I wanted to do when I grew up.
Until the day my mother died.
When I lost her and was found by the Hunters, I discovered something my mother probably never really realized that she was depriving me of … my family, my friends, and my destiny.
I’m sure things would have worked out differently if I had grown up on the community. Mom was just trying to keep me safe, and if I had lived there growing up I probably would have never gone to Trevors, which means I never would have met Alice or Oscar.
I know that I shouldn’t dwell on the past, but I can’t help it. I wonder sometimes what would have happened if time had passed differently. If I had grown up in Arcadia Falls, surrounded by Hunters, would I have made such a terrible decision later in life?
It has been six months since the Talon Building fell and the world is now a very different place.
Zander and I still can’t get through the magical shield that Alice put up around Arcadia Falls, which is probably a not such a bad thing at this point. Almost the entire community is ticked off at me for pretty much triggering the vampire apocalypse.
Yeah, that’s right … vampire apocalypse.
Dahlia warned me, and she wasn’t kidding. In the last several months, baby vampires have been popping up all over the world. These young vampires have no control whatsoever and are killing anything that crosses their paths.
So … we train, we fight, and we kill them.
The world is changing. People were all obsessed with that stupid zombie apocalypse, preparing for that when they really should have been worried about what to do if half of the population suddenly turned into vampires.
Six months ago, people were oblivious to vampires, the monsters lurking in the shadows, and now they are fighting them in the streets in an attempt to stay alive.
The community of Arcadia Falls has the right to shun me … I did this. I am supposed to kill these demons to protect the world. Instead, I made a bad decision which is getting people killed. More than just getting people killed, it was a decision that is diminishing our population.
Now that the world is aware of what kind of creatures are out there, the Hunters have also come out into the open. It’s crazy, but it’s a necessity. The Hunters are pretty much the only people equipped to fight the vampires, so the rest of the population just lets them.
Training centers have even opened so that people can learn how to defend themselves. Sort of like a self-defense class, but instead of learning how to stop a purse thief or a sexual assault, people are learning how to off a vampire.
Each day, the television and the papers have more bad news for us. Hunters can’t be called in from anywhere else because they are just as busy as we are. The vampires are turning faster than we can kill them.
We are basically screwed.
The world is going to crap and it’s all my fault.
I am not giving up yet. None of the Hunters are, it’s just not our way. However, we seriously need a better plan because killing them off one by one doesn’t seem to be helping much.
Meanwhile, nothing else matters. Every other problem that I thought I had before is now miniscule and forgotten. I have to make this right. What I don’t know is how I am going to do that. So, until then, I am just going to take them out one at a time.
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Rock music blasted through the in-house speakers at a deafening level. The intent was to drown out the pounding of my feet on the treadmill and numb the thoughts roaring through my head.
Sweat ran down into my eyes and my tank top was totally soaked from the ten miles I’d just put behind me.
Zander peeked around the corner. “Are you trying to break that thing?” he hollered over the music.
I shook my head and slowed the speed a couple of notches. “I can’t run outside, so this is my only option.”
“Well, this treadmill isn’t the highest quality in the world. Take it easy, all right?”
“Sure thing, bro.” I nodded and waited till he left the room before I turned the treadmill back up to full speed and sprinted the last mile.
As soon as I was done, I hopped off the treadmill, wiped the sweat from my face with a towel, and did a few stretches before heading over to the weights. Luckily, we had a home gym in this house, so staying in shape was no problem. Zander and I both spent a lot of time in there. He fought me at first, claiming that he didn’t need to work out, but we both knew that was a lie. He may be tough, but I stood firm that staying in shape is one of the most important parts of vampire hunting.
Zander is my half-brother, and we came across each other by pure coincidence. When we found him, he was pulling some vigilante vampire killing stint while looking for Trevor, our father.
The new house was more of a necessity than anything. Once we figured out that I wasn’t going to be able to get back into Arcadia Falls, the community where the vampire hunters live, I ended up having to stay with Zander. His apartment wasn’t big enough for both of us with only the one bedroom. We tried it ou
t for a while—with me sleeping on the couch—but that was awkward … especially when Christina slept over.
The solution was found in Alice, who had been staying with me at my grandfather’s house. Once I was unable to get through the barrier she had put up around the community, she felt strange staying there without me.
So, Alice bought a house with some of the money that Trevor had left her. With new vampires popping up all over the city, we decided that a house in the country was the best bet. It was still not very safe to go outside alone without any weapons, but it was better than being trapped inside some apartment building in the city.
Of course Oscar came to live at the new house, too. That left only Drew and Luke, my grandfather, back at the house in Arcadia Falls. Drew would not leave Luke for anything, even to be near me, and I understood that. Besides, he was here every day anyway.
The new house was a four bedroom, log house in the middle of nowhere. It was really, really big though. We had a gourmet kitchen, which was a selling point for Alice. Go figure, the vampire apocalypse was going on outside and Alice was worried about cooking and baking stuff.
I was impressed with the house; not only was it big, but super homey. The only problem we had was cleaning. Aside from Alice, we were all slobs, and she refused to pick up after us unless the mess happened to be in the kitchen, her work zone.
Outside of the house, we had an expanse of lawn and the other selling point to the place, a wall. There was a fifteen foot stone wall, much like the one that had surrounded Trevor’s mansion. Our wall had old-fashioned iron spikes set on top of the top of the wall. The spikes were decorative—a repetition of a tall spike and then one a bit shorter—and lined the entire wall, lifting its height another couple of feet.
Even better than the wall, we had a security system that consisted of a crap ton of cameras, which covered every inch of the property. We could access the cameras from any of the televisions in the house, and there was a television in every room.
Another thing we had here, which we installed after the purchase of the house, was a vampire-proof panic room. The panic room had four entrances and exits, allowing us multiple ways of getting in and out. It was solid steel and the inside was stocked with food, water, weapons, and other provisions. It also had access to all the security.
After finishing up with the weights I went to my room, which was way bigger than the one I had over at Luke’s. This room had a gigantic king-sized bed that was covered in a black and purple comforter and like a zillion matching pillows. The beige carpet matched the rest of the carpet in the house and was really fluffy. I favored walking around barefoot just to feel it under my feet. The floors at Luke’s house were hardwood and cold as ice in the winter.
Other than the bed, I had a desk, which was currently covered with papers and books from all of the research and studying I’d been doing when I wasn’t hunting. The only other furniture was a long, but short, dresser made of cherry wood with a huge mirror above it and a matching tall dresser.
I did have an attached bathroom of my own just like at Luke’s, which I immediately hit for a shower after my workout. I wanted to wash all the sweat off of myself and get ready to go out hunting again. Drew was going to come and get me so that we could spend some time together.
Once I was dressed in jeans and a tank top, I tied my hair back into two braids to keep it out of my face. Then, I strapped on my holster, beginning the process of attaching all of my weapons to my body. First, the two forty fives went into my double holster, my black one and my pink one. Then I strapped a knife sheath onto my leg underneath each boot, and finally I hooked my bow over my head so that it rested on one of my shoulders and hung loose. The quiver went over my shoulders as well. I had rigged it so that it was more like a backpack-style and wouldn’t fall off when I was fighting.
I had finally been using my bow more often, now that no one freaking cared if you were walking around on the streets with weapons. As long as you were killing vampires they didn’t do a damn thing to stop you. Using the bow was actually a huge asset. I could pick off the vamps from far away, which saved me from having to get close.
Lately, though, I wanted to get close. I wanted to make them hurt, so if it took me getting a few bruises then I was all right with it … as long as they ended up dead.
With all of my weapons securely attached to my body, I slid my necklace with the bullet on it over my head, letting it rest gently on my chest. Drew gave it to me for my birthday. It was supposed to symbolize the bullet from when I got shot. After that, I grabbed my iPod off of the desk and stuck it in the pocket of my jeans and headed out to wait for Drew.
I could hear voices coming from the kitchen as I approached.
“She is going to get hurt if she keeps this up,” Alice said in a low voice.
It was Drew who answered, “What’s going on? Did something happen?”
“You don’t know what she’s been doing?” Alice questioned, the shock evident in her voice.
Drew must have shook his head or something because there was no answer from him. “She is going out by herself all of the time, for one. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she stands up on top of the roof picking off all the vamps who even come close to this place, and she isn’t just killing them when she goes out into the city.” There was a pause and something that sounded like the oven door slamming. “She is doing the best she can to beat them bloody before she kills them.”
“What the—”
Not wanting that conversation to go on for even one more second, I burst into the room, interrupting Drew’s reaction. I threw Alice a dirty look for ratting me out to my boyfriend and headed for the fridge for a water bottle. “What are you guys up to?” I uncapped my water and took a big swig, switching my eyes back and forth between the two of them like I didn’t overhear anything.
Surprisingly, Drew managed to compose himself pretty quick, and he didn’t even say one freaking word about me going out by myself. He simply lifted his lips into a grin and strode across the kitchen to give me a kiss. “We were just talking about how Christina will be over in a little while.” He shrugged. “Nothing big. Are you ready?”
Alice stood by the counter with a towel in her hand and her mouth hanging open.
“Let’s go.” Drew put his palm on the small of my back and directed me out of the kitchen, toward the front door. As soon as the door shut behind us, a series of clicks were heard and I knew that the alarm system had been engaged immediately after the door was sealed.
“Kill something for me.” Zander’s voice came over the intercom.
I tried not to look concerned, but if he was watching the cameras he probably saw me snooping outside of the kitchen while Alice and Drew were talking. That was one drawback to all of the security in and around the house: there was no privacy at all. We just had to assume that everyone would respect each other enough to realize what was appropriate and what was not.
“Will do,” Drew called into the air and waved at the camera.
His truck was parked on the black pavement where Zander’s truck and our new Escalade were parked. The Escalade was technically mine, since I paid for it with part of the money my mother left me. I was still learning to drive, but I guess I didn’t really need a license anymore now that the world had gone all crappy. I kind of regretted purchasing the Escalade in the first place; all I had to do was wait a month, then I could have gone into the city and had my pick of any vehicle down there. The same went for the house.
However, I was an honest person, and just because some crap was going down didn’t mean we were dishonest or thieves. We were trying to fix this mess, not contribute to the chaos. In any case, I did occasionally drive the Escalade, but usually someone else was doing the driving if we were out hunting.
And we were always hunting.
Oscar wasn’t home, but normally his motorcycle was parked beside the other vehicles.
I opened the passenger door and set my bow and quiver inside before
hopping up into the messy but comfortable interior.
The truck roared to life and Drew pulled out of the parking spot, heading down the long driveway. Zander opened the gate automatically from inside without Drew having to show his face to the camera, which was mounted on top of the key pad.
The mechanical iron gates rolled open and Drew roared past them, emerging onto the deserted back road that led to the highway.
“Where are we headed today?” I asked because it was only around four in the afternoon. It was July, so it didn’t get dark till really late and the vampires wouldn’t be out until then.
Drew took his eyes off the road and threw a glance at me. “You’ll see.”
I sat back against the seat and put my feet up onto the dash. “You know I don’t really like surprises that much.” I looked out the passenger window. The trees this time of year were full and green and the terrain always smelled fresh … like it had just rained. I cranked the old handle on the door and rolled down the window.
Drew kept his eyes on the road, but his lips formed a grin. “That’s too bad.”
I sighed purposely to let him know he was annoying. “I wish that we could go up to the falls. It sucks not being able to get into the community.”
He nodded, agreeing with me. I knew that he missed me, but he was not going to leave Luke to come stay with me. And Luke sure as heck wasn’t going to move away from the home he had lived in since before my mother was born.
We turned off onto another back road a few minutes before we got to the highway and the road immediately turned into dirt. I didn’t ask, because I knew that Drew didn’t want me to. The truck’s tires crunched over the loose gravel, and dust churned up and followed behind us in large cloud.
Vampire Apocalypse (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #3) Page 1