Alliance

by Lacy Williams as Lacy Yager

  If you would like to find out when other books are available, you can visit my website www.lacyyager.com or Like my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/unholyallianceseries.

  If you want to know what’s next in the Unholy Alliance universe, turn the page…

  1 - Rachel

  Shane is so gonna kill me.

  Literally.

  My hotheaded brother is a Chaser. We are—I was—fifth generation humans given highly specialized training. Tactical, combat, and weapons. Trained from birth to kill vampires.

  And now I'm… I can't even think it.

  I wake just after sundown, curled in a ball between a dumpster and the back of a building. From comatose to completely alert in one nanosecond.

  I remember everything.

  The flight from Boston to Heathrow.

  Searching for the vampire that had attempted to take my little sister hostage six weeks ago. The others in our little band might be content to sit back and wait—they call it preparing—but I'm not. I wasn't.

  I ended up in an industrial part of the city.

  I remember the ambush.

  The turning.

  My turning.

  I'm now a…vampire. My own mortal enemy.

  And my brother will never forgive me. He's spent the last eighteen years, his entire life, working to erase vamps from the face of the earth.

  And Chloe, my sister... She's a Supernatural, though we aren't quite sure how that happened. Both our parents, deceased now, were human.

  As a vampire, I'm a danger to her. Vampires are uber-attracted to supernatural blood. I don't even know if I'll be able to resist attacking her, assuming I ever see her again. Have I lost my sister forever? I don’t know how I’ll be able to stand being without her—annoyingly—upbeat attitude and our girls-only secrets.

  My senses are on high alert. My skin is so sensitive, the air around me seems to vibrate. My throat burns… the thirst. Bloodlust.

  I have bloodlust now.

  I want to cry. But I haven't given in to that impulse in years, not since I was a little girl, and I won't now.

  I won't drink, either.

  I don't know how long it will take me to die from starvation, but maybe I've got a few days to find the vampire, Stephen, before I starve and have to stake myself.

  Chasers don't typically have a long lifespan. We're constantly seeking danger as we fight. But dying at sixteen…? I'm not ready.

  Touching my face gives me no answers. It still feels like it always has. I've seen many vamps, and the angular, sharper look of their features. And thanks to my brother, I've been up close and personal with a vamp—his girlfriend, Maggie—and I know there's some way to change from appearing human to becoming all vampire. I've seen her go from a monster with black irises and fangs to a human girl with bright green eyes in a matter of nanoseconds. Of course, Maggie is an anomaly—a vampire who doesn't hunt humans and seems to have a conscience. At this point, I can't be sure that I'm still a good guy.

  Question: how do you turn the vampire on and off? These are my first moments as the monster, and the newness frightens me. I know I'll be better off keeping the vampire part of me off for as long as I can. If I can.

  I need to get out of here.

  I need to get weaponed-up and find some way of tracking down the vampire that attempted to kidnap my sister.

  But I'm alone in a city I don't know.

  With bloodlust singing through every vein.

  I hate what I've become. I hate myself.

  But that's nothing new.

  2 - Alex

  12 hours earlier

  A call from the General is never a good thing.

  Especially when your life's mission is staying under the radar, like mine is. I've been meaning to get away, maybe take a vacation. But apparently, I haven't moved fast enough.

  When the General asks, you don't say no. Not if you value your life.

  So I join him close to dawn, a few blocks over from the apartments we jokingly call barracks, which sit adjacent to his headquarters. This building is unoccupied and we're on a rooftop, about five storeys up.

  After his bodyguard escorts me up the stairs, the goon disappears. I wish I could.

  I scan the rooftop out of habit as I slowly approach. He stands at the edge of the roof, hands clasped together loosely behind his back, looking out over the nearby buildings, all abandoned that I know of.

  I don’t think I’ve made any noise, but he greets me like he’s been expecting me. Creepy.

  "Alex."

  I wait, shifting my center slightly to my back foot. Just in case.

  The scent of blood wafts up to me from several blocks away.

  This industrial neighbourhood has been abandoned for years, especially after news got around of some gruesome murders that had taken place. It is as broken down and empty as I am.

  Why would a human have wondered into the area?

  And could it still be alive?

  There's something off about the scent. Something almost supernatural, like that of a witch, but not quite.

  And I've not met a not-quite witch before. The scent is sweeter than normal human blood and I tense as my instincts fire, ready to go hunt it, take it.

  "We've been together a long time, haven't we?" The General's question is rhetorical. We both know the answer—about a century.

  I keep quiet, half my mind wandering.

  Where have I smelled that blood before?

  "Perhaps that isn't the right terminology." He turns to face me, and my shoulders tighten. When you're facing a monster like him, you can't let your guard down, not even for a second.

  "We've walked in the same direction, but you've never fully committed to me, have you?"

  I do not like where this is going.

  "Is that why you allowed your cousin to escape with the young witch weeks ago?"

  Pish.

  It's been six weeks since the Maggie fiasco. In all that time, the General hasn't confronted me about it once, not even through one of his minions.

  My cousin Maggie—younger by two human years and six vampire months—migrated across the pond over a century ago. She's a bit of an anomaly: a vamp that doesn't drink from the source. She uses bagged blood and doesn't kill.

  She's a strange bird.

  "I didn't 'allow her to escape,'" I say. "I barely got out of there alive. They killed—"

  "All except Stephen. I'm aware."

  He watches me for a long time with hooded eyes. Empty eyes.

  Why bring up the fight now?

  I've done my best to keep from remembering my cousin's obvious disappointment and rage about the side I’ve chosen. Don't know how she can blame me for choosing the stronger side.

  For one moment, my memories hang up on the thought of one of Maggie's sidekicks. The only real fighter I've seen in a long time. And a girl.

  The General abruptly turns away again. He points to something on the ground, which I can’t see from where I’m standing. Warily, I join him.

  Down the street, roughly two blocks over, I see five vamps circling someone.

  The human—their prey—kicks and spins, barely holding them off.

  I catch a glimpse of her profile, and I have to concentrate to keep my expression neutral, every muscle still.

  It's her.

  The Chaser's sister.

  The girl I've been dreaming about fighting for a month and a half.

  Rachel Marie Campton.

  I only know her name because I heard her idiot brother yell it after her that sunny afternoon when I was hiding in the family mausoleum. I don't think she ever actually spoke to me.

  But she fought like a lunatic, as though she had nothing to lose, as though she didn't care if she lived or died.

  Like me.

  Seeing her again is enough to make this old warrior's heart speed up.

  Why haven't I been able to forget her?

  And why is she here now? Alone?

  I don't kn
ow why the General has brought me here to watch, but he never does anything without reason.

  Everything in me is cranked up, tuned in, as I watch her. My heart is choked up in my throat; my hands have gone sweaty. I can’t explain it. Maybe it’s a physical reaction from the memory of going up against her, or my brain playing a trick on me as if I’m down there fighting against her now.

  It’s obvious she’s tiring. She’s left her right flank vulnerable. That’s a misstep.

  One of the vamps gets in a blow to one of her legs and knocks her forward.

  The fact that she's been able to hold all five of them off for any length of time is impressive.

  I can't tear my eyes away as she turns the stumble into a hop-kick and nails one in the gut. But two more circle behind her.

  "I want you to make it up to me," the General says suddenly.

  Watching her, I'd almost forgotten his presence. Mistake.

  Or what? That’s my immediate, irreverent thought. I've always had a problem with authority. I don't voice it, though. I don't have a death wish.

  Rachel swings out with a silver flash—a knife?—and nearly decapitates one of the vamps.

  She's not that great a fighter. She's a girl, so there are height and weight issues, but what she lacks in technique, she makes up in spades with her passion.

  The girl has guts.

  I can't believe I'm admiring a Chaser, but there it is. Plus she's hot.

  When the General doesn't say anything else, I voice the unspoken but obvious. "You want me to kill her?"

  "No." There is a sick kind of satisfaction in his voice.

  Three of the vamps converge on her, taking her to the ground.

  "I want you to watch her."

  No one says 'no' to the General.

  Something inside me roars as one of the vamps slits her throat and blood pours.

  I hold perfectly still, denying the flash of intense pain. How can someone so vital be dying?

  Then another vamp steps up to her, marking her cheeks and forehead with blood. I can’t hear the words he seems to be saying, but I’m familiar enough with what he’s doing.

  They're turning her? Making her one of us?

  I break, ready to demand something—I don’t know what—of the General. But when I turn to confront him, he has disappeared completely.

  Probably wise, since the edge of the sky is turning gray. My skin prickles hot, a warning to get inside and take cover. It only takes seconds for vampires to burn to death in the sunlight, and I usually don’t even risk coming outdoors this close to sunrise.

  What did he mean, "watch her"? Watch what happened to her? Or watch her in a large sense? As in, take care of her?

  I clatter down the stairwell, briefly considering whether I should stay inside this abandoned building or even try and return to the barracks.

  But I find myself hauling it toward the attack I’d just witnessed. The other vampires are gone. No doubt they’d completed the General’s mission and left.

  There’s a trail of blood across the pavement, leading to an alley between two buildings. Her blood. I can tell by the unique scent. There’s an industrial trash bin that she could be hiding behind.

  The sun is close. I’m out of time.

  I hole up in the closest building, leaving her behind.

  In this abandoned area, no one will come for her. She’ll be weak and disoriented. Not fully a vampire for several more hours, maybe after dusk, so the sunlight isn’t a danger to her. Only to me.

  If the General has some reason for keeping her around, she won’t be a target.

  But why…?

  I can't sleep, haunted by questions about his intentions and her coming reaction once she realizes what has happened to her.

  I pace between two large, empty interior rooms, pitch dark to protect me from the sun. I don't need sight—I can rely on my extra-keen hearing and the hyper-sensitivity of touch to know where the walls are.

  What is the General playing at? There's no way he could've known I had some kind of weird connection to Rachel. I've heard of warlocks that can sense thoughts—Rachel's little sister, the witch, apparently could—but not a vamp.

  So is this some kind of test?

  I can't help remembering the night I was turned. The cold ground beneath me. The blood. My disorientation, the choking fear.

  It's eerie how Rachel's situation mirrors mine. Had the General chosen her for that reason? I haven't publicized my past, and most of the vamps that were there aren't around any longer, and I doubt they’d have told him, anyway. Not that it matters. He seems to know everything.

  What was Rachel doing here in London, anyway? Where was her brother? Had she crossed the Atlantic alone?

  Why?

  It's a good thing vamps need little sleep, because my swirling thoughts refuse to quiet. It’s the longest day I’ve faced in awhile.

  Click here to buy Shadow Allegiance now. Available at all major e-retailers.

  DEDICATION

  I dedicate this story to my big sister, and co-writer, Lacy, who has spent her whole life encouraging me to follow my dreams, and helping one of my biggest dreams come true by helping make the world of Unholy Alliance come to life. Love you, sis! – Haley

  For my sister, who fights through life with courage just like Maggie, holds on stubbornly just like Shane, and works magic on those around her, just like Hannah and Chloe. I love you, “brave girl”! – Lacy

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  HALEY YAGER was born in Moore, Oklahoma, but soon moved to a small town in western Oklahoma to her family’s farm. She was homeschooled with her older brother and sister, and has been close with her family throughout her life. Haley has always loved to daydream and create fantasy worlds with her imagination, and decided to put that imagination to work in her writing. She resides in Oklahoma City where she loves spending time with her nieces and nephews, and two black labs.

  LACY YAGER married her college sweetheart and became Lacy Williams. She also writes Inspirational romance under her married name. As the oldest of three siblings, Lacy exhibits most of the typical first-child characteristics and has always loved to boss around her younger siblings. Now that she’s married with kids, she has plenty of people to play house with!