Abby rested her hand on top of Vicky’s. Over the past week, many of the vampires who had been involved in Drake’s operation, including Garth, had been taken out by Ronan, Brian, and the others. Brian had happily been the one to destroy the vampire who had killed Marissa and set Abby up to be captured.
Brian had informed her that, while undergoing questioning, Garth had admitted he’d known Vicky was in the warehouse. When Abby had called him claiming to be Vicky, and then sent her picture, Garth had realized he’d be able to capture her too. They’d been prepared for Abby’s arrival that night. They hadn’t been prepared for all of them.
Though most everyone had been destroyed, Duke was still out there. Brian had offered to help find him when Vicky was ready, but her normally impatient sister had decided to spend more time training here before going after Duke. Abby suspected it was because she was more scared of what was out there than she was letting on, but Vicky would never admit that.
“I understand how you feel and I’m staying with you until you’re ready,” Abby assured her. “We’ll go back together. We can use Brian as a distraction and some entertainment when we do.”
“You two are evil.” Abby turned at Aiden’s words as he stepped beside her and grinned down at them. “But it really is going to be entertaining. You know those kids are going to swamp him just because they’ll find it fun to torment him.”
Vicky and Abby laughed as they pushed back on the swing again. “Looks like you’re going to be stuck with us for a bit,” Abby told him.
He pulled one of the other chairs forward and settled into it. “I’m okay with that. Have you talked to Mom and Dad?” he asked Vicky.
“A few days ago,” she replied, her eyes darting to the side.
It had been a short conversation, consisting mainly of Vicky insisting she was fine and that they should stay with the others. When Vicky had grown tired of the conversation, she’d thrust the phone at Abby and walked away. It had been up to her afterward to keep their parents from jumping into the car and driving around New York in search of the training compound. She’d promised to let them know if anything changed, but she believed it was only a matter of time before she got the call saying they were in New York and insisting on seeing Vicky.
The sun was hanging lower over the maze when Brian stepped onto the porch. “Come with me,” he said and stretched his hand out to her. He helped her to her feet. “Don’t expect her back anytime soon,” he said to Vicky and Aiden over his shoulder.
Vicky gave a small wave while Aiden shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. Brian led her down the steps and toward the maze entrance. “Are you finally going to show me how to get through it?” she inquired.
The wicked smile he sent her melted her heart and curled her toes in her boots. “I’ll show you anything you want.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
The way his eyes hungrily ran over her caused her voice to come out huskier as they stepped into the entranceway carved between the ten-foot-tall, thick, green hedges. He led her unerringly forward, taking turns that left her confused and uncertain of where they were. By now, she would have come across at least ten dead ends, but he never encountered a wall.
“Did you use your ability to get to the center?” she inquired suspiciously.
He tugged her against his side. “Nope, I’m naturally good at everything I do.”
“You’re not very good at being humble.”
“I’ve never tried it before, but I’m sure if I did, I’d be fucking fantastic at it.”
Abby laughed as she leaned against his side. “I’m sure you would too.”
She searched the hedges as they strolled through the maze together. She couldn’t tell if she’d already been in this area before or not. After ten minutes, the pathway widened and they stepped into a large clearing in the center of the maze. Abby’s mouth fell open when she finally discovered the secret the maze had been hiding.
She didn’t know where to look first as her gaze flitted over the large glass building before them. There was a fountain inside the building with vines twisting over the sides of it. Roses climbed a trellis, their thick red and yellow blooms dangling over the top of it. Stepping forward, Brian pulled open the door to the large greenhouse and gestured for her to enter with a small bow.
Her gaze continued to run over the assorted plants and flowers blooming within the building. All around her were hundreds of roses, orchids, hydrangeas, and lilies. Spongy plants sank beneath the weight of her hiking boots when she stepped onto them. The setting sun lit the glass surrounding them with pinks, yellows, and oranges as it dipped toward the horizon.
“This is amazing,” she breathed.
“Not as amazing as you,” Brian replied as he watched the delight dance across her face while she moved through the greenhouse.
The warmth of the humid air within the building felt good against her chilled skin. She turned as she gazed at everything, trying to take it all in. Brian stood by the fountain; his eyes locked on her while she inspected the plants and inhaled their sweet scents. He didn’t move as he watched her with a predatory hunger. She smiled as she walked back toward him; her fingers itching with the impulse to touch him. Her skin became electrified with her need for him.
When she was only a foot away from him, he pulled something from his pocket and went down onto one knee before her. Abby froze, and her hand flew to her mouth as he opened the box to reveal the large diamond within. Tears burned in her eyes as the fading sun lit his hair and eyes and caressed his chiseled body.
“I don’t know how long I’ll have to work with Ronan, but I can promise you that when it’s done, I will take you everywhere you ask to go and live out every one of your dreams with you. I will love you every second of every day for the rest of our lives, and I will protect and cherish our children with everything I am.”
Her head shot up at those words. They’d yet to discuss the idea of children since the first time. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to risk ruining the bubble of bliss that had been surrounding them this past week by bringing it up again. He’d still been pulling out of her when they made love, so she had no reason to suspect he’d changed his mind.
“You want children… with me?” she asked in a hitching voice.
“I want everything with you. As soon as my time with Ronan is over, and you’ve done everything you want to do, I would love to see our babe growing within you.”
A sob escaped her at his words, and he took hold of her hand. “I never thought I’d meet someone like you, Abigail Byrne. You’ve turned a desolate life into one of promise and love when I never believed there would be again. Will you marry me?”
Unable to speak, Abby could only manage a nod as tears spilled down her cheeks. The radiant smile on his face caused her heart to swell to near bursting when he slid the ring onto her finger. She didn’t get a chance to look at it before he was rising to his feet and wrapping his arms around her. She cried out in joy when he spun her around before claiming her mouth with his.
Abby’s hands slid into his hair, and she pulled him closer as the swelling evidence of his arousal pressed against her belly. She’d once wondered which side of him was more dominant, the brutal one or the tender one. She knew now they were both intricately woven together to create this enticing, frustrating, amazing vampire who was completely hers, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
She’d never been happier in her life than when he laid her down on the spongy plants and took possession of her. With him was where she would always belong.
THE END
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Read on for an excerpt from book 1 in Brend
a’s newest series, The Road to Hell Series. Now available for pre-order.
Description
River,
It has been thirteen years since the war started, the bombs were dropped, and the central states became a thing of the past. When the war ended, a wall was erected to divide the surviving states from those destroyed. I never expected to go beyond the wall but unlike all the others who volunteered to go, I wasn’t given a choice.
With a dim knowledge of what I could do, the soldiers came for me. They took me beyond the wall where I learned that the truth is far more terrifying than I’d ever dreamed. Alone, with humans and demons seeking to learn what it is I can do, I find myself irresistibly drawn to the one man I should be avoiding most. One who intrigues and infuriates me. One who is not even a man, not really.
Kobal,
My entire life, I’ve had only one mission, reclaim my throne from Lucifer and put right everything that was torn apart when he was cast from Heaven. It’s a mission I haven’t wavered from, not even when the humans tore open the gates and unleashed Hell on earth.
Now, I’ve never been closer to obtaining my goal yet I find myself risking it all because I cannot stay away from her, a human who may be the key to it all.
***This Series will follow Kobal and River throughout. Not all things will be resolved in this book. Due to graphic language, violence and sexual content this book is recommended for readers 18+ years of age.***
PROLOGUE
River
I was nine when the first of the fighter planes flew over thirteen years ago. I remember tilting my head back to stare at them as they moved over us in a V formation. Excitement buzzed through me, but I felt no fear. The planes had been a more common sight before the military base closed last year; despite that status, planes still occasionally flew over our town.
When the planes vanished from view, I turned my attention back to the game of hopscotch I was playing with my friend, Lisa. I was about to beat her, and I wanted to finish before Mother woke from her nap and called me away. Lisa stared at the sky for a minute more before turning her attention back to me. She bent to pick up the rock on the ground as four more planes flew over us in a tight formation. They left white streaks in the sky as their engines roared over us.
The rock Lisa had picked up slid from her fingers and clattered onto the asphalt. Together, we watched as the second wave of planes disappeared from view. I don’t know why the initial wave of planes hadn’t bothered me, but the second wave caused a cold sweat to trickle down my neck.
Following the noise of the planes, the world around us took on an unusual hush for a Saturday afternoon in July. Normally there were shouts from kids playing up and down the street. The rumble of cars driving down the highway, heading toward the beach, was a near constant background noise now that tourist season was in full swing.
Turning my attention back to Lisa, I waited for her to pick her rock up again and continue, but she remained staring at the sky. The planes had unnerved me, but what did I really know? At that point in my young life, my biggest problem was napping in the house a hundred feet away from me. I hoped the planes hadn’t woken Mother; grouchy was a permanent state for her, but when she was woken from a nap, she could be a real bear.
I glanced over at my one-year-old brother, Gage. My heart melted at the sight of his disheveled blond hair sticking up in spikes and his warm brown eyes staring at the sky. He lifted a fist and waved at the planes fading from view. His coloring was completely different from my raven hair and violet eyes, due to our different fathers. Mine had taken off before I was born; Gage’s father had at least stuck around to see his birth before leaving our mother in the dust.
Turning his attention away from the sky, Gage held his arms toward me before shoving a hand into his mouth. Unable to resist him, I walked over and lifted him off the ground. I cradled his warm body in my arms. I always brought him with me during Mother’s naps so he wouldn’t wake her, and because I couldn’t stand him being alone in the house while she slept. I’d been alone so many times before he’d come along that I refused to let him be too.
Gage wrapped his chubby arms around my neck, pressing his sweaty body against mine. Lisa wiped the sweat from her brow and brushed aside the strands of brown hair sticking to her face. Waves of heat wafted from the cooking asphalt, but I barely felt it. I’d always preferred summer to winter and tolerated the heat better than most others.
Six more planes swept overhead, leaving a loud, reverberating boom in their wake as they sped by. Car alarms up and down the street blared loudly, horns honking in quick succession, and headlights flashing had all the dogs in the neighborhood barking. The relatively peaceful day had become chaotic in the blink of an eye.
Along the road, doors opened and beeps sounded as people turned off their alarms. Shouts for the dogs to be quiet could be heard over the alarms that continued to wail loudly. Some people ran out of their homes and toward the squealing cars to try and turn off the alarms that wouldn’t be silenced.
Gage’s arm tightened around my neck to the point of near choking. I didn’t try to pull him away; instead I held him closer when he began to shake. Then just as rapidly as the rush of noise had erupted on the street, everything went completely still. Even the dogs, sensing something was off, became almost simultaneously silent. The few birds that had been chirping stopped their song; they seemed to be holding their breath with the rest of the world.
I remember Lisa stepping closer to me. Years later, I can still feel her warm arm against mine in a moment of much needed solidarity. “What’s going on, River?” she asked me.
“I don’t know.”
Then, from inside some of the nearby homes, screams and cries erupted, breaking the near silence. Exchanging a look with Lisa, we turned as one and ran toward her house. We clambered up the steps, jostling against each other in our rush to see what was going on. We’d scarcely entered the cool shadows of her screened-in porch when I heard the sobs of her mother.
We both froze, uncertain of what to do. Tears streaked Gage’s cheeks and wet my shirt when he buried his face in my neck. He may have only been a baby, but he still sensed something was completely wrong.
Instinctively knowing we would be shut out of whatever was going on if we alerted them to our presence, it had to be grown-up stuff after all, we’d edged carefully over to the windows, looking in on the living room. Peering in the windows, I spotted Lisa’s mom on the couch, her head in her hands as she wept openly. Lisa’s father stood before the TV, the remote dangling from his fingertips as he gaped at the screen.
My eyes were drawn to the TV; my brow creased in curious wonder at the mushroom cloud I saw rising from the earth. A black cloud of rolling fire and smoke covered the entire horizon on the screen.
Beneath the cloud, words ran across the bottom of the screen. The U.S. is under attack. Nuclear bomb dropped on Kansas. Possible terrorist attack. Possible attack from China or Russia. Numerous areas of reported violence erupting.
“It’s World War III,” Lisa’s father said as the remote fell from his hand and her mother sobbed harder.
My heart raced in my chest, and my throat went dry as I struggled to grasp what was going on. I knew something awful had occurred, but I still couldn’t understand what. How could I? I was a child. My time on this earth had been spent trying to avoid my mother as much as possible. It had also been filled with taking care of my brother, friends, TV, books, school, and the endless days of summer, that until then, I’d been so looking forward to.
I hugged Gage as I vowed to do anything I could to keep him safe from whatever was about to unfold.
Standing there with Lisa, I may not have completely understood what was happening, but I knew nothing would ever be the same again. The only world I’d ever known was now entirely different.
The cries and shouts in the neighborhood increased in intensity when more planes flew overhead with a loud whoosh that rattled the glass in the windows before us and s
et off some of the alarms again. Turning, I glanced back at the street to find some people running back and forth, hugging each other before running toward another house. Some got in their cars and drove away with a squeal of tires. Much like a chicken with its head cut off, they were unsure of where to go or what to do.
What could anyone possibly do? Were we next for the bombs? The hair on my nape rose.
I turned back to the TV and watched as the cloud continued to rise. More words flashed by on the bottom of the screen, but I barely saw them. I became so focused on the TV, I never heard my mother enter the porch until one of her hands fell on my shoulder.
Tilting my head back to look at her, I realized it must be worse than I ever could have imagined if she was touching me. It was the first time she’d touched me in a comforting way in years. It would be the last, that wasn’t by accident or in anger, for all the years following.
“What is happening?” Lisa inquired in a tremulous whisper.
“The end,” Mother replied.
I wouldn’t know how right she was until years later.
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Undone (Vampire Awakenings, Book 5) Page 31