The Rise of Monsters: Angelus Book One

by Brianna Jean

His eyes closed before he let out a deep groan of agony, his features tightening in pain. He let me go, and his hands flew up to hold his jaw.

  I watched in horror as his mouth opened on a silent scream, and fangs began to poke through his gums, covering the Human teeth that were once there.

  I knew the pain he was in all too well, but I still felt it echo in my own jaw. I bit down on a scream as I pulled the pain within me and used it as motivation. Just like I did with my foster father.

  There was a difference between now and then. I had no control back then, but I was in control now, and I hated that Lanier was in pain. Something in me—Bestia maybe—wanted to help him, to save him from it, to take his agony and make it my own.

  I closed my eyes and tried to find her. She had to know something. I was battling the sinister darkness that lingered in the back of my mind. It wanted blood—Lanier’s blood. I could still smell it flowing from his hand, running down his arm. Wine.

  It smelled like red wine.

  I wanted to…lick it?

  What the fuck?

  “You’re not of this world, my Queen.” Bestia’s musical cadence hit my mental senses, shattering my bloodlust.

  Did she just call me Queen?

  “Bestia, what do you mean?” I asked her, uncertainty lacing my tone.

  “All in good time, Majesty,” she purred. “I need to be let out, I need to get reacquainted with my animated spirit. Let me loose and do not be afraid.”

  “Let out? What do you mean, let out?” I was creeping closer to losing all my fucking cool, walking on eggshells in my own mind.

  “When Lanier has finished his Transformation, he will be unhinged. He does not have the control that you do, he will smell the blood on you, and he will bite you. You need to shift; you need to let me out so that you can defend yourself against him if he gets out of control.”

  “Bite me?” I yelled.

  I got no response, as if she pulled away to await my decision.

  Lanier was now hunched over with his hands on his knees, and I could feel his pain decreasing. I had mere seconds before he felt no more pain, and then he’d be on me.

  Why was this happening?

  I didn’t know what to do.

  “Annalise,” I heard my name spoken from deep within Lanier’s chest.

  He looked up.

  I stepped back.

  His eyes were pure silver and dripping in hunger. He went from being a little intimidating to totally fucking savage.

  His fangs dripped a black liquid onto his bottom lip before it trailed like a river down his chin and fell to the ground beneath us where it sizzled and burned a blade of grass.

  Oh no.

  Was that venom?

  Suddenly, I understood what Bestia meant.

  Lanier was gone, replaced by a monster that held nothing but hunger deep within his eyes. And I was his feast.

  I stepped back another step and took a deep breath.

  I had to do this quick, though I had no idea how to do it at all.

  I focused, remembering the pain from last night. Remembering how it felt to have the wings push through the skin on my back.

  Blind. Fucking. Agony.

  A scream was torn from my throat. I wanted to thrash and roll and do anything to stop the change from happening, but it was too late.

  I had accepted Bestia, and she took it from there. She pushed her way through my soul and began the shift. The razor-sharp wing tips sliced my skin, opening up enough space to fit my new appendages through.

  The pain only lasted a few seconds this time, but I still needed to take a moment to recover. My breath was coming out in short pants, my skin slick with sweat despite the lingering chill that was slowly disappearing with the dawn of a new day.

  I leaned forward slightly to test the weight of the wings on my back, adjusting to the pressure where they sat on either side of my spine.

  I was surprised to find that I wasn’t unbalanced or wobbly. In fact, I felt strong.

  New. Reborn.

  Something had changed within me this time, the shift becoming more permanent, more natural.

  And that’s when I knew the guys had been telling the truth.

  I was a motherfucking Angel.

  I watched through new eyes as Annalise began to shift.

  Her face was bunched up in agony, but this time it only took a few seconds for her to go from a scared Human girl to a solid female Neph. To my complete surprise, her brilliant white wings were massive. They rivaled my own in size, causing me to pause. I’d never met another Neph with my wingspan before—easily eight or nine feet wide and seven feet tall. Annalise looked miniscule beneath them, but somehow it made her more dangerous.

  Her curves were highlighted from every angle, her hands fell gracefully to her sides. She was every bit as magnificent as I imagined her to be when she first Transitioned. She passed out so quickly, never actually getting the chance to fully stand before Cabe picked her up. I never got to see her in all her glory—but I imagined it. In my head, she was exactly like this, but reality was so much sweeter than fantasy.

  Her wings were almost fluorescent white, the shade so bright that it made them a little hard to look at. Each feather looked individual and lethal, like they’d been picked specifically for Annalise. The bottom of each wing pooled on the ground beneath her, causing me to frown, not liking the thought of dirt and grime fucking with their color. I’d have to teach her how to hold them up so they wouldn’t drag.

  I couldn’t at the moment though, because underneath my awe, something else lingered. I was too fucking hungry, too turned on, too confused to deal with anything other than the deep line of blood that fell from her lip and dripped in a line down her chin from where she bit through it.

  Her raven hair was still in the messy ponytail, but more had come loose, the strands hanging around her face, giving her a dangerous, sexy look. She was fully shifted, her fangs bold and on display as she watched me.

  I felt my beast snarl in anticipation—he was ready to taste her.

  I could smell nothing but blood, my whole body tuned to where it dripped onto the ground.

  This wasn’t normal for Nephilim or even Warlocks. This felt like vampirism. I wanted to bite her.

  Except vampirism wasn’t real. It was a myth, folklore that was only spoken of in books and fantasies. Bedtime stories for the sick and twisted.

  “Get over here,” Annalise called, snarling. She was angry at me for throwing her, but it was fucking payback as much as it was a test. I wanted to see if I reacted to her blood the way she reacted to mine. Sure enough, I wanted to sink my new fangs so deep in her flesh that I wouldn’t ever be able to pull them out.

  Her blood sang a sinister melody, calling my demons to come out to play.

  The beast was ready, primed and hungry.

  He shot forward, my wings bursting from my back faster than she could blink.

  I was in full form.

  She watched me as I watched her.

  She breathed as I did.

  She moved, so did I.

  Then we were standing right before each other, our breath mingling in the open air. Luckily, the area was scouted long before I brought her here. There was no threat to her safety in this location—the reason I chose it in the first place.

  “Why do I want your blood, Lanier?” she asked through clenched teeth, as if she was struggling to hide her need.

  She was fighting the hunger.

  I didn’t know how. I was ready to rip her to shreds and lick up the mess.

  “I don’t know,” I gritted out honestly. I was so out of my element, so blind to what was happening. All I knew was I couldn’t control myself; I couldn’t think beyond the bloodlust.

  “What do you mean—” she started, getting angrier. My need for her only burned hotter as adrenaline invaded her system, sweetening the scent of her blood. “You. Don’t. Know?”

  Now I was angry. She was taking too fucking long to move closer to me.
I needed the distance to disappear, needed to taste the cherry sweetness in her veins.

  “I mean,” I bit out, “that I have no fucking clue what is going on, but if I don’t lick that lip—and soon—I’ll go fucking mental on your ass.”

  Her violet eyes flared, the lust coming back full force.

  There she is, my new little Vixen.

  “I don’t know how to fight it,” she let out a small whimper, like it was becoming too much.

  “Then don’t,” I said, reaching forward to pull her into my arms and latching my mouth to hers. I slammed my fangs into the flesh of her bottom lip. They sank in easily, like a hot knife to butter.

  Her flavor burst into my mouth, invading my senses, taking over all rationality. I let out a fierce groan as I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her even tighter against me. I felt her hands on my chest as she tried to push me away but utterly failed. I was stone, locked in place, ready to destroy anything that took me from this moment.

  I fed.

  I had no idea how I did it, but I managed to pull more of her blood into my mouth. Her tongue peeked out and licked at my fang where it was deep in her flesh, testing the connection we now shared. She let out another strangled whimper before I felt a searing pain lash down my pectoral muscles.

  I groaned, pulling harder on her lip just before unlatching to look for the weapon she used against me.

  What I saw was more concerning than anything we’d encountered thus far.

  Bright white claws were imbedded in my flesh, blood soaking through the rips she made in my hoodie as if she needed to get to my skin. She let out a deep moan of pleasure as she sank her claws in further and pulled down, parting my flesh in agonizing ribbons.

  I threw my head back, a roar ripping from my throat.

  It fucking hurt, but it satisfied me. It was as if her claws were a direct line to my demons, calling them out, showing them that she was friend, not foe.

  I couldn’t look away for long, too interested in how this would all play out. As her fingers moved, the skin above her claws rapidly healed. As if her pain was only meant for pleasure, not to cause permanent damage.

  How is this possible?

  The sight caused my cock to grow stiff in my jeans. My blood began to boil, the sound of flesh ripping, Annalise moaning—it was all too much.

  I leaned down and attached myself to her.

  My fangs sank into the skin on her neck while her claws kneaded my flesh, shredding the skin on my chest to feed the new power simmering within her.

  She threw her head back, her eyes rolling into her skull as I drank from her essence. I bit further, deeper, harder, sucking the sweet flavor from her veins. Like a fine wine, her blood satiated my newly awakened hunger.

  She threw me backward. Her strength causing me to lose my balance, but I recovered just before her lips twisted up into a sinister grin. “My turn.”

  And then she was on me.

  I caught her midair as she jumped onto my waist, locking her legs around my back, just under my wings.

  “I have no idea what the fuck is happening, but if I don’t taste you soon, I’m afraid someone will die,” she whispered just before I felt the blinding pain her fangs caused as they sank into a deep vein in my neck.

  She bit down and pulled before she relaxed into me, her body focused on the feed, on the all-consuming need to dominate. Her pussy was right up against my hard dick, forcing a moan from my mouth as she rocked against me.

  It should have felt wrong, uncomfortable, fucking gross, but it didn’t.

  Instead, it felt as if I’d been hungry my entire life and never had a real meal until that very moment.

  Feeding from Annalise, tasting everything she’s made of, brought out my true beast. He took control, leaving me confused and turned on in the background.

  He pulled her tighter to us and put a hand on the back of her head to encourage the feed. I was becoming drunk on her venom, high on her scent, calm and new with her blood in my veins.

  It wasn’t long before her body locked up and her fangs released my neck. I bit down on the pain, refusing to show that I was sore all over, that my mouth hurt from the new fangs, that I was more confused than she was about what the fuck just happened. We both fell to the ground as we slammed back to reality.

  I looked to her, sitting next to me in the grass, trying to catch her breath. She had blood dripping down both sides of her mouth, her skin back to golden and beautiful as the sun rose from behind the trees and threatened to blind us.

  “I want to go back to the penthouse, and I don’t want to talk on the way.”

  With that, she got up and pulled her wings back into her body. I had no idea how she figured out how to do it, but I figured it had something to do with her beast. She would direct her instincts and try to teach her how her new body worked.

  I wondered who the fuck would help me figure out mine.

  I slammed the car door, embarrassed, angry as hell, and confused as fuck. What in the world was that?

  Did I just turn into a fucking vampire?

  As soon as I accepted that I was an Angel, that I wasn’t Human, this fucking happened.

  The guys didn’t say anything about vampirism, which meant they either hadn’t expected it, or they didn’t want me to know. Lanier looked shocked when he got his fangs, even more shocked when he realized that he wanted to use them.

  And then all hell broke loose.

  He fed from me, he drank my blood, and I liked it.

  No, I fucking craved it. I needed it, wanted it, couldn’t think beyond it.

  Ten minutes after our little suck fest ended, I wanted to hide in shame and rip shit apart at the same time.

  Who did this to me? Who turned me into a monster?

  I felt like two different people, like two entirely different creatures now lived inside my body. There was me, Annalise, the orphan girl who survived physical abuse, and then there was this new being that took root in my soul and ate away everything I knew to be true about the world I lived in.

  If vampires existed, why did Lanier seem so surprised? Why didn’t they tell me that something like this could happen?

  Oh right, because they weren’t fucking loyal to me. They didn’t even know me. Well, one of them thought they knew me. Even still, the three of them picked me up off the street, told me I was an Angel, and then pretty much left it at that. I was sure there was more they had to tell me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being played.

  Lanier could have warned me if he thought something like this would be a possibility. I was annoyed with both him and myself because there was nothing he or I could do about what happened.

  I swam in my own emotions as we pulled onto the highway, knowing that I was being unfair. The fact that my life had flipped upside down over the course of a few days had me more emotional than I would have liked. The car I was enjoying on the ride to the clearing—that we never even got to see—now felt like a cage. Lanier stayed silent, brooding and angry in the driver seat.

  I wanted to escape him, push the door open and risk the fall I’d take if I threw caution to the wind and jumped, but every time I started to reach for the door handle, my heart hurt. My soul caught fire. I couldn’t do it.

  We were connected now; I felt his presence in my mind. I had no idea what that meant for us, but there was little doubt left that he was there to stay.

  This was all too much too fast, the information, the new darkness that still lingered within me, this connection I had to three boys I didn’t know. I was going to be in for a long ride with them. They were heavily involved in this, somehow, and I was determined to figure out what their role was.

  Were they friends or enemies?

  One thing was for sure: me, my beast, and my new found darkness would kill anyone who betrayed us. I didn’t get this far in life to be used as a pawn in someone else’s game. I’d show them all that I was not the creature to mess with.

  Life handed me claws, win
gs, and fangs.

  If I had to, I’d turn them into weapons and see how much damage they could do.

  Five fucking hours. They’d been gone five hours, and I was a wreck.

  I figured that Lanier ran her off, scared her so badly that she jumped from his car and planned to never look back, but Quint wouldn’t let me go after them. He even went as far as to shift, standing in front of me in his Bull form, blocking the front door.

  I was forced to either wait them out or engage his animal.

  A minute before I got desperate enough to stab Quint, the front door opened, and Lanier blew through it with Annalise hot on his heels. Her hood was up, covering up the face I needed to see, and her hands were shoved deep in the front pockets of her hoodie.

  “Hey, Pup,” Quint said, stepping in front of her, stopping her mad dash to the stairs.

  “Get the fuck out of my way, or I will rip your dick off with my bare hands,” she warned, looking him dead in the eye.

  Shocked, he stepped back with a confused expression before glaring at Lanier. I didn’t care about what Lanier had done, I just needed to make sure I fixed it.

  Annalise stormed up the stairs, heading to Lanier’s room, probably because it was the only room she knew how to find. I followed her, staying a good distance behind so she didn’t see me and snap before she could even get in the room.

  She took the last handful of stairs two at a time and made it to Lanier’s room quickly, slamming the door behind her.

  I took a deep breath.

  Lanier must have really fucked things up to elicit these emotions from her.

  I didn’t like that she was upset. I wanted to fix it, but I wasn’t sure how she would handle me opening the door.

  After a few seconds of thinking it over, I knocked once, twice.

  Silence.

  “Annalise, it’s Cabe,” I said quietly, not wanting to make her more upset. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine, Blue,” she called, her voice muffled.

  “I’m coming in,” I said while turning the knob.

  “No—” she started to say, but I was already inside, closing the door behind me.