by Ari McKay
Table of Contents
Blurb
Sneak Peek
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
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Copyright
Quenched in Blood
By Ari McKay
Asheville Arcana
Will love mean rebirth… or death?
Vampire Julian Schaden has been warning the Asheville Paranormal Council of an impending demonic incursion for more than two decades. Over the past two years, he and his friends have fought as hard as they can with little help, since Micah Carter, the demon hunter who should have led them, shirked his responsibility and then perished.
Desperate for anything that might aid the fight, Julian enters the Carter property and finds something he never dared hope for: young Thomas Carter, the heir to a long line of demon hunters.
Thomas knows nothing about the supernatural world. But the prospect of a real life, outside the sheltered, isolated farm where he grew up, calls to him, and the idea of fighting the Unholy feels right.
Julian agrees to train Thomas even as he struggles against an unexpected, unwanted attraction. Thomas is too young and innocent to get involved with Julian, but opposites attract, and this is one battle Julian seems fated to lose. A prophecy from a dying mage comes with a bleak warning: the upcoming battle will claim Thomas’s life. To keep his home and friends safe, Julian may have to sacrifice the only love he’s ever known.
Julian frowned slightly. “I don’t think you have to rush into anything you’re not ready for. I’m going to make certain you’re trained first and able to handle yourself. You’re not facing anything alone either. I’m here for you, and so are Arden and Whimsy and the others.”
Thomas pushed his plate away and swiveled on the stool to face Julian, letting out a little exasperated huff. “I’m not talking about demon hunting, Julian. I’m talking about us.”
“Us?” Julian’s frown became a scowl, but there was also a flash of something that wasn’t quite panic in his eyes. “If you mean the kiss, I’ll apologize for that. It was wrong of me to take advantage of you.”
“I don’t want an apology,” Thomas said, leaning forward and resting his hand on Julian’s thigh. “I want another kiss.”
Chapter One
“SO, what do you think we’re going to find when we get there?”
Julian Schaden—vampire, semirecluse, and lately a very reluctant member of the Asheville Paranormal Council—glanced at his best friend, Arden, who was in the passenger seat of his SUV. The normally cheerful half-elf looked pensive, his green eyes dark with worry.
With good reason.
“I don’t know,” Julian replied. “Your father didn’t say specifically what we might be getting into?”
“No.” Arden grimaced. His father, Gilorean, was a very old human mage who specialized in divination, one of the most arcane and least understood of the magical specialties. Gilorean’s health had been deteriorating for the past two years, and his prognostications had become increasingly cryptic. “He just said ‘the answer is at the farm.’ Not that I’d even asked him a question, but I figured he had to mean the Carter farm, and so he must be talking about the demons. Or the cauldron.”
“Well, I hope he’s right.”
Julian had never put much stock in fortune-telling. Not that he would ever say anything negative in front of Arden, especially since his father was growing weaker every day. But over the time that Julian, Arden, and their friends had been pursuing a group of possessed shifters all over the forests of the Southeast, Gilorean’s predictions hadn’t been of much help. Maybe this time would be different. He hoped so, because the odds of a vampire, a half-elf, a mage, a couple of packs of werewolves, and a coven of witches being able to take on a major demon incursion were slight at best. They went down to practically zero if the demons in question found the magical Cauldron of Rebirth before Julian and his friends did.
He turned his SUV off the paved road at the end of Old Bee Tree Road and onto a gravel path with prominent warning signs like Keep Out and Trespassers Will Be Shot. He didn’t go very far before pulling to a stop, not because of the signs, but because of the magical wards that had been in place the last time they’d tried to come this way. The sun was already halfway through its journey from noon to dusk, and Julian had on a pair of dark sunglasses, but he still had to shade his eyes as he stepped out of the vehicle and onto the coarse rock surface of the road. Human myth had gotten it wrong about vampires not being able to go out in daylight—an annoying mistake, since demons were the ones who shunned light, not creatures who’d been born with souls—but he was better suited to darkness than the full light of the sun. This also just happened to be the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, so there were several hours of sunshine still to come.
Arden got out as well, coming around the front of the SUV and squinting against the glare. “I don’t see any ripples of magic, but I guess there’s no sense being hasty about it.”
Julian nodded. He’d chosen the time deliberately, since they might not be the only ones planning to visit the Carter farm on this particular day. He wasn’t worried about any creature of the light, however; he wanted to be able to assess the situation they might be facing and have time enough to take action, if necessary, before darkness fell and the chances of entities that would be worrisome showing up rose steeply.
Julian walked forward, glancing toward the right side of the road where he’d placed a large stone marking the boundary of the wards surrounding the farm. The magical field had been put in place by the local coven of witches a year before, at the behest of old Micah Carter, the one person in Asheville more paranoid than Julian. Brianna Winddaughter, the head of the coven, had given Julian the date and time the spell had been cast: noon on Midsummer’s Day.
“Brianna said the duration of the spell should be one year exactly, and since Micah is dead, they weren’t going to renew it.” Julian shrugged. “I suspect Micah’s plans were more to keep out the demons than us, but who knows? He sure wasn’t happy to see us the last time we showed up.” Unfortunately Micah’s paranoia—and the fact that he was a demon hunter descended from an angel—hadn’t been enough to prevent demon-possessed werewolves from killing him the previous fall.
If the magic had faded as designed, they should finally be able to reach the farmhouse, something Julian had been trying to do since Micah’s death. Guilt over Micah’s murder had been gnawing at him, since he’d been the one the old man had been coming to meet when the possessed pack had torn Micah to pieces. And now Gilorean’s words made it even more important that they learn what Micah Carter might have left behind.
As though sensing the direction of his thoughts, Arden moved closer to Julian and laid a hand on his arm. “His death wasn’t your fault,” he said softly. “He left the farm to meet you, but that was his choice. He knew the danger, probably even better than we did.”
Julian nodded. But he still felt he owed it to Micah, who had once been a close associate, to make sure that whatever Micah had left behind was taken care of—especially if it included anything that could help Julian and his friends defeat the demons, or aid in their search to find the frighteningly powerful magical cauldron before something else did.
“Come on, point
y ears,” Julian said, shaking off a sense of foreboding. “If the wards are still up, the first one to walk into them buys the beer tonight.”
Arden chuckled. “You’re on.”
Step by cautious step, they approached the boundary. They had to make certain it was down before attempting to drive a vehicle through, or else both of them might be seriously injured when the wards stopped their bodies but let the vehicle continue. It was lucky that the first time he’d run into them, he and his friends had also been on foot, or the results could have been tragic.
When he reached the stone marker, Julian motioned for Arden to stay behind, then put out a hand, steeling himself against being flung back. But instead of the repulsion he’d experienced every time before—he’d been out at least once per month since November, testing to make sure nothing had caused the wards to drop ahead of schedule—his hand met no resistance. Still moving slowly, he walked forward several yards until he’d convinced himself the wards were indeed gone. On one hand he was relieved, since they now stood a chance of getting the answers they sought, but on the other, it was a shame for whoever had been living in safety on the farm to now be without protection.
“We’re clear,” he said, walking briskly back toward Arden. “Let’s go.”
Back in the SUV, Julian drove along the rutted path, which was lined with cornfields on both sides, lush and deeply green in the summer sunshine. Julian’s parents had been farmers, and he’d done his own time in the fields, though he hadn’t planted any crops in centuries. The land surrounding Castle Schaden, Julian’s “whimsical” Gothic castle, was open land full of tangled vegetation, contributing to the idea the castle itself was empty and abandoned.
The cornfields ended at a row of tall pines that blocked the farmhouse from view. Julian stopped just outside of the line of trees. “Let’s go on foot from here,” he said. “There could be additional wards Brianna doesn’t know about.”
“Good idea.”
They got out and proceeded warily but passed through the tree line without incident. That was when the farmhouse, surrounded by a neat lawn of grass, came into view.
Julian halted as the sound of metal hitting something reached him. He glanced toward the right side of the house, and his eyes widened as he observed the tall, shirtless, deliciously tanned, and muscular form of a man raising an axe above his head. The human appeared fairly young to Julian, perhaps midtwenties at most, with curly fair hair as lightened by the sun as his skin had been darkened. A sheen of sweat made him seem to gleam in the light, and Julian, who had seen many a handsome man over the centuries, found himself captivated by the sight of powerful muscles flexing beneath burnished skin.
Arden’s gaze was also on the young man. “Whoever he is, he’s really pretty.”
The man brought the axe down on a piece of wood, splitting it in half neatly. He bent to retrieve one of the halves, probably to add it to the nearby wood pile, but he must have heard Arden’s words, because he whirled to face them.
“Can I help you?” he asked, holding the axe in a defensive position as he regarded them.
Julian held up both hands, palms outward to show he wasn’t armed and had no ill intent. Even with the guarded expression on his face, the man was stunningly handsome, though possibly even younger than Julian had first thought. “My name is Julian Schaden, and this is my associate Arden Gilmarin. I was a friend of Micah’s. Or used to be.”
But the explanation didn’t seem to assuage the young man. “You don’t look old enough for that,” he said. “Not unless you knew him when you were a kid.”
Now that Julian had gotten over his initial lust-filled appreciation, he took a moment to focus on the young man’s aura, and he saw the distinctive, dazzling rainbow hues of a demon hunter surrounding him. Not only that, but the clarity denoted a purity Julian had rarely seen. Not even Micah Carter, or his son or daughter-in-law, had ever had a soul quite so untouched by darkness as that of the young man before him.
For a moment Julian couldn’t breathe, and he was filled with a yearning he’d never felt before. He had the intense desire to touch this man and have the innocence of his presence chase away the darkness that had haunted Julian’s life for three centuries.
He tore his eyes away to glance quickly at Arden, who nodded, a satisfied smile curving his lips. Arden could read auras as well and had obviously seen the same thing Julian had.
“Actually, I knew Micah when he was a child,” Julian replied. “And I knew your parents, James and Alicia.” The young man’s parentage was now obvious. Julian could see the delicacy of Alicia’s features in the man’s face, while his eyes, as pure a blue as the summer sky overhead, were the same color as Micah’s and James’s. He was a stunning, and very puzzling, discovery.
The young man’s eyes widened, and he tightened his grip around the axe handle as he stared at Julian. “That’s not possible! You can’t be more than ten years older than me.”
The disbelieving words surprised Julian, and he frowned. “You can’t see my aura? I’m a vampire. I’m over three hundred years old, and so is Arden. What is your name? I can’t keep thinking of you as ‘incredibly buff blond demon hunter.’”
“Vampire?” The man’s expression turned incredulous. “Demon hunter? Okay, I don’t know if this is a joke or what, but you need to get off my property before I call the police.”
“It’s true,” Arden said, stepping forward with a friendly smile. Arden was small and slender, and with his big green eyes and natural elvish charm, he looked as unthreatening as a child. He brushed his shoulder-length hair back behind his ears, revealing their delicately pointed shape. “I’m a half-elf, see? I promise, we’re the good guys.”
But the man didn’t lower his axe, and the disbelief didn’t fade from his expression. “Your ears could be the result of weird genes, or they could be fake,” he said.
Julian scowled, and then his puzzlement turned to dismay. “Micah never told you what he was—what you are. Did he?” It was the only thing that could possibly explain why the man didn’t know Arden was telling the truth. “By the Most High, the old man didn’t want you to follow in your parents’ footsteps! Of all the stupid, selfish, shortsighted things that bastard could have done, he set you up to be a target of every Unholy creature and left you without any defenses at all!” He glanced at Arden, whose expression reflected his own horrified disbelief.
“Mister, you’re not making any sense,” the man said, still holding the axe at the ready, and he kept a sharp eye on Julian as if anticipating any sudden moves. “Did you go off your medication? Do I need to call an ambulance?”
Julian felt a sudden, expected surge of fury at Micah Carter. No doubt Micah hadn’t expected to die when he did, but he had done his grandson a grave and potentially fatal disservice. The man might not believe him if Julian told him the world was a very different, and far scarier, place than he realized, but disbelief wouldn’t prevent the minions of the Unholy from finding him and destroying him. Micah had probably loved his grandson and believed he could protect him, but Micah obviously hadn’t planned for what would happen after he died.
Julian had once admired Micah, and he’d ached for the deaths of Micah’s family, but the criminal shortsightedness of not preparing this young man for his destiny was inexcusable.
But Julian couldn’t walk away and leave the man to his fate. At the very least, Julian had to convince him there was more to the world than whatever Micah had taught him, because someone was going to have to train him to fight, if for no other reason than he had to be able to defend himself. Fortunately Julian didn’t have to rely just on words to convince the young man of his veracity.
He kept his tone gentle despite the core of rage he felt against Micah. “I see you don’t believe us, but it’s critical you accept the truth. Don’t be frightened.” With that, Julian concentrated, then dissolved into mist.
“What the hell?” The young man leaped backward, clutching the axe to his chest like a shiel
d.
Julian returned to his solid form, feeling drained. He’d fed the previous evening in anticipation of needing the energy for this visit, but shifting in the daytime cost him far more than doing it at night. “I told you, I’m a vampire.” Julian willed his fangs to descend, which they normally did only when he fed. “I’m not evil, despite the movie caricatures. I do drink blood, but from human volunteers or the occasional willing half-elf. And trust me, they like it.”
“Well, I did,” Arden clarified. “Before I found my mate.”
The man took a cautious step closer and stared at Julian’s fangs, seeming more intrigued than terrified. “You’re really a vampire? I thought sunlight turned vampires into ashes.”
“I’m really a vampire.” Julian raised his hands again, not only to show he was harmless, but just in case the man decided to take a swing at him. Sunlight might not kill him, but decapitation most assuredly would. “Sunlight can only kill minions of the Unholy. Its creations are soulless, only extensions of itself in the physical world, and they can’t survive the touch of sunlight. I have a soul—I was born a human, turned into a vampire. Undead, certainly, but still subject to the laws and judgment of the Most High.”
The man lowered the axe to his side, holding it loosely in one hand, and his posture relaxed as he studied Julian. “What did you say your names were?”
“Julian Schaden. And my friend is Arden.” Keeping an eye on the axe, Julian allowed himself a cautious sense of hope. “I’ve known generations of your family, because I’ve helped them with fighting incursions of the Unholy. I can’t believe James and Alicia had a son I didn’t know about. Then again, whenever we had to contact each other, it was usually because there was a threat, not to have tea and share baby photos.”
“My name is Thomas Carter.” Thomas stayed where he was, still watching them both closely. “My grandfather never mentioned you.”