by C. J. Pinard
“Hey, I’m glad I ran into you. Kellan said you left something at his place,” he said, smiling, his perfectly straight, white teeth reflecting almost neon against the black-light.
I furrowed my brow. “Okay,” I replied, my curiosity piqued. “Where is it?”
He pushed the bar on the back door and indicated for me to go outside. “It’s in the car.”
I was a little confused, but I trusted Maurice. He was one of Kellan’s right-hand men. The door shut behind us, and I said, “Maybe I’ll get it from you later. My friend is gonna wonder where I went off to.”
“Oh yeah, no problem,” he replied. “Just let me grab it real fast.”
I was racking my brain, trying to figure out what I had left there. I always took whatever I had brought with me when I left. It was then I realized that Maurice was so close behind me, I could feel his hot breath on my neck. Something didn’t feel right. I turned around to ask him what was going on, when he grabbed me around the neck in a choke-hold and slammed a something over my face, covering my nose and mouth with a cloth that smelled like something so potent and disgusting, I immediately panicked. I reached down for my dagger, but my arms immediately turned to jelly, and they dropped to my sides before everything went dark.
The first thing I felt was pain. My head was throbbing, and my mouth felt like I’d been sucking on a sock. I blinked open my eyes and saw nothing. Pitch blackness surrounded me. The next sense to hit me was sound. Wheels moving quickly over pavement, and then my sense of smell decided to catch up with me, telling me motor oil and metal surrounded me.
Oh, my God. I tried to sit up and banged my head, not helping the headache.
“Fuck!”
I used my boots to bang on the trunk lid. “Let me out of here!” I screamed. I had never done well in small, tight places like elevators, but a trunk? Oh, my God. I’m gonna die in here.
Panic set in and I was unable to stop it. I screamed, I kicked. I used my fists to punch where I though the taillights might be. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t tied up. How stupid were these... wait. Whose car was in?
Maurice!
“Maury! You motherfucker! Let me out of here!” I yelled. “Kellan’s gonna beat your ass when he finds out what you did to me—if I don’t do it first, you dick!” I knew he could hear me with his sensitive hearing. “I might just kill you instead!” I continued, afraid for my life, but hoping to get his attention. The second he opened that trunk, I was going to stab this asshole in the side of the head with my knife.
Of course, he didn’t dignify my rant with a response, but I did feel the car slow to a stop. I quit thrashing and screaming and waited for something to happen.
I unsheathed my dagger and held it tight in my fist, waiting. Wait, why hadn’t he taken the dagger?
Maybe it had been invisible? I reached for my phone in my pocket and realized it was gone.
I waited some more.
I heard the car door open and close, and then I heard footsteps retreat away from the car.
Oh, hell no! They better not be leaving me in here...
Obviously, I needed to get out of this small, confined space. I was gonna have a full-blown heart attack if I didn’t do something about this. I kicked and screamed some more.
Where was Kellan? Why wasn’t Maurice with him?
I stopped when I realized that maybe Kellan was behind this. Was that possible? Did he have one of his most trusted men kidnap me? I was so confused. If Kellan wanted me somewhere, all he had to do was tell me to get into his car, and I would have gone. There was no need for trickery and deception by his men. Kellan knew that I would go to the ends of the earth with him. We would burn it down and laugh as we sat on top of the pile of ashes we left in our wake.
Now? I wasn’t so sure. There was something deeper and more sinister going on here, and I realized it would do me good to get to the bottom of it.
But first... I needed to get the fuck out of this trunk and find Kellan. I lay still, flat on my back, thinking, plotting, breathing. The headache was gone, my body having healed and expelled whatever drug had been in my body.
I could use my dagger to get the lock open and jump out. I could scream and yell until they got sick of hearing me, and came and got me. I could...
I heard footsteps again. I held my breath.
The trunk opened and I blinked against the lights from wherever we were. I could see the sky was still black with a light smattering of stars, but we definitely weren’t out in the country.
I didn’t jump out of the trunk with knives and fists flying like I had planned. I just lay there, hand hovering over my thigh, waiting for them to peer inside and help me out.
When Phil’s face appeared first, I grew immediately angry to see he’d betrayed me, too. I raised my fist and rammed it into his nose. Blood exploded all over the both of us. Damn, that freaking hurt! My hand was throbbing now.
He roared in pain as I jumped out of the trunk and tried to run. I was no match for Maurice, though. He grabbed me around the waist and threw me to the ground. With lightning-fast speed, he flipped me onto my stomach, put his knee in my back, and secured a set of handcuffs around my wrists.
He quickly stood me up and chuckled. “We knew you’d be fun.”
“What the fuck, Maury?” I said, trying to slip out of my handcuffs. I spit on the ground as I tasted blood in my mouth. “Where’s Kellan?”
He said nothing, just escorted me inside the house I was not surprised to see was, of course, Linden’s. So it wasn’t just a dream after all. I tried to fight back tears at what I might see once we got inside.
I lifted my chin and put on a brave face instead. “Ya know, you could have just asked me nicely to come, Bugsy. Really. I trusted you and would have gotten into the car with you. Notice how I use the word trust in the past tense? That’s because I don’t trust you anymore, Maury. Once I get out of these cuffs and kill Linden, I’m coming after you next.”
He chuckled softly next to me, as if the idea of me killing him or Linden was ludicrous. “Just be quiet, Miss St. John. All in good time.”
Phil caught up to us and I looked up at him, his nose still trickling blood. He swiped it away with his hand and glared down at me.
I stared at him, hurt. “You, too? What is wrong with you guys? Why did you drug me? You didn’t need to do that, you know.”
Neither of them said anything. A large front door was open to the oversized mansion and they guided me through the massive foyer. There were people everywhere, as there seemed to be some kind of party going on. They stared at us briefly, then went back to their fancy drinks and murmurs of conversation.
Music was blasting loudly, The Weeknd’s voice bleeding out of the speakers...
“Who gonna pray for me? Take my pain from me? Save my soul from me?”
Who, indeed, I thought on a heavy sigh.
We went through the kitchen and Maurice pressed a button set into the wall that I thought was some kind of wall hook, and a door opened up. I was pushed through it, and after the door closed behind us, I found myself in a very wide hallway.
A very familiar hallway.
“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no... Please,” I whimpered when I spotted the big, wooden oval doors at the end of the hallway.
“Be quiet, we’re not gonna say it again. Just don’t speak right now. Please,” Phil said, sounding a little desperate and stressed. He didn’t look at me, but tightened his fist’s grip on my upper arm.
Then, we stopped at the door, and Phil opened the left side. I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to see the gruesome and heart-wrenching sight I knew awaited me. However, my eyes flew open on their own when I heard a chilling voice.
Linden sat in a large chair decorated in red fabric and gold accents. A chilling smile lifted his lips, his eyes cold, but evilly amused as he spoke. “Hello, little wolf.”
THE END
(well, to be continued... ☺)
The next book, The Lunar Magic, will be
releasing late Summer 2018! Watch C.J.’s social media pages (below) for release date, preorder, and updates!
Would you like to read Evan and Karina’s story? You can here, in this short novella entitled Violent – and it’s free to download! CLICK HERE
Would you like to read about when Special Agent Jessica Swift was a vampire? Read about her story here! (PS – she went by “Angel” back then!) CLICK HERE
Be advised, though – Jessica’s story is part of the entire Enchanted Immortals series, so you might want to start with Book 1 – which is FREE. CLICK HERE
SONG LIST:
Call Me—Shinedown
Not Afraid Anymore—Halsey
Zombie—Bad Wolves
Dark Side—Bishop Briggs
Criminal—Britney Spears
What I’ve Done—Marie Digby
One Number Away—Luke Combs
Turning Page—Sleeping At Last
Almost Lover—A Fine Frenzy
Slow Life—Grizzly Bear
Heaven—Kane Brown
Haunting—Halsey
I Put A Spell On Your—Annie Lennox
Cold—Five Finger Death Punch
Like That—Bea Miller
Heaven—Julia Michaels
Never Tear Us Apart—Bishop Briggs
Simple Man—Shinedown
Game Of Survival—Ruelle
Sick—Evanescence
I Want You Here—Plumb
In My Blood—Shawn Mendes
Dead Man’s Arms—Bishop Briggs
Him & I—G-Eazy & Halsey
Blow It All Away—Sia
Black—Dierks Bentley
The Middle—Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey
Without Me—Eminem
Heathens—Twenty One Pilots
Pray—JRY
Behind Blue Eyes—Limp Bizkit
Hurricane—Halsey
Down—Jason Walker
Turn The Page—Metallica
I Feel Like I’m Drowning—Two Feet
M.I.N.E.—Five Finger Death Punch
Pray For Me—The Weeknd ft. Kendrick Lamar
Feeling Good—Avicii (R.I.P.)
OTHER BOOKS BY C.J. PINARD:
Paranormal Fantasy:
Enchanted Immortals 1 FREE
Enchanted Immortals 2: The Vortex
Enchanted Immortals 3: The Vampyre
Enchanted Immortals 4: The Vixen
BSI: Bureau of Supernatural Investigation
Enchanted Immortals Box Set: 4 Books + Novella
New Adult Contemporary Romance:
Patriotic Duty (Duty & Desire, #1) FREE
Tour of Duty (Duty & Desire #2)
Boots Beneath My Bed (Duty & Desire #3)
Playing the Field (Duty & Desire #4)
Romantic Suspense:
Antihero (Imperfect Heroes, #1) FREE
Above Protection (Imperfect Heroes, #2)
Beneath Broken (Imperfect Heroes, #3)
Beyond Love (Imperfect Heroes, #4)
Paranormal Romance:
Unscathed (A paranormal romance novel with Tim O’Rourke)
Soul Rebel (Rebel Riders #1) FREE
Soul Redemption (Rebel Riders #2)
Soul Release (Rebel Riders #3)
Kovah: Soul Seeker (A Rebel Riders Novel)
Lotus (Daughter of Darkness) Lotus’s Journey Part I FREE
Watcher (Daughter of Darkness) Lotus’s Journey, Part II
Guardian (Daughter of Darkness) Lotus’s Journey, Part III
The Lunar Effect (The Ayla St. John Chronicles, #1)
The Lunar Curse (The Ayla St. John Chronicles, #2)
The Lunar Secret (The Ayla St. John Chronicles, #3)
The Lunar Magic (The Ayla St. John Chronicles, #4) – coming late summer 2018
All books available where eBooks are sold.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
C.J. is a USA Today Bestselling author living in Colorado. Lover of red wine, wearer of fabulous shoes, and a die-hard Niner fan, she’s also an editor at heart. She’s the author of over 25 novels and short stories that contain both contemporary/new adult and paranormal romance that are a little bit badass, a little heart-wrenching, and sorta funny (to her, anyway). Almost all of her books usually contain law enforcement or military undertones, since strong, brave, alpha men and women are her weaknesses. When she’s not writing, she can be found working at a very strange day job, which may or may not have some mild influences on her gripping stories—so strange, in fact, she may just write a book about it one day.
You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or on her website, www.cjpinard.com
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