Dark Heritage Trilogy

by Hoffman, Samantha

  I looked at the Council members that were sitting before me. Lisa looked resigned, and Kevin still looked angry and ready to fight, but one look at Marcel and I knew what he wanted me to say.

  And it was what I wanted to say.

  With a smile, I said, “I’m not going anywhere…”

  The End.

  Dark Revenge

  Dark Heritage #2

  Published by Samantha Hoffman at Smashwords

  © 2015 by Samantha Hoffman.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permissions of the author.

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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  Chapter One

  The cemetery was completely silent, which wasn’t surprising this late at night. It was just after eleven o’clock, and the moon was the only source of light in the dark, fenced in area. I looked up at it and felt a sudden rush of empowerment. Over the past couple of months, the moon had become an always present comfort that made me feel better about who and what I was.

  I felt like the moon gave me an added boost of power, and it made me more confident about what I was in the cemetery to do. It was a nerve-wracking feeling to be walking through a darkened cemetery this late at night, but I wasn’t alone, and I knew that if anything bad were to happen to me, I’d be well protected. Not that I couldn’t take care of myself, but it was nice to know that I had others there for me if I needed them.

  I glanced at Finn out of the corner of my eyes, and I couldn’t help but notice even in the moonlight how handsome he looked. He’d always been a good looking guy, with his pale blue eyes that glowed in the night and his tall and muscular build. He looked like a cross between a football player and a rugged model with his long dark hair that nearly brushed his shoulders.

  I had the urge to run my fingers through it, but I forced my hands to stay down at my sides. It had been two months since my fight with Andrew, and I had originally told Finn that I needed time to think about him and us, but now I wasn’t so sure that was what I wanted.

  Every so often I would catch Finn just looking at me. His intense eyes would make me want to just melt into him, but I always pushed myself away and focused on something else. One of the problems with having feelings for Finn was that I knew he was still sleeping with other girls around the compound. It wasn’t as bad as it had been when we’d first met.

  Back then he’d been with a different girl every week, and he didn’t seem to mind that kind of life. But now that I knew he felt the same way about me as I did about it, it was harder to overlook what he did. I knew he couldn’t help it–werewolves were all that way–but it still really hurt to think that he could go from gently touching me to just randomly humping some girl later that night. It made my decision a lot more difficult than it already was.

  If Finn and I did decide to act on our feelings, he may one day choose me to be his “one and only”. Then he’d be faithful to me and only to me, and I wouldn’t have to worry about other girls. Until he decided though, I had to run the risk of being cheated on or tossed aside when he found someone he liked better. That was what was so difficult about my choice.

  I had to choose to be with Finn and risk getting hurt in order to see the faithful man underneath. I wouldn’t know if he could be faithful until I took that leap, and I wasn’t sure it would be worth the risk in the end. I’d probably end up alone and heartbroken while Finn found someone more beautiful than me to keep him company.

  “Will you watch where you’re walking?” Finn snapped, yanking me closer to his side. I’d almost stepped in an unfilled in grave, and the thought of ending up at the bottom of one of those things scared me enough to pay attention to my surroundings more. Instead of thinking about Finn and our complicated relationship, I worried more about what might be hiding in the shadows of any nearby gravestones.

  My amethyst pendant hung between my breasts, creating a soft thrumming that warned me there were other supernaturals in the area. However, since I had a werewolf and another necromancer in my group, its warning wasn’t entirely accurate. But if there were other supernatural beings around, Finn would most likely be able to smell them and give us a warning before they attacked.

  After another few moments of walking, we finally reached the back corner of the graveyard. I leaned over a large, rectangular hole in the ground, and peered down into the dark. There should have been a closed coffin at the bottom that had been covered with dirt, but there wasn’t.

  The casket was open.

  And it was empty.

  Dirt lined the bottom of the casket, as well as a few errant strands of hair and a finger nail. Annie crouched on the other side of the grave, and she clucked her tongue. “This is not good.” Her eyes found mine, and she tilted her head at the hole. “What do you see?”

  I looked back down to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. “Some hairs, a fingernail, some dirt–”

  “What do you see with your power?” she asked, interrupting me. “Not with your eyes.”

  I mentally smacked myself. Of course that was what she meant. I reached into my shirt and gripped the small, coin-sized amethyst pendant. I could feel the power that radiated from it, and I took a deep, comforting breath before opening my eyes again. Now that I was searching with my magic and not my eyes, I saw what had Annie so unnerved.

  I could see an aura of magic that encircled the empty casket. It was nearly translucent and was the color of some kind of pale crystal. Each necromancer had an individual aura of power that made us distinguishable between one another. Annie’s aura was a soft blue color.

  Mine was a green so dark it was nearly black. The same color as my eyes. And whenever I raised a body with my powers, Annie would be able to detect a green glow around the body, telling her that I was the one who had raised it. She’d only recently taught me to look for this, and I felt stupid that I hadn’t realized it was there sooner. She was testing me, and I had failed.

  “Well?” Annie asked.

  “There’s a crystal-colored aura around the casket. There was a necromancer here recently, and they raised this body. I don’t know how long ago, though. Probably in the last couple of days.”

  “I’d say about two days ago.” Annie stood and dusted off her jeans. “The body should be around here somewhere. My guess would be a more secluded place, probably near a tree or a crypt, someplace it could still be hidden from view.”

  “So this necromancer only wants us to know she’s raising these bodies,” Finn said, searching the graveyard with his impeccable eyesight. “It’s like a calling card. They want us to know they were here.” He looked at me. “They want you to know they were here. Whoever is doing this is calling you out.”

  Our eyes connected briefly. Finn and I had an idea of who might be behind this, but under Council orders, I wasn’t allowed to share that idea with anyone. Annie was my teacher, but I wasn’t supposed to tell her that we may already know who was behind a series of public raisings. The Council didn’t even want Finn to know, but I told him anyways.

  Of my group of friends, Finn was the most perceptive to my feelings, and he knew instantly that something was wrong. When he asked, I couldn’t even consider lying to him. Not after everything he’d done for me; I felt like I owed him the truth. So I’d told him about a couple of raisings, where the reanimated corpses had been awoken and just left lying around for anyone to find.

  The Council originally thought someone was trying to expose t
he supernatural world, but I wasn’t so sure. I figured it had something more to do with the fact that I’d killed Andrew just two short months ago. When the Council wanted my proof that this was payback for his death, I told them about Andrew’s supposed daughter. When the Council heard that I hadn’t actually seen or met her, they quickly dismissed me, but as the raisings continued, they were more willing to listen to what I had to say on the subject.

  Annie looked at the two of us with a suspicious frown on her face. She was only a few years older than me and Finn, but she was very intelligent, and she knew that we were both keeping something from her. I wanted to tell her, but I’d already broken the rules by telling Finn, and I didn’t want to do it again. The Council and I weren’t exactly friendly all the time, and I wanted to give them as few reasons to hate me as possible.

  “I’m gonna go find the body,” she said quietly. “Wait here for me. I’ll let the two of you know if I need help.” She stormed off, leaving the two of us by an empty grave. I watched her go, getting a feeling of dread in my gut. How angry would she be when she found out I was keeping this from her?

  What if she never forgave me?

  Finn put a hand gently on my shoulder, startling me. When I jumped, he removed his hand and gave me a guilty look. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I was just wondering if you were alright. It looks like you’re thinking about something. Like telling Annie about Andrew’s kid.”

  I sighed and ran a hand nervously through my hair. It had gotten a little longer and it nearly brushed my shoulders, same as Finn’s. “I feel awful about lying to her, but the Council told me not to tell anyone until they can verify his daughter’s existence. I shouldn’t have told you, I just had to talk to someone, and Tanya was busy with Ezra.” I smiled a little at the thought of the two of them holding hands under a table or sneaking off to be together.

  Part of me wanted that with Finn, but a bigger part of me knew it wasn’t likely to happen because of the way he was. When he smiled at me–which wasn’t often–I felt like it might be worth taking a chance. But then I would remember all the other girls…

  “What are you thinking about now?”

  I looked down at my fingers, which were twining together nervously. Anything to avoid having to look him in the eyes.

  “Ronnie, this has to stop,” he said, putting a hand gently under my chin. He tilted my head up and forced me to meet his eyes. “Just because I care about you and you need time to figure out whether you care about me or not, doesn’t mean things have to be weird between us. You don’t have to always look so embarrassed or upset.”

  “How can I not?” I asked, pulling away from him. “I feel like I’m ripping your heart out. Every time I look at you, I find you looking back with this sad look in your eyes, like you’re just waiting for me to come to my senses so you can sweep me off my feet. I feel like you’re slowly dying inside, or trying to keep your head up, or–”

  He chuckled, surprising me. “I’m a dude, Ronnie. Dudes don’t die inside. Ever. It isn’t manly.” He frowned and took a step closer. “I’m fine, really. You need time to figure out whether or not I’m worth taking a chance on. I understand that. I don’t like it, but I do understand. I made a really bad first impression, and there’s no changing that. I’ll just have to settle for waiting for you to see how much I…you know…care.”

  He shuffled his feet, looking embarrassed now that he was pouring his feelings out to me. If we hadn’t been alone in the middle of the cemetery with nobody to see or hear us, he would have just closed down and pretended to be an uncaring jerk. I was glad for some alone time, because I much preferred the real Finn, rather than the jerk he let everyone see.

  “Thanks for understanding,” I said quietly.

  He gently brushed an errant strand of hair out of my eyes, and I leaned into his touch, feeling myself falling even harder every single time he touched me. Annie cleared her throat, and Finn and I sprang apart, trying not to look like we’d just been caught doing something we shouldn’t have. She looked quickly from me to Finn and back to me, before frowning.

  “I found the reanimated corpse wandering around the back of the cemetery. It would have definitely found the road by morning, and we would have had a mass panic on our hands. We need to be on the lookout for whoever is doing this.” Her eyes narrowed at me. “There aren’t any clues as to who this necromancer is; all we can tell the Council is that it’s not one of us.”

  Finn gave me and Annie both awkward looks, before shrugging his powerful shoulders and heading off into the darkness to find the body. While he was gone, Annie and I traded a few tense looks. She knows…she knows I’m keeping information about the necromancer from her, and she wants me to know my secret is out. But how much has she guessed?

  Finn returned with the body hoisted over his shoulder. Without looking at the two of us, he carefully placed the body back in the coffin, closed the lid, and climbed back out of the hole. His gaze rested on Annie. “Why don’t you go wait by the car while I rebury the body?”

  He picked up the shovel that rested at his feet, and without waiting for Annie’s answer, he began shoveling a fresh mound of dirt back into the hole. Annie gave me one final steely glance, before turning on her heel and walking back to the waiting car. I felt a pang of guilt at the sight of my teacher and friend walking away, and I wanted to call after her and tell her what I knew, but I didn’t want to risk the Council’s wrath.

  “She’ll get over it,” Finn grunted from the far side of the fresh grave. “When this all comes out, she’s going to understand that the Council forbade you from telling anyone. She’ll forgive you. Trust me.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Of course I’m right. I’m always right,” he said with a grin.

  I searched the darkness for Annie, but came up empty handed. I trusted Finn’s judgment, especially after everything we’d been through, but deep down, I still wondered. Could Annie really forgive me for keeping something so important from her?

  Chapter Two

  “Why aren’t you wearing your new boots?” Tanya asked, eyeing my worn sneakers with distaste. She sat down on the small sofa in one of the recreational rooms, folding her legs gracefully beneath her in the process. Her pale blue wings fluttered behind her, and she was careful not to sit too far back and risk crumpling them. “You weren’t wearing them last night, either. Those weren’t cheap, you know…”

  I smiled at her. “I went out for a walk with Finn last night, and I didn’t wanna get them dirty.”

  As I knew it would, the mere mention of me spending alone time with Finn cut off her next accusatory statement. She nearly squealed with delight and inched closer, ready to hear whatever romantic, juicy gossip I might have for her. Of course, she didn’t know I was actually in a graveyard, but I gave her the version of events Finn and I had agreed upon.

  “Finn and I bumped into each other outside last night, and we thought we’d go for a moonlit stroll through the woods. I didn’t wear my amazing, expensive, high-fashion boots because I didn’t wanna get them dirty, and I’m not wearing them this morning because I’m waiting for Finn to take me into town for some shopping.”

  Tanya snorted, and Holly managed a smile that could almost pass for happy. “You’re taking Finn shopping with you?” Tanya asked giddily. “Oh, I wish I could see the look on his face when he gets to the nearest shoe store. He’ll wish he’d never crawled out of bed.”

  I elbowed her gently. “We’re not going shoe shopping. We’re going to the book store, and then over to the video store. Finn and I are gonna watch a scary movie tonight in his room.” That was true, even if our moonlit stroll through the woods wasn’t. Holly’s eyes narrowed and I cut her off before she could begin. “I’m not stupid. We’re just watching a movie. As…slightly more than just friends. He knows how I feel. We actually discussed it a little last night during our walk.”

  “So he’s perfectly fine with giving you some time to think about you
r feelings?” Tanya asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders, wishing I didn’t have to talk about this now, but I was the one that had opened this can of worms. “He said he was, but I wonder if he really meant it. I think he’s kind of angry that I haven’t made up my mind yet, and I feel kind of bad for making him wait so long. I mean, it’s been almost two full months since that kiss before the fight, and he’s been really patient with me.”

  Holly snorted, and Ezra and Tanya glared at her. “He’s only being patient with you because he’s still boning other girls in the compound.” She caught all of our looks and frowned. “What? He is. I’m not saying that he doesn’t care about you–obviously he does–but he’s still fooling around with other girls, Ronnie. Don’t forget that.”

  I sighed heavily, and looked away from Holly’s intelligent, knowing gaze. “I know he is. I can’t forget it, no matter how hard I try.”

  “But he’s gotten a lot better since the two of you talked about your feelings. Since he kissed you, he’s really tried to be better about how many girls he’s with. He went from one or two a week to one or two every other week. Not that that’s really an amount to brag about…” Tanya said, wings drooping slightly. “I’m sorry, Ronnie. We’re probably not making you feel any better, are we?”

  “Don’t worry about it. I understand a lot more about our community now that I’ve been a real part of it. I know that’s how werewolves are, and I’ve accepted that. I can’t change the way Finn is, and to be honest, I wouldn’t. He’s a player, and sometimes a little temperamental, plus he hates it when things don’t go his way, but that’s the Finn I started to get feelings for. I like him the way he is.”