by Kate Wendley
Mastering Darkness
A
Forest of Darkness
Novel
Kate Wendley
Titles by Kate Wendley
Forest of Darkness Novels and Novellas
Untamed Darkness, Novella .5
Mastering Darkness, Book 1
Abandoned Darkness, Book 2
Resisting Darkness, Book 3
Shifting Darkness, Book 4
Mastering Darkness
A Forest of Darkness Novel
Copyright copyright 2016 by Kate Wendley
Cover by Damonza
Moonlight Magic Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-944538-03-3
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any manner whatsoever.
Prologue
Anthony’s veins felt full of ice. “Stay here Frederick. One of us will be back.”
Jim sneered. “What, you don’t want any witnesses to you going back on your word?”
“I accepted your challenge, but vampire business is not shifter business.” It had always been that way. Anthony might be the Master of the Atlanta territory, but each race took care of their own problems. And it was usually away from the eyes of the others.
He turned and used his power to force cocky, obnoxious Jim across the clearing and into the dark, unruly forest. When they’d gone about a quarter mile in, he said, “I’ve given you plenty of chances to earn your freedom like the rest of your family has.”
Jim spat on the ground. “Earned it my ass. You mean they gave up their freedom to do things your way.”
“My way allows freedoms for everyone. Your way will eventually expose supernaturals to humans. That cannot happen.”
Jim glared at him and stayed sullenly silent as they continued to make their way through the darkness, stepping over, around, and through the tall grasses, weeds, and fallen tree branches.
Anthony had the sudden irritating thought that it was pleasant out tonight and that he rather liked being out here. There was a nice breeze making a calming sound as it blew through the pines and various hardwood trees, and it made him feel evil knowing that he was about to defile this serene place. He focused harder on blocking his thoughts, forcing a separation between his sense of duty and any emotion he might have about it.
Eventually Jim snarled, “Where are you taking me?”
He didn’t bother arguing with him anymore. He’d bent over backwards for six long months trying to rehabilitate this stubborn vampire. The time for talking, threats and punishments was done.
After a time he slowed Jim’s steps, then forced him to turn around and face him.
“Since you don’t want to earn your freedom, and I’m not an adult daycare center for vampires, you leave me no other option besides to allow this open challenge between you and I.”
Jim snarled, “Fuck you, asshole. Let’s just do this.”
Anthony let go of his control over Jim and waited for him to try to flee again. To his surprise, Jim squared off with him, his eyes gleaming and his fangs extended. He hissed at Anthony, and for an instant he almost thought of letting him live.
Jim struck first, but he was no match for Anthony. Jim was too young, to new of a vampire to have experienced what it was to tangle with a Master. Maybe if Anthony were more cruel he’d have ended this chaos the night Jim first came to his home in the suburb of Brookhaven. Instead, he’d let this charade go on too long.
Anthony’s body was like stone as Jim used all his force to punch him. Bones snapped and Jim howled in agony, but it did nothing to dampen the fury in his eyes. He drew all his strength to himself, and Anthony watched as if in slow motion this time as Jim kicked him. The sound of snapping tendons and the tiny bones in Jim’s foot and ankle breaking made for woeful funeral music.
“Enough.”
Anthony abruptly turned into mist and poured into the man’s body, then immediately expanded back into his full human form.
Jim exploded.
Anthony curled his lip in disgust as he tried in vain to wipe off the gore he had all over himself. He’d never killed someone like this before and hadn’t realized how messy it would be. He’d been hoping it would be less bloody than the usual way of ripping a vampire’s heart out and tearing off their head. Not that he did that often, but he’d done it enough over the years to know exactly how much work it was to clean up.
He looked down at himself in earnest. He couldn’t ride back home like this. Not in the gleaming, imperial blue BMW X5 Frederick chose to drive them out in tonight. He wouldn’t want to defile such a beautiful piece of machinery, but he also didn’t want to spend any more time with Jim’s remains.
Anthony took deep, angry breaths as he calmed his temper and started back to the car. Some nights he really loathed his life. He was never in charge of anything good, it seemed. Only the bad.
Frederick’s face paled when he saw Anthony.
“Something to wipe my phone off with, please.” As a matter of practicality they always kept towels, blankets and loose fitting, non-gender specific sweats and t-shirts in the back of all the family vehicles.
The big man’s face was mostly expressionless as he said, “Do you need me to do anything for Jim, sir?” He pulled a towel out of the back of the SUV with quick, jerky movements.
“Hold it for me. I need you to wipe these things off.” He carefully pulled his phone out of his pants pocket as well as his wallet and money clip. “Jim lost the challenge. He won’t be coming back with us and there will be no more talk of him.” Just saying that made him feel like a ruthless bastard.
Anthony finally looked up after he’d given Frederick everything in his pockets. The color was still drained from the burly werecoyote’s face. It was disturbing to see such a large man looking so terrified.
“I’m not going to ride back with you like this. Please deliver my belongings, as well as Jim’s, to my apartment. You may leave them on the kitchen counter. The door should be unlocked.”
“How will you get home, sir?”
He turned into mist and watched as Frederick took a deep breath, then gathered everything and got back in the car. Anthony waited for him to leave, then reluctantly drifted back to Jim’s remains. He looked around, hoping not to find any large pieces of him anywhere. He may be capable of being a cold son-of-a-bitch, but that didn’t mean he liked doing things like this.
After a fairly thorough search of the area, he decided Jim had been very neatly pulverized. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the fact that he’d so efficiently killed a man, but then, how efficient had it been if he’d ended up with bits of him all over himself?
He scowled and took to the skies. He didn’t want to think about Jim anymore. He’d spent too much time with the man already. He focused instead on the peace and quiet as he flew through the warm night. He was thankfully too far out to hear the myriad of city noises while the lights of Atlanta and all her suburbs came into view, looking perfectly picturesque. He glided unhurriedly just above the tree line while he tried to clear his mind of all thoughts. Inevitably, though, he went back to thinking that perhaps he was just a cold bastard and that this would always be the way of his life.
**
Anthony made it back to Brookhaven and materialized in his bathroom. He was surprised to see Sebastian waiting for him. He was leaning against the edge of the sink with a paper bag in his hand, and his only reaction to the sight of Anthony was a raised eyebrow as he quickly scanned h
im and all the bloody gore.
He casually opened the bag. “Did you get everything out of your pockets?”
Anthony frowned. “Frederick told you what happened?” He expected discretion from the guards, not gossip.
Sebastian curled his lip and grunted, so Anthony let it go.
He flicked his hand, using his magic to start the water for the shower, then began undressing. He put his shirt in the offered bag, eventually followed by the rest of his clothes so they could be burned. It felt a little strange stripping in front of Sebastian, but his modesty was out the window tonight. He just wanted to get clean.
“I gave Frederick five bills from your money clip.”
He nodded. His money clip was usually filled with hundreds for whatever needs might arise. Money had a way of easing problems for him.
“You want someone to clean Jim’s room out?”
Anthony sighed and looked absently around at nothing in particular. “Yes, but wait until tomorrow night.”
Sebastian folded the top of the bag closed. “Need anything else?”
He kept his eye on his friend as he said, “Yes. I need you to watch over his remains at sunrise. Make sure the burning is controlled and doesn’t start a forest fire.”
Sebastian nodded as if this were a run of the mill request. It wasn’t, but it also wasn’t the first time he’d needed the Alpha Wolf to do something like this for him.
“Will he be hard to find?”
“No. Park over the second ridge and go northeast for a good ten miles or so. In the clearing near that half circle of boulders. And… it wasn’t neat. I apologize if that’s more work for you.”
Sebastian waved his concern away and left the room without another word.
Anthony got in the shower and immediately washed his face, then doused his hair in shampoo. He quickly rinsed it all out, then lathered it up again and let it soak while he washed the rest of himself off. Taking his time to make sure he was absolutely clean, and rinsing his hair one more time, he finally got out of the shower. He swore he could still smell Jim on himself, but he wasn’t sure if he was just being paranoid.
He dried off, then caught his reflection in the mirror. Tonight he knew for a fact that his monstrous looks matched the monster growing inside him.
**
Anthony sat in the back of the club people watching while his thoughts wandered. He should feel guilty for killing Jim. He’d felt guilty killing some others over the years, but not all. And not Jim.
Was it because he didn’t personally like the man? No. He didn’t need to lie to himself anymore. That dark, nagging, incomplete thought that’d been at the back of his mind for some time now finally snapped into place for him.
He tasted freedom and tranquility at the moment of Jim’s death tonight. When he’d let go of his constant control over himself and let his power flow unconstrained, he felt… exhilarated, powerful, alive.
And he’d wondered why he tried so hard to be humane to people. He had power, real power, and it felt incredible flowing through him, free and uncontrolled.
But there were no others as powerful as him. Not in Atlanta anyway. Well, no one besides Ethan, another constant pain in his side. Anthony couldn’t have a life being a monster, but he also didn’t want his only tranquil moments to be the times when he was the most vicious. He might not have the carefree life he’d like to have, but he had the life he’d created. He’d willingly allowed his father to turn him vampire all those years ago because he’d wanted family again after being alone for so long. He’d wanted to grow and learn and get out of the small, uneducated and closed minded community he’d grown up in.
He’d had no idea, though, how much power he’d eventually grow into. It came with a price, of course. It always did, and it was different for every vampire. For him, he had to keep his constantly growing power tightly controlled because it physically hurt people if he didn’t. If he ever stopped caring, he’d lose everything. He’d lose the few people he’d come to think of as friends, and most of all, he’d lose any sense of who he was.
That thought unnerved him. He didn’t want to turn into an inhuman monster, but as the years went on, one hundred, then two hundred and well over halfway to three, he felt more and more detached from others. After killing Jim tonight, he knew for sure he was on his way towards losing his humanity all together. It was now only a matter of time.
How long would it take? Would the end come quickly? Could he delay it? Or worse, did he even want to?
Yes, he wanted to delay it. How was the real question.
Distractions. He needed distractions. Everything in his life was always about making sure the family was safe and that supernaturals were kept secret from regular humans. It didn’t leave a lot of room for anything personal in his life, but maybe that’s what he needed.
Zach always pestered him to try to relax by working out at the gym upstairs. Anthony didn’t see the need. He was already the strongest creature in this territory, but Zach insisted he should give his muscles a good stretch from time to time, and that it was also good for improving a person’s mood. Maybe he’d try it.
A lovely, voluptuous woman caught his eye, a werecoyote, but he looked away. He was in charge of all these people. They relied on him to protect them and take care of their basic needs, whether directly or indirectly. It made getting personal with them feel wrong, which he found out the hard way in exactly one night of weakness with a shifter, over seventy years ago now. The actual incident was quite satisfying, but nothing that came after it was. He’d had terrible experiences with human women, too.
He sourly noticed Ethan here tonight. The smug bastard always seemed to be around on his worst nights.
He stepped into Anthony’s personal space while others in the club watched him. A lot of people in the supernatural community idolized Ethan, either for his power that very well might rival Anthony’s, his good looks, or his charismatic ways. Besides both being true Vampire Masters, though, he and Ethan couldn’t be more different.
He looked as well put together as he did every time Anthony saw him. Short, neatly tousled hair, a handsomely squared jaw, and perfectly tailored and stylish clothes all the way down to his Italian loafers. All of that was paired with a winning personality, when he chose to use it. Anthony wasn’t someone he ever chose to be pleasant with, however.
He mentally sighed and tried to ignore him, looking out over the crowd from his perch at a small table back by the pool tables. It was the furthest corner away from everyone else in the club.
There was a mocking smirk on Ethan’s face. “Where’s your friend Jim tonight? I don’t see him around. I thought you two were best buddies. Are you teaching him to be your apprentice?”
Anthony looked squarely in his eyes, then immediately away when the fleeting thought ran through his mind that perhaps Ethan should’ve been the one out at the ranch with him tonight instead of Jim. But Ethan had never done anything to bring unwanted attention to the supernatural community, and Anthony didn’t pass such a heavy handed judgment on someone just for being irritating.
Disgust filled Ethan’s face as he backed up. “Wow, you stink.”
Anthony stared dispassionately at him. If Ethan were in his family, he’d never allow him to talk to him like this. Anthony tolerated him, though, because Ethan agreed to the city rules. And since everyone liked, respected, and feared Ethan, by default he’d become a powerful ally that helped ease Anthony’s burden of overseeing so many people.
To maintain peace in the city, Anthony needed to keep his temper around him, so he said nothing even though all he really wanted to do was punch him as hard as he could, just to see how it would feel. Ethan was powerful. Would his bones break as easily as any other vampire’s?
Ethan frowned and walked away before Anthony could find out. Later that night he saw Ethan looking quite cozy with a shifter. Of course. This seemed to be his pick-up place whenever he felt the desire for companionship, which, strangely enough for how
much Ethan flirted, he didn’t have a woman in his life all that often, and never for very long. Still, Anthony secretly despised him for the fact that when he wanted a woman’s warm, comforting touch, it seemed no trouble at all to find someone to fall all over him.
The bastard.
Chapter 1
Six months later...
Kaia hadn’t seen Randy in over nine months, but his shocking disappearing act was on her mind again tonight. Ten dates, ten awesome dates, and then he was gone without a word.
Their last date started innocently enough. They’d met at a restaurant they both liked, and he seemed happier than usual. When he started anxiously talking about seeing how well their extended families mingled since his was such an important part of his life, her heart fell.
His reaction to her admission that her parents were dead and that she had nothing to do with the rest of her family would almost be comical if she hadn’t felt so demoralized at the time. The horror on his face, and his immediate jerking out of her arms and practically running out the door made her feel beaten down about the realities of her life.
It made it worse that he didn’t even pretend to be nice about leaving her. There was no explanation, no apology for wasting her time thinking all the connections they felt with each other meant something… Nope. He was just gone.
Yeah, he was a jerk, and his reaction was pretty extreme, and would’ve been even more extreme if she’d told him the whole story of why she didn’t have any family around. But even other guys that she’d only shared tiny bits of herself with had a similar reaction.
So she wasn’t the unbruised, perfect girl next door type. So what? Weren’t there any nice, decent, well-adjusted guys out there that didn’t mind a woman with some scratches around the edges?
Watching funny cat videos wasn’t getting her out of her funk tonight, even if they did keep her anxiety attack at bay that always crept up when she thought of her life before Atlanta. So here she was at Peach’s bookstore looking through the new release table of business related books. She let the much too heavy one on ‘How Successful People Think’ slide out of her hands and land with a satisfying thud back on the table. She mentally groaned and decided she needed something fun to read.