Vampire Coalition - Complete Collection

by J. S. Scott

  Fallen! In Temple. Touching my mate, hurting Hannah.

  His fury became a towering, overpowering violence as he saw his vulnerable mate in the hands of the fallen that were taunting her, injuring her.

  Kill. Protect. Rip the bastards apart piece by piece for touching my mate.

  Completely crazed, Daric summoned the power to teleport himself to Hannah, his wrath exploding from his body in a powerful howl for vengeance, his urgency to get to his mate nearly incinerating him.

  “I’m the fucking King and nobody touches my mate!” he bellowed, his eyes wild, sweat pouring from his muscular body.

  He growled, his mind so lost that he couldn’t do anything but grasp the sword that suddenly appeared in his hand, not even questioning how it had gotten there or how it had manifested itself into his grip. It was heavy, and it would kill well. That was all that mattered.

  Daric disappeared in flames, his maniacal instincts finally consuming him, leaving nothing but a vampire in complete mating fury, ready to destroy anything and anyone that got between him and his mate.

  *****

  Hannah fought the darkness, trying to push into the light, forcing her eyes open. Large, muscular arms held her immobile, but they weren’t Daric’s arms, and she fought the imprisonment.

  Fallen. Sunken faces. Brutal pain. Claws shredding my skin until my whole body felt like it was on fire.

  “Let go of me,” she hissed, her arms flailing and her legs pumping to get free.

  At that instant, Hannah registered that strangely, she no longer felt any pain. As she tried to free herself from the arms of the unknown man holding her, she realized that she had somehow been healed.

  “Shhh…calm down, woman. My name is Liam. I’m here to protect you, not to harm you. Daric left you in my care after he healed you. He’d have my head if anything happened to you,” the unknown protector told her gently with a touch of amusement.

  Hannah stopped struggling, looking up into a face that was anything but ugly. The vampire had dark hair and dark eyes, and she recognized him from Daric’s memories. “You’re the healer who recently found your mate?”

  “Yes, with the help of our prince,” he agreed readily, his voice reverent.

  “Where’s Daric?” Panicked, Hannah scanned the surrounding area, aware of distant voices and the sounds of battle.

  She and Liam were some distance away from the battle, but she could see several unknown warriors in the street, all of them cutting through the horde of fallen. Her eyes frantically raked over the violent scene, finally finding her beloved mate. Sword swinging and dressed in nothing but a pair of jeans, he was cutting down fallen with dizzying speed. Mesmerized, she watched his muscles rippling as he wielded his blade again and again, his expression that of a man gone completely berserk. At his side, four additional men, dressed all in black, a belt of weapons around their hips, were fighting with skill, as though they had done this many times before, but Daric fought like a man possessed, taking down fallen at an alarming rate.

  “No!” Hannah broke away from Liam’s hold, scrambling off his lap. “He can’t do this. The backlash will kill him.”

  Desperate to stop Daric, she stumbled forward before Liam caught her by her jacket, his iron grip keeping her steady, preventing her from moving forward.

  “You will not interfere. Daric made his orders clear and I will follow them. He has my brothers and Adare to help him. The fallen nearly killed you, nearly completely drained you of blood. Had I been in his place I would have done the same,” Liam told her sternly, his arms tightening around her as she resisted his hold. “Daric healed you and joined the fight. He’s my prince and I owe him my life. You will stay here until they have disposed of the fallen. I would be fighting myself if I had not been ordered to protect you.” Liam sighed heavily. “He needs to do this. Daric knows you’re in danger and he needs to eliminate the threat to his mate.”

  Hannah watched helplessly, tears pouring down her face as she watched Daric kill without a single thought to the pain he would later experience, his expression wild and determined. “He’ll suffer, Liam. Terribly,” she sobbed, swiping tears impatiently from her face.

  “It’s his choice. After seeing what the fallen had done to you, there was no stopping him. He won’t cease until the threat to you is gone. He’s a vampire protecting his mate. He won’t die, Hannah. But his pain will be great; I won’t lie to you,” Liam answered gravely.

  “I did this to him. I’ll never forgive myself,” she choked out remorsefully.

  “They would have found you. My brothers and I have been watching this group, wondering why they were gathering together to make their way to one particular small town in the middle of nowhere. We waited, hoping we would have the chance to eliminate them all at the same time. We didn’t know they were coming after the mate of our prince,” Liam muttered, obviously unhappy that he hadn’t known that Daric had found his mate.

  Hannah listened to Liam, but her eyes never left Daric, flinching every time he took down another fallen , his total disregard for his own pain making her want to start sobbing all over again. Was there nothing he wouldn’t do for her, to protect her?

  No. Nothing. Protect. Kill. Keep you safe.

  She started in surprise as she heard Daric’s ferocious, guttural voice in her head. In her anxiety about his safety, she had forgotten that their minds were connected.

  Please stop. I love you. I don’t want to see you suffer. Let the others finish this. Hannah begged, sending her thoughts to him with her mind.

  Daric didn’t answer; he just kept swinging, sometimes beheading the creatures before he struck a brutal blow to their heart.

  Scared for Daric, Hannah’s breath came harshly, sawing in and in out of her lungs at a frantic pace that matched the hammering of her heart. “Please, Liam. There must be something we can do.” Something. Anything but sit here helplessly watching the man she loved seal his fate to suffer excruciating pain just to ensure her safety.

  “It’s almost finished,” Liam answered stoically.

  Hannah’s eyes finally left Daric to survey the surrounding area of the battle. It was dark, but the streetlights illuminated the street enough to show the horrors of the fight. The pavement held puddles of blood and ash, fallen in all stages of death. Some had already faded to dust, some were writhing on the streets and others were oozing black secretions onto the pavement.

  Very few fallen were left standing.

  Hannah searched for bodies of humans, citizens of the town that may have gotten caught in the crossfire, but there were none. “No one in Temple was hurt?” she questioned Liam softly.

  “No humans. Their safety was a priority and they were sent back to their homes. We’ll have clean-up to do to erase their memories of this night but they’re all physically well. But my brothers, Adare and your mate look a little wasted,” Liam answered, his voice concerned.

  Hannah struggled to move forward as the last fallen hit the pavement, Liam releasing his hold on her only after her mate had dispatched the creature.

  Oh, God. How will Daric survive this? So many fallen, so much pain.

  Tears streamed from her eyes, nearly blinding her as she ran to her mate, oblivious to everything except him, and her need to reach him.

  Daric stepped out of the carnage to meet her, catching her fast-moving body around the waist, bringing her to an abrupt halt.

  “You will never leave me like that again,” he stated with a feral grunt, his eyes boring into hers with a savage expression that took Hannah’s breath away.

  Before she could formulate an answer, his mouth crashed down on hers, showing no mercy as he pulled her body against his heaving chest and sweat-soaked skin, demanding her surrender. The embrace was rough, a brand of ownership, but Hannah yielded, needing the raw possession, the brutal passion. His tongue swept through her mouth with a carnality that sent a chill down her spine, flooding her panties and making her body weak with need.

  Daric yanked hi
s mouth away and sank his fangs into the tender skin of her neck. Hannah moaned, her body flooding with erotic heat as he fed, lifting her hands to spear through his damp hair, cradling his head against her flesh. She could feel his hunger, and there was nothing she wanted more than to meet his need. “Yes,” she hissed as he drew deeply from her, sucking ravenously against her skin, taking what he wanted, what he needed. He needed blood after the battle, but Hannah knew that he also took from her to reassure himself that she belonged to him.

  Daric sealed the punctures with a coarse sweep of his tongue, his face no less intense after he finished taking her blood. Yanking her to his side, he turned to all of the Hale brothers and Adare. Without a word, he closed his eyes, and Hannah could feel the power vibrating from his body as wounds healed and the streets cleared of nasty spots of debris and blood.

  Hannah gaped, staring first at her mate and then at the five men in front of them, one dark blond, and the others all dark like Daric. In seconds, the scene went from one of post-battle carnage to the usual street in her small town of Temple, the men blending in with the darkness. Not a drop of blood or a single wound remained on any of them.

  Yes, she had known that Daric was powerful, but actually seeing that power, feeling it radiate from his huge body was still a shock. And the results were nothing less than staggering.

  Completely healed, all five men came forward, dropping to one knee in front of her.

  “Your Highness.” All five spoke in unison, their voices reverent.

  Hannah shook her head in confusion, trying to figure out why these powerful warriors were kneeling in front of her.

  “Only Liam is a healer, but they are all pledging their loyalty to you. They are showing respect to their future Princess,” Daric answered aloud, his voice graveled.

  “No. They are showing respect to their future Queen,” a loud, booming voice proclaimed from the shadows.

  Hannah’s head whipped around, watching apprehensively as a very large man walked out of the darkness and into the glow of the streetlights, her shocked mind not certain if he was friend or foe.

  “Father?” Daric’s fierce expression turned to one of bewilderment.

  Hannah recognized him from Daric’s memories. His father was dark, frightening and so very much like Daric. Stunned, she watched as he approached Daric, hearing her mate’s confused thoughts as they joined with her own inside her head.

  How? It’s not possible. He’s dead.

  Daric’s father didn’t look at day over his mid-forties, even though Hannah knew he was many thousands of years old…and supposedly…dead. But here he stood, right in front of her eyes, dressed in a scarlet robe, his hands sparkling with jewels.

  “It’s a trick. Some sort of illusion,” Daric rumbled, his face contorted with agony…, and yet, with hope.

  His father approached him with a sad smile, laying a hand on Daric’s shoulder as he stood in front of him. “Know the truth, son. Feel it inside me. I was granted this brief visit because you are ready to take your place as King. You proclaimed it and it will be so. You were left without the power or knowledge of a King, and it must be passed on. Now.”

  Hannah stepped back as the members of The Vampire Coalition rose to their feet, their faces showing their confusion, bodies preparing to defend Daric if needed. Daric caught her hand, keeping her close to him.

  “I have no desire to be King,” Daric said flatly, his eyes locking with his father’s stubbornly, knowing that the man who stood before him was the spirit of his parent.

  “You proclaimed yourself King when you manifested the Carvillius Sword. You are King, Daric, as you were always meant to be,” his father answered.

  “I was never meant to be King. The title was yours and then meant to be Nolan’s,” Daric answered harshly.

  Daric’s father shot his son a look of remorse and closed his eyes. Hannah squeezed Daric’s hand, her heart breaking as she looked at the agonized and confused look in the eyes of her mate. Light emanated from his father’s bejeweled hand, illumination that seemed to be radiating from the older man’s palm and into Daric’s body. She felt her mate shudder, and moved closer to his body, plastering herself along his side, sending comforting thoughts into his mind. She wasn’t entirely sure exactly what was happening, but Daric had his father here, something she knew he needed if he was ever going to completely escape his past.

  The glowing light faded and the ancient king slowly removed his hand from Daric’s shoulder. “Now you have the ancient knowledge and power to be King. I have merely been waiting for you to declare yourself, as you should have done a thousand years ago.”

  “I was angry when I said that earlier. I don’t want to be ruler. I just want to watch over my people,” Daric said, agitated.

  His father stopped, his hands behind his back, and stared at Daric. “What do you think a King does? You are doing what you were always meant to do. But you’ve been doing so without the full power to lead.”

  “I was not meant to be King!” Daric exploded, his expression fierce.

  His father sighed. “Actually, you were. I did wrong by you, Daric. I never loved you any less than I did Nolan, but I knew Nolan’s time on the earth was limited and I was losing my mind, so I threw all my energy into him, knowing he was going to leave me just as your mother did. I didn’t plan what happened. I regret that I hurt my people, and that I hurt you. I hope that you can forgive me some day.”

  “I don’t understand. Nolan was your heir, the favored son,” Daric questioned without rancor.

  “Nolan was never destined to be King. He was born without the marking of a Carvillius King, a mark that always bears the Carvillius Sword. I knew he would never live to be King. When you were born with the mark, I should have treated you equally, but the realization that I wouldn’t have Nolan with me for long made me focus all of my attention on him, because I wasn’t well enough to see anything except another loss. The very fact that I knew I would lose him sent me deeper over the edge of madness. It was never that I loved you less, Daric. I should have prepared you to be King.” The older man resumed pacing with a long sigh. “I should have passed the title to you after your mother died. I wasn’t capable of being King anymore.”

  Hannah’s chest tightened as she watched the older man struggle with his guilt and remorse. She knew Daric’s mother had died soon after he was born, a victim of the fallen.

  “I thought you were grieving for Nolan so desperately that you let yourself go with him. I didn’t think I was valuable enough or worthy enough to make you want to stay.” Daric answered hoarsely.

  The ancient king stopped, shaking his head as he looked at his son. “I was mad long before Nolan died, Daric. I couldn’t live without my mate. It doesn’t excuse how I behaved or how I treated you, but I hope someday you’ll forgive me. It wasn’t lack of love for either of my sons, it was the dementia I suffered because of losing my mate.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me then?” Daric asked, his voice tormented.

  “I was weak, pathetic, my mind broken. I didn’t want Nolan to know his fate before his time. It wasn’t fair to you, but I wasn’t thinking like a king. I was functioning on the level of a child.”

  “Nolan had a right to know, and I should have been allowed to know that my brother was going to die,” Daric answered, his voice irritated.

  “You did have the right to know and I don’t blame you for your anger,” his father responded immediately. “I just wasn’t strong enough or sane enough to deal with it properly. I’m sorry, son. I failed both you and my people.”

  “Nolan?” Daric asked, his voice choked, unable to utter anything except his brother’s name.

  His father smiled weakly. “He walks with me among the Ancients, with his true mate. Maya was not the female for him. His female awaited him beyond. He’s happy, Daric. His destiny wasn’t here on earth. He asked me to tell you that you will always have his love, even though you’re not together right now.”

  Hannah
watched Daric’s face soften, his precious memories of his brother rolling through his mind and into hers. “Tell him I feel the same,” Daric answered hoarsely. “And that I miss him.”

  “Rule well and long, King Daric,” his father answered quietly, his intense eyes focusing lovingly on his son. “Lead without guilt and knowing that I was a broken, weak king who failed my people and my son. All that happened was not under your control. Nothing you could have done would have ended things differently. I walk with your mother just as Nolan walks with his true mate. You have found your true mate here on earth. All was fated before your birth.”

  Hannah shivered as the elder king’s eyes moved to her. “Thank you for loving my son. You will make an excellent Queen.”

  “I still don’t want to be King,” Daric grumbled.

  His father eyes pierced him sharply. “You are King. Your sons will be princes and all will be as it should be. Don’t be so damn stubborn.”

  My sons.

  Hannah caught the whispered thought as it went through Daric’s mind and his world finally righted itself. She felt his acceptance and his forgiveness all at once, her heart rejoicing that he was finally at peace with his past and his family. Maybe some good would come from this fallen attack after all.

  “Oh, God. The fallen . The backlash.” In all the turmoil of the evening, she had forgotten about the pain that Daric would suffer very shortly.

  Daric’s father smiled, the first genuine smile Hannah had seen from him. “There will be no backlash. Your mate wields the Carvillius Sword. It’s one of the benefits of being King. As long as the sword is used to defeat evil, there will be no backlash. It wouldn’t do to have a king out of commission.” His smile grew even broader as he added, “And he has a mating that needs to occur very soon. He’s pushed himself far enough.”

  Hannah’s tension dissipated, and she returned the ancient king’s smile with one of her own. “I’ll make certain it does, Your Majesty.”

  “I’m no longer king, but I’d be honored to call you daughter,” he answered, his ancient eyes filled with longing.