“Walk with me,” Stryker said, and before she could answer, he pulled her along with him.
Mira hadn’t been down there in weeks. In truth, she avoided that building at all costs. Too many painful memories; too much blood on her hands. She’d ordered it demolished, and a park with grass and trees was meant to replace what had once stood as a place of death.
“Promise me that after we’re done looking, we can take the rest of the night off.”
“You know I can’t promise that, but let’s try.” He squeezed her hand, a gesture that shouldn’t have bothered her, but Mira had to fight the urge to let go and back away.
She’d been working so hard on being comfortable with touching, especially with Stryker. He was her mate, after all. She had chosen to be with him, though her own issues prevented her from completely letting him in yet. But she was making progress. A kiss here, a hug there, and even a few late night cuddles. Things like that seemed so foreign to her, though they had not always been so. Years as a gladiator, only coming into contact with others to kill them, had a way of hardening a person, and had trained Mira to avoid contact at all costs. Stryker was like her: a warrior, but a different sort. One who embraced touch and closeness, and only fought when he had to. A good model for her, and damn near the perfect kind of mate. He balanced her and calmed her anxieties, but was also able to defend when a wild punch came from her instinct to fight.
Still holding tightly, despite her desire to let go, Mira and Stryker walked hand in hand down through the capitol building’s residence corridors and into the lower levels where the private tunnels would take them to the heart of the prison Mira had once been forced to call home.
Her heightened senses picked up on the stench of death as they walked. Old blood – the smell of it had long since embedded itself into the very heart of the building. No cleaners on earth could wash away the years of murder these walls contained. It was for this reason alone Mira had ordered its destruction. There was no way the arena, and the prison underneath, could stand while she and her people worked toward peace among the species.
Anxiety sent her heart racing as they entered the tunnels down to the stables and the lower prison where she’d once been forced to live and wait for her time in the arena. Even now, silent as the place was, Mira could hear the cries. So many vampires had come through these rooms, and so few had actually made it out.
Stryker, sensing her unease, released her hand and let her walk on alone. Crowding her would only have the opposite effect. She needed her space to work through her demons.
“Are you ready to see the best part?” he asked, as they entered the prison.
Mira did not answer. She just walked on, through the doors and into a room of frenzied construction workers. Jackhammers, chisels, wheelbarrows scraping the ground, rock being broken and moved – the noise alone was deafening, but at the same time, a beautiful symphony of destruction.
Mira smiled at seeing the wreckage of UV lights dismantled, never to burn her eyes again. Stryker was right; this was exactly what she had needed to see. Already the tightening of her chest was lessening, and even though the stench of death lingered in the air, she found it easier to breathe here now.
They passed by what had once been her cell. The demolition crew had already begun work dismantling bars and jackhammering the floor. Workers were taking out huge chunks of the ground piece by piece, as the floor was disassembled, Mira caught sight of something: a book buried among the rubble.
“Hold on,” she yelled to the worker who was jackhammering away. He didn’t hear, but as she approached he stopped and angrily glared at her. Mira bypassed the stunned worker, ignoring his annoyed huff, and walked into the cell to retrieve it. Though it was dusty, with a cracking spine, Mira nevertheless recognized it instantly. “I thought I had lost you forever.”
“What it is?” Stryker asked.
Years had stolen many things from Mira. She’d come to understand that nothing in this place was permanent. When the journal had disappeared, she’d just assumed that was the end of it; but now, holding it in her hands, it was as if she’d taken back a small bit of her life. “This is my journal.” Mira beamed as she opened the old leather notebook and thumbed through the pages. “I wrote in it when I first came to this prison. It kept me sane for a short while.”
“Somehow I don’t see you as the journaling type.” Stryker laughed and instantly jumped backwards, as if expecting Mira to smack him.
To do that, though, she’d have had to take a hand off the journal, and now that she had it in her grasp again, she wasn’t letting go. “You’d be surprised how different I was back then.”
“Wait a second. How the hell did you write a journal? Where did you get it?”
“I found it. After I’d been locked in here, I tore apart my cell. Not the smartest move, but I was angry, and destruction was my only outlet.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. You’re still a bit destructive.”
She ignored his little jab. “Whoever had this cell before me must have had it. Probably a gift from their patron or something. It really didn’t matter. I ripped out their pages and filled in my own.”
“And how did you manage to keep it?”
“I didn’t. I lost it. Somehow it must have fallen through the cracks between the cell’s UV light panels and gotten lodged in the floor. I haven’t seen this book since the very beginning of my incarceration.”
“May I?” Stryker asked.
Mira wasn’t ready to hand it over, even to Stryker. “How about we go back and read it together?”
“Together? That sounds good. Are you sure you want to share it all?” Stryker’s tone was unusually cautious.
“I think you’ll gain some interesting perspective from it.” Mira laughed. “I was a stupid kid with a mind for adventure, and I got exactly what I was after.”
“Of that I have no doubt. I’m guessing you were always mouthy and feisty, too. I don’t think that came from being imprisoned.”
“Some of it, no. I owe a lot of that to my mentors.”
“You had mentors?”
“They didn’t know it, but yes. If not for the people who brought me here, I’d have never grown the balls to survive.”
“Well, you’ve piqued my interest.”
“I’ll share, but be warned – this is not a happy tale.”
Stryker’s eyebrow lifted in curiosity.
Mira leading the way this time, they retreated back to the balcony in Mira’s suite, taking places around her small café table as she opened her journal and prepared to read.
The words she’d written so long ago seemed almost foreign, now that she was looking at them again. Their memory though came flooding back as she began to read aloud.
Other Titles By Katie Salidas
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The Chronicles of the Uprising
Initiation
FREE Prequel to the Chronicles of the Uprising.
The great cataclysm wiped almost all life from the face of planet Earth, but tiny pockets of survivors crawled from the ashes, with only one thought: survival, at any cost.
But not all survivors were human.
In the new world order being a Vampire is a crime punishable by eternal servitude in the arena as a Gladiator of the Iron Gate. Mira, a newly turned vampire, must prove she has what it takes to survive in the human's world. It's kill or be killed. Immortality is not guaranteed.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N6JO9X6
Dissension
2015 RONE award Winner for best Paranormal
"Dissension" weaves a spine-tingling tale about human savagery and the vampire race's desperate struggle to survive." Read full review in the 2014 November issue of InD'tale Magazine.
The great cataclysm wiped almost all life from the face of planet Earth, but tiny pockets of survivors crawled from the ashes, with only one thought: survival, at any cost.
But not all survivors were human.
In the dark, militant society that has risen in the aftermath, vampires, once thought to be mythical, have been assimilated and enslaved. Used for blood sport their lives are allowed to continue only for the entertainment of the masses. Reviled as savages, they are destined to serve out their immortal lives in the arena, as gladiators.
And there is no greater gladiator than Mira: undefeated, uncompromising...and seemingly unbreakable. When an escape attempt leads Mira into the path of Lucian Stavros, the city's Regent, her destiny is changed forever.
Lucian, raised in a culture which both reviles and celebrates the savagery and inhumanity of vampires, finds Mira as intriguing as she is brash. An impulsive decision - to become Mira's patron - changes more than just Lucian's perception about vampire kind. The course of his life is altered in ways he could never have predicted - a life that is suddenly as expendable as hers.
Can Mira prove to Lucian that all is not as it seems? Can Lucian escape centuries of lies, bloodshed, and propaganda to see the truth? Or will the supreme power of the human overlords destroy them both?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019XER8PS
Complication
Narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Magistrate, Mira travels west, toward the coast. With three weakened human fugitives accompanying her, she searches for the mythical land of Sanctuary.
After encountering a pack of wolf shifters, headed by the charismatic—and brazen—Stryker, Mira learns that Sanctuary is real after all. Caldera Grove: home of the Otherkin. Hidden in the mouth of a dormant volcano, it has protected its residents from humans since the early days following the great cataclysm. For Mira—a vampire—Caldera Grove is a land of peace; an escape from the relentless persecution of the humans who once enslaved her, and an end to the daily struggle and bloodshed of being a gladiator.
For the humans accompanying her, Caldera Grove means death. Humans, greedy and untrustworthy creatures, are destroyed before they can penetrate its borders.
To plead her case for entry into Caldera, Mira must abandon her companions, albeit temporarily, and follow Stryker into the heart of the city. What she finds within Caldera Grove presents her with an unenviable decision between her own desires for freedom and peace, or honor and the human companions who risked it all for her.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019XER8PS
Revolution
Peace is an illusion. Blood, violence, and death follow Mira like shadows.
Battle lines have been drawn between human and Otherkin, and a bloody war is on the horizon: one that will end in either a shift in the world's balance of power...or ultimate destruction.
In spite of their strength, powers, and a rage known only by the oppressed, the Otherkin are evenly matched by the superior numbers of the human army. To tip the balance in their favor, the Otherkin need more soldiers - and their only options are the Gladiators of New Haven city.
Mira is sent across enemy lines to recruit any able-bodied vampires to her cause. But what she discovers along the way will blur the lines between friends and enemies. Seeds of doubt weaken Mira's allegiance, and she finds herself torn between the old masters who used her as entertainment and the new ones who consider her as nothing more than a weapon.
As the war draws near, Mira will have to decide what she is truly fighting for.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019XER8PS
Transition
Peace is just a breath between battles for Mira. Hardened by slavery and war, she longs for the simpler life, knowing that it might never be hers to enjoy. There is always another battle waiting to be fought, another foe on the horizon. Peace between humans, vampires, and otherkin may be nothing more than a dream, but Mira holds out hope.
It is during this brief respite that Mira is gifted one of her greatest weapons. Though it brings with it memories of a time when she was not so jaded, it also comes with a reminder of terrible pain and loss. Awakening deeply hidden emotions within her, if Mira can use this to her advantage, she'll have a new ally in the next battle to come.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019XER8PS
Retribution
Immortality is never guaranteed...
As much as Mira dreams of a simpler existence, blood and violence are her way of life. Former gladiator turned freedom fighter, she has carved a trail from New Haven to Caldera Grove and back, freeing her people, the vampires, from enslavement by the humans.
But with victory almost within reach, a new and powerful enemy emerges. One who’ll be satisfied with nothing less than complete subjugation—or destruction—of all supernat-ural beings.
With a secret army of his own, he’s more than prepared for any resistance Mira and her patchy rebel forces can offer, and demands their immediate surrender.
Never one to back away from a fight, Mira believes she’s ready for anything. But with the battle lines drawn she will be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Kill or be killed.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019XER8PS
Annihilation
Death is the easy way out.
Still clinging rabidly to power, the Elites spin lies of prejudice and hatred, stoking the fires of war.
The sole driving force toward peace, Mira sacrificed every-thing for the cause. In the end, strong as she was, Mira was never enough.
It will take the strength of many to finish what she started, and every race – Otherkin, human, and vampire – has much to lose in the bloody days ahead.
The only outcomes are peace... or death.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019XER8PS
The Immortalis Series
Becoming a vampire is easy. Living with the condition... that's the hard part. Join Alyssa as she stumbles through the world of the "Unnatural."
Carpe Noctem
Newbie vampire Alyssa never asked for this life, but now it's all she has. Rescued from death by Lysander, the aloof and sexy leader of the Peregrinus vampire clan, she's barely cut her teeth before she becomes a target. Kallisto, an ancient and vindictive vampire queen – and Lysander's old mate - wants nothing less than final death for her former lover and his new toy. She's not above letting the Acta Sanctorum, and its greatest vampire hunter, Santino, know exactly where the clan can be found.With no time to mourn her old life, Alyssa's survival depends on her new family. She will have to stand alongside Lysander and fight against two enemies who will stop at nothing to destroy them.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0198BRL5I
Hunters & Prey
Rule number one: humans and vampires don't co-exist. One is the hunter and one is the prey. Simple, right? Not for newly-turned vampire Alyssa. A surprise confrontation with Santino Vitale, the Acta Sanctorum's most fearsome hunter, sends her fleeing back to the world she once knew, and Fallon, the human friend she's missed more than anything. Now she has some explaining to do. However, that will have to wait. With the Acta Sanctorum hot on their heels, staying alive is more important than educating a human on the finer points of bloodlust.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0198BRL5I
Pandora's Box
After a few months as a vampire, Alyssa thought she'd learned all she needed to know about the supernatural world. But her confidence is shattered by the delivery of a mysterious package - a Pandora's Box. Seemingly innocuous, the box is in reality an ancient prison, generated by a magic more powerful than anyone in her clan has ever known. But what manner of evil could need such force to contain it? When the box is opened, the sinister creature within is released, and only supernatural blood will satiate its thirst. The clan soon learns how it feels when the hunter becomes the hunted.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0198BRL5I
Soulstone
It’s a despe
rate time for rookie vampire Alyssa, and her sanity is hanging by a slender thread. Her clan is still reeling from the monumental battle with Aniketos; a battle that claimed the body of Lysander, her sire and lover, and trapped his spirit in a mysterious crystal. A Soulstone. Unfortunately, no amount of magic has been able to release Lysander’s spirit, and the stone is starting to fade. Weeks of effort have proved futile. Her clan, the Peregrinus, have all but given up hope. Only Alyssa still believes her lover can be released. In despair, Alyssa begs the help of the local witch coven, and unwittingly exposes the supernaturals of Boston to unwanted attention from the Acta Sanctorum. The Saints converge on the city and begin their cleansing crusade to rid the world of all things “Unnatural.” In the middle of an all-out war, but no closer to a solution to the dying stone, Alyssa is left with an unenviable choice: save her mate, or save her clan.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0198BRL5I
The Immortalis Companion Novellas
Moonlight
Good girls don’t wear fur, or fight over men, and they certainly don’t run around naked, howling at the moon. But then, no-one ever called Fallon a good girl. As a human unofficially mated to an Alpha werewolf, Fallon is being pressured to “become”...or be gone. Her mate Aiden, the interim leader of the Olde Town Pack, is in a position that demands he either choose a wolf mate...or leave the pack forever. No matter how hot the sex with Fallon is, he can’t ignore centuries of tradition. Become a wolf or not. If only the choice were that simple. Fallon’s options are further clouded by the overt presence of other females desperate to be the Alpha’s mate. And when these bitches get serious, it’s not just claws that come out. If Fallon wants to keep her man and take the title she’ll have to exert a little dominance of her own.
http://www.amazon.com/Moonlight-Katie-Salidas-ebook/dp/B0098KSARS
Dark Salvation
Revolution Page 14