by Marie Hall
Shaking my head, I said, “Impossible. I would have sensed you.”
“Actually, you wouldn’t have.”
My blood ran cold as I recognized that thick country twang. Dean stepped out from behind shadow, leaning a hip against the wall and giving me a hard, malevolent grin. “Guess I jumped sides again, Priest.”
“You traitor!”
His left brow twitched, as if this were funny, as if he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me. “Y’all just do your thing. I’m only here for the bread.”
And then, closing his eyes, he smirked and looked for all the world as if Pandora’s life wasn’t collapsing down around our feet. Death had jumped ship, and my heart sank to my knees.
But Pandora seemed not to care about that revelation; her eyes were only for the man. “It’s you, isn’t it? The one Grace told me about. You’re the inside the Order.”
Pride glinted in his dark eyes when he looked at her. It made me sick, made me feel violent.
“Why?” she asked. “Why’d you betray them?”
He snorted. “Power. Why else? The chance at discovery. Do you know how long I’ve worked to create you, Pandora? You fought us like hell too. It’s probably why I’m just so damned proud right now.”
“You shouldn’t be.” I was relieved to finally hear the fire come back to her voice. She was still kneeling, but her body was bristling; she was regaining her power. “I don’t work for you.”
He frowned. “Are you sure about that?”
First one knee came up, then her hands shoved her off the ground, and I could sense the rolling shift of power.
Pandora was finally awake, unlocked from the stupor she’d been in only moments ago.
“I’m going to kill you.” She said it softly, but it was the way she said it, with that empty, hollow sound, that turned my blood cold.
The man’s laughter was chilling, echoing down the darkened, empty halls.
“Oh but, my dear, you can’t.” And reaching into his slacks he pulled out a glass slide, like the type you’d use to look at a specimen under a microscope.
My eyes widened at the same moment she hissed.
There were murmurs behind me, and as one, we all recognized what he held in his hands.
It was her mark. The strip of flesh that’d been torn from her during the zombie raid last year.
His smile grew wide as he rocked the slide back and forth between thumb and forefinger.
“I own you, Pandora.” Lifting his brows, he slipped the slide back into his pocket and nodded.
That mark meant everything to a neph; it not only marked them as a people, it was almost an extension of their soul.
My stomach bottomed out.
“You leave them alone.” She pointed toward us.
The wounds in my arms were already healing, and I had to figure out a way out of here. Dean gave me a side-long glance. The bastard knew exactly what I was thinking.
His lips twitched before he once again settled back against the wall.
“‘Leave them alone,’” the little man scoffed. “Why do you even think they’re here? Because of you. Because of the good little solider you are. Had a dream lately? Figured out where to find us?” He waved his fingers through the air. “Went west instead of east?” He nodded. “Oh yeah, we know everything. Planned it all down to the slightest little detail.”
Everything inside of me stilled. Went instantly quiet. You could have heard a pin drop as we all held our collective breaths, listening in muted horror. Dean hadn’t just switched sides, he’d been working for the enemy the entire time.
Stomach frothing with fury, I screamed at him. “You bastard!”
Death only snickered.
“No.” She shook her head. “I got better. Asher cured me.”
He shrugged. “Did better than we’d expected him to, yes. But still, everything went according to plan, so we couldn’t be too upset.”
“I’m not working for you.” Her voice trembled.
“Of course you are.” He laughed like it was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. “Pandora, you’ve been led this entire time. Why do you think we went through all the effort of brainwashing you only to let you go? Did you really think it would be that easy? We built a machine—you belong to us. It’s why we released you. You had to learn to control your gifts. There was only one place to learn it. With your family. Who you trusted.”
“No.” She choked the word out and took a huge step back. “I would never do that. I would never betray them.”
“But you did.” He turned his eyes toward us.
I was numb, could hardly think or move. There was just too much to take in, to accept. How could I have missed this?
“Big mistake, Asher. Huge.” Dean chuckled, once again reading my thoughts.
“I’m going to end you, first chance I get.” My voice was a low, seething whisper.
With a snort, he rolled his eyes.
“Why do you think they’re here?” The small man said to Pandora. “For you. This is your final initiation. Now you are strong, powerful, a weapon. You can unlock the Gates of Hell. You only need to feed. One of each sin, there for the taking. And a priest for dessert. It’s all come together. Now”—the lilting ring to his voice grew deep and menacing—“do it.”
With a scream, she slapped her palm onto the bar and wrapped her fingers down tight, knuckles going white as the scent of burnt flesh scorched my nostrils. She was shaking her head.
“No. No. No,” she said, over and over.
Getting to my feet, I covered her fingers with my own. “Pandora, you don’t have to do this. You are you. Remember who you are.”
“Do. It!” The man’s mouth contorted into a frightening mask.
She twirled around, as if controlled by an inhuman force. Now it was the front of her pressing up against the bars.
“Let go of the cage, Pandora!” I roared, attempting to shove her back off them even as the flames licked at her flesh.
Luc and Bubba stood beside me, shoving and kicking her away, but her strength was absolute. Bloody tears ran down her face as her body spasmed from the pain of her wounds and the words of the man.
“Now! Take them now!”
“No!” With a scream ripped from the bowels of her soul, she shoved away from the cage, landing in a heap on the floor.
I ignored the aches of my wounds, my focus only for her. Steam curled up from her body as blood seeped from her pores.
The man knelt beside her and shook his head. “Oh, Pandora, you should not have done that. I’d hoped to do this the nice way. But now that you’ve given me no other choice—”
“I will never hurt my family,” she said, as the bloody tears continued to drip.
He nodded almost sadly, as though he were terribly disappointed. And the pride that’d shined in his gaze when he’d seen her earlier was now gone as he said, “Red. Rain.”
Her spine stiffened and her head snapped up. Her footsteps were slow and ponderous as she slowly made her way to her feet, slowly turned toward us.
And the eyes staring back at me weren’t blue, or lavender. They were black as tar.
There could be no doubt that who stared back at me wasn’t Pandora, but Ya-el.
I saw her claws come out, saw her skin shift to gray. She would come for me first, and I didn’t have the strength to fight it.
Not anymore.
And just before her claws ripped through me, a hand shoved me to the ground. And when I looked up, her claws had reached through the cage and slammed into Luc.
He gasped, seizing up as she lifted him high into the air, disemboweling him. Jerking, he slapped feebly at her hands, but she raised him even higher.
I jumped to my feet and grabbed Luc, yanking him off her.
Bubba and Kane helped as well.
It took all of us to finally unhook him. The momentum ripped them apart, causing her to drop once more to her knees.
And for just a split second I saw a vein of blue thr
ead through the black of her eyes, saw her face crumple up into one of horror. And with a screech, she ran for the man, hooked her arm around his middle and, clinging tight to him, she twirled.
The man was screaming, but she didn’t seem to notice.
Our gazes touched, and I shuddered as I saw Pandora’s light dim.
She said one word, a word only I could have understood. “Truth.”
My soul trembled. Then she turned on her heel and vanished.
And just like that, my Pandora was gone.
Act III
In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost
~Dante Allighieri
The end is only the beginning…
~*~
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Stay tuned to read an excerpt of the upcoming Berserker Night Series spinoff, Forbidden!
The final Night Series book, Red Rain releases in December of 2014!
Curious about my berserkers? Forbidden, book 1 of the Night spinoff series releases in November of 2014!
About Marie Hall
Marie Hall is a NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Author who loves books that make you think, or feel something. Preferably both. And while she's a total girly girl and loves glitter and rainbows, she's just as happy when she's writing about the dark underbelly of society. Well, if things like zombies, and vampires, and werewolves, and mermaids existed. (Although she has it on good authority that mermaids do in fact exist, because the internet told her so.)
She's married to the love of her life, a sexy beast of a caveman who likes to refer to himself as Big Hunk. She has two awesome kids, lives in Hawaii, loves cooking and occasionally has been known to crochet. She also really loves talking about herself in the third person.
If you want to see what new creations she's got up her sleeves check out her blog. Or contact her personally at [email protected]
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Marie Hall Books
Kingdom Series (Fantasy Series)
Her Mad Hatter (Book 1, Alice in Wonderland)
Gerard’s Beauty (Book 2, Beauty and the Beast)
Red and Her Wolf (Book 3, Little Red Riding Hood)
Jinni’s Wish (Book 4, Arabian Nights)
Hook’s Pan (Book 5, Peter Pan)
Danika’s Surprise (Novellete, #5.5)
Moon’s Flower (Book 6, Fractured tale based on The Man in the Moon)
The Huntsman’s Prey (Book 7, based on the legend of Snow White’s Huntsman)
Rumpel’s Prize (Book 8, based on the legend of Rumpelstiltskin)
Hood’s Obsession (Book 9)
Her One Wish, (Book 10 about Jinni’s daughter and Robin Hood, coming October 2014!)
A Pirate’s Dream, (Book 11 about Hook’s Daughter, coming soon!)
Moments Series (New Adult Contemporary Romance)
A Moment, Book 1
Right Now, Book 2
This Time, Book 3
Contemporary Romance
The Wright Brother (Coming in September of 2014)
Night Series (Urban Fantasy with Romantic Elements)
Crimson Night, Book 1
All Hallows Night, Book 2
Howler’s Night, Book 3
Red Rain, Book 4 (Coming in December 2014)
Night Spinoff (Urban Fantasy-Berserker Series)
Forbidden- Book 1, Coming November 2014
Chaos Time Serial (Time Travel Fantasy Romance)
Sable, Part 1
Slayde, Part 2
Synnergy, Part 3
Eternal Lovers (Paranormal Romance)
Death’s Lover
Death’s Redemption
Sneak Peek: Forbidden
Flint’s Diary # Entry 1
3 years since the day I met him…
When a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, it can eventually cause a hurricane in another.
My mother told me that, a long time ago.
I laughed. How could a butterfly possibly do that?
She held my face and stared deep into my eyes…
“Because, Flint,” she said, “sometimes in life we do things. Things that don’t seem to matter at the time. But in truth, it’s just the beginning of the ripple effect.”
I wonder if she knew?
If she knew and was warning me? Because, looking back, it all started the next day.
The day she died.
I’ll never get to tell her, I finally understand… and I’m terrified about what my future holds…
Flint DeLuca