by W. J. May
She stared on in horror.
James brought his blade down as Atlanta screamed inside her head. She tried to close her eyes, but Adelaide forced her to watch. The seconds passed by in slow motion.
“Witch!” James screamed as he brought his blade down next to Ryan’s head.
Ryan growled, trying to force James off, but the Druid was quick and brought the hilt of his blade across Ryan’s jaw. Atlanta watched Ryan roll to the side, unconscious.
James turned to Adelaide, panting, his eyes glowing a similar green to hers, his teeth clenched in anger.
“Let her go,” James hissed.
Adelaide let out a shrill laughter. “Druid, you surprise me,” she cooed. “Why would I ever do that? I have plans for young Atlanta.”
“It ends here, Adelaide,” James hissed. “I’ll kill you before you hurt her.”
Adelaide’s laughter died. “Son of Beatrice, you’re already too late.”
James let out a cry and charged, and before Atlanta could blink an eye, before she could even try to break free of her trance and stop him, Michael was there. Atlanta felt heat soar through her and she finally found her voice, screaming in renewed pain, scorched from the inside.
It was all the distraction that was needed.
James lost his focus, his eyes darting to her. For a brief second, Atlanta saw the emotions race through them. She saw the mix of worry, fear, love, and paternity. She saw every single minute of their life together mirrored in his eyes. The second lasted an eternity as her existence played out in a heart-wrenching kaleidoscope of images before her.
And then it was gone.
Time returned, and she watched helplessly as Michael wrapped his arms around James and thrust one clawed hand into her uncle’s chest.
Atlanta’s world shattered.
Darkness like she had never known descended on her. Her heart stopped, her breath caught, and her mind burst into fragments. She stared at her uncle’s wide eyes in disbelief, unable to accept what she was seeing, yet helpless to turn away. James stared back at her, lifeless in Michael’s arms before the hybrid dropped him to the ground.
She screamed.
She called out to James.
She thrashed and kicked.
She did everything she could possibly think of to break free from her frozen state and rush to James’ side.
But all she could do, all Adelaide would allow her to do, was watch.
Michael turned to her, the smile on the hybrid’s face wide as he licked her uncle’s blood off his fingers.
Atlanta felt the world around her darken. Everything became a blur. It’s a nightmare. It has to be. This isn’t happening.
“Now, my dear, dear Atlanta,” Adelaide whispered from behind her, laughing. “It’s time we finish what I’ve been waiting so long for.”
The last thing Atlanta registered before the darkness took over was her uncle’s lifeless gaze.
Chapter 23
Atlanta woke, lying in the shadowy corners of the Dome. Her eyes took a moment to adjust, but when they did she instantly wished they hadn’t. In front of her was the door. The door that so many had died to keep closed. Ravens were pinned to it with nails, their blood dripping onto the darkened floor.
She could hear whispers calling out her name in rhythm and echoing against one another. The candlelight was flickering and the darkness around her was being suddenly lit by even more candles that burst to life.
The voices behind the door kept calling her, and they grew louder as she began to stand. She felt like she was rising from a long and dormant death, every muscle in her body sore and heavy.
She felt compelled to wander around the Dome, but there was no exit from where she was. She walked along the path the candles made for her, down a long hall that seemed like an endless tunnel.
There were ravens dead and hung on the walls behind every candle. It seemed like a dark, ancient ritual had taken place there. Flashes of memory started to reach her conscious mind, and she recalled Adelaide.
She saw her forest-green eyes everywhere in the tunnel. They chased and haunted her wherever she went. Atlanta kept moving forward, oblivious as to where she was going or why. It was almost as if her body was magnetically drawn to something. She marched softly until she came across a series of candles laid out in a circle on the floor. There was something in the middle.
She hurried her pace, and as she neared it she stopped.
It’s a body!
The body was on its back, the face hidden by a dark sheet stained in green and red. She leaned in to remove the sheet, and as she slid it off she realized who it was. She removed the sheet completely and let her tears fall like leaves off an autumn tree at the sight of James’ pale face. His eyes were shut and his hair covered his forehead.
She fell on her knees and wept for what seemed like an eternity before she covered his face with the sheet again. “I’m so sorry,” she said over and over, as if she could somehow bring him back. “I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”
She reached out to hold his hand for one last time, and as her fingers slid in between his they scraped against something metallic. She pulled her hand back and held the brass key up to the candlelight.
The key was round at the top and equally wide at the bottom. Symbols were etched on both sides, a language she couldn’t recognize but looked oddly familiar. She took the key and walked back towards the door, almost as if drawn to it.
The ravens on the wall suddenly croaked and awoke from their death. Terrified, Atlanta ran. The ravens chased her. She realized she was reliving her nightmare from weeks before. Her back hit the door, and she slid and fell to the floor. She screamed but there was no one around to hear it.
No one but the figure of Michael appearing from the shadows on her left, and Adelaide walking towards her from the path of candles in front of her.
At that moment, she realized that the fate of Calen was being decided.
What everyone feared would happen was on the verge of unfolding. She held the key tightly in her hand, but her senses told her that it was not the key that they needed. Michael and Adelaide stopped in front of her, their eyes glaring.
“Open the door.” Adelaide’s voice came in whispers from every corner of the room.
Atlanta’s fears suddenly subsided, the ravens settled into silence, and the whispers from behind her began echoing Adelaide’s words. Her deep-green eyes were the only sight that Atlanta could see. Their evergreen forced a stillness and calmness into her heart. Her uneasiness suddenly disappeared. She was not fighting anymore. The struggle ceased to exist. The whispers had become friendly voices and serene melodies, the call of friends beckoning.
A smile stretched across Adelaide’s face. A light shone from the cracks of the door, and then many followed, seeping through as Atlanta turned to face it.
I should open this. I need to know what’s behind it.
She felt excited and inexplicably drawn to the lights shining behind the door.
She held the brass key in one hand and took a deep breath. She pushed the key into a small rectangular hole right in the center of the door.
The stains of blood around the door turned into shades of green, and the whispers from behind it echoed the words, “Come closer.”
Atlanta moved closer, not only drawn to the soft cries but feeling like she was one of them. The curls of green mist surrounded her, and a surge of wind came out the door.
She suddenly felt her heart twist around itself, and the euphoria that she had felt began to sink into an utter depression of the soul. She suddenly remembered the helpless look on James’ face and the tear that fell from his eye right before he died. She remembered Ryan lying on the rooftop, worn out and drenched in blood. The darkness around her suddenly lifted, and she could see her surroundings clearly.
Adelaide and her hybrid were gone.
She looked at where the door was, and there was a desolate emptiness behind it. It was dark and the candles couldn’t eve
n shed a speck of light into the room beyond. She looked behind her.
I opened the door! She stared in disbelief. I let the hybrids out!
She turned and ran towards her uncle’s body but it had also disappeared, the circle of candles surrounding nothing but emptiness.
She fell to her knees, her body shaking uncontrollably, and wept.
As she cried, the people of Calen woke to a new day, oblivious to the chaos she had brought down upon them.
THE END
Coven Master
Now Available – Excerpt included!
COVEN MASTER Blurb
The city of Calen has fallen.
The forces that once held the city as one are scattered and drained of power. Adelaide, one of the witches who’s haunted and threatened the peace once made by the elders in the territory, has regained her power by releasing the hybrids she’s created. She’s determined to destroy Calen and all those who stand in her way.
Atlanta, the Druid huntress, responsible for unlocking the hybrids and the murder of her uncle, tries to come to terms with what’s happened. Determined to try and set the wrong right, she enlists the help of her kind, willing to risk everything, including her life, to stop Adelaide.
Suddenly she finds herself in a different town, fighting the witch and facing secrets about her past that leave her overwhelmed and vulnerable.
Meanwhile, Ryan and Marcus are in Calen, uncertain of what’s happened to Atlanta and desperate to find her. They must face the hybrids over and over again, as the waves of power press down on them.
The fate of Calen rests in too few hands. Divided sanctions, Vamps, Wolf and Druid, must unify or each race stands no chance of survival.
Paranormal Huntress Series
Never Look Back
Coven Master
Alpha’s Permission
Paranormal Huntress Series #2
Coven Master
EXCERPT
Chapter 1
A blaze of velvet red pierced the fine white sky. Silhouettes of birds and echoes of their morning song resounded in the air. They soared high, as if escaping some sullen malice that lay underneath. They formed an array of poetic welcoming for the rising of the sun in the broad and warm skies of the city of Lisbon.
The waves surrendered to the magnetic call of the shore’s lips. The mountains behind spoke in silence as they were swallowed by grey skies. At the base of the mountains, on the other side from the shore, a slim figure strolled through the rocky steeps. His movement so silent that, even within the stillness that surrounded him, the echo of his footsteps was a mere whisper.
He walked with purpose, eyes set on a destination in front of him, unblinking as the winds curled and tossed around him.
The rocks on the mountain ahead of him were in shades of dark grey and reddish brown. He gazed at them for a moment from afar, then turned his head to a nearly twenty-foot-tall yellow rock formation to his right. He approached the rocks while constantly scanning his surroundings, making sure he wasn’t being followed. He listened for the sound of footsteps or even the tremble of stones nearby. Nothing could be missed.
Satisfied that he was indeed alone, he knelt before the limestone rocks and reached out to a dirty greenish rock that sat alone, engulfed within the yellowness of the rocks. He pushed the rock into the wall. In seconds, a passageway right behind the rock formation was revealed and he became swallowed inside it.
Surrounded by darkness he swiftly made his way down the narrow passageways, deeper into the mountain.
It didn’t take him long to reach the end of his trek. He pressed his hand against a glass door and waited patiently until it slid open. Instantly bathed in fluorescent lights that shone whiter than snow, he blinked and let his eyes adjust. He walked in, through the tunnel of light, and down a second passageway much clearer than the first. His footsteps echoed as he picked up speed. His high black boots rang with the sounds of metal chains.
It was like a maze of tunnels bathed in brightness. He opened doors, turned left and right, and almost robotically moved toward a destination known only to him. The force with which he pushed the doors open gave the impression that the thin man was either quite angry or agitated. The shades of red on his forehead and the sweat running down his cheeks were both a sign of distress and the product of the endless walking he had to endure.
But even though his breathing was heavy and labored, he didn’t stop to rest. For nearly thirty minutes he roamed the tunnels, pushing through one door after the other, driven by instinct and an obscure purpose known only to him.
He finally stopped at a hallway with three doors. He fixed his gaze on the one right across from him, marched towards it, then hesitated.
Wrong one.
He turned and pushed the bar on the door to his left and swiftly slipped inside.
There were mirrors on every wall and on the ceiling. The floor was adorned with a plush, bright-red rug. The room was hexagonal in shape and the lights inside burned a bluish white that made his eyes water. The floor and the bars that hung on every corner looked like those in the basement of the Skolars back in Calen.
The man finally took a moment to stop and catch his breath before walking towards the small brown door in between two mirrors.
He pressed his finger on a small round button to the right and waited. “It’s Raul,” he said.
Seconds later a buzzer sounded and the lock on the door released. Raul pushed the door open into a room similar to the one he’d just left. But, unlike the mirrors on every wall, this one gleamed with portraits and paintings in golden frames. Each painting depicted a man or a woman in crimson red or dark blue suit. The paintings were engraved with dates that went back centuries.
A round table in the middle of the room caught Raul’s attention. Four people sat, two on each side, their attention drawn to a fifth man standing on his own. The conversations had stopped as everyone turned to look at the newcomer.
“Raul?”
Raul looked at the young man in charge of the meeting and swiftly made his way to him. “Sorry for interrupting,” he said, the urgency in his voice grabbing everyone’s attention. “I know it isn’t my place, but I have some terribly important news.”
Not that entering a hidden building and barging into a secret meeting wasn’t important.
This, however, couldn’t wait.
Raul didn’t wait for a response. “It’s about the city of Calen.”
Chapter 2
Calen
Midnight was a glimpse away; the hours passed as if minutes were dust that flew out of a broken hourglass. There were desolate shafts of light that would peek into the streets, trying hard to shed themselves over the darkened corners of the city, all in vain. The dust filled the air, casting its shadow over the towers of Calen. If one would gaze at the city from afar, they’d think that a sandstorm had caught the pillars of every building with its rough claws.
Along with the darkness, there wasn’t a single moment of silence. Not a second passed without the heavy sound of cracking, or confused screams, or the zapping of wires ripped out of their circuits. The city itself was crumbling, along with the people inside it.
In the suburbs, the Skolar house sat in ruins. Shingles were strewn about on either side of the house, and the grass looked as if it was reaching out to swallow the crushed skeleton of what remained of the house. Half the grass had yellowed from lack of sun, but oddly continued to grow. The other half had been scorched. Only the basement was the only part that laid untouched, unharmed by the constant hail of fire that fell from the gargoyles’ breath onto the streets of Calen.
Further into the city, the majestic gothic structure of Calen High stood proud. Oddly, with minor damage done to it. As Adelaide’s hybrids roamed the dust ridden corners of the city, Marcus waited inside.
We’re all doomed.
Marcus stepped out of the principal’s office, where he had spent the past few days regaining his strength. He stretched, letting his fangs elonga
te and retract, as if making sure they would still obey his will. He gazed down the dark, empty hallways, wondering how this could have happened.
It’d been nearly two weeks since the door had been opened.
By the end of the first day, it was no secret the hybrids were out. Adelaide made sure everyone—mortal or supernatural—knew her forces were taking over the city. Marcus remembered it clearly, as if it had happened just yesterday. He’d been in his thirteenth-floor office, surrounded by the best of his guards, when the heavy roaring of the wind first began to howl through the city. It was followed by the sound of shattering windows and the fusion of metals bombarding into one another.
Marcus had stepped out onto the terrace of his office, surrounded by a thick blanket of dust and wind that prevented him from seeing anything further than a few feet away. He had felt the grains scrape against his skin and eyes, threatening to engulf him, making sure Adelaide’s hybrids could operate under its shroud unhindered.
He knew he could not be compelled by the hybrids, knew that the elders of the Vampire clan were immune to the beasts’ trickery. Still, there was little they could do when they couldn’t see, or sense, the enemy.
Adelaide had clearly been counting on that.
She’s bloody planned every step. Been planning for years.
The memory still burned in the back of his mind. How he’d walked back into his office to find his guards dead. How the wind had howled all around him and red eyes had peeked through the clouds of dust surrounding him. They’d come for him, three of the beasts, eager to rid themselves of the threat Marcus posed to their dominance. They were a formidable force, but he had no intention of letting them win. In the end, he’d gotten the better of them. He could still feel their green hearts pounding in his palm before he crushed them.