Breed of Innocence (The Breed Chronicles, #01)

by Jordan, Lanie

  Maybe I was made for this.

  “Good. Now, I realize you have almost two months of your summer break left, but remember that Prospects are still required to maintain some weapons and combat training, so they stay in shape. You have a few days, but I still recommend you get some rest.”

  As if on cue, I yawned. “I will.”

  I barely made it three feet before he said, “Oh, and Jade?”

  I glanced over my shoulder. “Yeah?”

  “Welcome to Phase Two.”

  The End

  ABOUT LANIE

  Lanie Jordan writes stories. Sometimes her characters drive her crazy, but then she gets her revenge by making their lives more difficult. Fictional payback is fun.

  To find out more about Lanie and her stories, you can visit her at the links below. And if you want to say hi to her, she wouldn't mind that either. (She's only mean to her characters. And sometimes her cats—but only when they really deserve it.)

  Website: http://www.laniejordan.com

  Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Lanie_Jordan

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLanieJordan

  Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/Lanie_Jordan

  Dear Reader, thank you for reading Breed of Innocence. If you love books, please consider supporting your favorite authors by leaving honest reviews, spreading the word about their books, or using Kindle's lending feature.

  COPYRIGHT

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity between actual persons living and dead is purely coincidental. Any use of locales, establishments, or events are used fictitiously.

  BREED OF INNOCENCE

  Copyright © 2012 by Lanie Jordan. All rights reserved.

  Cover art Copyright © 2012 by Lanie Jordan.

  ISBN: 978-1-890785-54-3

  If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you downloaded this ebook as a free read and think someone else would enjoy it, then please redirect said person(s) to the author's website. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  OTHER TITLES BY LANIE

  Available Now:

  Shadow and Light, a YA Fantasy.

  Twin Tied, a YA Paranormal.

  Keep reading for an excerpt of SHADOW AND LIGHT.

  EXCERPT

  Shadow and Light:

  Light Walkers.

  Here, on my land. And not just one but two—a guy and a girl.

  Shadow Walkers belonged on Shadowland. Light Walkers belonged in the city. Period. But these two, they thought they could just wander around Shadowland like they owned the place?

  I narrowed my eyes and clenched my jaw. No. That wasn’t happening.

  They’d been here for over four hours already, just walking around, waving their flames like beacons. They might as well have screamed ‘attack me, attack me!’.

  Were they out of their minds?

  Following them closely, I never let them out of my sight for more than a second or two as I jumped from tree to tree and watched, waited, wondered. They’d overstayed their welcome in the first twenty seconds of being here. Something had kept me from stopping them long before now, and it took a while, but I finally realized it was because of one thing: curiosity.

  Light Walkers were brash, and they were often stupid, but they weren’t usually crazy enough to come so far into Shadowland without being in a large group.

  There were only a few reasons why any of them would risk it. One, they were guards patrolling the wall that separated Shadowland from the city, Carden. Two, they were hunters looking for adult Shadow Walkers. Three, they were suicidal and knew they couldn’t last more than a day or two on Shadowland. Or four, they…

  Actually, I couldn’t think of a fourth option. The first three were the only scenarios I had seen for myself, and even then, it only covered the adults. But these weren’t adults. They were teenagers, like me, probably sixteen, or seventeen.

  So what in the world did they want? And why did they have bags with them? They weren’t likely hunters or guards, and they didn’t seem suicidal.

  I let out a growl and moved, merging out of one tree and then shadowing into another only feet away from the Light Walkers. Peering out of the shadows, I studied their hands, legs, body language—any and everything that would help me learn something about them.

  The guy’s back was rigid. A small ball of fire hovered an inch above the palm of his left hand, providing them with a small amount of light. Or maybe protection. From me. From my kind. Here, where shadows could trap you.

  Moving again, I went to a tree ahead of them to get a better glance. The guy’s flames gave me enough light to see them clearly.

  The guy was tall, lean without being scrawny, and well built. He had hair the color of fallen leaves and his eyes were green, a few shades lighter than grass.

  In the distance, a shadowcat roared. The guy’s flames rose instantly, then slowly faded back to a small glow as the roar died out. Yeah, he was jumpy—no denying that—but there was arrogance etched into his face like lines in tree bark. Not fear.

  He knew he didn’t belong here—he just didn’t care.

  The other one, the girl…she was harder to describe. Her gaze took in everything, but not like the guy’s, not like she expected to run into some Shadow Walkers and feared it, but almost like she hoped she would find us..

  I shook my head. For people who created fire out of nothing, I figured they could be a bit brighter.

  After a few more minutes, when they came within a couple of miles of one of my camps, I shadowed out of the tree, leaving only a few feet between myself and them. “You Light Walkers lost?” I stepped forward until I was in their line of sight.

  A smile curved my lips when I heard an unmistakable gasp from the girl and the sounds of their bags hitting the ground. She took an instinctive step back while the guy put himself in front of her, as if to shield her. He glared. The flame in his hand flickered before he tossed it to the ground. The fire spread left and right, following the movements of his arms, until it made a circle around them. He raised his arms and the flames rose higher.

  Hissing, I narrowed my eyes into thin slits and jumped to the side, using a tree to block some of the nearly blinding light. After years in the dark, my eyes were sensitive.

  Nice trick, but you’ll have to do a lot better than that. “Do you think that’s going to protect you?”

  “It’ll do the job, Shadow Walker,” the guy said. He turned his head to one side, spat on the ground. “You can’t Shadow through it, can you?” The sides of his lips rose in a cocky grin.

  I wanted to smack that look off his face, even if Glare-boy was almost right. Shadow Walkers couldn’t shadow through Light Walker flames. Still, it didn’t stop me from grinning back. In quick procession, I stomped my right foot twice, waited half a beat, and then stomped the left once. “Moshey!”

  The darkness responded to my call. Four large shadows rolled in on the ground, covering it like the front of a nasty storm. In the next blink, the shadows rose from the ground in smoke-like vines and took form, producing four flesh-and-blood bodies. I made a show of counting heads. “Five against two.” I glanced at my friends, pleased as they all balled their hands into fists and wore similar grins to mine. I turned back. “You’re going to need a lot more than that little circle.”

  Glare-boy bowed his head and punched his fists together. The circle grew higher, wider. Footsteps echoed in my ears as my friends retreated, cursing as they tried to get away from the light. I stayed in place. “Lessen the circle,” I warned.

  “Why?” The grin never left his face. If anything, it became cockier. “Worried?”

  “Over you? Or her?” I laughed, my gaze moving from him to the girl. Goldie was a bit shorter than me and thinner. Her face was colorless; her blue eyes wide. She had pale gold hair, lighter th
an anyone’s I’d seen before. No Shadow Walkers had hair that light. “Hardly.” If I couldn’t handle two teen Light Walkers, then I deserved a flaming death.

  He brought his hands up again and held them in place. He was going to widen the circle even more. I wasn’t going to tolerate that. My curiosity was the only thing that had allowed this to go so far, but even that was running low. I’d thought that maybe they were braver than they looked. I was wrong.

  They were stupider.

  Especially if they thought I couldn’t get to them.

  Light Walker flames were different from any other type—there was no denying that. Shadow Walkers couldn’t shadow through or underneath them, but that wasn’t the only way to get past the fire.

  His fingers twitched. I set my jaw and dissolved into a shadow in the ground. Eyes wild, the Light Walkers moved to the center of their circle and stood back-to-back. In shadow form, I could feel their emotions, their anxiety.

  I glided across the ground to a short tree, went straight up, and when I reached the top, unshadowed and dropped down, landing in the circle between them. Brushing Goldie aside, I crashed into Glare-boy’s stomach. His circle of fire died out as he hit the ground.

  I jumped on top of him and pulled a blade from my boot. It wasn’t much more than a ragged piece of metal, but it was sharp. Holding the tip to his neck, I leaned in until my mouth was next to his ear. “Do you think a little fire is going to make us run and hide?” I growled. “That’s the problem with your kind; you underestimate us.”

  And they always had. Shadowland had no sunlight. We had no technology, no buildings, so to them, that meant we were primitive. Maybe our weapons were. Maybe our way of life was.

  We weren’t.

  Beneath me, he arched his back and brought his leg up to wrap it around my neck, then yanked me backward. Our positions reversed, and this time he was on top with his legs on either side of me. He tried grabbing my arms to hold them down, but I sent my fist into his face. He rocked to the side, clutching his jaw. Seizing the opportunity, I pushed him back and straddled him again.

  Goldie ran forward. “Stop! Please.”

  My fist froze mid-air, barely an inch from his nose. I whirled my head to the side. She stood a few feet away now, her face tight with worry. I looked down at the guy, glared, then back up to the girl. “One reason,” I said softly. “One good reason why. He’s on our turf. He needs to follow our rules. So far he hasn’t and someone needs to teach him a lesson.” I smiled, showing all of my teeth. “I’m volunteering for teacher duty.”

  Goldie took a tentative step forward. “We mean you no harm,” she said quickly. “We’re looking for someone, a Shadow Walker by the name of Jeneca.”

  Frowning, I leaned back, my hand still resting on the guy’s chest as I studied the girl. I didn’t know them. The fact that I was the one they were seeking was beyond imagination. We didn’t go looking for each other. My gaze went back to the guy. His met mine, full of hatred. After a silence filled minute, I shrugged and stood up. When the guy didn’t try anything stupid, I put my knife away and then crossed my arms over my chest. “And what do you want from Jeneca?”

  “We’ll discuss that with her,” Glare-boy snarled.

  “You’ll discuss it with me if you want to find her while you’re still in one piece.”

  He set his jaw, stepped forward. “No, we won’t. If you won’t tell us where to find her, then we’ll keep looking. We’re not leaving until we do.”

  I had a retort ready, but the girl jumped between us before I could use it. “Jolsa.” She laid her hand on his and waited until he looked at her. “I think she is Jeneca.”

  “What?” His head whipped around. Those green eyes stared at me with disbelief. “Her?” The underlining laugh was clear. “She can’t be.”

  “Oh?” I asked sweetly. “And why is that?”

  “Because—you just can’t be.”

  “Jolsa. It’s her. I’m sure.”

  His gaze darted from her to me, back and forth. “How, Layli?”

  “I just am.” Her hand tightened around his arm. “Please be nice.”

  Jolsa’s eyes narrowed but he stepped down. Physically, if not mentally. “Fine.”

  With one last look to him, as if to make sure he wouldn’t do anything, she turned to face me. “I’m Layli, and this is my friend, Jolsa.”

  I didn’t introduce myself or my friends. I didn’t know what to think. They were looking for me. “Great. Now what do you want?”

  As I spoke, my friends stepped forward, flanking me. I didn’t see them move; I just felt their presence.

  Jolsa continued to scowl. His fists curled, uncurled, curled again. He still wanted to fight.

  Layli studied me and my friends with a mixture of awe and curiosity, like she was witnessing some creature in the wild, some species the world thought to be extinct. “We would like your help.” Her smile was small, unsure.

  It took a full thirty seconds for the meaning of her words to sink in. When they did, I blinked three times and then threw my head back and laughed until my eyes watered and tears spilled down my cheeks. I swiped my hand over my face and, after two failed attempts, finally managed to suck in some air. “Did I hear you right?” I said, trying to compose myself. “You want my help?” Maybe I’d hit my head harder than I thought last week. There was no way any Light Walker would ask anything of a Shadow Walker, least of all help.

  Looking over my shoulder, I shrugged and found equal looks of confusion on my friends’ faces. If I had somehow misunderstood, they had, too.

  Layli nodded. “Yes. I know this is probably very strange, but we do need your help.”

  “Jeneca, let’s go.”

  I turned to face my friend, Bach. He was the muscle of the group. Short tempered, slow to say anything, quick to throw a punch. And he was…bored, I realized. He knew, or guessed, there wouldn’t be a fight, so now he was disinterested. I just shook my head and waited.

  Layli’s hands were in front of her and she twisted her fingers. Before, she’d seemed concerned, but this was the first time she actually looked worried, and I knew we weren’t the cause. “I—we,” she corrected, sending Jolsa a stern look. “We’d like to stay here for a little while, if possible.”

  Silence lasted about five seconds before chaos broke out around me. All of my friends started yelling at the same time, various curses and shouts of refusal.

  I raised my arm above my head and whistled. The yelling stopped. “On Shadowland? Are you insane?” They had to be.

  Jolsa jumped forward. “Do you think we’d be here if we had any other option, Swodahs?”

  “Hold it,” I said to my friend, predicting their response to the insult. I threw my arms out to the side to keep them back. The ground vibrated with their anger. Light Walkers called us Swodahs because they thought we were abominations. It was the worst thing they could call us.

  It was habit for us to keep the soles of our feet shadowed so we could communicate with each other, and right now, my friends were communicating very loudly, and they weren’t happy.

  “Watch what you say,” I heard from behind me.

  I turned my head to the side. “Don’t, Bach,” I said when he tried pushing past me. He was, once again, ready and more than willing to fight.

  Layli glared at Jolsa and then offered us an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry.”

  Crossing my arms over my chest, I flicked a glance at Jolsa, then to Layli. “Don’t apologize for him. Just tell me what you want.”

  “I need protection. I know you have no reason to help me,” she continued, speaking quickly, “and I don’t have anything to offer in return, but I have nowhere else to go.”

  I moved and leaned against a nearby tree, trying to ignore the continuous rumbles of my friends. “How did you even hear about me?” We didn’t exactly travel in the same circles—or live in them—so I couldn’t figure that out. Sure, there were Shadow Walkers in the city, but they weren’t like us. They didn�
��t come out to Shadowland. And the Shadow Walkers here never went to the city. It was the way things had been for as long as I could remember.

  “People talk.” She shrugged and averted her eyes from my face. “I’ve listened.”

  Her words said one thing, but her body language said something completely different. The tone, the explanation, was too…something. She was lying. I gave her a toothy smile. “Most who hear my name don’t reveal it.”

  Jolsa snarled. “Why? Because you kill them?”

  Before I could respond—verbally, physically, I didn’t know which—Layli stepped in front of him and whispered in his ear. He glared in my direction. He’d only shown two expressions in the ten minutes I’d known him: pissed off and cocky. Both annoyed me.

  Layli sighed. “Your name gets around—even in the city.”

  I regarded her for a moment and did my best to ignore Jolsa. “Why do you want my help? The truth,” I added, when I could see she was trying to think of a lie. I hadn’t come close to deciding if I’d help her or not, and before I decided one way or another, I wanted the complete truth.

  Lowering her gaze, she looked at her hands. “Someone is trying to get to my father through me,” she said, speaking quietly, almost…sadly. She glanced at Jolsa as if to get permission. When he said or did nothing, only continued to glare, Layli continued. “Jolsa is here as a kind of…bodyguard, I suppose.”

  I snorted. “He’s a poor choice, if you ask me.”

  When he snarled, I smiled wide.

  Layli gave him a dirty look and looked to me again. “He’s the only one my father and I trust, other than my family.”

  “Then why isn’t your family with you?”

  “My mother is ill. My brothers live in another city, but they came back to Carden when my father called them. They’re with him now, trying to figure out who is behind…this. My father doesn’t know who’s after him, but he suspects it’s someone close to him, so we don’t know who we can trust. Until they know, it isn’t safe for me in Carden.”