Time of Death Series: Books 1-3: An Eternal Series Boxed Set

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Time of Death Series: Books 1-3: An Eternal Series Boxed Set Page 13

by Candy Crum


  “It looks like Easter Sunday out here,” I said.

  “Exactly. Humans have strong life forces, but not nearly as much as a vampire, werewolf, or succubus. Look at mine.”

  I turned to look at him and saw it. His aura was so much different than what I’d seen before. It was a brilliant red. He was right. The bright pastel colors I’d seen in the crowd were nothing in comparison to his. It shined like a beacon. Looking around, I saw a few others that shined like that.

  “There are other vampires in the audience,” I noted.

  “Yes. Here’s how opening your eyes will save your life. Now that you can see the auras, never ­– and I mean never – stop seeing them. My aura is bright red. That’s because I’m a daywalker. I still have my humanity about me. If you ever see a red aura that looks more black than red, run. Run like hell.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “Why?”

  “That’s what is known as a Rogue. There is still so much for you to learn. So much for you to see and find out about our world. We’ve only focused on you.”

  “What is a Rogue?” I asked.

  Cass smiled, gesturing forward with his head. “Let’s walk and talk. We need to find you a healthy host.”

  I did as he asked, following him forward as our eyes scanned the crowd. “Rogue vampires are the vampires that have forsaken the queen’s laws. There is only one law. Do not kill innocents. Murderers, child molesters, and rapists are all free game. Thieves, domestic abusers ­– though, I think they should be added to the list, and common criminals are considered more innocent than damned. Their crimes, for the most part, can be moved on from. Maybe not erased, but they can be put behind the victim. It’s kind of hard to walk away from being raped.”

  “There’s a vampire queen?” I asked. “And she’s good?”

  “Oh, yes. We will talk more about this later. Right now, we have a mission. I just wanted to tell you that if you ever run into a supernatural creature whose aura color is tainted black underneath, you need to run. Their brilliant aura is tainted by their own darkness. They will not hesitate to kill you, and there isn’t much you can do to stand up against an immortal creature hundreds of years older than you.”

  We dropped the subject, but it still weighed heavy on my mind. Two kinds of vampires… Who would have thought? It wasn’t enough that they existed at all, but there needed to be two versions? How strange. I wondered what else hid out there in the shadows. Tristan sometimes called the “supernatural underground” the shadow world. At that moment, I understood why. There were a lot of things hiding out there.

  The concert was pretty fun, but that’s all it was. There was too much excitement around me to be able to focus my ADHD brain, and I found myself fidgeting the entire time with a thousand completely nonsensical thoughts running through my mind. Like, nonsensical… Is that a word? Alongside my sudden desire to get ahold of a dictionary, and probably a thesaurus, too, just for good measure, my totally rockin’ awesome and oh-so focused brain played along the usual medley of randomness.

  What was Tristan doing? He better not be hitting on my mother…

  Would I ever get the hang of this?

  Stop thinking… You’re supposed to be hunting.

  Wow, this band is really good.

  Holy shit. That guy is really hot, but I think that’s his girlfriend next to him.

  Oh, I like the girlfriend’s shoes.

  Maybe I should get some new shoes.

  Uh oh. Cass doesn’t look happy.

  … That was me. Every moment of every day. Couple that with the constant shifting back and forth, picking at nails, playing with my hair, and biting my lip, and you had a recipe for awesomeness.

  My earlier thought about Cass… I was right. He was not very happy with me. While I could tell that he was annoyed, I also appreciated the patience that he did his best to show me. He refused to give up. So, he decided to take me to the outermost area of the concert. He thought the edge of the crowd might be a bit less overwhelming.

  “Stop,” Cass said suddenly.

  Looking over, I saw his expression turn deadly serious. His brows furrowed as his nostrils flared. The color of his eyes began to change, and I knew that if he pulled his lips back, I would see elongated teeth. His aura began to darken a little as well.

  “Whoa, big boy,” I said, coming to stand in front of him.

  I placed my hand on his chest and the heat immediately flowed through me. I could feel the touch of his life force playing with my own. I was overwhelmed with desire, but I did my best to hold it back. He was clearly focusing on something. So much so that he didn’t even notice my immediate change in mood. It was probably a good thing as he would have more than likely fled, screaming like a little girl about Tristan and his fear of punishment.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I smell blood. A lot of it. I’m trying to separate the smells, so I can find the direction.”

  My own expression changed then. “Is it one of the others? The vampires that I saw?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know, but I think I found the direction. Come with me.”

  I nodded, following him as he continued to weave around people. We passed through a double door to a wide corridor that wrapped around the entire arena. There were humans everywhere, but it was open enough that we could walk through with almost no issue. Cass was moving fast and I struggled to keep up. It was incredible just how much faster he is than me.

  “This way,” he said, cutting down another – much more private – hallway.

  There were much fewer people, and even I could smell the blood at that point. Cass had to be right. There must have been a lot of it to catch my nose with that many other people in the building.

  Without warning, Cass stopped dead in his tracks, turned to his right, and kicked in a random door. He rushed in with me close behind. Inside, there was a man standing over a woman on the floor. She was alive, but barely. Her throat had been slit, the entire floor soaked in her blood. I could see the rage in only his profile as he growled, turning to face the attacker. For a vampire, he certainly was a protector.

  Cass was a blur as he rushed across the room and grabbed the man by the throat, lifting him in the air. I quickly made my way inside the room and shut the door the best I could. The last thing we needed was another human, or humans, wandering by.

  “This is your guy,” Cass said, his jaw tight. “You’ll get everything you need out of him. You just have to kill him.”

  “Uh…” I didn’t like where things were heading. “Uh…”

  Cass’ eyes met mine. “What, Mia?” he asked before turning his eyes back to the man, his aura flaring a deeper red as he did. I could feel his power, and it was scary. “Don’t… move.”

  Cass brought the man back to earth, his feet touching the floor beneath him. He gave a shaky nod, clearly terrified of the mystery before him. Cass then knelt down next to the dying woman. He was gentle as he lifted her into his arms. After biting into his wrist, he placed it against her mouth.

  “Drink,” he said.

  The woman didn’t hesitate, though if her swift obedience had been out of compulsion or fear, I didn’t know. Within moments, her color began to return and she regained strength. Cass pulled away from her, speaking softly to her as he told her to forget what she’d seen there and to go straight home. When she stood, he took off his black shirt and gave it to her to put over her blood-soaked, fashionable tank-top. His beautiful, bare arms, chest, and stomach distracting me momentarily.

  I shook my head to clear my mind.

  Once the woman left the room, closing the door behind her, Cass turned to me. “This is your guy, Mia. You showed some hesitation, but this bastard deserves to die.”

  “Oh, I agree,” I said, surprising Cass.

  It was obvious that he didn’t plan for me to say that I thought the same thing, but I did. That man fully planned to kill that woman. He did kill her, essentially. The only reason that she survived was be
cause Cass caught her scent and gave her blood. If it hadn’t been for that, she’d have died. That man was nothing short of a murderer. No different than Jay. Than his men. He was scum. He didn’t care. He only cared that he got caught. That told me all that I needed to know. He’d killed before. He’d kill again. He deserved to die.

  But not by my hand. Not by a succubus.

  “If you agree, why won’t you do it?” Cass asked. “You need to feed. We can either take you out every single night and get you a little of what you need to stave you off for a few hours more, or you can kill him and take every ounce of what you need. I think you fail to realize how rare it is to come across someone you can actually kill, guilt free. I uphold my queen’s laws, and I will punish anyone – vampire, werewolf, succubus, or otherwise – that doesn’t. Her law is just. Fair. This opportunity doesn’t arise often.”

  “It’s not that, Cass,” I said. “Succubi feed by having sex. I don’t think this bastard deserves to go out feeling any kind of pleasure.”

  Cass’ face lit up with realization. “Ah! I see the problem here.” He smiled. “No, Mia. You don’t have to have sex with him. Granted, you’d actually get full if you did, but you don’t have to. I know some of your kind gets off on it, but I think it’s kind of rapey. Having sex with a victim you plan to kill, but compelling him or her to feel only pain while you do it… Definitely rapey. Anyway, no. Don’t worry about that. You can kiss him. You can also make him feel whatever you want him to. In this case, pain.”

  I looked over at the man and studied him. His eyes were cold, distant, but they held fear in them at that moment. Cass told him not to move; he didn’t tell him not to be afraid. He knew what was happening, and he had to good sense to be terrified.

  I took a few steps toward my potential victim and saw something familiar. My steps quickened just before I snatched up his wrist. There was a symbol there. It was one that I’d seen before, but thought nothing of. It was a dragon tattoo. Nothing elaborate. Just a small, black, tribal dragon placed just inside his wrist.

  “This tattoo. I’ve seen it before,” I said. “Where did you get it?”

  He smiled. “If you’ve seen it, then you should be dead.”

  Right then, I remembered. I saw it plain as day in my mind. The day that Jay had his gun pointed at Will’s head in that office, the day that I was shot in the chest and died, I saw the inside of his wrist. Tattoos are tattoos. I didn’t care then. I had no reason to stop and take in the scenery, including that bastard’s ink, but it managed to stay buried in my subconscious. Seems that it came in handy.

  It was my turn to smile then. I felt the rage taking hold as my cheeks flushed hot. I saw the terror in his eyes grow as I saw the red glow of my own reflecting in his.

  “Funny you should say so,” I said. “I’m sure you’ve heard of me. My name is Mia.”

  His brows lifted as his eyes widened.

  “No…” he said. “You… Jay said he’s killed you twice. If we ever see you, we are supposed to kill you. But he said that we couldn’t just shoot you.”

  “Aw, that Jay. Always thinking of me. Tell me, did he get the little message that I sent him?”

  The darkness I felt was eating this up. It was growing by the second as I stared into his eyes. I enjoyed the fear that he had of me.

  He gave a shaky nod. “Y-yes. H-he did. He’s sent people out to hunt you down. Please, just let me go, and I can tell him to stop.”

  I laughed. “How sweet! Unfortunately, he won’t stop. Jay will never stop. He is a murderer. Do you guys deal to children? Answer me honestly.”

  He swallowed hard. “Jay says…” He took a deep breath. “Jay says, if they have money, give ‘em what they want.”

  “Good to know.”

  That was all the confirmation I needed. I damn well knew they sold to children. There were some ‘honorable’ dealers in the world that had personal rules about that, or at least I’d assume so. They can’t all be alike. Then there’s Jay. He wasn’t the type for such kindness and mercy. I’d be shocked if he didn’t cram it down their little throats himself.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “J-Jack,” he stammered. “Why?”

  I smiled. “Because… I need to know what name to write on the note that I send to Jay in a box along with your heart.” My voice came out far more excited than I meant for it to, but it added to the badass psycho vibe I had going on right then.

  His eyes widened, fear consuming him. “No! Please, no! Use me as a messenger! I’ll tell him anything you want!”

  “See, I already sent a messenger. Clearly, it worked. The problem is, I can’t just make empty promises. I promised Jay that I’d rip everything he loved apart. That includes you. You chose to be a murderer. If you were an innocent man mixed in with Jay, I’d stop at nothing to help you escape him. But you’re not. You’re just a piece of shit, just like him. You killed, well, you tried to kill that woman, and for what? I don’t even know. I’m not certain that I want to know. All I saw from you was complete callousness. You couldn’t have cared less about what you’d done. You’ve done it before and you will again – if I don’t stop you. You deserve death, and you will be my messenger. Killing the messenger definitely sends a message, I’d say.”

  “Kiss him,” Cass said. “Focus your rage and force him to feel anything you want.”

  “I want him to feel the fear of his victims. I want him to truly understand what it is to be preyed upon.”

  Without another moment of hesitation, I stepped forward and grabbed the man standing before me. I pulled him down to me, my lips pressing against his. The moment our lips touched, I felt it. The connection between us. Once the bond was sealed, I could feel his life’s energy pulsing around him.

  My entire body began to react to him. The aura surrounding me latched on to his and began pulling as it absorbed his essence. The pain in my arm immediately began to feel better as his life filled me.

  Something flashed through my head. An image. It moved too quickly for me to make out, but not to worry. There were more. Suddenly, I found myself flooded with images, memories. I realized they were his memories. They were horrid, monstrous visions. I could hardly understand what I was seeing. How was it possible for someone to be so cold?

  I saw women raped, not only by him, but by others. Men killed in front of their wives. Teenage girls sold off. Chills flowed through my body.

  I…

  Was…

  PISSED.

  Rage ripped through me, white hot and vengeful. I forced his memories to stop flowing through me. Instead, I took them, and I reversed them. I began sending them back through to him, only he played the part of the victim. He was the one that was tortured. He was the one that had his beloved killed in front of his eyes. He was the helpless teenage girl sold off to the highest bidder.

  Jack began fighting me. His screams echoed through the room as I slowed the draining process. I wanted him to feel everything before he died. I didn’t want him to go quickly. A cold-blooded murderer deserved more mercy than he did. He was something else altogether.

  Soon, his screams began to fade, and I could feel his energy waning. He slumped against me, breaking the kiss. He was still alive, but barely. The high of feeding quickly faded, my rational mind returning to me. I stepped back, his weakened body falling to the floor.

  “I can’t,” I said, staring down at him. God, I wanted to, but I couldn’t.

  “He’s a disgusting human being,” Cass said. “Don’t feel bad for him.”

  I shook my head. “Oh, no. I feel no remorse. Not after what I just saw. He will die, but not by my hand. It’s still too new. I can’t kill.”

  “You’re waging a war against a drug lord, and you can’t kill? Mia, you’re going to get yourself killed, if that’s the case.”

  I sighed. “I know. I’ll get better.” The morbid humor of that wasn’t lost on me. “I’ll get better… Me… The most trustworthy person I’ve ever met… will get bette
r – at killing.”

  “I know you’re having trouble with it, but if you’re serious, you have no choice. Kill or be killed. You don’t have a choice at this point. Jay knows about you, and he will find you. If not you, then your parents.”

  “You’re absolutely right,” I replied, staring down at Jack. “You kill him. You probably haven’t drunk anything that wasn’t out of a blood bag in a while. Have at him.”

  “This time,” Cass said. “Next time, you need to finish it yourself.”

  I nodded. “I know.”

  Chapter Four

  Later thinking about it, I realized that it probably would have been a much better idea to take good ol’ Jack with us and ask him some questions. Oh well, I guess. Not really a big deal, as I was certain that I’d run into another one of the guys again. It was inevitable. There were too many people in my town that used Jay’s drugs for that to not happen. I knew they were Jay’s because there was no way in hell a guy like him would ever allow another person’s “business” to come through and encroach on his. The newbies would have been dead.

  The following day, I went to see Andrews. I told him the things that I’d seen in my vision while feeding on Jack. While Tristan said that I was too young to have such a power, he and Andrews both agreed on something: that it could be beneficial.

  Andrews asked me to sit with him and look through some arrest records. It took a while to go through all of the men that they believed were associated with Jay’s drug ring, but I finally found Jack. Andrews wasn’t exactly happy when I told him that Cass and I had killed him, but he wasn’t surprised either.

  He told me that I could earn forgiveness if I helped him identify some of the girls that I saw in the vision. There were still open cases for the teen girls that were missing. I took those files home with me and spent the rest of the night going through them. If I could help in any way to find those girls, even if it was unfortunate enough to be post-mortem, I wanted to. I needed to find them. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how scared they must be, or must have been. I shivered thinking about it.

 

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