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

by Candy Crum

  I looked out and saw it. I remembered him telling me the darker creatures had darker auras. The weres had deep purple auras while the woman had a light blue aura. It was quite beautiful. When I saw it, I felt the same thing that Cass had, or what I imagined that he had. I also unbuckled my seatbelt.

  We moved slowly as we exited the car. The wolves were growling and snarling at the woman. It was obvious they were under no control, but they were terrified to move. There were three of them and only a single tiny version of her. What the hell was she? Immortal, yes, but… What the hell was she? She had so much power emanating from her. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen, not that I’d seen much.

  “The human man is about to die. He has severe lacerations to his throat,” she said. “I have the forsaken controlled. They will not dare defy me. Move. Now.”

  Cass and I quickly made our way over to the man lying in the road. His collar bone had been broken and was pushing through his skin. His throat was torn open and his body couldn’t decide if it wanted to bleed to death, or drown in the blood running down his trachea.

  “Succubus. The vampire can take care of him. Check on the woman inside the vehicle. I can feel her fear from here.”

  I nodded once before doing as I was told. The woman began screaming as soon as I opened the door, but I knew what to do. I quickly reached across and grabbed her bare wrist, immediately feeling the connection between us grow.

  “Shh,” I said. “You’re safe now. Your husband is safe now. He will be just fine. Everything is going to be just fine.”

  Her body relaxed against the seat as she stared into my eyes.

  “I bet you’re exhausted,” I said.

  The woman nodded. “I am. I am so tired.”

  “Good girl. Sleep now. All this has been a terrible dream. A deer came out of nowhere and damaged the side of your vehicle. You passed out, but you had the craziest dream. Your husband has blood all over him, but it was from the buck. It ran off into the woods.”

  “Deer around here do the craziest things,” she said, her voice sounding a bit drunk under my control.

  With that, she closed her eyes and fell asleep. Hard. I backed out of the door and closed it. There was only a moment of reaction time between hearing the loud ear-splitting growl and turning to see another forsaken that leapt from the wood line directly for me.

  I gasped and arched back against the truck, not even a scream able to squeak its way out of me before the forsaken came to stop only a few inches away from me. There was a beautiful blue glow that exploded between us, and I realized that had been the only thing that stopped him from getting hold of me. Out of my peripheral, I could see that Cass and the human had been enveloped as well.

  I looked over to see the woman holding a single hand in the air while her main focus remained on the three forsaken before her. I couldn’t believe her strength.

  “You should have listened. I know you could hear me from wherever you were in the woods with those big ears,” she said.

  With only a flick of her wrist, the forsaken in front of me ignited in flames. Howls, growls, and screams of pain filled the air as the fire engulfed him and burned him to nothing more than ash.

  “Anyone else care to challenge me?” she asked.

  The three forsaken before her lost all of their feistiness. It was crazy to me to watch all three alpha-like creatures submit and admit defeat as they took a few steps back, their heads hanging low.

  “Let this be a lesson to you,” the woman said, her voice icy. “The war is coming. Khia will fall. And when she does, I’m going to make sure to send every one of you to hell right along with her. Now get your asses back to Egypt where they belong.”

  The forsaken turned and ran full speed through the woods. They were a blur as they disappeared in the trees.

  “Holy shit,” I said. I didn’t actually mean to say that out loud, but it popped out anyway.

  “Are you alright?” the woman asked as she approached.

  “We are fine,” Cass said as he stood up. “Thanks to you.”

  She smiled. “I’m glad to hear you’re fine. My name is Wendy Cain. Who are both of you?”

  Chapter Eight

  At first, I was frozen. I wasn’t quite sure if I should run screaming or ask her a thousand questions. I stared at her beautiful blonde hair, her ice blue eyes, her beautiful smile and rounded cheeks. My brain wasn’t braining. Not one bit.

  “I’m Cass.” His voice shook me out of my thoughts, but I was still not quite thinking yet.

  I waved. “Mia.”

  “Nice to meet you both.”

  “Why did you save us?” I asked. “Aren’t your kind supposed to be evil?”

  “Mia!” Cass snapped.

  Wendy laughed. “I see you’ve not taught her much. No, my dear, I am not evil. My ancestor, Khia, now that’s a different story. There are some of us that fight on the side of good. I saved you because your auras told me that you’re inherently good. He is a daywalking vampire with a light aura, and you are a succubus with a light aura. I’ve not met many good succubi or incubi.”

  “What are you doing out here?” Cass asked.

  “Actually, I’ve been tracking someone down. He disappeared at random. There is a lot happening, and he was supposed to help me. When he went missing, I set out to find him. My quest got sidetracked when I caught the foul aura of our friends there. I should have killed them, but Mia looked like her head might explode. I doubt they will test me again.”

  “My head wasn’t about to explode,” I said, my tone defensive.

  Wendy’s left brow rose.

  “Okay. So what? I’ve never seen anything like that. It was awesome!”

  “Who were you looking for?” Cass asked. “If you don’t mind my asking that is.”

  “Not at all. I’m looking for an Incubus named Tristan,” Wendy said.

  “Ha!” I laughed. Probably wasn’t the correct response, but it got her attention.

  “Yes, young one?”

  “Tristan is my bio-donor. Uh… Sorry. I mean, he’s my dad.” I could kick myself. Sometimes my mouth worked faster than my brain. “I’m older than I should be for my powers to come in, but they did. He disappeared to come find me.”

  “Oh!” she said, a smile on her face. “You’re the daughter of Tristan? That makes sense. He is the only other of your kind that I’ve ever known to be good.”

  “I propose a deal,” Cass said. “How about you drive us, since my car is FUBARed, and we will take you right to Tristan? Because we need to get out of here.”

  “I think that’s a great idea,” Wendy said. “Mia, if you wouldn’t mind, could you call your father and tell him that we are coming? I want to make sure that his disappearance had more to do with finding you and less with avoiding me.”

  I did as I was asked, grateful to have been given the chance. I wanted to hear out of Tristan firsthand that this goddess was indeed a friend. He didn’t disappoint. He was actually so excited to hear from her that he asked me to put her on the phone. Wendy was all smiles as they spoke. I wondered if they’d done it before. Ew.

  We compelled the humans to drive us to Wendy’s car, which Wendy wasn’t necessarily proud of, and then went on our way. Cass had heard my compulsion and told the man the same story. To them, we were random people with a broken-down car. They would go through life not thinking about anything that happened.

  When we returned home, Wendy was happy to see Tristan. She followed me inside and he met her with a hug.

  “Hi,” my mom said. She wandered up with my dad, smiles on both their faces. They were always excited to meet everyone. They never cared who or what anyone was, as long as they were good. They were too good for this world. “I’m Claire, and this is my husband James.”

  “Hi there,” Wendy responded, shaking both of their hands. “I’m Wendy Cain. It’s great to meet you both.”

  “We have much to catch up on,” Tristan said.

  “Yeah. No shit, old man.
This chick is unreal. I thought we were all dead. If there are bad versions of her out there, we are all fu…”

  “Mia,” my mother chastised, a small smile on her face. “Must you speak like that so often?”

  “Sorry, Mother.”

  Wendy laughed. “It’s quite alright. I’m used to hanging out with two overgrown vampire man children. Though, one is far worse than the other.” Wendy turned to me and smiled. “I’m not the strongest. Actually, I’m the baby. I’m the youngest living immortal. Well, except for Kailah, of course.”

  “You’re the youngest? And you have that much power?” I asked. “Holy shhhh-crap. Who is Kailah?”

  “Kailah is the first of her kind. She is a hybrid. She was born an immortal, but was later turned vampire. Now she is both. The immortal to survive the change,” Wendy answered.

  “Wait, is she the chosen one?” I asked.

  Wendy nodded. “She is. I was a prodigy. I learned how to use my abilities hard and fast, but Kailah has done even more, even quicker. Actually, she’s the reason why I’m here.”

  “What’s happened?” I asked.

  “She’s been taken. Arrested, to be more precise.”

  Cass’ eyes widened. “She’s been arrested? How will she survive? She’s going to need blood. She needs to use those powers to break the hell out of there before she’s outed!”

  Wendy shook her head. “It’s too late for all that. Two federal agents have her. They know who and what she is. They’ve known for a while. They’ve been watching Khanae…”

  “The vampire queen, right?” I asked.

  “Very good,” Wendy said, smiling. “They’ve been watching Khanae, the vampire queen, for a while. They are on our side, though. They know a war is brewing. There are humans all over the world that know. These men are serious. Kailah is accused of murder. There was a shooting and it was caught on video in a mall. They came to our home in Louisville, Kentucky and showed us respect. They explained the situation and what would happen if she did come, and if she didn’t. If she didn’t, it would more or less start the war early. Unfortunately, it would have turned out much worse. The war would have been vampires, werewolves, and other creatures that want to fight for humanity, turning on the very humans they want to protect in order to protect her. So, Kailah chose to go with them. If she surrendered, it would save everyone. But now, something has happened. We have to find her.”

  “Oh, my,” my mom said, her hand over her chest. “I feel like I’m in the way in here.”

  I felt bad for her. She always wanted to help, but she couldn’t do a thing here. Dad wrapped his arm around her shoulder and held her tight.

  “Nonsense, Claire,” Wendy said. She was very kind and sweet. Nothing at all like I’d heard about Khia, her ancestor, from Tristan and Cass. “This is your kitchen. I’m grateful that you allowed me inside your home.”

  “I’m going to get drinks for everyone,” Mom said.

  “I’ll help you with that.” Dad followed her over to the cabinets to help gather several glasses.

  “Wendy,” Tristan spoke. “I know that I promised you that I would aid in finding Kailah, but right now, my place is with my daughter. She, too, is a prodigy. She has already begun learning the early stages of telepathy.”

  “She’s also mastered compulsion on single subjects, as well as feeding. She went on her own tonight for the first time, and I didn’t have to stop her. She knew exactly what to do, all by instinct.” Cass’ words were full of pride, and it made me smile.

  Tristan’s eyes narrowed for a moment. I wasn’t sure if anyone else noticed it, but I did.

  “I understand,” Wendy said. “Believe me, I do. If there is any help you might offer in the future, please let me know. Other than Kailah, you are the only person I know of that is capable of compelling a vampire. We will need any and all the help we can get.”

  “Wait,” I said.

  “What is it?” Tristan asked.

  “My mission is big. To me, it’s huge! But this is different. This is a chance to save the world.”

  “Mia,” Cass said. “Do you know what you’re saying? Tristan and I didn’t speak about you like we did because we think you’re ready for the war right now. We said those things because we wanted her to know how important you are, and that you will have a place at her side. At Kailah’s side, when the war comes. You still need a lot of training.”

  “I know that!” I said. “But think about it. I want to save my city. I want to save my city from a slummy drug lord that is murdering people. Whose henchmen rape and kill innocent girls and bury them in basement floors. Why can’t we do both? We have Andrews. You know he’s crafty. Both of you know he’s great to have around. He knows what he’s doing. What if he could track down those agents? While we have Andrews looking at that stuff, maybe Wendy wouldn’t mind helping us. I’m sure there are a few things that I could learn from her, too.”

  “She’s nothing like you, Mia,” Tristan said. “She wouldn’t be able to teach you much.”

  “I’m sure I could teach her a hell of a lot more than you think,” Wendy said with a wink. She turned back to me. “So… You are asking for my help, and in return, you want to put this Andrews to work looking for Kailah and the two agents that have her?”

  I nodded. “With you, nothing would stand in our way. We could track down Jay and all of his minions and save a lot of lives.”

  “Tell me more about this Jay person,” Wendy said as she sat down at the kitchen table.

  I smiled. She was wise, both in intelligence and power. I knew that I wasn’t anything like her, but I felt like there was so much that I could learn from her. So much had happened in the past few hours. Things were getting far more complicated. I listened to Tristan speak about why he’d chosen my mother. He told Wendy, and as always, it made me proud of her. He’d wanted me to be good. He knew that the war would erupt in this lifetime, and he wanted someone to fight alongside him. I remembered him mentioning in one of our first real conversations that the humans had become darker versions of themselves and the supernatural species had become increasingly violent. He needed someone to help him stop it. That person was me.

  Chapter Nine

  Hours were spent talking about Wendy’s situation with Kailah and the vampire queen, Khanae, and my situation with Jay and why he had to be stopped. We discussed Andrews and what he’d been through with Michelle. Poor Wendy. She was such a pure soul. She shed tears for Michelle and her loving uncle, both of whom she’d never met.

  As it turned out, Wendy was a far better help than what I could ever realize. As an immortal, her powers were tied to the spirit world. Each person that dies is given domain over one of the four elements. Earth, air, fire, and water. As an immortal, she calls on the spirits to give her the power to move the elements. Because of this, she’s able to move any and all of them. Even at the same time.

  Michelle was dead.

  Killed by one of Jay’s men.

  Wendy promised that she would try to locate Michelle in the spirit world to see if there was any information that we could give her. When she’d initially brought it up, I was fast to say no. It was instant actually. I told her that the girl had been through far too much already, but Wendy reminded me of something very important. She was murdered. That was one spirit that would want avenged. She would more than likely be very happy to help. That made me rethink my hesitation.

  The following day, Tristan and I decided to take Andrews up on the prison date. We took Wendy with us, dropping her off with Andrews so they could look through photos and talk about their mutual situations. Andrews had never met an immortal before and was more than excited after he found out what she could do. Though Wendy told him that he wouldn’t physically be able to speak to Michelle again, at least until Michelle was strong enough to make herself seen, she told him that she would be the mediator between them if and when she found her. Not too bad of a deal. They hit it off nicely, which I was happy about. It seemed like things migh
t start rolling very quickly with Wendy involved now.

  “Are you ready for this?” Tristan asked. “At some point, this will probably get very… unpleasant.”

  “Unpleasant?” I wasn’t sure if I liked the sound of that.

  The first guest was brought into the interrogation room. Andrews kept watch so no other officers would want or need to be present.

  “Jose Vasquez,” Tristan said, a very strange smile on his face. “So nice of you to join us.”

  Jose laughed. “Pretty boy.”

  He spat on the floor in front of Tristan, who calmly looked at the floor before looking back up at Jose. Tristan smiled.

  “I don’t talk to snitches, cops, or fags.”

  Tristan’s smile grew. Uh oh…

  Tristan stepped forward his power emanating from him as he leaned over. His presence was far too much for Jose to even contemplate moving. I didn’t have even a fraction of that kind of power. To get them to listen I had to touch them. All Tristan had to do was exist!

  He placed a gentle hand under Jose’s chin and lifted his face, their noses only a breath away from one another.

  “I don’t like terms like fag,” Tristan said. “Everyone deserves to love and be loved. Don’t you agree?”

  Jose was lost in Tristan. Like my biological father, I didn’t much care for homophobic people. I didn’t think that hatred could grow, but after turning it had.

  “I think we are going to be great friends, you and I. Wouldn’t you say, Jose?” Tristan asked.

  “Oh, yes. Yes, sir,” Jose said.

  “Good boy,” Tristan said. “And now that you know what it’s like to feel lust for a man, perhaps you won’t be so quick to call someone fag. Now…” Tristan backed away, standing straight as he continued to speak. “This is my daughter, Mia. She has a few questions for you. It would please me greatly if you answered those for her.”

  “Yes! Anything for you, Tristan,” Jose said.

  While I knew my biological father’s interest was in women, I also knew that food was food to him. He would not turn down feeding on a man no more than I would turn down feeding on a woman if there were no other options. The strangeness in it was beginning to go away. I was beginning to get used to all of it.