Mortality Bites - The COMPLETE Boxed Set (Books 1 - 10): An Urban Fantasy Epic Adventure

by Ramy Vance

  I guess it was those three experiences, coupled with the desire to write a kick-ass urban fantasy that informed the GoneGod World.

  I wrote my first words for the GoneGod World in 2015, starting with Jean-Luc’s story in the Keep Evolving series.

  But as I wrote his story, I quickly became aware that one hero wasn’t going to cover it. The GoneGod World was too rich, too full to be contained by his trials and tribulations.

  And that got me thinking: Who else would be interesting to follow? What other kind of heroes would/should live here? Too many to count, but the one hero (or rather heroine) that kept wiggling her way into my head was Katrina Darling.

  I still remember where I was when I first dreamt of her. I was on a train going down to London (I was - and as of writing this - still am in Edinburgh). Through the window, I saw a ha’ar rolling in from the shore … and for the uninitiated a ha’ar is a Scottish fog that is so thick one cannot see more than twenty feet in front of them.

  My first thought was that this setting would be a perfect place for a vampire.

  My second was that there are no vampires. At least not in the GoneGod World.

  Here (‘here’ being the world in my head) didn’t have vampires because when the gods left they took their magic with them. Vampires would be humans, now.

  I wondered how they’d adjust, if they’d adjust. After all, vampires were once these unstoppable monsters of the night. Fearless creatures of unimaginable power and charm.

  And now, they were human again. If that wasn’t the ultimate slap down, then I don’t know what is ...

  That’s when I started to think about what kind of ex-vampire wouldn’t just survive the GoneGod World, but also thrive in it.

  That newly-returned human would have to be strong. Smart. Have an indomitable will. But even that’s not enough. She’d also need meaning.

  A mission.

  Purpose.

  But someone doesn’t just have purpose. It’s something you earn … and usually through suffering.

  That’s why I wrote Mortality Bites. I wanted to write the origin story of an ex-vampire as she found her purpose in this new and confusing GoneGod World.

  And with this last book, Katrina Darling, Daughter of Eoghan McMahean and first Divine Cherub of the GoneGod World has finally found her purpose.

  And with that purpose, will come blood ...

  Katrina Darling with be back. And she will be more badass than ever.

  As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have any comments, thoughts, love or ire, please join my Facebook Group HERE.

  There’s tons of cool stuff going on and you’ll be the first to know when the next book will be out.

  Until then … Please indulge in Isabella’s story as she and Justin traverse great dangers to accomplish the single most important mission any hero will ever have in the GoneGod World … re-granting Others’ their lost immortality.

  This series, co-written with S. W. Clarke, has heart, grit and uncompromising passion. You’ll love it!

  Guaranteed …

  Click Here To Read Isa’s Story!

  … one shapeshifter holds the fate of so many …

  BUT THAT’S NOT ALL …

  We have a super special novella at the end of this book as a send-off for Kat. Jenn Mitchell … a very talented writer … has written that homage, delving deeper into Kat’s character. Or more specifically, her past.

  Remember when Kat (almost) got married to that saucy and incredibly motivational dark elf?

  What happened? Why did they break up? Where did it all go wrong?..

  Well read on, dear reader! for the novella ahead is the story of their almost wedding in all it’s glorious wonder ...

  Weddings are supposed to be the happiest day of a girl’s life, but so far, mine sucked.

  Okay, I know that sounds harsh, but planning a royal elven wedding takes decades and, even though we’d only been at it for about three months, I was completely over it.

  I’d only been immortal for about eighty years and still needed some work on the whole developing patience thing. I guess you could say that I was more a bristling than a blushing bride at this point.

  I tried to hold still while Mary smothered me in a hundred pounds of silk and beads. Seriously, this gown was ridiculous even by elven standards.

  “Is this monstrosity really necessary? I’m not a friggin’ princess, Mary.”

  Mary gave me the same kind look my aunties used to give me when I was being scolded.

  She and I both appeared to be about the same age, but I honestly had no idea how old Mary really was. I was turned almost a century ago at the age of fifteen and hadn’t aged a day since. Mary had come to the UnSeelie Court as a young child, before my great-grandfather was even born.

  Time moved differently in the elven courts. And so far, time had been very good to Mary. She was taller and more athletic than me—and, some might say, a bit prettier—but I definitely had her bested in the personality department.

  Me, petty? Never.

  “Really?” Mary asked. “You’re so well-mannered, one would never know. Now hold still. I’d just hate myself if I accidently impaled you with one of these pins.”

  I was about to show her my fangs when Aldie and his parents entered the room. I turned toward them just as Mary gave my corset strings a tug. The boning cinched so tight that my lungs almost collapsed, and I yelped.

  “This looks like it’s going well,” Aldie chuckled.

  Mary stuck another pin in me. “Simply delightful.”

  “Just because I can’t breathe doesn’t mean I can’t hear, Mary,” I snapped.

  Aldie moved closer and gave me a sympathetic smile. “Is it really that bad, Kat?”

  I glared at him, but he seemed oblivious to my rage, which just made everything worse. “I have an idea. Why don’t you waste half a day trying to hold still while a surly human seamstress turns you into a silk-and-jewel encrusted mummy? I’m bored, I’m hot and I’m …”

  I paused mid-tirade and grasped the amulet hanging around my neck. The smile on Aldie’s face faded into genuine concern. He knew I was hungry, even if I couldn’t say it out loud. He stepped closer and placed his hands on my shoulders. I took a step forward, wrapped my arms around him and buried my face into his shoulder.

  “Is the blood jasper still working?” he whispered.

  Nuzzled in him, I nodded. “Yes, but it doesn’t stop the hunger. Nothing stops that.”

  We both knew that wasn’t true. There was one thing that would stop the hunger: eating. But as long as I wore the amulet, I didn’t need to drink human blood. The amulet’s magic provided me with all the nourishment I needed.

  Aldie held me a few seconds longer before stepping back. He was holding one of the pins from my gown. He drew it across his wrist, opening the delicate skin. A trickle of turquoise blood ran sprang from the wound.

  My upper lip started to quiver, and my gums ached as my incisors descended. A ripple of excitement raced through my body as the urge to pull his wrist to my mouth threatened to overwhelm me.

  A small gasp from behind me jolted me back to reality.

  “No.” I shoved Aldie’s wrist away. “I don’t need it.”

  “Kat, it’s OK. I love you. It will quench the hunger … And let’s be honest, you do get a bit mean when you’re hungry. ”

  I shook my head. “No, I’m fine. Really. Besides, we both know what happened last time I drank elf blood.”

  A wicked smile spread across Aldie’s face, and I knew he was remembering that night.

  There was a small cough from behind us, and my face turned scarlet. I had forgotten Aldie’s parents were in the room.

  Lady Kalysta appeared beside Aldie and placed her hand across his bleeding wrist. Aldie winced, then she removed her hand and the wound was gone as if it had never existed. Though I’d been among them for decades now, I was still shocked every time I witnessed their magic in action.

  “The dress
is coming together beautifully, Katrina.”

  I bobbed my head in agreement, but couldn’t bring myself to make eye contact with Lady Kalysta.

  A long, thin finger lifted my chin. “Katrina, do not feel shame. You are what you are, and we accept that.”

  I felt the tears even before they came. This always happened when Lord Gaelyn or Lady Kalysta showed me kindness.

  I couldn’t help it. A heart no longer beat in my chest, but it didn’t mean I no longer had feelings. My own parents had cast me out, and in my pain I’d made some terrible decisions I now regretted. I’d made such a mess of my own family life and now I was here, in the UnSeelie Court, making a mess of theirs.

  Yet somehow they were able to look past it all and accept me. I wasn’t sure I deserved it.

  A knock at the door drew everyone’s attention. Mary excused herself and made for the door. A few moments later, she returned and shared a quiet conversation with Lord Gaelyn. I groaned as I heard her explaining that the bagpipers for tonight’s celebration had just arrived.

  Great, even the freaking elves have an obsession with bagpipes in Scotland.

  They both looked up at me in surprise, and I blushed. I have this annoying habit of talking out loud without realizing it. It makes for more than a few awkward moments like this one.

  “Um, hello? Vampire here. We hear even better than dogs.”

  Mary rolled her eyes and let out a loud sigh. “OK, visiting hours are over. Time to get back to business. I need to get this gown sorted and then attend to everything else before tonight’s feast.”

  Feast. The word made my stomach do its usual flip-flop thing.

  I hated how these elves threw feasts for every occasion of any consequence.

  Since being turned, I had more of an appetite for people than people-food, and being the only one not eating made me feel even more like an outsider than I usually did. My future in-laws were kind and accepting, but the rest of the UnSeelie Court were every bit as cruel as the stories portrayed them.

  As the only child of Lord Gaelyn and Lady Kalysta, Aldie was next in line for the throne. The future king of the UnSeelie Court taking an outsider as a wife did not sit well with most of the court. The fact that I was a human-turned-vampire made it even worse. They loathed me, and if I didn’t love Aldie so much, I would have packed up my fangs and left decades ago.

  But I’m not a quitter.

  Aldie kissed my cheek and gave me a hug. “Come find me when you’re done. I’m sure we can find some interesting ways to pass the time until the feast.”

  Lady Kalysta gave Aldie the kind of stern look only a mother can give. “Perhaps you should try controlling yourselves until after the feast. You’re not married yet.”

  “Your mother is right. Perhaps it would be best if you spent the rest of the afternoon with me, Aldermemnon. We can continue our discussion about your future responsibilities.”

  Aldie’s posture stiffened at the sound of his full name. Apparently even in the elven world, when your parents use your full name you know you’re in trouble.

  Aldie and his father had been arguing like feral cats for the past few weeks. Our wedding would mark the point when Aldie, as prince of the UnSeelie Court, should begin taking a more active role in court affairs. His father never missed a chance to remind him what was expected of him, and Aldie looked for any excuse to ditch responsibility.

  Aldie knew I was miserable here, and promised me we’d set off to see the world the second we married. I wasn’t holding my breath. OK, metaphorically I wasn’t holding my breath, but as tight as this damn corset was, I was literally holding it.

  “Seriously Mary, if I promise not to bite, will you loosen this deathtrap?”

  “Sounds like someone needs a snack,” Mary quipped.

  “Or someone needs to be a snack,” I shot back.

  Aldie put a hand on my shoulder. “OK you two, let’s play nice.”

  Mary stepped closer and fixed the corset on my right shoulder, exposing her neck in open defiance. She knew what I was, and had positioned herself to show she wasn’t scared. “Don’t worry yourself, my prince. I’m sure Katrina will be on her best behavior in your absence.”

  The sarcasm in Mary’s tone stung, but I wasn’t about to let her get the last word in. “Mary’s right, Aldie—no need to worry about me. I have such a stimulating companion that I’ll most like pass the time napping.”

  I saw Aldie’s parents trying not to laugh.

  Mary, on the other hand, did not find me amusing—or at least she pretended not to. Bickering was kind of our thing, but deep down we truly adored each other. If there was anyone in the UnSeelie Court who understood what I was going through, it was Mary.

  Aldie’s parents seldom spoke about it, but from what little I had been able to piece together, Mary had come to the UnSeelie Court as a child and had been raised as a sister to Lord Gaelyn. She received all the same training, and while she was unable to command magic she was no less deadly than the others. Mary was both companion and protector to Aldie’s family, yet she was not elven, so she was seen as an outsider to many among the UnSeelie Court.

  “Go, all of you—leave me with this ornery child so I can finish cutting off her air supply and put us all out of our misery.”

  Mary dismissed Aldie and his parents with a swirl of her hand as they left the room. When we were finally alone, she stepped back and looked at me, then shook her head. “You’re right, Katrina. That dress is a bit much.”

  “You think? I was just starting to warm up to it, and was thinking we could get you a matching one.”

  “Okay, enough with the jokes for one day. They’re getting old.”

  “Get me out of this ridiculous dress and you’ve got a deal.”

  I spent the rest of the afternoon bored to tears.

  Mary had gone off to badger the staff, and Aldie was doing whatever it was he did when his parents insisted on dragging him along on court business. He didn’t have the heart to tell them, but he secretly hated it. When I was on my own, I spent most of my time wandering around the palace or the grounds. Fortunately for me, the UnSeelie Court sat deep within the Caledonian Forest, so I had plenty of places where I could wander and still avoid the sunlight.

  As I made my way back toward the palace, I decided to stop by the greenhouse and check on our wedding flowers. Lady Kalysta had insisted on having special flowers grown for the wedding. As nice as the gesture was, the time it took to grow them meant delaying our wedding. I personally would have been fine with wildflowers, but I wasn’t asked for my opinion.

  It didn’t take long to locate our flowers. At the far end of the greenhouse sat a large glass enclosure. Inside were dozens of blood-red orchids with forest-green veining. As I drew close, I heard footsteps to my left and immediately went into defense mode.

  One of the perks of being a vampire is that all my senses are heightened, and it’s almost impossible for someone to sneak up on me. Dark elves are the exception, which I find unsettling at times. They begin training in the deadly arts as soon as they can walk. There are more ways to incapacitate or kill a person than most humans realize, and dark elves are masters of them all.

  I spun around to find Lady Amaryl standing about a foot to my left. She’d practically been on top of me before I even detected her. I made a mental note to start being more aware.

  “Katrina, how lovely to find you here. I assumed you’d be in your quarters by now, getting ready for this evening.”

  Everything about Lady Amaryl was mesmerizing, including her voice. Somehow I’d been so engrossed in what she was saying that I hadn’t noticed she’d moved. She was now standing directly in front of me and had lifted the blood jasper amulet from my chest. She ran her fingers across the surface and I could feel a pulse of energy surge through my body.

  It wasn’t the pleasant kind of surge like I got when I was about to feed. It was darker, and slightly painful. Every time I encountered her I got a negative vibe, but Aldie insisted
it was my imagination and that she was a trusted and loyal member of his parents’ inner circle.

  “The blood jasper has always been one of my favorite creation crystals. Such power within it. Aldermemnon made a wise choice. I do hope his choice of spell was equally wise.”

  If I had a working heart, it would have stopped. How could she possibly know what the amulet does for me, or that Aldie doubled down on it with a rite to keep my hunger at bay? I wasn’t wrong—Lady Amaryl is definitely not what she appears to be.

  She laughed, and I knew that I had just said that last part out loud. Damn, I hated it when that happened.

  “My apologies, Katrina. I did not mean to pry. Surely you’re aware by now that many members of the UnSeelie Court have special gifts that your kind do not. None of us are what we appear to be, but I think it’s fair to say that neither are you. So perhaps we should not be so quick to judge others. It’s a very unattractive quality for the spouse of our future king.”

  And there it was—that little passive-aggressive jab that always caught me off guard. They had a way of insulting you that seemed so unplanned, and I managed to walk into it every time. I knew it was meant to remind me that I would never be one of them and they would never see me as anything but an outsider, and certainly never as their queen.

  For once, I managed to keep my thoughts to myself.

  “Now, let’s discuss more pleasant things, shall we?” She rubbed her fingers across the amulet one more time before she let it drop to my chest with a thud. “What plans have you and Aldermemnon for after the wedding? I hear your people take to roaming post-nuptials. Do you plan to lure Aldermemnon away from his royal responsibilities?”

  It took everything I had to not say what I was thinking. OK, to be fair it always took everything I had to not say things out loud, but this broad was pushing it.

  I plastered on my most innocent look, which isn’t easy for a vampire, and replied as nonchalantly as possible, “My future husband has free will, and will continue to do so once we’re married. If he chooses a life of royal boredom, then that’s on him. If he prefers to travel, then I will follow him anywhere he wishes to go.”