by Lori King
In six long strides, he carried her to their bedroom. Boon kicked the door closed behind them, safe in the knowledge that they had forever, together, all because he now belonged to her and she belonged to him, and the last surviving Chimera – Ezra, belonged to them.
About the Author
My name is Melissa Bell and I’m born and raised in Brisbane, Queensland – Australia. I had always wanted to be a writer, but just didn’t seem to have the time to make it happen until a few years ago. I have loved the entire process of becoming an author, from writing down the first ideas to hitting ‘Publish.’ It has enabled me to meet some fabulous people, both other authors and fans. It’s a journey that I have set sail on, and I have still have lots of room on the boat for those who would like to join me. When I am not working, I love to read. I like to think of myself as a multi-genre author, but my love for reading and writing is significantly swayed by my passion for the paranormal and supernatural world. Why, you may ask? My answer to that would be – because the things that go bump in the night, need love too.
YOU CAN FIND ME HERE
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/MelissaBellAuthor/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/MelissaBellAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Peekaboo2u2
Webpage: http://www.melissabellauthor.com/
Also By Melissa Bell
Dutiful Gods Series
Book #1 Destiny’s Fate
Book#2 Taming Destruction
Book#3 Morpheus’s Dream
Book#4 Death ~ Coming Soon
Five Brothers Series
Book#1 Houston
Book#2 Felan
Book#3 Tate
Book #4 Channon
Book #4.5 Lupe
Book #5 London
Books still to come in this series include
Blaez and Brody amongst others. (So stay tuned)
Taboo Trilogy
Book #1 – The Therapist
Femme Fatale Series
Book #1 – Silk Assassin
Single Titles
2113
Ngyong’s Tail
Bearfoot @ Xmas
Embers
Hallowed Destiny by Candace Blevins
Forged By Darkness
A novella in the Chattanooga Supernatural series,
part of the Kirsten O’Shea Universe
It’s been a year since Destiny was abducted by sick demon worshipers who had intended to use her as a human sacrifice. They’d already carved evil-looking symbols all over her body when she somehow managed to escape.
Tonight is Halloween — the one-year anniversary of her abduction — and she’s determined to return to the woods where she nearly lost her life. She doesn’t expect to see a white lion waiting for her. Aren’t black cats supposed to be bad luck on Halloween? Perhaps a white lion will be the opposite of evil. Or maybe she’s finally lost her mind, because lions are not indigenous to Tennessee and Georgia.
1
Destiny
I parked at a diner just outside the Chickamauga Battlefield and pulled my bicycle out of the back of my SUV. I made sure my phone was in one pocket, pepper spray in another, and felt my exercise bra to be sure my dad’s two-hundred-dollar flashlight was still secure. I hadn’t told him I was borrowing it, because I didn’t want to answer all the questions about why I needed it. As far as my family was concerned, I was spending the night with a friend and staying in where it was safe.
A year ago tonight — Halloween — I’d been abducted by sick demon worshipers, and would’ve been killed by them as a human sacrifice had I not found a way to escape. They carved symbols into my flesh, and I’d forever have to wear bangs to hide the scars on my forehead.
On my eighteenth birthday two weeks ago, I’d had the first part of an extensive tattoo started on my chest. I planned to cover the horrible, evil scars with something beautiful, but it’d take a while.
Dread pooled in my stomach as I pedaled toward the spot where I’d been staked to the ground. They’d stripped me naked and spread me out so it was impossible to hide any part of myself from them. They apparently wanted a virgin to kill in offering to whatever sick deity they worship.
To keep it from happening again, I’d planned to have sex with the first person who came along afterwards, but it hadn’t worked out. The asshole I’d been dating — the one who’d claimed to be a good Christian boy — broke up with me two days later because he was afraid the marks on my skin made me evil.
Much to my parents’ chagrin, I’d turned my back on the church and started dating the star quarterback at the local high school — with every intention of giving myself to him at the first opportunity. He lived two doors down so it hadn’t been difficult to sneak and see him when I told them I was going for a bike ride.
Unfortunately, I’d freaked and started crying when he got my panties off, and he’d told me I was too high-maintenance.
So a year later I was still a damned virgin, and may end up staying that way. Those fuckers had messed me up in the head, and when the quarterback had undressed me, the only thoughts in my head were how I’d felt when my kidnappers had stripped me and staked me spread-eagled on the ground.
My pastor’s wife told me I needed to find a way to put this behind me — to close the door on it and look forward. I wasn’t sure how to do that but figured going back to the scene of the crime on Halloween night was a good start. I’d researched the area on Google Earth and found what I hoped was the best spot to ride my bike into the woods. I looked all around to be sure no cars were near, and flicked my bike’s headlight off as I veered into the pitch dark of the forest.
I stopped a few yards in because I couldn’t see anything, and I planted my feet on either side of my bike and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark. My heart raced and my pulse thundered in my ears, but I assured myself no one else could hear it.
Several long minutes later, I thought I might be able to pick out the trees, but not well enough to walk, much less ride. I propped my bike on a tree with a sigh, and turned the flashlight to the lowest setting. I hadn’t planned to use it at all this close to the road, but it didn’t look like I had a choice.
Each step forward took every bit of willpower I possessed. I wanted to turn and run back to the road, but I just knew I’d never move past this unless I could face my fears. If I could walk into the woods on Halloween and stand in the spot I’d fought my abductors, perhaps I’d be brave enough to have sex with someone and finally lose my pesky virginity.
I counted fifty steps before I turned the flashlight a little brighter, and I pulled my phone from my pocket and re-engaged the directions to the GPS coordinates I’d chosen. I hoped the location I’d found on the map would get me close enough so I’d be able to find the spot once I was nearby.
I had crazy dreams about it. It often felt more like I’d been rescued, but I also kind of vaguely remembered getting an arm free and grabbing the knife from one of the men and then going to town on my kidnappers as I cut myself free. But then there was the dream where a woman levitated me up to sit on a tree branch while monsters fought monsters. Were there good monsters? Some of them looked half-human and half-animal, truly grotesque… and yet in my dreams, they fought the evil men who’d abducted me.
I had less than a quarter mile to walk, but it felt like I walked miles in the dark — carefully placing each foot and listening for sounds of anything larger than a possum.
When I finally arrived at the GPS spot, I turned my dad’s flashlight to full strength — all twenty-eight hundred lumens.
And was shocked to see a white lion sitting fifty yards away.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. My feet were cemented to the ground as the lion looked down and away as the too-bright light must’ve hurt his eyes.
Two seconds later he turned and gracefully leaped through the air, and within seconds he’d run off to the side and out of the beam. I turned the light in every direction but couldn’t find him again
. Had I hallucinated him? Lions are not indigenous to Tennessee.
2
Zeke
I shifted to human and dressed as quickly as possible. What the fuck was Destiny doing here? And what the hell kind of flashlight had she been using? She’d have never seen me with a regular flashlight, but I was in deep shit for letting her see my lion. Destiny was in deeper shit, though, unless I could convince her she’d seen something else.
I laced my boots, stood, and ran my hand through my hair. I traced my fingers through the scraggly beard I always have when I came back from lion, and sighed as I followed my nose back to her.
I heard her already-racing heart beat even faster as I walked towards her and she cautiously asked, “Who’s there?”
I was ready for the bright light this time when it swung my direction, plus I could throw an arm over my eyes in this form.
I smelled her relief a half-second before she said, “Zeke? What are you doing here?”
“Making sure the group those assholes are part of doesn’t bring someone else to the same place tonight. Why are you here?”
She sighed as she turned her flashlight down and pointed it to the left enough so the beam no longer hit me directly. “I needed to come back. I don’t know why, and I can’t explain it.”
“You need to face your fears, but you shouldn’t have come alone.” I should get bonus points for not adding you crazy-assed human to the end of my sentence.
She gave a nervous laugh. “I know this sounds crazy, but have you seen… no. It’s stupid.”
I walked with her as she headed toward the hill where we’d found her staked out on the ground. “How’d you know where to find the exact spot?”
“I remembered how far we were from the creek and about how long it took to come out in the field near the tower. I wasn’t sure I could find the exact spot, but I remember that tree.”
I followed her flashlight’s beam as she spotlit the limb Kirsten had levitated them to. She wasn’t supposed to remember anything supernatural, and yet she remembered the branch.
I thought I was in the clear with her seeing my lion. I thought she’d convinced herself she’d imagined it, and perhaps I was right. However, I hadn’t expected her to look for signs of the lion, and my heart fell into my stomach as her flashlight landed on a tuft of my nearly-white fur. When I’d turned and leaped, some of my mane had gotten caught on a branch.
Fuck.
“I didn’t imagine him.”
With a sigh, I sat on the ground and tried to look relaxed as I said, “That lion will never hurt you. Sit with me so I can explain?”
She shook her head, and I straightened my legs in front of me and leaned back on my elbows. “I know you remember stuff that doesn’t make sense. I can’t explain any of it to you, but I can tell you about the lion. I need you to sit with me, though. Would I be doing this if I thought there was any threat at all? Fuck, Destiny — I took care of you and didn’t leave your side for days while you were in the hospital. Even after we’d finally contacted your family and got them down there, I stuck around to be sure you were safe. I’m not going to let a lion eat you now.”
Finally, she sat beside me, and I sat up and said, “I’m the lion, Teeny.”
“You can’t be, and don’t call me Teeny!”
She’d looked thirteen or fourteen when I first saw her, and now at eighteen she could still easily pass as a young teen. She says she’s five feet tall, but if asked, she’ll admit she rounds up from four feet, eleven and a quarter inches. I’m six foot five inches tall and built like a football player. In fact, I’d played football until I was bitten by a lion at fifteen.
The Amakhosi wouldn’t be pleased I’d done this without consulting him, but I hoped he’d understand. I took a deep breath, found my center, and trusted the lion would be on board with showing himself in the least traumatic way I could think of.
My left hand was in the dark since she sat to my right, so I changed it into a lion’s paw. When the transformation was complete, I pulled it around so she could see. “It’s just my paw. I don’t want to do a complete change and scare you. Shine the light on it and look. You can touch it if you want — just keep your hands on the top. My claws are sheathed, but we want to make sure I don’t scratch you.”
Her heart sped, then slowed. Her scent went from shocked and afraid to something close to relief. “I’ve dreamed of monsters fighting monsters. Why do I dream it, but I can’t remember?”
“Why are you relieved?”
“How do you know I’m relieved? The werewolves in the books I’ve been reading can smell fear. Can you smell relief?”
“Yeah, Teeny. I can smell all your emotions.”
“That’s how you took such good care of me while I was in the hospital?” She shook her head and looked off into the dark forest. “You knew when I was afraid or when I hurt, even if I didn’t tell anyone.”
“How are your parents?” They’d been terrified of their daughter at first, afraid she’d been turned evil. I honestly think they’d have refused to let her come home if the bastards had gone so far as raping her. They’d treated her more like a stranger than a daughter until the doctor confirmed she was still a virgin.
“They threatened to kick me out when I refused to go to church, but our pastor actually took my side and told them to give me time. We reached a compromise, and I have dinner with his family once a month, and spend an hour or two talking to his wife after we eat.” She shrugged. “They don’t know about my tattoo yet.” She touched her chest. “When it’s finished, it’ll hide the scars. I always wear high-neck shirts so no one can see my scars; it’s just covering the tattoo now. I probably won’t show them until I can afford to move out.”
“You’re working?”
“I’m doing okay teaching private lessons for piano, guitar, and violin. I’m at UTC this year — going for a business major, with a minor in music.”
She’d been homeschooled and had graduated early, but I was surprised her parents were letting her go to a non-religious college. I decided not to bring it up, though. “How are you handling regular classes? You’ve never had to learn that way, have you?”
“It’s okay. I was terrified at first, but I’ve learned it’s more annoying than difficult. Your hand’s back to normal.”
“My hand’s back to human. It’s normal for me to be a lion sometimes.”
“So, you’re a werelion?”
I sighed. “We usually say lion shifter, but werelion isn’t wrong. Humans can’t know about us, but I had no idea you’d have a flashlight brighter than the fucking sun. Since you know, there’s a procedure we have to follow to make it… well, legal, I guess. Did you drive?”
“My car’s outside the park at a fast food restaurant, and I left my bike just inside the woods.”
I pulled my phone out of my jeans and texted the Drake Security control room to let them know I needed someone to replace me the rest of the night, and I’d need a private audience with the Amakhosi — preferably well before morning.
* * *
I watched as His Majesty prepared Destiny’s wine with a little of his blood in it. Her blood was already in a small glass of water, and we’d traumatized her all over again when we had to get it. The Celrau had decorated themselves with her blood, and there’d been no way to get some of hers into the glass without reminding her of what they’d done.
She was a trooper, though. It helped that she remembered His Majesty was one of the people who arrived to rescue her last year. Of course, her memory is of escaping and calling for help, and we were part of the SWAT team that responded. Never mind none of us were wearing uniforms. Hell, never mind most of us weren’t entirely human as we fought. Abbott had altered her memories, but I was wondering if the vampire had made a mistake when he wiped the parts she wasn’t supposed to remember.
I hadn’t seen Destiny in over ten months, and yet I still felt this fierce need to protect her. She was seventeen back then — to my twenty-f
ive — so pulling away from her was my only option. A seventeen-year-old looking to lose her virginity is like a ticking time bomb under the best of circumstances, and with my protective streak and crazy attraction to her, it hadn’t been the best of circumstances.
His Majesty walked her through the binding ceremony, making it so she can’t tell any supernatural secrets. When the binding was complete and he’d tested it, he glanced at me before telling her, “Zeke tells me you’ve had dreams you can’t explain. He thinks they’re what made you go back into the woods tonight. I’d like you to tell me why you went, though.”
She looked at me and I assured her, “You’re safe in this room. We want to be sure you stay safe outside of this room as well, and if we understand what precipitated the risky behavior, perhaps we can help keep it from happening again. You’re an adult — you get to make your own decisions, but we’d like to help you make smarter decisions if we can.”
“I’ve dreamed of a woman levitating me to a tree branch, way up in the air, and I saw the branch tonight. I recognized it. I’ve dreamed of half-men and half-animals fighting the men who took me, and then it turns out Zeke can turn part-lion. I’ve dreamed of the men who abducted me doing strange things, impossible things. I’ve also dreamed them with long fangs and translucent skin.” She stood and took three steps to a window, her back to us as she looked out. “I told myself I went back because I needed to face my fears. I think part of the reason was so I could try to sort through the memories versus the dreams, because the dreams feel more real than the memories.”
His Majesty’s gaze met mine, and I held it long enough I hoped he saw I wanted her to know the truth. I didn’t hold it long before I lowered my gaze, though. Some people respect the Amakhosi because he’ll make them hurt if they don’t, but I respect him because he found me when no one was looking for me. He’d killed the asshole who’d raped and bitten me, and then he’d helped me learn control. Little did I know that when I’d prayed for someone to help me, there was a lion out there who’d hear.