Shadow Realms

by Kelly Carrero

  I couldn’t go. I needed to save him.

  I needed some divine intervention, giving me the strength…

  I had the damn van.

  Casting one more look into Max’s panic-filled eyes, I turned around and ran smack bang into a tank of a vampire standing before me. He lifted his arm and backhanded me with such force my head smashed into the ground a few meters away.

  My vision swayed, and it took me more than a few moments to regain my senses.

  Warmth trickled through my hair, lighting up the tank’s eyes. He strode toward me, wrapped his hand around my throat, and lifted me into the air just in time to see the vampires stuff Max into the rear of the van, his head swaying to the side, his sloppy gaze drifting over me, knowing they’d won.

  He’d given his life for a pathetic girl who thought she was something better than the piece of shit I was.

  The tank pushed me against the wall, his mouth closing over my neck, his fangs piercing my skin.

  The smell of blood consumed me as the van took off with the remaining vampires. They had captured a hunter, and whatever they planned to do with him wasn’t going to be pretty.

  My head fell to the side as my vision swayed, my mouth salivating, begging to be quenched. I wanted blood. An unrelenting, burning desire consumed me, but the only blood available was my own.

  The vampire jerked me harder as his fangs ripped further into me.

  The desire for blood coursing through me grew stronger with every second until it was all-consuming and I had to have it. I was like a junkie, desperate for my next hit.

  Without thinking, I latched my teeth onto the vampire’s shoulder and bit down until his evil essence spilled into my mouth, rolling over my tongue, sending me into a state of ecstasy I had never experienced before.

  I had no idea feasting off a vampire could be better than a human, but it was.

  I pushed down harder, biting deeper into the vampire, relishing every drop of his blood blending with mine, his darkened soul feeding me, making me stronger, heightening my every sense until there was nothing more to take.

  The tank collapsed to the ground. His eyes rolled back into his head, leaving only the whites of his eyes staring at me.

  I licked the last remaining drops from my lips, barely registering my tongue sliding across fangs that hadn’t been there before, and snapped my head in the direction the vampires had taken Max.

  Something had awakened inside of me, and I knew I didn’t have much time before I became one of the hunted.

  29

  Breaking into a sprint, I tore down the street with speed I’d never experienced before. The faint smell of blood lingered in the air, beckoning me to follow. Time was running out. I had to find Max while I still had enough control to stop myself from tearing him apart.

  An electrical current buzzed under my skin, leading me toward them—or more so him.

  Max. I couldn’t let the evil monsters finish what they’d started however many years ago.

  Pushing off the ground, I leaped into the air and landed on the roof of the building across the road. I broke into a sprint, leaping from one building to the next as I tracked my prey.

  A shudder ran up my spine at my chosen words. I was already losing, falling under the demon’s spell.

  I needed to find him. I needed to go faster.

  Pushing myself to the limit, the buildings blurred around me until the smell became insatiable.

  Coming to a halt, I stood on the edge of the building and looked down, a smile spreading across my face when I spotted the van. The smell of blood called to me, begging to be feasted on.

  I’d found them.

  Dropping to the street below with the stealth that only came with being a vampire, I took off toward the van, reaching it within a blink of an eye.

  I had the speed, I had the strength, and I still had enough control over myself to save Max before giving in to the darkness within.

  Wrapping my fingers around the handles on the back of the van as it still moved, I yanked with all my might, snapping the doors from the hinges and letting them fly off behind me.

  Before the vampires knew what was going on, I was inside the van. I could barely control myself. The hunger was insatiable.

  With speed and precision I never knew I had, I scooped up Max’s daggers, which had been discarded on the floor, and tore through the vampires, ripping through their torsos then bringing my blades together, severing their heads.

  Demonic blood spurted over me, feeding the desire within as the heads tumbled to the floor.

  I wanted more.

  The driver slammed on the brakes, sending me crashing into the front seats.

  A snarl escaped the vampire’s lips as he exposed his fangs, ready to make a meal of me.

  I jumped into a crouched position, a smirk spreading across my face as my feverish gaze fixated on his.

  I lifted the dagger to my mouth and ran my tongue across the blade, savoring every last drop as I stared hungrily at my next prey, waiting for him to make his move.

  “Kali,” Max’s voice broke through my trance-like state, giving the vampire a second to strike.

  Only he didn’t come for me. In a blur, he was out the door, fleeing like the little bitch he was.

  Reminding myself why I was there, I stopped hunting the vampire down and focused on Max, who was leaning up against the side wall of the van, his arm resting on his bent knee, a look of wonder in his eyes.

  I rushed over to him and inspected his wounds, surprised by my ability to control my bloodlust around him. “Are you okay?”

  His brows drew together. “I’ll be fine. But—”

  “I know what you’re going to say, but I don’t want to hear it. I couldn’t let you give your life to save mine. And I know I’m the monster and represent everything you hate, but we don’t have time for another lecture right now because I think we probably only have minutes if not seconds before I develop uncontrollable bloodlust for you and—”

  He placed his finger over my lips, stopping me from saying anything more. “I should’ve seen it sooner. We all should’ve.” He shook his head and removed his finger from my lips.

  “You should’ve seen what? That I’m a vampire?” I asked, feeling ashamed of the fangs that were sure to be showing with every word I spoke.

  A smile broke out across Max’s face, his eyes studying me in a way they’d never done before. “You’re the one.”

  I absently moved back until I hit the side of the van. “No. You can’t mean…”

  He nodded as he stood as well as he could in the confinement of the van and came toward me. “You just ripped through five vampires as if they were human, and you don’t have an ounce of desire for my blood.” Max swiped his finger across the wound on his chest and held it less than an inch from my mouth. “See. You don’t want it. What you want is this.” He leaned down and picked up a severed head, holding it toward me.

  A fire came to life within me the moment the smell of the vampire’s blood drifted into my nose, consuming my senses. “Put that thing away.”

  He tossed it onto the floor as if it were a piece of rubbish. “Kali, you’re the one we’ve been looking for.”

  Nothing about what he was saying made any sense other than my desire to feast on the blood of every vampire within my proximity.

  I couldn’t stay there any longer. I needed to get away from them so I could think.

  Hopping out of the van, I strode twenty yards down the street and stopped as I spotted a group of three vampires in the distance, completely unaware of our presence.

  My heart heaved inside my chest as it took everything in me to not tear them apart.

  “Kali,” Max said, coming up behind me.

  Steeling my gaze away from the vamps, I turned to face Max. “It can’t be me. I mean, you’re the one who said I didn’t belong. I’m a freaking monster who drank from a pure soul. I can’t possibly be the one. I’m messed up. I mean, have you seen me lately. I’
m a freaking hash-using, self-centered, party-loving girl who…who…who needs to rescue her baby brother.”

  I headed back to the van and jumped in the driver’s seat.

  Max slid into the passenger seat and cupped his hand over the start button, stopping me from starting the engine. “Finn will take care of Mason. You need to go back to the compound and stay there.”

  I shoved his hand away. “The hell I am.”

  He covered the button again. “It’s not safe for you here.”

  “Look.” I glared at him. “There is no way I’m going to run back to safety while Mason is out there needing to be rescued.”

  “They are rescuing him,” he said. “But you need to get back to the compound not only for your own protection but for every single person on this planet as well.”

  I had no idea what he was talking about, but I didn’t like it. I’d been one to turn a blind eye to life for far too long, and I wasn’t going to continue on that path. If what Max said was true, and I indeed was the one, then I had the ability to make a difference.

  Arguing with him was useless. He wasn’t changing his mind. Max was as stubborn as they came, and I didn’t have time for it.

  Getting out of the van, I didn’t bother closing the door behind me and took to the rooftops. The exhilaration that came with being able to jump to such great heights was amazing, but nothing compared to that of feasting off the darkened soul of a vampire. It was all-consuming.

  I had no idea where I was going as I followed what felt to be a built-in radar, drawing me to my meal.

  Speeding up, I prepared to jump to the nearest building when the floor began to morph into the formation of a mouth, swallowing me into its depths.

  I skidded to a stop, completely fixated on the way the demons were able to manipulate their surroundings into such believable apparitions—if that was what they were.

  Not wanting to stick around to find out, I sidestepped the demonic mouth spewing words I couldn’t understand, jumped over the street, and landed on the next rooftop, thankful there weren’t any tall buildings in the vicinity and I could continue making my way across the city without any obstacles.

  The fresh smell of blood lingered in the air, drawing me closer, beckoning me to feed. My mouth salivated at the thought of tearing the vampires apart, something that was disturbing yet somehow invigorating.

  The mere idea of craving the black blood dripping down my throat should’ve sent me running to an exorcist in fear, but I couldn’t deny my intense desire.

  Whispers from the beyond licked my ears, their sadistic voices tugging at my senses, invoking something buried within me.

  Maybe Max had it all wrong. I couldn’t possibly be the one if I was so heavily drawn to the evil that resided in the realms between this plane and the next.

  Either way, I knew I was running out of time. An overwhelming sense of dread was choking my heart, fearing I was going to be too late. That I would not only lose Mason but Finn as well.

  Dark energy radiated from the walls around me, thick like sludge, sticky, consuming, drawing everything in its path down into the depths of its despair and never letting go.

  I could still taste the demonic life within me, feeding my soul, invigorating my every sense, turning me into a creature of the night.

  Standing on the edge of a rooftop, I let myself gravitate toward what could be my final destination.

  Darkness fell over the sky, turning the streets into a playground for the damned.

  The wall of the building across from me morphed into a hideous creature, its empty eyes watching, waiting, seeing. That was the worst. They saw me.

  They knew.

  A car horn beeped from below, snapping me out of the trance-like state the eyes had pulled me into, trapping me in their never-ending depths.

  I peered down, my heart skipping a beat when my gaze zeroed in on a van with Max sitting in the front seat.

  Glancing up, the soulless eyes sunk back into the wall, the brickwork rippling under the demonic influence.

  For a second, I thought about going on my own, but the sound of the horn jolted me to my senses.

  I was about to go up against who knew how many vampires, and I needed Max’s help. He had weapons, and all I had was… The blades of the daggers I held illuminated under the moonlight, captivating me as the light flickered and moved, similar to that of the demons hiding within the walls, trying to get free.

  The horn blasted in the night sky, once again snapping me out of my stupor.

  Shaking my thoughts away, I stepped off the building. The wind rushed through my hair as I dropped, my heart in my throat. Not because of fear but because of the exhilarating feeling of falling and knowing I wasn’t going to go splat.

  Landing with the grace of a cat, I prowled toward the van.

  Max lowered the window. “Get in.”

  I stopped beside his door. “Not if you think you’re going to take me back.”

  He shook his head. “If they ask, you forced me to take you to the vampires.”

  I nodded and leaped over the van as if it were a children’s toy car then slipped into the passenger seat, not bothering to put on my seat belt. “Go.”

  Max didn’t need to be told twice. He pushed his foot down on the accelerator and sped down the road, ignoring all of the speed signs. The police weren’t coming into this area of the city. They were too scared.

  The Cross belonged to the vampires, and the hunters were the only ones who dared to enforce any punishment to those within the boundaries.

  “Do you know how to use them?” Max asked.

  It took me a second to realize he was talking about the daggers encased in my hands. “Not a clue.” As strange as it was, sitting there without any immediate threat, I had no idea what to do with them. Yet when I had been in the moment, it was as if I had been training with knives my entire life.

  “So, you haven’t fully awoken,” Max said more to himself than me.

  I frowned, thinking just how wrong he could be. For someone who’d been a fledgling snack pack, he was putting way too much faith in an old legend.

  Max slowed the van as screeches echoed through the streets. “They’re just around the corner, and I know you can hear them. I need to know you’re prepar—”

  Without waiting for him to finish his lecture, I flung the door open, jumped out of the van, and took off toward the crazed mob of vampires.

  30

  My mouth watered with every step I took, my body tingling with untold desire, pulling me closer into its web of twisted seduction.

  Energy pulsed under my skin, further igniting the piece of my soul that had been dormant up until now, until it bloomed into a raging storm, begging to be satiated.

  Rounding the corner, my eyes widened at the scene before me. A mixture of crimson and onyx blood was splattered across the street, swirling, entwining the very thing that differentiated our two species, casting an eerie glow over the war going on before me.

  Cars and vans were overturned, crushed under the might of the vampires raining down on top of them in never-ending waves.

  The hunters were below, trying against all odds to decimate the monsters. They were a sight to be seen. As soon as one vampire was down, they moved on to the next, never once taking a breath between. They couldn’t. Their lives depended on it.

  I scanned the war zone, trying to find my brothers.

  I’d sent Finn into the slaughter house, giving them no time to prepare for Mason’s retrieval. And now they were paying for it.

  My chest constricted as my gaze returned to the crimson blood lining the streets, hoping that not only my brothers were alive but also the other hunters.

  None of them deserved to die because of me.

  Not skipping a beat, I continued on, racing with my archaic daggers raised high into the depths of the fight.

  If I killed enough of them, maybe I could find my brothers.

  Mason was only a kid, and he’d been dragged into a
ll of this because of me.

  Guilt sat heavily on my heart as I launched into the battle, swiping my blades together, decapitating the vamp before me, and moving onto the next.

  My hands moved with precision I didn’t know I had, carving the blades through the torso of another monster, ripping up through its rib cage and lodging into its heart.

  Its demonic blood spurted toward me, and without thinking, I opened my mouth, lapping up its life as I stared into the depths of its dying eyes, feeding on its soul.

  Something slammed into my back, pushing me into my lifeless prey, the blades ripping through to the creature’s other side.

  Withdrawing the blades with the strength of a monster, I whipped around just as a fist smashed into my jaw, sending me flying twenty feet into the air.

  Blood seeped into my mouth, mixing with the vampire’s life, turning into an unpalatable concoction.

  Landing, I spat the blood onto a group of vampires, sending them into a frenzy.

  Taking the opportunity, I raised my blade and slashed it across the throat of the vampire closest to me. Then I slammed my foot into its shin, snapping it in half and causing him to collapse in time for me to slash the throats of the next two.

  But the last of them saw me coming, his eyes lighting up with animalistic rage. He opened his mouth, his fangs extending as he hissed, trying and failing miserably to scare me.

  I cocked my head and smirked, ready to tear him apart.

  As he lunged toward me, fangs bared, I waited until the last second before lifting my dagger, piercing the soft spot under his jaw, and driving it up into his brain.

  My grin grew wider as I stared into the eyes of the beast who’d thought he had me.

  Stupid bastard.

  Stabbing pain shot through the nape of my neck, making my head sway as the poison from a vampire’s bite entered my bloodstream, having more of an effect on me than I thought it would.

  Lifting my blades over my shoulders, I brought them down on the vampire behind me.

  Releasing my neck from his fangs, I withdrew my daggers as I spun around and stabbed them into his chest, holding him just where I wanted him. I opened my mouth and ripped into his neck.