Blood Seeker
Page 1
This was her life. Her purpose. Her meaning.
She loved this man. This Sethios. This male who had shattered all her beliefs and had broken through the harshest of her resolves.
Caro clung to him, weeping, her time with him too short. The sacrifice they would make would change the future of the world. But what if they couldn’t come back from it?
She would never voice that fear, the knowledge of what was to come. Because her mother would find her when she failed to locate Astasiya. Caro would endure rehabilitation. And she would survive.
That was her purpose, her one secret, that she never gave up. With Sethios forever etched into her very soul, the council couldn’t separate them. They would try, and they would fail. She would return to him. Always.
“I love you,” he whispered to her, his lips a caress against her ear. “I will forever love you.”
“I love you, too,” she breathed. And this time it was her. Her voice. Her heart. Her body. Her soul. She’d fallen into the memory, enraptured and ensnared and never letting go.
His eyes burned into hers. “Come back to me, Caro.”
“I’m right here.”
“Come back to me, angel.”
She frowned. “I’m here.”
“I miss you.”
It didn’t make any sense. How could he miss her? He was inside her. Making love to her. Only, everything began to blur, the memory slipping from her fingers and surrounding her in a cage of literal glass.
She frowned. Where am I?
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Blood Seeker
Copyright © 2020 Lexi C. Foss
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This book may not be redistributed to others for commercial or noncommercial purposes.
Editing by: Outthink Editing, LLC
Proofreading by: Katie Schmahl, Jean Bachen, Joy Di Biase-Giachino, & Diane Dykes
Cover Design: Julie Nicholls with Covers by Julie
Published by: Ninja Newt Publishing, LLC
Digital Edition
eBook ISBN: 978-1-950694-21-1
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-950694-90-7
To Casey, for convincing me to ponder and play with a certain blond-haired Ichorian. ;)
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To Jean, Katie, and Bethany, for making this book possible. I’d be lost without you!
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To Heather, for your love and support of this series and for always making me smile. Kylan sends his love <3
Contents
Immortal Curse Series Order
About Blood Seeker
Glossary: Preternatural Beings
Glossary: Key Terms
An Introduction From Stas
Prologue
1. Sethios
2. Sethios
3. Sethios
4. Caro
5. Sethios
6. Stas
7. Sethios
8. Gabriel
9. Sethios
10. Gabriel
11. Sethios
12. Caro
13. Gabriel
14. Caro
15. Sethios
16. Issac
17. Caro
18. Gabriel
19. Caro
20. Sethios
21. Stas
22. Issac
23. Sethios
24. Leela
25. Caro
Epilogue
Wicked Bonds
Music Playlist
About the Author
Also by Lexi C. Foss
Immortal Curse Series Order
Book One: Blood Laws
Book Two: Forbidden Bonds
Book Three: Blood Heart
Book Four: Blood Bonds
Book Five: Angel Bonds
Book Six: Blood Seeker
Book Seven: Wicked Bonds
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Immortal Curse World Books
(Bonus Stories & Immortal Curse Fun)
Elder Bonds
Blood Burden
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Join the Immortal Curse Discussion Group for more Immortal Curse fun!
Seraphim do not feel.
Seraphim do not love.
Seraphim do not react.
* * *
Those are the rules every higher being lives by.
And Caro broke them all for him.
* * *
Now she’s lost in a vacant sea, punished for the ultimate sin of choosing an abomination—a vampire—over her duty.
* * *
Sethios promised to come for her, to find her, to save her, but with each passing breath, her hope melts into despair.
* * *
Will he find her in time? Or will her mind shatter from the madness?
* * *
Welcome to the Immortal Curse world.
The High Council of Seraph will see you now…
Fledgling (noun): The child of a male Ichorian and a human female, who has not yet been reborn as a Hydraian; they do not typically possess supernatural or psychic gifts until their immortal rebirth.
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Hydraian (noun): An immortal offspring of a male Ichorian and a human female, who possesses two supernatural or psychic gifts and does not require human blood to survive.
* * *
Ichorian (noun): An immortal being of unknown descent who possesses one supernatural or psychic gift and requires human blood to survive.
* * *
Immortal (noun): A general noun designating a being who does not age and is immune to natural human death.
* * *
Progeny (noun): The term Ichorians use to refer to those they created through the Ichorian turning process.
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Seraphim (noun): A being who belongs to the highest order of angelic hierarchy.
Arcadia: Notorious Ichorian club in New York City that also serves as the primary meeting location for the Ichorian government.
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Blood Laws: A series of ordinances created by the Ichorian governing board in response to the Treaty of 1747.
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Catastrophic Relief Foundation (CRF): A global humanitarian aid organization headquartered in New York City with a secret paramilitary unit designed to destroy rogue supernaturals.
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Conclave: The Ichorian governing board.
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Edict: A law or rule issued by the High Council of Seraph.
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Elders: The original Hydraians who also serve as the Hydraian governing board.
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Fated Line: Seraphim who can foresee the future.
* * *
High Council of Seraph: Seraphim governing board.
* * *
Nizari: Ancient Ichorian assassins who hunt and kill fledglings.
* * *
Nizari Poison: A green substance notorious for killing fledglings and preventing their rebirth.
* * *
Sentinel: A soldier in the CRF unit designed to slaughter rogue immortal beings.
* * *
Treaty of 1747: An armistice between Hydraians and Ichorians to cease fire and live in their designated areas. Those who opt to cross these boundaries do so at their own risk.
A lot has happened over the last year of my existence. So I’m going to try to break it down for those
of you who might need a refresher…
There’s an immortal war coming that’s probably going to destroy humanity as we know it. And somehow, I’m at the center of it all.
My grandfather, Osiris, is the Seraphim of Resurrection, which means he controls life and rebirth. He’s used this gift to his own benefit over the last several millennia, creating an army of Ichorians and Hydraians all meant to serve him.
Some of you may be asking, What the fuck are Seraphim, Ichorians, and Hydraians?
Ha. Yeah. I know how you feel. I had no idea what they were until recently. Seraphim are easy—they’re essentially angels. The others are harder. So I’ll try to explain it for you: in a nutshell, they’re immortal beings.
The longer explanation is Ichorians are like vampires, only they don’t have any of the weaknesses. They can even eat normal food. But they do require human blood to survive. They also have a power of some kind that was amplified to supernatural levels during their rebirth.
For example, Issac, my bonded mate, can control vision. His progeny, Tristan, can control sound, and his other progeny, Mateo, is a technical wizard.
Scientifically speaking, the ability comes from an affinity that already existed in their bloodline when they were human. During the resurrection process, that gene is triggered, and a supernatural talent is born.
Hydraians are a little different. They are created when an Ichorian male breeds with a mortal female. The child is actually human, which the Ichorians call a fledgling, and remains mortal until death. Once killed, they are then reborn as a Hydraian and possess not one but two gifts—one from each bloodline. They also don’t require human blood to survive.
You’re probably wondering about this immortal war I mentioned and how it pertains to all this scientific bullshit. I promise I’m getting there.
See, the Ichorians hate Hydraians.
Why?
Jealousy. Or that’s my take on it, anyway. Hydraians are not only immune to the imbibing-human-essence requirement, but they also have two gifts and their blood is actually toxic to Ichorians.
So yeah, they don’t get along.
They went to war a long time ago, only to reach an accord between the races when the Ichorians realized they couldn’t exterminate all the Hydraians. Everything was quiet for a few hundred years, but animosity brewed in the background.
The kicker? This was all Osiris’s plan. He’s the master creator. But he hasn’t spent all this time creating pawns to go to war with each other. No. He wants them to go to war as a unit against the Seraphim.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know a lot about the Seraphim yet. I mean, I just found out recently that I am one. My best friend, Lizzie, is pregnant with one, or that’s the speculation, anyway.
Because the CRF created Lizzie in a lab.
What’s the CRF? The Catastrophic Relief Foundation. They’re a humanitarian agency that isn’t so humanitarian. It used to be run by an Ichorian who wanted to dominate the world. Instead, we killed him, and the rest of his Sentinel division went down in flames with him. Well, a few survived—we have them in custody—but the sinister aspect of the organization is dead in the water.
Except they left a lasting imprint, one of those items being my very pregnant best friend. Her genetics indicate that she’s a Seraphim, which is how Jayson and Lizzie were able to procreate and also why everyone believes their child is going to be an angel.
According to Leela, a Seraphim of the fertility line, immortal genetics don’t work like they do for humans. I believe her because I sprouted wings just after my twenty-fifth birthday. My mother is a pure-blood Seraphim, and now, so am I.
Anyway, in summary, Osiris has created an army, and he intends to go to war with the Seraphim with all of us as his pawns on the battlefield. A lot of the immortals don’t know this yet; it’s something we’ve only recently begun to understand. Until I learn more about the Seraphim, I’m not doing shit.
The prophecy that says I’ll destroy the immortal race can go fuck itself.
I make my own decisions.
And I invite you to make your own choices, too.
Pick a side. Protect yourself. And for the love of God, do not go anywhere near Osiris. He’s a monster. Hell, the dick put my mother at the bottom of an ocean to drown over and over again for the last eighteen years. He also erased my father’s memories of everything that had ever happened to him.
That’s where we are right now—I just saved my dad, and now we need to find my mom. But as I said, she’s drowning somewhere, and this globe is pretty much all water.
So finding her is going to be quite a task. Fortunately, we have a lot of support for the mission.
Read on to continue the journey.
Remember, trust no one. Pay attention to the details. Don’t believe everything you hear. And watch your back.
A war is coming.
Which side will you choose?
Everything is so dark here. Cold. Painful. Agony personified.
I used to count the seconds. They later turned into days and weeks. It’s hard to know what’s true down here. I die. I live. I die again.
My mind wanders once more, and I swear I hear Sethios’s voice. So smooth. Warm. Concerned.
I miss you, I want to say to him. Why haven’t you come for me? I want to demand. Why hasn’t anyone come for me?
We did this for a reason.
I left my daughter behind to protect her. Has she grown up? How old is she now? Is she safe? Did Osiris find her in the end? Is Gabriel alive? Is Sethios?
My lungs fill with ice once more. I’m used to it now. I can only hold my breath for so long.
I allow it to consume me, to pull me under for those brief moments of blissful reprieve found only in the afterlife.
Sometimes my daughter visits me. It’s all a dream, an unrealistic expectation, but I indulge in it anyway.
Just as I allow myself to fall into a vision now of black wings and a cruel grin. Not Sethios, yet so much like him. I sigh. Where are you? I wonder. Does your heart break like mine?
I feel light. Reborn. The chains a shackled reminder of my fate.
This isn’t a happy story. I sacrificed everything for those I love, only to reside in perpetual anguish.
But as long as my little angel lives, there’s hope.
The prophecy says she’ll be the one to destroy us all. Does that include me? Her father? All our friends and family? Has the High Council of Seraph found her?
I shiver.
This world is so bleak and dark. So absolute in its obscurity.
Another inhale.
More burning.
Death.
On and on I go.
Drowning in circles, longing for escape. Longing for him. My love. My existence. The one I can no longer feel. The one who makes my heart break even in the afterlife.
Free me, Sethios… I beg him. Free. Me.
But it’s a lost cause. No one can find me now.
It hurts. It burns. It slays me once again.
Death. Sweet death. I can breathe here, if just for a moment. But those black feathers tickle my vision once more. What are they? Why are they here?
I wake again to something new.
The water has disappeared.
The world is filled with stones. A chair. More chains. Where am I? Another vision?
But this one is so different, driven by the source of madness standing before me.
A bolt of panic strikes my heart. I jolt alive in the chair, my eyes widening.
This can’t be real.
After all this time, why now?
“Welcome back, Caro,” he says, his voice flat and emotionless. “You and I need to have a chat.”
That cold voice is how I know I’m truly gone. Dead. Never to resurface again.
Oh, Sethios. I love you. Please know that I’ll never regret our choice. She lived. I died. I’ll always love you both. For eternity, my darlings… for eternity.
Where are you, angel? Sethio
s wondered for the thousandth time, his gaze on the stars above. Why won’t you talk to me?
No answer.
He sighed, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, his heart in his throat. A week had passed since Astasiya had freed his mind. Not entirely, but enough for Sethios to think beyond his father’s control.
There were still holes inside his mind.
Pockets of missing memories.
But he remembered his angel, his Caro, his love.
“Fuck,” he muttered, his eyes closing as he pictured her at the bottom of the ocean, dying over and over again. He’d left her in that state for eighteen goddamn years, completely oblivious to her fate. All because his father had wiped her clean from his mind, suffocating him in a world of nonexistence.