by Keri Lake
Kings of Carrion
Keri Lake
Contents
VIP Email List
Playlist
Dear Reader
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
EPILOGUE 1
EPILOGUE 2
Acknowledgments
Other Books By Keri Lake
About the Author
KINGS OF CARRION
Published by KERI LAKE
www.KeriLake.com
* * *
Copyright © 2019 Keri Lake
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, events, locations, or any other element is entirely coincidental.
Cover art by Okay Creations
Photographer: Andrei Vishnyakov
Editing: Julie Belfield
Warning: This book contains explicit sexual content, and violent scenes that some readers may find disturbing. Please be advised that this is a post-apocalyptic world where women are scarce due to gendercide, and as such, makes for an unconventional romance with situations that may be uncomfortable to read.
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Playlist
This book would not have been possible without the talented musicians who provided inspiration along the way. Please check out the Spotify playlist to help set the tone and mood as you read.
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“I Run To You” - MISSIO
“Fear Inoculum” - TOOL
“Kings” - Tribe Society
“NFWMB” - Hozier
“Saturn” - Sleeping At Last
“Emerge Part I” - Ruelle
“Don’t Fear The Reaper (Re: Imagined)” - Denmark + Winter
“Lover, Please Stay” - Nothing But Thieves
“Without A Word” - Birdy
“If I Should Go Before You” - City and Colour
“Carry You” - Ruelle, Fleurie
“Particles - Piano Version” - Nothing But Thieves
“War of Hearts (Acoustic Version)” - Ruelle
“We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” - Denmark + Winter
“The Rising” - Tryad
“Skinny Love” - Birdy
“Can I Exist” – MISSIO
“Qi” -PHILDEL
“When The Night Is Over” - Lord Huron
“Minor Piano Key” - Iron & Wine
“The Other Side” - Ruelle
“Where’s My Love” - SYML
“Still Here” - Digital Daggers
“Immortalized” - Hidden Citizen
Dear Reader
At this point, you’re familiar with my writing and know that things can get pretty bleak for my characters. This book starts out at an easy-going pace, but don’t get too comfortable. It gets pretty intense in the second half. Heed the trigger warning for graphic violence and scenes that some may find disturbing. As I cautioned in Calico Descending, this is a brutal post-apocalyptic world where women are scarce due to gendercide, and therefore, makes for an unconventional romance.
I’ve savored every word I’ve written with these three books, but this one, in particular, is very special to me. I hope you enjoy it.
A fourth book is in the works, so stay tuned. Thank you for reading. —Keri
Prologue
Valdys
Two months earlier …
* * *
The Legion soldier, no more than a boy, led Valdys down the hallway by a chain attached to his throat. Hands bound behind his back, the Alpha hobbled in pain from his recent tortures—the punishment for having defected. Worth every lash, as far as he was concerned, even as the whip lacerated his flesh, while the metal prongs tore unforgiving grooves into his muscle. Though he’d been trained to endure such abuse, a man could only stand so much at a time, and it’d felt as if his torment had lasted hours. He was still human, after all.
At least the bastards were kind enough to bandage them afterward.
Four other soldiers flanked him on either side, armed with their poison-tipped spears. Behind him, another Alpha, one he hadn’t seen before, trailed his steps, as they made their way to the hibernation room.
Valdys had heard about the place from the guards tasked with escorting prisoners there. A place where they attempted to reprogram the mind with horrific nightmares of blood and gore. Hallucinations that lasted weeks at a time. Those who suffered the brutal torture emerged violent and, supposedly, more obedient to the cause, though Valdys had never actually seen the prisoners afterward, as they were subsequently kept locked away with the mutations.
Still, with whatever unimaginable fate awaited him, it was a worthy cost for having slept beneath the stars with Cali. Not even the hell of imprisoning him could make him regret that.
The young soldier glanced over his shoulder, lips pressed into what Valdys might have surmised as a sympathetic smile, if he thought Legion were capable of such emotion. “You must’ve done something really bad, huh? I’ve never actually had to escort someone to hibernation before.”
Keeping his gaze straight ahead, Valdys didn’t bother to answer. No matter what they did to him, he’d never answer to a Legion officer again. Particularly a boy.
“Seems a bit extreme. Even for this place.”
“Hey! No talking to subjects,” one of the Legion soldiers from behind chided.
The chain hung loose in the boy’s hand, and with one good yank, the Alpha could probably flip him on his ass and have the metal wrapped at his throat, even with his hands tied behind his back, before any of the other three could stop him. If not for his wounds, he and the Alpha behind him could probably take on all the guards. Leave them mutilated and discarded in a matter of seconds. It’d be futile, though. An army would await him, and they’d kill him for sure.
The only thing keeping him alive was the possibility of seeing his female again, though that was growing slimmer by the second.
What would she want of a man who’d become a monster, after days spent dreaming of nightmarish things? What if he hurt her?
Perhaps Cali had always been an impossible dream.
Valdys knew, the moment Le
gion had stabbed Titus back at the waterfall, that they had no intentions of honoring their concession to let Cali and Cadmus go. He’d only hoped his own capture would’ve provided enough time for them to escape, particularly when Titus managed to break away to warn them. Both Cadmus and Titus, assuming his friend was still alive, would protect her. Of this, Valdys was certain. And if she lived, that was all he needed in this life.
Having arrived at the hibernation room, Valdys looked around at the capsuled men, where they twitched behind glass shields, their jaws clenched in obvious distress. As he passed one in close proximity, he could see the Alpha’s eyeballs shifting behind their tightly shuttered lids, his whole body shivering and tense.
Walls of shelving housed more capsules and Valdys wondered if they, too, held Alphas inside.
“Heard defectors get the tunnel simulations.” The Legion guard behind him snickered
What Valdys wouldn’t have given to smash his fucking face into the wall.
Rows upon rows of capsules lined the too-bright room, its white walls and white floored tiles practically glowing beneath the fluorescent lights overhead. The scent of bleach and disinfectant reminded him that death loomed in the shadows, easily erased by harsh chemicals and fumes.
“This one’s yours.” The boy pushed a code into a keypad beside an empty capsule, which popped the shield loose.
“Ridge and I will get this asshole locked in.” What must’ve been the higher ranking Legion officer pointed toward the other Alpha, who didn’t bear quite as many scars as most the ones Valdys had been locked up with down in S-Block. Must’ve been fairly new, and Valdys wondered what he’d done to get sent to hibernation, also referred to as Purgatory amongst the guards and prisoners. “You two get that one squared away.”
Jerking his head, an older Legion guard urged Valdys inside the capsule, and once again, he found himself musing over how quickly and efficiently he could kill the two. End their lives, and even if he suffered death as retribution, maybe he’d be better off.
A hard shove to his back brought his wounds flaring to life, and on instinct, Valdys turned to snarl at the guard whose spear was already poised, the pointed end of it scratching at the Alpha’s throat. “Get the fuck inside, unless you want to breathe through a goddamn tube.”
Jaw clenched with fury, Valdys leaned into the spear, allowing it to press into his flesh without breaking the skin. Whatever poison they laced it with would render him useless, if it managed to pierce him, but maybe his situation would be easier to swallow if it did. Breathing hard through his nose, he continued to challenge the Legion officer.
“Hey, man. I … I don’t wanna see him spear your throat with that thing. I’m guessing you don’t, either.”
Valdys slid his gaze toward the boy, the ignorant kid who had no clue about the world yet. One who’d probably joined Legion in hopes of being a hero someday, unaware of their ruthlessness.
Cali. The only reason he had left to stay alive. Reason enough to relent some of the fury bottled inside him and allow the kid to unlock his wrist binds. Everything inside of him told him to snap the kid’s neck, but when the rebellious little shit knocked the spear away from Valdys’s throat, those thoughts were quickly tamped down by the rage coloring his superior’s face, which served as an amusing distraction.
The older soldier stepped forward, shrinking the kid. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
The kid kept his chin up. “The one assigned to escort him. My name is in his record, and if you kill him, I’m the one who faces punishment.”
Bold little shit.
“Get him locked up, and expect that there will be words later.”
Without much more resistance, Valdys climbed inside the capsule, catching the somber look on the kid’s face. There’d surely be punishment for him for later, as well as words. Legion kept a tight leash on their guards, and the boy had a lot to learn, from the looks of it.
Cushions pressed against his wounds, when Valdys lay back inside the capsule. His wrists were bound to thick metal straps, along with his ankles. A chain would connect the band at his throat to each side of the interior, and already limited his movement on the one side where the boy worked to anchor him.
“It’s to keep you from breaking your neck, as I understand.” The boy lifted the chain to fasten the other side, his hands trembling against Valdys’s chin. “We had to watch a video on how to do this.”
Christ. They watched videos on how to properly torture their subjects.
An alarm sounded, and a woman’s robotic voice blared through the speaker: “Warning. Code Triage. Biohazard safety breach. Infectious patients. S-block. Lower level. Evacuate immediately. Warning. Code Triage. Biohazard safety breach. Infectious patients. S-block. Lower level. Evacuate immediately.”
S-block was made up of many levels. The seven levels of hell some called it, and at the very bottom, even beyond the floor that held the Alpha cells, were the most dangerous mutations in the place.
“We gotta get the fuck out of here!” The older guard’s face had blanched white, chest heaving with rapid breaths. “Oh, God, they’re sealing the doors!”
A brisk tendril of alarm curled up Valdys’s spine, and he lifted his head as much as the chain would allow.
The guards who’d locked up the other Alpha raced past, abandoning their duties.
“We … we can’t just leave them here,” the boy said, facing his superior, who backed away. “They can’t just stay locked up in hibernation.”
“Fuck them. Get out of here, kid. You know the rules when this place closes up. Evacuate while you can.” The older guard took off at a run, leaving only the boy.
With his bound wrist, the Alpha managed to grip the young soldier’s hand, snapping the guard’s attention his way. “Please. Unlock us. We can help you.”
Eyes wide, chest rising and falling in time to his rapid breaths, the boy seemed to slip into hysterics. His head probably spun a mile a minute, his body on the brink of acting out of pure adrenaline.
Valdys didn’t have much time.
“Fuck him.” The other Alpha lay wriggling against his binds. “He’s wounded. He can’t help shit. Unlock me, and I’ll get you out of here, kid.”
Valdys squeezed the kid’s hand as he fought to get loose. “You can’t trust him.”
“I can’t trust either of you! You’re a defector, and he’s a murderer!”
“Help us.” Valdys glanced toward the silver dogtag hanging around his neck. “Everett. Please.”
A hard thump at the door startled his muscles, and he whipped around, pausing as if to listen.
“They’re going to break through that door any second.” The warning in Valdys’s voice mirrored the caution exploding inside of him, the warning bells blaring through his skull.
More thumping echoed through the massive room, and Valdys could see the goosebumps prickling the kid’s skin.
“We don’t have much time, Everett.”
Breaking free of Valdys’s grasp, he raced to the other Alpha’s capsule, hands trembling as he unlocked his binds.
With a futile tug of his binds, Valdys groaned. “C’mon, kid, you can’t leave me here.”
More pounding, like the sound of something pummeling the door, served as a constant reminder of how little time was left.
“I’ll get him loose first. He’s strong enough to fight them off while I get your binds unlocked. Then I can help you out of here.” Probably smart, but Valdys didn’t exactly trust the other Alpha.
Sure enough, the moment he had him loose, the Alpha socked the kid in the face, knocking him out.
In a fit of rage, Valdys flexed his muscles, watching the little prick climb out of his capsule. “What the fuck are you doing?” With one side of his neck chain still unfastened, he glanced over the side of the capsule, where Everett lay passed out. “Everett! Wake up!”
“Warning. Code Triage. Biohazard safety breach. Infectious patients. S-block. Lower level. Evacuate immediate
ly. Warning. Code Triage. Biohazard safety breach. Infectious patients. S-block. Lower level. Evacuate immediately.”
“Good luck, asshole. It’s every man for himself.” The Alpha gave a salute as he passed.
Valdys gritted, shifting and flexing in his binds. “You better pray I don’t get loose.”
“I will. I can promise you that,” he said, dashing around the wall of nearby capsules and out of sight.
A crashing sound startled Valdys, and he lifted his head as much as he could against the restraints of the single chain.
The other Alpha appeared again, backing himself away from some unseen entity beyond the wall of capsules that blocked Valdys’s view.
“Let me out. I can help you fight them.”
“There must be fucking hundreds of the bastards. Feeding on them.” With a grimace plastered to his face, he snapped out of his trance and glanced around, as though searching for escape.
Valdys looked over the edge once again, where Everett lay passed out, the keys on the floor beside him. “One hand. Just give me one hand to fight them off, at least.”
The Alpha’s eyes landed on his, and jaw clenched, he strode toward the Legion guard and swiped up the keys from the floor. Everett groaned, writhing, as the Alpha tossed the keys into the capsule, where they landed on Valdys’s stomach.