Discipline (Omega Queen Series Book 1)

by W. J. May

  “Are you all right?” Ellanden asked softly.

  She startled at the sound of his voice, then quickly swung her feet to the floor. “Yeah, I’m...I’m sorry about that. Just felt a little light-headed.”

  He couldn’t bring himself to smile, but he squeezed her shoulder.

  “That’s all right. I felt a little light-headed myself.”

  He glanced around the new stretch of the tunnel before walking over to the wall—patting it softly with the palm of his hand. “This is limestone. Different than what there was before.” He squinted up at the ceiling, lifting the torch for a better view. “I wonder if we’re getting higher—”

  There was a sudden boom, followed by a tortured scream.

  No sooner had the fae opened his mouth to speak than the ground quaked again and the entire tunnel started shaking around them. This time there were no falling stalactites or deadly debris, but a giant slab of the wall crashed into the floor...pinning the fae underneath.

  “ELLANDEN!”

  Asher and Evie screamed at the same time, then started sprinting forward. It was impossible to see much of anything through the dust, but the princess could have sworn she caught a glimpse of white hair. She barreled towards it, coughing violently, her cloak pulled over her nose.

  It took a moment for the dust to settle...then there he was.

  Holy hell.

  The prince was splayed out on the tunnel floor—not breathing, not moving. The slab of rock had fallen squarely across his chest and a trickle of blood was slowly pooling towards their feet.

  “Oh my—” The princess grabbed Asher for support, feeling as though her entire body was caught in a silent scream. “Is he...? Tell me that he isn’t...”

  Then the prince let out a small cough.

  “Landi!”

  Evie flew forward, collapsing beside him on the tunnel floor. With one hand she cradled his head, desperate to see those dark eyes open, while the other pushed uselessly against the tree-sized boulder holding him prisoner. It was no use. She didn’t see how it hadn’t killed him already.

  “Asher—help me!”

  The vampire had flown forward alongside her, but he stopped the second the prince’s blood touched his shoe. Instead, he watched with bated breath, hands clenched into fists. He looked truly lost until the second Ellanden blinked open his eyes.

  “...Ow.”

  “It’s okay—it’s okay!” Evie gasped. Tears flew down her face as she continued pushing with all her strength against the rock. “We’re going to get you out of this—just hang on!”

  He coughed again and a stream of blood poured out of his mouth.

  “Asher!” the princess screamed. “Get your arse over here!”

  But the vampire wasn’t moving. His eyes were fixed on the blood. A strange expression shadowed across his face, one that Evie had never seen before. On instinct, he started slowly backing away. Then, all at once, he started moving forward again.

  “NO!”

  At first, the princess thought Ellanden was yelling against the pain. But it wasn’t the rock he was looking at. His eyes were somewhere else.

  “Get away from me!”

  She looked down with a gasp, to see him staring up at the vampire. His voice was shaking and his skin was a frightening shade of paleness, but she’d never forget the look in his eyes.

  “Asher Dorsett!” he shouted. “Not a step closer!”

  The princess was astonished. The vampire was temporarily frozen in place.

  “Ellanden, what—”

  “Give me my sword,” he commanded, never looking away. “Evie—give me my sword.”

  In a sort of daze, the princess did as he asked—yanking it out of the sheath and pressing the handle into his hand. He grasped it immediately, still pinned helplessly against the ground.

  “What the hell’s going on?!” Evie exclaimed, watching as the tension that had been building between the men finally came to a head. “Asher, help me lift this...”

  But a terrifying change had come over the vampire.

  He was baring his fangs.

  “Ash...”

  “I can’t do this,” the vampire whispered, breathing quickly through his mouth. “I can’t be in the same room as him.” Yet even as it said it, he took a step closer.

  Evie let out a shriek as Ellanden lifted the sword. His arm was shaking, buried up to the elbow in stone, but the blade was pointed straight at the vampire’s heart.

  “Don’t touch me,” he warned, fighting back a grimace as the massive rock dug a little deeper into his chest. “If you need some space, then go.”

  But the vampire didn’t go. In fact, he stepped even closer.

  “Just a taste,” he breathed, “to clear my head. I’ll be able to stop—I promise.”

  Evie paled in horror, shaking her head. “Asher, you can’t be serious—”

  “I’ll stop,” the vampire said again. “I promise.” His dark eyes flitted over the captive prince, lingering on his wrists, his neck. “Let me do it now—before it’s a promise I can no longer keep.”

  “You can’t keep it now,” Ellanden panted, using all his energy just to lift the blade. “The fact that you’re even asking—”

  The rock slipped further and he let out a tortured cry, thrashing frantically against the floor.

  “Ash—please!” he cried. “Snap out of it! I can’t...I can’t breathe...”

  Just like that, the weight of the boulder became too much. It cracked his ribs one by one, pushing him even farther into the floor. The sword slipped out of his hand. The light flickered in his eyes. He let out a broken gasp, twitched, then went terrifyingly still.

  Evie froze where she knelt, feeling like a part of her was dying as well. For a split second, all she could do was stare. Then she leapt to her feet and did something she’d swore she’d never do.

  “You can have my blood.”

  Asher tore his eyes away from the prince, fixing on her curiously. It was the curiosity that convinced her it was the right decision. His best friend was a second away from death—but he wasn’t mad, he wasn’t horrified...he was curious. His head tilted with a faint smile.

  “...you will?”

  Evie nodded quickly, realizing all at once it wasn’t her friend she was speaking to. Asher Dorsett was gone. She was speaking to the feral vampiric monster that had taken his place.

  “As much as you like. Right after you lift the stone.”

  The vampire’s eyes travelled back to the boulder before drifting down to the blood.

  “His is much better...”

  “But he said no,” Evie said quickly, sensing that this one thing, the lack of permission, might be the only thing keeping Asher from draining the prince on the spot. “He said no. But I said yes.”

  He hesitated, thinking it over as Ellanden bled out onto the floor.

  “And who knows,” she continued quickly. “When he wakes up, we’ll ask him again. But we need to hurry. So will you do it? Will you lift the stone?”

  Asher stared at her another moment, lips still curved with that bizarre smile. Then all at once, he flashed across the cavern floor and lifted the boulder with a single hand—holding it steady as the princess dove back to her knees and dragged the broken fae to safety.

  The second he was clear, the boulder dropped back into place. A second after that, Evie was yanked to her feet. She let out a gasp, whirling around to find herself staring into Asher’s eyes.

  The smile was back, lovely as ever. His eyes drifted down to her neck.

  “Wait a second,” she stalled in a panic, wracking her brain for other options. “Does it have to be my neck? Can’t we do the wrist or something?”

  She’d been straining back with all her might but he pulled her closer with a gentle smile, not seeming to realize he was doing it. She’d never realized how strong he was until that very moment, when she suddenly understood there was no escaping the grasp of his pale hands.

  “Your neck will be fine
,” he said softly, running a finger down the length of it. “It’s such a pretty neck. I’ve always thought so.”

  She paled dramatically, trying to hold back the tears. She didn’t know if Ellanden was alive, she didn’t know how they were going to get out of the cave, but more than anything else the thing that struck her was the paralyzing fear rising in her veins.

  For the first time in her life, she was afraid of her best friend.

  “Asher, please,” she whispered, unable to stop those tears after all. “I don’t want this. When you wake up, you’re going to hate yourself forever. Let’s just...let’s just check on Landi, okay?”

  The vampire tilted his head with a gentle frown, brushing a tear from her cheek.

  “Don’t cry,” he murmured. “It won’t be so bad. I have to do it all the time.”

  She let out quiet sob, closing her eyes as he lifted her into the air. A gentle hand swept back her hair, tilting her head to the side. She felt his breath on her neck. His lips lowered to her skin.

  Then there was a sharp impact and he fell to the ground.

  What the—?!

  Her eyes snapped open the second her feet hit the ground, roving around wildly in the dark before coming to rest on the immortal prince lying by the wall. He seemed to have lost almost all of his blood. A passing glance and you’d think he was dead already. But while he couldn’t use his legs, he could still use his arms. With deadly accuracy, he’d thrown his sword at the vampire—striking him with unspeakable force right in the back of the head.

  “And with that...I retire.”

  The princess made a strange sound that was somewhere between laughter and crying. Then, with tears still running down her cheeks, she raced over and fell to the ground at his side, throwing her arms around his neck and sobbing quietly.

  “I thought you were dead,” she whispered. “I thought we were too late.”

  He wrapped a hand weakly around the back of her head. “Nah, you’re not that lucky. Neither is Asher.”

  His eyes cooled as they swept over the body of his best friend. The vampire was sprawled out on the stone floor, breathing softly, messy waves of hair falling into his face. If they didn’t know better, he could have simply fallen asleep. He looked the way he always did.

  Except for the fangs. And the blood.

  “I know you don’t want to hear it...but he wasn’t himself,” she ventured softly, following his gaze. Normally, she’d be terrified that he’d wake up at any second. But thanks to their childhood sparring lessons, she knew firsthand what it felt like to be knocked unconscious by a fae. “It wasn’t even him talking. It was the thirst. It was starting to drive him mad—”

  “I don’t want to hear it,” Ellanden cut her off sharply. But when his eyes travelled again to the fallen vampire, they softened in spite of himself. “...I already know.”

  More tears spilled down her face as she embraced him once more—oblivious to the painful gasp and the way his eyes squinted shut the second she made contact. When she pulled back, he was smiling—albeit a bit paler than he’d been before.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked softly.

  He glanced down at his bloody legs, shaking one of them half-heartedly before giving up with a quiet sigh. “We’re going to wait for my legs to wake up. And you’re going to stay right beside me. But first...why don’t you bring back my sword.”

  The princess hurried to do as he asked, still unable to believe that he was awake and talking. There weren’t many creatures on earth that could have survived such a thing, but luckily the fae was one of them. By the time she returned with the sword, he was weakly propped up on his elbows.

  “There,” he panted with a wince, “getting better already. Now if we can just avoid any more random earthquakes—we should be in fine shape.”

  Evie started nodding, but then stopped with a sudden frown.

  “They’re not random.”

  Ellanden lifted his head, still focused on his legs.

  “Hmm?”

  She pushed slowly to her feet, staring down the endless tunnel.

  “They’re not random...they happen every time we speak. Think about it: we were talking in the cavern before the first one, and then again just now...”

  Ellanden opened his mouth to argue, then he suddenly went very still.

  “What is it?” she asked with concern, glancing down at his ribs. “What’s wrong?”

  His lips parted slowly as every ounce of color drained from his face. He whispered, “I think I know why everyone keeps dying in this mine.”

  The princess slowly looked over her shoulder...then let out a scream.

  THE END

  Bravery

  HOW LONG CAN YOU OUTRUN your fate?

  When Evie and her friends set out to fulfill a long-awaited prophecy, they never thought their adventure would turn into a nightmare before their very eyes.

  Trapped in a cavern beneath the ground, they find themselves going up against a creature so twisted and terrible they wouldn’t have believed it was real. Their strength is tested and friendships are strained. But, as they soon discover, the creature was the least of their problems.

  The world is shifting. Shadows and darkness are entering the land. Rumors are whispering around the remaining kingdoms. Rumors of a dark and powerful stone.

  Can the friends find it in time? Or are some prophecies never meant to be?

  The Queen’s Alpha Series

  Eternal

  Everlasting

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  Evermore

  Forever

  Boundless

  Prophecy

  Protected

  Foretelling

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  The Omega Queen Series

  Discipline

  Bravery

  Courage

  Conquer

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  Find W.J. May

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  More books by W.J. May

  The Chronicles of Kerrigan

  Book I - Rae of Hope is FREE!

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  Book V - Under Fire

  Book VI - End in Sight

  Book VII – Hidden Darkness

  Book VIII – Twisted Together

  Book IX – Mark of Fate

  Book X – Strength & Power

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  BOOK XII – Rae of Light

  PREQUEL –

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  Hidden Secrets Saga:

  Download Seventh Mark part 1 For FREE

  Book Trailer:

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