Edge of the Darkness (Hell on Earth Book 4)
Page 29
The emptiness within him would never be filled. There wasn’t enough blood, wasn’t enough death to begin to satisfy him anymore. He faced the same bleak concept that the many who had fallen before him also faced: an eternity of nothing, or the possibility that giving into their more savage nature would finally fill the emptiness inside.
For some vampires, it hadn’t been a difficult choice.
How much more time do I have?
His hands tightened on the railing, twisting over the cool metal as his teeth clamped together and his fangs slid free to press against the back of his lips.
I will not be one of them!
He told himself this every day when he opened his eyes and the emptiness greeted him, but it sounded hollow then, and it did again now. Even amongst those who were born vampires, the purebreds such as himself, he was an anomaly and stronger than the rest. The turned vampires battled their darker natures too, but not as badly as the purebreds did. Because turned vamps were human before becoming vampires, they had more humanity in them than purebreds did.
If he gave himself over to the darkness, he would never know this sensation of being torn in two again, and he would slaughter hundreds, possibly thousands, before being stopped, if he could be stopped.
No matter what, he couldn’t lose control like that. He didn’t like humans overly much, but there were rules, and they must be obeyed if the vampire race was to continue undetected. Vampires were far stronger than humans, but they were also vastly outnumbered by mortals.
Fear would have humans turning on them, slaughtering them, and studying them like lab rats. Some, if not many of the mortals, may try to become vampires, which would create more Savages. If such a thing happened, the vampire food supply would be depleted and the world would fall into chaos.
The rules had to be strictly followed.
This had been instilled into him from the moment of his birth. His parents had made sure he knew he would one day lead and keep the vampire and human races protected. That he would become a Defender, a vampire who protected the innocents and made sure the rules were obeyed. Things may be far different now than when his parents had been alive, but that mission still drove him every day.
Beside him, Declan shifted his stance as he glanced at Ronan from the corner of his eye. Declan’s eyes were so pure gray, they appeared silver as he surveyed the scene beneath them. He ran a hand through his dark auburn hair before tugging at the ends.
At six hundred years of age, Declan was the second oldest of their group, younger than only him. They’d been fighting together since Declan had reached maturity at twenty-four. Ronan had known Declan for his entire life, yet he still didn’t know all of Declan’s secrets.
He did know that he’d never seen his friend so apprehensive about a possible kill before, and he didn’t understand it. He’d expected Declan to be eager to destroy Joseph. Ronan suspected Declan’s apprehension was because his father had been the last Defender to give into his Savage nature, and it was stirring up old memories, rather than the fact they were now hunting one of their own.
Joseph had been a powerful fighter and ally for nearly fifty years. However, he and Declan had been like two dogs circling each other whenever they were in the same room. Declan’s more easygoing nature had abraded with Joseph’s austere personality.
In truth, Ronan had never liked Joseph either and never considered him a friend as he did the other Defenders who worked with him, but Joseph had been a strong fighter and had made it all the way through the rigorous training every purebred that worked with him had to endure.
Ronan had seen little of Joseph over the years as he’d run the training facility for turned and purebred vamps who wished to hunt Savages. Months ago, Joseph had given in to his bloodlust and become a Savage. Ronan had been trying to track him down ever since, but Joseph knew how they operated and how to fly under their radar. Not even Brian, a turned vamp who sometimes helped them to track down Savage vamps, could pinpoint Joseph’s location, until now.
Brian had called a few hours ago to let him know he’d gotten a track on Joseph in this area of Providence, Rhode Island. This club was the most likely place to attract Joseph. A club full of drunk humans was a homing beacon for vampires on the prowl. It was easy to prey on the humans here, and if Ronan got the chance, he would feed here tonight.
Feeding could wait; for now, they were on the hunt for something else.
His eyes swept the dance floor once more. Unable to take the flashing lights in places such as this, he’d put on a pair of dark sunglasses before entering, but the pulse of the flashing lights still made his head pound. The thumping beat of the music vibrated the floor beneath his feet. His gaze landed on the DJ. He ran his tongue over his fangs as he contemplated tearing the man’s throat out to end the annoying beat.
What had happened to real music like Beethoven and Chopin? He’d even take some Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, or Billy Joel over this. This crap was enough to drive the best of vampires over the edge, and he was far from the best. But the humans liked it as they ground against each other with a frenzy the equivalent of foreplay.
Movement behind him drew his attention to Killean and Saxon as they approached from the shadows. The few humans who had been standing nearby shrank away from Killean and vanished down the stairs.
“Anything?” Ronan demanded of them.
Killean shook his head as his golden-tiger eyes went past Ronan to the dance floor. A scar sliced straight down from his deep brown hairline and over his right eye before ending halfway down his cheek. Killean had come to work with Ronan when he was fifty-two, that had been four hundred years ago, and Ronan still had no idea what had caused that scar or who had given it to him. He knew it had been inflicted on Killean before he’d become a fully mature vampire only because it remained.
Next to Killean, Saxon folded his arms over his chest and his hazel eyes drifted toward the ceiling. His dark blond hair stood up in spikes around his head. “Something else might have attracted him away from here,” Saxon said. “There may be another club or bar or something we missed nearby.”
Or Joseph had managed to elude them again. Ronan’s teeth ground together as he released the railing. He wasn’t looking forward to killing the vampire he’d once considered an ally, but he wanted this over with. With Joseph’s purebred status, knowledge of the way they worked, and complete disregard of human and vampire life, he was far more lethal than many of the other Savages they’d dealt with. It had been centuries since one of their own had given in to their savage nature.
As far as Ronan could tell, going by the increased amount of disappearances, people who’d had their throats cut, and animal attacks since Joseph had given in, he’d killed over a hundred people and was averaging at least one a day. That didn’t include the amount of vampires he’d slaughtered too.
With every human death, Joseph grew in power, but he also became weaker. By now, Ronan knew his old ally couldn’t tolerate the sun anymore. Holy water and crucifixes would affect him, and soon enough, he wouldn’t be able to cross large bodies of water, if he still could now.
Movement on the dance floor drew his attention as a tall man with black hair glided through the crowd with ease. Some of the women stopped dancing to flirt with him and the three men trailing him. All the men continued through the crowd as if they didn’t see the women.
Ronan grasped the rail again as he watched the four of them. Judging by the way they carried themselves and the thick coats they wore when the humans had all checked theirs, Ronan knew what they really were…
“Hunters,” he murmured. “And not human hunters, but born ones.”
The born vampire hunters sometimes took in humans who knew of the existence of vampires. The hunters trained these humans how to kill vampires, but often those human hunters were bait for vampires. The hunters believed vampires were the monsters, but the practice of using the humans as bait was more ruthless than anything Ronan had ever done to a human.
“Well, that made this night a lot less fun,” Declan said and leaned his hip against the rail.
“Do you think they’re tracking Joseph?” Saxon inquired.
“I don’t know,” Ronan replied as he watched the four men disappear beneath the balcony. “Watch the stairs. If they come this way, be prepared to fight.”
Saxon and Killean slipped back toward the stairs, moving through the few humans gathered in the shadows. Most of the mortals were entangled with someone else, or multiple someone elses. A few were huddling together, seeking a fix from their drug of choice.
Ronan had come here to destroy Joseph, but now they may also have to take out an enemy they hadn’t expected—an enemy that didn’t have to be an enemy, if the hunters weren’t so fucking stupid. But throughout the history of vampires and hunters, and despite their common ancestors, the hunters had always believed all vamps were bad. There was no reasoning with them; there was only surviving them.
He’d done what he had to do to survive before and killed a couple of hunters in his lifetime. If it became necessary, he would do it again tonight.
Continue reading Eternally Bound, The Alliance Series Book 1: brendakdavies.com/EBwb
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Also from the Author
Books written under the pen name
Brenda K. Davies
The Vampire Awakenings Series
Awakened (Book 1)
Destined (Book 2)
Untamed (Book 3)
Enraptured (Book 4)
Undone (Book 5)
Fractured (Book 6)
Ravaged (Book 7)
Consumed (Book 8)
Unforeseen (Book 9)
Forsaken (Book 10)
Relentless (Book 11)
Legacy (Book 12)
Coming 2021
The Alliance Series
Eternally Bound (Book 1)
Bound by Vengeance (Book 2)
Bound by Darkness (Book 3)
Bound by Passion (Book 4)
Bound by Torment (Book 5)
Bound by Danger (Book 6)
Coming 2020
The Road to Hell Series
Good Intentions (Book 1)
Carved (Book 2)
The Road (Book 3)
Into Hell (Book 4)
Hell on Earth Series
Hell on Earth (Book 1)
Into the Abyss (Book 2)
Kiss of Death (Book 3)
Edge of the Darkness (Book 4)
Historical Romance
A Stolen Heart
Books written under the pen name
Erica Stevens
The Coven Series
Nightmares (Book 1)
The Maze (Book 2)
Dream Walker (Book 3)
The Captive Series
Captured (Book 1)
Renegade (Book 2)
Refugee (Book 3)
Salvation (Book 4)
Redemption (Book 5)
Broken (The Captive Series Prequel)
Vengeance (Book 6)
Unbound (Book 7)
The Kindred Series
Kindred (Book 1)
Ashes (Book 2)
Kindled (Book 3)
Inferno (Book 4)
Phoenix Rising (Book 5)
The Fire & Ice Series
Frost Burn (Book 1)
Arctic Fire (Book 2)
Scorched Ice (Book 3)
The Ravening Series
The Ravening (Book 1)
Taken Over (Book 2)
Reclamation (Book 3)
The Survivor Chronicles
The Upheaval (Book 1)
The Divide (Book 2)
The Forsaken (Book 3)
The Risen (Book 4)
About the Author
Brenda K. Davies is the USA Today Bestselling author of the Vampire Awakening Series, Alliance Series, Road to Hell Series, Hell on Earth Series, and historical romantic fiction. She also writes under the pen name, Erica Stevens. When not out with friends and family, she can be found at home with her husband, son, dog, cat, and horse.