Unforeseen: The Vampire Awakenings, Book 9

by Davies, Brenda K.

  Unforeseen

  The Vampire Awakenings, Book 9

  Brenda K Davies

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Epilogue

  Where to Find the Author

  Also from the Author

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2019 Brenda K. Davies

  All rights reserved.

  Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work, in whole or part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, is illegal and forbidden, without the written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, settings, names, and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination and bear no resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, places or settings, and/or occurrences. Any incidences of resemblance are purely coincidental.

  This book is dedicated to Kirha and her angels, Roxie and Hazel.

  “Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.” —Rumi

  Chapter One

  Jack’s breath sounded loudly in his ear as he sprinted down the hill. His heart raced as adrenaline hammered his system. His fangs throbbed with his need to destroy something, but he couldn’t turn back to go after those who had driven him to this point of fleeing. Their pursuers had weapons, and he doubted it was metal bullets firing from the guns behind him.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw Mike running with the girl—Mollie, he recalled Mike saying her name was. And there was Doug, slightly ahead of him as he ran down the hill.

  All around them were more vampires running as fast as they could away from the barn where they’d been kept in cages. Somehow, Mike and Mollie broke free of those cages and set him, Doug, and numerous other vampires and humans free.

  Jack didn’t look back at their pursuers as he plunged through the trees. He threw up his hands to try to stop the branches from slapping him in the face, but he took a few to his cheeks, and one nearly gouged out his eye. Behind him, gunshots and shrieks filled the night.

  They were being hunted. He couldn’t believe it, but he knew it was true as these vamps ruthlessly pursued the escapees.

  Since becoming vampires, he and his friends had been the hunters. He’d never considered the possibility the tables would turn on them, yet they were the ones fleeing from the bastards who had taken them from the bar and locked them into the cages in the barn.

  Who was hunting them, or why, he didn’t know, but they were vampires or, most likely, Savages. He couldn’t smell the difference between a Savage and a non-killer vamp like a pureblooded vampire could, but only Savages would capture vamps and humans to kill them. And even if these Savages didn’t originally intend to hunt them, they’d always planned to kill them, as Jack seriously doubted they’d been drugged, kidnapped, and caged for these vamps to play patty-cake with them.

  He couldn’t believe how fast his circumstances changed. One minute, he was sitting on a barstool, having a couple of drinks with his friends while Doug flirted with the bartender, LeNae. And then smoke was filling the bar and vampires were falling beneath the cloud. They’d tried to get away out the back door, but more vamps were waiting for them outside, and that was the last he recalled of anything before waking in a cage.

  Jack threw out a hand to shove aside a branch that would have taken out his eye. As he did so, his foot caught on a rock and, going so fast he couldn’t correct his balance, he plunged forward. Feeling like a bouncing ball in the hands of a five-year-old, he slammed off the ground and bounced up before hitting a tree and spinning around.

  Shit. He clawed at the earth and clutched at trees in a desperate attempt to slow his momentum, but the world became a blur as he tumbled faster down the hill. When he hit a rock and flew over the top of it, a bone cracked in his side and pain lanced down his back. He hoped it was just a rib; the vamps hunting them would kill him as soon as they got their hands on him if he’d broken his back.

  He crashed into a tree before spinning out into open terrain and tumbling the rest of the way down the hill. Finally coming to a stop at the bottom, Jack found himself unable to move as he lay sprawled at the bottom of the hill, staring at the night sky. He wanted to punch every twinkling star, and he wouldn’t mind kicking the moon; they all seemed far too happy considering his current circumstances.

  Taking shallow breaths, because anything deeper caused pain to lance through his side, he took stock of his injuries. Definitely a broken rib, but it wasn’t so bad he couldn’t get his ass up and go.

  Rolling to the side, he gritted his teeth against the agony of his broken rib shifting; it felt like it was scraping against his other ribs. Holding one hand against his side, he remained half crouched as he rested his fingers on the ground while he surveyed the hill that nearly killed him. He didn’t see Mike and Doug anywhere.

  A few other escapees fled into the woods as the vehicles of the bastards who imprisoned them came to a stop at the top of the hill. The headlights of the cars shot out over the trees as doors slammed shut and silhouetted figures appeared in front of the vehicles. Then, some of them started down the hill.

  He needed to find Mike and Doug, but he couldn’t stick around here. Rising to his feet, he winced when he started running again. Every step made it feel like his rib was digging into his lung, but he didn’t dare slow his pace.

  Since becoming a vampire, he’d never considered how he would die. He refused to let it be at the hands of these fuckers. No, if he were going to die, it would be in a blaze of glory. It would not be at the hands of some backwoods vamps who watched one too many horror movies about cannibals eating the tourists and decided it would be a grand old thing to try.

  “Assholes,” he hissed through his teeth and tasted the coppery tang of his blood in his mouth. It only pissed him off more. Once he got his bearings, healed, and found his friends, he’d beat his pursuers into a bloody pulp before killing every last one of them.

  As he ran, Jack searched the woods for Doug and Mike. He spotted some other escapees fleeing through the woods, but his friends were nowhere to be seen.

  Were they recaptured or killed?

  He doubted it, but it was a possibility he couldn’t consider right now.

  He had no idea where these hillbilly vamps brought them after kidnapping them from the bar, but go
ing by the chill in the June air, he assumed they were still in Canada, which meant they were far from the help of their family and any other vampires they knew. All they had was each other, and he’d kill any vamp on this island who tried to take his friends from him.

  When the scent of ocean water drifted to him, Jack veered toward the sea. He didn’t like the idea of being trapped between the woods and the ocean, but he had to get a better idea of where they were.

  His rib was already healing, but it grazed against something with every step he took. He’d have to find something to eat soon; that would help him recover faster. Coming to the edge of the woods, Jack froze when he realized a good fifty feet of distance separated him from the sea he smelled and heard beyond.

  With his superior vampire vision, he took in details he would never have noticed when he was still human. The open expanse of land didn’t go straight to the sea as it appeared to do when he first saw the moon shining on the waves. Now he realized there was a delineation between the sea and the land and that the ocean lay far below the cliffs across from him.

  He was edging back to blend into the trees again when a woman sprinted out of the woods a hundred feet away from him. With no knowledge of what awaited her, she bolted for the edge of the cliffs. Jack opened his mouth to shout a warning, but before he could do so, two vampires burst out of the woods behind her.

  The sound the vamps made as they chased her down reminded him of hyenas circling their prey. The woman screamed as they pounced on her. Their laughter echoed in the night as they tore into her like stoners at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

  And he should know; he’d once been a stoner drooling over a buffet while in high school. He and Doug had smoked together a few times, but that time they decided they required more food than either of their houses could provide and headed for the buffet a couple of towns over.

  They’d stood there and stared at the giant assortment of food before diving in with a gusto that would make any warthog back away. After their tenth trip to the buffet, the manager kicked them out. They left in a fit of laughter and with their pockets full of cookies.

  Jack didn’t know why he was thinking about that now when he should be leaving here; the vamps hunting him were closer than Jack had realized, and he was wounded, but he couldn’t walk away.

  He’d never really given a damn for anyone outside his friends and family, but these assholes had pushed him into a state of pissed off he’d never experienced before. Never one for justice, he was more of a “not my business” type of guy, but these asswipes deserved a good beating.

  Looking around him, he discovered a sturdy stick and hefted it into his hands. It was perfect for stabbing someone or bashing in their heads. Determined to destroy them, he started out of the woods to save the woman, but before he made it two steps, three more vamps emerged from the woods and ran toward the others.

  Jack didn’t have a chance to go after them before the woman’s screams abruptly cut off. It seemed the first two vamps preferred not to share their kill with the new arrivals.

  Jack stood at the edge of the woods, trying to decide what to do. As much as he wanted to destroy every last one of them, he couldn’t take on five by himself. Two he could have handled, especially with the element of surprise on his side, but he had no chance against five of them while injured.

  He needed to get away before someone discovered him standing there. Jack slipped into the woods and headed away from the ocean. He listened for any hint of something else nearby, but the creaking of the trees in the breeze and the scuttle of late-night forest animals was all he heard. The scent of pine, earth, and decaying leaves filled his nose.

  The sky was lightening to the gray of dawn when he paused to lean against a massive pine. Sleep dragged at his eyes, and his side throbbed like a son of a bitch; he needed rest to heal faster. He doubted much sunlight pierced through the thickness of the forest, but the Savages pursuing him would be reluctant to move about in the day; it could be a death sentence if they were caught in the sun’s rays. If he was going to get any rest, now was the time to do it.

  A squirrel poked its head out of a hole in the tree over his head before ducking back inside. Hunger caused Jack’s fangs to prick, but he didn’t bother going after the squirrel; he required bigger prey to sate his thirst.

  If he couldn’t find larger prey, Jack would turn to the squirrels, but with his appetite, he’d drain a squirrel before he could stop himself. He’d killed animals before, but he hated doing it. Pushing himself away from the tree, he started through the woods again. The birds were beginning to sing, and their claws scratched against the bark of the tree as they flitted through the branches.

  The woods were mostly in shadow, but patches of sunlight filtered through to dance across the forest floor. The feral scent of a larger animal caught his attention, and saliva filled his mouth. A cracking branch on his right caused him to stop with his foot in the air. Tilting his head to the side, he listened for more as the birds went silent.

  That’s not good.

  Jack spotted a thick cluster of evergreens to his right, and without making any sound, he jogged over to the trees. Carefully pulling aside some of the branches, he slid between the trees. In the center of the copse of trees was a small, open section.

  He settled the branches into place as two vampires emerged from behind a pair of boulders. The vamps wore black coats with gold patches reading “Security” on them. He’d seen the same coats on the vamps who held them captive in the barn.

  Security for what?

  Jack didn’t know what he and his friends were mixed up in here, but if whatever it was required security, that meant there were more vamps somewhere nearby, vamps who were in charge, because these vamps would not be security for a bunch of humans. But where were they and how many Savages were involved in this mess?

  He briefly contemplated going out there and killing them, but though he was healing, his side felt like someone had taken a hammer to it and he was starving. Risking possible recapture or death wasn’t worth it.

  A branch snapping outside his hiding spot alerted him that the vamps were still out there. Clutching his stick, he followed the sounds of their footsteps as they moved around the trees. The pine trees masked their odor from him and his from them.

  Then, the footsteps moved away. Jack’s shoulders relaxed as he lowered his branch and gazed around his surroundings. With the sun unable to penetrate the center of the trees, the interior limbs had died off to create a five-foot-wide hollow in the center. Pine needles, sticks, and pine cones littered the ground, and the branches offered a foot of clearing over his head.

  When he took another step back, the ground gave way. Jack bit back a startled shout as he plunged downward.

  Chapter Two

  He fell about ten feet before he landed on his ass. His broken rib protested the abrupt stop, but it had healed enough that he didn’t feel it shifting around inside there. The rich aroma of the earth filled his nostrils as broken sticks, pine needles, and dirt rained down on him from above. Launching himself back to his feet, he started to turn to take in his new surroundings when the cool tip of metal touched his throat, and he froze.

  “Don’t move,” a low voice commanded in his ear.

  Shit! Charlie thought as she gazed at the back of the man before her. She’d never considered that she would encounter this mess today. Sure, if the hunt was going on, there was a greater chance of someone finding their way into the tunnels, but the hunt wasn’t for another week.

  So that meant the man before her was most likely an enemy, except he wasn’t wearing one of the security coats, and he didn’t have any of the weapons the Savages usually carried with them. Instead, unlike the pristine hunters and security, dirt covered his clothes and streaked his face, but he had fallen into the pit, so she couldn’t expect him to be spotless.

  Still, something didn’t feel right about this. She glanced at the opening of the pit, but she didn’t see anyone else up ther
e. Security and a lot of the hunters moved together in groups, but this guy was alone. She knew he was a vampire, like her, but she couldn’t tell if he smelled off like Mal—the vampire who saved her—said the Savages did.

  Pitching her voice low, she commanded the vamp to “Drop the stick.”

  When the knife bit deeper into his skin, Jack’s hand tightened on the stick. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but neither was a knife against a vampire. Sure, having his throat slit didn’t sound like a great time, but he wasn’t going down without a fight.

  He stared at the dirt wall across from him as he tried to take in as many details about the pit as he could. Unable to see all of it, Jack guessed the space was about ten-by-ten feet wide. Tree roots dangled over his head, and rocks protruded from the dirt wall across from him.

  “Drop it,” the voice hissed, and warm blood trickled down his throat when the knife bit into his skin.

  Instead of releasing the stick, and careful not to make much noise, Jack swung his arm back and hit his attacker in the side. With his other hand, he knocked the knife away from his throat, but not before more of his blood spilled.