by E. C. Land
A Demon’s Song
Dark Lullabies Book 4
E.C. Land
Contents
Acknowledgments
Character List
Playlist
Love of a Demon
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
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Prologue
Available Now
Available on Audible
Coming Soon
Social Media
A Demon’s Song
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
A Demon’s Song. Copyright © 2020 by E.C. Land. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations used in articles or reviews. For information, contact E.C. Land.
With there being characters mentioned from Elizabeth Knox’s series, I have her permission in using these characters.
Publisher: Knox Publishing
Cover Design by Charli Childs, Cosmic Letterz Cover Design
Editing by Kim Lubbers, Knox Publishing
Formatting by E.C. Land, Knox Publishing
Proofreading by Jackie Ziegler, Knox Publishing
Created with Vellum
To my husband.
Nothing beats having him show his support in following my dreams. I know he always has my back and his ear whenever I truly need it.
Acknowledgments
My Family – As much as I want to be thankful for all of them, the four who I have to thank are the ones closest to me. My husband and our children. They keep inspiring and pushing me to keep going. My husband for sure, considering he puts up with my rambling and lets me be me no matter how much I annoy him. Even sends me music when I need encouragement. My kids, who find what I do, as they put it, cool and want to know how many words I was able to get in each day. They also like to try and help me come up with plot ideas. Some are just as wicked as my own.
My Betas – You guys rock! Thank you all for being the first to read the stories as they come alive. It means the world to me. Especially when you all start to get mad. That’s when I know I’m doing something right. And in doing so pushing me to keep going with all the different plots that form in my head. I’m thankful to you all for being ready and willing to read and give your input.
My Knox Publishing People – If it wasn’t for you all being helpful and encouraging when I need it, I don’t know what I’d do without you all. You’re all wonderful in your own right and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The biggest thing I’ve got to say I’m thankful for most, is the fact I’m able to be around those who understand the way my mind works. Each and every one of you have earned a special place in my life, one way or another.
Liz – My sister from another mister, my best friend and Publisher/Boss. You’re my go to when I need it. If not for you, I don’t know if I’d ever be where I am today with my writing. Thank you for always pushing me and encouraging me.
Diane – Without you taking everything on for me, I wouldn’t be able to focus the way I do on my writing. Thank you for everything you do. You’re not just my PA, you’re my friend and I couldn’t ask for a better friend than you.
Kim and Jackie – I know I’m a pain in the rear; however, you both put up with me. Thank you both for taking on all of my work. I love the fact I work with you both on each of them. Also, the fact when it comes to something I miss, you help me understand how to correct it, so it doesn’t happen again.
Character List
Chaz – Bethany
Melody (Chaz’s daughter with Jamie)
Chase
Tanner – Alexis
Lyra & Lennox
Lex – Mackenzie
Hunter – Annslee
Huntson
You’ve met all the characters from the Devil’s Riot MC and don’t worry Satan’s Keepers MC members will be coming here soon!
Oh, and let’s not forget meeting all the new characters to come.
Are you ready to see what their stories hold? I’ll tell you this much, you’re in for one hell of a ride with some of these ladies and gents.
Trigger Warning
This content is intended for mature audiences only. It contains material that may be viewed as offensive to some readers, including graphic language, dangerous and sexual situations, murder, rape, and extreme violence.
Proceed with caution. This book does entail several scenes that may very well be a trigger to some.
Also, tissues are a must with other scenes.
Not for the faint at heart.
If you don’t like violence and cannot handle certain subjects, then this is not a book you’ll want to read.
Playlist
Nothing More – Fade In/Fade Out
Slipknot – Snuff
Tucker Beathard – Faithful
Crucifix – Mindfield
DJ Winn (Ft. Struggle Jennings & Hard Target) – River
Granger Smith – Tailgate Town
Jelly Roll – Nothing Left At All
Brabo Gator (Ft. Ashley Fletcher) – Weakness
Breaking Benjamin – Dear Agony
Brianna Harness – Warrior
Love of a Demon
Hate me if you will
Scream out your hatred for what I’ve done
Turn away from me if you must
Beat me to the ground for my part
If this is how you show me your love
I’m demented in the head
Love isn’t supposed to be this way
You’re supposed to hold me close
Not pull away and leave me cold
Love of a demon should never feel this way
A part of me is always grieving for more
As you show me the way you love
By hating me with the love of a demon
~ E.C. Land
Prologue
Hunter
There are times in a person’s life when you want to do nothing but lean your head back and scream at the top of your lungs. Pain is nothing new in my life. I’ve felt the burden of it from the time I turned ten and lost my twin sister to her fight against leukemia.
Losing her felt as if I’d lost a part of me. It was when I lost her, I met Chaz, Tanner, and Lex. If not for them, I would have succeeded in my first attempt in taking my life. They brought me into the music shop we now own, where I was introduced into the healing powers of music. The man who owned the place taught us all how to play different instruments as well as read notes.
The second time I tried to take my life, it was Chaz’s daughter who pulled me back from the edge of falling down the rabbit hole. None of us knew about her mom having a history of bone marrow cancer or that she’d relapsed. This triggered something inside me, bringing back visions of seeing Hailey wither away due to her own.
Chaz had to have sensed where my head was ‘cause he’d placed Melody in my arms while saying ‘My girl needs her uncle Hunt, don’t take her chance to know him away from her. Not when she needs you as much as the rest of us need you.’ I remember looking down at her tiny face at two weeks old, Melody was yawning as she stretched her little body, eyes on me. I knew then I’d do anyt
hing for her.
However, for the reasons of losing two amazing people in my life, I hate being in hospitals and over the past two years I’ve been in enough of them.
This being one of the worst experiences of them all as we sit around waiting on news of how Chaz and Bethany along with the baby she was carrying are doing.
When Lex got the call Chaz and Bethany were at the hospital, I could already feel myself slipping. Losing them would be too fuckin’ much. Not after everything else.
I’d been in my head, standing with my brothers while they spoke about finding Lex’s woman, Mackenzie, who’d been in the truck as well. From what I gathered before zoning out, I knew this was all due to Lex’s fucked up Uncle Justin.
“Got it,” Gadget calls out, drawing me from the dark road that twists and turns inside me. At the sound of the electric doors, I tilt my head in the direction to find Connors, Gadget and his brother Dragon’s, ol’ lady coming our way. Hopefully with good news. Knowing my luck it won’t be.
“How are they?” I ask, stepping forward along with Tanner and Lex.
“Bethany is in surgery now so they can deliver the baby. Chaz is awake; however, he looks pretty banged up. He has several broken ribs and one of his arms is broken. We won’t know about Bethany until after the baby is out. He’s priority right now,” Connors informs us and I don’t know whether to feel relieved to know my brother would be okay or fall to my knees in dread at the thought of not only him losing Bethany and his baby but all of us. Better yet, anger at Justin for causing this to happen.
“You guys stay here; I’m going to go find Mackenzie. Don’t let Anabelle out of your sight please,” Lex commands, his eyes filled with a fire, we rarely saw. He kept his demons buried deep not letting them out.
I don’t say anything as I nod. Tanner steps forward, pulls Lex into a hug the way he does with all of us. Me on the other hand, I’m different from the others. I can’t do the emotional bullshit. I shut down and can’t stand that shit.
“Do what you have to do. Make it hurt and bring your girl here when you’re done. We’ll be here. We got this. You handle the rest,” Tanner said and though I didn’t say it, I nodded in agreement. Mackenzie was just as important to our family as Chaz and Bethany. Along with Alexis, Tanner’s wife.
Between what happened to both Bethany and Alexis, it nearly drove me over the edge but my brothers needed me to be strong for them and knowing they’d come through it, I was able to keep from taking that last few steps.
“Thanks, Tan. I’ll text you when I’m on the way back,” Lex mutters and turns his attention to Gadget. “Where?” he demands.
“Sent the address to your phone along with my brothers,” Gadget grunts turning to Twister, the president of the Devil’s Riot MC. “Prez, what do you want to do?”
As they go about finishing their discussion my attention is turned back to the dark place inside my head. It’s a demon that can’t seem to release its hold. The demon merely slithers its way forward when anything stressful hits my life, telling me I need to just end it all before anything else can happen or I lose another person I care about.
Movement in my peripheral vision catches my attention. Turning in the direction, I find Annslee, a woman I haven’t seen since the day she moved out of our house after Connors gave Chaz the all clear after he’d been shot, nearly dying in the middle of the street when Bethany was kidnapped.
I couldn’t say I was heartbroken about her leaving. I was honestly more than happy to see her go. Something about her rubs me the wrong way and I don’t understand it. But I do remember the two of us sharing one night where she was in my bed. I’d fucked her until she was nearly screaming the house down. If I hadn’t claimed her mouth when she came, my brothers would have been at my door demanding to know what the fuck was up.
The next morning, she was gone from my bed and our house. I hadn’t seen her since but right now staring at her as she holds a little boy who’s maybe a little over a year old in her arms crying his eyes out, something in my chest begins to knot.
Annslee’s eyes meet mine and I’m confused as to why hers widen. She then proceeds to turn on her heel and rush right back out of the ER.
What the fuck?
Shaking my head, I turn my attention back to matters at hand. I don’t have time to worry about Annslee or anything else for that matter. Right now, I need to focus on making sure my family doesn’t lose another person.
Mainly Bethany or her baby.
Chapter One
Annslee
One Year, Two months, Three days ago
“What are you going to name him?” Connors asks as she stands next to my bed in the labor and delivery room holding my little boy.
“Huntson,” I murmur. The moment I found out my baby was a boy; I knew exactly what I would name him. I wanted him to have a piece of his father, didn’t matter to me that Hunter hated me or that he didn’t know about his son. I still wanted my baby to have that small little nugget.
Nine months ago, I made a mistake I won’t ever regret in sleeping with Hunter. A member of a local band called A Demons Among Us also a friend of Doctor Connors’ men. Strange as it is, she married twin brothers. It didn’t bother me one bit if she had one husband, two or three. Everyone deserved to be happy.
I grew up in a strict home. I wasn’t allowed to do anything without my father breathing down my neck making sure I did it right. For example, when I make my bed, there shouldn’t be one wrinkle showing and the corners had to be tucked neatly. Another one being my schoolwork, I made anything under an A, I was punished severely for it.
Living with my parents, life had not only been suffocating, I was scared of my own shadow, I barely survived the punishments. I bare the scars of my actions for not biding by his rules.
When I left for college, I was supposed to be going to an all girls school and coming home to marry a man more than twenty years older than me. Within the first week after being at this school, I dropped out, using this as my way of escaping a life I didn’t want. I ran as far as I could without leaving the country. I found myself in Franklin, Virginia. I figured I could easily blend in here and my father, Lawrence Richmond, wouldn’t be able to find me. Nor would Terry Nelson, the man I was supposed to vow my life to.
“I like it,” Connors states, giving me a knowing look. Both her and Jordan knew the truth of who Huntson’s father was. They both encouraged me to tell him. Only I was too scared to approach him. I don’t know what it was about Hunter, but he unnerved me. Though I enjoyed everything he’d done to my body that one night, I couldn’t approach him with this news. He didn’t even like me. The night I was in his bed I knew it would be a one-time thing and I made sure to leave before he could yell at me. Anytime I was around him he would speak to me with such a harsh tone, I didn’t want to subject my son to this.
After explaining my reasons to Connors and Jordan, they understood and didn’t push. Stated they would be there for me no matter what. They easily became close friends of mine after I started working in the clinic Connors opened. It took me a bit, but I’d worked my butt off to get myself through school to get to where I am now.
Now I have a beautiful baby boy, I love dearly, and I could not ask for anything more. Sure, it’s going to be a rough road ahead, but I can handle it. Huntson means everything to me.
“Are you sure you don’t want to tell him?” she asks quietly.
“I’m sure. It was a one-time only thing, and I don’t want him to feel he needs to be in our lives. He hates me and I’m willing to bet he would not be happy to know he got me pregnant,” I murmur just as quietly, dropping my gaze to where my hands are clasped together in front of me.
“Okay, your secret is safe with me but remember if you need anything, I’m here for you. Same for Jordan,” Connors states leaning in to hand me my son.
“Thank you,” I murmur, giving her a smile.
“You’re welcome, Annslee. You, Jordan, and me, we’re family. Though you might no
t be by blood, all the same you’re one of us. Gadget and Dragon, even Badger would do anything for you cause of our claim on you. Now you get some rest and I’ll go out and get you something to eat. I’m not about to let you eat this hospital food here. It sucks.” Tears well in my eyes as Connors makes this statement.
Family.
It’s all I ever wanted. Well one that actually, truly cared. This might not be exactly how I wanted it to be but all the same it’s a wonderful feeling to finally have.
Present Day
Crap on a stick. I want nothing more than to bang my head against the car window. Why did he have to be in there? Better yet why did he have to see me.
If it wasn’t for Huntson being sick and running a fever, I wouldn’t have even been in there. I’d done everything in my power to stay clear of Hunter and there he stood. In the midst of his friends with a look of misery dimming his eyes. Didn’t matter I only met his gaze for a brief moment, I saw it.
I don’t know why he was in the waiting room of the ER but I need to go back in there. Pulling my phone out, I pull up Connors’ number. I’d seen Gadget and Dragon leaving with a bunch of other members of the club they’re in.