Title: Blood Secrets
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: April 22 2016
Edition/Formats It Will Be Available In: eBook & Print
Blurb/Synopsis:
When your life is messed up to begin
with, how much worse can it really get?
Heather
Ryan's life has never been simple. The latest in a long line of descendants who
have made it their mission to hunt down and slay the Ancient Vampire, Marko
Pavel, she is also the first born Infected. Up until recently, the biggest
downside to living with the Vampyrric Virus was simply that she craved blood,
but after receiving a DVD from her deceased Grandmother Sofia and being
kidnapped with friend and so called guardian Werewolf, Brendan Daniels, she
quickly discovers that she is also the inspiration behind the Vampires’ attempt
to create a whole new breed of super monsters—Hybrids.
The truth comes at a cost, but how
much does one have to sacrifice to gain success?
Following
the breadcrumbs left by her psychic Grandmother, Heather and Brendan find
themselves in new territory. Venice is where Heather hopes to find Marie, the
second Bloodling of Marko, along with Brendan's three taken Pack members. But
an old Peace Pact between the Italian Pack and the Colony means they are left
hunting blind, and due to the Italian Alpha's reluctance to believe their story
of kidnap and experimentation on Loup-Garous, time is running out. So when help
comes from an unlikely source, they have no choice but to accept.
All families have secrets, but blood
can't lie.
Caught up
in an intricate and complicated scheme spun by the one she trusts the most and
the friend of her enemy, Heather soon discovers that she is the pawn in a plan
she would never have been able to conceive. But how many of her new allies were
in on the game, to begin with?
The walkway appeared desolate... Darkness
almost shrouded the passage, but the streetlights of Venice, which stretched
across the seemingly black water of the Grand Canal, cast slithers of light
through the tall stone arches. A gust of wind ran past me and I shivered, the
small tremble causing drops of water to fly from my soaked clothing and stain
the grey slabs beneath me.
A howl pierced the night sky, then another and
another; a unison of agonizing cries echoing around the maze of buildings that
made Central Venice so unique.
To say that Ken doll was going to be pissed
that I had took off was an understatement, but I couldn’t lose this chance. I
wasn’t going to lose Marie.
Pulling my sword from its sheath, I made my way
towards the intricate iron gates which were open, held in place by chains that
locked into two hoops that protruded from the grey bricks.
Moving past the rough metal, I peered into the
square, outer foyer to find the main double doors to the nest stood wide open
in invitation, giving me the perfect view of the long, quiet hallway. I inhaled
deeply. The stench of ancient earth polluted the air.
With a steadying breath, I stepped through the
doorway and past the two round pillars. Three large iron lanterns hung from the
ceiling. A mosaic of stained glass caging the bulbs inside, casting
fragments of multi-coloured light across the cream walls. The glow from them
curled around the sculptures lining the walls, the shadows of their perfect
forms stretched across the blank canvas, disfiguring as I moved past them.
My heart thundered in my chest, so loud that I
was pretty damn sure it was drowning out the squelch of water in my boots as I
tread lightly and swiftly across the coral and ivory diamond tiles. Droplets of
water continued to travel down my skin and beneath my clothes, which already
clung to me like a second skin. My curls were a drenched mess. Stray strands
had escaped the bun I had shoved my hair in earlier, the wet chunks sticking to
my face and neck.
I walked past the two sets of closed double
doors which sat across from each other. My focus strayed to the enclosed, dimly
lit stairwell on my right.... It was now blocked off by an iron
gate similar to the one protecting the front entrance. Another set of doors sat
closed to my left, but it was the archway at the end of the hallway that I was
drawn to—the only other doors that lay wide open in invitation, and despite the
light in the chamber being dim, I knew she was in there, waiting for me.
Oxygen burned my lungs. A stitch had claimed my
right side, and the scent of blood from my weeping wounds had my senses
peaking. Only this
task remains.
Tightening my grip on the hilt of my sword, I
moved into the large chamber. No furniture filled the space. All the curtains
were drawn. The dark, thick material ran the length of the wall, indicating
that the windows stood from ceiling to floor. The walls were painted in panels
of patterns so fine, but I couldn’t make out the details. Not that the
particulars of the interior of a nest ever really mattered. Although, this was
by far the fanciest I had been in. My feet faltered as my gaze landed on him.
He stood like a statue in the centre of the
room, his unseeing eyes, like white, misted glass, vacant and icy, focused on
me. He could see me. He could see right through me....
The air caught in my lungs as pain seared
through my lower back. I lurched, a scream lodged in my throat.
“You should have run while you had the chance.”
His voice sent a chill sweeping across my
already frozen flesh.
I spun, sword loose in my grip, swiping at air.
A delayed reaction, which only caused pain to ripple up my spine. Heat pulsed
at the base of my back, a seeping warmth drawing the material of my damp
T-shirt. The scent of my blood hit me once more. Shit.
“Brave of you to come back,” a female chortled.
Wiping the back of my hand across my eyes, I
looked round the room. There was nowhere for her to hide but the shadows which
claimed the corners. But why was she even hiding?
“What’s the matter, Marie? Are you afraid to
face me one-on-one?” I straightened, gritting my teeth at the splintering pain
stretching from my head to my toes. “I expected more from a first generation
Leech, more from Marko’s Bloodling than peak-a-boo-attack.”
“You flatter yourself,” he said calmly.
I did. There was no reason for her to hide from
me. Perhaps she wasn’t. Perhaps, this was just a game of cat and mouse to her,
and she wanted to draw it out for as long as possible. Despite the fact she
should be running for her wretched immortal life, despite the fact that she was
no longer safe in her own territory, she hadn’t run. She was either egotistical
or foolish, or maybe just clueless. One way or another, she was going to die
before the sun rose.
“Face me, Marie,” I growled, tightening the
grip on my sword. “Your son at least had the balls to—”
The air left my lungs as a weight barrelled
into me.
In the back of my mind, I registered my sword
slipping from my hand. A fact that was confirmed as the sound of metal
clattering against marble echoed throughout the room. My head made impact with
the wall. Pain exploded at the back of my skull. Stars burst behind my eyelids
in a rush of glittering colours. I crumpled to the floor.
“Never speak of my son, puttana disgustosa.”
The words were snarled, but seemed distant due
to the pounding in my ears. My eyes snapped open as blood coated my tongue. I
rolled onto my side, gagging, wanting so badly to throw up, and yet, I had the
urge to gulp, to swallow; to drink, and it was so damn strong.
“Pathetic.”
The word hammered at my temples, causing the
pain that already cradled my head to stab sharper.
Pathetic. Perhaps I was pathetic. Perhaps I had
been fooling myself all these years for clinging on to humanity when every
primal instinct inside me hungered for blood, even my own. I was sick. I was no
better than the monsters I killed, but I knew that already... Didn’t I?
“...you are
not human, Heather. You have been lying to yourself. Thinking you can survive
this way, lead a ‘normal life’ when you were born to be so much more...”
His words echoed in my mind, taunting me even
though he stood quietly at the centre of the room.
“It is almost laughable, the idea that you
thought you could stop us, destroy Marko after all those before you have
failed.”
Breathing fast and hard, I twisted onto my
knees. My arms trembled as I tried to push myself up.
“Where is he?” I bit the words out.
Marie’s foot connected with my abdomen. A
crunch met my ears. Another scream lodged in my throat. Fists clenched, I
curled myself into a ball, sucking in sharp breaths through my teeth as I tried
to fight past the pain pulsing inside me.
“Where. Is. Marko?” The words were broken and
strained as I tried to lift my head to look at her.
Marie grabbed me by my hair. A strangled cry
burst from my lips as she dragged me up, sliding me against the wall. Nausea
exploded in my stomach. Numbness claimed my cheeks and neck. I kicked
helplessly. My legs were deadweight, but pins and needles shot through my
calves each time my boots scuffed against the brick. I couldn’t feel my
fingertips as I wrapped my hands round her wrist, feebly trying to break her
iron grip.
She grabbed me by the throat with her free hand
and pinned me high above her head. My hands dropped to the arm now holding me
against the cold wall. My eyes widened as she stepped closer, into the soft
stream of light coming through the doorway. If I could have breathed, I would
have stopped at the sight of her angular, almost amphibian features.
Sweet
Jesus, so this is what a first generation Vampire in full form looks like?
Like all transformed Vampires, her head was
void of hair, but the bones beneath her face were moving. Her skin looked pasty
and brittle as it stretched across the sharp and unnatural angles of her jaw
and cheek bones. Her nose had caved into her skull, but her nostrils were large
and wide, bat-like. And her eyes—deep crimson,
so fucking inhuman, so lifeless I might have shivered if I had the strength to.
The skin wriggled across her face... She was still shifting?
How much
uglier can she get?
I jolted as something razor-sharp punched into
my gut. Blood flooded my mouth, leaking from the corners as I fought to
breathe. Tears filled my eyes as I glanced down, noting her free hand had
pushed against my abdomen, her fingers embedded deep inside me.
“In the last place you, or any of your pathetic
family, would ever think to look for him.”
Reality slowed down, or perhaps it was my
heartbeat. Perhaps I was blacking out, but despite the pins and needles that
tingled from my fingers straight down to my toes, the numbness that claimed
every part of my body, despite the only feelings I had left being pain as she
squeezed every breath of air from me, despite that, at this very moment, the
only thing I should have been thinking about was that I was about to die, that
I had failed my family, my grandmother... Brendan... a bulb pinged in my mind,
and I had never seen the light so fucking clearly.
Her tongue slithered towards me, flicking
across the blood staining my lips. She shuddered. “You should not have murdered
my son.”
A howl echoed throughout the building. Hope
fluttered in my struggling heart.
“It is time to leave.”
His voice jolted me, so innocent and calm,
completely un-fazed by the scene playing out before him.
I lurched as she pulled her hand from inside
me. Through my blurred gaze, I caught sight of the length of her now
blood-stained talons as she brought her fingers to my face.
“Die knowing that you have failed, like the
rest of your feeble family.”
Bones cracked and her jaw dislocated, her mouth
widened, as her fangs extended—
A mountain of black fur barrelled into her.
I landed on the floor. My body screamed in
protest, but no sound left me. I couldn’t feel my fingers or toes. Hell, I
couldn’t feel my body. Just the pain that resided in every point she had
struck.
Dark shadows moved around the room, accompanied
by growls and ear-splintering wails.
Another thundering howl rang through the
building. I moved my focus to the doorway and found a copper-blond Werewolf
standing in the frame. His golden gaze landed on me, widening.
My eyes fluttered, and the next thing I knew,
he was beside me.
“I know where he is,” I rasped as Brendan’s
flushed, sweat-slicked face filled my vision.
“Shit.
Heather?” Brendan’s hands fell to my stomach.
Searing pain exploded outward, stretching to my
head and toes. An inhuman cry gurgled in my throat, the action causing more
blood to ooze from my mouth.
“Christ.” Tears threatened to emerge in his
emerald gaze. His hands moved to my face. “Why—What?” His jaw was tense. A
growl vibrated in his throat. “God damn it, Heather. Why couldn’t you have
fucking waited?”
A smile touched my lips. “Because, silly Wolf—”
I closed my eyes. My brain felt as though it were churning in my skull, “—I now
know where Marko is.”
Darkness took me.
