by Haley Weir
All of the remaining shifters (even those who were loyal to Addicus) quickly fell in line behind Jasper since he was now the only one there that was capable of being an alpha.
“We need to protect the humans,” he called out. “And secure the town so that the shadow beings can’t get any more of a foothold then they already have in East Sussex. We ran them out of here once before and we can do it again.”
“You sure about that?” one of the men said as he eyed the oncoming barrage of demons. “There weren’t this many the last time.”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Jasper said confidently. “Because we don’t have any other choice.”
When the shadow beings struck, Cerise and I fought alongside each other. She was tougher than she looked, and between the silver blade that she twirled around in her hand as if it was an extension of her fingertips, and the sharp fangs that she called upon at will; I didn’t think she would have much trouble defending herself. But I guess I was wrong.
I only looked away from her for a moment, to block a vampire that was trying to lunge at me, and as soon as I had knocked him back and turned around to see where Cerise was, I saw her fall.
“Cerise!” I screamed as I dropped down to catch her head before it hit the ground.
The fighting continued around us, but a few of the shifters saw what had happened and covered me as I knelt down with Cerise’s head in my hands held against my lap.
“It’s okay,” I said as I tried not to sound as panicked as I felt. “You’ll be okay.”
She shook her head slightly and a single tear ran out from her eye. I hadn’t ever encountered death first-hand until my father died, and now it seemed to be becoming commonplace. I hated it.
Cerise reached up and grabbed my hair as she yanked my head down next to hers. It startled me for a moment, but then I realized that she was trying to whisper something to me. I tilted my ear to her mouth and pressed my eyes closed as I tried to listen and hear what she was trying to say. With her last breath, Cerise whispered a secret into my ear as a final act of betrayal against her own kind that had treated her so poorly, and as a final act of solidarity with us—the shadow beings weren’t just trying to conquer humanity; they were trying to turn all of the humans and shifters into shadow beings.
I jolted my head up in shock and tried desperately to ask her what this meant and how such a thing could even be possible. But Cerise’s eyes closed before she could answer me and I sat there in a stunned silence, surrounded by the deafening sound of battle that raged on above my head. Cerise was lost. Rye was being overrun. And now I found out that the entire mission of the shadow world was much more perilous than we had even thought. I needed to tell Jasper immediately.
I gently laid Cerise’s head down onto the ground. I would have to wait to grieve for her just as I had done for my father. There was no time now. I had to find Jasper, and I knew that he would be close by me during the fight as he always was. I turned my head around to look for him, but before I could see where he was, I felt something hard and heavy strike the back of my skull.
My vision went fuzzy and it looked like everything around me was either floating upward, or I was falling downward.
I saw Jasper now. He had gotten slightly separated across the field from me as the fighting had grown. But I saw him now as he raced toward me. There was a look of horrified panic on his face—and one of rage. He was running so fast that I thought for sure he would get to me by the time I felt my head hit the ground. But just as I saw him trying to reach me, everything went black.
When I woke up, I had no idea where I was. The place that I saw around me wasn’t one that I recognized. It was dimly lit, small, and it smelled of naga champa—an incense that my high school writing teacher used to burn in her classroom even though the school’s headmaster yelled at her about it every time he smelled it walking down the hallway. I always liked that teacher. Everyone else in the school thought she was a witch.
Ouch.
I looked beside me when I felt something cold touch the side of my head, which was pounding as fiercely as an ambitious thunderstorm. When I saw a man next to me, I jumped.
“Try to be still,” his deep and sultry voice said. “I’m trying to tend to your wounds.”
“Who are you?” I asked nervously. “And where am I?”
His face became a bit more clear as he moved the candle that was illuminating the room closer to us. I inhaled sharply when the flickering candlelight illuminated more than just his face. He was a very handsome man, but not just a man. He was a very handsome demon, with dark wings protruding from his back.
“You’re safe—for now anyways,” he said as he continued to tend to the gash on my head. “That’s all you need to know.”
Chapter Twenty
Jasper
I couldn’t get to her in time.
The same words rang over and over again in my head until my mind twisted around itself. I had been right there. I was right next to her in the fight until shifters battling some of the demons got between us and spread me further away from Peyton during the battle. I was making my way back to her when it happened.
I saw Cerise fall, and I saw Peyton go down beneath the crowd of fighting bodies. I saw our pack mates cover her as she tended to Cerise. And then, just as she stood up, I saw her get hit. I ran to her as fast as I could, but I wasn’t fast enough.
How could I not be fast enough to reach her in time?
I tortured myself over and over again with the same thought. I was supposed to protect her, and I failed. But I saw the man who hit her—a brooding demon with black wings that shot out of his back. And I was coming for him.
The battle had ended, but not because either side had earned a victory. The shadow beings simply withdrew shortly after that demon grabbed Peyton and took off into the sky with her. Its wingspan was wider than any creature I had ever seen before. As soon as he left, the rest of the shadow beings simply withdrew, and no one knew why. My guess was that they were following him. Maybe he was someone of importance. It didn’t matter who he was, because I was going to find him and end him for having taken my mate. He had no idea the wrath that was coming for him.
There were a few injured shadow beings after the fight that I had ordered my men to take prisoner. And now I had the diving pleasure of interrogating them and making them talk.
“Tell me where my mate has been taken to,” I demanded to know as I shouted into the face of a very frightened looking vampire. He looked like he was no older than a teenager, and not at all old enough to be engaging in this level of battle.
“I—I don’t know,” he stammered.
If there hadn’t been other prisoners to beat down, I would have continued with this one. But since there was still another vampire, and two demons, in my possession; I let this one off the hook.
But no matter what I threatened, or how hard I hit or scared any of them; none of them seemed to know where Peyton had been taken. Finally, I made my way back to the vampire boy.
“Please,” he begged. “I told you, I don’t know where your girlfriend has been taken to. I swear it.”
“I believe you.” I sighed as I stood in front of him.
“You do?” he whimpered. “Is this a trick?”
“No. But I want to know something else instead.”
“What is it?”
“Who is the man with the giant black wings?” I asked. “He looks like a demon of some sort. Tell me who he is.”
The boy looked more terrified of the man that I mentioned, then he did of anything that I had threatened the prisoners with thus far.
“He’s just a demon,” the boy said.
“You’re lying,” I hissed. “I can tell that you’re lying. You’re scared of that man. Who is he?”
“I don’t know,” he said as he shook his head vigorously.
“You’re lying!” I shouted.
He flinched but he stuck with his answer.
“You can do anything you want t
o me,” he said as he shook like a leaf. “But I would rather endure any of your torture than cross that demon.”
I stared at him carefully and saw that he was telling me the truth. Whoever that man was—the winged, dark demon that had Peyton—he was able to strike more fear into this vampire without even being here, than I was. My heart felt as if it dropped into the bottom of my stomach when I thought about what that demon would do to Peyton. I had to find her and get her away from him—now.
I pushed out the doorway and began to pace the street, trying to decide where to start looking for her. I had no knowledge of the shadow world, other than the little bit of information that had been passed down about the shadow beings and their walk among us. I had no leads to go on and no time to waste. Any direction that I chose to go in might be the wrong one and end up costing precious time which Peyton might not have. But not going in any direction was wasting even more time. I had to just choose a path to take and start looking for her.
“Jasper,” a voice called out from behind one of the buildings on the street.
I looked up to see an old man, a member of my makeshift pack that I had created with Peyton. He was waving me over toward him with a look of urgency. I walked quickly toward him, annoyed that anyone would be asking for my help right now when I needed to be focusing on finding Peyton.
“What is it?” I snapped at him.
“I think I might know where they have taken your mate,” he said.
My eyes widened and I could barely get my questions out of my mouth fast enough.
“What? How do you know that? Do you know who the winged demon is? Or where the shadow beings are?”
“I have heard stories,” the man said in a voice no louder than a whisper, as if he was afraid that we would be listened to and he would be caught divulging an important secret.
“What kind of stories?” I pressed.
“I have heard that there is an underground cathedral where the shadow beings congregate. It is supposed to be where they go when they are not actively engaging among us. It is like a holding place between the shadow world and the mortal world.”
“Do you know how to get there?” I asked in a frenzy. “If so, I want you to show me where it is right now.”
“Yes,” he said. “I know where it is supposed to be. But I have to tell you something first.”
“What is it?” I said in a hurry.
“I have also heard stories about how the shadow beings intend to turn humans and shifters into creatures like themselves,” he said with a worried brow that wrinkled across his forehead.
“What? That’s impossible,” I said in shock. “Shadow beings can’t turn humans into shadow beings. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“I think that is why your mate was taken,” he said sadly and with a timid fear that I would lash out at him for even suggesting such a thing. “I think the demon that took her is going to try to turn your mate into a shadow being.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Shadow beings somehow turning shifters into demons? And Peyton being their test case? Whether or not I believed this guy was irrelevant. I had to save Peyton.
“You need to take me to this underground cathedral right now,” I said.
“Okay, but you are going to want to assemble some men to accompany us. You won’t get past the gate without more men. If you want to save your mate, you need to try and think clearly and be smart. I understand the fear and anger that you’re feeling right now. I too, lost the woman that I loved a long time ago. But I acted rashly and because of my impulsiveness, I will never get her back. If you truly want to save her, you need to temper yourself. Get men together and then I will lead you there.”
“Okay,” I said as I tried to calm myself down. “Have you been to this place before?”
“No. But I was told where it was located.”
“By who?”
“By the woman that I loved and lost.”
I could tell that there was a lot more to this man’s past and a lot more to his story than I had time to ask about right now. But I could also see by the kind and forlorn look in his eyes that he was honestly sympathetic to my plight and trying to help me get Peyton back.
“Stay right here,” I told him. “I’ll go get men and meet you right back here in a few minutes.”
“I’ll be here,” he nodded.
I quickly ran and assembled a small group of my best followers. I figured that too many men would attract too much attention, but a small group of the strongest, fiercest shifters would be good.
“Okay,” I said to the man when we all got back to where he was waiting to meet us. “We’re ready to go in search of this fabled underground cathedral.”
“It’s not fabled,” he said. “But I have a feeling that we are all going to wish that it was.”
“Lead the way old man,” I said as I helped him up from where he was sitting at the side of the street.
While we walked, I heard the other men speaking quietly amongst themselves, questioning whether this old man was crazy and whether or not we were going on a wild goose chase. I had to admit as the trek dragged on at a slow pace that matched the man’s speed of walking, that I was beginning to wonder the same thing myself.
“Are we almost there?” I asked as my impatience grew to be intolerable.
“Yes,” he said calmly. “Just a little bit farther.
I tried to focus my thoughts on making it to the destination and finding Peyton. I tried to envision her beautiful face and think about her being unharmed and happy to see that I had come for her. I thought about getting her back safe and sound, and about making love to her, and getting as far away from all of this as I could take her. But then, even as I tried to stay calm, and rational, and focused on the outcome that I desired; my thoughts slid into darkness as I saw the image of that winged demon carrying Peyton’s limp body up into the sky and away from me. Just as I was visualizing the painful way in which I was going to separate his wings from his body and kill him, the old man’s voice broke through my spiraling thoughts.
“Here it is,” he said as he pointed ahead of us to a dark cavern shrouded by shadows.
I stepped inside the cave, almost ready to admit the fact that this old man was nuts and that this was nothing more than a normal cave. But then I saw it—the opening in the ground that led deep beneath the cave. The old man stepped into the cave behind me, followed by the rest of the men.
“That’s the staircase that leads down into the underground cathedral,” he said in a hushed voice. “That is where you’ll find your mate.”
Did you enjoy the book? I’d love it if you left a review.
Cann’t wait to see what happens next?
Don’t worry. Peyton and Jasper’s story is just beginning. Keep your eyes open for the next installment of the Shadow World Shifters: Captive to His Prey
Also by Haley Weir
King Aeron: Royal Wolf Shifters Book 1
Prince Theo: Royal Wolf Shifters Book 2
Rubius’ Throne: Royal Wolf Shifters Book 3
Dex’s Kingdom: Royal Wolf Shifters Book 4
About the Author
Haley Weir is an author from South New Jersey. Obsessed with all things romance, you can catch her over at www.FictionObsessed.com, where she is one of the head writers.
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