Chaos and courage

by Willow Rose

  Mr. Aran nodded. "I am a man of my word."

  "What bargain?" Jazmine asked. "Robyn, what are you up to?"

  I put a hand up for her to wait while Mr. Aran let out some high-pitched sound that immediately made all the spiders stop what they were doing and retract. Seconds later, the cul-de-sac was void of spiders.

  "And now for the other part of our agreement," I said.

  "Agreement? Robyn, what's going on?" Jayden asked.

  Mr. Aran gave me a look. "You drive a hard bargain, Miss Jones. But I made you a promise."

  He grabbed the machine and held it up, then turned it on. All my friends recoiled with a gasp, but they didn't know what I knew. As Mr. Aran turned it on, he didn't turn it on the way he usually did. He turned it on in reverse, which meant souls weren't sucked into it but blown out of it.

  A second later, a shadow appeared in front of them. Jayden stepped forward.

  "L-Logan?"

  The figure nodded. Jayden ran to hug him, but his hands ran straight through him.

  "You have twenty-four hours to dig up their bodies," Mr. Aran said. "If you don't, then their souls will be lost." He then turned on the machine again, and Jazmine's dad slid out.

  "DAAAD!"

  She approached him, tears springing to her eyes. "You're here?"

  He was crying too. "Jazmine, my baby. I was always here."

  After that, things started to go fast. Next released was Adrian, then Duncan's mom, then my annoying triplet cousins, then Amy's dad, along with every other soul they had taken over the past ten months. Except for my mom's. Hers they were keeping, or rather, it wasn't really hers.

  "I believe we're done here," Mr. Aran said when he was done. "We're even now."

  He turned around, then left, and we stood behind, glaring his way as he walked to his motorcycle and got on it. His wife got on hers, Alice in the sidecar, and they all took off along with the remaining spiders. The sound of their roaring bikes echoed off the walls.

  "Will they be back, do you think?" Amy asked coming up behind me.

  "Nope," I said. "That was the agreement. I gave them the beast they’ve been looking for over the centuries; they gave us peace and our loved ones back. They'll never touch us again."

  Amy swallowed her tears, then hugged me. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that."

  "What do you think they want with it?" Jayden asked.

  I shrugged. "Warfare probably. Just not with us anymore."

  We turned around and looked into the cul-de-sac where people were slowly coming back to themselves. Jayden's parents soon came running, and his mother almost fainted as she spotted Logan's soul.

  "W-what's going on here?" she asked.

  "Yes, what's going on? Amy?" Amy's mom asked.

  "Jazmine?" Aunt Tina said.

  "Guess we have some explaining to do," I said and spotted my mom as she came out of the crowd, staggering along on her high heels, still dressed as Darth Vader, looking like she’d had too much to drink.

  "What's going on here?" she hissed, not even noticing the skin of herself as she stepped on it. "Robyn? Have you done all this? Did you ruin the party?"

  I chuckled. "Yes, Mom. I guess I did. Now, if you'll help me clean up my mess?"

  My mother let out a deep sigh that sounded really creepy when coming from inside her mask. I grabbed her hand in mine as my grandmother came up to us on the other side and put her arm around her daughter.

  "I guess that's what we mothers do, isn't it?" my mom said. "Clean up after our children."

  Chapter Seventy

  "So, you completely forgot about your dad?"

  We were sitting in Jazmine's kitchen. Amy was cooking, and we were keeping her company while eating some of the delicious pie she had put together for us earlier. I was sitting in Jayden's lap, and he had his arm around me. Jazmine was holding Adrian's hand, while Kipp was helping Amy out in the kitchen and they were constantly bumping into each other. Melanie was there too along with the Tinfoil guy, whom she had started to date, much to everyone's surprise.

  I nodded. "We found him, though. He had been in the abandoned house all this time but had gotten lost somehow in the tunnels below. The beast had thought he was human when attacking him, and when realizing he wasn't, he had just thrown him in the tunnels. My dad got stuck there, not knowing where he was. He stayed down there and was feeding off of rats and other critters he met on his way. It wasn't until Jayden and I went down there again when searching for him that we spotted him and helped him get out. It was quite the mess."

  "But he's all right?"

  I nodded. "He's a vampire. Not much can happen, can it?"

  "I just don't understand where this beast was for twenty-five years," Jayden said. "I mean you tracked it to Mr. Ward's girlfriend, right? And then what happened to it?"

  "A shapeshifter like that sleeps for twenty-five years between killing," Jazmine said.

  "It's my guess that while being Shirley, Mr. Ward's girlfriend," I said, "it went into the abandoned house and fell asleep. It woke up when our parents started to use the place for their secret meetings that they didn't want us to find out about. During one of those meetings, it must have taken Jayden's dad and become him without anyone seeing it happen. After that, it worked its way through many of us—hiding in plain sight."

  "Wow," Amy said when something boiled over in her pot, and she cursed. Kipp soon handed her a towel and helped her wipe it off.

  "I’m just glad it is all over," Jazmine said with a deep sigh. She glanced into the living room where her dad was pacing back and forth nervously.

  They had all gotten their bodies back, and all the families had returned to normal. My cousins had gone back to live with their own mother and Adrian was going back to college soon. I was dating Jayden now, and Duncan had understood that and backed off, even though it was reluctantly. Ruelle was completely out of the picture since she and her family had decided to move back to France. So, I didn't need to worry about her or anyone else coming between us again.

  Even my parents were learning to accept the fact that I was seeing Jayden now. I was done with secrecy and had told them they simply had to live with it. I wasn't going to live a double life anymore. It was too much trouble.

  "So, did you ever find out why your parents suddenly hated each other so much?" Jazmine asked Jayden and me.

  I chuckled. "As a matter of fact, we did."

  Jayden chuckled too when thinking about the story that his mother had finally given us.

  "We thought it was because I’m supposed to become a vampire and Jayden was supposed to become a werewolf, but that wasn't it."

  Jazmine wrinkled her forehead. "Then what was it?"

  "Apparently, they were fighting over a tree."

  "A tree?" they all said in unison.

  I nodded. "Yes, apparently, we had a tree in our front yard that my mom loved because it blocked out the sunlight, but Jayden's parents wanted them to get rid of it since all its leaves blew into their yard and they had to constantly rake during the fall. They also felt that it blocked their afternoon sun and they like having sunlight in their house. So, apparently, they asked them to cut it down and, when they wouldn't, the fight began. One morning they woke up, and the tree had fallen overnight. Cracked. My mom naturally thought the Smiths had done it whereas Jayden's parents argued that there must have been a storm."

  "And that was why you weren't allowed to see one another?" Kipp asked.

  I nodded and grabbed another cookie when there was a sound coming from outside the front door. We all looked at one another, then at Jazmine, who froze.

  A car door slammed outside, and then there were footsteps approaching. Jazmine grabbed Adrian's hand and stood to her feet, then yelled at her dad.

  "They're here!"

  Her dad came out and corrected his shirt, sweating nervously. "How do I look?"

  Jazmine stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.

  "Dashing, Dad. Just dashing."

 
He breathed in, then grabbed her by the shoulders. "You ready?"

  "Never been more ready."

  "All right. Let's go say hello to your mom."

  I felt Jayden's hand in mine while we let them greet Jazmine's mom in peace. Jayden leaned down and kissed me.

  "That was nice," I said. "Let's just stay here forever like this, can we please?"

  Amy served the spaghetti on the dining table while Jazmine and her dad came in with her mother, arms tight around one another, tears in their eyes. Aunt Tina, who had picked her up at the jail when she was released, came in behind them.

  It was part of my agreement with Mr. Aran that Jazmine’s mom and Ruelle were cleared. He had infiltrated the police so deep; it would be no problem for him to have the cases go away. And he had kept his word. I couldn't help thinking this beast had to be very powerful and important for him to give us so much in exchange for it.

  "You do realize we have school on Monday, right? And mid-terms coming up," Jayden said.

  I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Ugh. I completely forgot."

  Jayden chuckled. "Can hardly be anything compared to all we’ve been through this year."

  "You have a point," I smiled and kissed him before we all went and sat at the table and dug into Amy's delicious food. I enjoyed myself in the company of my dear friends.

  "Happy birthday, Robyn," Amy said and lifted her glass.

  "It's not until tomorrow," I said. "But thanks."

  "To Robyn," Jayden said.

  "To Robyn,” they all agreed.

  I sat back drinking my sweet tea, then decided to not worry about my future or anything regarding it. At least not for now.

  There was, after all, still one year left before I had to decide whether I wanted to become a vampire or not.

  THE END

  Afterword

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for purchasing Chaos and Courage (The Vampires of Shadow Hills#10). I hope the ending lived up to all your expectations. I, for one, had tons of fun writing this story.

  Don't forget to leave a review if you can. It means so much to me.

  Thank you for all your support,

  Willow

  Books by the Author

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  What Hurts the Host (7th Street Crew #1) - Grab your copy today

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  Chaos and Courage - Will be out January, 2019.

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  About the Author

  The Queen of Scream aka Willow Rose is a #1 Amazon Best-selling Author and an Amazon ALL-star Author of more than 50 novels. She writes Mystery, Paranormal, Romance, Suspense, Horror, Supernatural thrillers, and Fantasy.

  Willow's books are fast-paced, nail-biting page-turners with twists you won't see coming.

  Several of her books have reached the Kindle top 20 of ALL books in the US, UK, and Canada.

  She has sold more than two million books.

  Willow lives on Florida's Space Coast with her husband and two daughters. When she is not wri
ting or reading, you will find her surfing and watch the dolphins play in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

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  Part One

  Beyond, Afterlife Book 1

  Excerpt

  For a special sneak peak of Willow Rose's Bestselling Paranormal Romance Beyond turn to the next page.

  Chapter One

  How do I say this? Well, the thing is … I am a spirit. Before you close this book because you don’t believe in a life after death, just take a deep breath and listen to my story. It might be interesting to you. You might want to know that death is only the beginning of the next great adventure. I know I would have liked to have known that when I was still alive.

  Maybe you do believe that there is an afterlife, maybe you have even seen us, or at least seen what we can do. Either way I am sure you will enjoy my story.