by J. N. Baker
“That bastard needs to die,” I said, not caring who heard me. What were they going to do, add more chains to my already chained up body?
“Maybe they both do,” Rhett replied, and I didn’t think for a second that he meant William and James. “Maybe the Chosen should all die and let the rest of us live our goddamned lives in peace. The second I figure out how to get my brother out, we are getting the fuck out of here. I’m done being a pawn in your kind’s games.”
He wasn’t the only one.
Faint footsteps started down the stairs and my eyes darted to the door.
“Go,” I told Rhett.
By the time the door opened, Rhett the rat scampered out of the dungeon, slipping silently right past William’s feet. The Viking of a man didn’t notice the rodent, too fixated on me.
“Who were you talking to?”
“My fairy-fucking-godmother,” I replied, not missing a beat. “We were negotiating a pair of glass heels I could break off in your ass.”
“You are making this more difficult than it needs to be.”
I watched William stalk toward my cell, predator locked onto its prey. Only what he didn’t realize was that I was the predator in this situation.
“You still have a lot of fight left in you,” he said, wrapping his big hands around the cell door, just like he’d done in my vision. “But everyone has their breaking point. Even you. You are one of us. You belong with us. And you will stay in here until you remember that. However long it takes. Whatever it takes.”
“You’ll never control me again,” I shot back and meant it.
“We shall see about that,” he mused.
I pulled against my restraints. “Where is Annie?” I called after him as he started to leave. “I want to see Annie.”
“She does not want to see you,” William said as he left the room, only to be replaced by my third least favorite person in the whole godforsaken world.
“Miss me, Sparky?” Jade sneered, strolling into the dungeon with a sword on her hip and a wicked gleam in her eye. Looked like she was going to be playing the role of bad cop. Fantastic. I mean, she couldn’t be much worse than Roland, right?
“Like someone misses a damn kidney stone,” I replied with my best go-fuck-yourself smile. “I take it Alec wasn’t lying when he said you knew about William?”
She snorted. “This world is a disgrace and we are going to fix it. I will never serve another man again. They will serve me.”
Pulling a key from her pocket, she jammed it into the lock, swinging the barred door open and stepping into my cell. The second the door clicked shut, one Jade became three. They cracked their knuckles in unison.
“I’m going to enjoy the shit out of this,” the real Jade said and I knew she meant every word. Her whole body was practically humming with excitement. “My name is payback, and I’m a bitch.”
I sat huddled in the corner of my prison cell, coated in a fresh layer of dried blood and exhausted from my one-sided fist fight with Jade.
“You have picked a side, I see.”
I dragged my gaze up to where Godfrey stood in front of my cell door. I hadn’t even heard William’s little vampire buddy come in.
“Beating-the-prisoner visiting hours are over,” I said, dropping my head back onto my knees. “Come back tomorrow between the hours of ‘fuck’ and ‘you’ if you want a piece of the action.”
The ancient vampire chuckled, dragging over a stool. Apparently, he planned to stay a while.
“Did you know I once worked for Baldric?” he asked as he sat down. “I, too, once chose to follow him, and it led to my ruin.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
A soft smile touched his lips but didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I suppose by now you have been told what happened by both men. Perhaps you would like to hear it from someone who was there. I cannot show you fancy images as Baldric and William can, but I can give you the truth.”
I snorted. “And I suppose your truth is the ‘real’ truth?”
“I have been many things in my time,” Godfrey said firmly, “but a liar I am not. Do you wish to hear what I have to say?”
“Fine,” I told him and he nodded. What was one more version of the truth on the ever-growing pile?
“I was one of Baldric’s soldiers before the war. When the king fell, I knew it could never have been Baldric as William proclaimed. Baldric respected King Arthur far too much to have done something so sinister. When Baldric led an army against the other Chosen, I gladly fought beside him. I was prepared to die for our cause. I knew the Chosen had to be stopped at all costs before their need for power corrupted them further.
“After the war, Baldric was a broken man. He had lost everything. When he left that day, I truly never expected to see him again. And then he reappeared, more powerful than ever and determined to stop William once and for all.”
“And yet you aren’t fighting for him now,” I pointed out.
“No,” he confirmed, “I am not. Baldric quickly realized he could turn others into vampires—he was the only one who could sire more of the creatures. He started to build his army of powerful beings.
“Many flocked to him, willingly handing over their lives for immortality, pledging to help Baldric rid the world of the man who sought to destroy it. At the time, my beautiful wife had just had our second child. I told Baldric I would fight for him, but I did not want to live forever. But he would not take no for an answer. He wanted his army to be all-powerful. He transformed many people against their will, myself included. I was forced to leave my family rather than watch them grow old and die.”
“So, you decided to work for William instead?” Was it just like the shadow people? Did Godfrey believe it was one or the other—either Baldric or William—no gray area, no option C? There was always an option C.
Godfrey sighed. “I stayed with Baldric for as long as I could, a little over a century. I had hoped to find some redeeming quality within him; he had been such a good man—honorable. But he had become so obsessed with the need to destroy William, it corrupted his soul, I think.”
“Revenge is poison…” I whispered.
The vampire nodded. “It is. I believe when Baldric set out on this path, he meant to do good, and perhaps there is part of him that still wants to right the wrongs that have been done to this world. But there is darkness within him now that cannot be stopped, whether he kills William or not. No matter what you might think, he is not the man he once was.”
His intentions might have started out pure, but now darkness consumes him nearly as much as it does William.
I had seen the lighter side of Baldric, the side that was soft and compassionate. I’d seen the man who wanted to do good. But I’d also seen the darkness within him, a number of times. I’d watch it wash over him and control him. I had seen him struggle with it, a slave to it.
And I think he knew it.
The pain eats away at me, he’d told me. It never ends. It consumes me—controls me. I have no choice but to make him suffer for what he has done. It is only then that I will be free again.
I shook myself from my thoughts. As bad as Baldric was, William was far worse. “William has literally destroyed the world in order to rule over it,” I told the vampire. “Going as far as to make a deal with the Devil. You think that’s much better? He took the damn sun, Godfrey!”
“It is true that William craves power,” he admitted, keeping his voice level. “But he wants to use that power to take this world and make it great. Better than it ever was. Baldric wants to make it and everyone in it suffer for what was done to him. There is no reasoning with him any longer. He has been lost to the darkness within him. William might not be wholly good, but he will rebuild the world. Baldric will tear it down until there is nothing left.”
I stared at the vampire for a moment before standing.
“If it had been you,” he continued, “who would you have chosen?”
“Neither,”
I said. “I choose neither.”
I would destroy them both.
It was time to end the Chosen once and for all.
Coming Soon
The adventure continues in Dead of Night, the epic conclusion in the Until Dawn series.
Coming 2021
Pre-order on Amazon now!
Acknowledgments
I can never thank my amazingly brilliant readers enough. I love getting to share my stories with you all, and I can’t wait to give you even more stories in the near future. I say it all the time, but it is truly because of you all that I am able to do this. And a special shoutout to my readers that are in my Baker’s Brilliant Bookworms, thank you so much for helping create such a fun group. You all are my reading family and I am so grateful for each of you.
I could never do an acknowledgments without sending out a thank you to my husband who continues to put up with my crazy ass and my many shenanigans. He has been amazing in making sure I get my daily writing time in. I couldn’t do all this without him.
To my badass editing team, Tina and Shannon, thanks again for all you do to make sure my writing is pretty before it goes out to the great wide world. Pitch Black is all sparkly because of you ladies.
A bit woohoo to my awesome cover artist, Daqri, from Covers by Combs. Her covers keep blowing me away. I mean, this cover is one badass Zoe if I do say so myself.
My alpha readers Sevan and Nico for once again diving into my writing and forcing me to kick out more words so they could read more. I will forever be grateful for you ladies and your opinions.
To my brilliant ARC Crew, a huge thank you! You gals are amazing and I am so blessed to be able to share my stories with you. I always love hearing your feedback; I greatly value it.
Thank you all SO much! Can’t wait to share the final installment with you lovelies soon!
About the Author
Teacher by day and writer by night, J.N. Baker has been telling stories since she was old enough to read them. With a passion for both urban fantasy and paranormal romance, J.N. Baker loves to write post-apocalyptic stories with complicated, badass female leads that have no filters. She believes that a sign of a good book is the sudden urge to throw it across the room and run to pick it back up. A healthy dash of steamy romance doesn’t hurt either.
J.N. Baker lives with her husband and new daughter on their farm in California. When she isn’t writing or teaching, she enjoys curling up with a good book, a glass of wine, and one of her many furry critters.
For more shenanigans, follow J.N. Baker on Facebook and be sure to join her reader group, Baker’s Brilliant Bookworms, for release updates, cover reveals, sneak peeks, giveaways, and more!
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