Shadow Realms- The Complete Series

by Kelly Carrero

  I owed it to him.

  He was the last of my family. My older brother, Finn, was dead to me, having already chosen to side with the monsters, and my father… We’d lost the last semblance of him to alcohol soon after our mother’s death. Now, he spent most of his days paralytic, passed out on whatever flat surface he could find at home.

  Home.

  That was a joke.

  I fought back tears stinging my eyes as I remembered how different it had been when Mom and Finn were at home. And now? Now it was just me and the empty shell of my father who wouldn’t even notice I’d gone.

  A woman dropped from the rooftop of the building to my right, landing with the stealth of a cat beside the vampire. She lifted her head, her red locks falling to the sides, framing her deathly white face. Unlike the vampire standing beside her, she had a beauty about her that was a rarity amongst her kind. Wearing jeans and a leather jacket, she looked as if she had come from a fashion shoot. But her eyes told a different story. They were black pools of death, ready to devour anyone who stood in her way.

  She stepped forward and grabbed the human woman cowering on the ground, lifting her into the air, handling her as if she were the weight of a wet blanket.

  The human screamed as tears ran down her mascara stained cheeks, her lips quivering with fear of what was to come. She knew she was dead. Terror filled her eyes as she stared death in the face, choking on sobs that racked her body.

  Sorrow and empathy ripped at my heart as I watched her, knowing there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to help her. She didn’t deserve this. No one did. These monsters needed to be destroyed, but unfortunately, she was a by-product of war.

  “You!” the vampire woman sneered. She hopped off the podium, dragging the woman behind her as if she was nothing but an already dead piece of meat.

  Blood spilled from the grazes on the human’s hands, sending the fledglings into a hot mess of hungry predators. Only these people weren’t vampires, yet they were already acting on the instinct to drink more blood.

  I was still waiting for that part of me to kick in. It was only a matter of time. No one could stand against the demonic pull for long.

  She stopped in front of me and tipped her head to the side, studying me with morbid fascination that reminded me of an animal sizing up its prey.

  My heartbeat remained steady—even though I feared the vampire standing before me knew I wasn’t like the others, and I was going to wind up as another sacrifice for the masses to feed on to cement their new lives.

  The corner of the vamp’s lips tipped up, revealing her deathly fangs that were capable of ripping my throat out. “Feed.”

  Shit.

  Panic rippled through me. I’d only just consumed human blood, and I hadn’t planned on doing it again so soon. Once a fledgling fed with intent to become a vampire while someone else’s soul was already running through their veins, they were officially handing over their own soul to the demon world.

  Power. Strength. Heightened senses. Immortality. These were the rewards for giving your soul to the demons.

  And I hadn’t planned on giving it to them—ever.

  But standing before the sultry vamp who was testing me made my sobriety nonexistent.

  My choice was to either feed and hope to God I didn’t take enough to complete the turn, or end up another blood bag for her pack of monsters to devour, draining me of every last drop of blood.

  The decision was simple. I couldn’t save Mason if I weren’t alive, and the human would be dead with or without my help.

  I licked my lips, pretending I was savoring the thought of the human’s blood when in reality I wanted to puke. I wasn’t a killer, yet that was exactly what I was about to become.

  My heart tore to shreds as she silently begged me to save her.

  The sultry redheaded goddess lifted the woman to her feet and held the woman’s back against her. She grabbed her head and tilted it to the side, revealing the human’s neck.

  I sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of her rapid pulse, bulging from her vein, but still, I felt no desire to feed.

  The vampire brushed her lips against the woman’s neck as she begged for her to stop. The vampire didn’t listen. She opened her mouth and sunk her teeth into the human’s neck, drinking from her life source as the woman screamed in agony.

  A second later, the vampire pulled away, blood dripping from her ruby-red lips. “Your turn.” She shoved the human toward me.

  “No. Please don’t,” the woman wept, pleading with me to spare her life. But the truth was it didn’t matter if I drank from her or not. She was never going to make it out of this crowd alive.

  And with that knowledge planted in my thoughts, I stepped forward and leaned toward her neck, the smell of copper assaulting my senses. I’d thought I was supposed to be drawn to it, but this time was exactly like it had been with the woman I’d pounced on no more than half an hour ago in the alley.

  Closing my eyes, I drew in a deep breath, preparing myself for what was to come. I needed to stay in control. I couldn’t allow myself to feast on her blood, condemning me to a life of hell, and my baby brother as well.

  Sending the human a silent prayer that her death would not have been in vain, I closed my lips over the puncture wounds and swept my tongue across her skin, my mouth salivating at the sweet taste of her blood.

  Jerking my head back, a scream erupted from my throat as a stabbing pain shot through my right shoulder. My shoulder felt as if it were on fire, burning from the inside out.

  I lowered my gaze and stared at a blood-covered metal arrow protruding from me.

  With eyes wide open, I raised my gaze to the vamp, her beauty vanishing in an instant as her face morphed into the demonic killer she was. Bending her knees, she pushed off the ground, jumping into the air with the human in her hands.

  Blood sprayed over me as the vamp ripped out the woman’s throat, spilling her life force onto the fledglings below before dropping the body and disappearing onto the rooftop of the building behind her.

  Cheers spread through the crowd as the fledglings lapped up the blood, feasting on her soul and devouring her dismembered body, ripping through her flesh as they fought amongst themselves for the biggest chunk of the pie.

  Gripping the head of the arrow, I tried to pull it out, but it was stuck, pushing what I assumed was its feathers against my back. I needed to break the tip or end off, and I needed help doing it.

  Standing on my tippy-toes, I peered through the crowd, desperately trying to find the male vamp who I was sure would be the only one who could help me.

  He was gone.

  Turning around, I froze as the head of the newly turned vampire behind me slowly slid to the side, his lifeless eyes staring at me until his head fell to the ground, his body remaining upright for a second before following.

  Screeches erupted around me as the fledglings began to turn into the vampires they were so desperate to become, completely unaware of what was going on amongst them.

  The blood from the woman pumped through my veins, further opening my senses to the world around me. Or more importantly, to the man in a combat suit, striding toward me with very deadly looking knives, one in each hand, ready to decapitate me next.

  And he wasn’t the only one.

  Flanking him were five others, three guys and two women, hell-bent on killing us all. None of them was armed with a bow and arrow.

  I looked up as I heard another twang of bowstrings and spotted two more archers in the distance, launching another round of arrows at us.

  Ducking down, I wove through the crowd, wincing every time the arrow hit someone as I made my way toward the front.

  I waited for my vampire instincts to kick in like they had with everyone around me, but the seconds ticked by and I was still completely human, without any desire to feast let alone kill the human wanting to kill me.

  Popping up at the other end of the soulless creatures, I raced toward the door to the build
ing on my right as a fight broke out behind me. The door was locked, but that wasn’t going to stop me with my newfound abilities.

  Slamming my foot against the door, the hinges and lock snapped, allowing me to escape the carnage.

  Taking one last look over my shoulder, I saw the shiny blade of a knife coming down on me.

  3

  Jerking back, I slipped to the side, narrowly missing the blade. Without so much as a thought, I lifted my leg and kicked the bastard in the stomach, sending him flying ten feet back.

  Turning back to the door, I came face-to-face with another attacker, his hand around the arrow sticking out of my shoulder. With a force I’d thought was reserved for the vampires, he swung me into the air, heading straight for the brick wall.

  Shielding my face with my hands, I slammed against the wall, the force driving the head of the arrow into the bricks, pinning me. Pain radiated through my shoulder as I hung, the arrow slowly ripping through my flesh as gravity took hold on my body.

  Whoever these people were, they certainly weren’t human or vampires.

  Looking over my shoulder, the guy stalked toward me with a silver stake in his hand, his handsome face smug with confidence that he’d won.

  Like hell he had.

  Pushing off the wall, I gritted my teeth, the arrow shaft digging deep into my back as I pulled myself free.

  Pressing my hand against the gaping wound in my shoulder, I glanced around me, trying to find a way out of this mess. I had no idea how to fight, and the guy walking toward me probably had a black belt in every form of martial arts on the planet.

  Bodies of the fledglings burned on the ground, sending thick tendrils of black smoke into the air. The vampires were long gone, leaving us to fend for ourselves, and if that were anything to go by, I was as good as dead. Which meant, so was my little brother.

  I had the abilities of a vampire, no knowledge on how to use them, and two seconds to learn.

  The vampires had escaped upward, which was probably my best bet as well.

  Bending my knees, I pushed off and prayed to God that I’d make it out of there alive.

  Fingers latched around my ankle, dragging me down, slamming my back against the cement as my attacker thrust a stake toward me.

  I stared up into his icy-blue eyes, pleading for him to see I wasn’t one of the vampires as I waited for the impact of the stake to impale my heart.

  It never came.

  “What are you doing, Kade? Kill the bitch!” a hulk of a guy yelled as he raced past us then leaped onto the roof, chasing down some newly turned vampires. “Kill the bitch.”

  An ever-evolving mixture of emotions consumed his eyes as he stared down at me, the tip of the stake resting against my chest, taunting me with hope that I knew deep down was just a fallacy.

  “If you won’t, I will,” a familiar voice said, sending a wave of confusion through my soul.

  Stealing my gaze away from Blue Eyes, I rolled my head to the side and looked at the ghost of a man standing no more than ten feet from me, bow raised, arrow pointing directly at me.

  It was my big brother, Finn. The one who’d disappeared. The one everyone thought had become one of the dead, feasting on the innocent.

  His brown eyes widened, recognition setting in. “Kali?”

  “Finn.” His name slipped from my lips almost as if the mere sound of it would make him disappear from my life once more.

  Finn’s gaze shot to Blue Eyes. “Don’t touch her.”

  Blue Eyes slowly shook his head. “I saw her feed. It’s too late.”

  Finn raised his bow, aiming at Blue Eyes. “Touch her and it’ll be the last thing you do.”

  “Easy, Finn,” Kade said. “I’m not going to kill her, but you and I both know what needs to be done.”

  Finn nodded.

  Kade reached into the pocket of his jacket and retrieved a tube containing a murky brown liquid.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, my voice breaking mid sentence.

  Finn kneeled down beside me and brushed my blood-matted hair away from my face. “Everything will be okay. We’re going to give you something to ease the effects of the blood.”

  Barely registering what he was saying because, well, I was staring at my brother whom I hadn’t seen in years, I nodded. If I couldn’t trust my own flesh and blood who happened to be a vampire hunter, which was exactly what I needed to save Mason, then who could I trust?

  Placing the device against my neck, Blue Eyes pressed a button, injecting the needle into me.

  Almost immediately I felt the serum weaving its way through my veins as a metallic taste assaulted my taste buds. My vision started to sway, and my thoughts became cloudy as I desperately tried to fight the effects of the drug.

  Strong arms lifted me from the ground, and I was carried, cradled against someone’s chest through the dark, smoke-filled plaza.

  Fighting to keep my eyes open, I focused on my brother’s face hovering above me. Apart from his eyes, there wasn’t a single thing about him that resembled the teenager I used to know. He was no longer an adolescent. He’d grown into a man complete with stubble on his jaw and muscles.

  He looked down at me, and there it was. The fiercely overprotective brother that used to annoy the crap out of me at times but loved me like no other.

  “Stop fighting it,” he said as he carried me into the back of a van. “It’ll be easier for you.”

  My eyelids began to close, but I snapped them open, determined to stay awake. I opened my mouth to try to tell him I was fine and they were wasting their time thinking I’d given my soul over to the underworld, but all that came out was a slur.

  Finn kneeled and laid me on the floor.

  “Hang on,” Blue Eyes said.

  I rolled my head to the side and watched as he began to strip, starting with his jacket. I frowned when he stopped at the jacket, rolled it up, and placed it on the floor.

  Finn lowered my head onto the makeshift pillow and sat beside me.

  The van’s engine roared to life and took off down the street, making it that much harder to stay awake as it gently rocked me from side to side.

  My stomach lurched, quickly turning the calming effects of the engine into a nauseating ride. I rolled to the side and opened my mouth to ask them to pull over, but my stomach lurched again, rising up my throat and spilling out of my mouth, covering my brother in a slick, black substance.

  “What the fuck?” he muttered, his words becoming slurred as darkness crept over my eyes, dragging me into its depths.

  No matter how much I tried to fight the pull, I was going under, succumbing to the darkness until I lost consciousness.

  4

  My head pounded as I came to, cold and aching all over from whatever—

  Snapping my eyes open, the last few minutes before I’d lost consciousness assaulted my mind.

  “Finn.” His name slipped from my lips as a whisper, afraid I had dreamed seeing him and it was just the demons playing with my mind, infecting me with their dark energy.

  Gingerly, I padded my fingers over my shoulder, searching for my wound, but like a vampire with healing abilities, all evidence I’d been shot with an arrow had disappeared.

  Rolling onto my stomach, I scanned my surroundings, my chest constricting in fear as I realized I was surrounded by three steel walls, and the front one was floor to ceiling glass, giving me no privacy from whoever was watching me through the cameras stationed outside my container.

  I pushed myself to my feet and stalked toward the glass with the stealth of a cat, my steps making no noise just as a vampire’s would.

  Pausing, I assessed my hunger levels. I was starving, but the thought of blood repulsed me. However, the aftereffects of drinking someone’s life was still appealing, and I hoped that was only because I needed to feel this way if I had any chance of rescuing Mason.

  The cocky little bastard was probably shitting himself being surrounded by people who didn’t worship the ground he wa
lked on.

  Still, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him—and responsible. He was my little shithead, and I should’ve been there for him.

  A shudder raced down my spine, reminding me of the suspicions I’d always had of what exactly the faction was supposed to be doing to the ones they suspected could hold the cure. Something about it set my nerves on edge, and no matter how easily everyone else gave into their bullshit lies and propaganda, believing they needed to take these kids away from their families for the greater good and the heroes they’d become for saving the world, I knew differently. I should have gone with him for his test.

  Anger boiled within my soul. There was a war going on outside these walls, and I was stuck inside a cage, unable to protect Mason.

  Focusing on the rage, I raced forward and slammed my fist into the glass. Pain exploded through my hand but only for a split second. Then it was gone.

  I lifted my hand in front of me, inspecting the blood smeared over my knuckles, but there was no evidence to where it had come from. There wasn’t a single cut, tear, scrape, or scratch to be seen. My hand was once again in perfect condition just like my shoulder.

  With new focus, I raised my fist, preparing to try again.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Finn’s voice came through the speakers in the cage. “You’ll only hurt yourself.”

  I quickly scanned the area, stopping when I spotted the swagger of his steps that I’d thought I’d never see again. “Finn.”

  He strode up to the glass separating me from being able to wrap my arms around him then punch him in the gut for disappearing five years ago. He was clearly healthy and had grown a couple of inches since the last time I’d seen him.

  Finn stopped a few feet from the glass, his shoulders slumped and one hell of a scornful look in his eyes. “Kali.” He breathed out harshly. “What did you get yourself into?”