Dark Oblivion: The Vampire Prophecy Book 3

by G. K. DeRosa

  Being bonded to me and having my blood would allow Solaris to live longer and age more slowly. We were in no hurry for kids. My parents hadn’t had children until well into their marriage.

  My mother’s knocking became more persistent. “I know you’re both in there. I can hear you talking.”

  Dexter jerked his chin toward the left wall. “Go on. I’ll make something up.”

  Without another word, I threw Solaris over my shoulder and sped through a secret door that led to our bedroom. Her squeal was swallowed up by the whoosh of air as I ran. I didn’t release her until I dropped her onto our massive bed.

  She blew the hair out of her face. “Was that really necessary, Kaige?”

  I grinned as I crawled over her. “No, but it was fun.” I pressed a kiss to her neck, my fangs beginning to ache. “Besides, I’d rather have you all to myself right now.”

  A shiver traveled through her body, and a deep blush flooded her cheeks despite the scowl she was wearing. “I could have just walked on my own.”

  “Don’t pretend like you weren’t dying to get me alone.” My lips brushed over hers as my fingers began teasing her stomach. “And don’t pretend like you want me to stop.”

  Desire swam through the bond from us both. Solaris’s pulse spiked, and the tiny veins beneath her delicate skin had me mesmerized. That was the only reason she caught me off guard the next moment.

  I suddenly found myself on my back, Solaris’s grinning face staring down at me.

  “Being the big bad nocturne king doesn’t make you the boss of me.” Those green eyes flared with life, turning them an electric mossy color.

  “Oh yeah?” I bit back a grin. “Prove it, little human. Do your worst.”

  Her lips crashed on mine, and my world melted into a haze of love that nothing could destroy. No enemy, no disaster, and certainly no prophecy could tear us apart.

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  ~ G.K. & J.N.

  Sneak Peek of Wings & Destruction by G.K. DeRosa

  Chapter 1

  Winged-beasts circled the dark sky overhead, the flapping of their enormous wings creating an incessant drone. It buzzed across my eardrums 24/7, a constant torture. Maybe that was their plan. They were waiting for the remaining humans to go insane. I stared out of the little basement window with my hands over my ears. When would the angels leave? It had been weeks since the fighting had ended and still they remained.

  This was vampire territory now. A chill slithered up my spine as the terrible image that flooded my nightmares coalesced in the forefront of my mind. My dead parents. Murdered like more than half of the adults in the country. Sometimes I wished they’d killed me too.

  A cold nose squirmed its way under my arm and buried itself in my lap. I cracked a smile and rubbed behind Duke’s big ears. He whimpered, and I pushed the dark thoughts away. Somehow he always knew when I needed him most. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, buddy.”

  He barked, and I quickly shushed him. Vampires and angels had heightened hearing. They had heightened everything. The only reason we’d survived this long was because we lived on a remote farm in upstate New York. The fighting started in the big cities, and one by one each large metropolis in the country fell. You’d think in a war between angels and vampires one side would’ve killed the other off. You’d be wrong. Instead it was the human population that ended up nearly decimated.

  Both sides were much too powerful, and neither would give up. They ravaged cities in golden fire and pools of crimson blood. In the end, there were no winners. Not really anyway. They split the country along the 40th parallel dividing their spoils in half. The vampires got the north including New York City, and the angels got Washington D.C. and the remaining southern half.

  One thing was certain: the humans lost.

  A light knock at the basement door sent my heart rate skyrocketing. Duke bared his fangs, and a low growl reverberated in his throat. I jumped up and blew out the candle on my makeshift bedside table. I put my index finger to my lips and shot Duke a narrowed glare. The growling stopped, and he fell to my side as I crept toward the door.

  I crouched at the foot of the stairs as sweat trickled down my back. Two more knocks and a long pause. My shoulders sagged, and I released the breath I’d been holding.

  “It’s me, open up!” a familiar voice hissed through the metal door.

  I lifted the lever to release the deadlock and heaved the door open. If my dad hadn’t had this old door fortified when things started to get bad, I would’ve never survived this long.

  Emerald green eyes peered in through the doorway. “You gotta be more careful, Liv. I could see the candlelight through the window as I got closer.”

  My best friend padded down the stairs and ran a hand over his buzzed blonde hair.

  “You only saw it because you knew it was there, Asher.”

  “Maybe. But I only have normal human vision—unlike the others.” His eyes veered up toward the sky. “I just want you to be careful. Especially when I’m not around.”

  I placed my hands on my hips and stared up at my friend. At 6’1, he had to duck when moving through certain parts of the basement. I had no such problems. I may have been tall for a girl, but luckily I fit just fine in the safe house my dad had built. “Why are you back so soon? I thought you weren’t returning till tomorrow.” I picked up the candle and moved it further away from the one window, re-lighting it.

  He shrugged, and a dark shadow fell over his bright irises. “There’s nothing out there, Liv. I went as far as Thompson’s farm, and there wasn’t a scrap left.”

  I glanced at the bare metal shelves along the dark wall. The utter emptiness mirrored the sensation in my chest. Only a handful of cans remained. We’d survived on our stock of supplies for almost five months, but if we didn’t find more soon, we were screwed. I plopped down on the floor and Asher sat across from me, the reflection of the candle’s flame dancing in his eyes.

  Angels and vampires didn’t need to eat to survive so they didn’t care that they destroyed everything edible during the war. The vampires took humans as hostages and turned them into blood slaves so they had all they needed. They created slave camps all along the north. They made New York City their capital; Grand Central Station was the seat of their throne. No one knew how many humans were still alive and enslaved. Everyone had lost someone in the past year, and the worst part was not knowing if they were even alive.

  I guess I was lucky I knew. Even luckier I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Only Asher bore that burden.

  “We’ll have to go farther out to search,” I finally said. My parents died protecting me, and I wasn’t going to let their sacrifice be in vain. I couldn’t give up, no matter how much I wanted to sometimes.

  “You’re not going anywhere.” He reached out for my hand and squeezed. “It’s not safe.”

  I jerked it out of his grasp. I hated when he treated me like a little girl he had to protect. Asher was eighteen, not even a full year older than me, but he always treated me like a kid sister. “It’s not safe for you either, and you still went.”

  “Well, I can’t just sit here and let us starve.”

  “Neither can I.” I tucked a wave of dark hair behind my ear and gave him my best steely gaze. “We’ll go tomorrow morning—all of us.” I wasn’t leaving Duke behind either.

  He shook his head, his lips pressed together in a thin line. “You haven’t been out there in weeks, Liv. You don’t know what it’s
like.”

  I got to my feet and approached the small window, brown grass obstructing my view. The sky was completely dark now, but the steady droning continued. “Maybe it’s time I did.”

  Chapter 2

  I rolled over on the cot and jabbed my elbow into the cold metal frame, sending a sharp tingle all the way up my arm. I clenched my jaw so not to let out the curse on the tip of my tongue. No matter how many nights I’d slept on this uncomfortable thing, I didn’t think I’d ever get used to it. I swore I’d hit my funny bone at least once a week for the past year.

  Dad had made us move down here as soon as things got bad. He was smart. The surrounding farms around us didn’t fare as well, my best friend’s included. I rolled back over and bright green eyes locked onto mine.

  “Sorry, did I wake you?” he whispered.

  “No. It was this poor excuse for a bed.” The sun never rose anymore; the sky was always covered in dark clouds, which made it hard to figure out when to wake up. Luckily, my wristwatch still worked. I checked the time and grunted. “Why are you up so early? It’s just barely five.”

  He shrugged and ran his hand over his short hair. “I couldn’t sleep.”

  His cot was across the way from mine, if I reached out I could’ve touched his nose. Something made me want to, but the hollow look in his eye stopped me. “Everything’s going to be fine, Ash. We’ll find food today and we’ll survive, just like we have for the past months.”

  He swung his long legs over the side of the crude bed and sat up. “I don’t know. Something’s changed since the war ended. It’s almost like the vamps and the angels are working together. That’s only going to make things worse for us.”

  I sat up too and met his gaze with a fiery one of my own. “Don’t you give up on us, Asher St. John. I need you. We’re all we have left.”

  He wrapped his fingers around the edge of the cot and squeezed. His eyes were shiny, and I knew he was thinking about his family. I averted my gaze to give him a second. He had lost his parents and little sister early on. His farm was a few miles from here and had somehow gotten caught in the middle of the early fighting. An orange ball of fire had decimated the entire place in minutes taking his whole family with it. Asher would’ve been dead too if he hadn’t come over to visit me that day. Before the world went to hell, I thought maybe there could be more than just friendship between Asher and me. Then everything happened and our feelings got buried in the ash just like everything else.

  He cleared his throat and shot up to his feet. “Since we’re up, we might as well get an early start.”

  I followed his lead and began to gather my belongings for the trek. We had no idea how far we’d have to go to find food, so I piled all of our remaining cans and bottled water on the floor and divided it between the two backpacks.

  Asher knelt down beside me and grabbed a few extra cans from my pack and threw them in his. “There’s no way you’re carrying that much when I’m twice you’re size.”

  I arched a brow. “I can pull my own weight, Ash. When we’re out there, I need you to know that.”

  He nodded, and my eyes veered to the window. It wasn’t full dark anymore; tiny hints of light shone through the clouds. No one was sure how they did it, but somehow the vampires had managed to block the sun. Maybe it was a rumor, but what other explanation was there? I wondered if things were different in the south.

  I packed the remaining bit of dog food and snapped on Duke’s leash. His black tail furiously whipped from side to side. Poor guy really missed going outside. Before, he had the run of the farm. He’d spend the day chasing the pigs and shepherding the sheep. Now he was only allowed twice a day for a quick bathroom break. I’m surprised he hadn’t gone completely stir crazy. German shepherds weren’t meant to be cooped up in a small space like this.

  Neither were humans.

  “Looks like Duke’s excited.” I slid the backpack on my shoulder.

  “That makes one of us,” Asher muttered. He moved to the old wood chest in the corner and flipped the lid up.

  “You’re taking that?”

  He reached in and pulled out my dad’s gun. “Just in case.”

  “Bullets aren’t going to stop angels or vampires.”

  “It might not stop them, but it’ll slow them down. And anyway, it’s not just for them.”

  I chewed on my lower lip. The worst part about war was what it did to people. It brought out the worst in most. Looters ran rampant now that there was no police force to stop them. Some would kill for a bottle of water. I hated to admit it, but Asher was right. We’d need that gun to protect ourselves from other humans.

  I pushed the depressing thoughts aside as he grabbed a few rounds of ammunition and stuck them in his backpack. “Which way should we go?”

  He pulled a crumpled map from his back pocket and held it out by the candle. “This is where I got to yesterday.” He traced his finger along the line. “We could try heading further north instead. There will be less chances of running into angels or vamps, but it’s also less populated so less chance of large food supplies.”

  “And if we go south?”

  “More people, more food and more of them.”

  Neither sounded great. I mulled over the two options in my mind. “Let’s go south.”

  “That’s going to be riskier.”

  “You said yourself there was nothing where you went yesterday. If we go further north we’re probably going to find the same. We need to go where humans are. People mean food and maybe even safety.”

  He folded the map and shoved it back in his pocket. “Fine.” He tightened the straps on his backpack and trudged to the door. “You ready?”

  I nodded and took a step in front of him. His fingers wrapped around my arm, and he pulled me back. “Ouch!” I squealed.

  “Sorry.” He loosened his grip but didn’t let go. “When we’re out there, you stay by my side at all times, you got it?”

  “I got it.” I motioned for him to go first and shot him my most sarcastic smile.

  He slid the steel bar over and heaved the door open. The flapping of wings intensified the moment I poked my head out. I glanced up to get a better look at them. The angels. They were supposed to be good. They were supposed to protect humankind. No one really understood what had gone wrong.

  “No time for gawking.” Asher yanked my arm and dragged me toward the apple orchards.

  Or what used to be the apple orchards. Miles of burnt trees stretched before us. They didn’t provide great cover, but it was better than nothing.

  “We’ll follow the path to Sanson’s farm and see if there’s anything left of it. It’s been a few months since I’ve been up that way.”

  “Okay.” I hurried to match Asher’s pace, his long legs eating up the scorched earth beneath us. Duke strolled beside me, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. I could’ve sworn he was smiling.

  The steady flapping of gigantic wings buzzed in my eardrums as we marched on. The constant noise steam-rolled over everything else. I’d walked through these orchards hundreds of times, and they were always full of life—birds singing, insects chirping, and the hum of tractors at work. Now it seemed dead. Except for that damn flapping.

  I sighed and tried to pretend things were like they used to be. If I squinted my eyes just right, I could envision bright red apples dotting vibrant green trees instead of the bare sickly brown ones.

  “What’s wrong?” Ash turned his gaze to me.

  I huffed. “Everything.”

  A shadow of a smile pulled at his lips, and for a second I was reminded of the cute boy I used to know. The guy that stood before me now may have looked like him, but he was harder, darker.

  “Do you remember when I taught you to climb a tree?”

  I grinned. “You mean when you broke my arm?”

  He chuckled. “Don’t exaggerate. It was just a sprain.” He pointed down the row. “It was that one right over there.”

  “Really?” I jogged over
to the one he had indicated, Duke nipping at my heels. I tilted my head up. “It seemed so much taller in my mind.”

  “Maybe you were just that much shorter.” He leaned up against the rough brittle bark and exhaled a long breath.

  I nudged him in the shoulder and sidled next to him. “Even though you almost killed me, I was the best climber of all the girls in my class.”

  “Oh I remember. And it wasn’t just trees you’d climb. I recall a certain escape attempt from your second floor bedroom.”

  I laughed. I’d forgotten all about that. My dad grounded me for a week for that one. “That was your fault too! I just wanted to go hunting with you and Crowder. Dad didn’t think it was proper for a young lady.”

  “He was probably right.”

  My chest tightened. I’d give anything to be grounded again as long as it meant my parents were still here.

  “Come on, we have to keep going.” Asher’s fingers wrapped around my hand, and he led me back onto the worn path.

  After what felt like hours, we finally reached Sanson’s farm. Or what was left of it. The roof had been completely torn off, and the remainder looked more like a dollhouse than a farmhouse. We had a bird’s eye view of every single room. The porch and front side of the house had been ripped clean off.

  Asher’s shoulders sagged as he stared at the ruined structure. “I was hoping maybe Mr. Sanson and the girls were still here.”

  I squeezed his hand. “Maybe they got out.”

  “Doubtful,” he muttered.

  Duke barked and took off toward the broken old house. I yelled after him, but whatever he’d caught scent of was more enticing than me. We ran after him as he circled around behind the house.

  A small red silo was still intact. Duke pawed at the door, his tail wagging.

  “Maybe there’s something inside?”

  A steel padlock was still firmly in place. Asher jiggled the lock, but it was locked tight. He got up on his tiptoes and ran his hand over the doorframe.