Shadow of the Apocalypse

by D. L. Harrison

  Shadow of the Apocalypse

  The Lilith Chronicles: Book Two

  Author: D. L. Harrison

  Copyright 2018. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Afterword:

  About the Author

  Other books by D. L. Harrison:

  Book Description

  Chapter One

  The harsh beat of the low growling bass reverberated through the room and her body. The bright colored lights flashed in time to it, highlighting the humans moving in dance. Her heart pounded to the rhythm of it, and the sway of bodies on the dance floor.

  She was filled with excitement, though that had little to do with dancing at the club. They were hunting a soul eater, or a leech as Meri called them. In this case, the target could also be called an incubus according to human legend. He enjoyed seducing, taking, and then terrorizing and killing at the moment of physical rapture.

  She wasn’t quite sure how she knew that, she just did, she could sense it, almost tasted it on the sick bastard’s life-line on the life-web. She’d sensed him come into town just over an hour ago, and she was determined to take the bastard down before he could even find his first victim in her city.

  It’d been two weeks since the ancient threat Emil was taken down. Her new life still felt right to her, taking down monsters to protect humans was what she was meant to do, what she had to do. She was driven to do it, more than that she enjoyed it.

  Lily’s abilities as a fighter and shifter felt very natural to her at that point, despite still not remembering a thing about her life before six and a half months ago. Her soul eater abilities felt natural as well, reading and sending emotions, compulsion, and the faster speed. She’d also figured out she wouldn’t have to feed from a donor more than once a year or two, to maintain her physical age in the low twenties.

  Of course, absorbing and filtering out the distraction of emotions wasn’t quite as easy in this place, she was being bombarded by excitement and lust from all sides in the club. She refused to shut it out completely though, that was a good way to get killed in her opinion, ever since the train station debacle she knew better than to let her guard completely down even among normal humans. Especially on a hunt.

  Even if it was affecting her more than a little bit.

  “You see him, Lily?”

  She turned her head toward Meri, “Not yet, he’s here somewhere in the main room, but there’s so many people. Let’s dance around the edge of the floor, I’ll try to find him.”

  Meri looked amazing in a short skirt and a barely there halter top. She was five foot four with a curvy athletic body, an attractive face, and gorgeous light brown hair and hazel eyes. She was a great friend already, and the only other female hunter on the team.

  Next to Meri stood Allison, she looked great in a red tube dress, and black shoes with two-inch heels. Allison had strikingly bright red hair, warm brown eyes, and was a total sweetheart, if quite mischievous at times.

  She knew she was attractive as well, especially in her little black dress and high heels, but next to Allison stood Cinna who put the rest of them to shame.

  Cinna looked sinfully exquisite in a dark blue dress that conformed to her generous tight curves and set off her vivid cerulean eyes. Her shiny light blonde hair was up, which revealed the curves of her neck and petite ears.

  Normally, Cinna and Allison wouldn’t be on a hunt at all. Cinna was their trainer in facing soul eaters, and she was very good at. She was also responsible for checking up on the local soul eater population that were following the rules and not hunting and killing humans whenever they visited a city.

  Allison was their witch, who helped them with coverups, tracking down an enemy, and evaluating the local covens. She was also Lily’s witch teacher, and she’d been teaching Lily a number of spells the last two weeks. Not to mention furnishing information to study on biological processes. So far, Lily had learned to put someone into a sleep, paralyze all volunteer muscles in a body, read a mind which was very similar to the communication spell, and lastly erase short term memory in a pinch for a cover up. Long term memory was harder to deal with, and she’d have to learn a lot more about brain chemistry before she’d be capable of correctly visualizing it.

  Those two were normally not out on a hunt, except when the rogue soul eater had rolled into town they’d already been getting primped and ready for a girl’s night out, to blow off some steam and just have fun. They hadn’t left out Caroline exactly, but the older witch had declined to join. They’d decided to do it anyway, despite the rogue. Meri had suggested the four of them go in, her and Meri would take care of the rogue, and pass him off to the men outside, then just stay there and dance, drink, and relax. She knew that kind of thing was important, life balance, and all that. Plus, her three friends and teammates were kind of a blast together, and it would bring them even closer together and bond them tighter.

  Even if it made her feel guilt to be out enjoying herself in leisure and dance. She knew she had to push through it and move on, but life wasn’t ever that simple. The horror and guilt from what she’d done, what she’d learned she’d done over six months ago just two weeks ago now, still lingered. She just wouldn’t let it stop her from doing what she had to do. It helped, that everyone supported her and encouraged her in that. Of course, the nightmares of that night, and of the horrid past she couldn’t remember, didn’t help very much for moving on. She knew to truly move on, she’d need to remember it all first. Still, it wouldn’t stop her, and she wouldn’t fall apart again.

  Jacob, Jace, and Carl were outside waiting to cart off the serial killer soul eater’s body. They were also split up watching both the front entrance and alleyway back entrance just in case Meri and her lost the target and he escaped.

  They danced their way around the dance floor. The life-web was great for tracking from a distance, but up close it wasn’t all that direct. Still, either Meri should run across his scent trail, or she should pick up his emotions if they got within thirty feet, which would pinpoint their quarry. She could enhance her olfactory sense as well, shift it, but as ever she was grateful she had other powers to make up for that kind of thing. Being bombarded by all the lust was distracting enough, she didn’t want to smell all the pheromones and stimulated arousals around her right now.

  The four of them weren’t here to pick up men, just dance, have fun, and drink, but the lion’s share of people in the club were here for that reason exactly. Not all certainly, but enough to make it overwhelming. In a lot of ways, couples out dancing on a date would be even worse that way.

  Meri got her attention, and then nodded along the back wall as she wrinkled her nose with disgust.

  “Wait here,” she
told Cinna and Allison, as she fell in behind Meri and they went to take care of business.

  She didn’t pinpoint him until they were halfway across, and his emotions came into her range. He was in a skin tight black t-shirt, and he wore it well. He had black hair, and his gray eyes were scanning the dance floor as he took a sip of his drink. He sat at one of the tables in the back corner, conveniently for them, right near the back door. Most predators were attractive, at least in her world.

  Something must have tipped him off, as they were moving to bracket him on both sides. Or at least, that’s what she thought as his eyes snapped to Meri’s, until he smiled widely at Meri in welcome, and she moved in and draped herself on his arm.

  Soul eaters couldn’t detect other races, not really. Not like shifters could scent them, or witches could through magic. Maybe through observation, or if a hunter’s emotions were rigid with the excitement of the hunt and upcoming violence. That would be sure to be a huge giveaway.

  Regardless, she was on his other side as Meri leaned down seductively to whisper in his ear, and she nailed him with a taser instead. Thoroughly distracted by that, and unable to think, it was easy for her to slip in her death spell without worrying about the soul eater eating it. The monster’s body stiffened for a moment, and he went limp as she wrapped an arm around him.

  Her and Meri stood him up, they both shifted for strength, so it wasn’t a struggle. If anyone bothered to look, all they’d see is a very lucky man being escorted out by two beautiful women. They had one small snag at the back door, the club security guard looked at them suspiciously, but she used compulsion on him and sent waves of emotion to relax him and lower his guard.

  The security guard took a moment to check them both out, and then turned away to watch the rest of the crowd outside the bathrooms.

  Carl snickered, as they handed the body to him,

  “Have fun ladies.”

  They both winked at him and went back inside. She felt good about stopping the threat before he could kill in Chicago, and her excitement at the hunt changed flavors to a night out vibe as they moved back toward the dance floor.

  “How did you manage that?”

  Meri snickered, “I figured he’d be monitoring emotions, so I imagined rocking my husband’s world. He must’ve been sure I wanted him badly.”

  “Do you miss him?”

  Meri shrugged, “I see him a few times a year, two weeks at a time, I think that’s the only reason we’ve managed to stay together so long. We’ve been together for three centuries now. We’re great as a couple, but we both feel the calling to fight and defend humanity, and we get on each other’s nerves if we’re on the same team. We’re super protective of each other, that’s not a good thing in a fight. I’ll see him again in about month. You’ll meet him, it’s his turn to visit our team.”

  She nodded, it still seemed odd to her, Meri must shift her sexual needs to be smaller or something. She couldn’t imagine it wouldn’t drive Meri crazy otherwise. She knew it drove her crazy, since according to her swiss cheese memory she was virgin. It didn’t help that she was if anything, even more attracted to Jacob, who still kept her at arm’s length emotionally and physically, despite returning her feelings. She understood why he was doing it of course, and even agreed with it intellectually, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating for them both.

  She also wondered exactly how old Meri and the others were, but she felt funny about asking that. Especially Jacob, given their mutual attraction. Shifters appeared whatever age they wanted, until death. They lived eight to ten centuries. She’d suspected Meri was older than her young appearance, but a three centuries relationship had taken her by surprise.

  Jace was really the only one she was sure about that way, he was very young, literally still in his teens, and a part of the team as an alpha in training. Eventually he’d get his own team at some point. Carl looked the oldest for the shifters anyway, at thirty-four, but for all she knew he was second youngest, he only looked that way because he was still in mourning for his lost mate. Everyone else in the house looked in their twenties, with the exception of Caroline who looked to be in her mid-forties, which made her about ninety.

  She supposed she couldn’t talk, she was supposedly older than all of them, by a great amount. She suspected Cinna was second oldest, and that the young, vivacious, and lovely woman was actually an ancient. Soul eaters could live forever after all, as long as they got to feed on life force. She wondered if Cinna would move on with her lover, when Jace moved on to lead his own team.

  Hopefully that would be far in the future.

  They met back up with Cinna and Allison, and then headed for the bar. A drink or two before losing herself on the dance floor sounded like a good idea. She knew if there was trouble, she could shift herself sober, or even burn it off with witch magic.

  They had a blast, drinking, dancing, gossiping a bit wickedly, and even flirting with random men on the dance floor. Though none of them took it further than that. She had her eye on Jacob and despite not having her memories knew she wasn’t one to jump beds, otherwise it wouldn’t have been six months for her. Maybe she’d be a different person when she got the memories back, but she suspected not that different. Cinna was with Jace and deeply in love, Meri was mated and faithful, and she got the idea Allison had her eye on someone in the local coven…

  Chapter Two

  Jacob looked amazing with a five o’clock shadow, and in a tight t-shirt when she slipped into his office. He had dark brown hair, chocolate eyes, and was all muscles. His face was ruggedly handsome, and she felt beautiful under his restrained but hungry raptor’s gaze.

  It was late, and they’d just gotten back to the mansion, she hadn’t even changed yet. She chose not to examine why too closely, but there was no denying she enjoyed when he looked, and she looked good in her slinky black dress.

  “Do you need something Lily?”

  Did she ever, but she bit her tongue before it could slip out. She wouldn’t throw herself at him, the tension between them was bad enough as it was.

  “Actually, I do. You said all you had was legends of who and what I was? Maybe there’s a grain of truth in them, and they’ll jog my memory. I’ve been trying to remember, I really have, but outside of a deadly enemy and a dark dank prison under the earth I’ve got nothing for the last two weeks of effort.”

  Jacob leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and rubbed his forehead.

  “Are you sure? There might be some truths in them, but some of the legends put you in a rather harsh light. Knowing you… I disbelieve more than half of them already.”

  She frowned, “Tell me, I need to get my memories back.”

  If only so she could jump his bones, she had no doubts whatever or whoever she was, she’d still be attracted to Jacob. She just wished he’d believe that, and stop holding her at arm’s length. Sure, it’d only been two weeks, but she felt like the team was family already. She was close to all of them, except maybe Caroline who was a bitch, but she’d still jump to Caroline’s defense if it every came up.

  It was the soul eater thing, which was probably ironic since those abilities were supposedly demonic in origin. As an empath, it was easy to trust and grow close very fast when she could feel the truth of them all. Also ironically, it was Cinna the soul eater who shined the brightest out of all of them. No one was perfect of course, they all had baggage and issues.

  Point was, what she felt for Jacob was already far past the simple animal and chemical attraction they’d felt from the first moment. He was a powerful and confident man, but he was also dedicated to helping humanity with almost a religious fervor, and she knew he’d die for any of the team if it came down to it.

  He was also bossy, and gave her orders, which she wasn’t quite sure if those traits went on the plus or minus column. Probably both, but she never said she wasn’t complicated.

  He frowned, “It’s late. How about an overview, and you can ask me questions on anothe
r day after you’ve slept on it.”

  She nodded, and then felt a moment of trepidation. She needed to know about her past, but it was probably the one thing in her life that truly terrified her. Soul eaters, rogue shifters or witches, no problem, bring them on. Sexy alpha shifter, yes please. Lost memories, that wasn’t so easy. Yet, she knew she needed them back. Not only to move on, but because she was hardly fighting at her best. She got the idea she’d barely scratched the surface on what she was truly capable of, and it would be dumb to die because she was afraid of the past.

  He said, “You are the oldest woman on Earth. Wait, what I mean is, you are the first woman ever created. You aren’t just the oldest woman alive, you’re oldest period. Human legends of you are the easiest to explain away. They say you became a demon, the first succubus, the cruel and sadistic wife of Satan. While ridiculous, it’s obvious there are several grains of truth in it.

  “Being a soul eater as you know, is where the legends of vampires, psychic vampires, succubae, and incubi come from. So, from that angle, you are the original succubus, the very first. You’d almost have to be, otherwise you’d have died millennia ago, many millennia.”

  She felt her stomach drop a bit.

  “You said multiple points?”

  Jacob cleared his throat, “Well, according to the creation legend you were first. You spurned Adam as a mate and his authority, and you were ejected from the garden. That’s when Eve was made from Adam’s rib.”

  She snorted, “That bitch?”

  Jacob looked startled for a second, and then barked out a laugh when he realized she was joking.

  As for her, it was pure adrenaline and a desperate front. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear this at all anymore, yet she had to.

  Jacob said softly, “Of course, when you were kicked out you weren’t yet anything other than human. You know the story of the serpent, when Samael talked Eve into eating from the tree of knowledge?”