Into The Shadows (Shadows Ascending Trilogy)

by Jenn D. Young

Even though Kaniul was related to her, Lorelei and I share a connection that ran deeper than blood. We both knew the reason for this, but it was not something that either of us were willing to share freely with the entire council just yet.

  “They have some sort of collar that burns her if she uses her telepathic abilities. In the few seconds I was merged with her, it felt like she was being burned alive.”

  “That is a new technology that even Erik didn’t know of,” Leo pondered, hands steepled as he sat in front of the computer.

  I pulled the keyboard away from him and started typing. I brought up the tracking program for everyone to see. “This will give us her location and inform us if they move her. I suggest everyone lock onto the signature, so we all get alerts of any movement.” I did not want to share my programming with the council, but I knew I needed all the help I could get for her rescue.

  “How and why did you have a tracer on her?” Damius asked curiously at me.

  “I have my reasons and my methods.” The council knew I typically had my own agenda on certain matters. It had never interfered with their business, so they let me be. Being the commander and prince of the demons did have its advantages. It didn’t hurt matters that I was one of the most powerful beings on the planet, either.

  “Can Erik help us with more information on the facility?” Alexandrya’s voice filtered through the phone.

  They all turned to me, awaiting my answer. Erik had been an elite commander of my personal guard for centuries. I was the one to send him into the facility as a double agent. He has been funneling me information about their experiments for several weeks now. I brought up a separate folder on the screen for everyone to see.

  “This is the information that I have received from him.” I opened the schematic of the building first. “The facility is actually hidden underground. The building above ground serves as their front. There is only one elevator that takes you to the facilities beneath.” I indicated the elevator shaft on the computer-generated building plans that Erik had developed.

  “There are security checkpoints both before and after the elevator.”

  “How many employees? Are they human or supernatural?” Leo asked.

  “It seems there are a blend of both humans and vampires. The vampires are all those loyal to The Syndicate and sired by their leaders. The humans are thralled to remember nothing of what they do or who they see. The number of humans is low as there tend to be a lot of, shall we say, accidents involving them.”

  “Damn rogues getting too hungry and making a meal of the help,” Leo growled.

  Damius stood, and we turned to him. As the oldest and first made vampire, he was the unofficial leader of the council. In our world, power and age were essential. He stood about an inch under my 6-foot-5-inch height with shoulder length black hair and blood-red eyes. He originally hailed from Greece, which explained his dark olive skin. No one knew much about his birth or how he came to be a night walker, but most looked to him for guidance and wisdom in these types of circumstances.

  “Planning a full-scale operation will compromise Erik.” He paused, concentration etched on his face as his mind worked through the plans being set into place. “But the risks of letting Lorelei stay there outweigh our need to have someone on the inside. We have gotten all the logistical data we can get.”

  Murmurs of agreement followed. “Since it sounds like we know what we have to do so let’s do it.”

  It was almost time for Lorelei to enter our world.

  To come back to me.

  I couldn’t help the smile that slid across my face.

  Chapter 12

  Lorelei

  I sat alone in the cold darkness. I had no concept of time passing. I didn’t know how long I had been trapped here, tortured with the device around my neck. Starved, beaten and bloodied, every part of my body hurt, just breathing caused slivers of agony in my chest. Blinking felt like rubbing my eyes with sandpaper, so I kept my eyes closed. Voices swam around me as my consciousness faded.

  I knew I needed blood, but every time I had fed, I was not able to keep it down. I retched violently and every time was worse than before. My stomach felt hollow and my skin started to crack.

  “Wakey, wakey little pet.” The door slid open and Antoinette bounced in. Her blonde curls were neatly arranged, and she looked more put together than previous visits. “We have a guest today!”

  Ah, maybe this was why she was so presentable.

  He walked in and I immediately felt a cold terror wash over me. This was the man from my nightmares. His smile was cold and calculating and he looked me over. His black eyes took in my form, and he turned to Antionette, exposing the scarred half of his face. It looked as if an animal had sliced him open from forehead to throat in a jagged swipe. Black tattoos peaked out over the collar of his shirt along his neck in elaborate lines.

  “Why is she in this condition, Antionette?” The ice in his voice made me shiver. His eyes spit fire as he stared down at her. His hand lifted in a flash of movement as he backhanded her across the room. “You were under express orders to apprehend and not harm her.” He never changed the volume of his voice, yet his fury was evident.

  Antionette whimpered as she licked at her bleeding lip. “Please, sire.” Her voice was weak as she bowed before the man.

  He picked her up by her neck and slammed her against the concrete wall. “You have now damaged the entire mission by turning her into a fucking vampire. Do you think that pleading for your life will help you now?” He cocked his head in question at her.

  She gasped, trying to suck in precious air as she pleaded, “Sire, please, we are still testing her. Her blood is unlike anything we have ever seen. She is the one we have been searching for, vampire or not.” Coughing, she clutched to the man’s hands around her neck.

  He dropped her suddenly. “That remains to be seen Antionette.” He turned in my direction. “Why does it look like she hasn’t fed in weeks?”

  Antionette rubbed at her throat and looked up at him. “It seems that she cannot tolerate human blood,” she whispered. “Please Kristoff, forgive me?” she begged as she crawled over and started kissing his boots.

  Kristoff kicked her away and knelt in front of me, his black eyes sparkling with mysterious emotion. My gaze could not leave the scars on the side of his face. He laughed, a rich menacing sound that caused me to shiver. “I see you cannot take your eyes off my glorious scars. You see, they were given to me by one of your friends and I intend to pay him back very soon.”

  His fingers drifted across my cheek and down to my neck. A fist wrapped around my hair and he yanked my head back. “I don’t have any friends,” I whispered painfully.

  That really got him laughing. “Little one, you really have no idea. They erased your memories.” Chuckling, he released my hair and patted my head like a pet dog.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Your true potential is limitless. You have so much ahead of you. We will just need to try to solve this—” The ground shook as a shock wave swept across the small cell. An alarm started blaring, similar to the one when I activated the collar.

  “Sire, we must get you and the asset out of here immediately. We are under attack.” A group of men dressed in all black, guns strapped along their backs, appeared in the doorway.

  Kristoff cursed, “Stupid idiots. How do they think they are going to get past all our security?” He bent back down and dragged me to my feet. I cried out in pain at the jarring movement, my stomach rolling with a wave of nausea.

  Even as weak as I was, I wasn’t going to give up without a fight. If someone was attacking this place, it would be my best chance to escape during the ensuing chaos. The lights flickered as another explosion rocked the facility.

  “Sire, they have already gotten through one level of security and are making their way down the elevator. We must get you out right now before they find you.” The leader of the military squad took a few more steps toward Kristoff and me
.

  “Fine, fine, fine, but we are not leaving without her.” His large hand circled my arm in a bruising grip and tugged me along. My feet barely moved, and the room was spinning with the vertigo that swept through me. I closed my eyes to temper the sensation.

  “Sire!” Antionette shuffled to her feet. “I must collect my research. All the data, we must preserve it along with the samples of her blood.”

  “You are on your own, dear Antionette. I trust you know where the emergency exit is?” His voice was nonchalant and downright cold to her. He looked down at me, realizing I was too weak to walk and slung me over his shoulder with a huff.

  I groaned, my breath leaving my body as my abdomen hit his shoulder. This was seriously going to hurt. If I could just get this damn collar off now. The alarms echoed throughout the dark hallways as red lights flashed.

  One of the guards cursed. “They have triggered the fire system. Sprinklers will be engaged shortly.”

  “Then let’s go, I have no desire to get wet today.” Kristoff’s footsteps clicked along the concrete of the floors as he seemed oblivious to the alarms and quakes shaking the ground. He increased his pace, following his sentries.

  A wall of fire halted our progress. The smoke was suffocating, and I coughed, trying to breathe with the pressure of being upside down. I heard Kristoff curse as the guards surrounded him. The sprinklers on the ceiling kicked on, but it did nothing to calm the flames.

  Kristoff turned to go down another hallway, only to be blocked by a second wall of fire.

  “Give her up Kristoff and we might let you live.” The voice was heavily accented, not at all familiar to me.

  “That is so reassuring Damius. Might let me live?” He chuckled with his evil voice. His grip on me tightened. “She is much too valuable for that.” A fireball flew by his head with a whoosh. I screamed as I felt the heat sail by my body.

  “Now, now.” Kristoff tisked, “You may hit her, and we all know you don’t want that, right Vincent?”

  My breath caught at the name.

  “Fuck off, Kristoff.”

  Tendrils of awareness pierced my consciousness at the sound of his voice. My dark angel. The man from my dreams, always rescuing me.

  Vincent.

  Kristoff laughed again and threw me down. I landed with a thump as my legs collapsed beneath me, unable to hold my weight. The wall of flames parted and three men walked through it. I wanted to cry out as I saw Vincent. The other two men I did not know, one of them must be Damius that Kristoff mentioned. They all looked frightening as power clung to them like a second skin.

  Vincent’s eyes briefly dropped down to me before returning up to Kristoff. I could feel his power reach out to me as Kristoff hauled me to my feet and used me as a shield, his claws digging into my stomach and throat. The collar began to react to the psychic power, and the metal heated, making me cry out as pain overwhelmed me.

  “Oh, dear. You weren’t trying to reach out to her mentally, were you? You see, my little device here blocks and channels, all psychic energy. It burns like the fires of Hades, but it is a very effective little tool.”

  Vincent narrowed his eyes and withdrew from my mind. I sighed in relief as the collar returned to normal. His hands clenched into fists as his sides were glowing with fire. Damius stepped forward. “Let her go Kristoff.” His voice was powerful.

  “No, I rather fancy her.” I am sure the bastard had an evil grin spread across his face. His voice and touch made my skin crawl as my eyes pleaded with the men to get me away from him.

  “So be it.”

  Kristoff let me go to defend himself and I fell to the floor. Flames fanned over me, hurled from every possible direction, the heat scorching my skin. Damius moved faster than lightning, attacking and retreating as the guards sought to defend their master. He severed several heads in a frightening macabre dance, their bodies falling to the ground, lifeless.

  I tried to watch the macabre sight, but my eyes were drawn to where Vincent was engaged with Kristoff and both looked terrifying with claws and fangs slashing.

  “Boss man, finish this, we have to go,” the blonde man shouted from the other end of the hall. The fires were raging out of control and a thick black smoke filled the hall. The sprinklers continued to pour water down but had no effect on the magical flames. Explosions rattled the corridor. Vincent hissed and pinned Kristoff to the wall.

  “You won’t win this.” Kristoff spit blood off to the side. Blood poured down his face from a nasty gash on his temple. His eyes were on fire as he starred Vincent down. Vincent’s anger was palpable in the air while he was facing off against Kristoff.

  “I will win for now.” His claws gripped the sides of Kristoff’s head and sharply yanked it to the side, severing his spinal cord. He bared his fangs as he let the man fall to the ground. His form flickered—horns appeared on his head and his skin turned red.

  “That served no purpose, other than to waste time. We need to get out of here now.” Damius clasped Vincent on the shoulder.

  Vincent smiled wryly as his form solidified back into his human appearance. “It made me feel slightly better.” He turned to me as I tried to stand. In a whirl he was at my side.

  “Nicolae, we need to find the device to release the collar,” Damius said to the other man.

  “On it,” Nicolae vanished into thin air.

  “Theera,” Vincent exhaled sharply as he took me into his arms. I managed the strength to reach up and touch his face. His eyes closed as he captured my hand and pressed it even closer to his cheek.

  “You came for me,” I whispered, and the world went black.

  Chapter 13

  Vincent

  Holding Lorelei in my arms, the world snapped into focus. Everything that I had been working toward for the past two decades was complete as the woman I looked upon was now here. With me. Finally in my arms. The past weeks had been torture as we carefully laid out the plans to rescue her, not wanting to risk any harm coming to her.

  I climbed to my feet, carefully making sure Lorelei was secure. She looked like death. Her dark hair was dull and hung in tangled masses against her head. Her cheeks were hollow, there were large black circles under her eyes and her lips were dry and cracked. It looked as if she hadn’t been fed at all in the weeks that she had been here. I settled her head against my shoulder and turned to Damius. “This place needs to be burned to the ground,” I growled.

  “I agree, but only after we have gotten all the information we possibly can.” Damius looked at Lorelei with a light shining in his red eyes. “And either get the device off of Lorelei, or the means to do so.”

  Nicolae appeared back in front of us, holding a struggling Antionette in his arms. Her shrieking piercing my eardrums.

  “Silence, woman!” Nicolae roared.

  “Little vampy Nephilim ruined everything for me! You will all die! DIE!” She was maniacal, laughing while rocking back and forth. There was something seriously wrong with the once proud and intelligent scientist.

  “I have the device, but I thought we may want to take this one to get more information?”

  “Good thinking, Nic.” He handed me the small remote. “Take her to the dungeons. We will question her later.” I began walking away, Lorelei secure in my arms.

  “Vincent, where are you taking her?” Nicolae and Damius both looked confused as I navigated the maze of the facility to get to the tunnel that would lead us out.

  I did not acknowledge them as I approached the rest of the team in the clearing outside the ‘secret’ exit. Kaniul’s eyes widened as he looked at Lorelei. “Is she…?” he couldn’t even finish the sentence, his voice full of emotion.

  I shook my head. “She has just passed out. I don’t think they have fed her at all since her transformation. I am quite surprised her body has made it this long.”

  I cleared my throat and turned back to Nicolae. “Burn this place to the fucking ground.” As a parting gift, I threw a fireball into the building and smi
led as I used my shadow flight ability to teleport back to my flat.

  Soft lighting illuminated the room as I moved through the living area. This portion of my compound was completely hidden from all others, only accessible via biometric security. I had built it into my office building as the top floor penthouse. I walked down the hallway to my bedroom.

  Lorelei stirred in my arms as I laid her down on my bed. Her soft moans of pain caused me to wince. Reaching into my pocket, I reviewed the remote, pressing a button to remove the offending metal around her neck. It disengaged with a hiss. I gently lifted her head and tossed the collar across the room with a growl.

  The fury within me exploded as I checked Lorelei’s body for injuries. Her delicate throat was covered in half healed burns and welts. I turned away and went to the closet to grab some clean clothes to dress her in. The rags that clung to her frame were tattered and only hanging on by a thread.

  My phone started to vibrate. Glancing down I saw Damius was calling me. “What?” My voice was little more than a growl.

  “Where did you take her?”

  “She is safe. That is all you need to know right now. I will take care of her until she is healed. Until then, give us some space.” I started to end the call, but I heard another voice. Kaniul was trying to reason with them.

  “She is safest with him. Give him time, she will be just fine with him.” I smiled as I turned off my phone and placed it on the top of the dresser. Kaniul would know best, he was the pre-cog of the council. That would buy me enough time to get Lorelei healed in body and mind.

  Now that the collar was removed, I sought the familiar connection of her mind. Her consciousness was far away, telling me just how far gone her body was. It took some sifting before I was able to grab on and our connection snapped into place. I grabbed a towel and a washcloth and gently cleaned and changed her clothing.

  She needed blood.

  I froze at the thought. No one would feed her but me. Picturing her sinking her fangs into another male set my blood on fire with a fury I had never experience before.