Smoke and Ritual (Beautiful Dark Beasts Book 1)

by Melissa Sercia

  Seven’s magical fast-traveling ship carried us to the shores of Scotland in the exact time I’d predicted. Now that he was back with his wife in Elysium, he didn’t have much use for it. Sanctum had been my home for the past ten years, but approaching it now after all this time of being away, it looked different. The last time we were here we left in a hurry. We had made our mad dash through the hellfire of harpy attacks only to be carried away on a journey that I was nowhere near ready for. It was only fitting that we would return on that same ship. But the only thing that was actually different now was me.

  As we docked and disembarked, I caught a glimpse of the Brew Market out of the corner of my eye. The wind carried its scents of sugar and spices, enveloping my senses and invoking a memory from a long time ago. I wished we had time to go through. I closed my eyes and my mouth watered as I pictured those soft powdery beignets rolling around on my tongue.

  The distant echo of flamenco guitars strummed in my ears, beckoning me to stay a while. Seducing me with its possibility of strange fruit and foreign tongues. I could feel myself drifting again. Day dreaming back to a time when a dreamer was all that I was. When dreams were all I had.

  Reality set back in as Shade planted himself next to me. “We could go have a drink first?” His eyes filled with a longing I didn’t want to see.

  I shook my head. “Later, maybe. There’s a bar inside Sanctum that’s more appropriate anyways.” I didn’t want to share the Brew Market with anyone but Chaos. I’d only been away from him a few hours, but the empty hole in my heart was growing fast. The hole I had felt my whole life until he came along and filled it.

  “Doesn’t matter to me. You just looked like you wanted to go down there.” There was a crispness in his tone that I couldn’t discern. A twinge of disappointment beneath his cool exterior.

  I jerked my head away from the Brew Market. “What I want doesn’t matter right now. We need to find Sapphire’s mom before she rips the whole world apart.”

  Sapphire perked up at the mention of her name. She and Diego were already two steps ahead of us, charging toward Sanctum. She turned her face toward me as she sprinted up the hill. “Enough chit chat, Arya. Pick up the pace.”

  I chuckled and sprinted to catch up with her. I was also looking forward to seeing Jane. If anyone could help us with this spell, it was her. Her daughter was missing too, and it wouldn’t surprise me if she was already doing some dark magic of her own.

  As we approached the empty gatehouse, a shiver trickled up my spine. A light breeze rustled in my ears, prickling the hairs on the back of my neck. There was no one guarding the entrance.

  I motioned for everyone to stop and unsheathed my daggers. Sapphire’s sword was already out in front of her. “Where is everyone?” Diego whispered.

  I put my fingers to my lips and crept toward the door. Shade raised his palms, tiny flames flickering between them, and gave me a nod. I pushed open the doors and was met with complete darkness.

  My heart raced as I stepped into the hall. I stumbled forward just as Shade increased the flames in his fingers, lighting up the hall. I gasped as I looked around. The walls were smeared with blood.

  I lurched back as something touched my foot. Shade shone his light down to the ground and we all jumped. It was a crumpled body. I slowly reached down and rolled it over. “What the hell is happening?” The dead witch’s face was frozen in horror, a strange symbol etched across her forehead in blood.

  Sapphire scanned the hallway, listening for movement. “They are all dead.” She shuffled further down the hall as Shade hovered his glowing hands over the ground. More bodies. Dead, with the same symbol carved on their foreheads.

  Diego’s nose twitched. “Dio mio. So much blood. It runs through all of Sanctum.”

  I swallowed hard to keep the bile from rising in my throat. Who could have done this? I forced one foot in front of the other as we pushed forward through Sanctum.

  We passed the Three Blind Mice, our favorite lunchtime bar, and my stomach turned. The witch bartender was slumped over a table, blood pooling out from her head. There were bodies everywhere.

  We continued down corridor after corridor and were met with the same scene. The same broken twisted bodies. It was a massacre.

  My heart beat loud in my chest as we turned the corner toward Jane’s study. My fingers shook as I clasped the doorknob and turned, pushing the door open with caution. I stepped in the room and felt a vibration in the air. I jumped to the side just as an arrow whizzed by my head.

  Shade bolted into the room after me, lighting it up like a bonfire. I yanked him back. “Get down!” Another arrow flew past us, landing in the wooden panel right above my head.

  I cried out just as Sapphire charged in and leapt over the desk. She crashed into the archer and tackled them to the ground. I jumped to my feet and raised my hands. The flames danced out from my fingertips, illuminating the entire room, making Shade’s magic look like child’s play.

  The archer sprang up and froze. “Arya?”

  I blinked a few times, my heart pounding. “Jane? Oh my god, Jane!” I ran to her and threw my arms around her neck.

  She pulled away, shaking, her bow falling to the ground. “Arya…I—I hoped you were far away. You shouldn’t have come back here.” A glimmer of fear flickered in her eyes.

  I grabbed her hands. “Miss Jane, what happened here? Who did this?”

  A creak in the floor caused all of us to spin on our heels, weapons drawn. A thin, sickly looking blond girl shuffled out of the corner. Poppy. Her eyes were red and swollen, her fingers bloody. She limped forward, mustering all her strength to speak.

  I lowered my daggers. “Poppy? Are you okay? Will someone please tell me who did this?”

  Poppy whispered, “Coven Seekers.”

  I looked at Jane, confused. “What is she talking about?”

  Jane choked back her rage, biting her lip to keep it from trembling. “A day I never thought I’d see again.”

  Everyone had grown speechless, dumbfounded as they struggled to grasp what Jane was saying.

  I shook her as she seemed to be slipping away into a dream. “What day? Who are the Coven Seekers?”

  Jane met my stare with cold eyes. “Witch hunters. They are coming for all of us.”

  My mouth dropped open. A sickening sensation burned in my belly. This was that something dark that was coming. We all felt it. My blood went cold as my body shivered. “What are we going to do?”

  Jane’s eyes rolled back into her head. “Run.”

  Her body slumped forward, revealing that same symbol etched into the flesh on the back of her neck.

  Poppy sank to her knees. “It’s going to be a reckoning.”

  As the room filled up with smoke, I reached for Poppy, but Shade yanked me back. “We have to go now.”

  He dragged me down the hall with Diego and Sapphire running alongside us. Windows exploded, crashing down and spraying shards of glass in every direction. I caught my stride and sprinted faster.

  Barreling through the front door and into the cold night, I gasped as I looked toward our ship. It cracked and sizzled. Flames leapt out of it. I spun around, scanning the perimeter. Shadows flickered. Hooded shadows darting in and out of the moonlight.

  A surge of adrenaline blasted through my veins. Frantic, I turned around and around. “Get to the Brew Market.”

  The others nodded, their faces filled with horror.

  As we raced down the beach, I was filled with a fear I had never known. A fear I had only glimpsed in my worst nightmares. We weren’t just being attacked. We were being hunted.

  I was almost to the entrance of the market when a cold hand clamped over my mouth followed by a thick arm wrapping around my waist. I tried to scream but my voice betrayed me, the strange hand stifling me. My lungs filled with fluid and I couldn’t catch my breath. I dug my heels into the ground as the figure from behind dragged me backward. The world began to darken and Chaos’s face was the only imag
e I could cling to. But he was gone.

  No one could help me now.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading! Did you enjoy?

  Please Add Your Review! And don’t miss Sercia’s Blood and Darkness series available now! Turn the page for a sneak peek of book 1, BLOOD AND MAGIC

  Sneak Peek of Blood and Darkness

  The room Valentina hid me in was the size of a closet, bare except for yellow curtains and an old cot in the corner.

  Pacing around, I tugged at a strand of my dark hair, pinching it tight around my white knuckles. The vein above my breast throbbed and pushed through my skin like a fresh tattoo.

  “You still haven’t told me what happened.” My throat ached. Every breath I took scratched my lungs.

  I needed blood.

  Valentina lowered her eyes and bit her lip. Ribbons of curls fell upon her shoulders, blood red and scented with lilac.

  She stifled a sob. “I…I’m sorry, Gray. I couldn’t stop them.” Her voice trailed off into a whisper.

  A lump formed in my throat. I swallowed hard to keep the bile down. A thousand questions raced through my mind. My muscles were stiff, clenched and aching. “How long was I asleep?”

  Valentina wiped the tears from her eyes. Black eyeliner smeared across her cheeks. “Three years.”

  Every hair on the back of my neck stood up. I leaned up against the wall to keep the room from spinning.

  “I don’t understand.”

  Her lower lip quivered. “It was Dragos… He betrayed us to the Consilium.”

  Dragos. The room was spinning. Do you still love him now, Gray? The wounds were old but as fresh as the salt being poured on them. Like a fire in my veins that I couldn’t put out, the fury was growing. He made a fool of me. I locked my knees to keep them from shaking.

  “What did he do to me?” The thought of Dragos creeping around my lifeless body made my stomach turn.

  Valentina gazed out the window, her eyes red and swollen. “He was with Pythia. She put you under with one of her spells. You weren’t dead, but you weren’t alive either. She trapped you in your own mind.”

  My skin prickled into a cold sweat. How could I not remember anything?

  “How did I wake up?” Pythia’s magic was dark and ancient. It would have taken an entire coven of Witches to break me out of that spell.

  “I…I don’t know. You just did.” She scurried around the tiny room, gathering our belongings. We didn’t have much, except for a few trunks of clothes and weapons. She avoided my gaze while she packed.

  “I have been sleeping for three years, the man I love has betrayed me to my enemies, and you don’t know? What aren’t you telling me, Val?” As my fists tightened, my nails dug into my skin, drawing blood. A sinking sensation formed in the pit of my stomach.

  She waved me off. “That’s all I’ve got, Gray. I’m as surprised as you are. What I know for sure is that when they found out you were planning to go against them, they wanted you out of commission. All that matters now is that we keep moving. Once the Consilium finds out you’re awake, they will come for you again.”

  The Consilium had always been one step ahead of us. I had been tracking them for the last four hundred years, but every lead always led to a dead end. Their organization stretched all over the world and their resources were limitless.

  I watched her shove our things into a bag like she was shoveling dirt onto a fresh grave. “I’m assuming you have a plan?”

  Her eyes shifted to the ground. “Yeah, but you’re not gonna like it.”

  My shoulders tensed. Valentina’s methods were not always rational. She took a deep breath. “We’re going to go talk to Lucien.”

  My blood curdled. “Lucien? You must be joking. How do you know he won’t double cross us?”

  As the leader of the London Dhampir coven, he had direct ties to the Consilium. I’d never met him, but I knew enough not to trust him.

  Valentina sighed. “Gray, I promise, I’m not going to lead us into another trap.”

  A pang of guilt stabbed at my chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

  “No. You’re right to doubt me. We both trusted Dragos, but he is my brother. I should have seen it coming.”

  The sound of his name didn’t always make my stomach turn. It used to send tingles up my spine, sending me into a state of breathless anticipation for his presence. Those days were long gone. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”

  Valentina nodded, her eyes glistening. “Look, Lucien is an old friend. He won’t turn us over to the Consilium.”

  Guilt clawed at me again. “You’ve kept me safe for three years while I’ve been sleeping. I’m not going to start doubting you now.”

  Valentina tossed me a straw and a blood bag as she moved toward the door. “When we get there, let me do the talking. Lucien doesn’t like surprises.” She shivered, grabbed her coat, and sauntered out into the dark London fog. It was going to be a long night, and dealing with Lucien would only make it darker.

  #

  The pavement was slick. Cold and wet with dew. The mist followed us as we stomped through the dark. The streetlamps glowed, dim and muted, casting faint particles of dust between the shadows.

  Sliding down the sewer entrance to Lucien’s compound, my chest tightened. The walls of the tunnels that wrapped around the city in a maze were slimy, coating the palms of my hands with a thick sludge. No human would ever make it down here, but as a Dhampir, I shimmied down without difficulty.

  Valentina advanced with ease, leading us through to each checkpoint, and past the guards Lucien had stationed at each one. Dhampir soldiers. Young, but well trained. Created solely for a life of servitude. They let us pass without hesitation.

  Approaching the last checkpoint, a guard motioned for us to wait. Beads of sweat gathered on my brow.

  A few minutes passed before Lucien emerged from the dark, stretching out before us. His lips curled into a smile, but his eyes were as black as night and hinted at madness.

  “Valentina, my darling. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

  She twirled a lock of her red hair. “Lucien. I don’t need a reason to pay a visit to an old friend, do I?” She winked, batting her eyelashes. A signature move she displayed when she wanted something.

  Lucien grimaced. His skin was sallow, reeking of musk and sewer water.

  “You’ve brought a friend. You must be the infamous Gray I have heard so much about.” His hands twitched as he took a step toward me.

  I stiffened. The way he surveyed me up and down made my skin crawl.

  Valentina chuckled through gritted teeth. “The one and only. She is a woman of few words, I’m afraid.”

  Lucien’s lips quivered as if he had just tasted the sweet nectar from fresh blood. “I see the stories are true. She is enchanting. I hope that we can all become very close friends.” His eyes trailed down to the peak of my breasts.

  With clenched fists, I leaned in close to him. “I want the bastards that did this to me. I’m cranky, hungry, and really pissed off. So, if you could be so kind as to tell me what the Consilium is up to, I might not rip your head off.”

  His guards rushed toward me, weapons drawn. Lucien raised a hand for them to halt. “Ah, so the stories are true. You are feisty. I like that. But still, holding a grudge against the ones who made you? Tsk, tsk. That was centuries ago. Get over it.”

  My hands shook. I wanted to wrap them around his scrawny neck. “Unless you start talking, the only thing I’m going to get over is your dismembered body.”

  Lucien smirked, but his eyes narrowed down at me like daggers. “The thing is, you seem to forget you are far outnumbered. However, I don’t want to get your blood all over my floor. It draws the rats.”

  I started toward him. Valentina stepped in front of me. “Let’s all just calm down. We don’t want any trouble. You’ll have to forgive my friend. She just woke up from a very long nap and is not herself right now.” She shot me a glare.


  Lucien’s hands twitched again. “Yes, of course. Perhaps I can forgive and forget. What do you want?”

  I drew in a sharp breath. “Where can I find the Consilium?”

  The tension was thick. His guards stared straight ahead, blank, but fixated. Their eyes were dark and hollow, like black holes.

  Lucien erupted into laughter. It echoed through the tunnels, scraping the air like knives carving into pavement.

  Blood rushed through my veins, hot and erratic. “Did I say something funny? Because I’m pretty sure I just asked you a serious question.”

  He rolled his eyes. “No one can find the Consilium. They find you. They are nowhere, and they are everywhere.”

  “You must know something, Lucien,” Valentina snapped. “Don’t toy with us.”

  Lucien chuckled. Annoyed, I kicked a hole into the tunnel wall. Chunks of rock and dust sprayed out around us, soiling Lucien’s shirt.

  He snorted, flinging dirt off his collar. “I have no idea how to find them. If I need anything, I call my handler. She comes to me.”

  My jaw tightened. “This is a waste of time. Val, let’s get out of here.”

  Valentina clasped his hands. “Then point us toward someone who does know something. Give me a name. Anything. You owe me.” A look passed between them that I couldn’t place.

  Lucien flinched, but nodded, reluctantly. “There have been whispers of something brewing across the pond. In New Orleans. Some of the Witches have spotted unsanctioned Dhampir activity in the French Quarter.”

  My pulse quickened. This had to be the Consilium. No one else would be stupid enough to stir up trouble with the Witches.

  Valentina cleared her throat. “So, where can we find these whispering Witches?”

  Lucien feigned a yawn. “The Wolf and Crescent. Ask for Josephine DuMaurier. She leads the coven there. But be quick about it. Everyone must check in with her when they arrive. Trust me, you don’t want to get on her bad side.” He paused to lick his lips. “Now, I have better things to do. So, I insist that you take your leave.”