by Tigris Eden
Burned
In
Shadows
Copyright © 2013 Tigris Eden
Cover: Tricia “Picky Me” Schmitt
Edited by: Alicia Pates
Published by Kats Kreative Ideas
All rights reserved.
ISBN:978-1-4675-8371-8
Dedication
To my mother Ramona Lynn, for teaching me that there is strength in the smallest of things. I love you mom and I think you’re the strongest woman I know. Hands down, you’re top shelf!
To my beautiful sister Q a.k.a Tekura Bliss, God has a way of throwing things our way that we sometimes feel can be a bit much. He threw you a slider and you whacked that ball out of the park! I know you’re going to beat the odds. I also know that my niece is going to bring you ample amounts of Joy and scares. It’s what kids do, so be ready for the ride of your life!
Alicia, there are no words that I can give you, but I hope this will do. You are beautiful on the inside and out, and although we’ve been through hell and back together, watched on the side lines, and jumped into the thick of it. You, my dear sister have remained stoic through and through. I’m so very proud of you and your family and what you’ve single handedly done with little to no help. I love you dude!
LL, you are the love of my life, my rock, my foundation, the glue that holds our family together. Thank you for being a part of my life. Thank you for putting up with all my cray, and thank you for giving me sound advice when I wanted to get super ghetto. I love you babe.
Darryl, Joseph, and Andrew I’m so very proud to call you my sons. Make something of yourself and then re-make yourselves into something even better. I love you guys!
Dad, for wanting a copy of my books, even though you don’t read romance. Thanks for wanting to show me off to your friends and believing in me.
Belinda (Bells) this is your story girl, live it up!
Admin Bob (Val) you have helped with putting things together in a major way! You rock girlfriend, round the clock and then some!
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the work of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.
Acknowledgements
To my editor, Alicia, for pushing me. I ask that you push me harder. Every day, all day, no matter what!
Ty Langston, a.k.a Michele with one L, thanks for making me do the damn thing and for always being positive.
Tricia “Picky-me” Schmitt, for making a beautiful cover! Even though we went through a phase of OMG that is horrible. (Not your fault all mine) LOL
Thank you to all the beautiful girls over at the Shadow Unit Street team. You guys amaze me, and thanks for accepting all the missions that have been given to you and going with the flow!
Kat, Val, and Char, you gals rock on all levels! Thanks for reading my words, for encouraging me to keep it pushing and for keeping me in line. You girls are solid!
Thank you to everyone and anyone who fell in love with The Shadow Unit.
Part I Ferals
From the beginning of time, blue blood has been a coveted source of longing for many. Some believed it would bring them financial resources, others wanted it for power and position the status would elicit. Many desired the life of luxury and royalty that all blue bloods shared. The name alone could open doors money could not buy, thus making the value of the name essentially priceless. There was no social or political office a blue blood did not hold. Deeper still, kings and emperors were less of a man if their name didn’t derive from the avid blue lineage.
However, those were the stories of yesteryear, not stories of Yore. There is an even older tale from an older time that takes precedence to wealth and prestige of what is now called a Blue blood; a time when men were not in the dark and ignorant of their Gods. Some say Rome was built in a day. Other’s claim the Gods themselves instructed humans on ways to become a an enlightened republic.
Romulus and Remus Zaraides of House Atrades built the very core of Roman culture. To see the city rise above the soil to become a thriving civilization that conquered vast empires, the twins ruled with savage cruelty. The depravity of which was suckled directly from the breast of the Goddess Amrita, the true mother of the feral race. She saved them from drowning in the river Tiber as babies and allowed them nourishment from her bosom, raising them in the wild.
Unfortunately as their truly wild feral natures would dictate, Romulus and Remus were brought to Jupiter himself for the raping of the Sabines. They gave their seed to the women, who in turn bore them sons, creating a race of feral children. Animals by nature disguised in human form. This exotic union also created a blood line that contained healing and powerful aphrodisiac qualities which ultimately brought them to the attention of the Gods. The women and their offspring were taken. The children becoming blood slaves and the Goddess Amrita captured and drained for her blood. Amrita was put on display next to Jupiter’s throne, for only he was allowed to drink from her veins. There she was kept for hundreds of years as the Gods and Goddess tortured and drank from the feral children.
Jealousy spread fast as Jupiter continued to grow in strength and youth. The God King mocked others by taunting them with his ever-growing powers and war broke out in the heavens. Albanus the first feral child of Romulus, took advantage of the distraction and led his people safely away from the Gods and their chains. When their absence was noted, search parties were sent out to scour the villages. But they were looking for wild people, untamed and uneducated in the ways of man. Albanus knew he needed to guide the ferals to civilization and while in captivity, he studied man in all its forms. Learned how to act more civilized and less feral in nature. He taught this to himself and to others around him and soon they were able to hide in plain sight. Some became politicians, others farmers. Always careful never to share their blood, and never reveal their true natures to anyone.
Once settled, Albanus, the proclaimed leader of the ferals was given twin sons by his third wife Ione of which he spoiled immaculately. He celebrated and rejoiced in their birth as they were the first among many to be born free. Varinus and Vibanus Zaraides of House Atrades were the only twins born sharing the same umbilical cord. One more animal than human, the other a breaker of female hearts. Albanus, like his father and uncle, ruled with a heavy hand but spoiled his sons.
But there was a day when all would become too clear for the twins. When lust and power went to their heads, when their father, Albanus delivered the final blow with a strong voice and an even harder heart.
Prologue
“The punishment for treason is…. Death.”
Translation, going outside of the clan is bad for your health. And all he and his brother Vibanus did was check out the local flesh market. It was commonly believed the reason for the dwindling population of ferals was due to being sold on the auction blocks. No one thought Albanus, of all people, would be at the markets
and neither did the twins. Rome banned the selling of flesh centuries ago, but it seemed there were still underground venues offering flesh to those willing to pay top denarii.
The sun was punishing that afternoon and most of the patrons were standing in shaded corners. He’d only wanted to view what the flesh peddler was selling; it wasn’t like he was aligning himself with humans. His body shuddered at the thought. Humans were off limits, and because of the incident with Vibanus, things were so far up Jupiter’s ass there was no way they were going to escape. It was because of a human they were in this mess. He should have heeded the warning. They should have never gone after her.
Varinus snarled as the edict continued to be read, by none other than his father. Fucking family, and the likes! The Americas were starting to look good. Vibanus was three minutes younger than him, and those three minutes cost him a world of pain every single moment of what was left of his life. His brother was passionate and cared too much. So what if someone owned slaves, it wasn’t his place to comment. They were doing it in the Americas and would still being doing it centuries from now. Someone was always for sale. But there was one particular slave up for question. Sanya, she’d run from them after a night of making love to him and his brother. She’d tugged on his brother’s sensitivity and had him thinking she was the one for them. He’d known, but what little solace she did offer wasn’t worth what they were going through now.
His father made the mistake of letting his younger brother travel to England. He blended in remarkably well with humans. He’d wanted Vibanus to learn from them, not to fall in love with them. Varinus was right at home with the animals. But his brother and his many vices continued to stir up so much trouble, the noise had made it all the way back to his father in Rome, the high council elder and founding father of their clan. He knew when his twin returned things would be different, very different.
“The name Varinus and Vibanus shall be stricken from every book of our clan.” His father continued, his voice robust. The sound carried far into the stands as onlookers from other clans watched the spectacle. They were curious to see how the notorious Albanus would handle killing his only sons. Their father knew what it was like to be a slave. A slave that led the escape shaking the very foundations of the heavens and all the Gods that set atop their thrones. He’d saved their species and their way of life and kept them all sheltered. He was a strong leader and a devoted father. Today he was council elder and the voice that led to the demise of his only sons.
Vibanus had the decency to stand taller and pay attention to what was now being said.
“There is no mercy in what the two of you have done. Death is the only solution.”
The word death would do that to a male. His father was furious, and what they’d done was treacherous. Because of their actions a woman was dead. They’d been remiss in their handling of her. Varinus was unable to say her name. He’d given it to the winds where it was carried away from him and away from his heart. A small part of him, the part that he considered to have a shred of humanity, loved her, but the animal in him had rejected her. Intentional or not, it wasn’t the issue, she felt betrayed and was conflicted. He should have never allowed his twin to bring her into their home thinking they’d conceal her. They’d both hoped she was theirs, but in truth they knew she was no more than a distraction, something to pass the time. They’d never taken the time to think things out, to see it for what it truly was, a fabrication.
Denial had a way of making anyone blind to the truth and they’d paid for their blindness with bloodshed. She’d run away from them in the end, and they’d let her, not thinking of the consequences. They’d kept her in a state of arousal for so long, that when she’d finally come to her senses, she’d run screaming into the night. This led them to search for her at the slave market, where his brother had originally procured her from a slave trader. She’d been captured, tortured to death and she’d given up their secret. Thus exposing them to not only the humans, but also putting them back in sight of the Gods, whom they’d been hiding from for more than a hundred years. This was the real treason, outing themselves to the Gods; making it possible for them to go in search of feral blood, and putting the clan in imminent danger.
Chapter 1
“Why have we not gone to her?” Ronin asked in a quiet voice.
Royce knew it was going to be difficult to explain to his beautiful Phoenix how things were meant to go down between them. He’d tried to ignore what he knew to be true. Bells was their mate. Being a true feral, his blood was sacred. When he’d slipped a drop of his blood into her cup a few weeks back as a joke, she’d not reacted. Instead, she continued with her conversation as if nothing had bothered her. That was one of the signs ferals got in order to obtain their mates. The property of their blood would have the same effect on any member of the clan as it did outsiders. Except for their mates. Sanya hadn’t reacted to his blood either, but it was more than that. There was something different about Bells. Something more.
The clans would hold blood tastings once a year. The equivalent to a bacchanalia, sexual and explicit. A no-holds barred of feasting, tasting and sex. All the clans would come together and sample each other’s blood until they found their one true mate. Royce and his twin Ronin were different as they were of the same womb. They were identical in every way, except their eyes. They shared everything from the umbilical cord that connected them to their mother, to their thoughts and feelings. Twin births weren’t unheard of, but sharing the same umbilical cord? That was something altogether unique. This meant they were destined to share the same woman, whether they wanted to or not.
His mother Ione would not approve, none of the clans viewed outsiders as a blessing. None of that mattered now. They were sentenced to death and had escaped by the hair on their chinny chin chin, - literally. They still didn’t know whom to thank for that. But he had his suspicions. They would never be welcomed home again. Outcasts of the foulest caliber according to his father. Those were the words the clans would associate with the names Vibanus and Virinus Zaraides of House Atrades. It didn’t matter they were true decedents of Romulus and Remus. It was foretold that when the next set of true feral twins were born, they would unite all the clans under one stronghold. Naturally, his mother and uncle had hoped it was Royce and his brother. One of these things is not like the other. But it just wasn’t meant to be. In order for that to happen the Goddess would have to bless them. The true mother of the feral race. She’d saved Romulus and Remus, who’d been abandoned by their vestibule mother Rhea Silva. A woman who’d been raped by the God of war himself, Mars. It was said she’d been cast out for breaking her virginal vows and then buried alive. Her twin boys sentenced to drown in the river Tiber. Instead, they were saved by a she-wolf named Amrita, the immortal Goddess of Nectar.
There were plenty of foretelling’s of the true ferals, as far back as he could remember. But Royce along with his twin, didn’t see it as them. One of these things just doesn’t belong. He looked across the table at his brother, so much like him, and downright opposite. He kept his hair shoulder length while Ronin was entirely bald. Mr. Clean bald. The brother reflected the sun. His twin’s eyes were silver, his were amber, sometimes red- gold depending on his mood. Ronin didn’t talk unless there was something relevant to say. Royce talked all the time. Ronin didn’t fuck and didn’t want to. He wanted to come to his woman clean and free of other females. Royce respected the hell out of him for it, but his motto was “Fighting and fucking go hand in hand.” He was always fighting and felt that if he didn’t fuck, then there would be bigger problems that no one would want to deal with. Royce smiled, it was a staunch motto to live by, but there were reasons, highly valid reasons he acted the way he did.
Only now he’d found the one chosen for him and his brother, and the little fire cracker wouldn’t give either one of them the time of day. Ronin tried to force the issue, demanding she come to them and satisfy them both. Classy. He’d tried to ease her into the idea they
were fated to be together. Her response was a sincere grin and a big fuck you very much but, no.
“I have an answer to your question brother, only I choose not to answer.” Royce said calmly. Ronin and his harshness were fucking up the entire thing. Eating Oliver’s brain hadn’t helped in the romance department either. The team members still steered clear of him as if he would eat them all at any moment. Stranger things have happened.
“Fuck you! I only said what needed to be said. She’s ours, and I don’t like that she’s not with us. We’re both wound too tight.” Ronin snapped while rubbing the top of his head and letting out a long breath. He was older by three minutes and sometimes it showed. Today was one of the very few times it didn’t.
“No thank you, it doesn’t appeal to me and neither do you,” Royce shot back standing up from his chair and heading down the hall to his room. “I’ll check back with you tomorrow, Bells is with Jesminda and Faith at the moment, teaching her how to handle her new found immortality and all the super powers that come with it.”
His brother flipped him the bird and walked into the kitchen throwing back the faucet lever and sticking his head under the cool water. He could sympathize; they were both over-heated for her.
Royce walked out into the hall and headed toward his room. He just needed some air, and he’d be okay. Maybe even a change of scenery might do him some good. Who the fuck are you trying to fool, you’re going nowhere. As if he asked his conscious to chime in and give a penny for his thoughts. Maybe he would go sit on the park bench down the street from the office building and just sit, and people watch. He used to love that. Listening to their inner-most secrets. It used to get him off, now it just fucking drove him crazy. Another thing to look forward to if Bells didn’t buck up and accept she was theirs. He was fucking tired of the bullshit and the head games. He was the biggest offender when it came to the game, and he knew it.
