by Sophia Sharp
“But what he could not predict was the spawn that would come forth from her. For the humans she bit before she was locked away transformed into others much like her. Their numbers grew quickly, but each successive transformation retained less and less angelic blood. The result of which, paradoxically, was that less and less of the beast instincts were activated in them. And so, over time, the creatures that had been let wild in the world of man began to conform to the rules of society. They began to retain more and more of their humanity, and soon – the Vassiz race was born.”
“But… I don’t understand. How did you become captive? Are there more of you anywhere?”
“We are the only ones left. A war broke out between our kind and our brothers. It threatened to shroud the entire world in darkness. It raged for many years, with many casualties on either side. Neither had an advantage, but we were slowly destroying both worlds we lived in – the dream realm and the human world. In the end, to preserve life on this earth, the six of us you see before you today, three male and three female, were set to be imprisoned here, in exchange for an armistice.
“But we were betrayed. After we were placed here, the Vassiz leaders ordered all other angels to be killed. They were overtaken without warning and had no chance.
“It was genocide.”
“The Vassiz did this?” Nora was shocked. “Who commanded it?”
“Those known as the elders today. They rose to power following our imprisonment and have ruled over all other of their kind ever since. They are ruthless. They killed any others – members of their own race – who held memories of our fight. The only Vassiz that were left were young and newly converted. They did not know the secrets behind the elders’ rise to power and could never suspect it.”
Nora was amazed. It was the elders who commanded all the packs after her and the elders who got their power by killing all those around them. No wonder they were the oldest Vassiz left.
An anger at the cruelty of it all started to rise within her.
“What did you mean by what you said earlier? That ‘she shall come as one of them, yet set apart’?”
“Your first feeding. You took Vassiz blood.”
Nora felt a pang of guilt. “How did you know?” she asked softly.
“I can feel your life essence. It is different from the other Vassiz.”
Suddenly, Nora realized that everybody else was staring at her. Hunter, at her side, was looking at her with wide eyes. So were Alexander, and Madison. They had both gotten up to stare right at her.
“What?” she asked, addressing the question to all of them at once.
“Your first feeding,” Hunter began, “you took Vassiz blood?”
How did he know? Nora felt the eyes of everyone on her. All were expecting, and waiting. “Yes,” she admitted.
“Who?” Madison asked in that chiming voice. Her tone was much kinder than Nora remembered from before.
“Korver’s wife,” Nora said slowly, staring past everyone to the far wall. “His pack attacked us. It is where Alexander took the arrow for me. She was trying to kill me, I’m sure, and her sons and husband went after Alexander. I got her down, and…” she gulped, “… and fed.”
She felt Hunter squeeze her tighter. “Welcome to our race,” he said softly.
While all that was happening, the…angels…had risen again, and were all looking to her as if expecting a command.
“How did you know?” she asked Hunter again.
He smiled and nodded toward the front-most angel. The one who was speaking to Nora.
“You were talking…to all of us?” Nora asked, surprised. The man smiled at her.
“Yes. You have us at your service, Nora. Only speak and we will do as you command.”
“I have a question. What was that thing that fought me and kept you here?”
“It is a creature from nightmare, ripped straight out of the dream realm. Some would call it a daemon.”
“But…how is that possible? How can something be ripped out of the dream realm?”
“It can only happen here, in this place. This chamber is the one point on the entire earth that the dream world and the human world…touch. There exists the slightest bit of overlap, and the result is that it becomes possible to go across worlds fully, in the flesh. The darkness you see to your side? It is the barrier between the two.”
Suddenly everything started to make sense. Nora remembered being thrown across that barrier, remembered the feeling of losing herself all-too-clearly. So there was a reason why the sensation was the same as coming back to her body from entering the dream world. Or rather, not entering, but projecting herself there.
“It is the same barrier that the first angel used to come into the world of humans to spawn the Vassiz. But going across it is not something one should do twice. It is dangerous to cross like that. You risk losing yourself in the void that exists between the worlds. And in the dream world, imaginations and nightmares run wild. The creature was one such; it was a guardian, put together from the greatest of nightmares that hunt the dream. Created to keep us locked here forever.”
“But not anymore,” Nora said.
“No. Thanks to you, we are now free.”
“So…now what happens?”
“That is your choice, Nora.”
She thought for a moment. She looked at Hunter, standing beside her again, looking at her reverently. She saw Madison and Alexander, holding each other in their arms, watching her with respect. She felt the gaze of the angels directed only at her.
They were all waiting for her to decide what to do.
“We will fight against the elders,” she said coldly. “And make them pay for what they did to you. For the travesties they committed against their race. For the oppression and fear they spread amongst the Vassiz. For what they did to Alexander and Rafael. For the ruin they brought onto the Vassiz they claim to serve, we will fight, and we will win.”
A cheering erupted from the angels, and it wasn’t just in her head. They moved their lips, and sound came out, but it was unlike any sound she’d heard before. It was pure and clean. And elated. She felt their joy with her decision. She looked to Hunter briefly, and he smiled approvingly.
“Wait,” Nora said, addressing the angel again. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Gabriel.”
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Relentless
(Book Three of the FORSAKEN SAGA)
Copyright © 2013, Sophia Sharp
Awesome editing provided by: Denise Nicholls
eBook Version 2.0
Publication Date: February 1st, 2014
Cover Art by: Laura Sava
http://sophiasharp.blogspot.com
Book Description:
There is a prophecy that speaks of a time of great turmoil, a time when the rule of power will be overturned by the hammer of fate. That time has come, and one girl stands in the middle of it all...
Nora has been reunited with Hunter, and together they must face the elders. But this time, they have the angels on their side. It is a precious advantage, but only if used properly...
She has learned of the prophecy of her fate, and learned of her destiny. But while others are certain, she is less sure. And as she moves forward, she learns that absolutely nothing can ever be guaranteed.
Chapter One
~Back to the Beginning~
“Where do we go now?”
Nora looked at Hunter as if seeing him for the first time. Was he really asking her where she thought they should go? She frowned in thought. Only a few weeks ago, she would have been the one asking him the questions, as curious and ingenuous as a newborn babe brought into the world.
But ever since stumb
ling across that daemonic creature in the white marble chamber, and surviving, she had taken on a new sense of responsibility. Of destiny, even. After hearing what the angels – Gabrielle, mostly – told her, about the elders and their rise to power, about their unscrupulous greed for absolute control, something shifted inside of her. Something that gave her a sense of purpose and a knowledge of what she must do. She could not run from the elders forever, and the best way of stopping that was to turn directly against them.
“We go forward, just as planned.”
They were standing in front of the mill where, just over six weeks ago, she’d stood frozen in fright as two Vassiz bounty hunters entered the building, threatened Hunter, and demanded he give her up. He’d refused and fought valiantly to keep her safe.
Hunter frowned. “We don’t know how safe it is.” He combed a hand haphazardly through his thick, luscious black hair. His eyes regarded her with an equal amount of concern and questioning. She realized, however selfish it was, that she liked it when he worried. But only if he was worrying about her. There was something attractive, sexy even, about the way the corner of his mouth tightened and his eyes narrowed whenever he thought she might be placing herself in a less-than-ideal situation.
“Gray says there’s nobody there.”
“Right.” Hunter nodded, shooting her a half-smile. “But the thing is, the people Gray might notice are not the people we’re worried about.”
Nora rolled her eyes. Hunter still didn’t really believe Gray had learned to consciously pick out the Vassiz from whatever else was going on around him. He said he did, and he said that he trusted her…connection…with the bear, but he was still uneasy about trusting Gray with scoping out the surrounding area for signs of other Vassiz.
“He can pick them out.” Nora glanced quickly to Gray, who was lounging at her side. He had grown immensely in the few weeks since Hunter had rescued her from that nightmarish creature. Now, when Gray stood on all fours, he was nearly up to her shoulders, and the muscles on his body had developed impressively. He was strong – powerful – and the silver coating of fur that marked him as albino made him all the more majestic. And yet, whenever Nora looked at him, she saw the same cub that Hunter had first brought to her after hunters had killed his mother. Hunter exhaled audibly. “Whatever you say.” He still didn’t sound convinced. “Just don’t blame me if we stumble upon a pack situated in there, just waiting for us to come back.”
Nora smiled slyly at him. While she appreciated his concern, it wasn’t like she was the same helpless girl he’d met in that Vancouver high school nearly two months ago. She had changed immensely since then, growing both in mind and in body. She had full control of her Vassiz powers now and could wield them just as confidently as Hunter could. That had turned out to be one of the benefits of taking Vassiz blood in her first feeding – an enhanced expression of the Vassiz powers.
“Don’t worry.” She slipped an arm around his waist and pulling him toward her. “I’m confident we can face whoever we find in there.” She stood up on her tiptoes and brushed a kiss against his lips. He smiled mischievously, and Nora was jerked forward unceremoniously as he pulled her in for more. For a brief second, she forgot everything as she was wholly consumed by the brilliance of feeling his lips on hers, his tongue running softly against the front of her teeth, the teasing way in which he alternated between holding back and moving forward full force.
When he finally pulled back and let her go, Nora nearly lost her balance completely. It felt like all the blood had rushed to her head, and for a brief moment, she wasn’t quite sure where she was or what she was doing there. Nobody ever said in the Vassiz manual of being that she would still be so vulnerable to the very human emotions that overcame her at times like this.
When she could finally see again, Hunter was already moving confidently toward the mill. Cursing under her breath, for his ability to make her feel so entirely woozy, she set out after him.
When she caught up, they were a scant twenty feet from the entrance door. The sound of the roaring river beneath them covered up any noise – however miniscule – their footsteps may have made.
When they reached the front door, Hunter shot her a look as if to say, are you ready for this? Nora gave him one curt nod, and he pushed the door open.
Inside, the mill looked exactly the same as Nora last remembered. The same old, rusted mechanisms slowly turned in place, propelled by the power of the river below. And the same layer of dirt covered the floor. She could see now, with her augmented sight, some signs of the fight that had gone on in there between Hunter and the bounty hunter who had once chased after them. But, strangely, the body of the hunter was gone.
“As I thought,” Hunter said warily, “they’ve already been here.”
“Why’d they take his body, though?” Nora asked, without thinking.
Hunter looked at her in surprise. ”To keep it a secret, of course. If word spread through the packs that a bounty hunter had been killed in pursuit of us – and on orders of the elders, mind you – well, that would not bode well for their confidence in the leaders.”
“Hmm,” Nora said, momentarily ashamed by her lapse in thinking. But it was Hunter’s fault, dammit, pulling her in and kissing her like that! She still didn’t have her wits about her.
“We shouldn’t linger here,” Hunter continued. “Stay close.”
Nora nodded and took a step toward Hunter. Despite knowing full well that she was now more than capable of defending herself – perhaps more so than Hunter, even – it felt good to know she was being protected.
Nora followed Hunter as he made his way toward a small back room. Initially, Nora thought it was the same room she had woken up in the first time she’d been in the mill, but on a second glance around she realized it wasn’t. The window, for one, was in the wrong place, and the glass panels in it were still whole. And there was a small opening in the ceiling, a square hole that looked like it was the entrance to the attic.
Without a word, Hunter looked up at the opening and jumped. His hands gripped the sides sturdily, and he pulled himself up without a sound. He moved around to change position, and then stuck his arm out toward her as if to pull her up.
Hmph! He thought he would help her up, did he? She knew she could do it just as well herself, and ignoring his hand, she jumped up. Her hands found the grip on the inside edge of the opening, and just as she started pulling herself up, the plank she was holding creaked loudly and gave in. It broke, sending Nora tumbling back down to the floor, where she landed with a thud.
She sat there for a second, momentarily stunned, before she heard laughter. It sounded subdued, at first, as if someone was trying to hold it in, but then it broke out in full force. She glared up at Hunter, who looked entirely too delighted.
“I told you to take my hand,” he said between chuckles. “Maybe next time you’ll listen.”
Grumbling, Nora pushed herself up. Again, Hunter put his arm out, and this time Nora took it. No point in embarrassing herself twice. Besides, she could swallow her pride, if it meant the stupid man would just stop laughing at her.
As always, it took a brief moment for Nora’s eyes to adjust to the dark of the attic. But, as always, she could see just as well – perhaps even better – than in the light.
The attic stretched out over the entire structure of the mill. Far away, above the area Nora approximated all the levers and gears and rotating metal poles stood on the first floor, were some extra gears and other mechanisms that groaned with age as they spun round and round. And closer to her, a series of feeble-looking pieces of plywood lay on the floor, covering the distance between each wooden plank to provide a walkway leading over to the machinery. Nora guessed the plywood had been placed there generations ago, when the mill was still operational, as a way for the workers to get to the gears on the other side for repairs and things like that.
Hunter, however, was staring off into another direction. Nora followed his gaze to the che
st on the far wall. The chest they’d come to retrieve. The chest where he’d hidden away all of Maria’s most precious belongings before she had been taken and…interrogated…by the elders. Maria, who was Hunter’s first love nearly two centuries ago, had been killed by the overzealous elders in order to make her a symbol of the weakness to the Vassiz race. Her death began the “purification,” a type of genocide against members of their own race.
Seeing the chest for the first time, Nora felt a series of shivers run down her spine. To her, that chest was a symbol of Hunter’s old life, and for him, it was a burial of things long forgotten. But there was one item in there important enough for them to come back and retrieve.
It was a catalogue of letters that Maria had accumulated while she was still alive. Hunter hoped they would give some clues to the elders’ whereabouts. While Maria had been politically involved, Hunter had remained somewhat apathetic – until she was taken from him. Most of her belongings were burned, but he salvaged what he could. The catalogue of letters she so treasured was one such item. He had never read it, never opened it even, out of respect for her, but now it had come time to see what it contained.
Nora looked to Hunter as he began picking his way across the floor. There wasn’t enough room for either of them to stand, with the short ceiling, but Hunter still managed to traverse the distance to the chest quickly, hopping from plank to plank. Nora started after him.
When they reached the chest on the other side, Hunter paused and turned to her.
“Are you sure…” Nora began, “…are you sure it won’t be painful for you to look through the letters? To relive your life with Maria…again?”
He smiled at her. “No,” he said with genuine eyes. “Not with you around.”
