The Chosen Trilogy Boxset

by David Leadbeater

  At that moment the doors shook, the building rocked and a great shriek rang out. Lysette ducked instinctively but nothing happened. They were greeted to the sound of beating wings, the screams of trapped onlookers, and then another shriek, this time further away, higher. Lysette looked fearfully up toward the roof.

  “Oh no. It’s not . . .”

  They waited, moving closer to the sides of the vast room. After what seemed an eternity Cleaver let out a long sigh.

  “Beastie’s gone,” he said. “And get this. Team Cheyne grabbed an artefact off old Astaroth over there in Hawaii, and now they have a theory. They believe that each of these artefacts used to belong to each demon, before they were turned. Y’know, when they were still one of us. That’s why the pieces draw them, call to them. It’s like an old memory. But sometimes memories need searching out, sorting through, and then clearly identifying. We’re of the belief that’s why the hierarchy demons appear to be hunting, searching in the same spot and returning again and again. They know the thing’s there, but it takes a while to locate it. So . . .” He extended an arm toward the doors.

  “Abaddon will be back,” Ceriden said.

  “Yeah.”

  “So we need to prepare.”

  “I’d say.”

  Ceriden let out a long, pent-up breath and headed back toward the doors. “Then follow me.”

  SIXTEEN

  Lysette suppressed a shiver. Not far out of Vienna, where the hills rolled gently and formed the foothills and gateways to even loftier places, a castle perched in shadow, its high spires pointing to a place its occupants could never go. Reminiscent of the Cinderella castle in Disneyworld, it contained none of the cheeriness of a theme park and none of the safety.

  It was a vampire fortress, a black bastion for night crawlers and bloodsuckers. Ceriden’s first responsibility was to take them there. His second was to warn them to always be on their guard and never walk alone. Lysette saw the way Ethan grinned at his king’s words and resolved to watch the kid like a hawk.

  Once inside, the dark menace that pervaded the place fell over them. Cleaver unfastened his duster and kept a hand close to his shotgun. Jade walked on the balls of her feet, always ready to leap into action.

  “Don’t worry,” Ceriden said to them, constantly vigilant himself. “New country. Different house. Protocol demands we pay our respects, but I am king. There are many vampires here. A sizeable security force.”

  “And my master. My king,” Ethan said happily. “This is his place.”

  “Yes.” Ceriden stuttered a little. “Strahovski. He’s the king of Europe and number two to my reign. He is . . . a tricky old chap.”

  “Tricky?” Lysette echoed with arched eyebrows.

  “Think of me as David Beckham and him as Roy Keane. That might help.”

  “It would if I followed bloody soccer. I don’t. Do you two have a problem?”

  “Strahovski is unruly. There may be some rivalry, nothing too nasty, but it’s best left unpoked. He is a wild child. If Britney was a man and had fangs, she would be Strahovski.”

  Lysette tried to imagine it. Failed. “Looks like we’ll play it by ear then.”

  Ceriden nodded. “That sounds good to me.”

  The black castle groaned and echoed to the sounds of good-natured vampiric shrieks. The fanged creatures congregated to watch them pass. Their nostrils flared. Lysette thought about Daniel in the lion’s den. She thought about poor old Ken and his group, walking the byways of hell.

  She moved deeper into the castle.

  SEVENTEEN

  Lysette tried to hide her incredulity when she was shown to a room, given clear and firm instructions not to wander the halls alone, and advised to cover her windows with the provided drapes even though her room was over ten stories high.

  When her entourage and friends were gone, she locked the door behind them and basked in a moment of peace.

  No voices in her head. No obvious danger. No nervous, desperate rush to be someplace. And there, right in front of her, the opaque plastic doors that screamed glorious revitalization in her mind.

  A Shower!

  Feeling excited, and more than a little foolish, she skipped toward it, shedding clothes as she went. Blouse on the bed, trousers on the floor. Everything else landed wherever it bloody well landed and then she was inside. The first blast of water was freezing cold, making her shriek, but then the temperature rose and she was laughing at herself, luxuriating under the intense force of streaming water. The sensation was wonderful.

  How long had it been?

  She didn’t like to think. All she needed was the sumptuous warmth and to close her eyes and let the water wash away all memory of recent events—at least for a while. The heat and steam rose around her. For a short time she let the pounding water massage her shoulders and her back, her face, her hair.

  Bliss.

  Afterward, she wandered around her room wrapped in a white towel. If nothing else Strahovski’s vampires knew how to look after their guests. The bed was made up with fresh sheets. A plush white robe lay on the pillow. Lysette dropped the towel and snuggled into the robe.

  Heaven.

  A voice intruded, tentative, faint, but unmistakably Lucy’s. She heard it only in her head, but the girl had to be close. As far as Lysette knew, her mind-reading capabilities didn’t reach more than ten yards or so.

  Lucy wasn’t alone. She was with Ethan and not in her room. Lysette fancied the girl had just passed along the corridor outside her door, because the sounds in her head were gradually fading. A spike of worry pushed through her. Lucy shouldn’t be out there, even accompanied by a vampire.

  Especially accompanied by a vampire.

  Lysette moved quickly toward the door, eyeing her clothes but knowing she couldn’t spare the time to put them on. She settled for cinching the robe’s belt tighter then cracked her door.

  She peeked out. The corridor was empty, dark mahogany panels making it seem even murkier. She slipped out, then wedged her shoe in the door to prevent it from closing and locking. The last thing she needed was to have to call for the vampire equivalent of a caretaker.

  She moved down the corridor, unable to get those instructions out of her head. Never walk these corridors alone. What choice did she have? As she approached the first bend, Lucy’s thoughts again popped into her head and she made herself slow down. Caution before stupidity.

  Ethan was talking to her. The excitement in his voice was as clear as a Caribbean sky. “Strahovski is cool. A majorly cool dude. He loves newbies like you. I’ll take you to meet him soon.”

  Lucy asked how many vampires lived here.

  “Hundreds. At least.”

  Lucy then asked how many shades lived here.

  “Dunno. Hundreds, I guess. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

  Lysette wondered what the hell that meant. She was about to slip around the corner and interrupt their midnight rendezvous when Ethan continued his line of thought in a much more somber tone.

  “Used to be a lot more vamps though. In the old days.”

  “Old days?” Lysette could hear Lucy normally now. They were just beyond the curve.

  “We’re told not to repeat this but, hey, you’re young and pretty and I’m young and dumb so what can they do?”

  Lucy giggled. Lysette held her breath.

  “Vampires . . . well, all Ubers actually, live a lot longer than guys like Ceriden and Strahovski would have you believe. The pretty much don’t die, they just fade away slowly as they grow tired of this world. Tired of living. They withdraw, retreat to an unknown, quiet place and are never seen again. But they live on.”

  “How many?”

  Ethan let out a breath. “Thousands. Tens of thousands.”

  “And their shades?”

  “Are let go. They’re no longer required. The Withdrawn no longer need blood sustenance. They even co-exist with each other. It is said they have gone beyond all worldly concerns.”

  �
��Wow.”

  “Yeah. Wow, right? C’mon, let’s head to Strahovski’s room.”

  Lysette was about to step out, a reprimand already on her tongue, when a strong arm slipped around her waist. It encircled her like a band of iron, the fingers ending up inside her robe and touching her bare skin. Lysette jolted, then bucked like a spooked horse but found that she could barely move.

  A set of dry lips brushed against her left ear. “Should you be out of your room, sweet meat?”

  Lysette screamed. The arm locked her body in as a wet tongue found her earlobe. She was panting, heart racing with anger and fear. In her turmoil she totally forgot about reading her assailant’s mind, something that would have helped her.

  Lucy ran around the corner first, looking startled. Then Ethan, an expression of fear on his face. When the two popped into sight the man holding her backed off. Lysette turned quickly and found herself staring at a handsome, stubble-strewn face, the most remarkable feature being the piercing pale blue eyes.

  The man held up his hands. “Hey. I was playing with you. It’s all just fun.”

  Lysette shuddered, thinking about his fingers touching her bare stomach.

  “You shouldn’t be out here alone,” he said again.

  Lysette turned to Lucy. “I want a word with you.”

  She grabbed the girl and walked off, taking care to put plenty of space between her and the new vampire as they passed in the corridor. Then she put her head down and headed straight for her room.

  “Stay in there,” the man said to her back. “I hear there’s monsters out here.”

  EIGHTEEN

  The call came in well before dawn. Lysette woke, feeling that her head had barely hit the pillow. When she sat up, looking for her phone, Lucy was standing at the foot of her bed, holding it out to her.

  “Whoa. That’s a little creepy.”

  “I was going for helpful.”

  Lysette tried a smile. “That works too.”

  “You realize it’s still only three in the morning?”

  Lysette ruffled stiffened fingers through her messy hair. “I kinda got that. Jeez,” she shook her head, “this thing never stops does it?”

  She put the phone to her ear. Ceriden said, “We have a sighting on Abaddon. This time at the Vienna Zoo.”

  “That was quick.”

  “These old towns . . . Vienna, Zurich, Paris, Prague . . . some of my personal favorites darling, enjoy an above average vampire population. We have a strict ratio—of humans to vampires—but it’s notoriously hard to control. Of course, at times like these that also means more Uber arses in gear, if you know what I mean.”

  Lysette did. The streets out there would be crawling with Ubers. Not so good for the tourists, but excellent for Aegis. She looked up at Lucy.

  “Looks like we’re in for a fight. You ready?”

  “Lately, fighting’s my life. It’s all I do.”

  Lysette threw on clothes and a heavy jacket. “Look, I’m sorry I embarrassed you with Ethan. But vampires? Don’t trust them. Even Ceriden. Do you really think they have your best interests at heart like your father does?”

  “My father? He’s not here.”

  “I know he wishes he was. With all his heart.”

  “Is that a mind-reading thing?” Lucy’s voice turned sarcastic.

  “No. It’s a human thing.”

  “Vampires have feelings,” Lucy said defensively.

  “I agree. And only a few of them are agreeable. The rest—” Lysette shook her head.

  Lucy stared at her, a war of emotion happening right there in her expression, before Lysette’s eyes. In the end, youth won out.

  “You’re not my father,” she said, turning away. “And I don’t have a mother. So don’t even start with that.”

  Lysette walked past her toward the door. This battle was almost as hard as the one to save the world. “Let’s talk later,” she said. “After we’ve kicked this demon’s ass back to hell or wherever it came from. C’mon.”

  Lucy nodded, face set to sub-zero. Lysette hurried them to the waiting cars. Within minutes they were on their way back to Vienna. Ceriden was keeping in constant touch with his ‘forces’ at ground zero.

  “Abaddon is scoping the zoo out. Flying around and around. These artefacts of theirs must be harder to pinpoint than we think.” He turned a speculative gaze on Jade. “It’s been thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years since they last saw them. The world changes.”

  Jade, an elf even older than Ceriden, bobbed her head up and down. “You are right, King of Vampires. Humans would not believe the history, the archaic monuments, that lie in dust and rubble beneath their young feet.”

  Vienna’s skyline came into view. Ceriden gunned their car toward Schoenbrunn Palace and its zoo. By the time they arrived, the roundabout outside was thick with figures, as were the surrounding streets. Everything was cast in dark shadows by faint street lights.

  Lysette whistled. “All vampires?”

  “Surprisingly no,” Ceriden admitted. “Lycans also. We have Kinkade partly to thank for this gathering. Even though his spirit inhabits the body of Leah Aldridge he is still able to occupy part of his gargoyle network.”

  “All for Abaddon?”

  “Yes. We are now at war.”

  Ceriden abandoned the car outside the locked palace gates, then pushed through a gap the vampires had already made. The jog along the large inner yard took some time, as did the run around the side of the palace and across the rear gardens. It would attract police attention, but Aegis was confident of their role here. Diplomacy would not save their world. Speed and fast-thinking might.

  “We only have a few hours till dawn,” Ceriden shouted from the head of the crowd. “Make them count!”

  They swarmed into the zoo, those vampires too eager to wait for the gates to be smashed simply piling over fences. The skies above were lit by stars and a half moon. Abaddon’s menacing shadow flitted to and fro overhead, screeching as he saw the approaching force.

  Something fell from one of his great claws and smashed down among the vampires, crushing some and sending others to their knees. A partly eaten animal. Something big and unrecognizable. As the vampires ran along the zoo’s paths, Abaddon swooped in low, dropping like an attacking fighter jet, jaws opening to reveal racks of bloody teeth.

  The vampires screeched, diving headlong out of its path. Lysette grabbed Lucy and pulled them behind a great tree. Abaddon reached the limit of his dive and started to rise again, scooping up unfortunate bodies as he went. Vampires were struck and flung left and right, some became stuck between the demon’s teeth and others were picked up by the flicking forked tongue and then swallowed. Lysette saw one Uber force his way out of a gap between Abaddon’s teeth and hurl himself to the ground below, landing safely, the luckiest vampire in the world—at least for that moment in time.

  Lysette watched the enormous serpent rise once more over Vienna. “We have to ground it,” she said. “Make it change shape, even.”

  Ceriden’s voice, shaky, came from one side. “I believe I may have suffered from premature infiltration.” He moaned. “Meaning—we attacked too soon, of course.”

  Jade kept her cool, saying, “You should have waited for the beast to find its treasure.”

  Ceriden shrugged. “Hey, I got caught up in the moment.”

  Lysette indicated dozens of vampires falling from Abaddon’s mouth as he rose further into the sky. “So did half your force. The next time he comes around, we must be ready.”

  “What do you propose?”

  Lysette smiled. “Our chosen one. Lucy. You think you can drop a water bomb on that bastard’s head when he dives again?”

  Lucy blinked as if shrugging off her inner woes and remembering why they were here. “Sure. I think so. If it works like it did at the beach.”

  “You haven’t practiced since then?”

  “Well, no. I’ve been . . . we’ve been . . . preoccupied.”

&nb
sp; Lysette tried not to judge. This wasn’t the time. They were gambling everything on Lucy being able to bring a hierarchy demon down. And the moment of truth was approaching.

  Fast.

  Abaddon flipped over at the top of his flight and then came arrowing down once more. Eyes blazing an inferno-red were locked on target. A jawline the size of a bus cracked wide open, fire and mangled bodies dripping between dagger-shaped incisors.

  Lucy gave a squeak of fear, turning away.

  Lysette knelt beside her. “It’s okay. It’s all right. Just concentrate on your power and nothing else. Concentrate on me. That’s it. Look at me.”

  Lucy’s eyes fixed on Lysette’s.

  But then Jade, one of their original instructors back in York, knelt beside her. “The power. Let it come. Let it flow. Feel it course through your brain, your body. It is one with you, an extension of your thoughts, just another limb, as natural as the decision to blink. Your will summons it and contains its power, the immense force. But your will also controls and shapes it. You are an elemental. You hold the power. And now that you are your own woman, you have the choice of decision and command.”

  Lysette winced a little at Jade’s words but watched in admiration as Lucy’s face turned hard with resolve. The girl looked up, straight at the plummeting visage of violent, fiery death.

  Vampires screamed and fled the area, leaping into animal shelters and around buildings, some even diving into pools within enclosures. Lucy stood resolute with Aegis and the Chosen at her side and swept her hands up at the skies.

  Instantly, a wall of water shimmered into being, surging up as if shot out of an invisible cannon. The stream crashed into the descending serpent before it registered what was happening. Water broke against its skull like waves breaking against a mountainous escarpment, then fell back down to earth. Lucy staggered slightly, the exertion draining her, but immediately concentrated and let loose another upwelling blast.

  The second wave again struck the demon before it could think. Disorientated, soaked, blinded and furious, it misjudged its flight, hammering face first into the ground with a resounding thud like a mini-earthquake. It bellowed and writhed in agony. Wings beat wrathfully, destroying tarmac paths, concrete walls and wrought iron enclosures. Animals screamed. Ubers were crushed as they tried to escape. The forked tail cracked up and down, striking the ground again and again with hateful, brute force. Lysette crouched low, shielding her eyes and head as the entire serpent started to flicker and change shape. She turned quickly toward Jade, but the elf was trying to keep Lucy from collapsing headlong into a dead faint.