by Ariel Marie
Phaelyn
The Dark Shadows 2.5
Ariel Marie
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Before you begin
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Sneak Peak
Teague
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Ariel Marie
Copyright © 2016 by Ariel Marie
Cover Design by Natasha Snow
Editor: Debbie Smart
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, businesses, events, and incidents are a figment of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any similarities to real people, businesses, locations, history, and events are a coincidence.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Created with Vellum
To anyone who has ever had a dream….
Before you begin
WARNING: Due to the explicit language and graphic sexual scenes, this book is intended for mature (18 years +) readers only. If things of this nature offend you, this book would not be for you. If you like a good action story with hot steamy scenes with vampires, then you have chosen wisely…
Chapter One
~Phaelyn~
The year of 1811
“It’s getting late Phaelyn, dear. Dinner will be ready soon,” her mother yelled from the front porch.
“Coming mother!” Twenty-year-old Phaelyn Otvos yelled back.
“Cine tocmai stă culcat pe pământ și se uită sus la stele?” her mother muttered, shaking her head, as she returned into their small cottage.
Phaelyn smiled as she laid back down on her blanket in the middle of the yard. She ran her fingers through Milo’s fur as she focused on the sky. Milo, her shepherd dog was just as tired as she was. They’d had a long day working sheep. Her fingers paused as she stared up at the star-laced sky, lost in a daydream.
“Oh, I’m sorry boy,” she murmured as Milo whined and nudged her hand with his head as if encouraging her to continue. His body stiffened at a sound in the woods at the edge of their yard. A low growl released from him as he sat up. His body was tense as if ready to attack.
“What is it boy?” she asked, sitting up next to Milo. She heard the rustling again in the woods. She stared hard into the night, trying to see what was causing the noise, but it was too dark to make out anything.“Let’s go in the house,” she said quickly, standing to gather her blanket.
She tried to nudge Milo toward the cottage but he wouldn’t budge. His massive frame was coiled as if expecting something to jump out of the woods. He was a very loyal shepherd dog and protective of her. He moved to stand in front of Phaelyn, putting himself between her and what ever was in the woods. Her heart thumped quicker as she looked around not seeing anything. It was definitely time to head into the house.
With the recent attacks by the Russians, she didn’t want to take a chance with whatever was in the woods. She heard the sound again and this time there was a crash in the woods.
“Milo! No!” she yelled as he took off and disappeared into the woods.
“Dammit!” she cursed under her breath.
She didn’t hesitate to run after him. He was not only her shepherd dog but her baby. She crashed into the woods running at top speed. She slowed to a pause not seeing where Milo went. A sound alerted her to her left and she slowly made her way in that direction as she softly called Milo’s name. But he was nowhere to be found.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention as she turned slowly in a circle with the feeling that she was being watched.
Nothing.
“Milo,” she whispered fiercely. He had two more seconds and then she would have to leave. She ran too deep into the woods and if there wasn’t a murderer hiding in the trees to get her, her mother sure would, for running into the woods at night.
She slowly backed up, bumping into a solid form. She let loose a scream, not expecting anyone behind her. She turned, finding deep crimson eyes staring at her.
Crimson eyes?
“Impossible,” she whispered.
She slowly backed up, shaking her head as another scream built up inside of her chest. She had heard of rumors of the ‘others’. Nadira had always told her stories of the vampires, but Phaelyn had always laughed it off, believing that her friend was just pulling her leg with old legends of Romania.
The moonlight reflected off his massive fangs as he bared them to her. She turned and took off running but was not able to outrun the monster. She let loose a scream, just as hands grabbed her from behind. She stumbled to the ground with the heavy weight of her attacker falling on top of her. The last thing she remembered was the razor sharp pain of something tearing into her neck before darkness consumed her.
Chapter Two
~Phaelyn~
Present day
It is said that the last sense to leave a person before death was their hearing. But that wasn’t entirely true. Pain. Pain and the agony of taking that last dying breath stays with a person until they exist no more. She would know. Two hundred and five years ago, she died.
Not only did she die but she was born that same day. Died a human in the arms of her close friend Nadira Olaru and woke up a vampire.
The nightmare of her attack still haunted her to this day. Phaelyn wasn’t a weakling—not anymore. She was a member of the elite, Dark Shadows. Vampire warriors who hunted down rogues and fought any enemy of the vampire nation. She could take care of herself, she thought as she pounded away at the red punching bag.
Phaelyn was no longer that innocent twenty-year-old Romanian country girl. She was now a dangerous warrior for the vampire nation. To repay the gift that was bestowed upon her, she had pledged her life to the Olaru’s and to the vampire nation. She tried as best she could to forget that night, but lately it kept on replaying over and over in her head, like a bad late night movie.
Alone in the Shadows training gym, she pounded her nightmares away. Training until she was exhausted usually helped keep the dreams at bay. Most days, at least one of the guys would be in there training, or working out, but today she was alone. Being the only female warrior, she had high expectations for herself. The other Shadows members treated her as one of the guys. They didn’t give her any slack for being a female either. She had to ensure that she was the best.
“Get out of my head!” she yelled, punching the bag as hard as she could. She watched it swing away from her before it headed back in her direction. She turned and landed a perfect roundhouse kick into the side of the bag.
“Am I catching you at a bad time?” a voice asked from the doorway. She turned, slightly out of breath from her two-hour workout, finding Nicu, her commander of the Dark Shadows, standing at the door of the gym. His ice blue eyes locked on her as she shook her head.
Nicu, the eldest son of the vampire royal couple, was not only the heir to the throne, but the commander of the Dark Shadows. The Shadows were vampire warriors charged with the responsibility of protecting the vampire nation and humans, who were unaware of the existence of the supernatural, against all enemies. Current enemy number one— the necromancers.
The
history of the feud between vampires and necromancers dates back centuries. Fifty years ago, the feud between both races reached a peak with the battle. The vampires defeated the necromancers and the necros disappeared. For fifty years, the necromancers were never seen or heard from until recently when they appeared and turned their attention on Nadira the vampire princess.
Nadira Olaru was a long time friend of Phaelyn’s. In their old country of Romania, Phaelyn’s family were sheep farmers, whose land bordered the royal family’s property. At the time, Phaelyn was human and unaware of the existence of vampires or that Nadira’s parents were vampire royalty.
Nadira would joke and tell stories of vampires, when they were younger, but Phaelyn assumed that it was just old folklore that Nadira was spinning just to scare Phaelyn. It wasn’t until the night of Phaelyn’s attack that she had learned that vampires truly existed. It was a brutal vampire attack that almost claimed her life. It was also the night that she learned that her close friend, Nadira, was a vampire.
It was Nadira, her long time friend, who had found Phaelyn on the brink of death. Her wounds were fatal and she surely would have died. Phaelyn barely remembered anything from the attack. She could still hear Nadira’s calming voice as she explained what she was about to do. Scattered memories of Nadira making her drink a coppery fluid rose to the surface as she thought back to that night.
Days later as a new vampire, a neophyte, Phaelyn was weak and still trying to get a wrap on the fact that she had died. She remembered taking that last agonizing breath, going into the light of heaven for what seemed a brief moment before opening her eyes and finding herself in the Olaru mansion.
That one night changed her life forever. No longer could she associate herself with her human family. To them, she was dead. Weeks later, the Olaru’s found the vampire who lured her into the woods. She’d bared witness of his execution. He had violated the vampirian law of outright attacking a human.
“Care for a sparring partner?” Nicu’s voice broke through her thoughts.
“Sure.” She nodded and walked toward the sparring mat.
Sparring with the commander of the Dark Shadows should have intimidated her but it didn’t. She lived for the thrill of trying to best one of the most deadly vampires.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked as they squared up, circling each other. The Dark Shadows leader’s ice blue eyes morphed into his vampiric crimson as he assessed her. He may have been asking about her well-being, but she knew that he was calculating his attack.
“Nothing,” she answered, taking the first swing. He batted her fist away, swinging his own arm. She blocked his blow, grasping his arm close to her abdomen with an attempt to knee him in the waist. He twisted away from her, breaking her hold.
“I need you focused,” he grunted as she finally landed a solid kick to his side.
She couldn’t help the small smirk that appeared on her lips. “I’m always focused.”
“You’re not. Your punches are weak and your execution is sloppy,” he stated as he circled her.
His eyes were that of a predator. Her smirk disappeared as her eyes narrowed on her leader. Weak? Sloppy? She was done playing with him. She’d remind him of why she was chosen as a Shadow warrior.
Calmness washed over her as if she were in a real fight. Whenever she was in a battle, a peaceful serenity would overtake her and she would channel all of her built up fury into her fighting, making her one dangerous female.
This time she swung, as if going in for the kill. Her speed increased as she used her vampiric strength. A growl escaped as Nicu blocked her. He advanced on her and she refused to back down. She may be a turned vampire, unlike him, born to the royal vampire couple, but she was a trained warrior with years of experience under her belt. The memories of her attack surfaced and she unleashed her fury on her commander.
“Better,” he growled as he blocked her yet again. She ducked his fist, side stepping him. Her eyes narrowed on him as they circled each other again. He wanted her in full fighter mode, fine by her. She needed to release this pent up frustration.
She attacked again and this time within seconds Nicu found himself face down on the mat. She stood over him, poised, waiting to see what he would do next. She couldn’t believe that she had actually bested the vampirian prince but she refused to take her eyes off him as she waited to see what his next move would be.
“That was better,” he said, pushing off of the floor to stand. “Always practice as if it is the real thing.”
“Yes, my prince,” she said, releasing her breath and relaxing from her defensive stance.
Nicu knew which buttons to push with her. Being called weak was a pet peeve of hers. She had been through too much in her long life and refused to be seen as weak. As the only turned vampire, and female, on the team, she wanted to make sure she was the best at combat and her swords.
“I need that same intensity for this next assignment.” Nicu crossed his arms across his massive chest as he looked at her.
“Yes, sir,” she straightened. This was just what she needed. She needed a challenge. There hadn’t been any action the last few days during their patrols. “What will it be?”
“We found him.”
“Who?” she asked as her heart fluttered.
What the hell was that?
A certain vampire came to mind, as he frequently did in the past few weeks since his disappearance. The vampire guard that was taken by the necromancers and disappeared the night they rescued Nicu’s younger brother and fellow Shadow member, Toma. The vampire guard whose mere presence made her breath catch in her throat, every single time he passed her.
“Idris.”
Chapter Three
~Idris~
“They are not going to bargain for a mere guard,” a deep voice said on the other side of the dungeon bars. “It’s not like we kidnapped one of the Shadows or the princess.”
Idris Lafayette pretended to be unconscious as he lay on the filthy cold floor of his cell. The necromancers were unaware that he was actually conscious and he wanted to keep it that way. His day had been filled with much torture and right now, he didn’t want to give them any reason to take him back to the other room.
Idris had been a guard for the Olaru family for centuries. He prided himself on being the best and the head of the family’s personal guards. He had worked for the royal family since the Olaru’s were first mated. He was ashamed of his last assignment. He had failed his employers. His anger began to boil as he thought of his failure. He had never made a mistake before and it didn’t sit well with him.
He had been assigned to watch over Anika Massey, the best friend of the vampire royal couple’s only daughter. That night would change his life forever. It had been his responsibility to watch over Anika once she had moved out of the Olaru mansion. The king had called on him and a few other guards to keep an eye on the female who was like another daughter to the king.
Anika had moved into an apartment with her sister who was unaware of the existence of vampires. Both Anika and Selena were humans. Anika was privileged to know of vampires due to her relationship with Nadira, the vampirian princess.
The two necromancers continued conversation broke into his thoughts.
“The rogues are building their army,” one of the voices said. “King Sodan is getting more powerful.”
“That will be good. We can use them and save the versi. The vampires won’t stand a chance,” the voices drifted off as they walked away from his cell.
He waited until their voices faded to where he couldn’t hear them before opening his eyes. He stared up at the dark ceiling before turning to look over at the bars and found himself alone. He breathed a deep sigh of relief. He had lost track of time and he didn’t have a clue of how long he had been held a captive of the necromancers.
Necromancers and vampires have been mortal enemy for centuries. Currently, they were in the middle of a war that began less than a year ago when the necromancers began
killing humans and turning them into versi—dead puppets that they can control. They also had been after the vampire princess. Multiple attacks and kidnappings had restarted the war between the necromancers and vampires.
In this war, Idris had but one job and he failed it—guard Anika. Not only had Idris been kidnapped but so had Anika. He thought back to when they were kept in the same room, when the necromancers had tortured Anika in front of him. It burned him on the inside that he was unable to help the human. She was a sweet girl that he had even come to care for, like a younger sister, and she didn’t deserve to be thrust in the middle of the war.
Xalak, the necromancer prince had tortured the human in front of Idris, while he had been chained to a wall. Her piercing screams still haunted him until this day. He had never been so helpless before, watching her scream and moan as the necromancer used his powers to dig around in her mind.
The necromancers were strong, powerful beings that loved to use mind torture. Xalak had used his powers to rip into Anika’s mind, gaining her memories and discovering that she was the mate of Toma, a Dark Shadows member and the third son of the king. Idris was rendered unconscious by Xalak and the next time he woke up, Anika was gone.
Days later, the Shadows descended upon the necromancer's underground hideout. In the middle of all the chaos and fighting, the necromancers snatched Idris from his prison cell and brought him to his current location.
He winced as he shifted. His body ached in places that he didn’t even know could hurt. He had been poked and prodded all day as the necromancers studied him as if he were a rare species.
As a vampire he was able to fight off their mind games so they then resorted to their physical forms of torture. They demanded that he give them information about the vampire nation, in which he refused. He would die before he betrayed his people.
