Crimson Hollow

by Andrea Pearson

  I put my hand around the amulet. “And this is why we need to stop him before he gets a chance to leave his graveyard.”

  “Exactly. We’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from coming because once he’s here, in the country with the most active population of Silvers, he will draw them to himself, along with demons. He will magnify the abilities of those around him, and he will use those abilities against anyone who opposes him.”

  Abel got to his feet and rested his hands on the back of his chair. I could tell he was getting antsy throughout the whole conversation, and it surprised me that he hadn’t spoken earlier. “What we need to do is go to Holland right now and destroy him there.”

  “Exactly,” Vincent said.

  “When do we leave?” I asked.

  “As soon as possible. The minute we have enough supporters on our side. Who will fight with us?”

  Vincent started counting hands, but just then, the amulet began warming at my sternum.

  What’s going on? I asked.

  Phone. Check phone.

  I pulled my cell from my purse. It didn’t have any service. Glancing around, I wondered if I could leave the meeting gracefully. I waited for a moment, then said to Vincent, “I’ve had an emergency come up. Do you mind if I step out to find out what’s going on? I’ll be back in about five minutes.”

  “Go ahead. We’ll take a break. Would anyone like some beverages while she’s gone?”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  I hurried back to the trail and rushed down it, hoping to get service in the parking lot. My phone vibrated with incoming messages before then, and I stopped in a little forest just up the hill from the lot.

  My cell dinged repeatedly. Five voicemails and over ten text messages. Rather than checking my voicemail, I opened the texts. They were all from Cole, and almost all of them said the same thing.

  ANSWER YOUR PHONE!

  I called him immediately.

  “Finally! The governor’s acting against you. He sent several teams to Alpine Canyon. I don’t know how he knew that’s where you are, but he plans to stop you ASAP.”

  “What do you mean, several teams?”

  “Police, SWAT teams, Secret Service—you name it. They’re on their way. And because he’s a hound, you can bet he’s also sending some of those.”

  Crap. “How much time do we have?”

  “I’ve been trying to reach you for thirty minutes. If they haven’t already arrived, they’ll be there soon.”

  I stepped to the side where I could see through the trees into the parking lot. My heartbeat doubled when I saw it filling with black SUVs.

  “They’re here now. Call you later.” I shoved my phone into my pocket as I turned and raced up the trail. I burst into Crimson Hollow, out of breath from having jogged uphill for ten minutes at least.

  “We’re about to have company,” I said. “A lot of company.”

  Vincent stood. “What type? Regular humans won’t be able to find us.”

  “Hounds, SWAT teams, police officers, security agents. Everything.”

  “What makes you think they’ll get through our defenses?” Vincent asked.

  “The governor of Utah sent them.”

  Abel jumped to his feet, understanding immediately. “He’s a hound,” he said to Vincent. “I wouldn’t count on your protection stopping them from finding us. If I’m not mistaken, the cops were able to find Rauel last time, right?”

  Vincent gave a nod. “If they know where they’re going, they’ll make it through. They won’t see the blood, but it won’t protect us from them.” He glanced at his people. “Prepare yourselves.”

  The meadow erupted in a flurry as vampires, ifrits, and Aretes alike burst into action.

  We weren’t able to do much of anything—too much time had been spent discussing, and only moments after I arrived, a man shouted “Hands in the air” over a megaphone.

  Vincent and I made eye contact, then Abel and I looked at each other.

  “Play along,” I whispered.

  Vincent and Abel both nodded, and everyone put their hands up. Hundreds of uniformed people swarmed into the hollow, all with guns trained on us. Arrests started being made.

  A SWAT team member approached us, pointing a gun at my chest.

  “Do you know who you’re arresting?” Eleanora asked.

  The guy smirked. “Of course we do.” He glanced around the clearing, then yelled, “Now!”

  Even more pandemonium erupted. Guns started going off, and people screamed and men roared. Abel, Eleanora, and I fell to the ground near each other, needing time to figure out what to do.

  I was confused, though, when I saw that government agents were also shooting other government agents. My confusion gave way when I realized what was going on. Those who were doing the shooting were hounds, and they didn’t want any witnesses. A lot of people were going to die. The hounds were intent on devouring anything and anyone that saw them for what they were—monsters. Some of the hounds were shifting into dog form and were running around the clearing, attacking, while others were giving orders.

  All were avoiding me. At first, I couldn’t understand why. I was the biggest threat to them.

  And then it dawned on me. They were eliminating as many of my allies as possible. I couldn’t allow that.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  I jumped to my feet, pulled my CZ, and started popping the ones who were shouting orders and shooting. I stopped as many bullets as I could with my powers, taking care not to overdo it—there were far too many to stop. Abel and Eleanora joined me, both with their own weapons, and I sensed as Eleanora also prohibited enemy guns from going off. I dropped to my knees next to unconscious hounds and snuffed out their fires, then joined the fighting again.

  It didn’t take long for the vampires to realize what was going on, and they quickly entered the fray. Their style of fighting was similar to one Abel had attempted to teach me a while ago. It was graceful, more like a dance than anything. They flashed through the air and across the ground, faster than humans, their moves well executed as they snapped necks and spun enemies into trees. It was almost beautiful, if I took out the carnage and violence.

  There were too many hounds, though, and we weren’t keeping up with them well enough. It was too hard to know who was a hound and who was a human, unless the hounds were dogs or were shooting other agents.

  After fighting as humans for several moments, the ifrits shifted into their more dangerous counterparts. Their whips flashed in the air, grabbing hounds and flinging them across the clearing.

  Eleanora ran out of bullets and turned to magic. She was vicious with her powers. She held a knife in one hand to protect herself should anyone get near, and I sensed as her power continued stopping as many bullets as possible, but her most epic damage was done using the elements. Hounds were swept off their feet by strong winds and were thrown hundreds of feet away, their bodies crumpling in heaps. Dead branches crashed into the clearing, smashing only into agents and pinning the good ones in place to keep them out of the fight or stabbing through hounds. The ground around us swelled, covering our enemies in mounds and knocking others into crevices.

  Wind and water also played a role, and the scene before me could only be described as chaos.

  Abel alternated between shooting and throwing knives. I noticed he wasn’t inflicting lethal damage unless he knew it was a hound. He was skilled enough with his weapons to pull that off. I was grateful for it. So many were already dead or dying.

  It was time for this to end.

  I reholstered my CZ and turned my focus to permanently eliminating hounds instead.

  So many people were hurt, and there was so much blood—I could no longer tell which was fresh and what had originally been there. I wondered if the vampire magic was still working or if the regular humans could now see all the blood too. It was a gruesome sight, one I wouldn’t forget any time soon.

  I dropped to my hands and knees, crawling over dow
ned government officials, checking for flames. The moment one appeared, I extinguished it and moved on to the next body.

  Most of the government agents were regular humans, and I soon felt like I was wasting my time.

  Eleanora screamed, and I turned back to her, gasping when I saw Conor. He lifted her in the air and threw her across the clearing. I shrieked, jumping to my feet, knowing I wouldn’t get there in time.

  Instead of landing roughly on the ground, though, she hung in the air by her clothes and started lowering herself gently, eyes closed. About two feet up, her body slackened and she dropped roughly the rest of the way. She was unconscious—I could tell by how the magic around her quieted suddenly.

  I turned to face Conor. “You disgusting freak.”

  Conor laughed, then charged me. He grabbed me by the arms and whipped me around, barely avoiding tripping over a body, and letting me go just as I had a mental grasp on his flame.

  I pulled my CZ and shot him three times before running out of bullets.

  The wounds didn’t even faze him. He charged me again, but once more, scampered out of reach just as I grasped at his flame.

  Abel freed himself from fighting across the hollow and raced at him, roaring.

  Conor grinned at Abel, then turned to me. “It’ll be a lot harder than that to kill me, Lizzie.”

  And then he bounded off down the trail, yelling orders over his shoulder for the other hounds to follow. Abel raced after them, tackling two of the hounds to the ground while the ifrits’ whips snapped through the air and snagged several more by the ankle, arm, or clothing. Those hounds stayed down, but many others, including Conor, got away.

  I raced to catch up with Abel, dropping to my knees and extinguishing the fires of the hounds he held down. The dogs slumped, and I took care of the ones the ifrits held with their whips before getting up to survey the damage. Eleanora still hadn’t moved.

  Abel and I ran to her side. She was unconscious, her body bloodied and bruised. I felt for her pulse. It was there, but faint.

  Something else was missing that should’ve been there—that I’d grown accustomed to sensing around Aretes. I glanced at Abel, and he met my expression with a panicked one of his own.

  “Her magic,” I whispered.

  He nodded, stricken. The familiar pulse that usually surrounded her was gone. Had she reached her threshold? Even when Aretes did that, I could still sense their magic. The next question was one I didn’t want to ask. Had she used her powers enough to cause permanent damage?

  The fighting wasn’t over. Vampires were still scuffling behind me as hounds started coming back to life. I needed to eliminate that potential threat before I could focus on Eleanora.

  “Take care of her,” I said to Abel, then jumped back into the fight, forcing myself through and snuffing flames as I went.

  Once the immediate threats had all been neutralized, I started sorting through the rest of the bodies, determining which were humans and which were hounds, and killing fires as needed.

  There were so many dead. So many. Most were government officials, but in all, twenty-three hounds had been destroyed. Many of the vampires had been badly injured, but being immortal, they’d heal. None of the ifrits were injured. Thirty-four actual agents had been killed.

  I couldn’t stop asking myself why the hounds had turned on their government counterparts. If they hadn’t, they would have won. But maybe that wasn’t the point. Maybe they only wanted to scare us and drop our numbers. Maybe they didn’t want witnesses to what they’d been planning on doing. They’d only needed that many government agents to help them break the magic of the hollow.

  Abel’s phone got service there, and he called 911. By the time the paramedics arrived, all of the vampires had come back to life and had disappeared. Several humans were gravely injured, but not dead, and the paramedics whisked them away, along with Eleanora. We followed to the hospital, escorted by officers, and then the questioning began.

  It was a nightmare.

  We didn’t have any excuse for what happened—none of us could even fathom how to explain without causing all sorts of logistical nightmares. At least four of the injured humans were able to communicate, and they explained that several of their agency members had attacked.

  Cole and Chief O’Hare arrived quickly to help work out the mess. Luck was on our side when they found there hadn’t been any evidence that we’d done something wrong, that the governor had been mistaken in the reports he’d read about our involvement and couldn’t explain. Still, the damage had been done, literally. Over fifty people had been killed. The massacre was being known as Crimson Hollow.

  Eleanora did not wake up for over two days, and during that entire time, I answered questions and filled out reports, not leaving her side. When she finally came to, I knew immediately she’d been forever changed. Her sense of humor, personality, and all were still intact, but she slurred heavily when speaking, and her magical pulse was completely gone. She’d forever damaged her ability to access her Arete powers.

  My heart broke for her.

  Abel and I helped Eleanora home after she got discharged. She’d started working with a speech therapist who had high hopes that she’d regain all of her speech very quickly. She would never do magic again, and I couldn’t believe it. My strongest ally, my mentor, one of my best friends, would never be the same. A huge part of what made her her was gone.

  “Lizzie, I could be so much worse,” Eleanora said not long after getting home. “At least I’m functioning. And fully functioning at that.”

  She was right. Her slur was now almost imperceptible, and all of the damage she’d experienced had been minimal. She hadn’t even been physically injured, and that was a huge miracle.

  “But you can’t do magic anymore.” My voice cracked. I couldn’t imagine how she felt.

  “I don’t need to. As long as my connections don’t find out I can’t access my powers, I’ll still be able to help you. We’ll whip up a rumor about me wearing a device that hides my magic from others, and no one will be the wiser.”

  I nodded. Eleanora had proven very valuable over the last couple of years when it came to her connections. I appreciated that. But it felt wrong to use her in that way when she couldn’t do anything else.

  When I voiced my concerns, she brushed them off. “My body is failing. It’s only justice that I’m forced to retire all the way. It was bound to happen eventually.”

  That didn’t really reassure me.

  Once reports had been given, bodies taken care of, and friends discharged from the hospital, Abel didn’t leave my side. Now that Eleanora wasn’t living with me anymore, he camped out in my living room, growing distant occasionally. He came back readily when I commented on it.

  “It’s part of my coping mechanism,” he’d said, tucking me into his arms and placing a kiss on my forehead. “We’ll get through this—we’ll destroy Lord Kenan. And then yes, I’d love it if you could help me find my mom, even if it places you in danger. I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

  His determination was contagious. That device would come, we’d eliminate the world of evil demons—including the hounds—and then we’d find his mom. Because I needed to start a new chapter in my life, and it wouldn’t be worth living unless Abel was in it.

  ###

  Author Note:

  I can’t believe how long it took to get this book to you. Sooooo much happened in the few months since Temple of Flames was released! We’ve had our share of events and trials, including closing on our house (and all the problems that presented), moving and getting settled in, flipping a house in a nearby city, family members visiting and breaking bones and having heart attacks while staying with us, and last (but not least), me getting pregnant with our third baby. Morning sickness ain’t gentle on me, peeps! :-)

  Regardless of the adventures we’re going through, my writing and books march forward. I love being an author—sharing my stories is so much a part of who I am that I
know I’ll never stop. I’m so happy my readers have been there with me through my adventures and through the adventures of my characters. :-)

  I look forward to continuing Lizzie’s series. The next book will be Forbidden Knowledge, and then Demon of Darkness, book six, will conclude her story. After that I plan to focus on Abel’s series. I so can’t wait! He’s got even more going on in his life than I have in mine. ;-) :-)

  Until the next book!

  Oh! And please help Lizzie defeat Lord Kenan and the hounds by leaving a review of Crimson Hollow. :-)

  Much love,

  Andrea

  About the Author

  Andrea Pearson, author of several series including the Koven Chronicles, Mosaic Chronicles, and Kilenya Chronicles, lives with her husband and children in a small valley framed with hills. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor of science degree in Communications Disorders.

  Andrea spends as much time with her husband and children as possible. Favorite activities include hiking, painting, watching movies, collecting and listening to music, and discussing books and authors.

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