Immortal Fate
By
Samantha Adams
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2014 by Samantha Adams.
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places or incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission from the author.
ISBN (eBook Edition) 978-0-646-93308-5
Cover Design by Book Cover By Design
www.bookcoverbydesign.co.uk
Editing by Emma Fry
www.editforyou.org
Dedication
To all my fans that adore the characters in this book and their story as much as I do.
This one is for you xx
The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me,
And I cannot, cannot go.
- Emily Jane Bronte,
Spellbound.
Chapter One
Misty fog surrounded her. The denseness seemed to penetrate into her mind and body. “Where am I?” Her eyes squinted into the distance. A light was there. Dragging one foot in front of the other she moved forward. Her trembling hands reached out in front of her. The mist danced away making room for her to pass, only to close in behind her. Her heart beat wildly in her chest as she neared the light.
It disappeared. She blinked and rubbed at her eyes. Where had it gone?
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She felt the heavy weight of eyes watching her somewhere in the misty grey fog. “Who’s there?” She called out into the dark.
A low cackle echoed around her.
Her breathing grew rapid. Slowly, she turned to the direction the laughter had come from. Haunting pale blue eyes hovered in the distance then disappeared. Her hand grabbed at her chest. Her pulse had kicked into overdrive. “Who are you?” She demanded. “What do you want from me?”
“It’s coming for you…” The voice whispered all around her.
“What’s coming for me?” She cried out.
A withered old woman appeared in front of her from within the mists. Ally screamed and stumbled backwards.
The woman grabbed onto her shoulders with surprising force. Her wicked grin showed her rotting teeth before she whispered, “Evil…”
“What evil? I need more than that!”
“It will happen no matter what you do. You will be bound.”
“Ally?” She registered her name being called in the back of her mind, like an annoying mosquito buzzing about. Inconsequential but aware of its presence.
The old woman shook her.
“Ally,” the voice was louder now and more forceful.
“Time to go,” the woman said before she pushed her down into the mist. Ally screamed as she felt the falling sensation.
“Wake up, little one.”
Her eyes flew open and she was met with emeralds staring back at her. “James.”
She cringed and sat up quickly, dragging the blanket with her. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness. The real darkness this time. The mist was nowhere to be found. It was a dream.
James sat up beside her, put his arm around her waist and pulled her into him as he laid a gentle kiss on the top of her head.
She buried into his body and let out a small sigh. “I’m sorry for waking you again, James.”
James smiled into her hair and shook his head. “Being woken up is the least of my worries. I assume it was the same dream again?”
She nodded. “I don’t understand it at all. The mist, a creepy old hag telling me that evil is coming for me…really? Tell me something I don’t know. ”
“Maybe it’s just your subconscious dealing with the real life danger that you face. Dreams can be strange or recurring at times, even for average people, as a way of revealing things that they are unaware of and this is done so in a dream; a safe space. Perhaps it’s just that.”
“You’re a Jungian. Should have guessed,” she said with a half-smile up at him. “But seriously, I know the difference James. I can’t even explain it really, but I just know. Something about the way it feels or the vividness of it maybe…I dunno. But the point is, it was prophetic and I’m not going to just forget about it.”
“I believe you, Ally. Just trying to point out all the possibilities.”
“I know.” She leaned out of his embrace to look at him. “Did you ask Isabella if she’d seen anything?”
“Yes, and no she hasn’t seen anything.”
Ally frowned. “Maybe she’s losing her touch.”
“Dear God, don’t ever let her hear you say that,” he chuckled.
“Would almost be worth it,” she returned mischievously.
“I doubt it.”
Ally rolled her eyes then drifted back into her thoughts. James watched her and knew he could follow her thoughts, but he was rather enjoying the unusual communication methods with her. Most soulmates spoke mostly in their minds when alone. But he found himself fascinated with never quite knowing what she was going to do or say next. After a few minutes he squeezed her hand.
She jumped slightly. “Sorry, was in another world.”
“What’s bothering you lately, little one?”
She laid back down in bed and stared at the ornate ceiling. “Where do I start?”
James bit back a groan. “I realise the prophecy is bothering you but it’s more than that. You haven’t been yourself for weeks…I’m worried about you. And Kat is too by the way.”
“Kat?”
“Yes, red haired vampire, blue eyes, your best friend.”
“Oh ha-ha. You know what I meant.”
“I did,” he admitted. “Of course she is worried about you. She spoke to me yesterday when they were here. She asked if I knew what was wrong.”
Ally wiped her hands over her face. “And I thought I’d hid it so well.”
“From most of them, yes. But there are three people here who know you almost as well as you know yourself.”
She looked over at James. His stomach clenched at the haunted look in her eyes.
“Aw, not Gran too?” Her voice was laced with guilt.
He nodded.
“There goes my career in espionage,” she said with a weak smile.
“So,” James said and lightly touched her hair. “What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?”
“Oh alright,” Ally said then let out a sigh. “Obviously this dream is bothering me and Vincent seems to be plaguing my thoughts as well. I’m just so tired of sitting around waiting for him to attack. All my time is spent jumping at shadows, attempting to think like him so I can work out what his next move will be. I feel like I’m being haunted by the ghost of Vincent and it’s playing with my head. I’m on edge all the time and I just can’t stand it anymore. I want this over with already. I want to start living my life with you.”
“You are living your life with me,” James said, his brow furrowed.
“No, not this life,” she said and gestured with her hands to the room before them. “The one where Vincent is a pile of ash and I survived…well, not just me, everyone survives and you and I ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. That’s the life I want to start living. Not this half-life, with me scared out of my mind that I’m either going to die, or that I’m starting to lose my mind spending too much time trying to think like a psychopath. And I’m worried about you as well. It’s not just me that has been to hell and back recently.”
James took
a minute to take everything in before he replied, “For a start, don’t worry about me.”
Ally looked at him incredulously. “That’s like asking me not to breathe.”
“Well at the moment, I’m more concerned about you. Now, I realise what you’re saying Ally, and yes I agree with you to an extent, but you’re not ready to take on Vincent yet. And…I love you but, you do have a tendency to develop tunnel vision and become fixated on things. It’s part of what makes you, well you, but it does tend to drive you to madness as well.” He gave her a gentle kiss. “We need to start living this life as if Vincent is already gone. And, little one, no matter how much you try to think like him, you’ll never fully get it right because you aren’t like that. A fact that I am truly grateful for. We just have to hope that I’m not like him as well.”
She nodded softly. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”
“I usually am,” he said with a cheeky grin.
“Ass,” she retorted.
He leaned down and gave her a smouldering kiss that sent a wave of renewed down to the tips of her toes.
When he broke the kiss and leaned back, she smiled up at him. “You’re a very loveable ass.”
“Thank you.”
“Hey, wait! You said I’m not ready. I thought we’d done that one already, James.”
James shook his head. “No, you misunderstood. I meant you’re not ready to fight him yet because you haven’t had enough training. I promise I’m not trying to hold you back anymore.” He held up two fingers with a goofy grin. “Scout’s honour.”
She rolled her eyes. “I think I’m ready. Well, as ready as I’m going to be.”
“But you’re forgetting something else,” he said. “Something rather important.”
“What?”
“The last elder. We haven’t found her yet and what does the prophecy say?” He prompted.
“When the council has risen to go to the fight. Together they will win, apart they will lose. Lose one and they all perish.” they said in unison.
Ally gave a defeated shrug. “I guess I forgot about that small detail.”
“Put all of that energy and determination into finding Madison and training. You’ll be doing something constructive and you know that always makes you feel better.”
“Ever practical,” she said dryly. “Where are we even supposed to start? It’s like looking for a needle in a very large stack.”
“Somehow we found all the other needles,” he said taking a positive approach.
She looked at him dubiously, but nodded anyway.
“You know what we both need,” he said changing the subject.
She drew her eyebrows together. “No, enlighten me.”
“The Glencoe Fair. It’s on tonight, we should go and have a bit of fun, forget all our troubles for one night.”
Her eyes widened. “Ah, James…Remember what happened last time I went to a fair?”
“This one will be different, besides, lightning doesn’t strike twice.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Oh God, I hate it when people say things like that.”
Chapter Two
“Hi you two,” Sophie said, as she looked up from pulling a tray of cookies out of the oven.
Ally inhaled the sweet smell that had filled the kitchen. “Hey Sophie.”
James gave Ally a sly wink, then stole a cookie from the plate and was back by her side before Sophie had a chance to stop him.
“James,” Sophie scolded. “Just because you can steal them, doesn’t mean you have to.”
Ally burst out laughing and realised it felt good. Things had become so serious since that fateful night she had been put on a plane unconscious and flown to Scotland. Her mind whirled that it had only been six months since all this craziness had begun. Sometimes it felt like six years and others it felt like six minutes.
Her life as she knew it had ended that night – but despite facing danger, death, loss and becoming an immortal herself, she had never felt more alive or more like the real person she was supposed to be; not the person she thought she had to be.
“Help me talk her into going to the fair with us,” James said to Sophie, interrupting Ally’s reverie.
Sophie looked at Ally, the surprise showing on her face. “I thought you’d love to go to the fair, Ally.”
Ally sent James a small glare before she answered. “I have a bad history with fairs.”
Sophie shared a look with James. “I did hear something about that a few years ago, but this will be different,” she said with a reassuring tone. “It’s something of a ritual in this house and it’s always fun. Besides, the best way to get over a bad experience is to replace it with a good experience.”
“Makes sense I suppose, but I still don’t know.”
“What bad experience?” Chase asked as he entered the room with Mackenzie close behind him.
“The fair,” James answered. “She doesn’t want to go.”
Chase raised his eyebrows at her. “Come on Ally, you’re not scared of a little fair, are you?”
She sighed in frustration. “I’m not scared of the fair. It’s the fortune tellers that I’m nervous of.”
“We don’t bite,” Isabella stated as she swept into the room and stole a cookie as she slipped past the counter.
“You’re as bad as your brother,” Sophie scolded playfully.
James and Isabella shared a conspiring look. “See, Isabella’s a fortune teller and not only that, she is the fortune teller and you’re not scared of her.”
“Well no,” she begrudgingly admitted. “But she hasn’t been spouting doom recently either.”
“I don’t do it for fun you know,” Isabella griped.
James shook his head at the two of them. They had formed a sort of truce since the truth about James’ father came out, but he wasn’t sure how long things would last given their history and Ally’s tendency to hold grudges.
He understood but in his half-sisters defence, she wasn’t the one who wrote the prophecy, she was just trying to help Ally by telling her the truth. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on James. Ally valued the truth above everything, but Isabella telling the truth had condemned her in Ally’s eyes.
Women, he thought with an inward groan.
Mackenzie spoke interrupting his thoughts. “You have to come, Ally. There are stalls and gypsy acts, music and dancing. You’ll love it. Besides, James will be there to protect you.”
She held her ground for another second, and then let out a defeated grumble. “Fine, I’ll go to the bloody fair.”
“You won’t regret it, Ally.”
“There you go again,” Ally winced.
Chapter Three
Blackness surrounded her, then a flash of colour lit up the entire night sky. She snuggled closer into James’ embrace and enjoyed the fireworks show that marked the official opening of the fair.
They had all been right. So far she was enjoying herself.
She looked around at all the families that had gathered to watch the show, and saw little boys and girls perched up on their father’s shoulders, some clung to their parent’s legs in fascinated fear and others squealed excitedly begging for more.
An old couple in front of them held hands like the other young lovers that were scattered amongst the crowd, and the gypsy troupe all huddled together off to the side, relaxed and laughing.
All these people were hers to protect. Whether they knew it or not…she did.
What would happen to the little boy on his dad’s shoulders, or the girl clinging to her mother’s leg, and the young lovers who wanted nothing more than to be together? And then her eye’s finally rested again on the elderly couple whose love shone through the darkness. What of them? If she lost this fight against Vincent and the other vampires, they would consume this earth like a plague, and the people around her would become nothing more than a memory.
She understood how the Immortals in hiding felt, her heart went out to them in a wa
y, because she too knew what it felt like to be so terrified that all you wanted to do was hide. But that wasn’t her role in this life, and the crowd of strangers around her further cemented her determination to win this fight. And she knew, as much as she didn’t want to admit it, that James was right. They did need to wait until they found the last elder and her training was more thorough. She could take down a vampire and had done in the recent past, but not Vincent. He was too strong, too cunning and too damn good at being evil.
The fireworks ended and she watched the crowd disperse into the waiting stalls and the gypsies began to ready themselves for their first performance. But a weathered face and piercing pale blue eyes caught her attention. An old woman stood on the edge of the stalls and stared at her with an intensity that made Ally feel naked and uneasy.
James spoke, breaking the trance and making her jump. “Let’s go look at the stalls,”
“Those eyes!” Ally exclaimed as she recognised the reason for her discomfort. “It’s the woman from my dream.”
He turned his head in the direction she had been looking and scanned the area. “There’s no one there.”
She whipped her head around. “But she was just…” The sentence trailed off without her finishing it.
“Maybe you’re just nervous, sweetheart.”
She shook her head defiantly. “No, she was there. I know it.”
James looked around again, but detected nothing that was of a threat to Ally. “I believe you, but whoever she was, she’s gone.”
Ally still wasn’t convinced, but let herself be led away from her spot towards the stalls. She took a deep breath and shook off the panic that had started to swell in her breast.
It’s nothing, just a harmless old woman. Maybe it was just a coincidence…oh who am I kidding?!
“We can watch the fire breathing, play the side show games or wander around the stalls. What do you wanna do?” James asked.
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