by Betsy Flak
The flames died with a sizzle.
Lex flashed a grin oozing with mischief, then scurried away beneath the towering pines. Every few moments, she nudged a creaky branch over or dug into a scraggly bush. Lex was looking for something.
Marina’s shoulder bumped against Gabe’s arm. “You okay?”
“Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Tucking her hands into the pockets of shorts, Marina placed a foot on one of the split logs that edged their clearing. “Just checking. I know last year wasn’t easy for you either.”
Gabe shrugged. “That was last year. This year…this year, I’m prepared. I know what to expect and what to do.” I know what I’ve given up.
“Still…”
“I’m fine, Marina.” Gabe’s chiseled chin jerked toward Lex tramping toward them with a stick, this one still green and covered with leaves. A harder target for Lex, but easier for Marina to extinguish. “Looks like Lex wants to play some more.” Gabe slid his phone out of his pocket, then wiggled it at Marina. “I’ve gotta check my notes anyway.”
“Okay, just…make sure to have some fun this year.” After throwing him a concerned look, Marina picked her way to Lex, avoiding clumps of fragile plants like any other Earth Diviner.
Gabe called after her, “I’m in Pasteur, is that even a question?”
It wasn’t. His dorm, Louis Pasteur, was all about the fun. While Blackwell, Tubman, and Douglass battled it out for the house cup each year, Pasteur kicked back and relaxed. Gabe would get his moments of fun in this, his last year of high school and normal human life—well, as normal as someone like him got. Those moments might be few and far-between, but he was determined to enjoy them.
Thanks for reading!
I hope you enjoyed reading it as much I enjoyed writing it! If you have any comments or feedback you’d like to share, let me know at [email protected].
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The Impossible Adventure by Betsy Flak
The Clan-Vampire Clash: Meet Your Misadventure #1
After a deadly summer, you’re determined to make your junior year better than ever. Then two new kids join your class. For some reason, they hate your best friend. Will you survive long enough to discover why?
The Impossible Adventure is the first entry in a series of interactive stories where you choose what happens. If you like sinister villains (and maybe becoming one), complicated superheroes (yup, you can become one of those too), and supernatural suspense mixed with high school drama, you’ll love The Impossible Adventure. Choose The Impossible Adventure today!
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See how it all began…
Start reading at https://www.betsyflak.com/the_prequels
The Unleashed Creation by Betsy Flak
The Clan-Vampire Clash: A Stand-Alone Prequel Novelette
Duncan lives in a world where it’s kill or be killed, whether that’s by his vampire allies or by the Clan’s vampire hunters. But he wants something more. He wants freedom. When he stumbles across a rogue Fire witch that the Clan has left to die, he knows it’s his chance. If he can persuade her to switch sides, together they can unite the vampires and destroy the Clan itself. There’s just one catch: can Duncan convince the witch before she kills him?
Occurs about twenty-five years before A Brush with Vampires.
Free for a limited time. To get started, go to https://books2read.com/the-unleashed-creation.
The Impossible Creation by Betsy Flak
The Clan-Vampire Clash: A Stand-Alone Prequel
Devastated by grief, Lucy fled from her supernatural birthright as a vampire hunter. Now in college, she hides her superpowers from everyone except her best friend—who’s a witch. When a vampire targets an innocent high school girl, Lucy must hunt again. Can Lucy win a tug of war where the prize is a girl’s life?
Occurs about ten years before A Brush with Vampires.
Part of Kindle Unlimited for a limited time. To get started, go to https://books2read.com/the-impossible-creation.
The Impossible Creation
The Clan-Vampire Clash: A Prequel
Sneak peek edition
Prologue
Friday
Duncan
Careless feet slapped the pavement in front of a suburban train stop as Duncan paced to and fro. She’d claimed she could handle it, that she could hunt down their target without anyone finding out. What if she’d failed? Or worse. What if something had happened to her?
The linchpin of all his plans, he could not afford to lose her. Not after that potential—that mind-boggling, destiny-delivering potential—had stared at him through eyes ablaze all those years ago. If she was lost, he could blame no one else, for he alone had sent her on this task, this dangerous task, a task he should have completed himself.
A growl interrupted his uneasy ruminations.
Duncan whirled on the brute hidden in the hedge. “I told you, be quiet and stick to the shadows,” he hissed.
Echoes of Duncan’s whisper bounced off the glass sheltering the handful of empty seats.
Duncan scanned the bare parking lot, his insides clenching against all the ways this could go wrong. When no movement met his eye, his shoulders relaxed, though his mind remained sharp. Fortune had favored them when their quarry selected this final train to this deserted station. Duncan would not risk losing that advantage even if it meant ending the slavering imbecile squatting in the shrubs behind him.
The train crept toward thirty minutes overdue, but no thing broke the silence.
Duncan passed another two hundred laps across the station’s miniscule width. At last, a yellow glow pierced the fog. A headlight rounded the corner, illuminating the groundcover slinking toward the track. The train burst out of a tunnel cut through the lower branches of a dense forest. When it slowed to a stop, Duncan inhaled sharply—a habit from his human days that he’d yet to extinguish.
After infinite anxious seconds, the door slid open. Duncan’s breath escaped in a relieved whoosh. Adara pranced down those steps, her neck twisted and tilted upward as she chatted with someone he hoped was their prey. Flaming locks wound around the edge of her raincoat’s hood, something she’d insisted on wearing despite the clear skies.
The stranger followed a stride behind. Beneath eyes the size of boulders, a narrow nose poked into the darkness. Her pointy chin thrust forward as if seeking to impale creatures like him.
Duncan tilted his head toward the beast in the bushes. “Go. Hide yourself and await my move.”
Obedient for now, the creature padded away, its footfalls softer than Duncan would have believed possible had he not known what it was—what they both were.
“Honey! Oh, honey!” Adara waved to him as she bustled forward. The outsider trailed in her wake.
Adara was laying it on thick tonight.
Upon reaching him, Adara wriggled her freckled fingers through his. Her lips brushed his stubbled cheek. “This, my dear, is Miss Constantin, and she is simply the most fascinating creature I have ever met.”
Duncan’s stomach flipped. That was the code word; this was their target. Tonight they would attempt it yet again. In a few days—practically instantaneous for any eternal being—a weapon nearly as powerful as Adara herself could arise.
“I told you, Adara, please call me Sandy. And you are?” After tucking a rebellious curl behind her ear, Sandy’s hand extended toward him. The light of the half-moon glinted off her bejeweled rings.
As Duncan grasped Sandy’s hand, her hawk-like gaze captured his. Fear sprint
ed up Duncan’s spine. But no, if she were a Warrior, she would have attacked him the second her feet touched the pavement. Diviners could not sense his kind.
Not missing a beat, Adara covered for his hesitation. “Duncan…McMannister, my husband.” Adara then chronicled all the tourist attractions she’d allegedly completed in the city while they strolled toward a plaza of long-closed restaurants, shops, and convenient alleyways.
“Anyway… Say, Sandy, I remember you said you were walking home. I’m certain my hubby here wouldn’t mind giving you a ride.”
Duncan smothered his grimace. It was too soon.
“Oh no, it’s all right, Adara. I live just down the road. It was a pleasure meeting you though.” Sandy turned to follow a sidewalk heading away from the parking lot, then waved a hand over her shoulder. Ahead, an apartment complex rose out of the fog. By Duncan’s estimate, it was at least a quarter-mile behind the plaza, giving them plenty of time.
As Sandy Constantin drifted away, Duncan and Adara checked their surroundings. They were alone; the few people who exited with Adara and Sandy had long driven away. Out of the corner of his eye, Duncan watched the creature shadow their every step, clinging to the gloom.
“Are you certain, Miss Constantin?”
It didn’t matter if she was. Her fate had been determined the moment she departed that train.
“Yes, I’m cer—”
Duncan hurled himself at her. His arms wrapped about her frail human body. He tossed her like a ragdoll into the nearest alley. Bones cracked when she landed.
Duncan leapt onto her prone form. Flashing canines enlarged with the thrill of the hunt, he awaited the usual shriek of terror—the one that sent his heart racing, his blood pounding, his mouth salivating.
Only a whimper greeted his eager ears.
Squelching his disappointment, Duncan wasted no more time. He tightened his grip on Sandy’s wrists and pressed them into the damp asphalt of the alleyway. His knees pinned her squirming thighs to the ground.
Sandy twisted and turned, trying to avoid his teeth.
It was no use. Duncan ripped into her throat. Hot and juicy, her life force flooded his mouth—a wine more potent than any he’d tasted while human. Duncan indulged for an instant. Then he yielded her to the mindless monster beside him.
While the beast drained her, Duncan counted the moments between Sandy’s slowing heartbeats. A breath before it would be too late, Duncan tore the brute off and launched it in Adara’s direction. With two swallows, Duncan finished the deal.
Sandy Constantin, known Diviner, died at his hand.
Duncan shouldered her body, ready to race to the car, but Adara was not finished yet. Heat rippled off her in waves. The beast cowered against the brick wall. It watched her, licking the blood off its fingers.
“May I?” Adara’s eyes of copper rose, but the question was mere formality. Adara would have it with or without his permission, not that Duncan cared about the creature now that it had served its purpose.
“Of course, but wait until we’re in the car.”
A grin more terrifying than his own spread over Adara’s freckled face. Her teeth reflected the moonlight as she swung a discarded bag of trash toward her victim.
The beast pressed itself into the brick wall, probably debating between fight or flight, unaware that neither held any hope against Adara. No doubt this turn of events—predator becoming the prey—bewildered it. Few of Duncan’s kind knew of the Clan and its vampire-annihilating magic. Fewer still lived to speak of it. Nevertheless, some instinct alerted it to the peculiar danger of Adara.
Duncan bounded away without a backward glance. Over his shoulder, Sandy’s body bounced with his every stride. Upon reaching the car, he settled her corpse on the backseat with a moth-eaten blanket hiding it from view. He sank into the driver’s seat.
An animal’s screams filled the night air.
Chapter 1
Monday
Lucy
The wind whipped at her neck through pigtail poofs. She stood shoulder to shoulder between her two allies. One hand wrapped about her trusty stake. The other grazed the hilt of her favorite sword, the one with the curved blade.
It was quiet, too quiet. Not a cricket dared to chirp. Her steely gaze pierced the darkness, seeking movement in the brush surrounding them, between the trunks of those ancient oaks, or even behind that rotting log. When none came, the three stalked forward, hardly venturing a breath for fear it would obscure a sound hinting of its location. High above, a branch flashed silver in the full moon.
Something twanged in her brain. “Stan, wait.”
A dark form shot out of the leafy canopy. Its knees landed on Stan’s shoulders, then slid down to drive him chest-first into the underbrush. A vicious crack echoed through the empty woods.
Her stomach spiraled downward. The creature had snapped Stan’s neck as if it were nothing. Ebony eyes that sucked away every speck of light turned to her. She was next.
But she was not afraid. This was what she was born to do, what she’d spent years training to do. Stan’s was not the first death she’d witnessed at the hands of the Indestructible, nor would it be the last.
If not for the toddler waiting in a room too far away…
No, she couldn’t think of her, not right now. She had work to do.
Her fingers tightened around her weapons as she dropped into a defensive crouch. The monster cocked its head like she was a rare curiosity. Keeping the fallen log between her and the beast, she drifted. Her feet picked a path between half-grown saplings, untamed bushes, and moss-covered trunks.
It mirrored her movements.
If not for Stan’s death, her mouth would have twisted into a bloodthirsty smirk. It was always like this; they forgot about everyone but those right in front of them. Although…there had been a moment she’d worried that this one was different from the rest of the Indestructible. After all, she’d never heard of one using the height of the trees as protection. But now it fell into their trap, the same as countless others. Stepping in a gradual half-circle, she guided the brute so its back was to the supposed safety of the packed trees. The packed trees where Nic had disappeared, silent as any predator.
Nic poked his head around the edge of a trunk and gauged the angle of his assault. Her eyes flicked toward him.
The creature whirled away from her, surging on all fours toward Nic.
As practiced, he held his position and waited. She followed in the beast’s footsteps, ready to back him up. When it soared toward Nic with bared fangs, his counter was textbook: a sidestep paired with a swipe of his sword.
The demon screamed. It clutched its torso, its nails tearing at the gash across its chest. It stumbled away from them. Evidently, this was the first time a blessed blade had cut it. It would be the last.
She rushed toward the creature, faking a leap then ducking down. Her shoulder rammed into its solar plexus. While these things technically didn’t breathe, the turn couldn’t get rid of all their human weaknesses.
The creature crumpled downward. She jumped on it and dug her knees into its thighs. One arm slashed across its chest, pinning it down. A syrupy liquid seeped between them.
She raised her stake high. With a sharp inhale, she plunged it downward, straight toward the demon’s heart.
Fingers of steel caught her wrist, stopping the stake an inch above the beast’s rib cage. An arm wrapped around her waist. Together, they dragged her off her prey, despite her kicking legs and straining body. Like a sack of sand, they tossed her away from her victim.
She skidded across the leaves and bits of bark littering the forest floor. Her hands brushed against detritus clumped together.
She sprang to her feet. Two, there are two. The second must have hidden while the first fought. It was strange behavior for these monsters to say the least. Stranger still, the second one—the new one—helped the other to its feet. Then it unleashed those black eyes upon her.
“You’re all alone, li’l miss. Not even this ta help ya anymore.” It twirled her stake between its fingers.
But she wasn’t alone. She had Nic. And yet…where was he? Trusting her supernatural ears to warn of an ambush, she peeked over her shoulder.
A lump swelled in her throat. Tears pricked at her eyes. She sucked in a breath. Nic was splayed on the forest floor, his arms and legs at unnatural angles. Blood oozed out of a ragged hole in his neck.
“Like I said, all ‘lone, poor li’l dear.”
Gulping the grief away, she confronted her enemies. Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her blade. That stake was not her only weapon.
“Ah, we got a live one ‘ere.” It tilted its head, a smile playing on lips crimson with her husband’s blood.
Anguish sliced through her breast, sharp as any dagger. With a single breath, she silenced it. Mourning Nic would come later; now she had to survive.
It waved her forward, but she stayed where she was. To stand a chance, she needed to separate them, to fight them one on one. The lull should have confused it, maybe even enraged it.
Instead, it chuckled.
“Fair ‘nuff, my feisty li’l advers’ry.” It dismissed the beast Nic had injured. “See? Just you an’ me, li’l one. Just you an’ me.”
The stake landed at her feet, but she didn’t dare bend forward.
Its blood-speckled hands rose, signaling innocence. “Go ‘head, pick it up. I promise, nothin’ dirty. Want this ta be a fair fight for my pal here ta see. Ta learn from.”
With her eyes glued to the monsters, she stooped to retrieve her stake. They grinned at each other, although the wounded one winced. That creature leaned against a tree with an arm pressed across its chest, panting against the Fire scorching its veins.
