by Tim O'Rourke
Werewolves of Shade
(Beautiful Immortals Series)
Part Six
BY
Tim O’Rourke
First Edition Published by Ravenwoodgreys
Copyright 2015 by Tim O’Rourke
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organisations is entirely coincidental.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Story Editor
Lynda O’Rourke
Book cover designed by:
Tom O’Rourke
Copyedited by:
Carolyn M. Pinard
www.cjpinard.com
For Patrick
More books by Tim O’Rourke
Kiera Hudson Series One
Vampire Shift (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 1
Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 2
Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 3
Vampire Breed (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 4
Wolf House (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 5
Vampire Hollows (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 6
Kiera Hudson Series Two
Dead Flesh (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 1
Dead Night (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 2
Dead Angels (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 3
Dead Statues (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 4
Dead Seth (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 5
Dead Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 6
Dead Water (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 7
Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 8
Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 9
Dead End (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 10
Kiera Hudson Series Three
The Creeping Men (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 1
The Lethal Infected (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 2
The Adoring Artist (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 3
The Secret Identity (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 4
Werewolves of Shade
Werewolves of Shade (Part One)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Two)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Three)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Four)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Five)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Six)
Moon Trilogy
Moonlight (Moon Trilogy) Book 1
Moonbeam (Moon Trilogy) Book 2
Moonshine (Moon Trilogy) Book 3
The Jack Seth Novellas
Hollow Pit (Book One)
Seeking Cara (Book Two) Coming Soon!
Black Hill Farm (Books 1 & 2)
Black Hill Farm (Book 1)
Black Hill Farm: Andy’s Diary (Book 2)
Sydney Hart Novels
Witch (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 1
Yellow (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 2
The Doorways Saga
Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 1)
The League of Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 2)
The Queen of Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 3)
The Tessa Dark Trilogy
Stilts (Book 1)
Zip (Book 2)
The Mechanic
The Mechanic
The Dark Side of Nightfall
Book One
Unscathed
Written by Tim O’Rourke & C.J. Pinard
You can contact Tim O’Rourke at
www.kierahudson.com or by email at [email protected]
Werewolves of Shade
(Part Six)
This story is set in a where and when not too dissimilar to our own…
Chapter One
The gun thundered in my fist as the first of the bullets screamed from the barrel in a bright flash of light. The explosion of gunpowder was so suddenly blinding that I had no idea if my bullet had buried itself into the face of the vampire I’d been taking aim at. I heard Calix roar beside me as he charged ahead, his coattails flapping out behind him like long black wings. In the bright flash of gunfire, I saw those lines of strange words tattooed across his stomach and chest begin to writhe and ripple over his pale skin. Calix had told me that the witch, Julia Miller, had written those words across his body – that they formed some kind of spell. And if that was true I hoped that perhaps they would work their magic in the woods tonight and help us defeat the vampires that came screaming through the dark at us. With my hand shaking as I held the gun, I gripped my wrist with my free hand and took aim again. One of the hooded vampires in their flowing robes sprang out of the darkness at me. And where only moments ago I had seen the most beautiful of faces peering back at me, all I could now see was the face of a creature so hideous that I believed it must have crawled from the deepest and darkest pits of hell. How had the humans that had lived before me named these creatures the Beautiful Immortals? Had they not seen beneath their skin like I was now doing? There was nothing beautiful about the creatures that were now streaming through the woods. Each of their faces was a white tortured mask of anger and hate, and although they looked sickly pale, the vampires appeared as if they had been burnt in some way. It was only as a thin strip of moonlight splashed across the approaching creature’s face that I understood why I thought such a thing. The vampire’s skin looked like it had been carved out of melting wax. The creature’s face seemed too long, like it had been stretched somehow. Its eyes were nothing but deep, dark hollows, and its mouth a jagged line that was pulled up to reveal teeth that jutted from fleshy black gums like a rack of knives. As the creature raced toward me, its face shifting and rippling in and out of shape beneath its hood, I fired my gun again. Calix had told me that the only sure way of killing a vampire was shooting it in the face, so that’s where I aimed for. Again, the gun in my fist felt like a cannon firing as the bullet thundered from the barrel. But this time, I wasn’t so blinded by the flash of fire and smoke that erupted from the muzzle as I watched the bullet I had unleashed rip into the contorting flesh just above the vampire’s right sunken eye socket. Its hood flew back, revealing a hairless skull, which exploded out the back. What looked like thick lumps of brain gushed back out of the vampire’s disintegrating skull like a fistful of raw steak. This was the first time I had ever killed anything. It gave me no sense of achievement or joy. I took no satisfaction in killing the vampire. The only thing I felt was fear. I knew little of the war that the Beautiful Immortals had once raged, but one thing that I could be sure of, was for as long as I could remember, that war had long since been over. The witch had found peace. But had she really? Both Trent and Calix had said that the witch, Julia Miller, had placed a spell over Shade. Was that how peace and the end of the war had been bought? The vampires could no longer kill because the people of Shade were protected by the witch’s magic? But why protect just the people of Shade? Why did the vampires want to attack them? What had Rea, Trent, Rush, Calix, or any of the other villagers done to the vampires? Why had the vampires never attacked my people? Why had the vampires never come to the town of Maze and tried to kill me, my uncle, Flint, or anyone else? Was it because we were protected by the Night Watchmen? Was that why Flint had b
een so keen to join the Night Watchmen? Because he had wanted to protect our homes from the vampires? But if so, why hadn’t he told me? Had he always feared that one day the vampires might come to Maze like they had come to Shade? Was that the true reason Flint had wanted to stay in Maze and not come to Shade with me? If so, wasn’t it a man like Flint who truly deserved my love and not a man like Calix? But did I love Calix? What was I thinking of? We had shared a kiss – or two. I had shared a lot more with Flint. But I knew I hadn’t felt for Flint the same way he had felt for me. How did I know that the spell the witch hadn’t written all over Calix’s body wasn’t some kind of curse – a punishment? Flint had no such thing tattooed across him. He hadn’t been marked by a witch. And why would he have been? Flint was a good man. All he had ever tried to do was protect the people of Maze – he had saved me – saved me from the man that had tried to hurt me in that disused shop. So why was I here – in Shade – fighting alongside people I hardly knew – that had lied to me? What was it about them that I felt I owed some kind of loyalty? Was that loyalty misplaced and the people that I should really have been trying to protect were my Uncle Sidney, my boyfriend, Flint, and the rest of the people I had grown up with in Maze? But I knew that the people I had really come to Shade to protect were my parents. But they weren’t here. Calix had told me that he had never seen them in Shade. So had they even ever reached here?
“Mila!” I heard someone shout. The voice broke over the sound of gunfire and the cries of the vampires.
I glanced in the direction of the voice to see another of those vampires leaping out of the dark toward me, its twisted and hooked claws slicing through the dark like daggers. Recoiling backwards on the heels of my boots and trying to take aim with my gun again, the vampire’s claws sliced through the air just an inch from my face. I heard a deafening boom, then something hot and sticky spattered my face. I screamed – not so much in fear, but disgust as the front of the vampire’s face exploded outwards, its brains showering my face.
“Are you okay?” I heard the same voice again, as one strong-looking hand took hold of the headless vampire that now stood twitching before me and dragged it away. With the vampire’s brains now matted through my hair and sliding down my face, I fought the urge to throw up. I armed the bloody pulp away.
“Mila, are you okay?” the voice asked again.
Still reeling from having a vampire’s head exploded just inches from my own, I glanced up to see Rush. His gun was smoking in his fist. It had been him who had shot the vampire.
“I think so,” I mumbled, clawing fleshy pieces of vampire from my hair.
“You need to stay sharp,” Rush said, gripping me by the shoulder with one hand. “You looked like you were daydreaming back there.”
“I was just thinking…” I stammered.
“The only thing you should be thinking about is staying alive,” Rush said. But he didn’t sound mean or angry – just concerned for me.
“Okay,” I gasped, drawing in a deep breath, fighting to get a grip again. Over his shoulder, I saw Rea go streaking past, guns blazing in her fists, top lip curled up like something close to a snarl as she gunned down more of the attacking vampires. The sound of gunfire, the vampires’ screams, and Trent barking orders was deafening. It sounded like chaos – it sounded like war.
“Just stay sharp,” Rush said, gently squeezing my shoulder before turning around and emptying his gun into the head of another vampire that had sprung out of the darkness. How did Rush even know that the vampire was there and about to strike? There was so little light in the wood, I could barely see more than just a few feet ahead. And what with the boom of gunfire, how had Rush even heard the vampire approach? But before I’d had the chance to figure any of that out, Rush was striding away again, picking off any vampires that sprang out of the darkness at him.
Curling my fist tighter about the butt of my own gun, I inched forward, the clatter and flash of gunfire so rapid and frequent in the dark that it was now disorientating. But was it just the noise of battle that was so suddenly overpowering my senses – or something more? I felt that surge of frustration – or was it anger – that I had felt during the village meeting that had taken place at the church. I felt the same feelings I’d had back then as the villagers had sat looking at me with their accusing stares. A sudden feeling of anger swept through my veins and to my fingertips. It felt like a surge of energy that had to be released. Why did I feel so suddenly enraged? Was it because I felt scared? I certainly did feel that. I had never felt so scared in my whole life. Was it not, then, simply anything more than adrenaline racing through my body – every one of my senses screaming at me to keep my wits about me – to stay alive? But there was something more – something that I had felt in that church as the villagers had blamed me for Annabel’s death – a sense of betrayal. And just like I had felt minutes after shooting the vampire in the face, I wondered if that perhaps my loyalty was misplaced. That perhaps I was helping to protect and save the wrong people. It was like I feared that they didn’t deserve my help. But why not? What had Rea, Rush, Trent, or Calix ever done to me?
But wasn’t I just doing what Rush had warned me not to do? Was I letting my mind wander – stray to other things – when all that really mattered right here and now was to stay alive? Then as if to punish me for not listening to Rush’s warning, I felt two bony hands close about my throat and drag me back into the darkness.
Chapter Two
As I was dragged at speed through the undergrowth, all I could think of was the two long, white slender hands I had seen reach from the darkness before taking hold of Annabel and snatching her away. Was I now going to be ripped to shreds like she had? Would Calix and the others later find me dead – with my throat torn out and drained of all my blood? Would they lay my body in one of those graves that Augustus Morten was busy digging? Would the people of Shade drive long, rusty nails into my hands and cover my grave with wolf’s bane? Would I be buried alongside all of those dead children in the graveyard? But I wasn’t a child – I was a young woman and I wouldn’t be snatched away and killed like Annabel had. I wouldn’t let whoever had grabbed me take my life without a fight.
With my heart slamming fast in my chest, I tried to aim my gun backwards, but it was impossible, I couldn’t see who it was that had snatched me, let alone take aim. I was dragged with such speed across the floor of the wood that dead leaves sprayed up from beneath me. They spun through the air in a blinding flurry. Desperately, I tried to dig the heels of my boots into the mulch and dirt as I was yanked away and deeper into the wood. The hem of my sweater rode up and I could feel the uneven ground scraping against my back. I cried out, hoping that perhaps Calix or one of the others would hear me. But my screams were drowned out by the distant roar of gunfire and the terrifying shrieks of the vampires. I saw the faraway flash of gunfire between the slices of darkness that stood tall like black iron railings in the dark. I waved my gun in the air and fired off a wild shot. I heard it zing harmlessly away into the night. Squeezing my finger down on the trigger again, I fired another shot back over my head, hoping desperately that I might get lucky and bury one of the bullets into the face of the vampire that had snatched me. The gun flashed in my hand, and in that sudden burst of light, I saw the face of the vampire that had taken me. It was just as hideous and grotesque as all the others I had seen. The white shifting and contorting face leered from the darkness of its hood. It’s hollowed-out eyes looked so deep and big, they appeared to bore right back into its misshapen skull. Waving the gun over my head, desperately trying to take aim at my captor, I squeezed down on the trigger of my gun again. But to my horror, there was no flash or bang of gunpowder or bullet – just a dry sounding click. I pulled the trigger again, fearing that perhaps the bullet had become trapped in the chamber. Another click. Then another and another as I pressed down on the trigger over and over again. I was out of bullets and fast running out of time and options if I were to survive the vampire’s attack.
<
br /> I fumbled for the bullets that lined the belt Trent had earlier given me. But there were none. Had I used them all? Had I used each of the bullets during shooting practice up at that remote red brick house with Calix? Why hadn’t I refilled the belt with bullets? Why was I so freaking stupid? How could I have been so carless? And I knew why. I had been knocked skewwhiff – off balance – lost my freaking mind because Calix had kissed me. But it hadn’t just been a kiss, it had been deep and intimate. Had my ego been so stroked by hearing him tell me that he cared for me, that I had forgotten to add fresh bullets to my belt? What an idiot I had been. How easy I had been flattered by Calix. Where was he now? But was I not being too hard on myself as usual? Calix had also told me the true identity of the witch, he had told me about her spell. I had seen that spell bleeding in black streams of ink from Calix’s back and chest. Any one of those things had been enough to make any person lose their mind – to cause them to forget some other important task. But none of that – not even Calix – was going to help me now. I was on my own – being dragged at breakneck speed by a vampire deeper and deeper into the wood.
I lifted the hem of my hoodie and shoved the gun into the waistband of my jeans. Now that my hands were both free, I sank my fingernails into the ground, desperate to find some kind of hold, a piece of rock that I could grip onto. But there was nothing. I reached up and fought desperately to take hold of any of the low hanging branches that swung overhead as I was dragged backwards. They did little more than scrape and tear at the palms of my hands and fingers. When we were so deep in the woods that the sound of my friends’ gunfire was now nothing more than a distant rumble, the vampire let go of me. Feeling its claws slide from about my neck, I wasted no time rolling onto my front and clambering to my feet. I glanced left and right, looking for any way of escape and could see that the vampire had dragged me into a circular clearing deep within the woods. At the centre of it, and just over the vampire’s right shoulder, was what looked like a wooden pole. It was thick, twice as tall as a person, and had been driven into the ground. At first glance it could have been mistaken for a single tree trunk growing out of the clearing, but it wasn’t. It had been placed there deliberately. All around the base of the pole were what looked like the burnt and charred remains of logs and branches. It was like someone had once lit a giant campfire in the centre of the clearing.
