Time of Death Series: Books 1-3: An Eternal Series Boxed Set

by Candy Crum

  “I don’t feel well,” he whispered as we quietly opened the back door.

  “Hold it together for a little bit longer.”

  Will felt weaker as we went along. I knew it wouldn’t end well if I couldn’t pull off something miraculous. Knowing that he was depending on me made me feel much stronger. He was passing out in my arms and I knew that I had to do something fast. I took a deep breath and focused.

  We stepped through the door and I closed it as quickly as possible, the last few inches a quiet click. The police outside all turned at once as soon as they heard our feet on the wood of my back porch. There were three of them, guns raised, one of them reaching for the radio on his shoulder.

  “Stop,” I said. Power radiated from me as I spoke that single word. It wasn’t loud, or even harsh, but I felt all of them immediately being pulled to me. “Lower your guns. We’re victims.”

  They nodded slowly, lowering their weapons and holstering them. An officer reached for the radio on his shoulder, the same one as before.

  “Don’t,” I said.

  “But, you’re covered in blood. Please let me get you help,” he said.

  “No,” I said. “All of you come close.”

  I wanted them right in front of me, so that I didn’t have to try so hard. At that moment, Will went limp in my arms and it took all I had to hold him up. One of the officers, a tall, lean black man with a shaved head, strong jaw line, and beautiful eyes rushed to catch him.

  “Please,” he said. “Allow me to help.”

  I let him take Will and the officer lowered his limp body to the ground. Will’s eyes were open, but only barely. His body was willing him to go under, but he fought hard.

  “Mia,” he said. “You have to go.”

  “No,” one of the officers said. “You need medical attention.”

  “Go,” Will said. “Save yourself so you can save me. You can do this. I’ll be fine. I promise.”

  The wind blew and the smell of those men hit me like running straight into a brick wall. Oh, God. My entire body shivered. I looked down at the man that had helped Will and my mouth watered. It reminded me of the doctor in the hospital, but this was so much worse.

  “What is it, ma’am?” that very gorgeous officer asked.

  My body tingled as intense arousal rose. I’d never been so turned on in my entire life. As big and built as he was, I could only imagine how he could lift me and toss me where he wanted me.

  “Mia,” Will said.

  I shook my head, doing my best to focus.

  “They… They smell so good,” I said, my jaw dropping open as I simultaneously smelled and tasted the air around me.

  My target smiled, those white teeth perfect and those lips so inviting. I reached out, my thumb grazing his full lower lip. I wanted to bite it. I heard steps approaching and I turned to see the other cops looking a bit jealous as they moved closer.

  “Just him?” one of them asked. He was medium height, ice blue eyes, short black hair, and a tan. “What about me?”

  My knees nearly went weak. “Oh, you, too,” I said.

  Once again, I reached out, my hand brushing his cheek. I felt the prickle of his beard stubble, though I knew he must have shaved only that morning. I wanted them. I wanted them all. What the hell was happening to me?

  “Mia!” Will said. It must have taken all his energy to speak as loudly as he did and it was still so quiet.

  “Right,” I said. Remembering that I had other things to worry about. “Listen boys. I need you to forget that I was here. You found my friend escaping out the back. He was searching for help. Upstairs in one of the bedrooms there is a lot of blood on the floor. Will has no idea who that belongs to. He was tied to the bed and was passed out the whole time. Someone injured him, brought him here, and tied him up to lure the homeowner out. Will has no idea who did that, either.”

  “Yes,” Will choked out.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I do know who did it,” he said.

  I looked at him for a moment. “Are you sure about that?”

  He nodded.

  “Very well, then. Will does know who did it, but he doesn’t know where the blood in the floor came from. He was passed out when he got here.” I looked back down to Will. “Stick to that story. Anything else, you can fill in. I have no idea what you’re doing, but I’m trusting that you do. I’ll do all I can to help you from here. Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?”

  “No. This has to stop,” he whispered.

  I smiled. It made me happy that he wanted to put an end to all the wrong he’d done. That was the man that I knew. He wasn’t giving in to a murderous drug dealer.

  I once again looked around at the gorgeous men standing before me, sighing that I wouldn’t be able to explore more with my craving. After all, it was for scientific purposes. I needed to learn more about myself.

  “Do all of you understand the situation?” I asked.

  They nodded.

  “Good. I’m leaving now. Again, you never saw me.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” my dark prince said.

  So… beautiful.

  I made my escape, running off the deck and behind my neighbors’ houses. The only place that I could think to go was my parents’. I knew that I’d have to explain everything to them after seeing me covered in blood, but I had nowhere else to go. Things seemed to be getting worse, not better.

  Chapter Six

  More than anything, I hoped that my parents would be somewhere doing something that would allow me to sneak in. Unfortunately, I knew that wasn’t going to be the case and I wasn’t the least bit surprised when I got to their house to see that I’d been right. I could see them meandering around the kitchen from where I stood in the driveway.

  I looked like hell. My hair was matted with dried blood, bone fragments, and brain matter. My face was stained with tears, dirt, and blood, as was my clothing. There wasn’t a question in my mind what I looked like. Death. It looked as if I’d killed someone or someone had killed me. Little did anyone else know, one of those had actually happened.

  Still, somehow, I managed to get a ride. I couldn’t get my car due to the fact that I’d parked directly in front of my house, so I was stuck trying to find transportation. Lucky for me, my adrenaline was high and I was able to compel someone to drive me. She was a sweet girl, but also very dim. It took almost no effort at all to bend her to my will, which was great because I barely had an idea on how to do it. It occurred to me that the difficulty rating on compulsion was measured by the level of intelligence of the person. Made sense. That meant it would be nearly impossible to force my parents to un-see what they were about to take in.

  They were about to see their daughter as a nasty, bloody mess. There was not a doubt in my mind how terrified they were about to be and still not a thing I could do. I could go somewhere else, of course, but I needed my parents. I didn’t want to hide all that was happening from them. Plus, I held out some hope that there may be something they could tell me about what was going on with me.

  As suspected, there was no amount of preparation that could be done before entering the house. I had no choice but to do it. When I walked in, my parents were sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee. The expression of love and adoration on my mother’s face when I walked in immediately faded to sheer terror as she took in the sight before her.

  “Oh, my God!” my mother shrieked, rushing to my side.

  She began touching me all over while looking for open wounds or broken bones. There wasn’t a shred of me that didn’t feel awful, both physically and emotionally.

  “What happened to you? Are you okay?” she asked?

  I nodded. “I am now.”

  “Now?” she asked.

  “Mia,” my father said. “What happened? We need to get you to a hospital.”

  “Dad,” I said, putting my hand on his chest to stop him from grabbing me and pulling me out to the car right that second. “Stop. I’m fine. We
have to talk. We have so much to talk about, but first, I need a shower. I need to get all this off of me. I know that I look like a mess.”

  “A mess?” my mother shrieked. “That’s not a mess. That is complete chaos. What is all that in your hair? Some of it is blood, but what is the rest?”

  I found myself shaking my head as I thought of an answer that wouldn’t freak her out further. “I have no idea how to answer that right now. Please, I promise that I’ll explain everything and in as great of detail as you need. There are only two things that you need to know right now. The first is that I am completely fine and totally healed. No need for any hospitals. The second part is that I haven’t hurt anyone. Everything is fine.”

  “Did you say that you’re totally healed? As in you’d been hurt beforehand, but aren’t now?” Mom asked.

  “Yeah. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you have just said that you weren’t hurt?” Dad followed up.

  Crap.

  The looks on their faces was nothing shy of worry. I just couldn’t stand the smell of my own blood and brain anymore. I needed to get it off me.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said. “I promise that I’ll explain everything. If either one of you has any kind of sympathy in your heart for me right now, I would love some hot tea. Tea. Coffee. Something hot. I really don’t care what it is as long as it’s served with a painkiller. Thank you and I love you.”

  With that, I walked off and left them to their worries. I refused to think about it as I showered. My head was pounding. My body ached. I was able to heal so quickly, yet I felt so fatigued and had so much pain. My chest still ached from being shot the first time. I couldn’t imagine how long that headache was going to last. It was obvious that my body needed something that I wasn’t giving it in order to heal the rest of the way. Only life saving measures were taken care of without proper sustenance. It was all I could think of. The rest seemed to be healing at a more human rate and I imagined that the faster, life-saving heals that I’d received would stop, too, if I didn’t get my body what it needed.

  When I walked into the kitchen, Mom and Dad were sitting at the table waiting for me. There was a cup of something steaming on the table in front of the seat between them. I was standing at the end of the hallway and I could smell everything on the table. It smelled like comfort.

  I sat down between them and took a careful sip of my hot tea. It was delicious and went a long way to relax me. I was expecting an onslaught of questions, but they were waiting on me to speak instead.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I have no idea where to start. So much has happened in the last few days and I’m lost. My life went from simple and amazing to terrifying and confusing.”

  “Just start from the beginning, honey,” my mom said, placing her hand on mine. “We’re here to listen. Maybe we’ll have a few answers.”

  I took another sip of tea before breaking into the story about how I’d been shot and woke up in the OR, soon followed by the tale of how I’d survived being shot in the head. I told them everything. The violent situations I’d been in, the weird thing that happened between Will and how I’d woken up on top of him, how I’d been able to compel people into doing what I wanted them to do. It was all a mess, but I came clean about all of it.

  Once I was finished, I dared to look them in the eyes, not having been able to until that point for fear that I’d stop mid-story and chicken out about the rest. I was very surprised by what I found in their expressions. It wasn’t shock, nor was it fear. It appeared to be something more along the lines of, “oh, shit.”

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked. “Why aren’t you calling me a liar or threatening to send me to the wacky shack?”

  My parents both shared a look with one another before my mother reached out for my hand, taking it in hers. She smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile. It was the reassuring smile that you give a child before you break down in tears and tell them that their favorite dog just died.

  “What is it?” I asked. My heart was beginning to race.

  “I am so sorry,” Mom said finally. “You have no idea how sorry I am.”

  I looked to Dad, who was still wearing that same expression. They knew. None of that was a surprise to them because they knew!

  “What the hell am I?” I asked. “What the hell are you guys? What is going on?”

  My mom began crying. “I’m so sorry, baby. The truth is that we aren’t anything. We are human. Both of us.”

  Confusion crossed my face. “Well, if both of you are human and I’m not, then…”

  My mom cheated on my dad…

  “You’ve got to be shitting me,” I said.

  “Don’t be mad at her,” Dad said. “I met him. He wasn’t like any man either of us has ever seen. He was something else.”

  “I want the story front to back. Right now,” I said.

  My mom took a deep breath before scooting her chair a little closer, her hands once again reaching for mine. It was obvious that she was just as scared to talk as I’d been not long before.

  “Your father and I went out with some friends one night. It was a bachelor and bachelorette party. The couple had theirs together at a club. No one could really afford much else and it was a really nice place, so it wasn’t all bad. We’d only been there for a half hour or so when I went to the bar with my friend, the bride-to-be. At that point in time, your father and I had been trying for two years to have a baby. After two years, fertility treatments, and various other opinions, we discovered that your father was unable to have children. By that night, we’d completely given up trying, though we hadn’t given up hope. When Shelly asked me how it was going, I told her that we’d given up trying. That in a few years, when we could afford the large costs, we would try adoption. We’d even talked about finding a donor.

  “While I was at the bar, a man with incredibly beautiful black hair and crystal blue eyes approached me. I’d seen him on the way up there and he caught me off guard, but I ignored him because of your father, of course. Same as he’s done for many beautiful women over the years. There is no harm in looking, just no touching.”

  I laughed. Mom and Dad had always had a very relaxed relationship. She didn’t mind him looking and he didn’t mind her looking. They believed it to be a healthy part of human sexuality and to condemn the other person for it would do more harm than good. To them, it was healthy to notice others and by allowing that and not causing more arguments in the relationship than necessary, it kept the fire burning at home. Seeing how well it had worked for them, I had to say that I agreed.

  “Well, no offense, Mom, but it looks like you broke the no touching rule,” I said.

  “She did, but when you hear the story, knowing what you know, you’ll understand,” Dad said.

  My mom adjusted herself in her seat. It was strange to watch her so uncomfortable, but she was revealing a more than two-decade old secret.

  “He asked if I wanted to dance. At first, I told him no, but I thanked him for asking. It was nearly impossible for me to do because he was very overwhelming, but I managed to stick to my decision. He was otherworldly in looks and very confident, but he was also very respectful and almost old fashioned. Still, he saw something that he wanted and he didn’t plan to take no for an answer.”

  “That’s when he came to me,” Dad said. “There was something very overpowering about him. When he asked to dance with my wife, I said no. Then he took a step forward. Your mother was out of earshot and it seemed everyone else was as well, or they just didn’t seem to pay much attention. My entire body relaxed and suddenly I didn’t seem so annoyed by him asking to dance with her. I didn’t see a problem with it at all. His eyes held power that I wasn’t ever able to explain or understand. Not until you just told me everything that’s happened to you over the last few days, that is.”

  “By the tone of your voice, I assume that, in the end, you actually didn’t say no? I exist after all,” I said.

  I felt terrible for th
em. They were taken advantage of and I was the result. Granted, they wanted a baby very badly, but I’m sure they didn’t plan to have one that was like the man that took advantage of them.

  My dad sighed. “I didn’t say no. I couldn’t. I wanted to, but when I tried, it was like I was overwhelmed with this feeling that everything would be okay. I was completely calm and couldn’t find any reason why she shouldn’t be able to do what she wanted. Looking back on that now, it seems impossible, but that’s what happened.”

  “How romantic,” I said. “In other words, he did to you what I’ve been doing to people. He compelled you to feel safe and okay with all of it. Mom, if he compelled you to want him, then he raped you. Plain and simple. That’s no different than drugging someone.”

  “It wasn’t like that,” Mom said. She sighed before continuing. “While we danced, he told me that he wasn’t human. At first, I thought he was crazy and I wanted to get away from him, but he held me and stared into my eyes. He whispered for me to relax and I can honestly tell you that I’ve never again been that calm in my entire life. He told me that he could read humans just as easily as I was able to read a book. He said that your father and I were good people. That we were rare.”

  “What was he?” I asked. “Did he ever say?”

  “No. Only that his name was Tristan. He said that his kind doesn’t raise their own children, though they do become involved with them later in life if and when they develop power. Some of the children take after their human parents and never blossom, while others take after their supernatural parent. The women give their babies up at birth and the fathers find women that want children and otherwise can’t have them. He told me that it was my choice to be with him. That he wouldn’t influence me, but his desire was to have a child. All his previous children had taken after their mothers. He told me that if I made that decision and a child was born, I would know the truth during puberty, though he never said how I would know.”