Dark War Chronicles Box Set One

by A. L. Kessler

  "What is it that you have planned?"

  Markus folded his hands and grinned. "I have a couple Hunters that work for me, they will destroy things from the inside." He snapped his fingers. "Cody, come here."

  The ex-Hunter walked into the room, crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "You snapped?"

  "Watch your attitude boy, this here is the creature your people feared was real. Meet The Father." Markus motioned to the vampire that sat across from him. "He is the one who will be controlling our operations."

  "You're going to have to include vampires one way or another, the Hunters are smarter than you think." Cody straightened up and Markus snarled. Cody held a hand up. "Let me explain. If something is going on inside those walls then the Elders know it. So unless you have an Elder on your payroll, your plan is going to fail. If you involve some lesser vampires to work outside the Society, ones you aren't afraid to sacrifice, you'll have a better chance. If you play your cards right, you can cause the collapse of the Hunting Society."

  The Father turned to Markus. "What say you?"

  "I say he's smarter than I thought. After the fiasco with Lucius a few months ago, I was starting to doubt him. The fact that he is talking about sacrificing lesser vampires makes me think he has more tactics in his head. We'll keep him around for a while. We need the Hunters to fall." Markus waved Cody away. "I trust you are still working on the research you acquired from your partner, go work on that."

  Cody walked back to the other room and shut the dark wood door behind him. Markus stacked the papers and met the Father's gaze. "He's working on locating the graves of the Originals. Zaaren may be in the same state that Lucius rules." He'd been working with the Father to catch him up on everything, but locations and territories seemed to be a struggle for his mind.

  "You plan on killing your maker yourself?" The Father raised a brow. "The ultimate revenge for him hiding things from you."

  Markus snorted. He hated that vampire and would gladly slaughter him and any relatives the bastard managed to make. "I was not his favorite fledgling and he never trusted me. He didn't tell me about Tegan until Lucius managed to save her and even then he only told me the blood whore was his sister, not the key to calming your blood lust."

  "I hid Tegan from you as well, but I hid her from everyone. Zaaren only knew about her because he was there the night the witch preformed the spell for me." The Father shrugged. "I couldn't risk losing her to the vampires that wanted to save humans. I should have bound her to me."

  "But that would have also been a huge risk." Markus nodded. "That doesn't matter now. I want my revenge on Zaaren and I will take that by killing him before he rises. As we will the others, we cannot allow them to rise and put you back in your grave."

  The Father chuckled. "I agree, we need to wipe them out and the vampires need to take their rightful place, being divided will hurt my power over them. We should be feared and hated, not trying to become part of the human world."

  "We have fallen far since you've been locked away." Markus tried to imagine this new world under The Father's fist and Markus knew where he'd be, back in the seat of power.

  Lucius paced his room. He’d felt Tegan's mind start to stir, but she was still refusing to wake up. He hated leaving her at the Hunter's headquarters, but Kaden had talked him into it. The moment she woke, Kaden would call him and bring Tegan home. The images he caught from her mind made no sense. They were old memories of the Circle and flickers of the Father. Nothing was making sense to him, and the only way he would get his answers would be if she woke and was able to tell him. He was hoping they were mere nightmares and nothing more, but he knew his human. Something was wrong. Something was off.

  He looked up as the door opened and Coran walked in, something grasped in his hand. An old book.

  "You are back sooner than I expected."

  Coran nodded. "It's not safe for us to be out of the territory. Everyone is on edge, something about a power shift in the air."

  Coran was right. Lucius had felt it not long ago, but he couldn't figure it out. He'd even visited Zaaren's resting place, hoping that it was the Originals waking up, but nothing. He had no way of contacting the other Keepers either to find out if anyone else was showing signs of waking. "Did anyone say what it was?"

  "There are rumors and you won't be happy about them."

  "They think the Father has woken?" Lucius closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. That couldn't have happened unless Tegan had been with the Circle at some point, unless there was a massacre of humans somewhere that he hadn't heard about.

  Coran snorted. "Yep, I swear your kind is more paranoid than the immortal shifters."

  Lucius mind wandered back to his conversation with Victoria; she'd expressed concern about the Father being raised as well. "I'm not so sure about that, and what do you think about it, wolf? Do you come bearing proof back from Philadelphia?"

  "No, but I brought you this." Coran tossed him the book.

  Lucius ran his hand over the worn cover and flap, realizing that it wasn't just any book. It was a journal. "What is this?"

  "I took it from Tegan, she'd fallen asleep at my house and I stole it from her when I realized what it was." Coran's voice was careful and Lucius met his gaze. The wolf wouldn't do anything to harm Tegan, not after he'd helped torture her and Lucius almost killed him for it.

  Lucius moved the flap and started flipping through pages. He knew the handwriting and though the words switched languages he knew it was Tegan's. A diary of some sort, but it held information of the Circle, things she'd learned during her torture and things she had overheard when they had been in the Circle’s territory.

  "Why didn't you give this to me sooner?" How could Tegan keep something like this from him? He ran his hands over the words in Latin. "I keep dreaming of a man, he comes to soothe me at night through the nightmares and memories. He claims that we have met before..." Lucius tried to calm the panic in him and flipped through more pages, looking for something more recent.

  "They are just musings from when she was hurt. I took it from her so that she wouldn't dwell on the past. Or so I thought."

  Lucius shook his head and scanned the words. "Tegan doesn't do anything without purpose." He closed the book and threw it to the side, snarling.

  "Towards the end.” Coran started, caution in his voice. “There are things about her feeling the call of the Father with the stone being gone. Things about hearing Markus whisper in her head. It's dated about a month before Renee showed up.”

  “When did you take this from her? She wasn't supposed to be off the property until Kassity found out about Renee, that was when I lifted that restriction."

  "She came to the house in tears, it was right after she'd sent the stone away. She'd been writing in it before she fell asleep in the recliner."

  Lucius remembered that day, he'd lost his temper and tracked Tegan down and literally dragged her back to the Manor. She'd fought him every step of the way. "Why do you bring this to me now?"

  "Because some of the things she speaks of in there are happening or have happened. I think there might be some truth to the rumors I heard." Coran stuck his hands in his pockets. "The extra hands that you have brought to the manor will help if the Circle attacks, but what if the Father comes?"

  He would claim Tegan and Lucius would die trying to protect her. They needed Zaaren to wake up. "What does she speak of that sounded familiar?"

  "The way the body had to be desecrated in order to open the tomb. It was towards the beginning when she was talking about nightmares. I think the journal starts right after—"

  "She was tortured, yes. What does that have to do with anything?"

  "Renee's brother, his death matches her description to a T." Coran swallowed. "I know you said that the demons wouldn't work with vampires, but is it possible that they took Tegan there to raise the Father?"

  Doubt started to fill him. Had Tegan given up what she was and did the demons use that to their adv
antage? Bargaining with the Circle to give them a better hand in the war? Tegan had gone through torture before and hadn't given Markus the information he wanted, but demons were a whole new ballpark and Kaden had said that Tegan had been tortured.

  "Lucius?" Coran asked and the vampire drew in a deep breath.

  "I honestly don't know, we won't get any answers until she wakes up." Lucius looked to where the book had landed on the floor, pages up and opened almost in the exact middle. "I hadn't been aware she was hiding things from me."

  Coran glanced over at it. "I think she was scared to tell you and that maybe she felt there wasn't a whole lot to it either. But we all forget one thing about her."

  "Which is?" Lucius asked, his lips drawn back in a sneer.

  "That she isn't a child. She's older than all of us." Coran gave a sad laugh. "I need to get back to Renee, she's upset that I can't take her to visit Tegan and she's still mourning her brother's passing."

  Lucius bowed his head. "Give her my regards." He took a deep breath before going to swipe the book off the floor. He waited for Coran to leave before sitting on the throne and reading Tegan's book.

  Danielle gasped as she reappeared in an unfamiliar place. The black tile floor shone as if newly polished and above her head green crystals hung, reminding her of strange stars in the night. Silver and green banners hung on the wall and then there was the throne. It reminded her of the one at Lucius' but it was on a raised step and was made out of skulls. She swallowed and spun to Orion. "Your home?"

  "And yours too, if you'll allow it. Between killing the queen and Lucius’ meeting I haven’t had the chance to talk to you." He took a deep breath. "Danielle, I've wanted to talk to you since the night I came back from the mission—"

  "You mean the murder assignment." She corrected and crossed her arms. When he returned to her, she hadn't expected the emotions to take over like they had. They’d had sex again with no discussion. She'd originally gone to his house to leave him a note about no longer being able to see him, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She'd planned on burying herself with Society work to help take the edge off the pain she felt when she thought about not being with him. He never asked why she was there and it hadn't been information she wanted to volunteer, but the thought of him carelessly killing for Lucius made her sick...of course, he’d just announced he was no longer working for the vampire.

  Orion took her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. "I never completed the mission. I didn’t kill the human. I only thought of the disappointment that I saw in your eyes." He ran a hand through his hair. "I have to tell you the truth, I didn't go after the Queen for the attack on Lucius' manor."

  "You did it because you couldn't just stand around with Tegan hurt." She swallowed. She’d put it together when he left the hospital.

  He shook his head."It was an outlet for the anger, yes, but I did it so that you and I could be together without him dictating everything." His wings fluttered as he huffed.

  Everything was falling into place like she imagined. Her dreams of living a life with Orion came flooding back. She couldn't help the smile on her lips. "You killed the queen for me?"

  "Yes. I love you, Danielle. I would do anything in the world for you. I defied Lucius, the man I owe my life to, I stepped away from Tegan and I won't be going back to being her bodyguard. I love to watch you fight, to watch you move, I love holding you in my arms and the way you feel against my skin. I love your humor and your drive."

  "I love you too, dusty." She pulled him to her and kissed him. "I have since the moment I first laid eyes on you. Then when I came to you at the coffee house, I knew there was more between us than just lust. Not your power, but true fate."

  "I've never met a human who believed in fate." He brushed a hand down her cheek and she nuzzled it.

  She knew now why she'd been cursed to be a bound human; it was so she wouldn't have to give this up. Any of it. She could live with Orion here in the Fae world, leave hunting behind her, or maybe just hunt part-time, if that was something that could work with the Society. Closing her eyes, she realized that the constant pull of the vampire had disappeared from her mind.

  "Dani?" Orion asked and she opened her eyes.

  "I can't feel him here." She tried not to bounce up and down. “Alexander, he can't reach my mind here."

  Orion grinned. "I hadn't even thought about that. Of course he can't, you're in a different realm, a different world. Just like Lucius couldn't feel Tegan when she was with the demons. How does it feel?"

  "Kind of empty, but I feel relieved." This was icing on the cake for her, she had been planning on finding a way to make this work with him and a different world. Now she understood.

  Orion put his hand behind him and took a step back, a strange glint in his green and silver eyes. "It's not really our tradition, but I know you're human, so I thought I'd humor you."

  Danielle raised a brow, what on Earth was he talking about? Orion went to one knee and produced a black velvet box and Danielle couldn't stop the surprise and excitement that filled her. He pulled the top open and the ring caught the light. An emerald surround by diamonds on a silver band. She put a hand to her heart as her breath caught.

  "Danielle, I know it's been a few short weeks, but I know that fate made you to complete me. Without you, I do not breathe, without you I am nothing but an empty shell. You have brought meaning back to my life and I never want you to leave my side. Will you give me the honor of being my wife and my Queen?"

  Her head spun and she thought she might pass out from his sweet words. She threw herself at him. "Yes."

  He caught her and fell backwards with her in his arms. Lying on the ground she put her head against his chest and smiled. "I don't know how this is going to work, but we'll make it happen. We'll make it work."

  "Yes. Thank you." He kissed her, just a chaste kiss on the lips. "No matter what, we'll make it work."

  Epilogue

  Pain flooded through Tegan and she tried to remember what had happened. The last thing she recalled was Markus' voice and someone else calling out to her. Her eyes fluttered and she tried to open them, only to see darkness. She cursed her master's desire to always keep her eyes covered, but something was wrong. This wasn't the soft fabric that she normally wore. No, this was something rough. Panic flooded through her and her heart pounded as she tried to sit up but hands held her down.

  Memories crashed over her as she remembered the torture Markus put her through, all because she'd been out without Lucius. She cried out when hands came from everywhere to hold her down to the bed she was in. Sharp pains in her hands made her think of sewing needles stuck in her skin.

  "Tegan." The calming, soothing male voice she'd heard before, like a faraway dream. "Tegan, please, it's Kaden. You're safe."

  She tried to listen to him, the name meant nothing to her, but the voice...she'd never forget his voice. Swallowing, she forced herself to calm down. She used the deep breathing to control her emotions, just like she and Lucius had worked on. "Where am I?"

  "You're at the Hunting Society's hospital wing. We found you outside The Disappearing Act and Lucius agreed that this was the safest place for you until you woke."

  Hunting? "I'm with the Hunters?" She kept her voice carefully blank. "Lucius agreed to this?" Why? The Hunters hated her kind, they were known for burning bound humans. She clenched her hands and felt the sharp pain in one again. She reached to pull out whatever was stabbing her and a hand caught hers.

  "Those are IVs, they are helping you. You've been asleep for two weeks now." Kaden said and gently squeezed her hand. "Once the doctors leave, I'll remove your bandages so you can see."

  She wanted to see his face. "Something is wrong."

  "What is it?" He asked and she could sense his panic. Had he been lying to her? What was going on?

  "I...I feel like I'm missing something. Terms you are using. IVs, hospital wing? The Disappearing Act? I feel I should know these things." Her voice shook an
d she hated it, she should have perfect control.

  Kaden asked the doctors to leave and quickly unwrapped her bandages. She blinked a few times and then resisted the urge to cover her eyes, but if this man knew Lucius than certainly it was safe to show him her eyes.

  She looked away and frowned at contraptions that looked familiar, but she had no real words for them. "Where is my master?"

  "He's at his manor, I'm to take you there as soon as you feel up to it." He took her hand. "Whatever it is Tegan, we'll figure out what is wrong."

  Her eyes flickered to his hand and then his face. "And who are you to my master or me?"

  He pursed his lips. "Tegan, I'm your mate."

  Past Demons

  DWC #4

  Prologue

  Four weeks earlier:

  Tegan dug her heels into the ground as Markus forced her forward. She couldn’t breathe past the panic. She couldn’t go back to him, not after her time with Lucius. The Father would claim her and she’d never see her master again, she’d never be free again. Memories played through her mind at the thought of him waking —the pain and the humiliation of being with him, feeding him and servicing him. Her stomach lurched at the thought. She couldn’t let him be woken.

  She went limp hoping to at least slow Markus down, but she knew she didn’t stand a chance against the vampire. She never did. This was what she had been created for, to feed the Father.

  Pain exploded in her head as power went through her and she wished Markus hadn’t kept her blindfolded. The musty and damp air clung to her lungs with every breath she took. Noises surrounded her. From the sound of footsteps she knew that at least two other living creatures stood in the cave with her, further away from her than Markus.

  “You promise you’ll leave my granddaughter alone if I do this for you?” A woman’s voice hit Tegan’s ears, one with a thick Italian accent. Tegan’s heart sank at the thought of someone being blackmailed to help raise the Father. Taking a deep breath she tried to figure out her bearings. Markus hadn’t turned her since they walked in, which meant that her back was towards the exit. If she could get away from him she could run back down the hall. Escaping would be a long shot, but cooperating wasn’t a choice.