by Willow Rose
I breathed a sigh of great relief. The look in his eyes was of great sadness and grief.
"We need to get you all out of here," he said, gravely. "Before they come here too."
My mom stepped forward. "How serious is it?"
He gave her a look, his nostrils flaring. "It's bad. They're taking them all down. Sparing no one."
My mom gasped and clasped her mouth.
"My grandsons," Grams said. "Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They were down there. Did they get away? Did you see them?"
Duncan stared at her, and I could tell he was looking for the right words. Then he shook his head.
"As I said. They took everyone."
"But did you see them?" my mom asked.
He paused for a second, then nodded. "I saw spiders surround them. I am sorry. There was nothing I could do."
"Of course not," my mom said, sadness spreading across her face. "Of course not."
I could tell Duncan felt guilty and his eyes avoided mine. I walked up to him and grabbed his hand in mine. "Can you take my mom and grandmother to safety?"
He nodded. "Naturally."
"And can you take Veronika with you as well? I can't risk having her here in case they start to raid the houses."
"Sure," he said then looked into my eyes. "But what about you?"
"I’m safe here," I said. "They can't touch me, remember?"
"But they might try and convince you to tell where we are," Duncan said. "They are sneaky creatures."
"I'll take the risk. Besides, someone needs to be at the house in case my dad comes back."
"But Robyn," my mom protested. "I won't leave you behind."
I turned to face her. "I'll be fine. I promise. I won't leave without Dad. It's time for me to grow up and not just think about myself for once. Now, go before it's too late. Hurry."
Duncan grabbed me in his arms, then kissed me intensely. My mother pretended not to look while my grandmother stared at us with a goofy smile.
"I'll be back for you," he said, removing a lock of hair from my face. "I'll protect you if it's the last thing I do."
I smiled, realizing that was why Duncan had been close by when the spider-men had come for my Grams. He kept an eye out on my family and me. Of course, he did.
"I know you will," I said. "I know."
I helped Veronika get onto Duncan's back and stood beneath them as they soared into the air and vanished across the mountains, while the screams and fighting from downtown continued.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Aunt Tina couldn't stop crying. How had all this happened to her in such a short period? Her brother-in-law was gone, her sister was in jail, and now her niece was in a coma, and they were about to shut off her life-support?
Was she really going to lose them all?
Tina stood in the doorway of Jazmine's bedroom, staring at her empty bed like she expected Jazmine to suddenly appear in it somehow.
BamBam was next to her, rubbing himself against her leg, meowing and whining. Mr. Jones had brought him back just a short while ago, and Aunt Tina couldn't figure out why he kept running over there. The cat was acting so strange lately; she wondered what was going on with it. Was it just confused because of all that had happened? Did it know that it had to say goodbye to Jazmine?
Aunt Tina sighed and took a step inside of Jazmine's room. It still smelled like her, and she could still picture her sitting there by the desk doing her homework or lying on the bed with Adrian, pretending like they weren't making out when Aunt Tina entered.
Adrian. You've got to make sure he's there too when it happens. He deserves to say goodbye also.
She made a mental note to call him in the morning. He had been there to visit Jazmine in the hospital as often as he could and had been really sweet and comforting, much to Aunt Tina's surprise. She was beginning to realize what Jazmine saw in that vicious vampire. He wasn't too terrible after all, even if he was…that.
In the beginning, Aunt Tina hadn't been able to understand why Briana had let Jazmine date a vampire in the first place. Why they didn't stop her from ruining her life, but now she was beginning to see it. Maybe they had been wrong about them, at least some of them.
Aunt Tina sighed and sat on Jazmine's bed, looking at the posters on the walls and thinking about the poor girl. Tina had been going through her sister's old book in the attic, trying to see if she could find a spell that would bring a person out of a coma, but hadn't found any. Aunt Tina wasn't one to do many spells and wasn't half the witch that her sister was.
"If only our mom was here," she said. "She would know what to do."
Aunt Tina exhaled, then rose to her feet when she thought she heard a sound coming from the closet. She walked to it and opened the door. Inside, she spotted a Yeti cup on the shelf. The cup was wiggling and shaking.
Is something inside it?
She reached up and grabbed it, then took it down, holding it between her hands. She took the lid off, then looked inside.
A spider?
The spider moved up toward her, crawling on the side of the cup, but as it did, it kept sliding down to the bottom again. Aunt Tina tilted her head and chuckled.
"Can't you get out, little spider, huh?"
The spider once again crawled toward her, but as it reached the edge, it was like some force pulled it back down, like it was impossible for it to get further than that, like there was an invisible force field holding it down, preventing it from getting out.
Aunt Tina chuckled again while staring at the small creature. She couldn't help herself. She began to sing:
"Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out."
She laughed again and thought about the many times she had sung that song for Jazmine when she was just a young child when suddenly the entire cup began to shake between her hands, and she had to let go of it. The Yeti cup fell to the floor, and as it landed, the spider crawled right out, almost ran. As soon as the spider was out completely, it was like it exploded.
A second later, a man stood in front of Aunt Tina, swaying on his long thin legs, grinning a lipless smile from ear to ear. Aunt Tina gaped.
"You!"
Mr. Aran stretched then tilted his bald round head.
"Thank you for setting me free, my dear. I am most grateful to you, although I am certain the feeling won't be mutual once you see what kind of hell I am about to unleash on this neighborhood."
There was only one month left to the Halloween Block Party.
Get Book 10, the last installment in the series, Chaos and Courage here:
Afterword
Dear Reader,
Thank you for purchasing Order and Chaos (The Vampires of Shadow Hills #9) I hope you enjoyed it.
Please leave a review if you can.
It means so much to me.
Take care,
Willow
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Books by the Author
Paranormal Romance/Suspense/Fantasy/Sci-fi Novels:
Flesh and Blood - Grab your copy today
Blood and Fire - Grab your copy today
Fire and Beauty - Grab your copy today
Beauty and Beasts - Grab your copy today
Beasts and Magic - Grab your copy today
Magic and Witchcraft - Grab your copy today
Witchcraft and W
ar - Grab your copy today
War and Order - Grab your copy today
Order and Chaos- Grab your copy today
Chaos and Courage - Grab your copy today
The Surge - Grab your copy today
Girl Divided - Grab your copy today
Beyond (Afterlife #1) - Grab your copy today
Serenity (Afterlife #2) - Grab your copy today
Endurance (Afterlife #3) - Grab your copy today
Courageous (Afterlife #4) - Grab your copy today
Savage (Daughters of the Jaguar #1) - Grab your copy today
Broken (Daughters of the Jaguar #2) - Grab your copy today
Song for a Gypsy (The Eye of the Crystal Ball -The Wolfboy Chronicles) - Grab your copy today
I am WOLF (The Wolfboy Chronicles) - Grab your copy today
Mystery/Horror Novels:
What Hurts the Host (7th Street Crew #1) - Grab your copy today
You Can Run (7th Street Crew #2) - Grab your copy today
You Can’t Hide (7th Street Crew #3) - Grab your copy today
Carefull Little Eyes (7th Street Crew #4) - Grab your copy today
Hit the Road Jack (Jack Ryder #1) - Grab your copy today
Slip Out the Back Jack (Jack Ryder #2) - Grab your copy today
The House that Jack Built (Jack Ryder #3) - Grab your copy today
Black Jack (Jack Ryder #4) - Grab your copy today
One, Two... He is Coming for You (Rebekka Franck #1) - Grab your copy today
Three, Four ... Better Lock your Door (Rebekka Franck #2) - Grab your copy today
Five, Six ... Grab your Crucifix (Rebekka Franck #3) - Grab your copy today
Seven, Eight... Gonna Stay up Late (Rebekka Franck #4) - Grab your copy today
Nine, Ten... Never Sleep Again (Rebekka Franck #5) -Grab your copy today
Eleven, Twelve... Dig and Delve (Rebekka Franck #6) - Grab your copy today
Thirteen, Fourteen... Little Boy Unseen (Rebekka Franck #7) - Grab your copy today
Better Not Cry (Rebekka Franck #8) - Grab your copy today
Edwina - Grab your copy today
To Hell in A Handbasket - Grab your copy today
Umbrella Man - Grab your copy today
Black Bird Fly - Grab your copy today
Itsy Bitsy Spider (Emma Frost #1) - Grab your copy today
Miss Polly had a Dolly (Emma Frost #2)- Grab your copy today
Run, Run, as Fast as you Can (Emma Frost #3) - Grab your copy today
Cross your Heart and Hope to Die (Emma Frost #4) - Grab your copy today
Peek A Boo I See You (Emma Frost #5) - Grab your copy today
Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Emma Frost #6) - Grab your copy today
Easy as One Two Three (Emma Frost #7) - Grab your copy today
There's No Place like Home (Emma Frost #8) - Grab your copy today
Slenderman (Emma Frost #9) - Grab your copy today
Where the Wild Roses Grow (Emma Frost #10) - Grab your copy today
Waltzing Matilda (Emma Frost #11) - Grab your copy today
Horror Short Stories:
Eenie, Meenie - Grab your copy today
Rock-A-Bye Baby - Grab your copy today
Nibble, Nibble, Crunch - Grab your copy today
Humpty, Dumpty - Grab your copy today
Chain Letter - Grab your copy today
Better Watch Out - Grab your copy today
Mommy Dearest - Grab your copy today
The Bird- Grab your copy today
Box Sets:
Jack Ryder Mystery Series Box Set: Vol 1-3 - Grab your copy today
Rebekka Franck Series Vol 1-3 - Grab your copy today
Rebekka Franck Series Vol 4-6 - Grab your copy today
Rebekka Franck Series Vol 1-5 - Grab your copy today
Emma Frost Mystery Series Vol 1-3 - Grab your copy today
Emma Frost Mystery Series Vol 4-6 - Grab your copy today
Emma Frost Mystery Series Vol 7-9 - Grab your copy today
Emma Frost Mystery Series Vol 1-5 - Grab your copy today
Daughters of the Jaguar Box Set - Grab your copy today
The Afterlife Series (Books 1-3)- Grab your copy today
Horror Stories from Denmark - Grab your copy today
The Wolfboy Chronicles - Grab your copy today
About the Author
The Queen of Scream aka Willow Rose is a #1 Amazon Best-selling Author and an Amazon ALL-star Author of more than 50 novels. She writes Mystery, Paranormal, Romance, Suspense, Horror, Supernatural thrillers, and Fantasy.
Willow's books are fast-paced, nail-biting page-turners with twists you won't see coming.
Several of her books have reached the Kindle top 20 of ALL books in the US, UK, and Canada.
She has sold more than two million books.
Willow lives on Florida's Space Coast with her husband and two daughters. When she is not writing or reading, you will find her surfing and watch the dolphins play in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
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Part One
Beyond, Afterlife Book 1
Excerpt
For a special sneak peak of Willow Rose's Bestselling Paranormal Romance Beyond turn to the next page.
Chapter One
How do I say this? Well, the thing is … I am a spirit. Before you close this book because you don’t believe in a life after death, just take a deep breath and listen to my story. It might be interesting to you. You might want to know that death is only the beginning of the next great adventure. I know I would have liked to have known that when I was still alive.
Maybe you do believe that there is an afterlife, maybe you have even seen us, or at least seen what we can do. Either way I am sure you will enjoy my story.
Before I begin we need to get the facts straight. In the world of the supernatural we make distinctions between spirits. Some are like me—Ru’ach, as we are called here, which is Hebrew meaning “the wind of man” or “the spirit of man.” As a Ru’ach I am a part of the Spiritual Realm, which is just as real as the Natural Realm. Those who are still human in flesh and blood just can’t see it. I can go wherever I want, do what I want, and even talk to whomever I want, including humans.
Then there are the Se’irims, which means “hairy beings.” You can call them demons if you prefer. They are the evil spirits that ascend from Hell and walk the earth just like us, but they make bad things happen to people, and make them feel guilty and depressed.
How did I get to be a spirit? Well I really don’t know. I guess I died in some sort of way.
By the way, my name is Meghan and I am sixteen years old, or at least I was when I died.
As I just said, I don’t know how I died, just that I did. I woke up on a steamboat. That is my earliest memory of anything. It is not that we forget everything when we die; we remember a lot of different stuff from when we used to be alive, but we don’t remember the people we used to love or who used to love us. Also specific things and details about our life go away as well. But that is only to protect us, they say, so we won’t miss our family too much. It is just in the beginning. They want us to focus on our new life, not the old one. Eventually when we finish our education and training at the Academy, they open our file and we get the memory back and, best of all, we get to visit the people we love and p
rotect them.
Before you start wondering, yes, we do look just like humans. Actually we are just as we were before we died. I have been told that the spirit leaves the body exactly two seconds before the physical body dies. So we have the faces we used to have and we do wear clothes, the same ones we had on the day we died. If you were to see us, you would actually have to get really close to see that we are not humans. But when you do you will realize that we have no body of flesh and bones and blood veins. We are nearly weightless, we weigh only 21 grams, which is kind of cool and very fun. We are not pearly white as you would think; we have all of our color on our clothes, on our skin, and in our eyes. It’s hard to explain exactly how we look because we do have hands and feet and stuff, but it’s just not like humans have it. We are made of a soft fluid-like material.
Anyway, back to my story. You can probably imagine the surprise I got when I opened my eyes and found myself standing by the railing with several people next to me whom I had never seen before. And boy, what a shock I got when I looked down and saw that the moving steamboat, with a big paddle wheel on its back, was in fact flying through thin air. Underneath us there wasn’t any water, only mountaintops. I have always been afraid of heights, so I tried to grab on to the person standing next to me. But that was before I knew anything about who I was—or rather had become.
The person next to me was an adult and a spirit as well, so I just went right through her body with a plunging sound, like we were both made of water. We both fell to the wooden deck. She wore a big hat with a flower in and a puffy dress. Her face seemed stiff, maybe because of the fall. While lying on the floor, she spoke to me first.
