It was close to midnight by the time we had crossed the endless valley, traversed a couple of mountains, and stood at the base of a rusty-red rocky hill.I was spent, but I hadn’t bitched about it. Jason had offered to carry me, but he was very tired too, as he was unable to fully recover from the sun without replenishing his strength by taking in blood.We overlooked a terrain of low bushes and hard red dirt.“That’s the border,” Jason said, looking ahead, then glancing at me to check my state again.“We’re going to make it, sweety pie.” I grinned at him. “Let’s race for the final few miles.”Once we crossed the red terrain and reached the other side, the shifters wouldn’t be able to track us as easily, and they might just give up. As for the witches and other hunters, they wouldn’t be in their element in the western wilderness.“Halt,” Jason called before I sprang, ready to put the past behind me forever.The wind stirred, then stilled, then picked up again.A sheet of red dirt asce
I hadn’t been able to familiarise myself with this compound. None of the shifters were nice enough to offer me a tour. The shifters weren’t a polite species.First, Oldy and his goons had shot me down from the wall of the Shifters Uni, then they drugged me, blindfolded me, and dragged me to this compound.When I woke up, I’d found myself in confined quarters. Then I’d pick a fight with the Alpha’s son and split his lip since I refused to be his mate. While I was riding him, not in a sexual way (no way would I ever let him touch me again), but pounding my fists into his ears,Oldy and his minions shot me with enough drugs to take down a horse.So I’d kissed the ground again, waking up in that special cell. So, no, I wasn’t going to run blindly and then end up where I’d started.“Trust issues?” Jason asked, arching an eyebrow.“I bet you aren’t a regular here,” I said against the wind.“And I don’t plan to be,” he confirmed.“The shifters would wait for hell to freeze over before they l
The shifters thrived on power and control, and I was a pawn in their game—an expendable asset they would use and discard without a second thought. It was clear that any attempts at negotiation would be futile, and I wouldn’t fall into that trap. I had no choice but to brace myself for conflict, to accept that I would need to make an enemy out of the very beings who had taken me captive.But there was a silver lining to this grim scenario. Jason had risked everything to venture into the heart of enemy territory for me, and I would honour that sacrifice. I owed him that much. In a world where loyalty was a rare commodity, I was grateful to have someone willing to fight alongside me, even if it was a vampire I had initially considered my adversary.With Patrick, Diane, and Paris absent, there was no issue of divided loyalty weighing on my conscience. They were my friends, my allies, and I knew they would have my back if they were here, but they weren’t. It was just Jason and me now, and
“So she spied for you in Luther’s ranks?” I asked.I’d learnt from the textbooks and the lectures that Luther was the shifters’ number one enemy. We shifters—before they cast me out—were about to go to war with that vampire and his army.“That’s not your concern,” Jason said, trying to dismiss me again.“It is my fucking concern,” I said. “I’m now involved in all the things you’re involved in. I won’t fly blind, vampire, not even for you.”He shot me an annoyed look, his eyes narrowing in that familiar way that told me I was pushing my luck. His lips pressed into a thin line, and he inhaled slowly, as if trying to hold back a tide of frustration.“This journey will be more difficult than expected,” he muttered, almost to himself, his voice barely above a whisper. It wasn’t meant for me, but I caught it nonetheless. The weight of his words felt heavier than they should have, like there was more beneath them—something that Jason wasn’t sharing, at least not yet.I wasn’t a fool. I had a
The strangest part was that I didn’t even have all my memories. So many pieces of my past were missing, lost in a fog I couldn’t penetrate, yet the rage still simmered. Even without knowing every detail, I knew enough. I knew I’d been wronged and betrayed, and the world deserved to pay for that.What would it feel like to give in completely, to stop pretending I was anything other than what I truly was? A destroyer. A bringer of death.The thought curled around my mind like smoke, intoxicating and poisonous. If I let it, I could burn everything to the ground. Maybe I was meant to.Maybe the dark song wasn’t something to fear. Maybe it was something to embrace.My hand slipped from Jason’s, my desire to terrorise all beings growing strong.“Ollivara! Stop thinking!” Jason warned menacingly.I turned to him, gazing at the broad sword in his other hand, my image reflected in the shiny blade. My left eye had turned pitch-black, and my right glowed red.“Come back to me, Ollivara,” he call
“I can stand on my own two feet today because I drank from the amazing handsome vampire,” I said, my words cutting through the tension, watching with glee as repulsion rippled across Oldy’s face. The disgust that twisted his features only made me smile wider. His tightly knit control frayed further, and I revelled in it. “Now do you know who he is, Oldy? He’s the fucking vampire king. He could crush you like a little bug between his thumb and forefinger.”I leaned in, my voice lowering to a dangerous whisper, eyes locked on his. “While everyone else let me rot, he came for me.”Oldy’s mouth tightened into a hard line, his jaw clenching as he processed my words, his gaze flicking nervously toward Jason. The weight of my declaration hung heavy in the air between us, and for the first time, the enforcer looked less like a soldier and more like a man caught between fear and duty.“So yeah, I’m going with this good hunk, my superman.” I finished with a grin that was more teeth than joy. Th
My eyes widened, heart racing as I processed the scene. Reinforcements. They’d come for us.Before I could react, Jason’s hand clamped around mine, his grip strong and unyielding. I barely had time to register the touch before I felt my feet lift off the ground again, dangling helplessly as he hoisted me into the air with that same supernatural ease that always made me feel like a doll in his hands. He was moving fast, and there was no mistaking the urgency in his actions. Jason was afraid of losing me—afraid that any moment of hesitation could mean the difference between escape and capture.A sudden rush of air signalled the vampire girl’s arrival. She shot down from the sky like an arrow, landing lightly near the tunnel entrance with a graceful thud that made my heart skip a beat. I hadn’t even noticed her approach until she was right there, just feet away from us. Her dark wings folded neatly behind her as she flashed me a playful grin, her eyes glinting with mischief. She bowed wi
Okay, I know I'm not supposed to feel like I was in heat, but I couldn’t help it. Jason Nollan. The vampire king was hot. Big letter, super H.O.T.Am I stupid? Definitely.Anyway, call me Phia, or Phiagirl and I'm a shewolf, a hybrid who could wield magic, and here I was salivating over a vampire. Our natural enemy. How sick was that?I sighed and swallowed a lump as the vampire king with his dark scowl approached me with a predatory grace, as if he possessed not only my existence but also the very air I struggled to draw into my lungs.I leaned back against the cold, unforgiving wall, my wrists bound in shackles, yet a smirk lingered on my lips, a defiant spark in the face of danger as I looked at my ill-gotten copy of Homer laying on the floor and sighed as I gazed around the massive empty hallway.There he was. Imposing and powerful, and I couldn't get my eyes away from him. He was the vampire king. The most powerful of all nighters, and yes, I could sense him; I know he was there