The music thumped through the club, vibrating through everything and everyone in fast-paced pulses.Strobe lights shot around the darkened room and the close-knit bodies on the dance floor writhed against each other in time to the beat.The main smell in the club was alcohol and the strange smell from the smoke machine that would occasionally go off, coating the dance floor in a thick cloud.Isabelle watched from the sidelines, gently swaying to the music, drink in hand.She felt good tonight.Her tight red cocktail dress was attracting a lot of attention, but not quite the attention she was looking for.She held her clutch close to her side as her keen eyes scanned the dance floor.She knew he was here; she just needed to find out where.She checked her watch.3:00 am.Damn.She'd have to speed this up a bit, there were only about two hours until sunrise and only an hour until the club closed for the night.'
A loud knock at the door startled Isabelle awake. She must have fallen asleep after having her long hot shower, as she was still towel-clad and the TV was still on but was on some strange early morning shopping programme. Izzie yawned and stretched before forcing herself to get up. She glanced at the time on her phone and saw that it was only eight in the morning. Who the hell would be bothering her at this time? She swung open the door, not caring that she was still just wearing a towel. Jake was standing on the other side of the door, his smile faded a little when he saw what she was wearing. "Did I - come at a bad time?" he stuttered a little. "Yeah, actually," she folded her arms across her chest, really unimpressed with his presence, "I was sleeping. You know, you did only drop me off here like four hours ago." "Sorry," he gave her a sympathetic smile, but then held up a brown envelope that she hadn't noticed he'd
Cassius Lockwood.Patriarch of the notorious pureblood vampire family.A prime target for the hunters for many years.He was ruthless.Domineering.An overall psychopath.He had recently managed to worm his way into the good graces of the two most powerful vampire families.The Redfern and Blackwell's.Which was really bad news for... well... anyone that wasn't a vampire.The slayers know that their plan was to eradicate any other supernatural species so that they reigned supreme.Which was fine, saved the slayers a lot of work in a way, but they then wanted to enslave humanity.Literally use people like cattle; maybe keep some as servants to them.That was what they were fighting hard to stop.Bringing down Cassius Lockwood could be the first move in knocking down the Redfern and Blackwell families. Cassius had more influence in the human world, as he has business deals left, right and centre with dif
"He was right there!" Izzie exclaimed as she popped another piece of popcorn into her mouth.They'd made it back to her place, and were sat on her couch with their movie time snacks. The movie was yet to be picked but the snacks were going down well. "I know he was," Jake sighed, dunking a marshmallow into his hot chocolate and letting it sit to melt, "But why? Why was he right there? Where were his guards? Why the hell was he shopping for himself?"The questions were valid, and there didn't seem to be a logical answer to any of them.Izzie didn't understand any of it. His presence at the supermarket went against nearly everything she had read about in his paperwork.He was far too rich and powerful to be going out anywhere without guards, let alone to a lowly supermarket."I don't know," she said, with the excited glint in her eye that he knew all too well "but we're going to find out." "Well, we aren't right now," he argued, "What film
"Sorry, sir," Darius held up his hands and rose from his seat, motioning for his guards to move away, "No disrespect intended."Then he walked away.He fucking walked away!They were so close to the plan coming together.Izzie swung around, ready to clout whoever it was right in the face.She froze as her eyes locked with the eyes like steel.Cassius Lockwood stood before her, towering over her, and looking less than impressed.Her target.Was right here.Looking her in the face.His face was hard and unreadable as he looked over her.Then without another word, he turned and walked away.Now her own target was walking away!What the hell was happening?"What's going on? Where did he go?" she heard Jake's voice come through the earpiece, shocking her with its sudden intrusion.She didn't respond.She was very aware that she could possibly be being watched.She glanced across to wh
"What the hell happened?" Jake hissed angrily as she caught up with her outside the entrance to the club.Izzie just shook her head.She supposed she should feel guilty for getting distracted and just leaving Jake, but it was for good reason. She had thought she had her target... she had also thought wrong and made a huge mess of things.Beloved.The word just seemed to circle her mind, popping up in every thought she had.It couldn't be true.He was just trying to get himself out of a bad situation, and it had worked.He'd gotten away.No one had ever gotten away from her.Never.She always prided herself on that fact.Now in one single night, she had lost two targets in quick succession."Izzie!" Jake pretty much shouted and she realised he'd still be speaking but she hadn't heard a single word of what he was saying.They were walking back to the car."Sorry," she mumbled, feeling a little guilty,
A few days had passed since Izzie and Jake's conversation.The whole Beloved thing was still playing on her mind, but not as much as it had been. She had spent the last few days at home, catching up on sleep and re-reading Cassius Snr's file. She also had taken the time to get her much needed housework done. She had been neglecting it for work, but with laundry piling up and a sink full of dirty dishes she had decided it was time she tackled that.She had done her best to keep her mind off of Cassius, but he kept sneaking back in when she let her guard down.Why did he hav
Everything seemed to happen at once.The far window of the living room shattered, showering the room in glass as a black figure dove through, rolling to an elegant crouched stop on the floor. Izzie was already moving away from the wall, out of reach, drawing both her daggers from their sheaths and dropping into a defensive position.She met the gaze of her intruder. Two murderous red eyes locked with hers. His face was twisted into a gruesome snarl as he bared his
That's the last of it," Jake commented as she stood up holding yet another dustpan full of broken glass. He had personally tidied up most of the destruction in the living room. Cassius had helped a little where he could but had grown tired very quickly and needed to sit down. Neither male would let her or Esther help in the cleaning up, though Esther didn't seem overly concerned by that. Izzie, however, had begun to feel better and wanted to help but they insisted that she continue to rest until they were sure she was fully healed. Right now, she was snuggled up on Cassius' lap with her head leaning on his shoulder while his strong arms wrapped around her like a safety blanket. His leant his head on hers while they both watched Jake finish up the cleaning. Esther had long since disappeared into the kitchen, lord knows what she was doing but Izzie didn't care much as long as she was away from her. "Is there anything we can use to patch up that window?" Cassius asked as a shiver ran th
It was cold.Very cold.There's was nothing around but darkness.'Am I - am I dead?' Izzie thought and it seemed to echo in the vast void around her as if she had spoken aloud. She felt light as if she was made of no more than air. She was just kind of there, floating in the black.She must be dead.This was not what she expected death to be.She didn't know exactly what she had expected.Pain and suffering.
Vanessa didn't have time to react. A scream had just started to escape her lungs when the bullet hit. Given her strange angle over Izzie Jake hadn't managed to shoot anything vital, probably through fear of hitting Izzie, but it had been enough for Vanessa to fall away from Izzie.Izzie watched as Vanessa fell to the ground, holding her side as the blood began to ooze from it. Izzie saw the burn of the silver begin to smoke in her side, but if it was the same thing that had hit Cassius then she could still have a lot of life in her yet."Izzie!" Jake called, and she looked over just in time to see him kick her dagger back towards her. The blade slid elegantly across the floor, coming right for her and she instinctively put out her hand to catch it. It was almost like fate as the ha
Izzie spit out a mouthful of blood from what she hoped was Vanessa's final attack. She lay crumpled on the floor unable to move from the agony that she felt. Bones were broken and possibly a ruptured organ or two. Moving hurt, her insides hurt, her outsides hurt, hell, even breathing hurt.It appeared that vampy Barbie wasn't just a pretty face.She was an entire cold plastic bitch, through and through.Izzie had never been one to give up, but right now, death would be welcome. She forced her head up, her gaze locking on Cassius one more time as she felt Vanessa approaching behind her, getting ready to deliver the final blow.Those sad steel
Bang!The scream of agony came almost instantly as the shot was fired.
Jake was...Jake was a vampire...How?When?When she'd last seen him he'd been...She was in shock.She was unsure if this was better or worse than her zombie nightmare.Had that been a premonition?Vampires were technically be classed as walking corpses so her nightmare hadn't been far wrong, he was just a little less decomposed.Frankly, he was terrifying.Her best friend was leering over her, trying to fight his way to her throat with a crazed look in his eye as his bloodlust was taking over. New turns or fledgelings could be some of the most dangerous vampires. They hadn't learned to control their hunger yet and instinct would take over them. A fledgeling couldn't control how much they took either and almost every feed ended in death. When the blood lust took over they wouldn't even bat an eye at killing their own mother as long as they sated that hunger.There was a
Izzie's heart raced as she stared at the window. Even though she couldn't actually see out of it she just had this gut feeling that there was someone on the other side staring back. She didn't dare look away. She kept her gaze on the window as she started to back away from it, sidestepping her way towards to bedroom. She kept her eyes fixated on the dark beyond the window the entire time that she moved.Once at th
"What shall we do?" Cassius questioned from where he lay sprawled out across the couch. Izzie was sitting in the large armchair adjacent to him, curled up in her thick black blanket. She was currently in a food coma, with a belly being full to bursting. Cassius had really gone all out with her 'night-time breakfast'.She had only expected one, possibly two omelettes. Not only was there a cheesy omelette cooked to perfection, but he had also done her a side of bacon, toast and fried mushrooms. It was heavenly and she had cleaned the plate, even after her stomach had begun to protest that it was full. It had been just far too good to waste.She just shrugged in response. She was still heavily pregnant with her food baby and had just been happily enjoying his company. The thought of having
"Cas," Izzie mumbled sleepily, prodding him in the chest. He didn't even stir. She still found it so unnerving when he was asleep. The lack of breathing and heartbeat always made her fear her was dead. On the flip side though, he looked so peaceful. His dark hair was getting long and was scruffed up from a morning of fun with some strands draping down over his thick lashes. No lines furrowed his perfect face and he looked even younger when he was asleep.Not that she k