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10. Pentorium i
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2024-10-29 19:42:56~ Dempsey advanced-lunged towards his opponent. In two fluid moves, he disarmed the other man, his epee falling to the padded floor. This was the third rematch.
“Seems you’re healing,” Alex Vescovi said, raising his hand in surrender.
“Or you’re just letting me win.” Dempsey took his fencing mask off. He knew the young man had been holding back. Dempsey could hold his own, but Alex Vescovi was a fencing prodigy. He was the reigning National Champion four years in a row now, along with two Olympic titles under his belt.
Alex shrugged, taking off his mask. “That is also a possibility. Or,” the young Vescovi started as he walked towards a low bench to the right of the room, “it could be because you’re a werewolf and I am a mere human. Hardly a level match up.” He picked up his water bottle, opening the to
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Enter the Shadows Pentorium ii
~The meeting hall was located underground. To get there, Dempsey and Vescovi had to use the underground railway. Vampires and their families used it to get to places the normal human railway would not take them, traveling for longer distances, even across to other continents. Vescovi carried on normal conversations with him as if he did not notice the side looks they got. Some were out of curiosity, while others were out of scorn. They disembarked onto an empty platform. As the train went on its way, Vescovi straightened his jacket and tie. Dempsey followed him as he walked up to the only exit off the platform, not including the rail lines. If you wanted to be that brave—or stupid. Vescovi pricked his finger and got his eyes scanned. Modernists. Vampires created some of the most advanced technological and medical breakthroughs of this century, so a biom
Enter the Shadows Pentorium iii
~Anabella was the first one to leave. Philippe went after her, using her door. Salvay stood to interrupt the argument between Vescovi and Passerini. He put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, whispering something into his ear. Salvay looked back at Dempsey before walking off while Passerini gave Vescovi a last look before following. The men went through the Salvay door. Dempsey waited until the door closed to move closer to Vescovi. “I think Salvay is planning to side with Sven.” “Bah. Do not be ridiculous. The man is many things, but he is not a fool. To side with Sven would be foolish. Opening that portal is death for all of us. Salvay loves nothing more than his money and he needs to bealiveto spend it.” Ves
Enter the Shadows 11. Darkest Hearts i
~To add insult to injury, Sven was sick. This was an unknown phenomenon for him because werewolves do not get sick. Unless, of course, it involved poison. In his case, he was sure that was not the case. Sven had tried every remedy he could think of for wolfsbane poisoning. None of them worked. All the indicators he used to detect any other possible poison came back negative. If it were not for the constant throbbing pain pulsing through his body, or the fevers that caused him to hallucinate, he would have thought he was fine. His hallucinations involved a wolf. A massive black werewolf that was insusceptible to shadow magic. He saw the wolf when he was asleep and he saw it in the shadows when he was awake. With the wolf came the images of his defeat playing in a loop. The memory of the taste of fear t
Enter the Shadows Darkest Hearts ii
~ The ringing of the doorbell had Sven looking towards the door. A dreadful night had turned into a worse morning. In the middle of trying to wrap Patrice’s dead body in plastic, the chef came in for his duties, using the key Sven gave him. There was no way for Sven to explain why he was wrapping a dead woman in plastic, so he did not bother. Not that he felt the need to. He dispatched the chef as well. Now he had two dead bodies. Barabbas was miles out of reach and there was someone at his door. On a heavy sigh, he stopped what he was doing. He hooked the security latch before opening the door. Through the crack, whoever it was could not see the bodies. Sven caught himself before peeking through the peephole. He was feeling his old self again—more or less—so he no longer needed to hide. The superintendent of the building was standing on the other side.
Enter the Shadows Darkest Hearts iii
~ Sven hurriedly buried the body he had carried with him into the open grave while the werewolves fought. How the werewolf with the hollowed eyes had found him, he did not know. It was of no consequence. Sven needed to put some distance between them. He felt as if he was on the verge of a breakthrough, and going back to the state he had been in before was not an option—neither was his escape. He came face to face a second time with his most formidable foe. This werewolf was one of two, but for Sven, it was the worst. He could fight the other magic for magic, but with this one, his magic was nothing but a decoy and he could not match it strength to strength. Sven had met his true match. “Who are you?” The werewolf gave only a growl inansweras they moved in a loose circle. Sven was buying time as he tri
Enter the Shadows 12. Convergence i
~Marx was having a hard time accepting the casualties. He felt each of their deaths and each death left an aching space. Dempsey’s death had come as a shock to him. They had all figured Pentorium had been the safest place under the circumstances. Sven’s reach and influence had not reached so far, but there were others like him. Ciro, Vescovi’s butler, had come to them with information about Dempsey’s death. They accused two of the five families of orchestrating his murder to delay his report about his suspicion. Vescovi also sent his sincerest apologies and swore that his family, the Ungaros, and the De Reges had nothing to do with it. “Do we believe them?” Shea had asked. She was itching for a fight and they knew it. She had her own demons to wrangle and
Enter the Shadows Convergence ii
~Marx did not look around when Ava came to stand beside him. “When I agreed to an alliance with you, I didn’t expect you to go catatonic.” He kept his eyes looking out on the skyline of the city below him. The conflict was spreading, and he was sure no life would go untouched. Death will come, grief, sorrow. He was conditioning his mind fora worldwhere humans knew werewolves and vampires existed and one where he and others like him would face stigma and hate. He had lived in the world long enough to know that acceptance was not a big part of the human DNA. “If Sven gets to the site, he’ll know I placed a trap. They have already found the portal. All I have created is an illusion that they have not. He will sense it the minute he gets there. We need to be taking advantage of this time.”
Enter the Shadows Convergence iii
~Ava did not need to save any energy, not now. Unbeknownst to the others, she had been silently stocking up. She knew her opponent and the magic he wielded, and she needed to match him. Sven had her stone. He wouldn’t give it up without a fight. No one would give up that much power easily. Her stone would make it easier for her to lift the veil between Lansguard and Earth so she could slip in. A few seconds was all she needed and it would grant that. After that, she would figure out the rest as she went. She took the souls of the dying in their last breath. As the soul left the physical plane, she claimed them. That eliminated her having to harm anyone in boosting her own strength. Ava, however, did not think Marx and the others would see it in the calculated way she did. If the person was dying, anyway, they did not need their souls, and she did. They would serve a greater purpose with her than the
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Enter the Shadows 27. Epilogue: After the Shadows
~ Marx stood looking at the carbonated lump that used to be four people he knew. Four people he loved. Ava, Lochlan, Zack, and Dempsey. Around him, the grass had grown again. The earth showed no signs of the battle that raged there. Mother earth had healed, but he had not. None of the others had. The world was safe, but a gap remained in their hearts that could never be filled. Around the base of the carbon memorial, laid fresh flowers. Every day for the past six months, Martha came with a new bouquet. Today was no different. He arrived as she did. “You came,” she had said to him when she saw him. In her hands, she had more than a dozen bulbs of tulips. Her summer dress fluttered in the breeze, strands of her now brown hair escaping her ponytail. The smile she gave him out shunned the sun, and Marx, for the life
Enter the Shadows The Last Stand iii
~Marx was leading the last assault; one meant to be a distraction. Ava moved her palm away from the wound on her side. Bleeding still felt strange to her. Martha was the only one with whom she could go into details about her plans. “Penny has the last rune. All she has to do is plant it on him. When she does, we have only a few minutes to get our part done,” she said to Martha. “What is our part?” “I’m going to use you like an amplifier. I know how it sounds and yes, it is dangerous. For me more than you.” “Then we can’t do it,” Martha said. “If you’re going to get hurt—” “I have a contingency for that as well.” “Ava—” She
Enter the Shadows The Last Stand ii
~Rea and Cale launched direct attacks on Kunz while Ava tried to unravel his protections. Each layer she pulled apart revealed another was more entrenched and more intricate than the one preceding it. She almost got another layer undone when she heard Cale shout— “Look out.” Ava had enough time to react, the death rune crackling through the air towards her. She split the force in half, saving herself by a hair. In the duel that ensued, Cale made the ultimate sacrifice. Rea tried to stop him as he ran straight for Kunz. Ava threw up a rune between Cale and the King; it was too late. Like dust, Cale disappeared. A self-satisfied smile lifted the side of Kunz’s lips. “Come now Avana. You cannot hope to defeat me. Even with all the knowledge at your disposal, I have spent years perfecting my craft.”
Enter the Shadows 26. The Last Stand i
~They came through using three portals. Cale and Rea helped Ava to create one large enough to transport all of their forces. On the other side, they emerged on the field of battle in Hedgewood. The ground was scarred black. Trees toppled over and uprooted. It looked like a nuclear weapon went off, turning black everything in its path. The familiarity of the scene had an itch running down Marx’s spine. This place was either where they would claim victory or where he would walk over the corpses of the people he loved. He brushed his somber thoughts aside. Victory was their only option. To Ava, who stood on his right, Marx said, “Your handy work?” “I may have caused a patch here and there.” She bobbed her head from side to side. It was such a human gesture Marx found he had an urge to smile. He allowed his amu
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back xii
~ Storming Hedgewood had to wait. Ava’s ‘problem’ required a second’s more thought. So close to the end, Marx was growing impatient. They needed to strike while they could and delays after delays were shifting the advantage square into the enemy’s hands. He folded his arms across his chest, keeping his face void of his emotions as he listened to Ava. “He has layers of protection wrapped around him like a shawl,” she was telling them as they stood inside the lobby of Anax Corp. Having the conversation on the outside felt too open. While they conversed, the last of the civilians and the injured were being ushered to the safety of the Mountain. Those left behind were there to fight. Marx found he was itching to fight. Ava continued. “We got through three of them before we had to retreat.” “Kunz spent years perfectin
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back xi
~The sky was a battlefield. Above Pentorium, spreading out for miles, the shadows fought amongst themselves. Those made from the spirits of dead vampires clashing against those created from werewolves. Marx had control of the latter. It was surreal watching it all unfold. Anabella came to stand by Marx as he stood gazing up at the result of his power. Power he would never have dreamed of having. Explaining to the others what he could do would have paled compared to the scene unfolding over their heads. “This is what Sven wanted from her,” Anabella said about Sven and his sister, Marx’s mate, Celeste. “And when he couldn’t take it, he planned to break the seal on the portal.” “I can’t imagine having that man’s thoughts inside my head,” Marx said. “I rather
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back x
~Vescovi’s head throbbed as if a drummer band was marching across his forehead. Making his way through the tunnel with his men, a blast came out of nowhere, knocking them down and rendering them unconscious. He woke up in a crumpled heap with his men, all in various stages of recovery. It took him several tries to get to his feet and stay there, the drumming in his head growing louder with each movement. Walking straight was a task, but it was urgent that they get to Xavier and the others. They were delayed enough as it was getting the remaining civilians under Anax Corp ready for transport to the Mountain. Pentorium was under an evacuation order. He paused when he saw that the panel leading out of the tunnels was open. It was plausible that Xavier had left it like that since it was their way in and out, but Vescovi could not ignore the prickle at
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back ix
~Martha moved to run to Nico as a shadow took possession of his body. Four steps in his direction, she stopped. Nico faced her direction, his eyes twin pools of swirling mist. The thing inside of him had his lips turn up in a smirk. With hot tears streaming unchecked down her cheeks, Martha clutched her fingers into tight fists. The words came from the pits of her stomach. The ground under her feet undulated, rippling with energy as she spoke them. Nico charged in her direction, his face twisted in rage. Martha held up her hand, palm open, continuing the chant, repeating it with fervor and a new understanding. Death fueled shadow magic. Hate. Anger. All the dark things that sullied the world. The spell was the most powerful she had ever attempted since Ava infused the revenant soul with hers. She had to release control to it. Allow the magic to ru
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back viii
~Martha couldn’t breathe, her anxiety tightening her chest. Through her link with Nico, she could feel his growing distress. It urged her to move faster as she sprinted through the hidden tunnels leading down into the subway. Back at Anax Corp, Vescovi was assembling a team, a process that was taking longer than was comfortable with her. Nico and the others needed immediate help. Communications, already spotty, had gone dead. Not a single response, only the constant frying of static. Unable to stand around doing nothing while the man she loved probably laid gutted and dying, Martha snuck off when no one was looking. None of the others knew what she was planning to do. If they did, they would have tried to stop her. She was the passive one. The one who chose not to fight. For a werewolf, her reliance on that part of herself never went past her prim
