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25. To Hell and Back i
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2024-10-29 19:42:56~ Shadows rained down on them, a swarm of soul-sucking black mist. Though they knew an attack was imminent, the abruptness of it caught them off guard. Vescovi stood in the lobby where the casualties were being bagged and taken away. Numbered in the single digits, the toll would have been greater if it weren’t for Sven’s—Daniel’s quick thinking. Because of him, the entire building was now shielded from a full-on assault from the shadows.
The men and women who were on the outside at the time were the ones who got their souls ripped from their bodies. For those who suffered injuries, Martha tended to them. Some needed bandages; others had injuries that required magical help. The woman was efficient; organized and collected during the turmoil. Ava made a good choice with her.
Ava’s other selection still gave Vescovi pause. He watched Daniel as he charmed th
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Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back ii
~Helick was on the roof of the yellow school bus. With him were five other men. They were providing cover for the protective detail on the ground while guarding the civilians below him inside the bus. Hana was keeping the panic down, using her voice to lull the passengers. This far away from Pentorium Helick’s comm, all of their comms, were useless outside of speaking to each other there on the outskirts of Chaise Point. He only hoped Yuri made it in range to signal the others that they needed additional support. Less than twenty feet away, one of the buses they were using for transport was wrapped around a pole. The shadows came for them, a black tide of death. They were out running before shadows got smart, going for the bus’s tires. The blowout had the driver losing control of the vehicle coming to a stop when it rammed headlong into a utility pole. The driver didn’t make it. He was the only casu
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back iii
~Getting to the portal was proving to be an impossible task. Kunz’s forces gave little ground no matter how hard Ava, Penny, and Marx pushed against them. With each life she took, each life she watched disintegrate into quick bursts of light at the hands of her allies, a gaping hole formed in her chest. She was supposed to be saving her people, not killing them. When did her plans come to this? When did it become her new home versus the old? Whom was she kidding? It was always like this. How was she to have one without losing hold on the other? “Listen to me,” she pleaded with the two shadows before her. “You don’t have to do this. Kunz is using you.” They came at her, ignoring her words. She kept them at bay, continuing to use reason. “You’re better than this.” “We are nothing,” one of them said. Its words sounded as if they were coming from insi
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back iv
~Marx helped Ava to her feet. Anger heated her skin, her eyes swirling in twin balls of mist. “How dare you,” she said, striding over to him. Penny could not kill the man, and he could not harm her with shadow magic. Malik was never the one for physical combat, so all he could do was dangle there inside of the human form he had taken. “It—was—too easy. When did you grow a heart?” “Release him.” Penny brought the man down to his feet, taking her time as she pulled her hand from inside of him. He gasped in pain. Penny released his throat. Malik staggered away from her. He raised his hand to form a rune in retaliation. The rune he formed boomeranged, knocking him to the ground, the force bruising the side of his face. “Catching me off guard is one thing, fac
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back v
~It wasn’t the first time Marx was losing a member of his pack. When Lochlan died, he felt a rift in his heart. When Dempsey died, the rift was more of a fissure. This new loss felt like a tear through his soul. It left his insides feeling raw, a numb echo spreading through him. He laid on the ground, his mind unable to wrap itself around the loss, rebelling against the reality of what had happened. There had to be a mistake. Was that possible? Logic and emotion waged war in his mind. No, there was no mistake. One of his own was dead. All around him, the others crowded in, asking what was wrong. He couldn’t tell them. He couldn’t find the words. Soon, all their voices fused into an indistinguishable hum. They grew further away, the world around him seeming to dim. Over him, a familiar face materialized. Celeste. She stood there in all her beauty beaming down at him, the smile not extinguishing the s
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back vi
~Penny’s eyes went obsidian black. Marx was sure he saw a smirk before she ran off to catch up with Daniel and the others. Whatever had gone wrong, there was only one casualty. Or only one that Marx could feel. His pack was not the only ones seeking refuge in the New Colony. There were humans, vampires, and Natives. All of them needed to be kept safe and alive. “What should we do?” Martha asked. “Whatever it is, we need to do it fast. I’m uncertain how much longer the shield can hold.” “Did we get everyone to the Mountain?” Marx asked. Not being able to communicate over long distances was a disadvantage for them. If it weren’t for his link—Marx held his side where another symbol used to be—he wouldn’t have known those in the Mountain needed help. Vescovi shook
Enter the Shadows To Hell and Back vii
~ Penny hesitated. She knew what needed to happen, but she didn’t want to leave Marx’s side. Her reluctance was coming from a deep-seated fear Penny had of losing someone else she loved. After Lochlan died, the grief was enough to break a part of her, causing her to change into what she was. She was a werewolf, yet not. Penny knew it, and the others did too. She had already lost so much. If Marx were also to fall, the last bit of light inside of her would die with him. He was a good man. Even after she brought hell storming into his life, he accepted her as part of his family. She knew another member of her pack was dead. Marx didn’t say who. It had to be someone close. Shea? Helick? Garrick? She would find out once she reached the Mountain. Unable to communicate with Marx, she placed a hand over his heart. Through her eyes, she allowed him to see her, as he
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
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
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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
