CHAPTER 1
WOLFE STOOD in the doorway and watched the sky turn from gold to red with a deep sense of dread. He longed for the solace of the night but knew it would only bring more anger and frustration. With each passing minute, his temper festered, and his patience wore thin. The plan had been for the group to leave LA sooner rather than later and make their way east in the hopes they might eventually meet up with the others. That was providing Ryder and Decker were still alive. His communications had been cut off right after the other two vampires had left Site R to head out into the vast, nasty-as-fuck world. There was no explanation why his satellite phone had stopped working, but like everything else in this godforsaken shit hole, it had quit. A dead phone was the least of his worries, however. The moment all his vampires, including him, had become deathly allergic to the sun, and burned, or worse, turned to ash, caused him great concern. It also made travel plans far more complicated. It meant they had to go out under the mask of darkness, which would be fine with their exceptional sight, but every other dangerous creature also hunted under the cloak of night, and he had a lot of humans here to protect.
“What’s our plan tonight?” Xavier, who was Wolfe’s right and, many times, left hand took up space beside him.
“Fuck if I know. Seems like every damn time I make one, things go to shit. I thought we might try winging it this time.”
“We’ve certainly done that enough in our life.”
His friend was correct. Being Navy Seals––or rather ex-Navy since he doubted there was a fucking military left out there in this dead world––meant they had to improvise a lot in the field. They were used to changing plans, but when on a mission, there was always a Plan B, C and so on. Now, he had nothing, and it pissed him off.
He sighed and finally looked over at his friend. “I don’t know how much more of this I have left in me.”
Xavier narrowed his green gaze. “Seems to me you got no choice.”
“I have the choice to step into the sun and end it all. It sounds better every day, but fate has thought to fuck up that plan as well.”
“You referring to Luna?”
“What else?” He went back to studying the setting sun which had dipped behind a ten-story apartment building he knew to be occupied by demons. At least those creatures were smart enough to stay out of his way.
“I still can’t believe it, but at least now we know. The men are freaking out, however.” Xavier shifted his weight out of a small ray of light that penetrated the doorway.
“They are not the only ones. Luna was completely inconsolable the other night. This is no world to have a baby in and I don’t need to tell you we have no doctor.” It was another reason they needed to leave LA.
“I stick my dick in it once and look what fucking happens.” Well, his fangs had been first and both he and Luna had surrendered to their lust as he was feeding from her. She had begged him, and he was still a man with needs. He’d be lying if he said he tried to tell her no. Besides, there had been plenty of sex between the vampires and the humans without incident. They all had become complacent.
“Well, wasn’t reproduction part of the plan here?” Xavier pulled him from his thoughts
“Yes, but it wasn’t supposed to be me who did it first. Neither of us bare a marking, either.” He recalled the conversation he had when the angels last visited. Tegan, his mate Rhea, and their newborn son had paid them a visit to announce the news. Luna was with child, and she was the first survivor to become pregnant. Seemed when the angel babe was born, his energy helped in humanity's procreation or some such bullshit. Then there had been the mention of mate markings. He was already aware of Ryder, Decker and a few of the others who fate had intervened and dictated who they were going to spend the rest of their lives with. He also understood the vampires’ mates had become something other than human. Ryder’s mate was a cat shifter and Decker’s apparently, a powerful witch.
All Wolfe could think of when the angels had been here was why the fuck hadn’t they offered any help.
“The angels can’t interfere too much.” Xavier read his thoughts.
“Oh but they interfered. They are the ones who sent Arsenia to turn me and the others into bloodsuckers.” Wolfe thought back to that night when he had been minding his own business and having drinks with his friends, Ryder, Decker, and Shade. He had left shortly after Decker, eager to head back home to spend time with his girlfriend before he had to go on mission again. He never made it. Outside, he had been attacked, shocked at the strength of a female who had dragged him into the back alley and bit him in the neck. He recalled little after that except an eternity of bloodlust and feeling like he was in a fog. When he'd finally come out of it, he learned about the primordials.
Ryder, Decker, Shade and himself were the first to be turned into vampires. All Navy Seals, all friends, and now they were tasked with keeping humanity alive. Well, what was left of the humans after Morbus, a demon known to start catastrophic plagues, had been freed from Hell. The Red Death, as it had been named, started out as a cold. By day three, open sores filled with green puss and a fever took over and by day seven you started bleeding through your skin, eyes, and nose until you died. If you were one of the lucky ones, your heart exploded, saving you from days of suffering. Millions had died, driving the entire planet into an apocalypse. It hadn’t taken long for infrastructure to shut down and demons to take hold of their world. If having Hell’s finest among them wasn’t enough to contend with, they now had rogue vampires who seemed to portal in without notice and try to suck dry any human they could get their fangs into, thus creating more of their kind.
Each day was full of surprises. He had grown to hate surprises.
“Maybe you and Luna will get a mating mark. Maybe you won’t. Does it really matter?”
He sighed again. “No. I will take care of her and the baby when it comes. Just as I take care of all those we have among us.” There were one hundred females and three hundred males in his camp. A lot to deal with, but luckily, seventy-five of the men were now vampires. Most turned either by him, Xavier, or one of the others.
“Sun is down now. Ready to go?”
Wolfe supposed he was as ready as he was ever going to be. He hated this city, but until they stopped turning to ash in the sun, or figured out a way to travel safely, there would be no moving out of Los Angeles and her towering protection.
***
AURORA SLIPPED from the only home she had known for the past year. It was surprising how many stayed away from the cathedral, but she supposed it made sense that demons would have no use for Our Lady of the Angels. It wasn’t like they would make any confessions anytime soon. Even her friend Lilith came no further than the sidewalk, professing she would burn the second she crossed the threshold.
“There you are. I was beginning to worry about your safety.” Lilith leaned against a broken streetlight.
“I had some praying to do,” she lied. She had stopped asking God for any help when she had been changed against her will. She figured he was busy finding new ways to torment them because he certainly wasn’t trying to save them.
“Why do you bother? Has it done you any good?” Her friend hissed.
“I was raised to be a good Catholic. It’s an old habit, I suppose.” She moved beside Lilith, and they started down the sidewalk.
“Your God did not help you when you needed him most. Seems he turned his back on you, and it was I who came to your rescue.”
Lilith couldn’t have spoken any truer words. Aurora had been about as low as one could get––she was a shell, hollow and starving, her insides gnawing away at her like rats in a cage. The hunger in her gut had blinded her, making her desperate when Lilith found her. She had been curled up in an alleyway, covered in blood and dirt, with a drained, naked man next to her. His skin had been pale and clammy, completely void of warmth or life. Lilith had gotten Aurora to her feet and hauled her back to her place, where she cleaned her up. Had it not been for Lilith taking Aurora under her wing, she wasn’t sure what would have happened to her. No, she didn’t pray anymore; instead, she begged for forgiveness with every breath she took. Lord only knew how many she had killed before Lilith had found her. The scent of copper and death still lingered on Aurora's hands, no matter how hard she scrubbed them raw.
“I owe you a debt I can never repay.” The situation was almost laughable. Her life had been taken from her by a vampire, a man she had trusted and given back to her by a demon.
“You are one of us, Aurora. I couldn’t very well leave you to your own devices since
your sire walked away.”
She tried not to think about her past because it caused a pain so deep in her chest she swore it would kill her. Her life was gone. Ended by the Red Death that claimed her entire family. The only reason she was still alive was because of him. Did she curse him for turning her into a bloodthirsty creature, or thank him for saving her life? With each passing day, she changed her mind on that matter at least a million times. Tonight? She missed him so much her heart threatened to stop beating. There were moments she swore he was still here with her, but when she would look over her shoulder, he wasn’t there. What had happened to Michael Owens? He vanished from her life, but she liked to believe he was still alive. After all, he was a vampire and one of the toughest men she had ever known. He was too stubborn to die, but why had he left her to her own fate?
“You’re thinking of him again.” Lilith seemed to keep pulling Aurora from her thoughts tonight, which was probably a good thing.
“Yes. I can’t help but wonder where he is.”
“He could be anywhere. I mean, it has been several seasons since your turning.”
“A year today. Maybe that’s why I’m so emotional tonight.” Her mind drifted back to earlier when she had awoken. The calendar stared back at her, the page marked with an inky “X”—one year since she’d been turned into a monster. She had run her finger over it, remembering what felt like an eternity of pain. She had wanted to scream and cry, yet all that had come out was a muffled whimper. Even though her heart was heavy with sadness, within her soul there simmered a rage that almost made her glad for what the man she loved had done to her. He made her a survivor.
“I need more candles.” Not that she couldn’t see in the dark, she simply hated sitting in the pitch blackness that came every night. Electricity was a thing of the past, and what was once a vibrant city of lights was now swallowed by blackness. The occasional fire could be seen, but she avoided any area that had one as it was likely occupied by demons and not the friendly kind like Lilith.
“You also need to feed.”
She let out another sigh. Aurora hated feeding and pushed herself to the brink of weakness, which in this world was insane. Drinking blood, though,
shoved her libido into overdrive, and there had been many occasions she had given in to her weakness. She had fucked strange men in less-than-desirable places––not that the men cared since they were under her mind control. Once that side of her was satisfied, she experienced regret. It was not the type of person she had been, but apparently it was who she was today. There were even times when Lilith had been the only blood she could get, which had also led to some experimentation. Drinking from Lilith was like sucking on jet fuel. The demon’s blood burned her throat and continued all the way to her gut before it heated her entire body, and she wanted Lilith to do very dirty things to her. Apparently, demon blood held some intoxicating properties. It also left her more satisfied than any human had.
“I don’t sense any humans close by, do you?” Sometimes her friend had a better grip on what was going on in the city than Aurora did.
“I’m afraid the small community in Chinatown has moved out tonight. Perhaps they are seeking shelter elsewhere.” She wrinkled her nose. “The place is disgusting.”
“That says a lot coming from you.”
Lilith slid in closer until Aurora felt her heat. “You know I will never deny you, and we happen to be right next to the park.”
Aurora turned to look and found they had indeed stopped next to what had once been a grand park. She hadn’t realized they had walked that far already. With her fangs descending from the anticipation of a meal, she grabbed Lilith’s hand.
“Let’s go.” ...
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