BONUS SAMPLE CHAPTER #2
When the familiar bug shimmied along her spine again, she peeked over her shoulder.
Since no psycho was about to cram an ether-soaked rag over her nose, she turned into Post Alley, taking a shortcut to the office.
Braelyn cleared her throat. “While I head your way, give me the newsflash version of the crazy...”
****
Scath, Present Day
Rein blended into the shadow of a large tree, rage washing over him. If he had arrived five minutes earlier, he could have saved the female.
Now, he eyed the Kallikoi wilding who had drained her blood. The hairy killer stretched out on his back in the grass, sated, naked, resting his crossed arms on his chest, his lids closed. He propped his feet on the young witch’s body, avoiding her mauled, savaged neck.
When Scion Firebrand Rein stepped from his shelter, the heavy-lidded tunnel creature sat up, fear in his eyes. He pushed off the ground. Too slow.
Too bad.
Rein bare-handed his revenge, snatching the murderer mid-air before he could run. Holding the Kalli by the throat in one fist, he allowed the creature’s legs to scissor in a fruitless attempt to escape.
Let him suffer. The witch had.
He squeezed. Tighter.
The wilding clawed at Rein’s fingers, his raspy voice a grating plea. “Please. Please.”
Rein laughed, staring into the terrified eyes of the tunnel-dweller. If the creature was looking for mercy, he was begging the wrong male. Killing was a rush, a perk when the death was sanctioned.
As the murderous wilding’s hands dropped to his side and his legs stilled, his seven-foot-tall body sagged.
KIA.
Rein took a moment to savor the feel of a lifeless form before he got down to business.
Breathe. Breathe. Control.
He tapped the D-chip embedded in his wrist to call Chay. “I’ve got a dead witch here along with an equally dead Kalli. Since it takes more than one to bleed out an Aeternal, a partner is nearby. Find him.”
Rein bent to scoop the female gently into his left arm. As the Scion Firebrand muscled through high, tangled vines, cradling her against his chest to protect her from scattered thorns, he fisted the Kalli by his tusk, whipping his corpse back and forth, yanking it along behind.
Most of the year, these rangy, sentient wildings lived a peaceful existence underground in tunnels that spanned the realms of Darque and Scath.
Until mating season.
During this two-month period, they followed an uncontrollable urge to procreate.
The frenzied males raced to the top to glut themselves on the blood of Aeternal females.
Engorged, their penises grew hard, swollen, allowing them to return to their underground homes where they could impregnate their own mates.
Only in this way could they produce offspring.
Rein had no empathy for the males, though. Blud dens provided professionals to sate the Kallis’ needs while security prevented them from taking too much blood. Still, some opted to hunt in pairs and kill their victims. This earned them death at the hands of a Scion Firebrand.
Tramping into a clearing, Rein dropped the murderer’s body at his feet.
With a tap of his D-chip, he opened a portal and sent the witch through to the Eastern Stronghold in Covenkirk. Because she deserved a clean space, uncontaminated by the vile wilding who had stolen her future, he dispatched her alone.
Next, he snatched a blade from the sheath strapped across his chest and whacked off the Kalli’s head. He seized it by a tuft of hair and tossed the bloody mess into the gateway, sending it to the same locale. The proof of death would be delivered to the female’s kin.
With a flick of his other hand, Rein created a stream of fire to incinerate the killer’s decapitated remains. Oblivious to the flakes of drifting ash along with the acrid odor of burning flesh, he wiped the blade of his combat knife on his pants, the red blood invisible on black fabric.
If Rein had notched each kill on the hilt of his dagger, he would have tallied the highest count in Firebrand history.
But he didn’t need the 1, 2, 3s. Death etched its marks on his soul, a soul that walked a tightrope since his Awakening.
On one end was the savage bludfrenzy. On the other was control.
His life was a circus act, a balance between the two with the great abyss below, just waiting for him to slip again.
Rein twisted toward the sound of snapping twigs. Because the scent of the visitor was familiar, he relaxed.
Chay emerged from the forest, bouncing from the thrill of the chase. “I sent my unconscious Kalli A-hole through a portal to the stronghold. Damn shame we didn’t get to them before they exed the witch. How’d you dispatch your horny hairball?”
“Swiftly.”
“That’s it? I need details, man. Hit me with your pedagogy, mentor-mine.”
Rein sighed, not sure how much more enthusiasm he could handle from this young Firebrand. “His head went to the stronghold. His balls stayed here.”
“That’s twisted, but I love your ’tude.”
With two kills behind them, they staked out a couple of open shafts leading from the tunnels. From the edge of a forest blanketed in thick undergrowth, they had an unobstructed view of a well-trodden path the Kallis had been using.
“I still don’t see why we drew grunt duty.” Chay shifted from boot to boot, as if to contain the energy that popped through him. “We could be on Darque with Brak and Galena tracking those war-crazy gagans. Kalli hunting is not putting our skills to the test.”
Chay was right. The tunnel-digging wildings were stupid, unsophisticated murderers who didn’t cover their trails. But their capture was in the job description.
Rein scowled, tired of the recruit voicing the same complaint all day. “Everyone takes a turn.” The experienced Firebrand crouched on the ground to examine footprints, thick quads straining against his tactical pants. His gaze locked on the path.
He opened his mouth. A slow, hissing breath crossed his lips as he squeezed the ever-present rage at the core of his being into a small ball.
The young witch’s needless death as well as too much spilled blood set off fireworks in his temples.
Decapping the tunnel-dweller had done little to assuage his fury. Or hunger.
Chay followed Rein’s fixed attention. “Do you see something?”
“Nothing.”
Breathe. Breathe. Control.
Settling atop a boulder, Chay bent his knee to rest a boot on the rock.
A quick and easy smile softened the ylve’s angular face.
His repeating crossbow leaned beside him, butt-end down, while one hand gripped it.
“My parents have laid down the law. I must choose a female. They’re driving me so bug-fuck nuts I rarely go home.
I’ve been spending most of my nights at the stronghold. ”
As silent and deadly as a panther, Rein rose to his full height of six-foot-six, moving to lean against a tree, his relaxed manner deceptive since Chay’s endless chatter put him on edge.
The edge that was his enemy, the starting point for the long fall into the abyss.
He’d plummeted into that bottomless pit years ago, climbed out, and had no intention of returning.
Breathe. Breathe. Control.
The recruit had been going on and on about a legion of subjects this whole stakeout. Best fighting techniques. Rounding up wildings on Darque. His parents. Finding a mate.
Rein had accepted he was a monster who made other monsters tremble, and his icy temperament along with a stone-cold scowl and don’t-screw-with-me stare usually discouraged babbling. Chay ignored the warnings.
The kid has no boundaries, no filters, no sense of danger.
Rein blamed endless hours of watching American TV, rap music, and indiscriminate trips to Earth bars where the young Firebrand mingled with humans.
“Then don’t listen to them. Damn, Chay. Shut the fuck up.” Rein closed his eyes, settled on emptying his mind, visualized relaxing his body.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Lessons learned over a century ago. Find center. Find control.
Chay pulled his bent knee into the crook of his elbow, continuing as if Rein hadn’t said a word.
“Don’t listen to them? Are you unzipped?
Have you never heard ylven parents? Nag cubed.
‘It’s your duty to produce offspring. If you loved us, you would give us grandchildren.
How can you let your community down?’ My mother’s the worst. She’s the guilt-trip travel agent, the queen of fuck-mate dinner parties.
That’s what I call them. I can’t tell you how many female ylves I’ve met in the last year.
I mean, some of them are like bait on a hook and I’d really like to bang them, but if it got back to my mother, she’d have another reason to nag me. ”
“You know I don’t give a shit about this. Right?” A growl crawled out of Rein’s chest, his lips clenched together, the tendons in his neck taut enough to snap.
He didn’t appreciate having his meditation interrupted.
A good fight. Down-and-dirty sex with a nymph.
Or better yet, a succubus. Meditation exercises.
These were the only ways to control his impulses.
He crossed his arms, biceps twitching, angled his body back against the tree, and closed his eyes again to picture a Covenkirk beach where he lay on the warm sand with waves sweeping over him.
He had to relax, or he would reach over, grab the ylve by the throat, and shut him up for good.
“Well, how do you avoid listening to your parents nag about a mate?”
Rein answered, but kept his lids clamped tight. “We don’t talk.”
“Lucky.”
“Yeah.”
“Why would I want to settle down when there is so much lonely pussy? Just last night I was balls deep in this...”
“Shut up, Chay. We have another problem.”
Rein pushed off from the tree, his body on full alert, eyes fixed on a spot in the distance. He caught a faint Kalli scent brought by a shifting breeze. He listened. Leaves rustled. Low, guttural grunts carried from afar.
End of sample chapter