Bite me shadow guild vam.., p.17
Bite Me (Shadow Guild: Vampire Bride Book 1), page 17
I plowed into him, taking him to the ground in a tangle of limbs.
Beneath me, Ludovic thrashed. I held him pinned, using what I learned from my last encounter with Maurice, and sucked the power from Ludovic just like I’d taken it from Drakon. Maybe I could even take it from the jars on the walls, but I still didn’t know how.
Yet.
This was enough, however. I could feel Ludovic’s mind like putty in my hands. Panic flashed in his eyes as he looked up at me.
“Tell me about my past,” I demanded, using my strange new power to try to force him to speak. “Tell me why I’m here.”
He grimaced, his lips tightening before the words were finally forced out. “You hid yourself well, of course. We had no idea where you were for years. But when a seer told me you were his Bride”—he nodded toward Drakon—“I knew I had a way to draw you here. It was a complicated plan, and a risky one, but the seer assured me that if I could get Drakon here, you would come, too. It was all fated, you see.”
Fated.
I hated that word.
And yet, fate was such a powerful force that it was nearly impossible to fight.
“Tell me why you wanted me.” I tightened my hands around his neck, drawing on his power as I tried to manipulate his mind. Though I was clumsy with the new magic, he was weakening. “Why did you call me Daughter of the Arcane Order?”
Jaw clenching and lips tightening, he fought my power. Drakon had come to loom over me, standing guard as I questioned Ludovic. I’d broken the bastard’s hold on the vampire, at least. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my friends sprinting around the room, laying down explosives. We didn’t have much time.
“Tell me!” I demanded.
Ludovic grinned, and ice shot through my gut.
An instant later, he disappeared from beneath me. No longer supported by my grip on his neck, I collapsed to the ground.
“Shit!” I’d had him. Had him.
And he’d escaped.
“Come on.” Drakon pulled me up. “He’s gone.”
“We’re done!” Carrow sprinted up to me, her hair messy and her feet bare. “We can detonate it remotely.”
“We need to move! The magic in this place is making the transport link unstable.” Eve, still dressed in unicorn pajamas, waved us toward her. Genevieve had clearly interrupted them in the middle of a late morning, but they’d come running.
And they were correct—we needed to get the hell out of here. We could go through the portal, but then I wouldn’t be able to ensure that the place had been destroyed. I’d never figured out where it was located and wouldn’t be able to return easily.
“I’ve got to go this way. You guys get out of here,” I said, and sprinted toward the tunnel. I could feel my friends’ confusion about why I wasn’t headed toward the transport link, but they followed me.
Together, we raced through the darkened passage. The church was empty when we reached it, thank fates. There were a few bodies scattered around, but they were clearly dead. None were Ben, and I was glad he’d escaped.
We ran through the halls and finally spilled onto the front lawn. Bright sunlight nearly blinded me as we sprinted down the hill. At the bottom, we turned to look back at the house.
“Now?” Carrow raised a small black detonator.
“Now.”
She pressed the button. A few seconds later, the house went up in a massive fireball. The deafening blast blew us backward.
Panting, I stared up at the sky. We were far enough away that no one should be injured, but I turned my head left and right to check anyway. Everyone looked just as stunned as I felt, including Drakon and his friend. At the top of the hill, the house blazed.
We’d done it.
Slowly, we staggered to our feet.
“I’m going to establish another portal out of here,” Eve said.
The others gathered around her, but I couldn’t keep my gaze from seeking out Drakon.
He stood to the side, close to Dorian, who still sat on the ground with his eyes glued to the burning house.
I headed for Drakon as if I were sleepwalking. He stepped toward me, his otherworldly beauty enhanced by his predator’s grace.
I craned my neck to meet his eyes, my heart pounding. “What now?”
He looked toward the portal that Eve had created with a charm, his expression torn. “Go with your friends.”
“And you?”
“I’ll come for you.” Power and promise vibrated in his voice. “Soon.”
I swallowed hard, anticipation and fear gripping my throat. I had no idea where we stood, but we weren’t finished yet.
Epilogue
Mac
* * *
Two days later, I still found myself without my Drakon shadow. I’d expected him to come to me, but he never had.
After several long sleeps to recover from the ordeal at the society, I’d agreed to meet my friends at the Haunted Hound. We needed to recap what had happened, and frankly, I needed a drink.
“One Crimson Cooler.” Quinn set down the specialty wine cooler that he made just for me, then delivered a tray of shots.
I looked at them and rolled my eyes. “Oh, bite me, there’s no way I’m taking a shot.”
He grinned. “Talk to Carrow about that. And anyway, they’re not too strong.”
Carrow picked one up and tossed it back, then grinned. “I don’t know about you, but I needed that.”
Eve and Seraphia picked up theirs, and eventually, I followed. Beatrix joined in, and the four of us drank them simultaneously. They were sweet and tart, and not too strong, just like Quinn had said. Even better, the shot sent a little buzz of warmth through my veins.
“Now that we’ve done that, I think you’ve got some explaining to do,” Carrow said. “You’ve been hiding in your room since we got back—”
“Sleeping,” I corrected.
“Fine, sleeping. But now it’s time to tell us what’s happening. One minute, we’re having pancakes, and the next, there’s a badger motioning us toward a portal.”
“Thank you for that, by the way.”
“Whatever.” She waved her hand. “Just spill.”
“Fates, I wish I knew where to start.”
“Get it all out,” Eve said, flipping her pink and silver hair over her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it making sense.”
“Well, for one, I’ve got some strange new magic. I know that much. No idea the extent of it, but I can suck power out of other people and control their actions.”
“Whoa.” Carrow’s eyes widened as she whistled. “Like compulsion? Only the most powerful vampires can do that.”
“Well, I’m not a vampire. And not quite. The society members were protected from compulsion by a spell, but they weren’t protected from whatever I can do. I just don’t know what that is, exactly.”
“So you might not be a seer at all,” Seraphia said.
“Fates, you must be right.” I buried my face in my hands. “That’s probably a lie, too. I’ve always been shit with my seer powers.”
“Not total shit,” said Carrow. “You’ve helped me before.”
“Sure, but I’m often relying on luck.”
“You’re something even better, I’m sure of it,” Beatrix offered.
“Thanks, Bea. I just don’t know what it is. I don’t know what most of my past really is. A huge part of my memory has been erased, and I’ve got no idea what to do about it.”
Eve gripped my hand. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I hope so. All along, Drakon thought that the society was trying to lure him to them. In reality, they were trying to lure me. They couldn’t find me, but they knew that I was his Bride.”
“Why do they want you?” Carrow asked.
“Ludovic called me the Daughter of the Arcane Order. But what the hell is that?”
No one had an answer.
“I’ve never heard of it before,” Seraphia said, “but I can check in my library.”
“Thanks.” If there was any information written about the Order, it could be found in the Guild City library. That place was enormous.
“So you’ve got a few mysteries to solve,” Carrow said. “That’s not so bad.”
“Ha.” Just the thought of it made me want a drink, so I sipped my Crimson Cooler.
“Let’s look on the bright side,” said Eve. “You got Drakon to agree not to kill you. That’s a huge win. And you destroyed a secret magical society that had hundreds of poor souls trapped in jars. And you rescued that poor guy who was chained in there.”
“That’s true, though I think Ludovic is still alive somewhere.”
“A lot weaker, though,” Carrow pointed out.
That was a definite plus. And if I could get some answers about my past, I was sure I could find a way to take him down.
Tomorrow, though. Tonight, I just wanted to have a couple drinks with my friends.
Unable to help myself, I looked toward the door, wondering if Drakon was ever going to walk in. He’d said he’d come for me.
“You’re looking for him, aren’t you?” Carrow asked.
“Yeah. There’s no way he’s just going to abandon me after all this, no matter how much I might want him to.”
“Do you want him to?”
“Of course,” I protested. But did I? Really?
I should. It would be safest for me. But I hated that I might not see him again. Our relationship was prickly as a porcupine’s butt, but I was still drawn to him.
“Let’s have another round,” Carrow suggested.
“I’ll stick with this, thanks.” I raised the Crimson Cooler and sipped the bubbly red concoction.
The rest of the night passed as normally as possible, as long as I ignored the fact that Genevieve appeared to be raiding the liquor shelf. By the time midnight rolled around, I was ready for my bed. I hadn’t had as much to drink as my friends, and I left them to finish the party without me. Quinn shot me a salute as I slipped down the back hallway and through the portal into Guild City.
The cool night air held a hint of the upcoming autumn, and I inhaled deeply as I made my way back to the Shadow Guild tower. When I stepped into the courtyard, I caught sight of a figure standing in the shadows of the building.
Drakon.
My heart raced, anticipation singing along my veins. But as I approached, I realized that it wasn’t Drakon at all—it was Dorian, his friend. Shadows darkened the skin beneath his eyes, and concern creased his brow.
“Where’s Drakon?” I asked.
His gaze flicked away, then back to me.
Sudden worry gripped my throat. “Where is he?”
“Dead.” His eyes flashed. “His body turned to granite this morning.”
Dead?
Holy fates, he couldn’t be serious. And yet, from the look on his face, I knew he was.
Drakon was dead.
My head spun.
No. It couldn’t be.
I wouldn’t stand for it. I couldn’t.
There had to be something I could do. Some way to bring him back. And I would find it.
* * *
~~~
I hope that Bite Me lived up to your expectations! Book 2, Suck It, will be here around late August 2021. Click here to check it out.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
* * *
I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. Reviews are so helpful to authors. I really appreciate all reviews, both positive and negative. If you want to leave one, you can do so at Amazon or GoodReads.
Acknowledgments
Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.
Thank you to Jena O’Connor and Ash Fitzsimmons for your excellent editing. The book is immensely better because of you!
Thank you to Orina Kafe for the beautiful cover art.
Author’s Note
Hey there! I hope you enjoyed Bite Me. My books feature history and mythology to varying degrees. There weren’t as many in Bite Me, and most of them were established from previous series (such as the inspiration for Guild City).
The house and setting for the secret society were inspired by a recent research trip to coastal Maine. Though the location of the house is never mentioned (Mac and Drakon never actually figured it out either), it is located on a rocky coast of mainland Britain, but with an oddly American architectural influence.
Most of the historical elements from this book were inspired by research trips to Romania and London in 2019. I often draw from history, and in cases where I modify it to suit the story, I like to share that.
Guild City is based upon Sighișoara in Transylvania, Romania. It is a beautiful medieval city surrounded by a roughly circular wall that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As with Guild City, there are towers built into the wall that were once owned and maintained by various guilds (such as the tailors, bookmakers, butchers, tinsmiths, and rope makers). The guild towers were responsible for the defense of the city when it came under attack, and each one is different and fascinating. As soon as I as I saw them, I was imaging Guild City. This is also the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for the Devil of Darkvale.
That’s it for the history and myth in this book (I told you it wasn’t much this time around!).Thank you for reading, and I hope you stick around with Mac and Drakon to find out more.
For Rosie, who we will love forever.
About Linsey
Before becoming a writer, Linsey Hall was a nautical archaeologist who studied shipwrecks from Hawaii and the Yukon to the UK and the Mediterranean. She credits fantasy and historical romances with her love of history and her career as an archaeologist. After a decade of tromping around the globe in search of old bits of stuff that people left lying about, she settled down and started penning her own romance novels. Her Dragon’s Gift series draws upon her love of history and the paranormal elements that she can't help but include.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All reference to events, persons, and locale are used fictitiously, except where documented in historical record. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright 2021 by Linsey Hall
Published by Bonnie Doon Press LLC
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form, except in instances of quotation used in critical articles or book review. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which may be applied to this work.
ISBN 978-1-64882-014-4
Linsey@LinseyHall.com
www.LinseyHall.com
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Linsey Hall, Bite Me (Shadow Guild: Vampire Bride Book 1)
