Demon kept resurrection.., p.1
Demon Kept (Resurrection Chronicles), page 1
DEMON KEPT
M.J. HAAG
Copyright © 2022 Melissa Haag
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission from the author.
ISBN 978-1-63869-016-0 (eBook Edition)
ISBN 978-1-63869-017-7 (Paperback Edition)
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, are coincidental and not intended by the author.
Proofreading by The Proof Posse
Cover design by Shattered Glass Publishing LLC
© Depositphotos.com
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
Author’s Note
More books by MJ Haag
To my fey readers,
Thanks for being daring with me!
CHAPTER ONE
You are hereby exiled from Tenacity.
The words wouldn’t stop repeating in my head as we left behind the only protection we had from the infected and hellhounds. I had no more tears to cry over what had happened, but that didn’t make leaving any easier.
“Move, Shelby,” Nat, my husband, said with a nudge to my back. “And walk quietly. You bring any infected down on us and we’ll leave you.”
I glanced at him, taking in his short blonde hair and bruised cheek, and knew Nat’s empty threats for what they were. He wouldn’t leave me behind. Ever. If I had thought for a moment he would, I would have begged Matt, the leader of Tenacity, to let me stay. But I knew Nat and I were a package deal. End of story. I belonged to him because I’d stupidly said, “I do,” a few months before the world split open and everything went to hell. Two little words had fucked over my life, and I knew he wouldn’t release me from that promise. Not ever.
Nat moved ahead of me, leading the way around Tenacity’s massive wall of recycled metal vehicles. I didn’t know where we were headed and didn’t really care. It wouldn’t be as safe as the place we were leaving.
You are hereby exiled from Tenacity.
Thirteen of us, kicked out for stealing food and worse. Resentment and shame ate at me for my part in all of it.
As the sun rose higher, we parted ways with Tenacity’s expansive wall and moved deeper into the surrounding trees. The hush in the woods increased my tension as I watched for any sign of movement. I walked softly, aware of each dry crunch under my feet where snow mixed with leaves and twigs.
This wasn’t my first time outside the wall. But it was my first time without the hulking presence of the fey. Without one nearby, our group didn’t stand a chance against the infected.
Nat interrupted that depressing line of thinking by stopping next to a thick tree. His gaze swept the group, and he waved one of his guys forward. The man scurried up the hacked off branches and pulled a wrapped bag from the crook of the tree. He silently tossed it down to Nat, who opened it and started handing out weapons. Wicked knives, a few hatchets, and a handgun, which he tucked into the back of his pants.
I could see Nat’s self-righteous smirk. He thought he was so smart to have a hidden cache of weapons. But had he simply worked with the people in Tenacity, he wouldn’t have needed to prepare for exile. We could have remained safely hidden behind a secure wall instead of walking God-knew-where. What good would a few knives be tonight when hellhounds howled in the distance? None. And deep down, he knew it too, but he would never openly admit it. Which was why the group made several more stops to collect more weapons and a pack filled with food.
Each stop…each supply added to the subtle undercurrent of noise from our passage. The soft clank of metal cans shifting. The rasp of bramble against packs. The crunch of sound under our feet. It carried through the trees, and eventually, I heard a distant groan.
We didn’t stop moving. The plastic grip of my knife’s handle bit into my palm as I clutched it and kept pace with the group.
The first infected came running at us from between the trees. While I’d left Tenacity a few times for supplies and had seen my fair share of infected, it never got easier to witness the fate of those bitten. Zombie wasn’t a term I’d thought I would ever use. But the woman running toward us was just that. An undead human, decaying, yet moving.
Two men from our group worked together to bring her down. Three more infected appeared and died just as quickly. The efficiency with which Nat and his group worked surprised me. They typically went out for wood and came back in with very little. I realized now they hadn’t spent their time chopping firewood. They’d been preparing. Practicing. Making an “escape” plan as if Tenacity had been such a horrible place to live.
We picked up speed, almost jogging, before we emerged from the trees onto a parking lot. Nat didn’t pause. He crossed the distance to an apartment complex and grabbed a rope hanging down from a third story corner balcony.
“Billy, get up there, and get that ladder down.”
The man grabbed the rope and climbed it quickly. Seconds later, a bundle of knotted rope and wooden slats dropped from above.
“Shelby, go,” Nat said.
I hurried up the ladder, my limbs shaking hard. Filled in with cinder blocks, the second-story balcony no longer existed. Above that, boards extended from the floor of the next balcony. The ladder hung between a gap in the platform’s planks.
As soon as I reached the top, Billy helped me over the black iron railing, and I moved back to allow the next person up while I looked around.
Three small tents dominated the space. A composting toilet sat out in the open, and a rain barrel set up near the railing. Bricks covered the sliding doors to the apartment, and a large metal storage locker sat in front of the new wall.
“Welcome home, Shelby,” Nat said, joining me. “Thanks to our foresight, we have food, water, shelter, and a pretty nice setup to avoid infected and hellhounds.” He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close to kiss my temple. “You’ll be living like a queen here.”
I highly doubted that, but was smart enough to keep my skepticism from my face and tone.
“Thank you, Nat. I know you worked hard to make this a possibility.”
“That’s right. I did.” He pulled back and turned me so he could study my expression. “And you’re grateful for that, right?”
The infected terrified me. But my husband scared me more.
“I am very grateful,” I murmured, going to my toes to kiss his lips lightly.
He grunted, apparently satisfied, and moved away to talk to the other men. I went to the railing and looked down from my prison. The ladder was up, and boards extended in its place, making climbing up to the balcony impossible.
Below us, the parking lot lay empty of infected.
“Pretty sweet setup, right?” one of the men said, coming to stand beside me. “Nat was smart to have us work on this instead of cutting wood for a bunch of freeloaders.”
I said nothing but internally laughed at his entitled blindness. They were supposed to have been cutting wood for all the people in Tenacity while other people had been out gathering other supplies. Pitching in and working together. But Nat had gotten it into his head that the workload had been unevenly distributed. That some people were taking more risks than others and were “owed” more because of it.
“Look at what we have here,” the guy next to me said under his breath before straightening away from me. “One of those grey bastards followed us.”
Nat stopped conferring with another man to come stand beside us.
“The oak tree near the corner of the lot,” the man said. “See him?”
I did. The fey casually leaned against the tree, studying us as we studied him. He was close enough and large enough that I could see the extended line of his pointed ears, and his long hair hung to his shoulders and sported multiple braids. The grey cast of his skin almost blended with the tree. If not for his light tan leather pants, which all his kind tended to favor, he would have been harder to spot. Maybe.
His size alone made him sort of hard to miss. That and the way his biceps bulged when he crossed his arms. The material of the human shirt he wore stretched to capacity to accommodate him.
He was a beast. A deadly, well-muscled beast made to fight the infected and hellhounds. And I recognized this one from the night before. He’d been one of the fey in the house with June, the woman Nat and his men had meant to rob. He’d knocked out the men with almost no effort and then tied them up. They hadn’t stood a chance against him.
“What do you think he’s doing?” the man a
Nat quietly considered the fey for another long moment.
“Waiting to see what we do,” he said finally. “I’m guessing he wants to make sure Shelby here is safe. This could work to our advantage.”
A shiver of worry stole through me.
“Which tent is ours?” I asked. “I think I want to lie down for a bit.”
“The orange one. But make us lunch first, Shell. You and I can have a little nap and cuddle after.”
CHAPTER TWO
I took my sweet-ass time making lunch while listening to Nat spout his bullshit about how we were going to survive on the cramped balcony. Delusional and mean. Why couldn’t people come with name tags that described their personalities? I would have known to steer clear of him then.
“Shelby, are you almost done or what? We’re starving here.”
“It’s done.” I turned off the camp stove and moved away from the side table. The guys converged on the food.
Keeping a pleasant smile on my face, I returned to the railing. I knew better than to take anything for myself until they finished.
Nat came over to me.
“I’m not sure I like your attitude today, Shell. You’re coming across as a little high and mighty. Do you think you’re special because the fey didn’t knock you around last night?”
My stomach clenched. Nat was always happy to show me I wasn’t better than him.
“Never. What they did to you was wrong, Nat. The fey had no right to be in Tenacity.”
He nodded slowly, scrutinizing me. “They didn’t. Yet, they were. And they knocked me out cold. How did that make you feel?” He reached up and smoothed back a piece of my hair, his fingers drifting down my throat. I felt sick with the need to get away. To hide.
“Terrified. I’d never been more afraid in my life,” I said with complete honesty. The reason behind my fear had little to do with the fey, though, and everything to do with the man before me. Nat loved retribution. It didn’t matter if it was for a perceived offense or something that actually happened.
“Your place is with me,” he murmured. “Always.”
“Always,” I echoed, hating the finality of it. There would never be an escape for me—only a lifetime of suffering.
He let his hand drop to his side and kissed my cheek.
“Go eat. I’m ready to have some alone time with you.”
A tingle hit me in the sinuses, and I ducked my head as I hurried away. Crying would only make things worse, and I didn’t want worse. I wanted better and needed to figure out how to make that happen.
Behind me, the men started talking while they ate.
“We should charge him a can of food if he wants to stand there and watch us like we’re some kind of damn movie,” one said.
Nat laughed. “That’s not a bad idea.”
I poured a small portion of soup into my bowl and sat next to Nat, leaning against him slightly. He wrapped an arm around me briefly, then started eating. His display of affection didn’t fool me. It wasn’t forgiveness. But feeding his belief that I needed him and loved him helped blunt some of his anger. Sometimes.
“You did an amazing job with the supplies,” I said. “This is much better than anything we would have had in that hellhole.” The word was bitter in my mouth. Tenacity had been a haven.
“This is the first haul from that bitch’s house,” Nat said. “The guy was a cocky son of a bitch who got what he deserved, but he sure knew how to pick supplies.” Nat paused with the spoon partway to his mouth. “We’ll need to go back there. It’s not right that there was no consequence for what she and her man did to Wayne. And we get kicked out for standing up for ourselves? No, that’s not right, not at all.”
The other men made sounds of agreement.
“Don’t you think that’s not, right?” Nat asked, looking at me.
“No, it’s not right at all,” I said quickly, knowing it was already too late. “Can I get you more soup?”
His gaze swept over my face.
“No. I’m not hungry for food anymore. Let’s go cuddle, Shelby.”
He set his bowl down and stood, holding out a hand to me. The men around us smirked and chuckled, thinking they knew what Nat had in mind. They didn’t. Nat was discreet with what he did to me.
I took his hand, trying not to tremble, and let him lead me to the tent. My gaze strayed to the iron balcony, and I briefly thought of running. It wouldn’t do any good. I had nowhere to go. Nowhere that Nat wouldn’t come looking for me. My stomach twisted with the knowledge, and I hoped Matt and June would be smart enough to watch for Nat’s retaliation in the days to come.
The fey near the tree moved, catching my attention.
“I think he’s leaving,” I said, hoping for a last-minute distraction.
“Good,” Nat said.
My feet dragged.
“Please, Nat,” I whispered, unable to stop myself.
“In the tent, Shelby.”
The damn tears let loose without my permission, and I sniffled. His hand tightened around mine, and he hauled me to the orange tent, ignoring any hint of resistance as he shoved me inside. I fell to my knees on a sleeping bag. The sound of the zipper pierced the space.
“I was so worried about you, Shelby-baby, when I came to, bound and gagged. All I could think of was how we’d left you to keep watch. What could have happened to my wife to stop her from calling out a warning? It must have been bad.”
He pushed me down, turning me so we faced each other, and his hands circled my throat.
“Was it bad, baby? How did they hurt you?”
“Please, Nat. Don’t do this,” I rasped. He pulled back and hit my stomach. I grunted in pain but didn’t fight him as he ripped open the button of my jeans. Fighting back always made it worse.
He yanked the material down my legs, keeping me pinned with a hand on my throat.
“Not a new mark on you,” he murmured. He lifted his gaze to mine. “I’m so glad you’re safe, baby.”
I closed my eyes and focused on the sensation of the tear rolling down my cheek. A soft sob escaped me, and he leaned in and kissed me roughly.
“I love you, Shelby. You’re everything to me.”
He shoved my underwear down and finally released me to unbutton his pants.
“Shit!” someone yelled from outside the tent.
I opened my eyes and looked up at Nat. He knelt above me, his dick peeking out from his pants and his head tipped to the side as he listened. A scuffle of noise came from outside the tent, then silence.
Nat lifted his finger to his lips and reached over for the gun he’d set to the side. Trembling beneath him, I wasn’t sure what to hope for. If an infected was out there, we were both as good as dead. But maybe dead wouldn’t be so bad. Another muffled sob escaped me.
The tent ripped open above Nat’s head, and he disappeared.
I scrambled to pull up my underwear and pants. When I stood in the shredded opening, I had a clear view of the balcony. All of the men who’d been eating only moments ago now lay in a pile of bodies. Bodies that still had their heads.
My wide gaze swung to the fey standing nearby. An unconscious Nat dangled from his hand, and the sight of my husband’s slack face did some crazy things to me. I wanted to crow and laugh and point, but I also wanted to beg the fey not to hurt him. Sparing Nat some pain might spare me pain.
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
The fey’s green and yellow eyes skimmed over me as he tossed Nat to the side. I jumped slightly and started to shake.
“What do you want? Why did you hurt them?” I asked.
The fey blinked at me.
