The immortal deceit, p.1
The Immortal Deceit, page 1
The Immortal Deceit
The Immortal Wars Trilogy Book 2
M.K. Dawn
Copyright © 2018 by M. K. Dawn
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
Contents
1. CHAPTER ONE
2. CHAPTER TWO
3. CHAPTER THREE
4. CHAPTER FOUR
5. CHAPTER FIVE
6. CHAPTER SIX
7. CHAPTER SEVEN
8. CHAPTER EIGHT
9. CHAPTER NINE
10. CHAPTER TEN
11. CHAPTER ELEVEN
12. CHAPTER TWELVE
13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
16. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
19. CHAPTER NINETEEN
20. CHAPTER TWENTY
21. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
22. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
23. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
24. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
25. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
26. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
27. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
28. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
29. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
30. CHAPTER THIRTY
31. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
32. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
33. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
34. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
35. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
36. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
37. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
38. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
39. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
40. CHAPTER FORTY
41. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
42. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
43. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
44. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
45. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
46. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
47. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
48. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
49. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Sneak Peek
CHAPTER ONE
Samantha sank into the scalding water as deep as the shallow tub allowed, the temperature setting her nerves ablaze. The pain was a welcome relief to the torment eating away at her soul. She’d lost so much in such a short time. The death of her closest friends—murdered at the illegal club, Blood Lust, like animals—had left a hole in her heart that would never heal. Survivor’s guilt made sure of that.
For a brief moment, she considered opening her airway, allowing the water to break free of the barrier which safeguarded her life. But she wouldn’t give them—Vespera or her father, Luther—the satisfaction. Nor would they get rid of her that easily. She wanted them to see her; be that constant reminder of the blood that saturated their hands. Let their own guilt rot away at their souls as it did hers. If they had any sort of a soul left. By the way they so freely dismissed life, she wasn’t sure.
At the very least, Samantha’s presence served as a reminder of the power she held over them. The murder Vespera’s thugs had committed of the mall janitor still remained unsolved. An anonymous tip was all it would take to set the authorities on the right track. Even with all their connections, neither she nor her father couldn’t survive such a scandal.
Samantha forced her eyes open and gazed up at the bubbles drifting on the water’s surface. They reminded her of clouds aimlessly drifting amidst the summer sky.
She missed the sunrise, clouds, and light. The way the sky changed colors in the early morning before she settled into bed. Samantha longed for those things like never before. Ironic, since the sun’s rays were now brutal against her fair skin and topaz eyes—more so than she ever remembered. Even with a long-sleeved shirt, sunblock, hat, and sunglasses, she could no longer venture outside during the day for more than a few minutes. The times Samantha happened to be out as the sun rose, she arrived home covered in blisters which took hours to heal. It was a weird phenomenon, since before she had only ever burned—a slight burn at that.
The sudden change was a mystery, and so was her newfound craving for the sun. Samantha suspected it had to do with the bout of depression she’d been dealing with, which would also explain the nausea and her inability to keep down much of anything. It was an unconscious way to punish herself for all the stupid things she’d done.
Not that any of it mattered much. It wasn’t like she had any desire to leave the confines of the hotel where she’d been staying. The one she’d rented under a fake name and paid for with cash. After all that had happened: missing car, her purse returned via break-in, and God only knew what else, she couldn’t stomach another night in her apartment.
It was in the moments after she’d left the Synthetic Blood Center—when all the lies had been revealed—that Samantha had made the decision to move. She didn’t pack, didn’t return home; just headed for the nearest bank, withdrew a couple thousand, and checked into a hotel.
She hadn’t told anyone where she was going.
The reality was, there was no one left to tell.
Since then, she’d become a shut-in, only leaving the room for Sunday dinner with her parents and the Wednesday Council forum. The latter she did to keep current on all Council affairs and to get under Vespera’s skin. Samantha was present every Sunday dinner because her father had blackmailed her into doing so: Ethan and Evie’s Calaway’s fate rested solely on her attendance.
Why she still cared about the human’s fate was beyond comprehension. He had betrayed her, used her to infiltrate the Synthetic Blood Center in an attempt to destroy the Sanguines’ only source of blood. All under the pretense of saving his sister. A sister, who as best she could tell, hated him with every fiber of her being.
Still, week after week, Samantha made the drive to her parents’ estate, sat there in agony, playing the part of the perfect daughter for the other guests. In her mind, she played out all the ways she could kill Luther and make it look like an accident. A bit morbid perhaps, but he had authorized the raid on Blood Lust that killed her friends even though he knew they would be there, that she was supposed to be there. He was lucky she’d only pictured his death and hadn’t done anything to act on it. The Sanguines might consider themselves immortal beings, as their life spanned upwards to a thousand years, but they were far from it. A wooden bullet was all it took to bring one down—a ridiculous notion if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.
A sudden chill drew Samantha back to reality. She breached the water, air filling her nearly empty lungs. Wrapping a towel around her body, she reached for the burner phone she’d gotten when they’d been in hiding and never bothered to replace it.
Her heart clenched. A new voicemail waited for her. It took all the strength Samantha had not to collapse to the floor and sob. It was Friday night. Before she’d gotten tangled up in the mess with Ethan, this call would have been from one of her friends. Lexie, most likely, who’d be calling to make plans for a night out.
Samantha choked back the tears. Never again would she hear her best friend’s voice. Or any of her friends.
The thought was too much to process. She squeezed her eyes closed and forced it all away before checking the message.
Darrien…again.
The last time she’d spoken to him was that night at the Synthetic Blood Center. He called every day—sometimes more than once—but she refused to answer. His betrayal working for Vespera while pretending to be her friend and ally had gutted her to the point of no return.
Still, she listened to the message, a primal need to hear a familiar voice superseding her anger.
It was short and apologetic, as were they all. It’s me. Wanted to say I’m sorry. Again. There is so much you don’t know, so much I want to tell you. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Hot tears welled up in her eyes and she blinked them away.
She hated him. She didn’t need him or his pathetic excuses. Even as the words trickled through her mind, she knew they weren’t true. The way his eyes had pleaded with her that night, the way Vespera had chastised him for not checking in.
Samantha shook the memory from her head.
No. She would not let him weasel his way back into her life. She would not allow him to play on her heartstrings any longer.
Without bothering to dress in anything more than a thin cloth the hotel considered a towel, Samantha headed into the small kitchenette and popped open a bottle of synthetic.
The smell made her gag but she chugged it down nonetheless; it was a poor attempt to quiet the rumble in her stomach. Hungry, she checked the clock. Three a.m. A little early to order her next meal, but she was starving even though it had been only hours since she’d last eaten.
The blood sat in her stomach like a boulder, heavy to the point of causing discomfort. She heaved a couple times but managed to keep the blood down.
Another bout of tears clutched Samantha’s chest but she didn’t dare open her mouth to cry. Her ill reaction was growing worse by the day. If it continued, it would only be a matter of time before she would no longer be able to stomach blood at all.
Tomorrow she’d try a more expensive synthetic; maybe it was the cheap stuff giving her so much trouble. She doubted the small convenient stores and restaurants she’d been getting deliveries from carried anything more refined. The thought of venturing out on a Saturday felt like a chore. A far cry from her normal life.
Another wave of nausea tugged at Samantha’s stomach, which was followed by a heavy yawn. Hours from sunrise, yet she was exhausted.
A side effect of her depression, no doubt.
Samantha tossed the towel on the bathroom floor and climbed into bed, too tired to bother with clothes.
As soon as her head hit the pillow, a dark shadow consumed her. And in the shadows, the monsters came out to play.
CHAPTER TWO
Ethan laid motionless on the bed, willing his body to succumb to the darkness that overtook his cell, determined to break free of the sleep cycle his captors had carefully crafted for him to follow. He hadn’t minded the nocturnal schedule when Samantha and Darrien were risking their lives to help him save Evie, but now that Samantha had turned her back on him and Darrien was working for the Council, Ethan would fight until his last dying breath to be free of all things vampire. Or Sanguines. Whatever they called themselves.
He’d start by sleeping during the night and refusing to wake when Darrien came for his daily visit. His blatant lies were growing old. Ethan was done giving a damn about anything or anyone. The desperation he felt the first few weeks in this God-forsaken prison had now been replaced with unrelenting rage.
Ethan no longer cared if sleep brought forth the nightmares of humans hooked up to machines, being drained of blood. Whether Darrien kept his promise to see him freed and returned home. He cared even less if he ever saw his twin sister again. He hated her for the lies she spewed when he had risked everything to save her.
As far as he was concerned, his imprisonment rested solely on her shoulders. If he ever got out of the Immortal Realm, if she ever found her way home…he’d shun her like the rest of their town, like the rest of the human race. She’d shredded what was left of their family ties when she took the vampires’ side and accused him of being a rebel. If he hadn’t been in such a state of shock when she denounced him, maybe he could have turned the tables on her. After all, she was the one who had an office full of research about the monsters which he bet they didn’t know anything about.
An hour passed, maybe two, when he gave up on sleep, throwing himself off the bed and screaming a slew of curses, too worked up to stay still.
“Wow. Even in the army I never heard that foul of a combination of words.”
Ethan should have been startled by the suddenness of Darrien’s voice but he wasn’t. The male had a tendency to sneak in all hours of the day or night. “What do you want? Got more lies to weave?”
“Wanted to make sure you were still kicking.”
Ethan groaned, pacing around the scarcely lit room. “Unfortunately. What’s it to you?”
A few weeks back, in an act of sheer desperation, Ethan had rammed his head into the stone wall, ready to end his life when given the choice between death and spending another day in this hellhole alone. Darrien had found him unconscious on the floor, near death if his recount of his condition could be believed. After that, Darrien had started to stop by once, if not a few times a day.
“Can’t I be concerned about the health of a friend?”
Ethan froze. It was the first time Darrien had referred to him as such. Over the past month, they’d been friendly and on decent terms, but friends? The notion chipped away a sliver of the anger that consumed his every thought.
In the back of Ethan’s mind, he couldn’t get past the distrust he held for the male. Darrien’s sentiment could be a well thought ploy to get Ethan to lower his guard. A pointless one at that. It would be easier to bribe him to get the information the Council wanted. Cash sent to his mother for her ongoing care would be enough at this point. He’d tell them whatever they wanted to know. Not that he knew anything, but Ethan had read enough books in his lifetime that he could come up with a whopper of a story. His only fear was that his mother would be punished for his lies, which was a risk he wasn’t willing to take. Guess it was back to keeping his mouth shut and Darrien’s poor attempt at friendship.
“Cat got your tongue?” Darrien snickered, obviously amused at his attempt at humor.
“Seriously.” Ethan slid down to the ground beside Darrien, the thick metal bars between them. At this distance he could see Darrien, his disheveled caramel hair and bronze skin accented by the small lantern he brought with him. “That’s the best you can come up with?”
Darrien stretched and threaded his fingers behind his head. “What can I say? I’m out of practice.”
For a few minutes, they sat in silence, Ethan trying to string together the right words to express—
“I haven’t heard from her. Call her every day but she doesn’t answer.”
Ethan ran a hand through his grimy raven hair. “Who?” Though the answer was obvious.
“Lucille Ball. Who do you think I’m talking about? Samantha of course.”
Ethan snorted. “You need to lay off the reruns.”
“Got to fill my time somehow. Not getting much sleep these days.”
Silence filled the cell once again. He didn’t know how to respond to Darrien’s confession so he ignored it. “Why have you been trying to contact Samantha?”
A tight smile spread across Darrien’s face. “You two…by the end…there was some kind of connection, wasn’t there?”
“You mean because we slept together?” There was no point in skirting around the issue.
“Wow. Okay. I didn’t know we were being blunt.”
Ethan rubbed his temple, his head throbbing behind his sapphire eyes. “I overheard you and Samantha talking about it when we were holed up in your cabin.”
“Sex was mentioned, but that’s not what I’m referring to.”
“Then what are you referring to?”
Darrien stretched out his legs and crossed his ankles. “Don’t get sassy. I just mean you became friends.”
Talking about Samantha was more painful than Ethan wanted to admit. “You haven’t told me why you’ve been trying to get a hold of her.”
“I was getting there.”
“The long way,” Ethan mumbled.
“Hey.” Darrien flicked Ethan’s earlobe. “I can hear you, remember?”
Ethan flinched, pain radiating across his outer ear. “What the fuck, man!”
“Got to make it look good for the camera.” He lifted his chin to the ceiling. “Didn’t want them thinking we were boring out or anything.”
“You could have just told me to act pissed off at you. Not like they can hear us.”
Darrien grinned. “What fun would that be?”
What little patience Ethan had left was wearing thin. “Back to Samantha.”
“Right. She won’t take my calls. Won’t return my texts.”
“Can you blame her? You work for the Council—for Vespera. The female tried to have her killed. You were feeding her information.”
“Correction.” Darrien held up a finger. “I was not ‘feeding her information’. At least not anything useful.”
“Care to elaborate?”
Darrien’s eyes darted to the camera. “Samantha deserves to know the truth.”
“And what truth is that?” Ethan scoffed.
Darrien rapped his hands against his thigh. “That you’re not a rebel. The bag of weapons was at my place after you left. It was why Vespera believed I was working for her.”
There was one important point Darrien missed. “What about the production room? The humans being drained of blood?”
He didn’t respond.
“Darrien,” Ethan pressed.
“I haven’t been allowed inside the warehouse and I haven’t been told anything about what goes on in there.”
Ethan slammed his head against the wall and suppressed a groan. He hadn’t meant to throw it back so hard. “Shit.”
“Please don’t tell me that’s how you knocked yourself out last time. You earned a ton of brownie points with the badass suicide attempt.”
“This time it was unintentional.” Ethan ran his fingers across the back of his skull. “No blood.”
“Yeah. I didn’t smell any.”
Ethan wiped his clammy hands on his tattered pants. “I know what I saw.”
“I believe you believe it.”
The anger Darrien provoked seeped from Ethan’s pores. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? You haven’t even been in the room!”
“Samantha checked it out and saw nothing to back up your claims.” Darrien’s tone came off calm but Ethan swore he heard a hint of uncertainty.
