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  “We do know what it feels like. That’s why we’re here. Listen, let’s do this but if it’s more than nerves then you need to tell us,” Lily said.

  Chloe did feel like there was more to it than what she’d said, but she wasn’t going to say so. She didn’t like lying to her sisters but honestly, there was nothing any of them could do about it. And maybe she just had food poisoning or something.

  One errant thought kept floating around in her mind. If this spell didn’t work, then they were all royally screwed. They couldn’t fail. This had to be perfect. This spell had to work.

  “Go ahead and start, Chloe. Remember when she’s done you go, Willow.”

  The wind seemed to calm around them as Chloe lifted the small square piece of paper with the spell written on it. The candles stopped dancing in the night and stood straighter, brighter as if asking her to read aloud the passage.

  “Wait, before I start, what does it mean?”

  Lily looked up from her own paper. “It means ‘Let no man take me. Let no man keep me.

  Let me choose the man who will take me or else he will never keep me.’ Something like that though trying to translate all that into a dead language was difficult. I think I managed it pretty well.”

  Chloe let out a deep, unsteady breath. Well, here goes nothing. Her sisters started to hum and the candles lit up even more brightly. Chloe squeezed her arm tighter around her stomach and read the strange words aloud.

  “Eengurra Kading gir Gibil Zi Ding’er Kia Kanpa! Eengurra Feerana jobe! Eengurra Ha’zin tia heteo!” Her words were barely above a whisper.

  Chloe winced, closing her eyes as she waited for something to happen. Slowly she

  popped open one eye then the other. When all she heard was the sound of her sister’s humming, she relaxed.

  Willow spoke next. Her words were different in a few areas. Her voice sounded even

  huskier than usual as she read the old, strange language. When she finished, Chloe heard a scraping noise, like a person scratching their nails on a slab of wood. Spinning her head around, she squinted into the night, still humming, yet trying to hear. The sound disappeared.

  Lily started on her part. Her words were soft and light as always. She somehow managed to make the old words sound beautiful like a song.

  As the last word floated gracefully into the night air, Lily nodded at them. They stood and grabbed the remainder of their belongings, leaving the candles lit and the sage burning in an incense bowl. It looked like offerings left to the dead.

  They were silent as they headed away as if speaking a single word would ruin the effect of the spell or bring something horrible about. Or at least that’s what Chloe’s gut was telling her.

  The pain in her stomach suddenly spiked. The ground started shaking under her feet as if a stampede of cows was coming. Chloe squealed and went tumbling down to the ground with her sisters.

  “What the hell was that?” Willow said, eyes wide.

  Chloe had no time to answer because a horrible, ear-piercing rumble escaped from the ground. That horrible feeling that had been sitting in her gut just got a whole lot worse. Chloe reached for her sisters’ hands, holding tightly as she stared at their candle-lit blanket.

  The earth shook like a giant was moving a mountain, making her vision blur and her legs give out on her. She fell back on her butt but stared harder at the blanket.

  Something was there.

  She faintly heard Lily screaming and yet Chloe could still barely hear her over the tremendous roar coming from the ground. Someone tugged at her hands, but she fought them.

  She had to see. Then two hands were pulling at her, trying to pull her backwards, away from where she needed to see. No! She fought them with a desperation that surprised her. This was what her gut had been warning her about.

  This.

  The earth gave one last, hard shudder. Her sisters, who had tried to pull her with them, collapsed in a hard heap on either side of her. Chloe didn’t cast them a glance, she stared at the blanket that now was dipping down as if it was spread over a crater and not a flat spread of grass.

  “What in the...”

  A deep, inhuman growl came out from beneath the blanket. The sound spread goose

  bumps across her arms and shot fear down her spine.

  Run, her mind screamed at her. Run! I can’t. Not yet.

  She had to see. She had to know.

  A thick, gray arm reached out from under the blanket, knocking the candles and sage over. It gripped the blanket with a hand the size of a giants, then disappeared with it back down into the earth.

  Wide-eyed and shaking, Chloe came to a stand. She tried to process what she was seeing but it was...impossible. There was no other explanation for it. An enormous hole was where their blanket had been, and whatever was roaring with such bone chilling screams, came from there. A pit. It had made a pit. Or had it come from a pit?

  She stood on her toes and tried to look in closer. All she saw was pitch black nothingness.

  A massive void.

  “What was that?” Lily said in a panicked voice. She bounced from foot to foot looking eager to get the hell out of Hades.

  Chloe opened her mouth to say something, when that same arm shot out of the pit. It swung hard and landed in the grass with a thump. It was gray, the color of dead flesh, and had lumps pushing under the skin like rocks and marbles were stuffed in there. The arm was much too big. This thing had to be the size of a giant. Impossible.

  The arm tightened its hand in the grass, grabbing hold, and then another, similar arm came out, reaching and grasping. Then the arms were moving, pulling it up.

  Chloe and her sisters watched with mouths hanging open as a great beast lumbered out of the black hole. A horrible stench suddenly found her and Chloe gasped, tears coming to her eyes as the raw scents of decayed flesh and blood tore through her senses.

  She blinked quickly to get rid of the tears and covered her nose with her hand to block as much of the smell as she could.

  “That is...”

  “Disgusting,” Willow supplied with a gag.

  The thing was over ten feet tall. Its arms hung too long, down near its knees, and its head was like a scary Halloween mask. The eyes were slits that when it blinked, blinked far too many times with too many eyelids opening and closing at odd times. Its nose was two holes on a mound in the middle of its huge face, and its mouth was too big even for how big the thing was.

  It looked like it was made to eat sharks for a living. The thing had more teeth than a piranha and just as sharp looking.

  The monster opened its mouth and let out an ear-screeching bellow. Chloe and her sisters screamed and covered their ears, backing away from the horrible sound that threatened to burst their eardrums.

  It took a step towards them. The girls stumbled three steps back.

  It roared again, the sound leaving them gasping with pain throbbing from in their ears.

  Then the monster did something Chloe never, ever would have expected in that moment.

  It lifted a big arm with slow purpose. How she knew it was coming towards her and not her sisters who were huddled so closely around her, she didn’t know, but her gut told her the thing was focused on her.

  Chloe watched with her heart in her throat as its great big arm straightened towards her.

  Slowly, one single finger extended until it pointed straight at her.

  “Kllllllloooooowwwweeeeee. ” The deep voice seemed to come from the belly of the earth itself. Chloe felt icy liquid fill her veins. A small part of her brain mocked her, so this was what it felt like to be frozen with fear.

  Her sisters grabbed her arms and started yanking her back. She let them, because she was fairly certain she couldn’t move a pinky on her own in that moment. It took her body a minute to catch up, but when it did they all sprinted back to the rental parked in the lot.

  Chloe cast a quick look behind her and saw the monster had taken a step closer to her.

&nb
sp; She grabbed the door handle and whipped it open. They all got into the car with astonishing speed and peeled out of the lot with the smell of burnt rubber and smoke.

  Long after they were away from the cemetery, Chloe still had her face plastered to the back window staring into the night.

  “Is nobody going to say anything?” screeched Willow. She didn’t even give them a

  chance to speak. “Fine, then I will. What the hell was that?”

  Chloe shook her head in disbelief and said the first thing that came to her mind. “Oh my God. What if we just started the zombie apocalypse? That thing is going to go around biting people and infecting them with some virus and the population of the whole world is going to be left to a mall filled with ten shot-gunned armed people, and it’s all going to be our fault.”

  Lily snickered from the driver’s seat. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Ridiculous. How is that being ridiculous? Considering what we just saw, I would say that’s an intelligent idea right now. Lily, I blame your stupid spell.”

  Willow snorted in agreement.

  “Do you guys want to know what my guess is?” Lily’s words were so quiet, so strong

  that Willow and Chloe quieted.

  “What?” Chloe had that stupid feeling back in her gut. At least now she knew it wasn’t anxiety or stress. No, she just had some sort of giant monster thing after her.

  “We just summoned something. Maybe it’s from the dead, but that thing should

  look...human if that was so. This thing was built more like...a demon.”

  Chloe gasped and spun around to stick her finger at Lily. “You did not make me summon a demon. It said my name. It’s probably going to haunt me or kill me in my sleep or something.”

  Lily only shrugged. “I doubt that. Well okay, I can’t be sure but I’ll find out, I promise.

  I’d never let anything like that happen to you, Chloe.”

  Chloe softened. That was true. Besides, if anyone had supernatural hookups it was Lily.

  “One thing I do know though,” Lily was saying. “It said your name and has the blanket we sat on. That means it probably has your scent and will be coming for you. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but it’s something we have to prepare for.”

  “Shit,” Willow said.

  “Agreed.” Chloe was in deep. She knew it and her gut really knew it.

  “No offense but it’s technically the 31th right now.” Chloe grimaced at Willow’s

  observation. It was 2:00 AM. Officially right now she and Willow were 29 years old. They were now owned by two strange men.

  Feeling miserable, she turned to stare at her sister. As fraternal twins they looked nothing alike and were even further apart in personalities. While Willow had blonde hair streaked with brown tones, Chloe had the much plainer version of her hair—a flat dull brown. The only good thing she liked about it was its length that she’d managed to keep to her waist for years.

  This year was going to be the worst birthday ever. Worse than the year she’d come home expecting to find a surprise birthday party but instead got an empty house, and even more terrible than the time she got dumped by her incubus boyfriend Derek at her 19th birthday party. Bastard deserved the cake she threw in his face. And the can of soda she’d sprayed on him afterwards.

  This birthday was going to top them all. Today she summoned a zombie demon and was

  supposed to be given to Tyrian en Kulev, the most famous demon slayer in the world. Her sister Willow was supposed to be Protected by some Alpha he-man. Then in another ten months, her little sister Lily would be next.

  And now she had to figure out how to get rid of the deadly, stinky excess baggage that most likely wanted her—and not for a tea party. Life sure knew how to kick a person when they were down.

  Chloe felt a thread of bitterness creep in, but she stomped it out. No time for tears or thinking about Papa or how crappy her situation was looking, she needed to be strong for her sisters. Right now, they needed answers.

  “Lily, I want you to call your friends tomorrow and ask them what they make of this. If that doesn’t work, try to have one your magic dreams. Maybe that can help us. I think it’s safe to say that the spell didn’t work and if Papa’s will is correct, then Willow and I will be in for a hell of a day come morning.”

  “I won’t just let some man take me,” Willow said between clenched teeth.

  Lily parked the car at the hostel they were staying at. Chloe looked over at her sister.

  There was so much in her she wished she had—like guts, athleticism, and strength.

  “If you don’t want him, then you don’t have to have him.”

  Willow exhaled a genuine sigh. “I’m glad you said that, because I’m outta here. Like, now. Tonight. I’m not giving the Alpha shapeshifter a chance to track me. He’s a beast and probably has a nose that puts hellhounds to shame. So if it’s all right with you guys, I’m going to pack some supplies and get out.”

  The thought of her twin, her sister, leaving had her automatically protesting the idea.

  “But where will you go? You need supplies. It’s dangerous out there, Willow. Besides we’re in Europe, not exactly our backyard.”

  Willow grinned that cocky, taunting grin that said she could win any fight, any challenge, any time. And Chloe was sure she could.

  “I’ll get the necessities from a store, buy a satellite phone, call you both with the number, and then I’m out of here. On foot, by plane, by car, whatever. He’s not fetching me like some piece of meat. Whatever happens we have to stay in contact. Everyone keep their phones on and charged at all times. Chloe, call me the second you see the vamp. You’re both welcome to come with me, you know.”

  Chloe and Lily both laughed which got them a hard glare from Willow. “Oh come on, sis.

  We’d just cramp your style. You’re much too...active for Lily and me. Call me, pack a knife, and be safe. I’ll let you know if the vampire finds me. I’m not gonna go back home yet. I need time to think. Especially time to figure out a plan to ditch the vampire.” Chloe turned to Lily. “If, and I mean if, Willow and I are both taken will you be okay?”

  Lily smiled big with a mischievous glint in her eye. “I think you both will be fine. No need to worry about me, I have a year until this happens. You both have a matter of hours.”

  That thought somehow scared her more than that monster did.

  Chapter Three

  Tyrian’s team had been gone for five hours too long. The commander of the Atal

  Warriors did not need to check the time to know that his team should be back by now. Just how bad things had gone, he didn’t know.

  Unlike some commanders, he did not require constant communication from his men.

  Most of the time their jobs required complete and utter silence. He’d seen good, strong warriors die because a cell phone rang in his pocket. Technology had many uses; some of those endangered his men. It was careless. It was unacceptable.

  Tyrian counted on his men to be the best and that meant without supervision. After all, they were not children but the best warriors with an even greater job. And he was not a babysitter.

  Yet even knowing all that and having created those rules himself, Tyrian for once wished he knew what the hell was taking them so long.

  He sent three men from his personal guard—some of the few he trusted not to cut off his head when he turned around. Rayn, Draven, and Henry. Together they were a lethal tornado capable of executing the strongest of enemies. What made them so unique even among his legion of warriors were their other special abilities.

  Born not of two vampires, but of vampire and those they fight against, the demons, they alone had a tremendous advantage over their foes. This only made the fact that their mission had gone on for five hours longer than necessary incredibly...irritating.

  Again, Tyrian found his eyes looking down at the sheet of paper in his hands. Frank Bellum was not a man one easily forgot, especially wh
en you owed that man a long-due debt.

  His eyes narrowed on a choice set of words: My eldest daughter, Chloe Ann Bellum. Was the old man senile before he met his great death?

  Frank had died honorably albeit unexpectedly. Though in Tyrian’s long life that was how most life ended—brief and swift. A hot glide of steel into flesh in one moment and then in the next blink your life was gone. He’d seen it too many times to remember each face, each death.

  They all rolled together in his mind like one dark pit of black souls.

  A hard bang sounded at the door. “Enter.”

  The sight of Rayn was not a relief, but some feeling close to it. Tyrian had learned long ago that feeling led to expectations, hopes, pain. His life was that of a warrior. He had zero need in his life for erstwhile pain and useless emotions that clouded a warrior’s mind.

  “Commander Tyrian, I bring news.” Rayn dropped briefly to one knee before standing

  again. His shorter hair, Tyrian noted, was a disheveled mess like a child had gotten into it and tried to make a bird’s nest out of it. Something long ago forgotten fluttered in his chest. He pushed it back with cold fingers.

  “Speak.” Tyrian pulled his arms behind his back and loosely clasped his hands.

  “I’m sorry for the delay but we had...complications.” Tyrian’s brow almost furrowed.

  How could one female be trouble? Rayn had slaughtered a den of rogue demons by himself in less than ten minutes. His prowess in battle was why he was one of his closest, most trusted guards. That and his ability to teleport anywhere at any time.

  “Tell me everything.”

  The story that Rayn went on to tell was completely unbelievable, very ridiculous, and absolutely absurd and yet he said it in the same no-nonsense voice he used in battle. What he spoke was truth, he knew because he wouldn’t dare lie to him. Men had died before for daring such. Knowing all of that though did not make his story any easier to absorb.