Avenge (Hillcrest Book 2) Read online

  Avenge

  ∞

  Cassie Pierce

  Avenge

  Copyright©2019 by Cassie Pierce

  All rights reserved. Except for use in review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locales, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, brands, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  To all those who are brave enough to love someone flawed, the world needs more people like you.

  To my readers.....none of this would be possible without you.

  To the year 2020.... You tried to break us, but you failed.

  Also by the Author

  Hillcrest Academy

  Destined for Darkness

  Shattered Souls

  Fooled by Fate

  All books available on www.amazon.com

  ~ Prologue~

  Whoever said that monsters don’t live in the dark, obviously never got lost there.

  Monsters....demons....Hell. It is all very much real. I know this because from the moment that Talon’s fangs clamped down on the tender flesh of my neck, I have been fighting to survive them.

  Fighting to not turn into the very evil that wants nothing more than to destroy me.

  Always fighting......

  Barely surviving.

  I probably would have already lost myself.

  Given into the darkness that now stains my soul, if not for him.

  His voice....steady and strong in the middle of all the chaos. An anchor for my otherwise lost sanity. Soft like velvet and hard like steel, with a lyrical undertone that suggest he isn’t from here.

  His voice. The voice that belongs to a face that I have never seen. A face that I simply imagine in between the horrors that have become my existence.

  His voice keeps them away. The monsters.....they fear him. Perhaps I should as well. Anything that can chase away the evil that lives here cannot be good, but I cannot bring myself to fear the one good thing that has happened since I woke up here.

  I heard it for the first time after the second attack. He only comes to me when consciousness leaves me. He is my only light in this dark place.

  I tried to call for Jaxon. I screamed his name in my mind for days. Screamed it so much that my head throbbed, and my voice cracked, but silence was the only answer that my Moirai gave me.

  He once promised that he could find me anywhere, but it was a lie.

  Was it all a lie?

  I was calling for Jaxon that day too, but Jaxon’s voice was not the one that answered me. I don’t know who was more surprised. Him, because he had no clue who the random chick was that was screaming into his mind.

  Or me....

  Me, because I had never heard anyone this way before. Except for Jaxon.

  Well.....and that douche Xavier, but he doesn’t count.

  Even though the voice that calmed me that night and every night since was not the one that I longed for....it was the one that brought me peace.

  That absorbed the hurt that had become my life.

  That calmed the storms that raged within my soul.

  That chased away the monsters that lived in the dark.

  That voice had a name. He said to call him Zane.

  ~ Chapter 1~

  “Maci!”

  Urgency fills his voice as he desperately tries to shake me awake. My name both a prayer and a plea as it tumbles from his lips. I try to answer him....to comfort him, but after each feeding my body becomes more and more uncooperative. My eyelids heavy and my limbs weak as I struggle to escape the inky fingers of darkness.

  Talon has been both my tormentor and my protector since the night of the dance. Attacking me when ordered to, and then doing everything in his power to heal me afterward.

  Our friendship is a strange one to say the least. A friendship built on a foundation of pain and survival.

  And I have had plenty of both since that night.

  Pain.....pain has become a prison that I cannot escape from. It is everywhere here. It lights up my body when Talon rips into my skin over and over again. It lights up my heart when the shadow of Jaxon’s memory sneaks through my carefully built barriers. When I think about him. About how he broke me.....about how he betrayed me. About how he left me.

  For her.

  Jaxon Lux sacrificed my heart to save my life, but in the end his absence will probably cost me both.

  This...this would have never happened if he wouldn’t have fought our connection. If he would have tried harder to be with me...to protect me. Instead, he left me when I needed him the most. Now my pain is the price for his bad decision.

  There is a part of me, and not even a small part, that wishes for death. That almost begs for it. That would almost do anything to make the pain end.

  And the pain isn’t even the worst part. It’s the heartache that goes along with it. I have lost count of how many times Ashlee has laughed as Talon attacked me. My soul numb as my once best friend forces my only companion in this hell to torture me. Dead inside as Talon rips what is left of my soul from my broken body piece by fractured piece. Completely empty as he takes swallow after swallow of my blood.

  Numb....

  I still don’t quite get how it all works. The draining? I just know the bits and pieces that I have picked up from my conversations with Talon. That...and well....Ashlee always did like to talk. Turning to team-psycho-bitch didn’t change that. Which is a good thing... I guess. Or a really bad thing, depending on how you want to look at it.

  It turns out that a lot of the myths about vampires are just that...myths. Stories made up to scare little kids into submission or to sell movies and books. While my fanged frenemy does prefer blood, he doesn’t need it to survive. Vampires will swallow gallons of it to get what they really want. The one thing that they do feed off of.

  Souls.

  Yep. You heard that right. Souls. Apparently, the soul is what makes the vamp immortal and superfast and all that jazz. Not the blood.

  The blood part comes in because they can only get to our yummy souls if we are on the brink of death. The easiest way for them to do this is by blood loss. Vamps who are really good (aka not baby vamps) know how much to take without actually harming a person. Therefore, if a vamp drains you dry, they either had zero control, or you just pissed them off. Either is possible.

  Vamps are moody little things. Something to do with taking on the essence of the soul they drain. Dark soul...dark moody vamp. Good soul....chilled, mellow vamp.

  You get the picture.

  I asked Talon once what happens to the person they are feeding on when the soul goes completely dark. Like mine is starting to, but I left that part out. With each pull I can feel the walls that keep the monsters away getting weaker and weaker.

  It is the only question that Talon has never answered, but his silence told me all that I need to know. Whatever it is, sucks on an epic level.

  Something I will probably have the misfortune of finding out soon enough if Ashlee and Michael have their way.

  They were very clear about one thing. To open the demonic gate, I have to be soulless.

  I shiver, trying once again to find my voice so that Talon can stop worrying over me. Again, my words are just out of my reach. With each feeding it gets harder and harder to come back.

  Blood loss is a real bitch. Soul suckage is even worse.

  I didn’t understand at first how making Talon take my blood could possibly help them. I mean hello.....he swallows it!

  That was until I woke up after the first attack to Talon’s tortured scream, and a scene that will probably be the reason I will need therapy u
ntil I am fifty.

  Not that I will ever be fifty. An angel plus I guess; forever young.

  His scream woke me that night, as I tried to open my eyes against the dizziness from the blood loss. I wish I would have kept them shut.

  Michael stood over a thrashing Talon, who was tied to a chair that looked like something out of a prison from the nineteen fifties. Silver chains were draped over his arms and legs, and one across his forehead. Smoke wafted off of his skin, that sizzled where the metal touched him. Burnt flesh almost choked me, but I didn’t move. I was terrified for Talon, but I was even more terrified that if they knew I was awake that I would be next.

  Huge needles stuck out of his arms, that were held immobile by some kind of metal contraption. His blood drip....drip....dripping into a glass bottle on the floor.

  Maybe that was the moment that I decided that I couldn’t hate him. He was just as much of a victim as I was.

  Maybe more.

  “Please Maci.” Talon begs, but still my body can’t respond. Usually it doesn’t take this long to come back, which makes me wonder if something else is wrong. Could he have taken too much, or is it harder this time because Zane hasn’t shown up?

  Granted, I didn’t call him, but I never needed to before. He usually just appears whenever I feel scared. Whenever the darkness starts to drag me down. How pathetic is it that I am saddened by the silence inside my own head?

  When Jaxon stopped talking to me that way, I thought that I was relieved, but his absence just made me feel empty. Alone.

  Until Zane.

  “Please Maci. Come back,” Talon tries again, and this time fate must be smiling at me because I finally find my voice. Scratchy and broken as it may be. With great effort I force my eyes open, squinting against the light as Talon’s fuzzy face takes shape.

  “I’m here,” is all that I can manage at the moment, but he gets it.

  His violet eyes shine with worry and a hint of relief as he looks at me. A wave of hair tumbles into his eyes, but he makes no move to push it away. His blue t-shirt is ripped on the sleeve, and blood stains the front of it.

  My blood.

  His hands shake slightly as they go to my back. Pulling me up into a sitting position. My world spins as my back hits the cement wall behind me. The cold, rough brick biting into my skin through the thin fabric of my torn black dress.

  Only I would get stuck in hell looking like a dead prom queen.

  My once beautiful dress in tatters....just like my heart.

  “How long was I out this time?” I ask, testing out my voice against the dryness in my throat. I would kill for some water right now. Or a Mtn. Dew. I would do bad...bad things for a Mtn. Dew.

  My throat feels like I swallowed icy hot then had a razor blade chaser. It hurts....everything hurts, but I quit complaining about the pain days ago. It doesn’t do any good. It just makes Talon feel worse, and that...that isn’t ok with me.

  “Four hours,” he says, folding his tall body into the tiny space beside me. His shoulder bumps mine, a hint of a smile gracing his lips.

  I have only known Talon a short time, and most of it has been spent with him inflicting some kind of pain on me. Despite that, I see the good in him. Whenever the real Talon is left to his own devices, he is kind, and funny, and caring to an almost annoying level.

  I can see why C.J. loves him.

  Even though he has faced his own kind of hell here, he never complains. His only worry is for me. He distracts me from the suckage that has become my life with stories and jokes. He talks about C.J. with this smile that lets me know that what he feels for her is real. He is a good guy, and the fact that Michael and Xavier make him think otherwise infuriates me.

  Aside from Zane, Talon has been the only bright spot in this otherwise dark place.

  Zane....Zane is something else entirely. I am still not sure if he isn’t just a figment of my broken mind. A twisted version of an imaginary friend.

  “Sorry,” I whisper, wincing as I bring my hand up to my tender neck. The skin from the bite may already be completely healed, but that doesn’t mean that the tissue beneath doesn’t hurt like a mother.

  I am bruised and broken on the inside, but thanks to my super angelic DNA, I don’t have a scratch to prove it.

  My powers have enhanced over the last few days; especially my ability to heal. Angels all heal fast, but according to Talon they don’t heal as fast as I do. I am just all kinds of special.

  Just another thing to add to the mystery of my life.

  I am all about being extra, but this is getting ridiculous.

  “Stop apologizing. Only you would keep apologizing for almost dying,” Talon says with a hint of laughter.

  “Did I miss anything while I was out this time?” I ask, shifting my back so that the cement doesn’t dig into it as much. Talon’s eyes trace the room, hesitation visible on his face as he scoots closer to me. He drops his voice, his whisper so faint that I can barely hear him. Which I am guessing is what he is going for.

  “Michael was here again. He took more blood from me. But Maci.....he made a phone call while he was here. He said......” he pauses, and I know that whatever he says next is going to be bad.

  “What Talon? What did he say?” I ask, because the not knowing is killing me.

  Talon reaches down, grabbing my hand and squeezing it so hard that if I were a mortal, I have zero doubt that he would have broken a bone or two.

  “He said that after the next feeding he would have enough. I think....I think that whatever they are planning to do with us is going to happen. Soon.”

  No.....

  I can’t let him open that gate. If he succeeds in opening the demonic gate, Hell will descend upon the Earth. Paradise will be lost after the mortal realm is defeated. Nowhere will be safe from the horrors that have tried to defeat me since I woke up here.

  The darkness that has only existed during my captivity will spill into the world. Humanity will be lost, and......

  I will be dead. Or at least soulless.

  Can you live without your soul? Are you even alive if that happens? That isn’t something that I want to find out.

  “We can’t let him win Talon. We have to do something!” I cry, desperate for him to understand how bad that this is.

  “I know Maci, but what? What can we do? We can’t even save ourselves. How are we supposed to save the entire world?” Talon whispers, and as much as I hate what he is saying, I know that it is true.

  “We have to try,” I say, rising to my feet despite the dizziness that standing causes me. Grateful that I can at least walk around this tiny cell. That they took the chains off of me after the first feeding. Those chains....I hate those chains.

  My eyes scan the shining metal bars that cage us in like animals. I reach out, wincing when my hand comes into contact with the red glowing bar. I pull my hand away, a curse tumbling from my lips as I cradle my now sore hand to my chest.

  “Jesus Maci!” Talon exclaims, rising to his feet and pulling my hand closer so that he can get a good look at the damage. The skin on my palm is red and blistered, but aside from that it doesn’t look too bad.

  I have had worse.

  “You know we can’t get out. Self-torture will not help,” Talon says in a chiding tone, raising a brow in my direction.

  I say nothing, angry because he is right. I have zapped myself on those damn bars a million times since being kidnapped.

  “UUUUHHHH!!!!!” I scream in frustration. Angry that this has become my life. Helpless is not really my style. I am a more kickass type of girl.

  “Well excuse me Talon, but we have to do something! So, unless you have a magic trick stuck up your—”

  “Maybe I can help with that,” comes a new voice, and it startles me so much that I almost jump out of my skin. I spin around, my eyes searching the cell as hope flares to life inside of me.

  “Talon? You hear him too right? I’m not.....not going crazy?” I demand. Talon answers by nodding hi
s head, a look of confusion scrunching his brow up. His eyes scan the cell as well, but like me he doesn’t see anything.

  “Over here,” he says, and my eyes follow the sound of his voice to the corner of the room.

  There, blending in the shadows is the shape of a man. Tall, lean, and partly...... invisible?

  “How?” I start, but his urgent voice cuts me off and I know that whatever he has to say is so much more important than my questions.

  “Hello Maci. I will explain later. Right now, we haven’t much time. I used a spell to find you. I need you to lead them to the location of the gate. The one closest to the Academy. I have alerted Jaxon and the others. Help is on the way. Just hold on. We are coming.”

  Then, he vanishes as quickly as he appeared. His unexpected arrival taking with him some of my fear, and in its place leaving a seed of hope.

  That voice....I would know it anywhere. I am slightly disappointed that I still haven’t seen his face, but just knowing that he is coming —that they are all coming... comforts my weary heart.

  “Who was that?” Talon asks, staring at the now empty spot like just looking at it long enough will solve the mystery. Luckily for him, this is one mystery that I can solve.

  “Zane.....he said to call him Zane.”

  ~Chapter 2~

  “Zane? How do you know this Zane?” Talon asks, arching a dark brow at me when I avert my eyes. I can tell from his tone that he doesn’t one hundred percent approve. My sketchiness isn’t exactly helping the situation either.

  It isn’t that I am trying to be dodgy. It is more that I am not sure how to answer his question. Telling him that I met him in my mind will not go well for me. Somehow, I don’t think it’s complicated will satisfy his curiosity.

  It is though...complicated.

  I feel like I know Zane, but at the same time, I know absolutely nothing about him. Until today, he was just a voice in my head.

  I wasn’t even sure if he was real.

  “Zane is....,” I start, smiling to myself when words fail me.