Vampires of Maze (Part Five) (Beautiful Immortals Series Two Book 5) Read online

  Vampires of Maze

  (Beautiful Immortals Series Two)

  Part Five

  BY

  Tim O’Rourke

  First Edition Published by Ravenwoodgreys

  Copyright 2016 by Tim O’Rourke

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organisations is entirely coincidental.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Story Editor

  Lynda O’Rourke

  Book cover designed by:

  Tom O’Rourke

  Copyedited by:

  Carolyn M. Pinard

  For Richard

  More books by Tim O’Rourke

  Kiera Hudson Series One

  Vampire Shift (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 1

  Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 2

  Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 3

  Vampire Breed (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 4

  Wolf House (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 5

  Vampire Hollows (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 6

  Kiera Hudson Series Two

  Dead Flesh (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 1

  Dead Night (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 2

  Dead Angels (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 3

  Dead Statues (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 4

  Dead Seth (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 5

  Dead Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 6

  Dead Water (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 7

  Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 8

  Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 9

  Dead End (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 10

  Kiera Hudson Series Three

  The Creeping Men (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 1

  The Lethal Infected (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 2

  The Adoring Artist (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 3

  The Secret Identity (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 4

  The White Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 5

  The Origins of Cara (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 6

  The Kiera Hudson Prequels

  The Kiera Hudson Prequels (Book One)

  The Kiera Hudson Prequels (Book Two)

  Kiera Hudson & Sammy Carter

  Vampire Twin (Pushed Trilogy) Book 1

  Vampire Chronicle (Pushed Trilogy) Book 2

  The Alternate World of Kiera Hudson

  Wolf Shift

  Werewolves of Shade

  Werewolves of Shade (Part One)

  Werewolves of Shade (Part Two)

  Werewolves of Shade (Part Three)

  Werewolves of Shade (Part Four)

  Werewolves of Shade (Part Five)

  Werewolves of Shade (Part Six)

  Vampires of Maze

  Vampires of Maze (Part One)

  Vampires of Maze (Part Two)

  Vampires of Maze (Part Three)

  Vampires of Maze (Part Four)

  Vampires of Maze (Part Five)

  Moon Trilogy

  Moonlight (Moon Trilogy) Book 1

  Moonbeam (Moon Trilogy) Book 2

  Moonshine (Moon Trilogy) Book 3

  The Jack Seth Novellas

  Hollow Pit (Book One)

  Black Hill Farm (Books 1 & 2)

  Black Hill Farm (Book 1)

  Black Hill Farm: Andy’s Diary (Book 2)

  Sydney Hart Novels

  Witch (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 1

  Yellow (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 2

  The Doorways Saga

  Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 1)

  The League of Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 2)

  The Queen of Doorways (Doorways Saga Book 3)

  The Tessa Dark Trilogy

  Stilts (Book 1)

  Zip (Book 2)

  The Mechanic

  The Mechanic

  The Dark Side of Nightfall Trilogy

  The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book One)

  The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book Two)

  The Dark Side of Nightfall (Book Three)

  Samantha Carter Series

  Vampire Seeker (Book One)

  Vampire Flappers (Book Two)

  Vampire Watchmen (Book Three)

  Unscathed

  Written by Tim O’Rourke & C.J. Pinard

  You can contact Tim O’Rourke at

  www.timorourkeauthor.com or by email at [email protected]

  Vampires of Maze

  (Part Five)

  This story is set in a where and when not too dissimilar to our own…

  Chapter One

  I should have known better than to trust another vampire or werewolf. I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t fall in love with someone from either species in this new world. But despite the promises I’d made, I seemed unable to learn from the mistakes I’d made in a previous life. Pulling the sheet around me, I stopped at the foot of the stairs as Calix called out to me.

  “Aren’t you gonna eat this breakfast?”

  I could hear the sound of meat sizzling as it cooked on the stove in the kitchen.

  “No I’m not,” I said, my voice full of contempt for him and his kind. Peering over the banister at him, I added, “I don’t want anything from you. Now get out.”

  It wasn’t often seen on Calix’s face, but just this once, he looked somewhat taken aback at how fiercely I had spoken to him. Taking the pan from the stove, he placed it to one side. Calix strolled down the hallway and came toward me, the long coat he wore flapping open revealing his bare chest and stomach. I looked away.

  “Someone seems to have gotten out of the wrong side of the bed this morning,” he quipped.

  “Save your sarcasm for somebody else,” I said. “I’m not in the mood for you, Calix. Not now. I’d be grateful if you would just leave me alone.”

  “Whoever or whatever has rattled your cage, Julia, it might help if you spoke about it,” Calix said, any sarcasm that had once been in his voice now drained away.

  “There’s nothing to talk about, and even if there was, I wouldn’t talk about it with you,” I said without looking back as I climbed the stairs.

  “I’m just trying to be friendly, that’s all,” Calix said, skulking away from the foot of the stairs and pulling open the front door.

  Stopping midstride, I turned back at him. “Making friends with werewolves doesn’t seem to get me very far. I’m sick and tired of the lot of you. I just want to be left alone.”

  Standing in the open doorway, Calix glanced up the stairs at me where I lingered with the sheet draped about me like a shawl. “Whatever is eating you, Julia, I’d think long and hard about it.”

  “And what do you mean by that?”

  “Now that Trent and the others have gone, it’s only me and old man Morton you have for company in Shade and I don’t have to remind you that both of us are werewolves – we’re all you’ve got,” Calix said before leaving my home, swinging the door shut behind him.

  No, I didn’t want to be reminded of that fact. I didn’t want to be reminded that Trent had broken a promise that he’d made me – only to be
tray me – leave me alone in Shade with Calix and Morten. With my head and shoulders slouched forward, I stomped up the stairs. I headed back to my bedroom, where the curtains were still drawn across the windows, and threw myself onto the bed. I armed away the tears that threatened in my eyes and beat the pillows with my fists. Pulling the blankets above my head, I screamed until my throat felt raw. I hated Trent but I hated myself more. Why had I been so stupid? How had I been so willing? How could I have given myself away so cheaply? Was I really that needy that I felt I had to have the love of a Beautiful Immortal to make myself feel complete? Why couldn’t I be like the other Wicce and be happy and content to fall in love with a warlock or wizard? Why had I always felt the burning need and desire to search out and fall in love with the creatures I knew would only end up breaking my heart? And what riled me more than anything was that even as Trent had made a promise to me, I knew in my heart that he would break it. His feelings weren’t true for me – he just wanted to use me – have sex with me. I had taken him into my bed believing he would be there in the morning just like he had promised he would be. How could I have believed he would’ve really sent Calix back to their homeland in his place? Trent was their leader, after all.

  With my heart feeling as if it had been used as a punch bag, I drew my knees up to my chest and folded my arms about me, trying to make myself as small as possible beneath the sheets – hoping that if I became small enough I might just disappear and never be found again. I pictured myself standing on the edge of the platform at that remote railway station, wondering now whether I had made the right decision after all by stepping down in front of the approaching train. Because I hadn’t ended my life as I’d intended – I’d been given another one. And at first I seized it with both hands, relishing a new start, a chance to right what I’d made wrong. I’d told myself that if I didn’t make the same mistakes that I once had, then maybe – just maybe – things would be better this time around and the world wouldn’t fall into chaos. But it would appear that wherever I went, mayhem and destruction followed close behind. But was I not flagellating myself too much? The war between the vampires and the werewolves had already started by the time I’d stepped off that train and into this world. However, I wasn’t so naïve that I didn’t know about the layers and that what had happened in one, happened in another – although to differing degrees. There had been a part of me that was glad that the war had seeped through the layers and into this world because it gave me a chance to end it and make amends.

  Cradling myself beneath the sheets, I screwed my eyes shut and thought of Pariac and Theo. I remembered with agony how the three of us – blinded by jealousy and hate – had sparked off a series of events that would lead to a war that would decimate the Lycanthrope species and enslave the humans. It seemed impossible to comprehend how such anguish and pain had been born out of the love and infatuation myself, Pariac, and Theo had once shared. Both of them were now dead and it was me who had been left to carry the burden of making everything right again. And to be honest, I wasn’t doing a very good job. By letting my feelings grow for Trent, it had set me off down a path that I knew would be difficult to return from. Perhaps Trent had realised that too as he’d woken in the harsh light of day and realised that our lovemaking would only lead to more hurt and pain. Maybe he had saved us both a world of heartache by leaving me and heading back to his homeland in search of his people. But unlike Trent, I had no people to head home to. It would appear from what Morten had told me, the witches that had once inhabited this world had lived in a town called Twisted Den from which they had fled from or died in.

  Pulling the bedding around me tighter still, I’d never felt so utterly alone.

  Chapter Two

  I lived the next two weeks of my life like a virtual recluse. I didn’t leave my tiny house on the edge of the park once. I stayed barricaded behind the windows, the walls, and the doors, full of self-pity and remorse for what I’d done and how I’d been left feeling by Trent’s betrayal. Calix came to my house every day. He would knock on the front door and peer through the windows, calling out my name. But I wouldn’t open the door to him. I didn’t want to speak to him, nor anyone else for that matter. Morten came once or twice, and just like Calix had, the old man would knock on the front door with his bony knuckles and call out my name in his rasping tones. Just as I’d ignored Calix, I ignored Morten, too. I still felt too angry with their species to speak to either of them. And as the days slowly passed, the time I spent alone did nothing to soften the feelings of anger and regret that I felt inside.

  On the tenth day of my self-imposed solitude, Calix came once more, and pushing open the letterbox with his fingers, he called through at me.

  “Julia, I know you’re in there, and for whatever reason you are pissed off, but if you don’t come out you’re going to starve to death. So why don’t you just let me in and I can rustle up some breakfast for us both? We can talk through whatever it is that has rattled your chains so much. That’s what friends do, isn’t it?”

  Cowering in the shadows at the top of the stairs, I made no reply to him. When there was only silence, I crept along the landing and into my room. Carefully, I twitched back the curtains and watched him heading down the front garden path, through the gate where he stopped and looked back up at the window where I stood hiding. I let the curtain fall down into place and crawled back into bed.

  The following morning, Calix returned and called through the letterbox once more. “You may hate me, Julia, and in a way I kinda understand that. A lot of people hate me – I have that effect on them,” he said. “However, I can’t let you starve in there so I’ve brought you some supplies – you know, food and stuff, and a bog-roll just in case you’ve run out or got the runs! Okay, I guess I’m not really helping, so I’ll piss off now, but you know where I am if you need anything at all.”

  And then he was gone again and I was alone once more. I sat at the top the stairs with my chin resting on my knees and gave Calix time to get far away from the house. When I was sure he was gone, I crept from my hiding place and headed down the stairs to the front door. Slowly, I opened the door an inch and peered out. There was no sign of Calix. Swinging the door open just a little more, I peered down and could see that he had left behind a bag. Snatching it up, I carried it back into the house, closing the front door behind me. I carried the bag into the kitchen and inspected the supplies that Calix had brought me. There were some tins of ham, some sachets of powdered soup, two cans of sliced peaches, and as promised, a roll of toilet paper. At the very bottom of the bag was a bar of chocolate. Smiling for the first time in weeks, I tore back the silver foil and broke off a chunk of the dark chocolate. Groaning with delight, I slowly chewed the chocolate, rolling my eyes back in their sockets. And as I sat at the kitchen table eating the chocolate and looking at the provisions Calix had brought me, I suspected that however hard I didn’t want to believe it, I did have a friend in Calix. Without fail he had come to my house every day to make sure that I was okay. I knew Calix was strong enough to break the door down if he’d wished to do so, but I sensed that he knew I just wanted to be left alone and he respected that fact.

  What reason did I really have to be mad at Calix for? Okay, he was a smart mouth pretty much all the time, couldn’t keep his hands to himself, and often made salacious remarks toward me. He had bitten me but was that reason enough to hold a grudge? After all, he had bitten me to save my life, so shouldn’t I be grateful for that at least? And just as both Morten and Trent had said it would, the bite-mark had almost faded now. No more hairs had grown from it and I had been left with just two small pinkish-coloured puncture marks on the right side of my neck. Shouldn’t that be reason enough to lighten my mood and shake off the self-pitying feelings that I secretly knew I was wallowing in?

  If the knowledge I wasn’t going to change into a werewolf wasn’t enough to snap me out of my malaise, shouldn’t the realisation that I still had to find a truce between the vampires and w
erewolves be enough to get me to step foot outside my front door? I’d been hoping that over the two weeks I’d spent in isolation that my magic would have fully returned, but it hadn’t. The ebbing and flowing currents of magic that I’d always felt inside me for as long as I could remember had started to return but I knew they were still very weak. And without the spell book that had been stolen from me, I felt unable to really work on the magic and bring it back to life and flower once more within me. Instead of flowing throughout my entire being like a constant hum, the magic came in small yet triumphant bursts. I was now able to open and close doors just by thinking about it, to make a cup or spoon fly into my hand without reaching for it. These were just mere trifles and took very little magic at all to achieve. However, I took some solace knowing that day by day my magic was growing stronger. But was it strong enough to rely on if I were to leave Shade and head for the town of Maze where I hoped to negotiate a truce between the Beautiful Immortals?

  It was with this thought at the forefront of my mind that I knew I couldn’t afford for very much longer to give into the melancholy mood which had consumed me since I’d woken to discover that I’d been used by Trent. There was nothing I could do about that now, and it was something I would have to face on Trent’s return to Shade. I was just wasting time – time that would be better served finding the peace that I’d come into this world in search of instead of agonising over Trent. And with each passing day, I began to wonder whether he deserved the heartache that I felt. I was slowly growing to realise that I’d wasted too much energy and time thinking about him than on the real reason that I was here. If by the time Trent, Rea, and Rush returned I’d negotiated the truce I’d come in search of, I could leave Shade and the werewolves far behind me and go in search of a new and happier life.

  So feeling emboldened by my new sense of direction and purpose, I snatched up my coat and left my home for the first time in weeks and went in search of Morten.