Awakening (Willow Creek Vampires Series Book 3) Read online

  Awakening: A Willow Creek Vampires Novel

  Book #3

  Stephanie Summers

  Awakening: Book #3 of The Willow Creek Vampires Series

  © 2014, 2015 Stephanie Summers.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and settings are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, names, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Published by: Wicked Dragon Publishing

  PROLOGUE

  From nothing, a swirling mist of consciousness began to form. The sweet relief of darkness faded, giving way to light. A man—an ancient man with dark curls framing a hardened face. His lips curled into a sinister smile while dark brows drew closer together. A tremendous pressure built in the air, holding him in place, as the man moved closer. The man began to speak, though his words fell on deaf ears. Eyes as dark as coal peered through the abyss revealing… something… a familiar abomination. But who was he and why did he seem so close in the nothingness?

  With an icy touch, unfamiliar and unbridled power coursed through Remy’s veins, restoring life as it went. Fangs elongated as hunger, so intense it threatened to uncage the beast buried within, consumed him. The scent of love grew faint as he hungered to taste the sweet blood responsible for the assault on his senses. Heavy lids opened, revealing dark eyes that were once vivid and bright like emeralds.

  Awakening, he sprang to his feet, looking around at the crowd of humans. Teeth bared, he was ready to take every last drop of life from them all until he could find the source of the only blood, he knew, would entirely satiate the thirst that felt as if it had been building for centuries. Beating hearts and voices pounded through his ears while silence gave way to sound. Chaos ensued as a crowd full of newly turned humans tried to make sense of the events that had transpired.

  Men and women scrambled about. Some of them wailed from utter panic while others barely moved from shock.

  Bastian, the former lord of the manor, stood at the center of them with a cold, hardened look about him. Hands grasped at his legs, begging him to fix everything, but he could not, for he was merely human as well.

  To his left, the only vampire remaining in the crowd shielded a young woman. Shifter, he quickly decided from the poorly masked scent tangled with magic she emitted.

  A few of the humans began to notice Damen—or at least that was what he thought his name was. Damen drew their attention because he wasn’t reacting and still had the brilliant eyes of a vampire. They moved toward him, pleading for him to turn them back into immortal beings. Body stiffening as his eyes narrowed, Damen’s gaze landed on him.

  Searching for the source of the feminine scent of love or a glimpse of the one who had left it behind, he scanned the room, but she was nowhere to be found. The noise level rose, making his head throb.

  “Silence!”

  The crowd stilled. He walked swiftly to the center of the room where Bastian stood.

  “Remy, my son, please let us sit and discuss this. We need each other now more than ever. Let us put the past behind us.”

  Remy, yes, that was his name.

  “Your son?” Remy dragged his hand through his hair and stepped closer to Bastian, forcing him to stumble back a step. “Do you not realize what has happened,” he said, his head tilting to the side, “mortal?”

  “I know we have all lost our immortality because you foolishly chose to kill Nicas,” Bastian said, never losing his composure.

  “Not all of us. Damen is still vampire. I am still vampire. And, you? You are nothing. How does it feel to have your fate in my hands once again? How does it feel to have to obey me if you want to live?”

  Bastian’s eyebrows knitted together as he studied Remy’s face. “My son… once again?”

  “I am not your son. You should never have summoned me here or allowed this to happen.”

  “If I had not summoned you, she would never have existed to you. Is that something you would throw away so easily? I know I would not.”

  Remy turned to Damen, motioning him forward. “A king should have a proper seat to sit upon. Go to this old fool’s room and search through his collection of useless garbage until you find something fitting. Then, find her. She must return to me immediately.” What was her name? Ah, yes, they mentioned the name Sabine while babbling on about nothing, just before… That must be her.

  Within a few minutes, Damen came back hauling a gaudy chair adorned with golden accents and a black velvet seat. He sat it on the raised platform, and peered at the crowd of quiet humans.

  Remy lifted Bastian by the throat. Gasping for air, his legs kicked as he tried to squirm out of Remy’s cold grasp. “I believe a little poetic justice is in order. Take him to the dungeon where he held me.”

  Remy tossed Bastian aside like a rag doll and placed himself on the throne.

  CHAPTER 1

  Sabine Crowley slammed the car into park and exited, making her way quickly through the front door. Heavy breaths echoed through the hallway as she hurried to the ballroom to see what awaited her. The coolness of the marble floors soothed her scratched and dirtied bare feet. The only regret she had from rushing out earlier was that she didn’t stop to put on shoes… Well, that and leaving her beloved’s corpse sprawled out on a cold, marble floor.

  Tears threatened to wet her cheeks as she prepared to see Remy lying dead where she’d left him only a few hours before. A flash of fear rippled through her body. I really shouldn’t have come back here. I’m a Grade-A dumbass. I know it’s a trap. If it wasn’t, why wouldn’t Sam or Damen just tell me what was up? Or even Gretchen, for that matter? I should’ve just left town.

  Hesitating at the entrance of the ballroom, she took a deep breath and pushed the doors open. A crowd of humans—once vampires—knelt with their backs toward her. Glancing to the spot where she’d left her love lying, her stomach knotted as the air, thick and stifling, closed in around her, threatening to take her breath away. The absence of his body tore through her like a bullet to the heart, hurting so much more than she’d anticipated. Trying to hold back the tears with a trembling lower lip, she sniffled once and looked in the direction everyone faced. Swallowing hard, she tried to calm her nauseated stomach.

  A glint of gold caught her eye, drawing her gaze to a large, ornate chair sitting on the raised platform. The same raised platform where she’d married Remy and almost been forced to marry Bastian not that long ago. Someone sat in the chair, but it wasn’t Damen like she’d expected.

  Her gaze landed on the face of the one vampire she longed to see. He’d showered and changed out of the ratty, old jeans he’d been imprisoned in. He wore boots, a clean pair of jeans that hung perfectly on his masculine frame, and a gray, just-tight-enough V-neck T-shirt. His hair, pulled back loosely, exposed his chiseled jaw.

  Gasping, she cried out, “Remy!”

  Taking off as fast as she could toward him, the tears she’d tried to keep from falling streamed down her face and dripped onto her chest. He stood as she approached him. Throwing her arms around his neck, she hugged him as tight as she could, vowing never to leave his side again.

  As she crashed into him, his body bowed slightly to accommodate the difference in heig
ht as she threw her arms around him, but stayed mostly still. His hands barely grazed her shoulders while he inhaled deeply. She expected him to embrace her, not sniff her like a dog. This wasn’t a man acting as if he’d just come back from the dead who was eager to see his wife again. His touch was indifferent, at best.

  She pulled back, looking intently at him. “What’s wrong with you?” Noticing his abnormally dark eyes, she tried to process everything that had happened over the last thirty seconds.

  “There is nothing wrong with me.” He let go of her and sat down, peering up at her as he rested his chin on his fist. “I’m better than I’ve been in centuries. I’ve brought you back here because you belong to me, and I wanted to gaze upon my possession once more.”

  “What?” Her mouth dropped open slightly as she took a step back.

  His eyebrow cocked in annoyance. “Did I stutter?”

  “What’s happened to you?” she whispered.

  “Damen, see that she gets to her room. I’ll be in shortly to speak with her. Just as soon as I figure out what to do with this lot,” he said, nonchalantly waving a hand toward Bastian’s former wedding guests.

  “No,” Sabine exclaimed. Fists balling at her sides, her mouth set in a straight line. “You aren’t just going to brush me off like that. Quit being an asshat. Now answer me, what is wrong with you?”

  His jaw clenched as he glared at her. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. Go now before you get yourself into real trouble.” The gaze from his cold eyes nearly turned her to ice.

  She turned and stormed out of the room, Damen and Sam following closely behind. None of them spoke a word until they were safely in her library.

  Sabine and Sam took one another’s hand and both grabbed hold of Damen as they entered so that he could see them. The witch, Mary Mercy, had taught Sabine a cloaking spell for this room that would keep her hidden and protected from anyone she needed to get away from. Sam had performed the same spell to keep herself hidden while she helped Sabine in the weeks leading up to where they presently found themselves.

  “Tell me what the hell is going on,” Sabine demanded, pushing a few stray hairs out of her face.

  “He’s different. I don’t know how, but he is. Before he sent Bastian down there,” Damen said, pointing down at the floor toward the dungeon beneath the room, “I asked how he’d been revived. He confided in me that he absorbed all of Nicas’ power when he killed him, and that he had Nicas to thank for everything. He spoke about Nicas as if he were a god.” Damen paced back and forth across the room before settling his back against the wall. “I honestly have no clue what to do. This is not something that has ever happened before. For all I know, he and I are the only two vampires left in the world.”

  “Are you okay?” Sam asked, wrapping her arms around Sabine.

  “I’m in shock, mostly. I don’t understand why he acted like he didn’t care about me at all… Why didn’t you tell me what I was walking into?”

  “Because, at first, we thought it would be a huge surprise for you,” Damen said, glancing at Sam with a look of concern in his eyes. “I sensed he was a little different, but figured it was because he was dead right before that. I mean, how can being dead not make you a little off your rocker if you manage to come back? As time went by, and you didn’t respond to either of our texts, I didn’t want to alarm you any further by telling you he wasn’t right. I’d hoped once he saw you, he’d be more like himself again.”

  “I’ve lost everything if I lose him.” She sobbed into Sam’s shoulder. She didn’t want to be, and never thought she’d be, one of those girls whose whole life revolved around a man, but she’d sort of been thrown into that type of situation by default when she was chosen on her eighteenth birthday.

  “You have me.” Sam squeezed her tight.

  “I know, I do. Thank you. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful for your friendship. It’s just that my family is gone.” Trembling, she gripped Sam’s arm and pulled her closer. “I needed to go home, but home was for sale, and they didn’t even tell me they left. I thought Remy was dead, and to walk in and see him up there, only to have him act as if he doesn’t care… I’m so lost.”

  Letting loose of Sam, she moved to her reading chair and sat down, pulling her knees up to her chest. A vacant look spread across her face as she looked out the bay window at nothing. The door to the room opened, catching Sabine’s attention only a few moments later.

  Remy stepped through the door, and annoyed didn’t even begin to describe the look on his face. His features were hardened and intense as he surveyed the room. He stood tall, crossing his arms as he said, “I know you’re here. I can smell you. You need to show yourself now.”

  Damen stiffened and turned to Remy. “Just give her a minute, man. Christ.”

  “You need to leave, Damen. We’ll chat soon. That goes for you, too, little shifter. I know you’re mucking about in here as well. I wouldn’t try to get on my bad side right now if I were you.”

  Sabine stood and walked out of the room. Entering the bedroom, she sat patiently on the bed, waiting for him. Sam nodded and mouthed, “I’m here for you” as she made her way to the bedroom door, Damen following close behind with his hand resting on the small of her back.

  “She’s in here, your royal fucking highness,” he said before leaving.

  In an instant, Remy stood before her. She swallowed hard and longed for him to take her into his arms and tell her he loved her; that it was all just an act to fool everyone for some reason he’d explain and it would all make perfect sense. For the first time in weeks, bars didn’t separate them, and they were free to do as they pleased, yet she felt further away from him than she ever had before.

  “You must have some questions. I will try to answer them the best I can if you can manage to behave yourself and not act like a child.”

  She fought the urge to sigh and make some show of how annoyed she was with his comment, but decided to ignore it. That would only prove his point. How would he act if he were me?

  “Why are your eyes so dark? Are you in some perpetual state of pissed off?”

  “I hadn’t realized they were.” Looking in the mirror hanging on the wall, he checked things out for himself. He studied his reflection as if it were the first time he’d really looked at his features before. “I suppose it has to do with the power coursing through my body.”

  She stood and took a step toward him. “Do you still love me?”

  “Love?” He shook his head slightly. “I feel nothing for you except lust for your blood.”

  “You told me I was the love of your life and to never forget it, so why have you forgotten it so easily?” She turned her back to him, placing her hands on the top of a writing desk to brace herself for the answer.

  “I’m afraid I’m not the same vampire you fell in love with. The Remy you knew was weak, always quietly brooding and longing for love while putting on a devil-may-care attitude to cover it up, but no more.” He stepped back, eying her. “Sabine, my darling, please turn around so I can get a better look at you.”

  Her name rolling off his tongue taunted her. Ignoring his request, she sat down on the bed. As she held her head in her hands, tears ran down her face, dripping onto the floor below. “I don’t understand any of this.”

  “It’s really quite simple. He died… trying to save you from the life you’d been sentenced to with Bastian. He succeeded in that, but he had to pay the price.”

  She calmed for a moment, pushing the tears away, as something about the way he spoke caught her attention. “Why are you referring to yourself like you’re talking about someone else?”

  He hesitated for a moment before answering. “To ease your pain. I refer to him because, as I said before, I am not the vampire you fell in love with. It’s best for you to mourn him so we can move on with whatever arrangement, or relationship if you prefer, we choose to pursue.”

  She stood and took his face in her hands. His skin felt like she was touching a
statue. Cold and unmoving. “I won’t mourn you. Maybe it’ll just take some time for you to get back to normal. You didn’t feel right at first after Mary did that spell to separate you from Bastian,” she said, looking at him with hope in her eyes. If she could just convince him that the problem was something simple that she could help him fix, then this nightmare could be over and done with. They could get on with their life together and leave this little hiccup far behind.

  He brushed her hands away from him and rolled his eyes. “So naïve.”

  “Being hopeful is not the same as being naïve. Just let me go if you aren’t willing to give it some time.”

  “I can’t do that, not yet anyway. I have to figure all of this out. There is still technically the arrangement between the vampire lord of this town and its people. Since I am the lord of all vampires and happen to be here right now, I must accept the obligation. I have to decide if it’s worth staying here or not. If I decide to leave, I may let you go, but I might just take you along.”

  “What’s the point?” she asked, plopping herself down on the bed.

  “You smell positively divine and the thought of tasting your blood drives me insane.” His canines sharpened into points as he swallowed hard and stared a hole right through her throat.

  “Oh, my blood… That, you remember…” She watched the first sign of desire spread over his face since she’d found him alive, but it wasn’t for her. Not really. Her blood was purely responsible this time. “Drain me now, and let me die in peace. Take one last taste of me, and let me go.”

  “Are you always this dramatic?” He threw his hands into the air and let them fall to his sides.

  Um, yeah, did he just meet me today? Before she had a chance to respond, he sat beside her and leaned into her personal space. His scent, masculine and heady, caressed her nose like a beautiful nightmare.

  “I’m not going to kill you, and I don’t understand why you think I would.”

  “Because I mean so little to you now, and you’re apparently some sort of fucking Dracula—being King of Vampires and all. No, wait… Even Dracula was capable of loving, so I guess you’re just a monster.”