Read Vampire Lies (Blood and Snow Season Book 1) Online
Authors: RaShelle Workman
Vampire Lies (Blood and Snow Season Book 1) (21 page)
A similar scene
to the first happened ten more times. With every death, Laeddin’s pain seemed to grow. It became almost its own living thing, an object I could reach out and touch. Would he be able to forgive me?
The final
demura was the one in Salem. “That is Iza. He is stalking the young man. Do you see?”
The young man she mentioned
was Cam. He carried a backpack and walked nervously down a trail in the forest. The demura hovered above, trailing a little way behind, like the tail of a kite. “What are you doing in the woods?” I whispered.
He seemed to hear and turned. “Jack, is that you?”
I covered my mouth.
The demura floated in front of Cam. “Can you tell me where your friend is?”
Cam tried to run backward, away from the demura, but he tripped over a tree root and fell.
The demura drew closer. “Make it stop,” I shouted.
Iza changed direction and headed my way. It didn’t get far before it evaporated and disappeared just as the others had.”
I sighed with relief. Cam was safe.
The swirling scenery faded and I could no longer see Cam.
“There, you’ve witnessed the demura are gone.”
I was afraid to look at Laeddin, but I had to verify his tattoos had been removed. He’d told me they would vanish when we was no longer a genie. Sorrow etched his brow.
Laeddin,
my mind cried, wanting nothing more than to wish his pain away.
Laeddin checked his wrists
at the same time I did. The tattoos were still there.
“What about Laeddi
n? He still wears the mark of the genie.”
Maleficent laughed. “I said I would free the brothers from the curse, but I didn’t say which ones. You should be glad I reversed the curse on the eleven demura.”
“That isn’t what we agreed on.” I stepped forward. If I had to I would drain the sorceress dry. Take her blood for my own and show her she was messing with the wrong girl.
“Oh, but it is, Jasmine.” Her eyes glowed the color of the orb on her staff. “Give me my wings,
vampire.” Her staff struck the ground and a dark light rippled out. As soon as it reached me, it stopped and crawled up my body. Pain radiated from my back. It was as though Maleficent had torn the wings from my back with her bare hands.
I screamed and screamed and screamed until my throat went raw. At some point I felt
strong hands lift me and I wondered if it was the skull monkey preparing to throw me into the Cave of Vipers.
I didn’t care. The pain
radiating from my back was so intense I wanted nothing more than to die. Death would’ve been preferable to the agonizing ripping and clawing.
My mind swirled with sh
adowy creatures. They whispered and chattered. I strained to hear, but I couldn’t understand.
Two shapeless creatures swirled around.
“She is close.”
Yes, her end is near.”
“This is better than we could’ve have planned.”
“It’s delicious. The vampire will easily take her now.”
We were no longer in Laeddin’s world. The scent around me had changed. I knew I’d been brought back to the human world, to the house that was my mother
’s. I wanted to open my eyes, talk to Laeddin, but my body wouldn’t allow it.
Somehow I was still connected to Maleficent.
I watched her fly through the night, using
my
wings. She was no longer clad in black, but wore blood red pants and a shirt that contrasted sharply with my wings. She reminded me of someone, but as soon as I had the thought, it vanished.
I watched
Maleficent attack a human. His eyes stared lifelessly into the night as she drained him dry. That caused my mind to reel with disbelief. Had my wings changed Maleficent into a vampire? When she finished drinking, she flew into Sharra and descended on Titan’s mountain.
Row after row
of crypts lined the catacombs inside the mountain. I had no idea so many magical creatures had been imprisoned.
Maleficent roamed the crypts, until she found the one she wanted.
Then she opened it.
A female
vampire lay inside. Maleficent tore a gash in her wrist and placed the wound over the vampire’s mouth. After several moments, the vampire corpse lifted her hands to Maleficent’s wrist and began to. “Drink, Velencia. We have much work to do.”
As Velencia drank another
vampire entered the catacombs.
“What are you doing here? I know you’ve served under the new Queen.”
The vampire bowed low. “I’ve seen the error of my ways and have come to realize Snow White is not the ruler we need. It is you.”
Maleficent gave her an evil grin. “Well, Ciana, that you knew I was here tel
ls me your loyalties are at least somewhat true. I may have use for you.”
“Thank you,” Ciana
said, standing upright.
My already sickened heart sank deeper into despair. I’d believed Ciana to be my friend, almost like a second mother.
Maleficent suddenly seemed to realize I watched her. She hissed, allowing her fangs to show. Shocked, I tried to get away. Maleficent smiled and lifted a hand across my eyes.
My mind went numb. Life
no longer glinted in a kaleidoscope of colors. There was only gray.
***
Loud voices erupted all around me. I wanted to make them to stop, but I was too tired.
“If we don’t take her back to Sharra, she’ll die.” That was a guy’s voice. It was strange, but it sounded like Peter. How would he know about Sharra? The question sparked me into action. I tried to open my eyes, but couldn’t.
“I can’t let you. She is bound to me and I cannot disobey her wish.” Laeddin sounded pained, like he ached to help, but my wish demanded I stay in the human world.
“You have to let us. You must.
It’s been a week since you brought her back and nothing’s changed. She hasn’t moved.” It sounded like Zoe’s voice, but that was impossible. If Zoe and Peter were from Sharra I would’ve recognized them. I knew nearly every magical creature in my land, and certainly vampires. Unless… could it be? I went back over the past couple of weeks. The brief time we’d spent together. Each time though I was left with a sense of compassion. I was drawn to them. Looking over our interactions it was obvious. It shocked me I hadn’t realized who they really were before now.
Zoe and Peter were…
“She’s waking,” Laeddin whispered. “And I can’t let you take her back. Maleficent didn’t break the bond between Jasmine and me. She still has two wishes and I cannot be separated from her until I grant them.”
“You can come back too,” Zoe insisted.
“No, I can’t. Her first wish still holds. She must remain in the human world.” Laeddin’s voice echoed with finality.
“
Ugh! Fine.”
“D
on’t tell her what you know. We’ll find a way to help her on her terms.” That was Peter’s voice.
“Keep our secret, genie. If you care for her the way I believe you do,
don’t say a word. Obviously her wish is important, even now. Perhaps if I would’ve been more understanding we wouldn’t be in this situation,” Zoe said.
“Nonsense,” Peter added.
My mind was whirling.
How did they know? Why hadn’t they said anything?
And if they were
in the human world, what was to become of Sharra?
End of Book
1
Coming September 14
th
~
Vampire Secrets
book 2.
Thank you for reading the first book in the second season of Blood and Snow. In Vampire Lies we meet Jasmine. She’s
comparable to the Original Vampires in that she has wings, but she doesn’t like being different.
Over the course of this
season she’ll come to realize that what makes her different is the attribute that will save those she loves.
I hope you enjoyed
Vampire Lies. If so, please go back to Amazon and leave a review. I would really appreciate it.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
RaShelle Workman
“For your vanity, your cruelty, and your cold unfeeling heart, a curse I leave upon you . . .”
What happens if the beauty is also the beast?
The stunning Beatrice Cavanaugh is considered American royalty. She has everything except the ability to love. Cursed on her eighteenth birthday, she becomes more beastly than ever, having a newfound craving for raw meat, and an undeniable yearning for the night. Bitterness is her only companion.
After accusing a maid of stealing, a disgustingly kind and exquisitely handsome guy named Adam shows up asking Beatrice to drop the charges against his mother.
Infuriated by his goodness, Beatrice vows to break him. Destroy him. Make him hurt the way she hurts. So she agrees. On one condition: Adam must take his mother’s place as a servant in the mansion.
Because Beatrice won’t stop until he’s more beastly than she is.
Coming December 21
st
, 2014 is a brand new story.
Ghosts are real. So is time travel.
Eighteen-year-old Lucy Channing discovers this reality after her dead grandmother gives her a beautiful locket. As soon as her fingers brush the cold copper, Lucy is swept out of the nineteenth century and into the twenty-first.
The first person she encounters is none other than twenty-year-old William Godwin. He’s uber-rich, arrogant, exciting, and oh so handsome.
William agrees to help the strange girl find her way home. Or into the nearest mental institution.
But what the two uncover reveals more than ghosts and time travel. Lucy and William discover a love greater than time itself.
A love so strong it reaches...
