Kindle Edition
Goodreads
Category:
Fantasy
Publisher: Isaiyan Morrison
Type: Fiction
Pages: 65
Copyright: June 7, 2018
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
Choices must be made.
Choices must be made.
Veronica Austin has been through it all. After being attacked by a random Deamhan vampire, her fellow Deamhan friends Remy and Anastasia save her life by handing her over to The Brotherhood. It’s an organization that Veronica’s intimately familiar with, considering her parents’ long and secret involvement with them. And as mysterious observers of the Deamhan around them, The Brotherhood is just as dark and dangerous.
Several years later, Veronica has recovered from the attack and is released from The Brotherhood. She heads back to Minneapolis, where her fellow Deamhan thrive. But secrets are soon unearthed and nothing will ever be the same. Now Veronica must decide whose side she’s on – The Brotherhood that’s fueled the tragedy in her family or the Deamhan who have betrayed her.
Veronica (Deamhan Chronicles #4.5) is the latest captivating installment in the Deamhan Chronicles series. In this gripping tale, loss and revenge form the backdrop of a young woman’s journey to discover the truth about everything she holds dear… and what she finally needs to get rid of.
Excerpt
I opened it halfway, just enough to slip through, and closed the door behind me. Remy’s bold appearance at the chapter didn’t surprise me, even though I thought I’d made it clear I no longer trusted him. But since when did he ever listen to my advice? Remy always did what Remy wanted to do. That was who he was.
“Ahh, there you are.” He wore a thick pea coat and black jeans.
I noticed dried blood spots on his hands and pointed. In response, he shot me his usual grin. “Didn’t want you to think I’d lost my style… y’know, being a Deamhan and all.”
“Really? Is this how you’re trying to win me back?”
“You were right about a few things,” he said. “But wrong about so much more.”
“You shouldn’t have come here,” I did my best to stand my ground, but he wasn’t having any of it.
“I came here to talk some sense into you.” He held out his hand to me.
“Let’s go for a walk, just you and me. I thought maybe we could talk out our problems.”
“Talk out our problems?” I looked at his extended hand as if it was abnormal and intrusive. I didn’t want to take it. They were the same hands that ended my father’s life and many others before him. “Remy, there’s nothing to talk about. Please, just… just go away.”
“But you don’t know what I have to say.”
“I don’t care what you have to say.” I heard the door open behind me.
“You heard her,” Ian said. “She doesn’t care what you have to say.”
I watched as Remy’s eyes fluttered and they switched back and forth from brown to black and then back to brown again. “My, my. Aren’t you an attractive one!” He had no choice but to take notice. “I haven’t seen one of you in over a hundred years.”
“One of you?” I questioned.
“At first, I thought I smelled one, but I wasn’t sure.” He tilted his head to the side to study Ian’s physique.
“Then you know what I can do if you don’t leave,” Ian warned.
“Wait a minute!” I stepped in between them. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, don’t look surprised,” Remy replied. “Do you think I wasn’t aware of what the Brotherhood is up to?
His question threw me for a loop.
“And I thought there were no more Behesians running around,” he added.
“Guess I was wrong.”
I spun around and faced Ian. “You’re one of them?”
Remy laughed. “Oh, he didn’t tell you, did he? How Brotherhood of him.” He leaned his upper body to the right.
“Anyway, we really need to talk,
Veronica. Privately.”
“You can talk to me,” Ian answered.
“If I wanted to, I would, but I have nothing to say to you.” His upper lip curled in disgust. “Behesian.”
Ian warned him again. “You now have five seconds to leave these premises.”
“Or what? Gonna blast me with some dark magic?”
“You don’t want to find out. But I’ll finish what my ancestors started.”
Suddenly, Remy wasn’t laughing anymore. With his eyes now dark again, he lowered his voice. “Boy, you don’t want to start with me.”
I had enough of the unsettling drama between them. “Remy, you want to talk. Let’s talk.”
His welcoming behavior towards me returned. “Good, but not here.” He pointed to his left ear. “I don’t want your Behesian friend to hear me.”
With him leading the way, I reluctantly followed him until we ended up clear across the city street. He stopped just by a closed pawn shop and with his hands deep in the pockets of his pea coat, he started to speak.
“I don’t get it,” he said. “Really, I just don’t understand why you’d choose them over us?”
“Of course you don’t because you can’t,” I replied. “Do we really have to repeat what happened at Blind Bluff Manor?”
“I told you it was an accident.”
“He was my father, Remy.”
“Oh, c’mon, Ronnie. Before, you hated your father and now you’re acting like he was the greatest man on this planet.” He paced back and forth. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what more to say to make you understand. I tried to do what was best for him, for you! I helped him get better and he was the one who attacked me for it!”
“You didn’t try to help him because it was right. You tried to help him because you wanted me. You were only thinking about yourself.”
He kicked at an empty Styrofoam cup on the street. “Behesians and humans do that too, you know.”
“Yes, but right now, they want the same thing I do. They want to put an end to this.”
“That’s exactly what I want,” he replied. “You think I want to keep fighting? You think I want to lose you?”
“I was never yours.”
“I have to try a lot harder to be who you want me to be, Veronica. I miss you.”
|
