Vampire Apocalypse (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #3) (12 page)

I was worn out, plain and simple. I
needed the sleep to get my groove back and I knew it. If I had gone
on much longer such a severe lack of sleep, I would have been
putting myself and my friends at risk. So, the car ride was a good
time to catch up and get my strength back.

The trip to New Orleans took two full
days. Mid-morning of the third day we approached the city famous
for its ghosts and vampires with anticipation.

Suddenly, the bridge leading into New
Orleans loomed before us … but that wasn’t the only thing waiting
for us at the entry to the city.

Military trucks were parked in such a
way that it blocked passage over the bridge. Men in Army uniforms
stood in a line across the road in front of the trucks, armed with
standard military weapons. The dragons on their cheeks were
prominently displayed for all to see, telling us that we were going
to fight our way into New Orleans.

I sat in the Escalade with Luke, Drew,
and Gavin. Alice, Oscar, and Christina were in the truck with
Zander. This scene wasn’t a surprise; we knew that it was the only
way in, aside from searching the banks of the Mississippi for a
boat. And if we were caught in the middle of the river and needed
to fight we stood much less of a chance.

We rolled to a stop, both vehicles
pausing side by side. The men in uniforms didn’t budge an inch, but
a loud shouting erupted from one of the vehicles. “Step out of your
vehicles and put your hands in the air!”

The four of us glanced at each other,
again not surprised.

“
You ready?” Drew asked
us.

Luke took a deep breath. “Ready as
I’ll ever be.”

Gavin and I answered in unison,
“Ready.”

Drew was driving and I was in the
passenger seat. He reached over and gave me a much longer kiss than
I would have preferred in front of my grandfather, but … it could
very well be the last one ever, so what the hell.

After he released me, my adrenaline
was really pumping from the contact and I withdrew my guns from
their holsters. “Let’s do this.”

They drew their guns as well, then we
all opened our doors simultaneously and stepped out of the
vehicle.

~~~***~~~

READ AN EXCERPT
FROM

THE ARCADIA FALLS CHRONICLES
BOOK 4

This is an un-edited excerpt, at this
time of uploading Arcadia Book 4 has not been published
yet.

I was on autopilot now, open the door,
get out, fight, kill … survive.

I stepped out of the car and a blast
of hot, muggy Louisiana air hit me, causing a sheen of sweat to
instantly appear on my skin. The breeze didn’t do anything to help
matters, it only made things worse by catching my hair and making
it flutter around into my eyes.

My guns were both drawn as I moved out
from behind the car door to face the men who awaited us at the
bridge. They had blocked the entrance into New Orleans with their
trucks and stood in front of the vehicles with their assault rifles
aimed at us.

The men were in military uniforms,
right down to the Kevlar and flack vests. Dark sunglasses covered
their eyes, but the dragon tattoos on their right cheeks stood out
prominently displaying their loyalty to the Vampire Council. I
counted eight men in uniforms. There were six of us, but that
didn’t mean anything when we were up against assault rifles. It
looked like Alice was going to have to do a lot of the heavy
lifting for us to get out of this one.

“
Set your weapons down and
put your hands in the air!” The loudspeaker guy
repeated.

I knew better than to look at my
comrades, a good Hunter always kept her attention on the target. We
had known this was coming long before we arrived, so we were
somewhat prepared.

I felt, more than saw the shimmering
bubble silently slip around me. I knew without looking that the
shield was large enough to cover the whole group.

Drew, and Luke stood to my left and
Gavin was directly behind me. Alice, Oscar, Zander and Christina
were to our right, having pulled Zander’s truck up on that side of
the Escalade. It had been decided ahead of time that none of us
were going to part with our weapons. We couldn’t chance losing our
only guns since there was no way for us to get any more at the
moment.

“
Now!” The loudspeaker guy
demanded.

None of us complied with his repeated
order, so his next order was to his soldiers. “Fire!”

If you have enjoyed the
books in The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter and The Arcadia Falls
Chronicles, please consider leaving a review wherever you purchased
it.

Thank you!

READ AN EXCERPT FROM
SAVIOR

A FULL LEGNTH NOVEL BY
JENNIFER MALONE WRIGHT

Sweltering heat emanated
from the searing flames. Alex ignored his blistered skin and burnt
clothes. He plunged both arms into the blazing orange inferno
without a second thought for his own well-being. His hands
frantically flailed until he found what he searched for. He pulled
the charred remains up and hugged them to his chest before he gave
a desperate glance toward the others.

Smoke curled into his
mouth and nose and made it nearly impossible to breathe.

“
Hurry, hurry. Get out
now,” a gentle voice whispered into his ears. “You must go right
now if you want to live.”

However, he couldn’t leave
them behind.

“
Go now,” the voice
whispered more urgently.

Sparks flew when a giant
log broke in half and fell from the ceiling. It crashed onto the
floor less than two feet from where Alex stood. Flames engulfed the
fallen wood and created yet another obstacle.

The voice tried again,
crying out, “Hurry, Alex!”

Alex knew he needed to
move if he wanted to live, but he paused for a moment to question
whether he even wanted to bother. The flames grew while Alex stood
motionless, undecided. Suddenly, a great push from behind thrust
him forward toward a wall of fire.

***

Alex stirred in his mahogany coffin,
one of the best money could buy. He felt the soft, white velvet
lining rub against his cheek, but it didn't comfort him. He panted
like a thirsty dog and writhed helplessly inside the narrow wooden
box.

His eyes snapped open. First, he
checked his hands for burns, but he found none. He groaned while he
became more aware, and realized he'd had another
nightmare.

He sighed, wondering if the recurring
dreams were going to last forever. He reached up and unlatched the
locks he’d installed for his own safety, or at least his peace of
mind. He pushed open the lid and sat upright. His gaze wandered
across the room while his mind tried to fight off the feeling of
dread he had about the night ahead.

In the center of a large stone room
that was buried deep beneath his house, his coffin rested on a
massive stone slab with Egyptian hieroglyphic carvings around its
edges. The carvings read, ‘Death is not but eternal life.’ The slab
and coffin were the focus of the room, with the only other items
being his slippers and a small table that held a candelabra and a
box of wooden matches.

Alex lit a match and touched it to the
candle wicks. A soft glow lit the room and let him safely climb out
of his coffin. When he slammed the lid shut, the hollow sound
reverberated off the stone walls and quickly died. He wedged his
large feet into his slippers, padded to the wide steel door and
punched a series of numbers into an electronic keypad. The door
emitted a soft whooshing sound when the lock released.

Yawning, he stepped through the door
and into a maze of tunnels that worked their way into deadly traps
scattered throughout his underground chamber. Another whoosh
signaled the door locking behind him. With the candelabra in his
right hand, Alex moved through the maze and watched the flickering
shadows play on the walls.

Alex stopped short and blinked. He saw
what he thought was Malcolm's face, shining menacingly in the light
ahead. He held the candles out toward the face, but the image
wavered in the candlelight and disappeared.

Hmmmm
, he thought,
perhaps the night ahead
will prove eventful after all.  

Except for his echoing footsteps, the
tunnels were deadly silent. Once he reached the end of the tunnels,
he faced yet another heavy steel door with an electronic lock.
Again, Alex entered a code on a keypad and exited the tunnels into
a small closet.

Finally, he came to a thick oak door
that simply needed a key. He removed the key from the pocket of his
pajama shirt. Alex unlocked the door, entered the actual bedroom of
his house, and relocked the entryway to the tunnels like he always
did.

More out of habit than concern, Alex
scanned the room with all his senses. Despite popular legend, the
many mirrors in the room reflected his image off each
other.

Alex gazed longingly at the four
poster bed in which he never slept. The thick mattress was clothed
in burgundy blankets with piles of decorative pillows scattered
across the head of the bed. Burgundy and black dominated the color
scheme: black carpet, burgundy walls, and sheer black curtains
shading the windows.

Preferring the softer light of
candles, he bypassed the light switch and went to the dressing
table. He placed the candelabra on the table and picked up a candle
that stood in a golden holder with biblical carvings on its base.
Each time he lit the candle he was reminded of his time in Rome.
The things there were so beautiful he couldn’t resist bringing
something home for himself.

Alex knew his hobby of decorating
bordered on obsessive. He brought back things from his journeys all
over the world to put in his main house in Reno. But his house was
finished.

On top of that, his casinos
practically ran themselves. His place on the Higher Collective only
occupied him every now and then.

He found it an awful feeling, having
no purpose.

He tried to ignore the weakness that
plagued his body with pain, indicating it was time to feed again.
Glancing at his nightstand, he noticed the blinking red message
light on his cellphone. Pushing back the pangs of hunger, he
checked the messages.

Damion’s smooth voice came through the
earpiece. “Hey Alex, I’ve set a Collective meeting for tonight.
Something is going down with Malcolm ... I really don’t like the
feel of it. I think we all need to get together to talk about this
one. Eleven, conference room.”

Clicking his phone shut and throwing
it on the bed, Alex went to his closet and rummaged through his
clothes. With exacting care, he chose a black Armani suit,
complemented by a dark red dress shirt. Dark red was his power
color, and he loved to feel powerful.

In the connecting bathroom he stripped
out of his pajamas. The reflection staring back at him was one that
would never change. Until the end of his existence, each time he
looked in the mirror, he would see a twenty-eight-year-old man. His
harsh Russian features would forever remain without wrinkles, and
his coal black hair would never gray. His eyes, though, told the
story of his age, and even he could see the stories in
them.

His bare arms and chest still held the
large muscles of the hardworking man he had been as a mortal.
Although, his chest now bore the one mark he had allowed himself to
get. He ran his fingers over the red longevity symbol. He had
chosen longevity as a marker for being immortal. Like it was
yesterday he remembered China and the tattoo shop where he had
received the tattoo. As a last minute decision he asked the artist
to add the three koi fish in a circle around the longevity symbol
because the koi fish were associated with life-long good luck. And
he felt like he sure need some of that.

Alex continued to think about China
and its rare beauty while he carefully applied a dark, skin-colored
foundation to his face and hands to cover his paleness. It was
worth the effort to prevent mortals from questioning his light
skin. After checking himself in the mirror again, Alex donned his
black leather overcoat, a long flowing garment that swept the
floor.

He allowed himself one last approving
glance in the mirror, grabbed his briefcase off his dresser, and
left the room.

He opened the garage door and sighed
with pride. The room glimmered with glossy paint and shiny chrome
from the many vehicles. He chose his orange ’69 Mustang, because he
wanted to stop at the church before the meeting, but he didn’t have
much time to spare. He slipped into the driver’s seat, set his
briefcase on the seat beside him, and then, with the turn of the
key, the car came to life. After he backed out of the garage, he
shut the doors with a remote and roared his way out of the long
driveway.

At that hour of night, the
pine-tree-lined streets were deserted. Alex liked that. Living
outside the city, between Reno and Lake Tahoe, gave him more
privacy. Although it was raining, he opened his window halfway to
let in the fresh scent of the rain-washed earth.