In the Shadows by Lillith Devero (ebook audio reader txt) 📖

and she knew that it was true, she should be horribly and terribly afraid of this man. But she was freakishly calm and relaxed around him. She was never that relaxed around anyone else.
They stood there staring at each other quietly and intently as if analyzing the other person’s features. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, just silence.
Finally he held his hand out towards her. “I must apologize. I never introduced myself.” She grabbed his hand almost as if by reflex, and he gently shook it in return. “My name is Zackary. Zackary Tempest.”
Chapter 5

“Abigale Raclaw,” She said to the man who, she feared, had possibly stolen her heart, “but I prefer Abby.”
“Abigale is such a beautiful name.” Zackary said, ending their handshake and at the same time making her heart flutter. “Why would you choose to go by anything different?”
He didn’t really give her time to respond because Zackary reached up to stoke her face with the back of his hand right as he finished asking. But before their skins could make contact, Sammy burst out of the train car and pointed at him. “No! Don’t you dare even touch her!”
She used her body as a barrier between them and continued ranting at him. “Get out of my town right now before I decide to forget about letting you leave peacefully!”
He held up his hands as if in surrender, but his eyes didn’t show any sign of backing down. “I need several days in town before I can depart.” He lowered his hands back down to his sides.
Sammy opened her mouth as if to argue but before she could, he held up his hand to silence her. “I’m going to be staying in town with or without your permission, witch. Agreeing would just end up making this matter easier on your part.”
It sounded like she growled at him as she resolutely said, “Fine.” He turned as if to depart but when she continued speaking Zackary turned back around to face her. “If you swear not to harm anyone in this town.” She pulled out the knife that she had on her belt and slit the meaty part of her hand as she said it.
Zackary almost rolled his eyes at the motion. She held the knife out to him and he slit his hand the same way she had. Abby didn’t see it happen because the sight of blood made her slightly queasy and she had turned her head away, but she knew that it had happened. They were preforming a Swear Ritual which required that both parties mixed their blood, which was in violation of almost every health code, and a chant, which Sammy had begun, that, if the swear was violated, the person would die.
Sammy looked him straight in the eye for several minutes after they had let go of each other’s hands. Zackary wrapped his bleeding palm in a strip torn from his shirt as their eyes stayed locked. Sammy glared into his eyes still as if they were truly the windows to his soul and that they would reveal to her all of his deepest secrets. Eventually, the tension became so great that you could cut it with a knife. Sammy almost growled as she spat at him, “One week vampire. Then, I won’t hesitate to hunt you down and kill you.” With that she turned around swiftly, grabbed Abby’s arm, and began to almost pull her away from him.
Abby reluctantly went along with her, but not without a last hope filled glance back at him. He was the most beautiful man that she had ever seen, so beautiful, she thought, that any angel would be put to shame. Most of his hair had eagerly escaped his man ponytail and was waving delicately in the breeze as his creamy caramel chocolate eyes glimmered magically in the cool summer moonlight. His nose was an exact fit for his face, even though it looked as if it had been broken several times. His lips were full, but in a perfectly manly way. She would have looked, or stared was more like it, at more of his perfect body, except for the fact that his breathtaking eyes were holding her captive to only his face. Zackary waved at her with a wave of his fingers like a crowd in a stadium would, sending each finger downwards, one by one.
If we’re lucky we’ll never have to see that… creature, again.” That single sentence made Abby look at Sammy with a look that was probably shocked. That single sentence broke her heart into a thousand pieces. She didn’t understand why, but it still broke anyway.
She turned for another last look at him, but, it seemed as if he had already disappeared into thin air, and the little bit of her heart that hadn’t completely shattered was destroyed, and she was sure that no one would ever be able to repair it, for the only one that could have was now gone.

Zackary knew that if he didn’t leave soon that he was going to do something that; at least one of them, was going to regret. So he left as the witch pulled Abigale further and further away from him. The thought made him growl. As if she has the right-
He calmed the stormy ocean of thoughts swirling around in his head. He didn’t want to end up killing his prey tonight and have little Miss Witch coming after his ass. He just did not have enough time in this puny town to waste dealing with a dead body.
Zackary was stalking the night, right outside the city limits, once again, looking for anyone. He wasn’t in the mood to look for someone particular to suit his tastes; he just needed warm, flowing blood. Not to mention the fact that the night was aging rapidly. And luckily for him, he happened upon one, after what seemed like hours of searching.
The mortal was a blonde boy, not yet a man. He never liked drinking from men. The blood flows easier and smoother down the throat when it’s a woman’s. It’s hard to describe the subtle differences, but female blood seemed to give him more of a kick than male. The potency of male blood was just too strong in a rough way that didn’t please him. Even Abigale’s tainted-
He needed to focus on his dinner and not get sidetracked. The boy was jogging ever nearer to the town and that would just not do. If Zackary was going to pounce, he needed to do it now before the mortal crossed the border and he lost his meal, again. Abigale-
His mind just kept going off track terribly. All of his thoughts just kept ending up going back to Abigale! She was like a drug… She was his drug. She infected him like no other woman before her ever had, and his thoughts were only for her as he popped through the skin and into the man’s rivers of life-force.

“Is all of this resistance worth it?” Xavier pondered to himself as he lazily set the wine glass on the side table in the base’s den/mission control/whatever else. It was furnished in an older style that Xavier and Gregor both favored with multiple chairs and a large table for planning and mapping. “In the end we are going to most likely end up destroying the world anyway. So why fight the inevitable?”
“Xavier!” Gregor exclaimed as he stumbled across the room to confiscate the wine bottle from him. After yanking it from Xavier’s hand and taking a swig himself, he continued, “I’m the only one allowed to talk like that.” He wandered back to his seat, “And stop stealing my wine!”
Xavier let loose a sigh full to the brim with sorrow and despair. “Why are we even doing this Gregor?”
“You shouldn’t even have to ask!” He said sitting farther up in his seat. “For our wives and your child you imbecile!”
“Why not just let Yarwood take over this country and just relocate to another?”
“You’re honestly considering running away with your tail between your legs? I’m sorry but that’s not the Xavier I know, and I’m not going to let you do this to yourself.”
Gregor leapt from his chair and pulled Xavier to his feet. “You are the only hope for all of us who have defied your siblings.” Gregor looked him straight in the eye and pulled him to the only door out of the den area. He flung the door open so hard that he almost cracked the wall, and after that large crash he attracted the attention of all training beneath him, for he was standing on a balcony with a large winding staircase that led to the ground. Being a mile beneath the surface made it nice and cool for all of the vampires and other beings. The grounds were dirt and there were stalagmites on the ceiling above, but it made for a large practice space away from prying eyes.
Gregor spread his arms wide as if to encompass all below him and raised his voice with his vampiric mite. If the door hadn’t shocked them enough, the fact that Gregor was speaking instead of Xavier made it even worse. “Are you prepared to forfeit this fight?”
“No!” They all screamed as if the idea had never been an option in their minds and they were shocked at him for even bringing it up.
“Has it ever crossed your minds that your fearless leader, Xavier, would ever let you down?”
Once again they all screamed, “Never!”
Gregor chuckled, “Never fear! For we will win this WAR!” The entire room erupted in screams and frenzied clapping as Gregor pulled Xavier back through the door, and as he closed it, he asked, with a look of triumph on his face, “So. Still think that you can just ‘give up’?”

Imprint

Text: Lillith Devero
Images: Lillith Devero
Publication Date: 07-17-2012

All Rights Reserved