CRIMSON LIES
Just a bit more. Hold on just a bit more; Aella urged herself.
A violent shiver shook her. She wrapped her arm tighter around her middle, her palm flat against the bleeding wound. The driver gave her a horrified look through the rearview mirror. She couldn’t blame him. She’d caught glimpses of her face, half-disfigured with swelling, and it was a scary sight. A couple of stubborn tears rolled down her cheeks, and she hated it.
You don’t have the right to cry; she scolded herself. You are a monster, just like them.
She was supposed to be a proud member of the Order of the Light, anointed by God himself, as all gargoyles were.
But now, after what she’d witnessed—after having her world torn to pieces in front of her eyes, Aella didn’t know who she was anymore.
The terrified gaze of the vampire child would forever be burned in her mind. She could still hear the child’s screams in her head. The small girl with long black hair and azure eyes had needed Aella’s help, and she’d failed her.
Her pain was nothing compared to that. The bleeding wound in her stomach and the ache of her electrocuted limbs could not match the gaping hole inside her chest. It burned like acid with betrayal and guilt.
“We’re here,” the driver announced, giving her a panicked look. “But there’s nothing here.”
There has to be, Aella thought desperately.
She forced herself to focus on moving her heavy, sore body. Her fingers trembled as she reached into her back pocket and took out all the money she’d managed to stash away over the last two years—a bit over three hundred dollars. “Thank you for helping me. Keep the change.”
Right hand firmly pressed against her poisoned wound, Aella mustered all her strength to open the taxi’s door, stand and close it behind her. She hoped the black coat covered the blood well enough not to scare the poor man.
“Wait, miss, there’s blood in these bills!” the taxi driver exclaimed. “I can’t just leave you here.”
Aella examined her surroundings. There truly seemed to be nothing but thick white mist and tall trees as far as she could see. Maybe the vampire had lied to protect Zeydan. But something instinctive told Aella that she was in the right place. And yet, if she was wrong, she was as good as dead. And so were Zeydan and his family.
“I’m going to have a look,” Aella said to the driver. “If I find nothing, I’ll come back. Could you please wait for me?”
Aella ignored his protests, blindly walking deeper into the mist.
A rumble of thunder echoed in the night, bathing her in a white flash. Still, Aella saw nothing more than the imposing silhouettes of the trees and thick white fog everywhere. The icy wind whipped her damp, copper hair. The freezing rain pelted her with fat drops that made her chills worse.
She limped further into the fog, driven by a basic instinct she’d never used before. A tingle in her skin and a pull in her gut that seemed to say, ‘You’re close, right there.ΚΌ
Maybe it was insane, but Aella didn’t care.
She felt as if she were boiling from the inside out despite the rain and dropped the coat to the ground.
A hand pressed to the wound in a futile attempt to staunch the blood flow, she kept going, feeling weaker with each step… And all but walked headlong into solid stone.
Heart racing, Aella placed her palms against the hard surface and sucked in a breath. The mist cleared enough to reveal massive Greek-style columns entwined with climbing plants holding an equally large gate.
There was an intercom attached to the column she had bumped into.
Fingers shaking, Aella pressed the button and opened her mouth to speak, but only a sigh of pain came out. A violent shiver—part fever, part apprehension—shook her whole body. She remembered with painful clarity all the horrible things she’d spat at Zeydan a few nights before. She could smell his flesh burning as she stabbed him with her silver dagger and hear the half-cry that had escaped him.
He was a vampire. Her sworn enemy. A powerful member of the species that had killed her parents.
But he hadn’t hurt her even after she attacked him.
He had inadvertently shown her the first piece of the horrible truth gargoyles had kept hidden from her all her life.
Vampires were living creatures.
Not all of them were evil.
Some had families.
Some were little girls who liked to play Scrabble.
And gargoyles had no qualms about killing them.
Aella sighed, leaning her head on the cold pillar, wondering when had gargoyles lost their way. When had they become just as ruthless, if not worse, than vampires, the demons?
Alleged demons, she corrected herself bitterly.
Truth is, she’d never seen anything more demonic than the sheer satisfaction on Micah’s face as he was about to kill a defenseless vampire child with his gleaming silver sword. Whatever had remained of her devotion to her husband had turned into rancid loathing after that, and there would be no turning back. And considering Micah had no qualms about almost impaling her with his sword for trying to stop him, Aella was certain that the feeling was very mutual.
But what if she was wrong and Zeydan was evil? What if he finished what Micah started?
What other option do I have?
She couldn’t let Micah, and the others destroy Zeydan and his family.
She wouldn’t.
Her sight blurred, and she held onto the pillar, pressing the intercom button again.
“Zeydan,” Aella murmured, her voice distorted by the swelling in her jaw and cheek. “Zeydan. It’s Aella. I need to talk to you.” She swallowed, tasting blood, trying to clear her dry throat and speak as clearly as possible. “Zeydan. Please.”
A gust of chilly wind hit her, accompanied by a familiar warm, tingly sensation running down her spine. And then Zeydan was standing right beside her. Towering half a foot above her despite her 5-foot-10 height, and dressed all in black—just like she remembered. His ink-dark hair fell to his neck in silk-soft waves, and his bewildered green eyes managed to look bright even in the gloom.
“Aella, how did you find me?” he asked, gently accented voice transmitting surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“I-I had nowhere else to go,” Aella admitted, her voice barely above a whisper.
She felt her body tilt sideways and saw the dark ground approach, but firm hands were holding her shoulders before she could crash.
“Aella, what happened?” Zeydan asked, brow furrowed.
A whimper escaped her. Where to start?
Zeydan sniffed and then cursed, his eyes falling to her wounded stomach. She knew he could see perfectly in the dark and wondered how bad she was.
“Who did this to you?” he asked.
Aella looked at him, taking in his unearthly perfect features contorted with concern for her—one of his greatest enemies—and felt what little remained of her beliefs about vampires crack and collapse in on themselves. A strangled sound left her throat; frustration, anger, and pain stealing her breath.
Zeydan lifted her off the ground, cradling her gently in his arms.
“Tell me what happened, Aella,” he demanded.
The remnants of her strength were leaking away. His face became blurry.
Aella swallowed hard and forced her heavy tongue to work. “They’re coming,” she croaked. “They’re coming for you, Zeydan.”
The flash of horrified realization that crossed his beautiful face was the last thing she saw before darkness claimed her.
©HALFBLOOD DECEIVED, Selene Kallan.
****
This short story became a paranormal romance novel called HALFBLOOD DECEIVED, an ANTI-alphahole, pro-feminist, pro-LGBTQIA+, woke AF roller-coaster of feels with explicit spicy scenes and a lot of profanity. Read the Author's Note for a full list of CWs before downloading.
AMAZON US Free with Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/45fRmCi
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AUTHOR’S NOTE.
Halfblood Deceived is full of dark themes. These are not condoned. And the hero NEVER hurts the heroine.
The list of warnings includes: gaslighting, domestic violence, intimate partner abuse, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, body shaming, implied death of a child, explicit violence against women, attempted sexual assault, mentions of past sexual assault, torture, psychological trauma, blatant blasphemy, and profanity.
Despite the dark themes, this is an unapologetically “woke” book—anti-organized religion, anti “alpha” males, anti-prejudice, pro-diversity, pro-LGBTQIA+, and very pro-feminist. If this is not your thing, now is the time to run.
Halfblood Deceived is a slow, slow, SLOW burn, but there are VERY explicit and VERY fucking consensual M/F sex scenes between the main characters. There are also explicit M/M sex scenes between secondary characters in the bonus content. I consider these essential to the development of the characters. If you prefer so-called clean romance, I strongly recommend that you don’t read this book. Or any of my books, really.
I can promise there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the heroine. And found family lighthearted moments to balance out the darkness. But I urge you to proceed with caution.
