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Chapter1
Madeleine
Maddy stares at the carnage around her, examining piles of rubble, cracked walls, and the specks of blood that dot the entire hallway. To her newly acquired vampire hearing, the members of the Order still fighting all across the Merrick headquarters are like a symphony of chaos in her ears, the sound of not-so-distant explosions leaving her ears ringing.
She stands rooted to the spot, hands loosely covering her ears, trying to digest it all.
“Caleb is human now?” Maddy says, dumbfounded. It had felt like a punch to the stomach when she realized that Vera had turned her into a vampire, but at least in that moment she’d been comforted by the thought that she and Caleb would finally be on the same side.
Now it feels like fate is laughing in her face.
“It was always Kenna’s plan to turn Caleb back into a human,” Cora explains. “He was forced to turn into a vampire because of his connection to her, against his will. I think she felt guilty about that.”
Maddy shakes her head, refusing to believe the words slipping into her overly sensitive ears. Then she frowns. “How do you know all this?”
Cora’s lashes flutter. “Stacy found me not long after I was turned. I’ve been working alongside her.”
Maddy draws back. “You knew,” she gasps. “You knew Kenna was alive and that she intended for Caleb to be turned into a human!”
Cora has the grace to look uncomfortable as her gaze slides away. “Caleb never wanted to be a vampire.” She flashes a glance. “Plus, now the sire bond is gone. I can’t feel him.”
Maddy shakes her head as if to try and clear it. They don’t have time for this. “What about Orion?” she asks. “He needs Caleb to be human in order to resurrect. Aren’t we giving him exactly what he wants?”
Cora tries to approach Maddy, hands raised in a placating gesture, but Maddy avoids her, moving to stand beside a freshly formed hole in the wall.
“Orion’s too powerful in Purgatory,” Cora says, abandoning her plan to try and comfort Maddy. “If we leave him there, he’ll find a way to cause chaos. But in the mortal realm, we have a chance. We can finally destroy him once and for all.”
“But what if he destroys us instead?” Maddy counters, her eyes drawn to the scene playing out beyond the hole in the wall, the numerous dead bodies laid out on the lawn below. Many of them are the shifters and Merrick guards, but an uncomfortably large proportion of them are members of the Order.
How many did they lose in this senseless attack?
“Kenna has a plan to defeat him. If we trust her, then we will succeed. But we need to actually trust her this time and do exactly what she tells us,” Cora says.
“Trust her?” Maddy shouts back, pain and disbelief masked by the anger in her voice. “She let Caleb be captured by Malcolm, let her people die because she couldn’t trust them, let the most evil sorcerer ever to exist come back to the mortal plane. And you want me to trust her?”
Maddy’s heart hammers in her chest, the blood coursing through her veins pulsing in time with the banging in her head. The anger that she feels is so intense, it's almost like she’s never been truly angry before. She feels like she could tear Cora apart limb from limb for agreeing to put Caleb in danger.
Cora looks on with wide eyes, hands raised like a gun is pointed at her chest. “Maddy, I need you to calm down,” she says in a soothing tone.
Maddy doesn’t listen. “You’re gambling with the world at stake. How much collateral damage are you willing to allow? How many lives will be lost in the name of finally defeating Orion?” Maddy continues to rant, the memory of Olivia dead in her arms like a hot poker in her chest, fueling her rage. It takes her a moment before she realizes she’s baring her fangs at Cora, closing her mouth with a start and covering it with a hand.
“I’m sorry,” Maddy says.
“It’s okay. Your emotions are going to be pretty intense for a while. I need you to try and calm down as much as you can before you do something you regret,” Cora says.
Maddy nods slowly, fighting the urge to destroy anything and everything. She bangs a fist against the wall, unable to quiet the raging tempest within her. A large crack forms and she stares at it in awe.
“I need to learn to control this power,” she says. “Everything is so intense, it feels like every nerve in my body is on edge.” Maddy runs her hands through her hair, rubbing the sides of her temples to soothe the headache banging within. “But the worst part is the hunger. How can you stand it? I’ve never felt so hungry in my life.”
Cora smiles, glad for the opportunity to help. “The hunger is worse when you’ve just turned,” she explains. “Don’t worry, it gets less intense with time. And if you want, I can teach you how to control your new powers,” she offers.
Maddy gives her a scorching look in return. Cora just revealed that she knew this was a trap all along, and never warned them. Maddy doesn’t even know if she can trust her anymore. When did her best friend turn into a complete stranger?
“Caleb can teach you if you prefer,” Cora corrects herself, the slight droop in her shoulders betraying her disappointment.
“No,” Maddy says. “I can’t be around Caleb when I’m like this. Not while he’s human again. I can’t risk hurting him.”
She hides her face by looking away, fighting back tears threatening to stream down her face. She’s a danger to the one person she trusts the most, the one person she wants to be with in the midst of all this madness.
