Absolution of Fate (Fate Series Book 3) Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  Disclaimer

  Dedication

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 - The Aftermath

  Chapter 2 - Picking Up the Pieces

  Chapter 3 - New Friends

  Chapter 4 - A Plan Comes Together

  Chapter 5 - Saving Ethan

  Chapter 6 - An Unexpected Transformation

  Chapter 7 - Discovery

  Chapter 8 - Sex, Love, and Lies

  Chapter 9 - Love Renewed

  Chapter 10 - The Price of Defiance

  Chapter 11 - A New Hope

  Chapter 12 - An Unexpected Ally

  Chapter 13 - Family, Friends, and Antiserum

  Chapter 14 - Chaos in Boston

  Chapter 15 - Blood and Bullets

  Chapter 16 - Let There Be Light

  Chapter 17 - Ready Your Arms

  Chapter 18 - Worth Fighting For

  Chapter 19 - The Battle Begins

  Chapter 20 - A Promise Kept

  Chapter 21 - Moving Forward

  Epilogue

  The Fate Series - Amazon

  About the Author copy

  Absolution of Fate

  ✧

  S. Simone Chavous

  Copyright © 2014 S. Simone Chavous

  Cover design by S. Simone Chavous

  Proofreading by Kimberly Huther of Wordsmith Proofreading

  ISBN: 978-0-9895701-5-2

  eISBN: 978-0-9895701-4-5

  Visit my website: http://www.ssimonechavous.com

  Like me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ssimonechavous

  Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ssimonechavous

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  To all my readers, for sticking it out to the end.

  Contents

  The Aftermath

  Picking Up the Pieces

  New Friends

  A Plan Comes Together

  Saving Ethan

  An Unexpected Transformation

  Discovery

  Sex, Love, and Lies

  Love Renewed

  The Price of Defiance

  A New Hope

  An Unexpected Ally

  Family, Friends, and Antiserum

  Chaos in Boston

  Blood and Bullets

  Let There Be Light

  Ready Your Arms

  Worth Fighting For

  The Battle Begins

  A Promise Kept

  Moving Forward

  Epilogue

  CHAPTER 1 - The Aftermath

  Ethan remained frozen, watching with eyes full of rage and torment as the woman who he’d known as a little girl only weeks before disappeared into the mist with a monster. With her went the last piece of his fragmented heart. Feeling the distance between him and his master grow, he let out a heavy breath and dropped to his knees. The weight of the past week’s events pressed down on him like a two-ton boulder. He bowed his head and let the pain wash over and cover him like a blanket of fire. In his mind, he deserved it all; he’d brought the wrath of a madman down upon everyone he loved. All because he was selfish enough to believe he had the power to defy fate, to change what was written in the stars. For his vanity, he was punished. He understood that now.

  He could hear The Elite soldiers stirring inside but, as commanded, he laid down his weapons and waited. He secretly hoped it wouldn’t matter that he had laid down his arms, that they would see him for the monster he was end his miserable existence. He had nothing left; nothing but hate and the bone-deep desire to remove Lucias’s head from his shoulders.

  He’d completely forgotten about Layla standing beside him until he heard her weapons hit the concrete. Like him, she was merely obeying the last command Lucias had given. Ethan looked at her as she stared out across the grounds, her face blank; completely devoid of any emotion and he wondered if she was like him. Was the person she used to be still trapped inside, constantly screaming commands at a body which was deaf to the sound, listening only to the call of its new master’s blood? Or had she let go and given herself over completely to the beast inside, no longer feeling guilt or remorse, instead just functioning on primal need and obedience. He’d looked into her eyes that night in Lucias’s playroom; he knew it was the latter and he almost envied her for it. Holding on to his humanity was the reason he suffered, but he would never completely let go. He couldn’t; Alexa wouldn’t want him to and, though she was gone, he refused to let her down again.

  “GET ON YOUR KNEES!”

  Both he and Layla obeyed the command shouted from the front door.

  “Hands behind your head!”

  The instant it was done, three Elite, armed to the teeth, appeared several yards in front of them. The heartbeats behind him let Ethan know there were five more there.

  “Oh fuck; it’s Layla and they’re infected!” one of the men shouted with his weapon aimed between Ethan’s eyes. “Get cuffs on them now,” the same soldier said. “If either of you move a millimeter, we will put you down…permanently,” he hissed.

  Both Ethan and Layla remained perfectly still as the silver handcuffs were locked on in a blur of motion behind them. Neither one even flinched as the cold metal burned into their infected skin. A second later, two loud pops sounded and Ethan felt a dart pinch his neck. While it wasn’t enough to knock an infected vampire out completely, he swayed forward as the tranquilizer spread through his body.

  ✧

  “Get them both to the confinement wing now, and put them where they won’t be seen,” Commander Claesson ordered, stepping through the doorway. He paused, grabbing the doorjamb as his legs wobbled beneath him, a lingering effect of Chloe’s power.

  With the powerful sedative pulsing through their veins, neither Ethan nor Layla struggled as the guards dragged them away. Of course, with Lucias’s last command, even if they wanted to resist there was no way they could.

  “Until we figure out what we’re dealing with, no one, and I mean no one is to have any contact with those two,” Claesson whispered to one of his captains just before a group of Elite soldiers returning from patrol led by Dante sped across the lawn.

  “Where is she?” Dante demanded, stopping only inches away from the Commander.

  “Stand down, soldier,” Commander Claesson replied, knowing it was pointless to deny that Layla was back on the compound. Her undeniable scent clung to the humid air around them. Instead, he used every ounce of his slowly-returning strength to stand to his full height as he faced Dante’s wrath.

  “She’s safe, but understand me, soldier, no one, including you is to have any contact with either of the prisoners without my approval.”

  “So Layla’s a fucking prisoner now?” Dante responded, practically pushing his chest into the Commander in challenge.

  The Commander sighed, but he didn’t back down a millimeter. “She’s infected, Dante. I know she means a lot to you,
but until we figure out exactly what we’re dealing with, both Layla and Ethan are off-limits.”

  Dante stumbled back as the reality of what the Commander said seemed to knock all the air from his lungs.

  Martinez was behind him in an instant, catching his friend’s full weight before he fell to the ground. With the hypersensitive hearing possessed by all of his kind, he’d heard everything. He wanted to tell Dante it would be all right, that she would be all right, but like everyone else, he knew what being infected meant.

  ✧

  Alexa slowly opened her eyes, feeling a bit disoriented as she pushed up from the cold floor of the training room. The others remained unconscious on the floor around her. Though she already knew that Chloe was gone, her maternal eyes darted around in search of her only daughter. The visions Chloe had shared were suddenly fresh in her mind as she moved to the door, desperate to find Ethan. Even without the benefit of Chloe’s clairvoyance, Alexa knew that Ethan was close by; she could feel him as surely as if his arms were around her.

  She moved on unsteady legs towards the door, feeling stronger with each step. The minds around her began to stir, the sounds reminding her of a car engine trying to turn after sitting idle on a cold winter’s night. She reached for her father’s mind, searching for the security code before he was aware enough to erect his mental shields again. The panel light flashed green and Alexa was at the entrance to the residential wing before the door had even resealed. She moved with a speed she didn’t know she possessed, using only her bond with Ethan to guide her. She felt him growing closer with each step and her heart was swelling with elated anticipation; until she rounded the last corner.

  “I’m sorry ma’am; no one is permitted through this door until further notice. Commander’s orders,” a soldier whose name she didn’t know drawled.

  “Let me pass; I know my husband is in there,” Alexa demanded, full of determination to get to the man she loved.

  “Alexa.” She turned to face Dante as he approached; his eyes full of agony that seemed to ease slightly at the sight of her. “I wouldn’t bother; he couldn’t let you pass if he wanted to. They’ve engaged the maximum security protocol. Only Commander Claesson can open that door now,” he stated as he pulled her into his arms to comfort himself as much as her. She relaxed into him, suddenly feeling the strain from the exertion of moving so quickly before she’d had a chance to fully recover from Chloe’s mind blast. While intimate, the embrace was only one of friendship and comfort.

  “Come, you need to feed,” Dante said sensing Alexa’s weakness and leading her away. As a mirror, the longer her held on to her, the stronger his reflection of her psychic ability became. Though her mental shields were in place, he could still read her feelings.

  “But I need to see him. He needs to see me alive; he’s in so much pain,” Alexa plead, her eyes welling up with tears of frustration and exhaustion.

  “I know; I want to get in there as badly as you do. Layla’s with him and she’s been infected, too, but there’s nothing we can do for them until the doctors find a cure.”

  “No, I can save him! Chloe showed me before she left, we need to renew our mate bond; it will free him,” Alexa said with desperation.

  “What do you mean Chloe left?” Dante asked stopping. He turned her to face him and grabbed her shoulders.

  “She went with Lucias, to save us; to save all of us. There were so many infected, we all would have died. She had a vision of it before they came. She gave herself up to keep us safe.”

  “How could Claesson let her do that? How could you?” Dante asked, sounding more judgmental than he’d intended.

  “I didn’t let her do anything!” Alexa snapped. “She knocked everyone out and left, but not before she showed me what I needed to do to save her father; so like I said, I need to see him now!”

  “I know Claesson; he’s not going to let you in, vision or no vision. It’s too much of a risk to the rest of the compound. If an infected gets loose in here, we could all be lost. We’ll have to find another way,” he stated, opening the door to the refrigeration unit.

  After tossing Alexa a bag of A-negative, he grabbed one for himself and sank down to the floor as he drank. “Will you be able to help Layla, too?” he whispered.

  Alexa, already feeling much stronger, pulled the nearly-empty blood bag from her lips. She licked a drop of stray blood from the corner of her mouth before responding. “I’m sorry, Dante. Ethan and I are bonded. From what I saw in Chloe’s vision, that’s how I can save him. But Claesson has had a team working nonstop to find a cure, so don’t give up hope.”

  Dante sighed and crumpled the empty plastic in his fist. “Our people have been trying to find a cure for that fucking virus for centuries. It’s stupid to think they’re going to suddenly figure it out now.”

  Alexa didn’t know what else to say; she knew he was right, but she still had hope. After everything she’d been through and seen, she couldn’t help but believe in miracles.

  CHAPTER 2 - Picking Up the Pieces

  “I need an estimate on the number of casualties now,” Commander Claesson barked into the phone while High Commander William Ryan and several Elite soldiers waited around the table in the pit. “Yeah, I got it. How many of those were human? And how many missing still unaccounted for? Okay, you call me back on this line the instant you know anything else or if anything else happens. No, cell communications are going to remain blacked out for now so it’s landline communication only.”

  The Commander dropped into his chair and rubbed his temples. It had been hours since Chloe knocked him and his men out with a powerful mind blast, but he still felt a little off.

  “Right now we’re looking at thirty-two humans confirmed dead, fifteen still missing, plus eight civilian vampires dead and another twenty-four still unaccounted for. Unless we find bodies soon, it’s pretty safe to assume that those civilians will be joining Lucias’s ranks before the day’s done.”

  “God, that’s no doubt what the missing humans were taken for, to feed the newly- infected,” Jester added, looking up from the screen of his laptop. He’d been glued to it for what seemed like forever; monitoring the news and communications in and around the city with the help of some civilian consultants and a couple Elite on other compounds, who’d remained behind to keep things running when the residents headed to Boston to join in the fight.

  “So what does this mean for us?” Cami chimed in. With Layla’s arrival and Dante’s subsequent meltdown, she was the ranking officer on the compound under Commander Claesson. It had taken some persuading for Claesson to let her to step into the role considering how close she was to the recent events, but he’d given in under the condition that Jackson shadowed her so he could take over in the event things became too personal for her.

  Commander Claesson shifted his focus to William, looking for some guidance on the rather uncertain subject. “As of right now, we’re going to maintain the physical lockdown of the compound; no one in or out without my or Commander Claesson’s express permission,” the High Commander stated.

  “The remainder of our Elite reinforcements should be arriving within the next twenty-four hours, and Esther will be here with some other witches from the Boston coven to cast more protective spells over the compound as soon as the sun comes up and ensures that Lucias’s men won’t be a threat,” Claesson added.

  “Am I to understand that we will not be sending a team out to search for Chloe?” Cami asked careful to keep her tone neutral.

  “I’m afraid that is the case. My granddaughter chose to leave with Lucias for a reason. I’m not sure what that reason was yet, but either way, according to the Commander’s assessments, we’re not in a position to make a stand against Lucias yet. Going after Chloe, without sufficient resources, puts her at even greater risk. Lucias will sacrifice every man he has in order to keep her and he has a lot more men than we do right now.”

  As hard as it was to sit on her hands while her niece was carted o
ff by their greatest enemy, the man responsible for so many terrible crimes against their people and her family in particular, she knew the High Commander was right.

  “So what do you want us to tell the rest of our people?” Jackson asked.

  “The truth,” Commander Claesson replied without hesitation. “As much as we can, at least, since there’s no hiding what happened here tonight. With the communications blackout, I’m not too worried about information leaking to the civilian population and I think we’re beyond the point of keeping this shit a secret. Our people need to start preparing themselves; Elite and civilian. The battle is coming, and it appears it will be sooner rather than later. Most Boston personnel already know that Layla was abducted. Let them know Lucias used her to breach our outer defenses and Chloe drew them off before they made it inside, allowing us to recover Layla who will be remaining in quarantine for the time being. That’s all we know.”