Coming June 9th!
Available for preorder now:
***
Conflicted
Book 6 of The Crush Saga
by
Chrissy
Peebles
Copyright © 2015 by
Chrissy Peebles
Edited by: Autumn J.
Conley
All rights reserved. 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 both the copyright owner and
the above publisher of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked
status and trademark owners of various 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:
My brilliant editor,
Autumn J. Conley. Thank you for all your hard work!
Spoiler Alert: If you haven't read before this, there are spoilers. This is book 6.
Chapter
1
How do I describe
this moment? There is only…nothing. No sensation, no pain, no dreams, no
memories. There is only…darkness.
Wait! What is
that? A bright light? A voice? A touch!
“I’m Dr. Rivers,”
a woman said, shining a light into my eyes. “Taylor, can you hear me?”
“Yeah,” I
answered.
“Do you know
where you are?”
“The immortal
sanctuary?”
“Yes.”
My stomach clenched. “My gosh. I shouldn’t
be alive!”
“No, you
shouldn't, but you’re a survivor. You were bitten by a vampire and a
werewolf, but you're fighting like a champion.”
“Okay. She’s
coming to,” a woman yelled. “Everyone take extra precautions!”
All the memories
flooded back from that night. I was buried alive. Almost sacrificed. Julie and
Drake had both bitten me. Halo. The millennium ceremony. Ivan and his wolf
pack swearing revenge against me. Yes, it was all coming back.
I'm
a hybrid!
I could hear
people talking over me as I tried to force my eyes open. When I listened
closer, I heard a beeping sound, the electronic chorus of monitors. My hand
throbbed, but I quickly located the culprit: an IV attached to a bag of fluids
on a silver pole. I tried to figure out what was going on in the haze that
surrounded me, but nothing made much sense in all that craziness. I knew I was
in a hospital bed with white sheets and blankets. My body felt limp as a wet
rag. Everything and everyone seemed far away. Part of me wanted to fall into a
deep sleep, while the other part desperately wanted to fight it. Then I heard a
familiar voice that sounded like an angel right out of Heaven.
“Taylor, it’s me,
Jesse. I’m here for you, baby…and so are all your friends. I’m right here,” the
love of my life said, holding my hand. “You’re so strong, so brave. You’re
gonna beat this thing.”
I squeezed his hand to
let him know I heard him and that I was indeed going to fight for my life. I’d
worked so hard to stay alive, and I wasn’t going to let some immortal virus
take me out. Jesse and I still had so much to see and so much to do, so many
years to love each other. We had our whole lives in front of us, and I couldn’t
wait to go out there and face the world head on. I hung on to that glimmer of
hope, and I wouldn’t let go. Keep
fighting, that tiny voice inside me kept saying.
“You need to leave,” a
male voice said. “Please let us do our job. Taylor is in good hands.”
“What? Are you nuts? You
can’t expect me to just leave her,” Jesse argued. “Please. I need to be here. She
needs me.”
My eyes fluttered
open.
“Taylor?” Cindy’s
voice called. “I don’t know what to say, but I care about you. I know it’s
difficult, but we’re here for you.”
“You let her
in here?” an agitated voice whispered. “She’s a gargoyle, very, very
dangerous. Don’t you remember what happened the last time we let a gargoyle in
here 100 years ago?”
“This is a sanctuary,”
a voice whispered back. “We accept everyone.”
“But she hasn’t been
through decontamination! You’re breaking the rules. They all have to go through
it before being allowed in for a transformation.”
“Her body is going
through an immortal process. Germs don’t matter right now. All that matters is
that she knows her friends are rallying for her, giving her the encouragement
she needs to fight for her life, inspiring her will to survive.”
“I want her out now!”
he said.
Cindy looked at him,
and his eyes widened in fear.
“Did you see that? She’s
flashing me those gargoyle eyes of hers,” the guy said, terrified.
“You act like you’ve
never seen glowing eyes before,” I said. “Isn’t this is a place for
supernatural creatures?”
“Those were
threatening eyes,” he roared, “like she might devour me in one gulp. I can’t
work in a place where I don’t feel safe. She has to go…or else I will!”
Julie turned to face
him. “Taylor needs us more than anything right now. She needs all her friends.”
Footsteps echoed as the
man took his leave, ignoring Julie’s pleas.
“I’m here too,” Fred
said. “I wish I could fix it all, Taylor, just take away your pain.”
“Grant and I are here too,”
Julie assured me. “You know how much we love you, and we’re rooting for you.”
“Just hang on,” Grant
said.
“I’m hangin’ in
there,” I whispered.
“You’ve got those
stubborn genes, just like me,” Tabby said.
I gazed up at her. “I
hope so!”
She squeezed my hand
in excitement. “Girl, you did it. I’m so proud of you! You stopped the petals
from being sacrificed and got the witches’ power back. You even sent Halo back
to Hell. You’re a true hero. I bet you’re on the front page of the immortal
newspaper.”
“There’s an immortal
newspaper?” I asked softly.
“Sure. It’s called The Forever Times,” Julie said, then
chuckled. “She’s only kidding.”
“I need to see my mom
and dad,” I whispered.
“I’m working on that,”
Tabby said, “but getting them in here is a little tricky.”
“We’ll need a cover
story,” Fred said.
“Or just compel them
to forget,” Cindy chimed in with her French accent. “Taylor needs her parents.”
I glanced at Tabby.
“What powers did you get?”
“Everyone got at least
one power, but because I’m a petal, I got a few extras. You, Violet, and Julie
will get them too. I can levitate stuff and move things with my mind. I have
enhanced senses. I can manipulate the air and wind and lots more. It’s really amazing.”
“My power is fire,”
Julie said. “I don’t have it all figured out, but I’ll learn it eventually. I
can do a few other little things too.”
I looked at Violet.
“And you?”
“Mainly
teleportation,” she answered. “I wish my powers were as exciting as Tabby’s or
Julie’s.”
“Exciting? What good
is fire?” Julie asked with a chuckle. “Unless I’m camping.”
Suddenly, every part
of me began to itch profusely, and I started scratching everywhere. As I did, I
noticed a red, blotchy rash spreading all over my body. “Ah! I can’t stop the
itch!” I said.
The doctor rushed to
my side and examined the hives. “She needs Benadryl, fifty milligrams in her
IV…STAT!”
“Yes, Dr. Rivers,” a
nurse said.
“I need a mirror,” I
said, wanting to look at my face.
Cindy handed me a
compact, and I flipped it open.
“Wh-what’s happening
to me?” I asked, staring at my bloodshot eyes. “I mean, I know I’m turning, but
what’s causing this?”
A male nurse tried to
comfort me by explaining the process. “You’re in Stage One, infection. You’ll
go through fever, chills, itching, headache, and other flu-like symptoms. In
Stage Two, you’ll want to sleep a lot as your metabolism slows. Your breathing
will be shallow, your pupils dilated. During that time, your fangs and nails
will grow.”
Another nurse touched
my arm. “Your senses are sharpening, Taylor. Your sense of smell, for instance,
can be 100 times sharper than a mortal’s, and you’ll hear 4 times better than
any human. Your eyes are changing as well, adapting to your new wolf-vision.”
“You’ve been infected
with a complicated virus,” Dr. Rivers elaborated. “It is really quite complex,
so much so that it rewrites the genetic code of every nucleus in your body.
Countless alterations to your biological makeup are taking place.”
They went on to
explain, in great detail, the differences between a vampire and werewolf
change. I caught some of it, but I kept fading in and out as they blabbed on in
their supernatural medical jargon, until I finally fell asleep again.
***
Sometime later, I woke
up. I had no idea if I’d been asleep for hours or days. I could hear voices,
but none of them sounded familiar. What
happened to my friends? I wondered.
“She didn’t want
this,” a faint voice whispered, sounding a million miles away, “and to be
bitten by two immortals is highly rare.”
“Taylor cannot outrun
her destiny. No one can.”
I felt my pulse speed
as a flood of thoughts and questions pounded through my brain. I thought about
my destiny and wondered what my future held. Will I even live long enough to see it, or will the hybrid virus eat me
alive? Am I doomed to be yet another casualty, like all those other victims who
hoped to escape their fate?
Noises jolted me out
of my thinking. Amongst the voices, I heard so many things: distant footsteps,
a phone ringing down the hall at the nurses’ station, someone scratching their
head, lips smacking, and even an ice cube melting in a diet soda—things I never
should have been able to hear. For a moment, I considered that maybe I was just
dreaming.
“I’ve got the preliminary
test results,” a woman said.
“All right. What wolf
line is she from?” another said.
“You’re not gonna believe
this, but she’s from the Lycan Ice Pack.”
“What!? The ancient
werewolves from the Arctic? I thought that was just a myth.”
“No, and here’s our
living proof. Julie is from the same pack.”
“I want those records
sealed,” the doctor said. “Nobody is to breathe a word about this to anyone. Is
that understood?”
“Yes, Dr. Rivers.”
“Why?” another asked.
“With all due respect, Doctor, this is an important discovery. We need to
inform the others so they know how special Taylor truly is. Why hide it and
seal the records?”
“Why!? Look, Taylor
was bitten by the strongest, most powerful breed of werewolf that has ever
existed, the ones gifted with the powers of the Danan, the ones tasked with
protecting elite supernatural. Don’t you realize what that means?”
“What?”
“It means they’ll
snatch her up in a heartbeat. If they find Taylor or Julie, or any of the other
bitten petals, they’ll sweep them away and they’ll be forced to serve as
guardians. This is a sanctuary, and we can’t have that kind of invasion and
kidnapping going on here. Word of this cannot go beyond these walls, so just
keep your mouths shut. You’re not to speak to anyone about this.”
“Are you going to tell
them?”
“No. It’s best that we
say nothing. The girls will be safer—as will we all—if they remain unaware of
their true identity. If they don’t know, they can’t blab, and no one will ever know
they’re here.”
“What about the
werewolf who originally bit Julie? Is it here? Also, why’d it bite her in the
first place? Wouldn’t it have been taken as a guardian? Or is it hiding here in
Big Bear Lake?”
Dr. Rivers sighed. “I
don’t know, but I’ll find out. In the meantime, not another word about this to
anyone. We can’t have anyone knowing we have two guardians taking harbor here
in the sanctuary. And don’t forget about the other bitten petals. The Ice Pack
will come and retrieve them all. Right now, silence is our best friend.”
“You know I won’t say
anything, but Dr. Michaels ordered the test, and he’ll demand answers.”
“Don’t worry about
that. I’ll rig up some results for him, as I’ve got unlimited access to the lab
computer. This girl is beyond special, and we have to keep her safe. She has
Drake’s elite, royal bloodline in her, as well as Lycan Ice Pack blood, and
she’s a tenth-generation petal witch/doppelganger.”
“Wow. That’s some
combination. That should help her beat this virus though, right?”
“Let’s hope so.”
My eyes fluttered shut,
and I drifted off into sleep, without them realizing I’d heard a word they’d
said.
Chapter
2
My dreams were hectic and chaotic and quickly morphed
into dark, twisted nightmares. I woke up screaming in agony and went straight
into a panic, thrashing and flailing as I was held down against my will. I let
out a long growl and viciously fought against my attackers.
“How much valium are we giving her?” a man asked.
“Ten milligrams.”
Maurice shot me a wicked smile. “We should euthanize
the wolf, put her out of her misery!”
“No!” I shouted.
He held up a gold dagger. “You were born to die. Fate
has always wanted this. Only the strong survive, and you are far too pathetic. Just
let go, Taylor. It’ll all be over soon.”
“No! I won’t give up without a fight. I’ll kill you
first! You tried to kill me before and failed, so you tell me who the pathetic
one is! How’d you ever get the job as head witch anyway?”
Suddenly, the witch from my dreams appeared before
me.
“You!” I said, letting out an audible gasp.
“I tried to tell you of your destiny, that you are to
be a hybrid, but you didn’t believe me. Maybe death is the only way out of all this.”
I gasped, realizing my worst fears had come true. “You
all want me dead! You and Maurice and
everyone else!” I shouted at her.
“We all want you dead, newborn werewolf and baby
vampire.”
My hands wrapped around her throat. “I’ll never go
that easily. I’ll take you all with me!”
“Sh-she’s h-hallucinating!” a woman screamed,
unwrapping my hands from around her neck and choking on her words.
“Taylor, come back to us!” the familiar’s doctor’s
voice rang. “Maurice is not here.”
I blinked and realized the doctor was right.
Everything seemed fuzzy, and I had a headache from hell, like seventeen sumo
wrestlers were tap-dancing on my cranium. My heart pounded, and my muscles
ached something fierce.
“She’s going into shock!” a woman said.
“Embrace the pain,” the doctor coached. “Fighting it will
only make it worse, put more stress on your body. Just ride it out, Taylor.”
I was groggy and disoriented, and I felt like I’d
been run over by a truck after running a long marathon. I was gasping for
breath, and my insides ached something fierce. “Wh-what’s happening?” I stuttered.
“The werewolf is taking over. Do you remember what we
talked about? This transition will be different than a vampire’s. You’ll feel
more agitated, aggressive. You’ll be prone to unprovoked rage, anger, insomnia,
and restlessness in this first phase. It will pass but it won’t be easy.”
I growled, wanting to attack and lash out at her. I’d
never been so angry in all my life, and I was sure that if she didn’t shut up, I
was going to rip her to shreds. I hated feeling like that, because it wasn’t
like me at all. It was as if something sinister had possessed me, some violent
demon. Deep down inside, I felt a strong urge to rip off my clothes and run
through the forest, howling like the cursed monster and mythical creature I was
destined to become.
“We’ve got gold eyes, and she’s exhibiting canine
behavior, Doctor,” a woman said, shining a penlight in my eyes, just about
blinding me. “She’ll soon emerge in full lycanthrope form.”
“Do you want to live, Taylor?” Dr. Rivers asked me.
“Yes!” I snapped, seething. “What kind of stupid
question is that? Of course I wanna live…more than anything!”
“Then act like it. Fight this! Times are tough, but
you’ve gotta be tougher. We already warned you that this transition isn’t going
to be pretty. Your energy will spike, then crash. You’ll be on an emotional
rollercoaster, and the pain associated with becoming a vampire will take its
toll. I know it can be downright ugly and scary, but you’ve got to fight
through transition, or you’ll die in the process.”
“Okay, but this anger is just… It’s just too much,
Doctor. I feel like I wanna punch a wall as hard as I can.”
“That’s the werewolf rage setting in, but there’ll be
no left hooks for you, to a wall or otherwise. You have to learn to channel the
anger.”
“But I can’t!” I screeched, wanting to channel an
uppercut to her face instead.
“You can…and you must, Taylor.”
“Isn’t there any other way?” I asked.
“No. I’m sorry, but there isn’t.”
“How did you survive the petal curse?” someone else
asked, having the audacity to touch me.
I thought about that long and hard for a moment. “I
believed I could, so I did.”
She smiled. “That you did. Now, you only have to do
the same, and I know you can do it.”
“But all this anger, this wrath or something! It’s
just…bubbling up inside me, like hot lava,” I said, gripping the sheets and
knotting my hands up in them. “I wanna pound something so bad!”
“There will be no pounding today.”
“Then let me break through one!”
“You’re not the Incredible Hulk, and I won’t have my
sanctuary destroyed like that.”
I looked around me, furious, and pointed at a
recording device. “In that case, I highly suggest you turn off that videocamera!”
I ordered. “I never said you could make a stupid reality show outta this!” I
snapped.
The woman with the camera ignored me and continued
recording, and another kept jotting down notes on a big yellow legal pad, in
shorthand, which only ignited me more.
Suddenly, a man hovered over me and lifted my eyelids
with his fingers, then peered right into my eyes. “The werewolf symptoms aren’t
letting up. I’m afraid she’ll have to be…subdued.”
Suddenly, claws extended from my fingers, and I
reached for him and let out a growl that even scared me. I’d always liked
getting my nails done, but this was no French manicure, and I looked at my own
hands in horror.
“Restrain her!” a man shouted. “Her feral instincts
are kicking in!”
“She can’t control it,” someone else said in a panic.
“She’ll have the strength of a dozen humans!”
“No,” a woman said, struggling to hold me down. “She
won’t hurt us.”
“You don’t know that!”
“She’s just a little freaked out right now,” a kind
voice said. “Tying her up will just make it worse. She’ll only get angrier.”
I threw the two men off me as if they were paper
dolls. My human voice melted into a strained, scratchy series of growls,
grunts, and hisses, and I began to foam at the mouth, as if I had rabies. I
felt rabid, crazed, aggressive, and out of control. More adrenaline pumped
through me than ever before, and my muscles rippled and thickened beneath my
skin. This is a real bitch, I mused,
though I was in far too much distress to even smile at my own pun.
“Restrain her!” a man yelled to the doctor.
“Not yet,” Dr. Rivers said. “Just give her time.”
“Time? If this gets any worse, time is one thing none
of us will have. Somebody’s gonna get their head ripped off!”
The doctor shook her head. “We’ll only tranquilize or
restrain her as a last resort. For now, just keep your distance.”
My body shook, and my chest felt so tight. I gritted
my teeth and stared down at the backs of my hands, only to discover white hairs
push through my skin. The button of my jeans snapped off and flew across the
room, then landed on the linoleum floor, and my clothes began to rip under the
pressure of my swelling form. I stood on the bed, contemplating my next move. When
all the eyes in the room widened in terror, I knew they feared for their lives;
because of me, they didn’t know whether to freeze or run. Part of me felt bad
about that, but the more powerful part really didn’t care.
I felt myself changing and helplessly tried to fight
it as my muscles rippled beneath my skin and more fur began to sprout from me. My
gums tingled, and I felt my canine teeth grow into fangs as my jaw suddenly
lengthened. “No!” I screamed as my fingers lengthened and my arms and legs
stretched right before my very own eyes. “What’s happening?” I shouted. “Julie
changed so quick! Is this normal?”
“It’s your first time,” a nurse gently said. “The
change will be slow.”
With my clawed hands, I reached up to feel my ears as
they merged while the metamorphosis continued. Either there was no pain or the extra
adrenaline compensated for it. New ears formed on top of my head, in a mess of
white fur. I hunched over as my spine contorted and twisted into an unnatural
shape, stretching out and elongating my upper body. As I stretched and jerked,
my body burned, and my entire body was instantly covered with plush white fur.
I felt a burning sensation, but the pain was minimal and nothing I couldn’t
handle. It really all happened over a time span of a few seconds, but it felt
like an eternity. I desperately wanted to stop it, but I was helpless to. My muscles
longed to be free, and the transformation was going to happen, whether I liked
it or not.
Suddenly, a powerful surge ripped through me, from my
head all the way down to my toes. My muscles stretched, my skin ripped, and my
bones lengthened. Scared to death, I let out a long scream. I began to drool
and any attempt at speech was reduced to guttural sounds. I dropped down on all
fours and saw that all my nails on my fingers and toes had extended into
two-inch talons, sharp as steel. My body finished morphing into a wolf in a
glorious flash of light. I snapped my jaws and looked around at the group
surrounding me, then let out a deafening growl. Everything within me and outside
of me seemed to vibrate with an energy I couldn’t comprehend or understand.
I bared my fangs, and a few of the doctors and nurses
stepped back in fear, which was entirely understandable. I was bubbling over
with rage and bloodlust, but at the same time, I felt more charged up than
ever.
Suddenly, my vision sharpened. I gazed at all the
warm-blooded creatures around me and saw them in a different light, as if I’d
slipped on a pair of thermal-imaging goggles. I had infrared vision, and I
wondered if I would keep it when I was not in a state of bloodlust.
As my shape-shifting was coming to an end, a man
burst into the room. “We’ve got problems! Werewolves have breached the
perimeter!”
“What!?” Dr. Rivers yelled.
“Send everything we got after them!” a woman commanded.
“You know what they’re here for. They’re out for
blood, for revenge. They want Taylor, and I don’t think they’re gonna give up very
easily.”
“Well, that’s too bad. We’re not about to hand her
over,” the doctor said. “Triple security and keep them at bay. This is a
sanctuary, and sometimes you have to stir up a little war to keep the peace.”
“We’ll do more than that,” the man said. “I elicited
Drake’s help.”
“Seriously?” a woman said, then frowned.
“He’s the most powerful thing we’ve got around here.
He volunteered to help, and we took him up on it. Unless you wanna see everyone
here slaughtered before nightfall, we’ve got to take him on as an ally.”
“Why’d he volunteer?” the skeptical woman asked. “He’s
never helped us before.”
“His blood flows through Taylor, and that makes her
part of his coven.”
“It most certainly does not!” the doctor snapped.
“Drake has no claim on Taylor.”
“Legally, he does have a stake in her.”
“I’d like to shove a stake in him,” she said, sighing
and shaking her head. “I don’t care what he tells you. She’s a werewolf now,
too, and that changes all the rules.”
“She’s got no pack to claim her, so by supernatural
protocol, she’s to go right back to Drake. He’d win that case in any immortal
court.”
“You don’t have to educate me on how the supernatural
world works. I know the rules, but she is not property. Use Drake to fight off
the wolves if you have to, but I’ll get the witches to claim Taylor before I
ever let Drake take her away.”
“But she hates the witches!”
“They’re a whole lot better than Drake.”
“Wait, Doctor,” the woman chimed in. “Maybe he’s
right. If we give Taylor to Drake, it will put us in his good favor. She’ll
want to make her sire happy because of the sire bond. Besides, you know he’ll
take good care of her. She’ll be safe with him.”
“What!? Have you all gone insane? Taylor is warm,
kind, caring, and everything Drake’s not. That sire bond means nothing when she
has wolf and petal blood in her too.”
“Drake will protect us for now,” someone else said,
“but what if their moon princess gets involved? We’ll be in real trouble then.”
“If that happens, we’ll have to move her to a safe
house…and as far away from Drake as possible.”
Before they could bicker about it any further, the
lights went out, and the entire room erupted in a loud mess of screams and
chaos. I knew the wolves were coming for me, because I could sense it deep down
inside, and as brave and angry as I felt in my new form, I was also scared to
death.
End of Sample.
Available for preorder now:
***
