New Day Rising Read online

  J.J. Arias

  New Day Rising

  Copyright © 2019 by J.J. Arias All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  First edition

  This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy Find out more at reedsy.com

  For all of us who have fallen in love with an HBIC

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  About the Author

  Also by J.J. Arias

  Chapter One

  “Bloody hell,” Alethia huffed as she plopped onto Scarlett’s couch, the stiff upholstery scratchy against the smooth skin of her backside.

  She fished the remote control out from in between the couch cushions and unmuted the television.

  “What is it? Why haven’t you come back to bed?” Scarlett peered into her living room from the open doorway, her keen eyes trained on the naked redhead staring wide-eyed at the TV. When Alethia couldn’t produce a response from her gaping mouth, Scarlett rushed to her side. “Oh, fuck,”

  she said, a scowl cutting into her lovely face when she noticed what was on the screen. “Have you called the Queen?”

  “I’ve rung her nearly two dozen times,” she replied without peeling her eyes away from the TV. “No answer.”

  “Who is that?” Scarlett asked, her eyes glued to the handsome blond vampire dressed in a fine black suit being interviewed by a news anchor.

  “Vampires are real, and they live amongst us,” she muttered as she read the scrolling words under his head.

  Alethia shook her head in disbelief. “A real prat who’s unilaterally decided to damn us all.”

  Together, Alethia and Scarlett sat nude and speechless while absorbing the reality of their situation. Ximen, and his constant protestations that

  Lucía allow them to live openly, had finally lost the entirety of his mind and outed their species. Alethia was rather surprised he hadn’t been carted off to a padded room. He must have shown them proof, she decided. There was no other way a reputable news organization would’ve given him a worldwide platform.

  “We’re utterly fucked,” Alethia whispered when the camera panned to a group of fifty smiling vampires collected in a green room like the supporting cast of an off-Broadway play excited to make the morning news.

  She swallowed hard. What a great time for the Queen to piss off with her ladylove. This was a full-scale five-alarm fire, and Lucía was simply nowhere to be found.

  “Well,” Scarlett started after a long silence, “maybe this is a good thing.” She stared into her tablet, her finger scrolling as she read. “Look,”

  she said, handing Alethia the screen. Alethia hadn’t even noticed her get up to get the device, but she took it without comment. “Look at all of these reports. People all over the world are pouring out their acceptance and support. Apparently, there’s even some kind of meetup to get made into a bloodborne. What the hell is that?”

  Alethia rolled her eyes. “Nonsense and stupidity. There isn’t going to be some Kumbaya movement to embrace the humans’ main predators. These people might be the first to react, but mark my words, this will not go well for us. We are a threat, and most will see us as such. Not to mention aberrations and demons to be expelled.” There was no levity to her words.

  No typical good-natured snark.

  Scarlett shrugged, unconvinced. “It might not be as bad as all that.”

  “Oh, you think not?” Alethia turned to face her on the couch. “Are you wanting to join up with this lot, then?” she asked cuttingly, pointing her

  thumb toward the television.

  “I didn’t say that,” she snapped. “I’m just saying that maybe after an adjustment period this could work in our favor. You have to admit, it’s harder to acquire new identities every thirty years or so. It’s not like it used to be. I can’t just forge some papers and move to a new city when it becomes impossible to believe that this young face is thanks to a strict skincare regimen. You can’t do shit without a paper trail and three forms of state-issued ID.”

  Alethia remained quiet, an unusual state. Scarlett squirmed under the weight of her bright hazel gaze. When she spoke, her words were pained.

  “Did you ever hear of a place called Itxvoy?” When Scarlett didn’t respond, Alethia continued. “It was a lovely little village nestled in Basque Country.”

  Her gaze floated away as images of lush hillsides and sapphire waters materialized in her mind. Two hundred years passed as if only a week ago she’d strolled the stone streets without a care to be found.

  “Do you know why you’ve never heard of it?”

  “I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” Scarlett guessed.

  Alethia relaxed her side against the couch and ran her fingers through her wild hair. “Because in Itxvoy, vampires had been an open secret for so long, that we forgot just how deadly a threat a frightened human can be. We walked the streets, we made our homes, and we lived in happy symbioses with the villagers. We had a gentleman’s agreement. No harm would ever come to the villagers at our hands, and we protected them as best we could from any external dangers.”

  Scarlett let go of her tablet, folding her legs underneath her as she leaned closer to Alethia.

  “For many years we lived like that, and it became quite a tourist destination among our kind. It wasn’t for the blood either. No tourists were ever allowed to drink from the locals. It was for the freedom.” The fond memories warmed Alethia and forced a genuine smile on her face. “The freedom to exist without the veil. Without the black shroud of anonymity and endless night.”

  “When did the pitchforks arrive?” Scarlett asked, breaking the spell of happy times well-lived

  “As they always do,” she replied wistfully. “When a single young man visiting the town saw something he couldn’t possibly understand.” Alethia recalled the panic that had erupted in the streets. He had witnessed a rather bloody and hedonistic display, but it hadn’t been unusual or without the consent of the adults involved. “Word spread so fast, lightning speed for the time. Once the priests in the nearest city caught wind of it, Itxvoy was billed as a Hellmouth. They descended upon us like we were truly the root of all evil. You know what godly men will do in the face of such sin.”

  Scarlett shifted uncomfortably in her seat. When Alethia glanced at the floor for a moment, she slid her hand over her wrist to comfort her but pulled
away the moment Alethia’s gaze returned.

  “I survived. Many did not,” Alethia said with sudden sharpness. She said nothing of the streets running with so much blood they stained the stone for generations. “The fire that cursed it some decades later hid the slaughter well enough.”

  “I’m sorry,” Scarlett offered softly.

  The ringing phone shattered the weighted silence between them. Alethia answered with blinding speed. “Adrian,” she said as she answered, already

  knowing it was Lucía’s enormous baldheaded progeny. The vampire-of-few-words was a veritable avalanche of nervous chatter.

  “The Queen is gone.”

  “I gathered as much, Brutus. Did she leave a note?”

  Adrian was silent for a moment. “No.”

  “Did you think of checking?” Alethia asked, not liking the dubious silence that preceded his response. Another long silence was followed by the sound of crashing furniture. She winced at the noise.

  “No note,” he confirmed.

  “Any signs of foul play? You know, before Cyclone Adrian rolled through.”

  “No. She vanished. Erin too.”

  Alethia sighed. She’d already figured as much but hadn’t been eager for verification.

  “All her things are here,” he added in his uniquely deep, monotone voice. “No missing cars. No foreign scents.”

  “Slow down there, big boy, don’t get excited. We’ll find where she got off to. Now listen, I don’t know if you watch—” Alethia interrupted herself; she was sure he hadn’t heard the news. “That little bugger Ximen, remember him?”

  “The gnat.”

  “Yep, that’s the one. Well, he’s gone and outed us to the world on the news. I know you’ll want to run around the globe shaking people down until you find Lucy, but it’s best that you stay put, alright? Lucy will be mighty cross with me if I let you die. She hasn’t paid me yet, so it would be rather financially irresponsible of me to let you get killed.”

  Adrian’s faint breathing was the only sign that Alethia wasn’t talking to herself.

  “Great,” she continued as if he had agreed. “Stay at the hacienda and lay low. Tell all the others to do the same.”

  “But. . .” he started.

  “If you die you can’t find her, alright? I’m sure she’s fine. There’s no way she would have gotten nabbed without a struggle.”

  The line went dead and Alethia hoped he’d listen.

  “Well?” Scarlett asked, her arms crossed over her small chest.

  “Lucy hasn’t ghosted me. Apparently, she and sugartits have vanished into thin air.” Sarcasm dripped from her tongue. “Much more comforting.”

  “There’s a fine coincidence with this Ximen guy going on TV. That can’t be random.”

  Alethia nodded begrudgingly. She had to admit that it was quite the act of serendipity.

  “What are you going to do?” Scarlett asked, her dark eyes staring intently at the pensive redhead.

  “I have no bloody idea, but apparently I’ve been left with the keys to the kingdom. I suppose I’ve got to do something.”

  * * *

  Erin and Lucía stood close together as they gazed up at the floating bodies sitting cross-legged in midair. The one in the center had closed their obsidian eyes again, making them indistinguishable from the other two hairless, genderless, figures on either side of them. If it weren’t for their

  disregard of the laws of physics, the group would look like ordinary meditating monks in brown, rough-spun robes.

  “Who are you?” Erin asked when the silence was too much for her to tolerate. She’d sworn to never keep her mouth shut for as long as she lived.

  She’d made the vow before she was a vampire, but despite the longer than expected lifespan, the promise still stood.

  “We used to have individual names,” they spoke in her mind. With their lips unmoving and eyes closed, they continued unhurried. “But now we are of one mind.”

  “What were your names before?” Erin asked aloud, needing to understand who these strangers calling themselves the Telumnee were. After her internment with the Mistress and her cult, she’d had enough of aliases and mysterious origins for a lifetime.

  “Erin,” Lucía cautioned with a furtive glance, her eyes trained on the Telumnee. They were talking to both her and Lucía telepathically, Erin guessed.

  “When we were children, and civilization was in its infancy, they used to call us oracles. We had forgotten our names long before the Dark Spector gave us our new life.”

  Erin glanced around the massive mountain peak cavern. Even with its stunning gemmed walls and the colorful gleam of its precious stone floors, this didn’t look like any life Erin would want. The silence and the solitude would be unbearable.

  “We know it does not appeal to you,” they said.

  Even her thoughts were not secrets here. The erosion of her privacy was unnerving. At least in her previous stint in captivity she’d had the solace of her thoughts.

  Erin refused to meet Lucía’s stern gaze, though she could feel it burning a hole in her skin. Dark Spector, she repeated in her mind. The term conjured the image of the shadow that turned Lucía. Could it have been the same thing?

  “I’m sorry,” Erin offered genuinely, remembering herself. “I didn’t mean to be rude. This is all so jarring.”

  “We know and we are regretful for that,” they said. “We would not have called you here so abruptly if it were not of the utmost importance. We are the watchers, created to stand sentinel over our kind. And we have seen a great danger.”

  “You seem pretty powerful to me,” Erin said, thinking of the crazy time and space they jumped when they were transported by a strange little boy, who she guessed was no boy at all. “Why do you need Lucía?”

  “We are the watchers,” they repeated. “We are meant to watch from a distance. And you are meant to lead our kind.”

  Despite a lack of eye contact or change in tone, Erin understood they were talking to Lucía now. The dark-haired vampire queen’s face was screwed up in open disbelief. Erin guessed her surprise was more at the mythical creatures’ existence rather than the concept that she was meant to be a leader. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Lucía was born to lead.

  “I cannot be the first of our kind. I am not nearly old enough,” Lucía guessed aloud with confidence.

  “It is true, sister. You are not the first. But you have lasted the longest.

  You are skilled, strong, and a competent ruler of mortals,” they explained.

  Erin bristled at the use of the term sister but then registered the rest.

  Lasted the longest. She didn’t like the ominous sound of that.

  “I’m sorry, but I still don’t get what you need from us. We already took out the cult. What other threat could there be?” Erin’s pointed questions echoed through the chamber.

  The Telumnee remained silent for an unnervingly long time.

  “A threat looms. Something nefarious, with a wide grasp. We have divined that you must be better equipped to address it, or we will all be at risk. You must be much stronger to defeat the certain death that nears. If you fail, it will be the end of you unless the Dark Spector finds the will to begin again, and we have not seen it for many centuries,” they explained cryptically.

  “Listen,” Erin interrupted, frustration sharpening her words. “I’m sure that you all know what you’re talking about, but it’s not really translating.

  Can you give it to us straight? What existential threat do you see coming at us?”

  “There is so much fire in you, child,” they said. “No,” a slightly more high-pitched voice rang in Erin’s mind. “Not fire. A tidal wave. A maelstrom. One among you has presented his face to the world. It will cause a deadly ripple effect. You must be strong enough to stop it.

  Regretfully, we cannot explain any further or we risk influencing your future choices to disastrous end. We are watchers and we must be vigilant.”

>   That’s convenient.

  “Ximen,” Lucía guessed through gritted teeth.

  “Who’s that?” Erin asked, feeling hopelessly out of the loop.

  “An obnoxious little toad, and a significantly stupider creature than I realized. I’ll explain later, but I’m pretty sure they mean he’s revealed our nature to the public,” she said quickly.

  “Oh, fuck,” Erin said with widening eyes.

  “Oh, fuck, indeed,” she repeated.

  “Will you accept our gift and do what must be done?” they asked again.

  “What’s the gift?” Erin asked.

  “Unparalleled strength and near invincibility,” they replied. “For the both of you.”

  Lucía’s eyes met Erin’s startled ones.

  “Ye—” Erin began replying when Lucía interrupted.

  “It is a rather enticing and generous offer you present. May we have some time to talk amongst ourselves privately?” Lucía asked, her charming, diplomatic tone always at the ready.

  Their pause was cold and uneasy. “Yes.”

  The little boy who had teleported them from Lucía’s Mexican hacienda appeared as if from thin air. “This way,” he said, starting toward a large opening further into the cave.

  Erin’s hand slipped into Lucía’s as they followed him deeper into the unknown.

  Chapter Two

  “Okay, okay, no need to worry, there will be enough space for everyone,” a gray-haired man in a suit calmed the masses before turning his head to speak into his clear earpiece. “Great news!” he called to the chattering crowd. “They’re ready for you!”

  The streak of excitement that blazed through the crowd nearly knocked Alethia off balance when it careened into her chest. She retained her poker face like the consummate professional and flashed her fake press credentials to the distracted and overwhelmed lady checking names off a list.

  As she snaked her way through the packed hallway and toward the open conference room, Alethia scoffed at the abysmal security. If she were the vampire holding herself out for the world to see, she’d at least borrow the popemobile.

  A third checkpoint was no match for Alethia’s stealthy maneuvering, and she snagged a seat just behind the tangle of video cameras sandwiched together in the middle of the room. Dozens of anxious camera operators ducked, squatted, and stretched as they checked and rechecked cables. No one wanted to be the poor bugger who missed the press conference with an honest-to-god vampire.