Prelude

By Kassandra Alvarado

Zac Quinn's life has been touched by the darkside in more ways than one. His search for the truth about his brother's disappearance leads him to cross paths with a mysterious woman with a curse of her own. She is
the sole remnant of a nearly defunct organization who hunted creatures of the night.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kassandra Alvarado
• Release date: Jan 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310053856

Book preview

Dancing In Darkness: Prelude

By

Kassandra Alvarado

Published by Kassandra Alvarado at Smashwords

Copyright 2014

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover Art designed by author with thanks to the ever-beautiful Miranda Hedman http://mirish.deviantart.com/

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur: The world desires to be deceived; therefore it is

- Petronius

Chapter One Beginning

The scent of Mimosa...it isn’t overpowering, but --

The window was thrown open on the third floor of a dilapidated apartment complex. The night air was cold, brisk over the face of the sleepless. The words of a poet came to the restless mind deprived of its sundry rest:

For love, and beauty, and delight,

There is no death nor change: their might 

Exceeds our organs, which endure

No light, being themselves obscure.

A work of Shelley’s, waxing on The Sensitive Plant. The scent tickled the nostrils of the sleepless, it bade him leave the electric comfort of a heating blanket and seek out its source. It was not difficult to discern with the tickle of a faint breeze stirring the dingy white curtains across the room. The scent came from there. Laconic, he arose to throw the sash open wider. There was a ruckus below. The sound startled him. A trash can filled to the brim flipped over, spilling its contents across the narrow cement-lined alleyway. He peered closer, searching out the cause, expecting a hungry dog.

Then, for some reason, he reached for the camcorder on the dresser beside the window. Switching on night vision, he held it still, aiming downward. Through the lens view, something moved - ran - Jesus, it was fast! - The half-bent human shape raced to the end of the complex alley, stopping short of the wooden fence. Something else moved after it, slow, deliberate with long strides.

He craned his head out as far as possible, sticking his arm out with the camcorder. Three stories below, the figure -- a woman of indeterminate age clothed entirely in black, slowed. Distantly, through the noise of traffic, her steps rang harsh, final. Zac twisted around, aiming the shaking lens from the back wall fence to the woman, back and forth. The thing had ceased its scrambling. On all fours, it dropped to the ground, head tilted low, back swaying like an obscene spider.

The woman took something from her shoulder; the thing recognized her intent, scuttling forward on hands and knees. He nearly dropped the camcorder in fright, heart in his throat. It was like something out of a horror movie. Zac’s thoughts were jumbled. Was this real? Was he really watching this unfold?!

Reality warred with sensory perception. He wanted to doubt the scene unfolding below, he wanted to shut his eyes and crawl back into bed -- but something made him stay frozen by the transom, craning his neck out the window.

A small burst of fitful light below expounded a sound not unlike that of a shotgun blast. Jesus! He yelped, slamming the back of his head against the upraised pane. Curiosity prevailed and he kept watching, watching as the thing tottered upright on two legs instead of four. The dark shock of hair stood on end, an inhuman wail issued from the gaping maw, then the twisted form collapsed into greasy folds of skin.

The woman withdrew her weapon, stepping back sharply from the burst of inky blackness pouring from the shell of the human being.