Frailties of the Bond: NEO Chronicles, #1

By Angela Brown

NEO – Network of Extraordinaires and Otherworldlies:

Those who answer the call from NEO play their part in maintaining balance in our ever-changing times. With power-hungry malcontents, jealous gods, and even those with misguided good intentions, the fate of our world has oft been held in the hands of unsung heroes such as those that are members of NEO.

But before NEO, these heroes and heroines had lives, loves, issues and interests that didn’t involve saving mankind.

In Frailties of the Bond, it only takes one bite to change a life…

After a hiking trip gone wrong, sixteen-year-old Luca should have been dead. Since then, he’s drifted from one school day to the next, annoyed by the looks of suspicion. When a vampire attack claimed his mother and forced his first shift into animal form, Luca set out for Texas, vengeance bound, only to discover so much more when Aimee crossed his path.

Flesh-born of vampire parents sixteen years ago, Aimee shouldn’t exist. Magic, though, made dreams come true for an undead couple desperate for a child all their own. But this magic came with a price, a cost Aimee discovered after one forbidden bite.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Angela Brown
• Release date: Mar 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781501405945

Book preview

To the unsung heroes and heroines, from parents to police officers simply doing their jobs:

Thank you! You are loved and appreciated, even when we don’t say it often enough.

And my Chipmunk and Family, you are my heart’s everyday heroes and heroines :-)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Luca

Chapter 2 - Aimee

Chapter 3 - Luca

Chapter 4 - Aimee

Chapter 5 - Aimee

Chapter 6 - Luca

Chapter 7 - Aimee

Chapter 8 - Luca

Chapter 9 - Aimee

Chapter 10-Luca

Chapter 11-Aimee

Chapter 12-Luca

Chapter 13-Aimee

Chapter 14-Luca

Chapter 15-Aimee

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Author’s Note

Untethered Realms

––––––––

Before NEO, the Network of Extraordinaires and Otherworldlies, I had Everveil, a small piece of land magicked in a nook between Temple and Belton, Texas. Life was simpler then, less complicated. So was I. But my story belonged to another as well: a boy named Luca who should have stayed two thousand miles away.

Then again, if he’d never come into my life...

For Luca, it started in Vermont on a Thursday.

~Aimee Laurent

Chapter One

Luca

Luca skipped his last class. Study Hall didn’t really count. He drifted out to the football field, one of the few places he could escape the narrow-eyed double-takes and hushed mumblings. He knew what the students and, maybe even the teachers, whispered behind his back.

The wrong person survived.

Instead, the hiking accident from the summer took his best friend, his only friend. Vivie. At the very least, he should have tried harder to save her.

No one cared that he believed the same thing. Not a single person wasted a Sorry for your loss when he passed by in the halls. His guidance counselor plastered a lukewarm grin on his face and handed Luca a How to grieve pamphlet at the start of school. Nothing since then.

Luca ducked beneath the cascade of wooden bleachers. Bits of chipped white paint dangled overhead, age and neglect on full display. A crisp breeze swept past. He shuddered, settling to the ground using his math workbook as a seat. His mind wandered back to that day.

Nothing about their hike stood out from any other one they’d taken. No flashing red warning signs or hints of pending doom. Vivie led, as usual, flowing pink hair tossed over her shoulder, bold peace sign tattoo visible between her neck and tank top.

They stood near the cliff’s edge, same spot they’d planted their booted soles time and time again to look out over the forest below. Ever a majestic view, neither suspected it would be the site of life ripped away.

One moment, the earth held firm and solid. In the next, the ground cracked, filling the air with the sound of shattered bones. Birds fluttered up from the trees en masse. A break zigzagged the ground...with Vivie on the wrong side. With a gasp, she fell, her plummet stopped short by Luca’s outstretched hand. He laid flat on his belly, half on, half off the newly formed cliff side.

Let me go! she yelled over tumbling rocks. She scratched at the surface, no foot or handhold for purchase. If you don’t, you’ll fall, too.

No, Vivie! I won’t! In truth, he couldn’t let go.

Not her.

Not the girl he dreamt of one day being brave enough to confess his love to, even if that day was a decade away. If he let her go, it would never come. So he held on, slipping forward one agonizing inch by the minute.

A duo of birds chirped in animated conversation, wings aflutter, yanking Luca from his walk-down-memories-of-shame.

He shook his head and shuddered. Opening his knapsack, he pulled out his paperback of Underworld and smiled at Kate Beckinsale. Kate stared hawk-eyed into some nowhere place, both beautiful and badass. His smile faded remembering relaxed Saturday nights in the den, popcorn and Wild Cherry Pepsis in hand, watching the movie at Vivie’s house. He told her – the rare times he got Pepsi-high-brave-enough – how she and Kate could have been twins, except Vivie grew her hair down to the middle of her back and dyed it pink. Always pink. She never wore anything pink but her hair.

The memory of her smiling face lingered on. The emptiness of being without her nudged at his heart. The only angle he clung to was the realization he avoided an eventual heartbreak. They could never be more than friends. Not him and someone as gorgeous as her.

The corner of a red envelope stuck out from Underworld’s worn pages, pulling him from his reverie. He slid it free. His name covered the front in calligraphy. A wax seal, marked with the letter ‘P,’ held the back flap shut. He lifted it to his nose. It smelled like apricots, just like Vivie. A shiver worked down his spine.

Impossible. He stared at the envelope, pondering which kid had it in for him so bad they would take a prank this far. Wick came to mind, Vivie’s older brother. But Wick was a senior, not a sophomore. And they didn’t have any elective courses together. No way for Wick to sneak a note in Luca’s bag. Probably too thick in the head to come up with something so...painful – to mess with Luca’s mind.

Luca flipped the envelope around. Warmth snaked into the grooves of his fingertips.  Heat flared when Luca broke the seal and pulled out the red stationary, so hot he winced and dropped the envelope.  The moment it touched the ground, tiny flames burst to life then fizzled out just before he slapped his hand at it to put out the fire.

He glanced from the warm note in his hand to the spot on the ground where the envelope fell. Other than a bit of ash, nothing remained. That did not just happen. Glancing back to the stationary, he knew the truth.

His heart hammered inside his chest and drummed in his ears.  He had to read the note but...would it turn into another Mission Impossible self-destruct moment? With a gulp and a deep breath, he opened the letter.

L,

You know who this is.

No, you’re not dead.

Yes, I still am. Persephone was nice enough to let me do this.

So I had to tell you. It’s time to let me go.

Please.

V.

The note crumbled to pieces, literally, into a palm full of red confetti. Another breeze played beneath the bleachers, sweeping the pieces into the air, swirling them up and away. Luca stood to grab them but only managed to bump his head. He sucked in a breath at the pain while the jolt sent a shower of paint chips into his hair. He didn’t bother shaking them out. They matched his hair perfectly.

The bell rang, releasing the other