Legends of the Destrati Volume Three: Legends of the Destrati, #3

By Dina James

Among Ethereals, Clan Destrati’s reputation and exploits are as renowned as the associates it boasts.

Within these pages are but a few of their legends.

Redemption – The most formidable Knight of the clan, Ian fears nothing, save never being able to avenge his daughter. Unable to accept the impossibility of it never happening, he gets word that his eternal enemy is within reach. But that word is brought by the Betrayer, Kyle Carillron. Everything Ian believes is called into question, as well as everything he knows.

A Hope and a Prayer – Not the largest of the vampire clans, but the most powerful because they are Allied: common knowledge among Ethereals regarding Clan Destrati. Just whom they are allied with is unknown to all but a select few, including exiled queen Sarina. To contact their ally, she will need some heavy assistance, and she knows just who to ask. Whether or not Kyle will kill her on sight is a risk she’ll have to take.

Unmasked – All Hallow’s Eve has long been an annoyance for Kyle. It is especially so now that the Destrati Queen has taken it upon herself to include him in various affairs the clan hosts. A Halloween party seems the perfect time to remind her that sometimes the mask really is a monster.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lair of Doom
• Release date: Jan 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781519916648

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Legends of the Destrati

Volume III

Dina James

Legends of the Destrati: Volume III

Copyright © 2015 Dina James

All stories previously published in the anthology Light in a Dark World, March 2012

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Cover Art © 2015 by Skyla Dawn Cameron

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without permission from the author. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights and livelihood is appreciated.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

’Author’s Note

With Great Power

Deliver Us from Evil

About the Author

Dedication

For My Husband, Robert

I couldn’t do this without you. Thank you for believing. And the fries.

I love you.

Acknowledgments

I have so many people to thank for helping get this book out there.

First, my Editor of Awesome, Skyla Dawn Cameron. Thank you for wanting to do this project with me and not thinking I was insane when I voiced a wish to have all my short stories available in one place. Not only that, but you did the most beautiful cover for me. You’re amazing, thank you.

Also, my husband Rob. As the dedication says, I couldn’t have done this without you. Thank you for believing in me and supporting my insanity, and understanding the words, I’m working! Thank you for taking care of things when I’m in my own little world. Also, thank you for enabling my yarn addiction. I think you just do it to keep me sane so you don’t have to deal with any more crazy. I love you.

To Becky—you loved Kyle from the beginning. You loved him so much you outed me as a paranormal writer in that Japanese restaurant, and as a result, the rest of the world got to meet him as well. Thank you for that.

To Valtinen—Your help with music, language, semantics...so many other things I don’t have the room to list, I’m grateful to you for. Some of them appear in these pages. Thanks for the entertainment, Fauxtaire.

Thank you also to Trisha for loving Kyle, and asking for more.  My immense gratitude to Jes and Rhea for their mad proofreading skills.

Last but never least, thank you to my readers and fans. Thank you to those who wanted to spend more of their time with Kyle (I don’t blame you one little bit!) and kept asking for the backlist of my books that I didn’t have. All I had was what they’d read. Hopefully this collection will satisfy Kyle’s adoring masses.

Author’s Note

This work differs a great deal from what you may have read by me. Three of the stories here were published in different paranormal anthologies years apart, so if they seem familiar to you, that’s likely why. Those previously published stories have since been rewritten, revised and in one case, re-titled. They now appear as they were originally written. In addition, these stories are different in that the reader sees everything from everyone's perspectives. Some might mistake this for head-hopping or point-of-view shifts—I assure you they are intentional, not amateur or editorial mistakes. It's a style called omniscient, and I prefer writing it (much to the annoyance of my editors). I, personally, think it gives the stories greater depth, which is important in shorts. With short stories, you have a limited amount of time and space to involve the audience, and this style is designed for just that. I hope you enjoy it.

Also, this work is a great deal darker than other things I’ve written. I will warn you now—there may be some triggering scenes in some of the stories. The world of the Destrati is very dark, hence the title. There are images of self-harm, sexual assault, violence and suicidal ideation (if you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call the suicide prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or visit www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org).

If all that weren’t enough, some of the stories are based heavily on Judeo-Christian theology. Heaven, Hell, angels, demons, souls, priests—there’s a lot of Biblical stuff in these pages, and I realize this might upset some people. Rest assured, I’m not being preachy or religious in these stories. In my world, vampires are made by selling their soul to Lucifer—they trade their soul for immortality. They’re literal lost souls. The Destrati work to prevent others from sharing their fate as one of the damned, so there’s a lot of theology involved.

If you’re good with all that, read on. Just don’t say you weren’t warned. – DJ

Redemption

A knock interrupted Ian’s solitude. At his acknowledgment, the door opened.

We have a location.

Ian nodded and stood.

Barcelona.

His brow furrowed. So close? The Spanish city was less than half a day—half a night—from the Destrati manse that sprawled but a stone’s throw from the Swiss border. There was a time, long ago, when the border between the two countries wasn’t as defined. The Destrati holdings had ended up on the Northern Italian side by sheer happenstance sometime in the mid-1800s after the country’s unification. Ian could shift immediately and be in Barcelona that very moment. What was the American doing so close...and in Spain?

His Lordship was also surprised at his location, and his proximity, the messenger said to the flicker of disbelief on Ian’s face.

Gratitude, Ian said, and dismissed the messenger with another nod before looking to the weapons laid out in a neat row upon the bed. The irony of the sleeping place never failed to amuse him. He supposed it was an acknowledgment of his former humanity, but Ian felt it was a mockery. While he did sleep, after a fashion, a bed wasn’t required. Nor were a chair, a desk, or anything else that decorated this cell those here called a bedroom.

A cell. That is what he had once. Now the word was synonymous with prisons and convicts, but the clergy had used it first. Cells were the embodiment of poverty—one of the vows he’d taken. Obedience, chastity and poverty.

Vows he had broken, one by one.

It was why he was here, with the Destrati. He could never hope to redeem his immortal soul, but he could hope to redeem himself. God may have forgiven him, but forgiving himself would take nothing short of a miracle.

Living with himself was a nightmare from which he could never wake. When one was cursed—for that was what he felt it was—to live forever, praying for a death that would never be granted was an exquisite, personal Hell.

At first, immortality had seemed a gift and he had exploited it beyond all imagination. He had learned everything, done everything. Anything he ever wanted to experience had been thoroughly explored. He had advised and courted both queens and kings. He had married, loved, lost, and done all three over and over again. He had been everything—doctor, lawyer, teacher.

Priest.

Ian sat down hard on his bed. The weapons beside him bounced on the coverlet in protest, then lay still. He rested his forehead on his steepled hands for a long moment before he lowered himself to his knees.

The prayer was always the same. Ian wasn’t sure why he still