Eric's Eternity: Eternal Steel, #0.5

By Rexi Lake

Lizzie Benton grew up listening to the fantastical stories of her grandmother. Sure she could read auras, but she never truly imagined the stories of fae and vampires, shifters and demons, living gods and goddesses could be real. Then she comes face to face with the man who has been haunting her dreams. Except the darkness around him tells her he's not an ordinary man. He's something other.

 

Eric Lawson has lived for over 600 years. He's watched the world grow and change at a rapid pace and he's lived over a dozen lives himself, each different from the last. He needs to restart again, this time he's making an effort to help some other vampires restart too. But his venture doesn't begin as planned. Instead, he comes face to face with the woman meant for him. A woman whose presence gives him a very different kind of new life.

 

But with their meeting, their mating, comes an extraordinary change. There's no precedent for it. No history to look at. The old gods, long forgotten in human minds, are about to return with a vengeance that no one could anticipate.

 

Can Lizzie accept the reality of finding her truest love, a vampire, and coming into her own fae-born powers? Can they find strength in their bond before they are confronted by a pantheon of angry, powerful deities? In the city of steel, the world is about to be turned upside down.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rexi Lake
• Release date: Dec 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201927127

Rexi Lake

Rexi Lake has been writing stories in her head for as long as she can remember. Her goal was always to write in the genre she loved - romance. She has always believed in the reality of true love, and that the world could use more happily ever afters. She currently lives in southwest Pennsylvania. When she's not hard at work on the next book, she's busy being an accountant, learning guitar, making jewelry, and chauffeuring her socially active daughter to her various activities.

Book preview

THE IMAGI

Long before history was recorded on scraps of parchment, even before the carvings in stone, the gods and goddesses walked the realms of Terra - the Earth, the Oceans, the Heavens, the Underworld, and the Veil. Each claimed a home in one of the realms, but all could traverse to the others. Peace was precarious at times, but mostly it prevailed. Until boredom set in and challenges were issued.

One such challenge, issued by Jupiter, was so unusual and changed the world as they knew it. Create a free-thinking being. The best of these will be given a new realm of their own to live freely. The creator will have full authority within that realm and no other, not even I, can govern it. Only a majority vote of the council of gods will be able to change this.

With a prize so great, a number of the deities stepped up to present a creation that would outshine the others. Of course, Jupiter appointed Juno as the judge, believing he would need to do little work to reap the greatest reward.

Neptune presented his merfolk, beings with the capability to walk on land and swim beneath the waves of the oceans he loved. It’s said they could use the water to travel; even the tiniest droplets gave them a pathway to follow.

Pluto, who reigned in the Underworld already, created demons from the souls he’d captured in his realm. The creatures were made to live in darkness, hiding in the shadows of the realms where light filtered in, waiting to snatch more souls for the master they were created to serve.

Venus, whose heart was pure love, but who never experienced it herself, created a duality in her beings. Every heart was halved between two creatures. But an animal cannot live with only half of an integral organ. So the being was split further and their second heart was an animal. The being she called shifter could be the animal it shared a heart with or look like the gods and walk on two legs. And each had a perfect mate that held the other halves of their hearts.

Jupiter created humans. The beings were made in the image of the god himself and were given free thought, an ability that would provide them the ability to create and build wondrous things. Though he imbued them with no magick, he gave them a resilience and a strong desire to thrive, not just survive.

Mars brought forth a destructive species, fed with the God of War’s own need for bloodshed. Vampires had strength, cunning, and a viciousness in them that served only to create a thirst for blood and victory over an adversary. And every other being was an adversary.

Minerva, Diana, Ceres, and Vesta worked together to create a being they thought would bring them triumph. The fae folk were capable of wielding the magick of the elements, but they were also thoughtful, wise, and highly skilled in their crafts. Similar in looks to the humans and gods, the fae had an etherealness to them that made them similar to the sprites and nymphs as well. Their features were aglow with the magick they stored within.

The contest was never judged, however. And a victory was never claimed. The destructiveness of Mars’ vampires left the other beings in a state of terror as they were hunted and devoured for naught but existing. Jupiter enacted a curse, punishing Mars and sentencing his creatures to existing only in the darkness of night and with the screams of their victims echoing inside them. A reminder that the bloodshed and destruction was unnecessary and cruel. And so the curse itself was unnecessarily cruel. Lifeblood of a willing donor would be needed for them to survive and to view sunlight would mean a painful death. But he did give them one chance for redemption. A sacrifice could be made, but it would need to change the world for every race. Only then would the curse be lifted.

As time went on, the races existed together in the same realm. But jealousy grew and turned into bitter hatred. Some humans resented the other races for their gifts. And the discontent grew stronger as time passed. Not wanting any part of the brewing war, the demons returned to the Underworld. The merfolk dove into the deep, leaving the shores and the earthbound races behind.

The fae were divided. Some went into the Veil, where they had land gifted to them by the goddesses they were created by. Other fae and the shifters tried to exist with the humans, as did the vampires in the nighttime. But the hostilities increased and eventually, the Imagi were hunted by human armies, intent on wiping them from the world.

A call was sent out and from across the continents the remaining Imagi gathered together. It was late, nearing midnight, and the gathered were but a few hundred, perhaps a thousand, compared to the many thousands they’d been before. The fae surrounded the group, linking their magick in a circle of protection intended to shield them from the human eye.

But each attempt to pull down a veil failed after moments. One of the elder fae matrons stepped forward and spoke.

Those of our lineage that once lived with the gods and goddesses are gone from us now. But I recall a story passed down about a place where the humans couldn’t go. It was Earth, but not. A place called the Veil. It existed alongside this place, but separate and untouched by the greed and bitterness of humanity. Only a god could open the door though. And even pooling our magick, we are not strong enough to do the same. Just as we are not strong enough to shield our small numbers either. Not without taking a darker path and drawing on grey magick.

What is grey magick? a young shifter asked her.

Grey magick requires a sacrifice. It’s stronger but it takes a price of equal worth in return, she explained. I fear in this, the price would be a life.

I’ll pay the price.

A young woman, her pale flesh and black gaze, declared her a vampire, stepped forward.

No. You can’t. Another voice - older, maternal - spoke.

But the young vampire stepped further from the group she’d arrived with. If it doesn’t work, there’s no harm. If it does, then I am free of the cries that keep me awake even at midday. She approached the fae matron. Do your grey magick. If it can save the rest, I am content to give my life in return.

The fae matron nodded once and drew the girl into the circle with her.