Vampire Vengeance: The Turning Series, #3

By April M. Reign

His sister is in the hands of the enemy…
The town where he lives claims that the woman he loves is dead…
The Sanguis clan leader has disappeared…
And Apollo is running out of time…

In a harrowing attempt to find the woman he loves, Apollo confronts his adversaries and the dark secrets of his birthplace. One clue leads to another until he runs into a dead end.

 

As the clock to rescue his sister runs out of time, Apollo leads the remaining Sanguis clan to the werewolf compound in Spain. Once inside and behind enemy lines, he will come face to face with his most dangerous enemies, unravel family secrets and discover an heirloom with powers far stronger than he knew existed.

 

As he leaves one life behind, he will discover another, where he will be forced to choose between good and evil, family and solitude.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dream Realms Press
• Release date: May 21, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224044696

Book preview

VAMPIRE VENGEANCE

The Turning Series #3

By

April M. Reign

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Books by April M. Reign

The Turning Series

Bound to Darkness

Unleashed

Vampire Vengeance

Vampire Curse

Vampire Crimes Special Unit Series

Moon Hunt

Moon Gone

Moon Crimes

Moon Castle

Moon Scroll

The HASH Series

The Institute

Secrets of Startech

The Queen of Ceren

Disciples of the Damned Series

Season One

Dominic

Vypers

Slayers

Friend or Foe

War: The Horsemen

Season Two

Chari

Hunter

Dead to Rights

Ransom

The Dhellia Series

Dhellia

Quest for the Keys

Trial by Fire

Quest for the Throne Series

The Enchanted Sisters

Vampire Vengeance

Published by Dream Realms Press

Copyright ©2013 by April M. Reign.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the permission of the author, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of this author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or to actual persons, past or present, is entirely coincidental.

BETRAYED BY BLOOD—AVENGED BY RAGE

About Vampire Vengeance

His sister is in the hands of the enemy...

The town where he lives claims that the woman he loves is dead...

The Sanguis clan leader has disappeared...

And Apollo is running out of time...

In a harrowing attempt to find the woman he loves, Apollo confronts his adversaries and the dark secrets of his birthplace. One clue leads to another until he runs into a dead end.

As the clock to rescue his sister runs out of time, Apollo leads the remaining Sanguis clan to the werewolf compound in Spain. Once inside and behind enemy lines, he will come face to face with his most dangerous enemies, unravel family secrets and discover an heirloom with powers far stronger than he knew existed.

As he leaves one life behind, he will discover another, where he will be forced to choose between good and evil, family and solitude.

Dedication

To the reader, thank you for reading book three.

TABLE OF 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 One

I’ve never felt so alive.

I’ve never felt so dead.

I’m a werewolf and a vampire—a bloodthirsty demon—who had tried to live a normal life. They had taken that life from me. The clan—the townspeople—they had all done their part to take something away from me that was mine.

They had stolen my human life and my ability to dream about my future. A single bite was all it had taken to destroy my hopes and dreams. Now, they’d taken something that was far more precious to me...far more important. They had taken the one life that I’d give mine to protect—my beautiful Sophie.

We tried to integrate—tried to live a normal life alongside the humans. Sadly, we had chosen a town with secrets ingrained so deeply into their society that no matter how long we lived there, we’d always be outsiders.

Rage filled my heart. An impulsive desire to destroy the town of Stockwood consumed me. Still down on one knee in the middle of the unpaved road, I could hear the old woman’s erratic breathing. I could smell her sickly breath and I could taste her fear.

Without lifting my head, I knew she cowered behind her termite-infested white picket fence. But none of that mattered. She held in her hand the necklace that I had given Sophie the night before—the necklace that had belonged to my mother.

A sadistic growl left my partially elongated jaw. Through my fangs, through my upper and lower canines, my voice rumbled with pain and despair. How did you get this? My hand tightened around the pendant. My eyes blurred with unshed moisture.

She hesitated; her low, humming lullaby seemed to ease her nerves. In the meekest trembling voice, she answered my question: There, in the street.

And where was Sophie?

The old woman moved closer to the white fence, embracing it, as if it would save her from my rage. I could sense the frozen fear on her face. I knew she gawked at the sheer size of my fierce beastly body.

You’re one of them, she stuttered. You’re from the forest.

I growled louder. Where was Sophie when you found the pendant?

She took a step back. "Gone, of course. The beads gleamed in the sunlight. It was alone. It called to me."

I was still on one knee, my head still hung low. My barbarous body reeked. I could see my own snout, partially elongated. The hair on my arms was thick. There was no mistaking that I was an animal. Torn clothes hung from my body in shreds. Wrapped tightly in the grip of my hand, my mother’s pendant swung from side to side.

I had a taste for killing. However, I knew if I slaughtered everyone, I’d never find her. Someone had to pay...someone had to die in order for the rest of these weak humans to realize that their life was on the line. I wasn’t going to sit back and let this town swallow the woman I loved in the same way it had swallowed my mother and the children in the cemetery. Enough was enough.

I raised my head and glared at the old woman. She was frightened. Fear and revulsion glazed her eyes. Beneath wrinkled folds in her skin, she shuddered. Wide gray cataract-clouded eyes fearfully watched my every movement.

What are you? she asked as she took another harrowing step backward.

The more she retreated, the more I wanted to shove my clawed nails across her midriff and rip out her insides. I’d never felt anything so powerful. Until now, I had never wanted to kill for the pleasure of killing.

She must have sensed that look in my sadistic eyes. She glanced downward at the sidewalk and whispered, The pendant is powerful. Do you hear its voice?

She wanted to play games with me. It wasn’t enough that I felt tormented. How did you know Sophie was pregnant with twins?

A woman knows.

I slammed my clawed fist down on the ground. A four-foot long crack opened in the earth. How did you know?

I wasn’t sure until the pendant told me. Madeline Clay glanced back at her home and then back to me. You’re from the forest? You’re different but you’re from that world.

A spike in adrenaline drove me to my feet. I stood. The view was different from this height. I glanced at the old kook, who hid behind her puny white fence. I growled—a growl so loud and fierce that I saw her duck against my blowing breath. Do not play games with me, old woman.

The pendant told me, she said, her voice inflections rising and falling. My—my son, Michael, confirmed it.

I remembered figuring that out a few days prior. Michael Clay, my boss at the morgue, was her biological son. I’d kill her just to forsake him, but she was also Edgar Clay’s wife, the scientist who had helped me curb my appetite. The stranger who saved Sophie’s life when she was locked in the cage with me.

For that reason, and that reason alone, I’d spare her life a minute longer—long enough to get the information I needed to find the body of my one true love.

Edgar? Is he... she hesitated and glanced down at her twisted hands. Is he still in the forest?

This woman’s sporadic thoughts and chaotic understanding of what was happening would be the death of her. The last thing I cared about was Edgar’s whereabouts. The last thing she should care about was Edgar’s whereabouts. Her life was in danger, and I hardly thought she realized how close she was to that moment of reckoning.

Where did Michael take her?

She shrugged, singing that repetitive lullaby as she stared off down the street mentally lost in another time and place. She was already dead—barren in a body that hung onto a pitiful, nonexistent life.

My first attack would be Michael Clay. He had known Sophie was pregnant. He had warned me about those who got pregnant in Stockwood. They had waited for me to leave before they attacked her. I was sure of it.

My body shivered at the thought of someone harming my beloved. I was her protector and I had failed her.

One by one, I would torture or kill anyone who knew Sophie, but who couldn’t tell me where she was. I wanted to see her body... a desperate need to confirm her death. I wanted to mourn over the woman I loved. I needed something tangible for closure.

I wanted to give her the proper burial, rather than think that buzzards would tear at her flesh or worms would burrow through her insides. I wanted to say goodbye one last time, to look into her lifeless eyes, hold her, kiss her and reminisce in the love that we had had for each other.

I will find you and I will hold you. You won’t be alone.

The unpaved street in front of me was narrow. With each step, my massive, clawed foot slammed down on the gravel, and I felt the earth give way under my body.

In my grip, I held the pendant. It dangled so delicately around my beast-fingered claws. Awkwardly, I wrapped the necklace twice around my arm in order to keep it safe. I wanted to put it around her again, even if it was my final farewell gift.

I howled into the night. Slowly at first, one claw in front of the next, I found my balance and then I took off, running down the street toward the mayor’s home. I was fast, like an animal after its prey. With an urge to move faster, I dropped my paw-like claws down to the ground and ran on all fours, picking up speed.

Drool dripped from my mouth. I could taste Michael’s flesh and smell his blood. I wanted to shred him. I wanted to make him pay for the sins of the town.

On this eerie night, when I’d lost the one person I’d loved more than anything, I wanted the town to know that no one would be safe again.

Moving through the pitted roads, dodging holes and swinging around corners, I was on a mission to destroy anything in my path. What I thought I had known about life had changed overnight. What I had desired...had disappeared. Nothing would be the same. What human softness that had remained a part of me, even after the turning ceremony, was now gone.

I moved swiftly and fluidly through the town. My eyes were set on my target. I was ready to kill. My tunnel vision prevented me from seeing anything but my destination. This was why I was shocked when something hit me and hit me hard.

The force of the blow against my side was as if a bulldozer had plowed into my massive body. I flew through the air and landed in the grass of the cemetery.

I shook my head and glanced up. Through my ragged breathing, my body quivered with a lust for blood. My father and Ori stood in front of