King Cave (Forever Evermore, #2)
Scarlett Dawn
Acknowledgements
First, thank you to my kiddos. I love you. I love you. I love you. One for all three.
Thank you so much to all of my fans! All of your supportive words are so wonderful to hear. I am just as thrilled for you to read this next instalment of the Forever Evermore trilogies. I hope you love it! hugs
While this story would never have been accomplished without the patience and support of my family, I want to give a special thank you to my editor, Kate Cuthbert. She is utterly amazing, along with the rest of the Harlequin Australia staff. I have truly found a home with them.
Thank you so much to my copy editor, Nicolene Hale. She is simply amazeballs. There is no other one word to describe her. She’s the type of copy editor every author would be blessed to have.
Also, to my beta reader, Bindi: you rock my socks off. You didn’t even blink an eye when I emailed this story to you at the last minute. bear hugs You are amazing. Truly.
To my husband,
You’re it for me.
I knew it the moment I met you.
You always have been. You always will be.
No other words are needed.
You’re it.
Love forever evermore,
S.D.
Chapter One
July 1, 2013
Elder Antonio Farrar, the closest person I had known to a father while growing up, turned his attention to the window he had my gun pointed at while echoes of warfare clashed in the air, fighting their own personal battle for loudest demand.
Screams of agony.
Shouts of victory.
Booming explosions.
Cries of the innocent.
Ricocheting gunshots.
Curses of reckoning.
Demands of the organized.
Shrieks of loss.
Antonio’s golden eyes narrowed, and he fired my weapon as another Com tried to enter through the broken window. Our enemies, the Commoners, were swarming outside our safe zone, the late Mrs Jonas’s office. The only entry: the window I had thrown my uncle out of earlier today, before I had executed him with a single silver bullet to his forehead.
Ezra Zeller, the Prodigy Vampire and one of my very best friends, stepped in front of me, sheltering my body from the window’s access. Any of his visible skin was covered in drying blood, which was not his own. His black ceremonial robe was still soaked with it, sticking to his powerfully massive frame. At six feet, five inches tall and built for protection, no stray bullets would hit my much smaller five feet, two inches, hidden behind him.
Which I didn’t appreciate. I didn’t want him hurt any more than he wanted me harmed.
“You want us to run?” Ezra asked in disbelief, his large, almond-shaped spring green eyes narrowing on Antonio. “I thought you were the terrifying Mage! You fought in the damn war beside my dad! He told me stories about you!” Ezra shook his head rigidly. “You may have trained Lily to run, but my father,” Elder Cahal Zeller, one hell of a powerful Vampire, “sure as fuck didn’t teach me to run away with my tail tucked between my legs. Mysticals are being attacked out there,” his body was beginning to tremble, his muscles bulging under his blood drenched robe, “and I’m sure as hell not running like a damn coward.” To my complete shock, Ezra turned on his heel and stalked toward the broken window, shouting over his shoulder, “Keep everyone in here safe while the Mystical with the balls takes care of business.”
“Stop him.” Antonio’s quiet eyes met my stunned gaze. “We don’t have time for this.”
Reacting on instinct, and both irritated and scared for Ezra as he neared the exit, I leaped using my Shifter strength. My shoulder slammed against the small of his back, even as I wrapped my arms around his stomach.
We went down, both of us grunting.
I knew he would twist inside my hold, and I let him. What I hadn’t expected was for him to flip our positions. I should have, but I didn’t. My back landed ruthlessly on the floor.
Ezra loomed over me as his fangs bared, lowering his body, which was firm and heavy, on top of mine. The tips of our noses touching, he hissed, “You didn’t see what I did. There are things out there that will slaughter Mysticals. They’re powerful and strong, even if unorganized. I saw them rip Mys brats into shreds before I could kill them.” His Vampire growled, absolutely furious, and he started to lift off me. “Don’t tell me to run from this.”