Biting Wild: Lycans of Grayville

Shadow-Forged Kayla McQueen Book 3

This is the first chapter from my latest project in the Kayla McQueen series.  This will only be available on Kindle or Hard-copy later in 2018.  Please let me know what you think!

One:

Perched on an old, gritty rooftop, I watched as my beautiful, sinful city of the dead burned in the night. Fires swept through the district closest to the French Quarter. A stone's throw from some of the wealthiest families, the violence had only spread. It was the end of September, my mind flashed through all the vague memories I did retain from the previous year. Still, so much had been intertwined with a human, Jon Divichi.

To put down a powerful rogue sorceress, I had turned to a being that dwelled in the shadows. Her abyssal magic had been able to help me counter Jaden. With all things come a price and my price had been the memories of this former human lover of mine. You think your life is fucked up? Try knowing you have done it more than once, but in your mind, you cannot recall ever giving yourself to a man! It tends to spark a chicken and the egg debate in my mind profusely. Am I a virgin again, since I will never remember anything I ever did?

My petty thoughts are cut short, I sensed the shift in the space next to me. This told me that Kimi, Seraphina's trusted right hand and my permanent shadow, was back.

"What now?" I growled at her. I did not bother to look over at her, if she wanted me dead, then she could try. The emptiness of my heart and the frigid powers of my magic had numbed me beyond caring. I wore a long black trench coat, not because I got cold anymore these days, but more to hide weapons. My long raven hair flapped freely with the wind of the night, with the wind came the rising scent of cinder.

"She wishes for me to inform you, that this is just a smokescreen. The chaos magic users are actually planning to make their escape in the confusion tonight."

"Where are they going? How many of them?"

"Milady requests that you allow her to speak to you."

I dispersed into the air of the chilly September night and I ignored Kimi. She hated me and loathed playing middle bitch between Seraphina and myself. In just three months, my mastery of the shadowy magic known as abyss, was now uncanny. I could tell that Kimi was intimidated around me, I had seen her magic many times, but it lacked the same power of mine. Her dispersion seemed to cost her energy, but for me, it was as natural as breathing. In fact, I spent more and more of my time dispersed in the darkness, rather than in solid form.

My best friend was now the apex alpha of the New Orleans pack. Sally tried to keep up with me, but we had not seen each other in over two months now. She texted one of my burner phones every couple of days, but that was about all the time a new apex had. She was busy trying to put out the fires. The wolves were entrenched throughout the outskirts of the city, and deep into the swamp lands. Vampires were swarming like locusts and now the dead things roamed the streets of New Orleans.

The coven was fractured, Joan McQueen, my grandma, refused to take them back. They betrayed her and helped unleash this new hell on earth. Joan had been welcomed into my mom's house. To think, it only took a zombie and vampire apocalypse to bring two stubborn McQueen's back together. They had spent nearly two decades in a state of cold war with each other. Now their interests were aligned and they both felt responsible for what I had become. Joan was, after all, the one who took me to meet Seraphina. From what little I have gathered, Joan was not so completely infused with abyss, not like me. She had considered Seraphina as a sort of mentor.