The Breed Casstiel's Vow
Read The Breed Casstiel's Vow Online
Authors: Alice K. Wayne
The Breed: Casstiel’s
Vow
Alice K. Wayne
Copyright © 2014 Alice K. Wayne
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the
prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses
permitted by copyright law
Editing work done by: Taylor
Branch
Acknowledgements
This book is dedicated to everyone who helped me along
my journey, and to anyone who is out there chasing their dream every day. Have
faith in yourself, and anything is possible!
To my amazing husband Ryan, my life would be a scary
place without your love and patience.
To my family who has loved, and cared,
and pushed me from day one.
I wouldn’t be who I am today without all the
nagging and fighting, oh and the love of course.
To Melissa and
Tangie
, my beta
readers, cheerleaders, and the Co-presidents of my fan club; without your
encouragement I wouldn’t have had the strength to pursue my
dream,
I owe you more than words can say.
Lastly to my
Valsy
and Bertie,
who have the patience of grand
masters.
Thank you for
the reality slaps!
1
It was so dark out Tessa
couldn’t be sure, but her instincts told her that she
did
see something
moving, creeping outside the house, that it wasn’t just the trick of the light
or her imagining things.
She pushed her face closer
to the kitchen window trying to see what it was, but the darkness was thick and
suffocating, enveloping her.
Suddenly she noticed Quinn
standing on the lawn. What the hell was her brother doing out there? She needed
to warn him that the creature was coming, it was moving towards him,
he
needed to run.
She shouted his name over
and over, but he couldn’t hear her. She was running out of the house and
towards him as fast as she could but instead of getting closer he was fading
away… she was being swallowed by the darkness. She could feel the stare of the
creature on her; it was closing in.
Where was Quinn?
Where the fuck was her brother?
“Tessa... Tessa wake
up you’re having that nightmare again!”
Tessa Roberts woke to
petite hands shoving her shoulder. Fully awake now, she realized she wasn’t at
her parent’s old
house,
instead she was safe and sound
at the shelter she had been living in for the better part of two years.
She kept her eyes closed,
clinging to the nightmare she was having.
Part of her felt
like she continued to have the dream as a means of torturing herself for not
being able to save her brother from his brutal werewolf attack.
It was going on two years
since she had last seen him; two years since those things stole him from her
family.
After a few more seconds of
the persistent shaking she finally opened her eyes and rolled out of bed.
“It seems like the dreams
are getting worse. This time it almost looked like you were having a seizure,”
Nora’s voice was full of concern behind her.
Nora had become her best
friend over the last year and a half. The
only
friend she had ever had.
She had been a shoulder to
lean on through all the stress and depression over her missing brother, and a
helpful guiding hand in ushering the Roberts family into the very secretive and
strange world of the Breed; a world in which vampires and werewolves were not
only real, but secretly living amongst regular humans.
Until a year and a half ago
Tessa had known there were humans walking around that weren’t exactly human,
but she didn’t know what they were or what they meant to regular people. She
had no idea whether or not they were just a peaceful secretive species or if
they were a cunning enemy to the human race.
Now however, she knew that
they were neither. The Breed had lived among humans since the beginning of
time, always successfully staying out of their notice, with no interest in
being part of the human world.
Tessa was born with the
ability to read human minds, and it was this ability that helped her and her
family
find
the Breed.
At first her parents
thought she was just acting out her imagination, similar to how other kids had
imaginary friends. But after years of insisting that she really had the
gift, after years of knowing their thoughts, even her dad, a psychology
professor, had to admit the gift was real.
Tessa kept the secret
solely to herself, never telling another person besides her family, and now
Nora. Her ability made having a social life impossible; she could hear people
that she thought were her friends
lying
to her face,
men that she thought had feelings for her thinking about other women, could
hear all the dirty secrets of the people she respected and admired.
For her own peace of mind
she chose to live alone. She didn’t seek out the company of others, never
having friends or boyfriends, avoiding social situations at all costs.
Through high school she had
endured the strange looks and whispers about her. No one could understand
why the younger sister of one of the school’s top athletes and most popular
students was such a hermit. Her brother had been such a bright shining star, so
how could she be such a dud?
Once she made it to
college avoiding people was a breeze. At the university she had been
attending there were far too many students for anyone to notice that she always
walked alone, ate alone, and never went out to any of the schools social
events. She passed through her years at university hardly noticed, and she
couldn’t have been happier about it.
Her only saving grace was
that the gift was completely at her control. To listen to others thoughts
she had to extend her mind and probe into theirs; it was a blessing beyond belief
that she didn’t just have their thoughts thrust upon her.
That and the solidarity of
her family kept her sane. They never looked at her any differently, accepting
and working with her gift as easily as another family would accept that their
child was born deaf.
When Tessa was thirteen, it
was her gift that helped her realize there were things walking around that
looked and acted like humans, but were far from it. At a carnival with her
family she had tried to read the mind of a very attractive man, only to have a
virtual brick wall slammed into her mind’s eye. Never in her life had she found
someone whose mind she couldn’t hack into, or that noticed her gentle snooping
around inside their conscience.
The stranger immediately
turned his attention on her, sending her a clear mental warning that there were
others of ‘his kind’ that would be less forgiving for what she had tried to do
to him, and that if she didn’t keep her gift on a tighter leash it could get
her killed.
She never saw the man
again, but his warning left a fearful imprint on her that would never leave,
she had no idea what he meant by ‘his kind’, but she had plenty of guesses,
none of which were pleasant.
The night her brother
disappeared all the things about the secret world that didn’t belong to humans
began to fall into place.
At that moment
everything she thought she knew about life disappeared with Quinn.
“The dreams aren’t getting
worse, I think I’m just getting more restless,”
or desperate
, she
explained, tossing aside her friends concern.
“Well, you better
hurry up, Memphis and your parents want to be out of here and on the road in
the next hour,” she replied still looking worried.
“I’m going, I’m going,”
Tessa grumbled, twisting on the water faucet in their shared bathroom. She
quickly brushed her teeth, took one look at her wild mane of curly dark red
hair and decided that tossing it up into a messy knot was as good as it was
going to get today.
She returned to her room
and threw on a pair of old jeans and a plain white t-shirt,
then
walked bare foot across the hall to Nora’s room.
As usual she looked the
complete opposite of Tessa.
Though they both had curly
hair, Tessa’s dark red and Nora’s chestnut brown, Nora always took extra time
to smooth hers and work it into an orderly state, where as Tessa opted to stuff
hers into some sort of a pony tail, or let it run wild.
Tessa always wore jeans and
t-shirts, never putting thought into clothing. Nora planned out and put
together an outfit every day, today wearing black leggings, a gray sweater
dress, and spiked heels.
Tessa’s face was as pale
and naked as the day she was born, while Nora’s naturally tan Puerto Rican skin
was perfectly painted, not a lash out of place.
Nora was a fiery Hispanic
beauty, and standing next to Tessa’s ‘broke college kid’ appearance only seemed
to enhance her good looks.
“Ready to see them off?”
she asked.
“Yeah I guess so,” she
frowned, chewing her bottom lip. She wasn’t looking forward to saying goodbye
to her parents for the next couple of days, but they had gotten a possible lead
on her brother’s whereabouts, and as a family they would sacrifice anything,
including their own personal comfort, to have him back.
She trudged down the staircase
and into the kitchen where everyone was eating, feeling the dread of being
separated creeping farther into her with every step she took.
“There’s my pretty baby!”
her mother exclaimed, overly cheerful as always.
Tessa was twenty five years
old, but had long ago given up trying to correct her mother on her pet name.
The sense of calm in the
kitchen was unnerving. Even though it was necessary that her parents go to
California, no one was looking forward to the split up.
Her mother looked so
normal, with her hair pulled back in a pony tail and a casual autumn dress
on,
she could have been going out to lunch with friends. Her
nerves were given away however, by her eyes constantly darting towards the
packed suitcases and her hands anxiously wringing. After losing her son, the
last thing in the world that Annie Roberts wanted to do was leave her daughter.
She grabbed a hand full of
bacon knowing she wouldn’t eat half of it, not with her nerves like this, but
she needed something to play with while she sat with everyone else. She heard
Nora behind her scraping an omelet out of a pan and knew that she would
probably be doing the same thing.
Nora had been forcefully
turned into a werewolf by Memphis’ own son. From that moment on he had raised
her as his own child, first out of guilt, but as the years stretched on he
began to love her as his own daughter, and they built a solid relationship of
love and trust together.
Memphis and Jack were
sitting on the same side of the kitchen table heads bent, hurriedly whispering
to each other as Tessa and Nora walked over to sit across from them. Once the
girls were within hearing range all the whispering suddenly stopped and both
men glued an overly cheerful smile onto their faces.
“Morning honey,” Tessa’s
father said, stretching the smile on his face to capacity.
Right
she thought to herself. That’s totally normal. Usually
Jack Roberts was a complete zombie in the morning, refusing to even open his
eyes before noon, but today he was the picture of morning sunshine.
Right
.
Even though she desperately
wanted to tell everyone to just drop the act, she thought it would be best to
just suck it up and act friendly before they left.
She knew they weren’t
planning on being gone for long, but after what happened to Quinn, she felt
completely uncertain about what would happen anymore. This would be the first
time they were separating since he was taken, and she didn’t know how to handle
it.
Before all of this happened
she was strong and independent, living on her own at college, and working to support
herself
. Now she lived for free at the ‘Shelter’, a
mansion turned refuge for those negatively affected by the Breed, and was
dreading the moment that her parents would be away from her.
“Morning,” she smiled
back as cheerfully as she could force herself to do.
Nora sat next to her,
facing Memphis across the table. They smiled in greeting, but she didn’t miss
the tension in both of their eyes. Tessa knew Nora, unlike herself, wouldn’t
fake her way through this meal and pretend everything was ok. She would hold
her tongue as long as she possibly could, but if this tension continued on for
much longer she would probably break down and tell everyone to get over
themselves.
Tessa’s parents were going
to California to check on a tip from someone claiming to have seen her
brother. After they talked to the person they would have to go and talk
to the local werewolf packs in the surrounding area in case they could provide
any information on Quinn, or see if by some miracle he was with their pack.
After Quinn was attacked the
police never found a body. Not only was it possible that he was alive, it was
possible that he had either been turned into a werewolf, or was being held
captive by the werewolves for some reason. All her family cared about was that he
was alive.
Though werewolves and
vampires had long given up killing humans it was still very dangerous to go
looking for them as they could be mistaken for hunters. Hunters being groups of
humans who are aware of the existence of vampires and werewolves, but instead
of accepting them as Tessa’s family had, they do everything in their power to
hunt them down and exterminate them.
It’s open war with the
hunters; any hunter found out of their compounds is to be killed on sight,
because if you don’t kill them, they absolutely will kill you. The Breed had
learned this the hard way after years of trying to negotiate, only to be
brutally murdered in the process.
This is why Memphis would
be traveling with Tessa’s parents; to keep them safe and from being mistaken as
hunters. Memphis would meet with the leaders of the packs first, he would have
to explain their situation and ensure them that the Roberts family could be
trusted.
Only with the trust and
consent of the pack leaders could Tessa’s parents ever be let into the home of
the pack and allowed to search for and discuss their son. With any luck the
packs would offer their help in finding Quinn as Sebastian, the owner of the
shelter everyone lived in, and the Breed’s embassy’s had.