Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
It only took one droplet of blood to forever change me.
Her blood.
The taste of it. The heat of it.
I swallowed her down and devoured her.
For a while, it was enough.
My monster was content. I believed I’d found where I belonged.
But now…that droplet is no longer enough.
I want rivers of it. Oceans of it.
I want the world dripping in red, and I honestly don’t know who I’m hunting anymore.
Her?
Me?
Them?
One thing’s for certain, someone is going to die today.
I just hope it won’t be me.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
………………………….
Henri
THE CURSE OF BLOOD & DARKNESS
by
Henri Mercer
I THINK THERE COMES A POINT in everyone’s life when you wake up.
You wake to the truth of who you are, what you’re doing, and who you’re meant to be.
Some people wake and realise they’re on the right path already.
Others wake and come face to face with all their mistakes.
Near-death experiences can cause such an awakening.
Reaching rock bottom can slap you into seeing.
Sickness and burnout, terror and tragedy—they’re all feared but can grant such freedom if you submit.
Pity I didn’t submit.
Pity I wasn’t ready.
Because when my awakening happened…
I broke.
Chapter One
………………………….
Ily
“THIS WAY!” PETER HOBBLE-RAN beside me, dripping with pain and grunting with every stride. “I know a shortcut to Neverland!” He chuckled, but it came out more like a sob.
Every jewel spurred onward, so used to obeying Peter when he was sober and smart, not questioning his judgement now he was high and hurting.
The way we ran as a group reminded me of track at high school. How we’d always start as a group and slowly thin out the more distance we covered.
Would that happen here?
Would jewels fall back? Would we slow to stay together? Or would some bolt ahead, chasing after hope that they might find escape, if only they ran quick enough?
Gasping for breath, I glanced at Peter. The target mark on his chest rivered into streaks of black, white, and red. The paint smudged and soaked into the band of his nude-coloured boxers. His glazy eyes and feverish skin far worse than even ten minutes ago.
Rachel scowled, holding her full breasts as we ran, preventing them from bouncing too much. “You are not Peter Pan, Pete. There is no such thing as Neverland.”
“Pretty sure I am.” Peter spread his arms. “Share his name, don’t I? Bet you I could fly if I threw myself off the cliff.”
“No one is throwing anything off the cliff.” Rachel grimaced. Shooting me a look, she couldn’t hide the depth of her terror. “He’s lost it,” she whispered to me.
“Fly faster, friends!” Peter shouted, almost falling to his knees from running on burned feet. “Shortcut ahead!”
Rachel reached for him, but he shrugged her off.
Sighing heavily, Rachel let fear braid with her temper. “How the hell do you know a shortcut? What shortcut? You’re as high as the clouds, and if you say you can fly in those clouds, I’ll—”
“Rachel.” I shook my head. “It’s okay.”
Tears instantly welled in her eyes. Gritting her teeth, she looked away.
Peter stumbled as we bolted down the lush grass of Victor’s runway and past his private plane. A split-second idea of stealing the plane and flying everyone out of here tantalised. If only I’d studied to become a pilot instead of a gemmologist.
As we dashed past, the roar of the ocean crashed against the cliffs to our right, almost deafening us.
Everything was louder out here, alive out here…wilder out here.
The forest we sprinted toward beckoned with bark and leaf, promising to protect and hide us.
A few running jewels looked at the cliffs.
A guy I hadn’t spoken to and Suri—the girl who’d been on show with Kirk the night of the treasure hunt—gravitated toward the edge.
“Don’t you dare!” Peter bellowed, tripping again as if his burned and blackened feet were moments away from snapping off. Shaking his head to clear the clouds Rachel mentioned, he added, “Ignore me. I can’t fly. No one can fly. No one jumps, do you hear me?”
“What’s the point in running?” Suri gasped with tears as she did her best to keep pace. “They’re going to catch us. They always catch us.” She broke ranks, drifting toward the cliffs. “I-I can’t take anymore.”
Peter cursed and charged after her. Wrapping his bleeding, brutalised hand around her cuffed wrist, he dragged her back into our midst. The drugs in his system faded just enough for seriousness to bleed through his fantasies. “It’s almost over, Suri. I promise.” He looked at me with pure agony in his gaze. “Ily and I are going to get you out. I swear.”
“Hell, not this again, Pete. Stop saying shit like that.” Dane put his head down and ran harder, grabbing the elbow of a small dark-skinned girl flagging beside him.