Demon Dawn
Survival requires sacrifice.
The world irrevocably changed after the hellhounds and fey appeared. Most people didn’t survive that first night. Dad had said we were lucky we did. I’m not so sure about that anymore.
With her father murdered before her eyes and her faith in the remaining humans shaken, Brenna reluctantly accepts sanctuary in Tolerance, a safe zone managed by the fey. The wall keeps the infected out. But it also keeps the humans in…with the very creatures that caused the world to break.
Big, grey, and ruthlessly deadly, the fey strike fear in the hearts of men and women alike. But Brenna finds one more intimidating than all the rest. Scarred and angry, Thallirin watches Brenna with an intensity that makes her relive the events that followed her father’s murder. She knows what Thallirin wants, and she’s never going to be used like that again.
Tormented by her past, Brenna sees no possible future for herself other than eventual infection or starvation. There is hope, though. Her community is abuzz with a newly discovered way to protect women against the disease that’s turning people into zombies. However, it doesn’t come from a needle.
It comes from sleeping with one of the dark fey.
What has happened before…
More than two months ago, earthquakes unleashed hellhounds on an unsuspecting mankind. The bite of a hound changed humans, turning people into flesh-craving infected.
The hellhounds weren’t the only things to emerge from the earthen caverns. Demon men with grey skin and reptilian eyes had been trapped underground for thousands of years. They, alone, possessed the ability to kill the hellhounds and help bring a stop to the plague. They had only asked for one thing in return: a chance to meet women who might be willing to love them as they are.
Chapter One
Restless, I walked along the wall and searched the barren trees for any sign of movement. Dawn’s early light was barely creeping over the horizon. Usually at this time of day, infected roamed among the trees, but everything remained still just like it had yesterday and the day before that. Breach day. The day the infected had fooled me and gotten inside Tolerance.
Bitter regret filled me quickly, followed by frustration. Although I’d been the one the infected had fooled, I didn’t blame myself. I put the blame where it was due. On the damn infected. They were getting smarter, and we’d all been unprepared for that. It didn’t make me less angry about what had happened, though. The infected had taken so much from us already. Our sense of safety. Our ability to go anywhere. My eyes once again swept over the wall that protected as much as it imprisoned. This was the world we were living in now. A dangerous, scary place filled with things that wanted to kill humans.
A sudden burst of panic hit me. The feeling wormed its way into my chest and tightened so hard and fast that I could barely breathe. I paused on the grille of an upturned SUV and took one slow, steady breath while counting to eight in my head. Then I did the same thing on the exhale, repeating the process until the panic eased.
I continued along the wall again, pacing my section as if nothing had happened. I tried not to think of the reason for my attacks. Ever. It was easier to focus on the task at hand: watching the trees for infected. I found it ironic that trying to spot an infected was soothing.
In an odd way, it made sense though. The infected I could kill. My past…well, there was no killing memories.
I took another calming breath. Since the quakes, watching for infected was the only way to survive. I could barely remember my life before the world went to hell a few months ago. I didn’t really want to. It would just make my current life more hellish.
Focusing on the trees, I paused.
“Where are they?” I said softly to myself.
“Brenna,” a voice called from behind me. “Do you need more arrows?”
I glanced at the fey standing below me. He was big and had to be close to seven feet tall. While I was appropriately bundled against the cold, he only wore a pair of jogging pants and a t-shirt that stretched tightly over his broad shoulders and expansive chest. Not all of the fey liked wearing shirts. I appreciated that this one was covered.
His lizard-like eyes swept over my face, and I briefly wondered if he was seeing our differences in my blunt teeth, rounded ears, and pink skin. Or was he looking for something else?
Inwardly, I cringed and hurried to answer so he’d go away.
“No. I still have them all.” I reached back to touch the feathered ends sticking from my quiver.
He grunted.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“No, I’m fine. Thank you.”
He repeated his previous grunt, and I started moving again before he could come up with something else to say.
The fey loved talking to women. Like they would cut off their grey, pointed ear kind of love. I found their intensity a little disturbing, but they weren’t bad. Not really. Even if they were constantly trying to talk to me, they respected when I said no to something. Well, most of them did.
The sun rose higher as I continued pacing back and forth on my section of the wall. Tolerance, once a small suburb hidden in the Missouri trees just outside of Warrensburg, was far enough out that the infected still roaming Warrensburg didn’t always hear us. But we’d never gone this long without attracting attention, especially with the wall’s lights flooding the sky at night.
Near midday, I saw a fey farther along on the wall, scrutinizing his section of trees. I followed his gaze and saw movement. My hand automatically flew back for an arrow as another fey stepped from the trees and shook his head.
Since the fey had returned from Tenacity, the other fortress-like camp only a few miles away, my presence on the wall wasn’t required. Not that it ever had been. But after the breach, the fey had put more emphasis on having men patrolling outside the walls for unusual activity. Unfortunately, the only thing unusual at the moment was the complete absence of infected.
Giving up on finding something to shoot at, I waved to the fey on the wall and headed for the ladder. The fey waved back, jogging toward my section as I descended. I dropped the last three rungs so he wouldn’t jump to the ground and try helping me down. The fey liked touching women more than they liked talking to them. But only with permission. They didn’t take what wasn’t offered.
Unlike human men.
I immediately shook off the thought and started home.
My shoes crunched on the fresh layer of snow that now covered all traces of what had happened only a few days ago. The carnage had been severe. More so because the humans from Whiteman’s military base had been here as a result of a breach at the base. Maybe that was why the infected weren’t outside our walls now. Maybe they were checking out Tenacity, the new walled-in location for Whiteman’s survivors.
A group of nearby fey caught my attention. They were surrounding a woman, trying to coax some conversation out of her. Based on the way she was glancing around as if looking for a route of escape, she didn’t seem to enjoy the attention. Between that reaction and the scowling fey standing just off to one side, she had to be one of the few Whiteman survivors who’d decided to stay. If I had to guess, she was assigned to live with the scowling fey but wasn’t interested in being his valentine. And, he didn’t like seeing the other fey swarm his roommate.