Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1)
Read Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) Online
Authors: Keri Lake
Tags: #paranormal romance, #revenge, #werewolves, #demons, #vengeance, #adult fiction, #brotherhood, #steamy, #lycans
AVENGED
A Sons of Wrath
Novel
Keri Lake
~
AVENGED
A Sons of Wrath
Novel
Keri Lake
Copyright ©
2013
All Rights
Reserved.
Smashwords
edition.
ISBN:
978-0-9848517-3-7
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This book is a
work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are
products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead,
is entirely coincidental.
The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the
internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher
is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized
electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage
electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the
author’s rights is appreciated.
Cover Art © Mel
Gannon/Mahdesigns
http://mahdesigns.deviantart.com
Photo © Elena Simonenko
(
http://selen-cosvamp.deviantart.com
)
Packard Plant
Photo © Glenn VanWyckhouse, Jr.
Editing by
Julie Belfield
Layout provided by
Everything Indie
http://www.everything-indie.com
~
Avenged
There are
demons and lycans in this world, but both are different from what
you usually read in this genre. I loved the originality of the
world and can’t wait to learn more about it.
—
Lolita,
Lola’s Reviews
Keri packs you
with a punch of all kinds of paranormals from lycans and demons to
ghouls and hellhounds. It's almost nonstop action and a few scenes
that will steam up any window … This is one of the best paranormal
reads I have read in a long time.
—
Twigs,
Bitten by Paranormal Romance
~
I must not only
punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when
retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when
the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done
the wrong.
~ Edgar Allan
Poe
~
This book is
dedicated to my best friend, Diana (Dee) McCauley. Everything
precious in my life was weaved by fate the day I headed off for
college and first met you. No matter where we are in the world,
those ties forever bind.
~
CONTENTS
~
Alexi
:
An army of soldiers bred to slay lycans
Beserker
: Violent genetic mutations as a result of failed
human Lywa trials
Brozszius
: A demon advocate for prisoners of Obsidius,
willing to endure half the punishment.
Catatones
: Ghouls that inhabit the catacombs of the Wrath
Demon manor; guards
Demortis
: The metal of the gods; the only known element that
can kill a demon; not commonly found in the human realm
Divine
Matrons
: Governesses to children born of demon princes
Enforcers
: Bounty hunters of the Underworld
Gambis
Demons
: Demons whose most notable talents are thieving and
gossip
Gaszla
:
Black arts witch
Halfling
: A recently bitten human awaiting the full change
to lycan
House of
Bereavement
: A tomb for the grieving; found in the Underworld;
demons call it Mortuadium.
Imprinting
: The transfer of a victim’s memory to another
following a lycan bite.
Incubi
:
Breed of male demon that feeds off sexual energy; they have the
power to erase short-term memory
Lamb
:
The derogatory Alexi term for weak human beings (those who do not
carry the antibody to lycan venom)
Lycan
: A
supernatural species that can take the form of any animal; most
common form: wolves
Lywa
Antibody
: A powerful concoction designed by biochemist, General
Jackson Wade that confers resistance to lycan venom after a
bite
Mortuadium
: House of Bereavement
Obsidius
: Underworld prison for the damned
Orcosia
:
The Underworld realm, otherwise known to humans as hell
Orcosii
:
Council of Elders in Orcosia
Renoshza
: Sexual maturity of a succubus after her first
orgasm with a victim.
Sanctuary
: A bar and casino in downtown Detroit owned by the
Wrath Brothers
Saevious
Demons
: Violent sexual predator demons
Savidon
:
A demon male’s sexual prime wherein he’s forced to choose a mate
for life
Servosx
:
Male demon mate
Shine
: A
hallucinogenic drug popular in the Underground scene
Succubi
:
Breed of female demon that feeds off sexual energy and, at one
time, were bred as sex slaves to demon lords; often prostitutes;
typically mother many children from different fathers; avoided by
most male demons
Sudesz
:
Suicide, a punishable crime of the Underworld
Szexus
organ
: An organ in mature male demons responsible for bonded
sex
Tazschla
: Female mate
Trolls
:
Employed by demons as security guards
Underground
: Parties held in the basements of abandoned
buildings in Detroit
Wrath
Demons
: Warriors of vengeance; sons of the demon prince, Wrath;
punishers to those who’ve wronged; each specializes in a form of
mental or physical pain
Zshula
:
Midwife for lost souls; she brings them back from the
otherworld
~
Ice water.
The frigid
sensation sliced through Ayden’s veins, leaving a numb trail in its
wake as she stepped through the remains of the abandoned
factory—one of many havens for the crack addicts and prostitutes.
The old Packard Plant had become no more than a ghostly haunt for
tormented souls.
Shitholes were
cropping up everywhere, much more rapidly than ever before.
Detroit, once a thriving city, brought to ruins. Gray and lifeless
like the suffocating overcast that loomed during daylight.
A vile stench
assaulted her nose, a potent blend of piss, sex and rotted meat, as
garbage crunched beneath her boots. Foundation had collapsed all
around where she stood, crumbled as if the building would fold into
the depths of hell.
The graffiti
spattering the walls gave the impression that gangs were the real
threat—’We don’t die, we multiply.’
Right. Like
gangs own any part of this city, anymore.
A Beretta,
loaded with silver bullets and a silver parrying dagger rested at
one of Ayden’s hips, a silver bullwhip at another, as she moved
past comatose bodies and decaying corpses.
Feeding
grounds, like a bait pile.
Deadened eyes
slowly tracked her movement in the darkness, squinting, as though
craving the light that hers didn’t need to see. Humans so strung
out on drugs, they failed to recognize the half-eaten carrion were
once their own kind.
Not that
knowing would stop them. They’d apparently chosen to face danger
rather than kick their addiction, roaming the streets every night
in search of their next high.
Lambs.
They were
already dead. Death just hadn’t come to collect yet.
The blissful
sigh of a hopped-up junkie reached her ears. She snarled her lip.
“Enjoy it while it lasts, asshole.”
It’d be one
thing if they were homeless. Hell, she might’ve fired a warning
shot to evacuate.
The homeless
didn’t come here, though.
Neither did
the police—making it the perfect spot to get wasted and hustle some
money.
Shots fired
would’ve been nothing more than a momentary distraction before
their minds slipped back into their ignorant state of euphoria.
Screw ‘em.
For any other
girl, the place promised very bad things—an opportunity for a
sadist to live out wild fantasies without ever getting caught.
For Ayden?
Humans posed no threat. Their fragile bodies would shred like paper
dolls against the work of her hands. Luckily for them, she sought
something else to sate her thirst for bloodshed, something far more
threatening than their most psychopathic criminal—and she’d tracked
it right to the surrounding cornucopia of human flesh.
A thin, black
mesh hoodie beneath her jacket concealed her face while the shiny
black leather covering her body acted as a beacon in the moon’s
light.
Full moon.
It didn’t
matter.
Contrary to
the fairytales and movies, they didn’t need a full moon to
change.
Werewolves
, some called them—like a supernatural Bigfoot on
the loose. Nothing more than fodder for the tabloids, not to be
taken seriously.
Lycans
is how those ‘in the know’ referred to them.
The bastards
could transform at will. In the middle of the day, if they wanted.
Though, like a true predator, they’d evolved throughout the
centuries, eluding humans by hunting them at night, catching their
prey in their most vulnerable state.
Ayden reached
a door in a darkened corner. The stubborn panel held stiff against
the push of her palm, giving way only beneath one heave backed by
exceptional strength. Beyond, a spiral of stairs wound above and
below. Visuals flashed through her mind as she imagined the
stairwell bustling with men in suits who passed each other with
carefree visages—every one of them ghosts that roamed the
destruction.
A quick scan
showed no movement.
She tipped her
head back and inhaled the repugnant scent the beasts had left
behind.
They’re
close.
Her feet took
light steps, hardly making a sound against the concrete as she
descended further into the pit of hell otherwise known as the
lycan’s lair.
With each
step, she wished her heart would pound wildly in her chest, or that
her pulse rate would surge—both human reactions to fear. Neither of
them did.
What fragments
of her human soul remained had been stripped bare the night the
Alexi made her one of their own. Even that, as tortuous as the
unrelenting pain that seared through her body while it underwent
its transformation, was a memory she could hardly summon anymore.
Only a silent blackness dwelled in the place where snapshots of her
life would have roamed free, a void that she couldn’t see beyond,
separating her present from past.
She’d become
one of them: an Alexi soldier. A cold and remorseless killer
designed to eradicate in one sweep.