Night Tremors (Midnight Magic Book 4), page 1
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Contact Richard Amos
Also by Richard Amos
About the Author
Copyright © 2022 Richard Amos
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Cover by Vanesa Garkova
One
Clay
Fleeing the authorities wasn’t how I’d expected to spend the early hours of Christmas morning. Not when things were getting steamy by the Christmas tree with my billionaire vampire lover, Tae Frost. But that moment was now dead in the water.
Damn.
I finished applying the fairy face cream to my face, my skin tingling, Arcana reminding me fairy magic was here in the car. As much as we didn’t know what to make of Grindle the fairy at the moment, Tae and I were left with no choice but to use the tools we had. Fairy cream changed your appearance, at least this Grindle-made concoction did. All you had to do was tell the magic what you wanted to look like.
Anything but my face right now.
Tae applied his cream with one hand, expertly driving without breaking a sweat, being Mr. Perfect at everything. Within seconds, he was done, making a right turn. Considering the heavy snowfall, this vamp went above and beyond in the impressive driving stakes. I’d have crashed by now.
I added a beanie hat to my head, pulling it down to cover the warlock mark on my forehead— a glowing white, incomplete circle with a tiny star at its center. The fairy cream didn’t hide the mark, unfortunately.
Damn.
I cradled my silver tabby cat, Fizz, close to me as Tae tore through the streets, the sirens of the ADU (Anti-Demon Unit) screaming behind us. She meowed, trembling at the speed of the car, at the howling around us.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “We’ll be okay.”
If only I could truly promise her that. I didn’t know what would happen, how this fleeing would end. My heat beat too fast, thumping to break free of my chest. I sat in the passenger seat, scared out of my mind, completely helpless. Sweat pooled at the base of my spine, and my scalp prickled constantly.
Please let us escape this…
Since the Throne of Vines trials in the demon realm, and the fight with Buttons/James (my twin brother), my Arcana magic hadn’t been the same. Broken, you could say, with my previous knowledge and skill in all spells, after draining the Arcana grimoires, now gone. Only a handful of my spells remained now—my push spells, the ball of light, and the one that turned me into mist.
I still had my warlock powers. Ha! As if they’d do anything but piss off the witches. I faced facts—the likelihood of being screwed was a sure bet I’d lay money on.
Shit.
I tried to spin negativity into something sunny, to always look on the bright side of things. Being homeless and a warlock weren’t easy parts of my life to deal with, but I’d always strived to live my life, to get to a happy place come hell or high water.
Finding the sunshine right now was proving difficult. I mean, running was one thing, but running and facing ADU checkpoints all over London made it a billion times worse.
We’ll never make it out of the city…
I glanced at Tae, his obsidian eyes on the road. Though the rest of the city would see two different men, we saw each other’s real faces, the disguises for everyone else, not us. The glare of streetlights illuminated his handsome features, his pale skin emitting its own special glow. Even in this situation, his anger a crackling, invisible energy. He looked so beautiful.
My lover. My friend. My savior. He’d forgiven me for hiding my demon blood from him, didn’t think of me as some disgusting creature in need of taking out. After all, a demon killed his wife and son fifteen years ago. And not just any demon, but Isaiah, my other demon brother.
I mean, things were seriously messed up. Not only was the button-eyed demon my twin, but I had a demon mum, a sister called Isobel, and Isaiah sharing a bloodline. Adam Christmas was my dad, a human warlock, and Maxine Christmas, a human, had given birth to me via surrogacy/horrible demon skills belonging to Queen Imelda.
Yeah, crazy, awful, totally screwed up.
Tae’s eyes flickered to mine, pinpricks of crimson in those dark orbs—indicating either anger or horniness.
“They won’t get their hands on you, Clay,” he said.
His rich, honey-wrapped-in-chocolate voice was a balm to my senses, if only for a few fleeting moments.
God, I can’t lose him…
“I mean it,” he added.
“I’m just so scared,” I answered, sounding like a child.
“I know.”
He turned left, then left again, speeding up.
I wanted to tell him to save himself, to leave me to get snagged by the witches. Then at least he could carry on, work to stop Quentin without me in the way. Although, he wouldn’t have me and my power to kill demons—an Arcana thing.
I’m sorry for everything…
Yeah, me and my self-pity party were wild, but I just felt so low, so defeated. God, I had to get a grip and be strong. Sinking into despair wasn’t my idea of fun.
“First checkpoint is coming up,” Tae said, his tone icy steel.
“O-okay…” My words barely passed my lips.
This was Quentin Dawn’s fault—the demon in opposition to Queen Imelda. His grander plan was to destroy this world by using The Rift. The Rift was a mile wide, fifty miles tall, a scar of red storm clouds floating in the North Sea. A remnant of the stupid war with the witches twenty-five years ago. For now, it did nothing but serve as a reminder of stupidity, of the damage done—the toxic rivers the worst part of the legacy.
How Quentin meant to use The Rift was anyone’s guess—it seemed like total insanity to me. But his goal was to separate Earth from the demon realm and then overthrow my mother, ruling in her place in a new demon realm free from the queen’s lust for conquest.
With Queen Imelda being banished, Quentin was at the top of the hit list. He had to be stopped before he killed us all.
Tae slowed down, two cars ahead of us crawling toward the checkpoint. Up until now, he’d managed to weave a route through a series of backstreets from Raven Tower to here, avoiding checkpoints, inching south toward London Biggin Hill Airport.
Archie had already organized a plane for us to Tae’s private island off the west coast of South Korea.
For me, that seemed like too far away from London with everything going on. But Tae insisted it was the best place for now, the most secure property he had.
My stomach performed a few flips to add to my frayed nerves.
One of Tae’s right-hand people, like Victoria, Archie could always be counted on to get things done. He was the guy to clean things up, to make sure the machine ran smoothly while Victoria rocked hard at the lawyer stuff.
God, I hoped they were both okay.
Tae’s car boasted fake papers and a fake license plate number. Since the checkpoints had been put in place, we’d gone about our demon hunting business like this. Always prepared with our disguises and papers, ready to blend in with the masses. There was no reason this tried and tested method wouldn’t help us this time. Only, this was the first time we were running from the ADU.
The overbearing sense of dread sucking at my soul, well, sucked.
One car down, one more to go until our turn.
“Shit…” I breathed.
Tae put a hand on my thigh, squeezing gently. I closed my eyes, drawing in a deep breath.
“Take it easy,” he said.
“I’m trying.” The damn ADU sirens didn’t help, their disconcerting shrieks rusty nails dragging across my nerves.
“I’m right here, Clay.”
Opening my eyes, I faced him, basking in the presence of his pure gorgeousness. My rock in this storm. If it weren’t for him, I don’t know how I’d have dealt with the revelation of being a demon prince, of everything that’d gone down afterward. He could’ve walked away, left me behind, the dirty demon-blooded liar, but he didn’t.
He wanted me.
I wanted him.
We were officially dating or courting, as he’d called it. He’d even asked me to t
Arsewipe.
“Before you know it, we’ll be out of here.” Tae went for reassurance.
It bounced off me, my attention on the two male witches at the checkpoint, dressed in their white ADU uniforms, examining the papers of the occupants of the car in front.
It was taking forever.
“Haven’t they got anything better to do?” I said, a bite to my tone.
“You would think they’d be tucked up in bed, seeing as it is Christmas,” Tae replied.
I couldn’t help but smile at him agreeing with me. “Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
I giggled, my anxiety slightly easing. Tae kept his hand on me, saying nothing else as we watched and waited.
The windscreen wipers sliced through the snow, splattering the glass, rocking back and forth in a constant glide. That damn car still sat there, the witches still examining the papers.
“Are they being too thorough?” I said, realizing how stupid I sounded. “Course they are. They’re looking for us.”
Fizz meowed as if part of the conversation. I rubbed her behind the ears, her purrs vibrating against me. “I know, honey pie.”
She licked my hand, still shaky.
I bent to kiss the top of her head.
“We always seem to be running,” I whispered. “It’s not fair.”
Me wielding the ancient magic of Arcana, which shouldn’t be around anymore, muddied the waters of everything, as did my demonic blood. The witches wouldn’t let me crack on with life. Oh, no. They’d lock me up first, test me, interrogate me, do God knows what before they then used me or killed me or—
I shut my bullshit down, kissing Fizz again.
Stop this. Just stop.
“Listen to me, Clay,” Tae said. “We’re getting out of this. The witches will not get their hands on you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Maybe not, but I’m not losing you.”
I sighed, a heavy weight crushing my soul. “What next, though? Do we keep running, waiting for Quentin to strike, dodging witches forever? It can’t last.”
“It can.”
“How? We’ll burn out or slip up, and that’ll be that. Plus, Princess Isobel will be on our trail.”
My royal sister wasn’t banished like the queen, as of yet, and she’d come after us at some point. After all, I was her brother with the power of Arcana. The whole wall-breaking power of the throne thing might be dead in the water, but there were still goals of extending the demon realm into Earth to be met.
Two demon factions, two different goals where Earth lost in both endings. Actually, there were three as a group of demons wanted the same extending-into-Earth dreams as the queen, but by taking a more peaceful route.
Queen Imelda’s banishment complicated those dreams. What now for mummy-bloody-dearest?
“If we have to run forever,” Tae said, “then we will. As long as we’re together.”
Man, he knew the right things to say. “We’re living in our own Thelma & Louise moment.” I frowned at myself. “Without that ending, though. Actually, forget I said anything.”
His smile could melt icebergs. It lit up his usually brooding face, made my heart dance.
God, I was falling so hard for this guy, positively smitten.
“Do you really want to be running all the time?” I asked, killing the brief moment of nice.
“Of course not,” he replied. “We’re supposed to be courting, to be enjoying our time together after so much drama.”
“But the drama never dies.”
“I’m striving to slay it.”
“Me too.”
Oh. Was that a glimmer of hope from Moody Clay? A beam of light breaking through the dark clouds?
The car in front finally moved on.
Ask me about that glimmer later.
“Here we go,” Tae said. “Breathe. Stay calm.”
We drove up to the twin booths, standing like sentinels either side of the gap. A closed barrier blocked us off from the rest of the road ahead. The two witches waited outside the booths, looking mean as hell, sporting faces that didn’t seem to know how to crack a smile.
Tae opened his window. Snow got into the car, the air bitterly cold. I held Fizz tightly to my chest.
The pale-faced guard leaned closer to Tae, a big gun hanging around his neck. “Lower your window,” he said to me.
I obeyed. The guard on my side leaned in, his dark brown features a lot more bored than the other guy’s. If only he’d been alone, he might have waved us through easier. He looked like he wanted to be home in bed or by a fire—anywhere but here.
“Papers,” Tae’s guy demanded.
The vampire handed them over.
My guy rubbed his hands together, saying nothing.
“What’s your business?” the witch asked Tae. “Not the best night for driving, is it?”
Please don’t ask me to take off my hat… If they saw my warlock mark, even with a non-Clay face, suspicion might get roused.
“Coming home from a friend’s Christmas Eve party,” Tae replied smoothly. “Went on much longer than expected.”
The guard looked behind us. “No presents?”
“No.”
“But it’s Christmas, and you were at a party. Shouldn’t you be leaving with presents or at least some food that wasn’t eaten?”
Ugh. Had ourselves a detective witch, did we? Great.
“No leftovers worth having,” Tae said. “Unfortunately. And we’re not really present-giving friends.”
“Why’s that?”
“Me and my buddy never bother with that stuff. Haven’t since we were kids.” Tae was a master of disguise, having played so many roles in his time demon hunting. Wore so many faces, weaved so many tall tales. And he was super good at it.
“That’s a long stretch,” the witch said, still clutching the papers.
“We grew up together, went to the same schools and university,” Tae answered. “John and me are basically brothers.”
The witch looked at me. “This isn’t John, is it?”
“No, this is Mike. My other half.”
I tried not to swallow too hard.
The witch scanned the papers again. “Ah, yes. Mike. And you’re Stephen. Married three years.”
“That’s right,” Tae said.
Gosh, it felt like there was a boulder in my throat, blocking every swallow.
Okay, maybe not a boulder.
Married for three years… What a nice thought.
The witch’s eyes slowly moved between us. “Mike and Stephen leaving a Christmas party with no food or presents. Seems like a shame.”
“We have enough food at home,” Tae said.
My witch—Witch B—joined in with the chit-chat, “Cute cat.”
“Thanks,” I replied, my voice a little too high.
Witch B didn’t notice, looking to his left as a motorbike pulled up behind us.
“Bloody hell. Nothing better to do,” he muttered to himself.
“I’d be claiming all the freebies I could,” Witch A carried on. “Love snagging party leftovers.”
“I do if they’re good,” Tae agreed. “Only egg mayo sandwiches and prawn cocktail crisps left.”
Witch A wrinkled his nose. “Yuck.”
“Exactly.”
“This John bloke needs better crisps.”
“I’ve been telling him that for years.”
Witch A laughed, his mean face changing into a friendly one. “Good thing he didn’t buy you a present.”
Tae shrugged, chuckling. “He can’t buy gifts without sinking to tat levels of crapness.”
Witch A liked that, laughing. “Oh no.”
