Hi everyone! I decided for my post for the All Hallow's Eve Blog Hop, I'd post something from my upcoming Dark Paranormal Fantasy: Amplified (Reign of Blood #3) This is Chapter one and it is UNEDITED and does contain some EXPLICIT language, so please, read on under caution and have an epic All Hallow's Eve :D
Amplified
(Reign of Blood #3)
By: Alexia Purdy
Release Date: November 30th, 2013
Exclusive Excerpt: Chapter One
Blurb:
Who wants to be the prey in a world full of hunters?In the aftermath of the end of her world, April Tate decides that it’s high time to leave the city that never sleeps, Las Vegas. After learning the origins of the Zompire Plague, she risks her life to steal the antidote, makes the decision to separate from Jeremy for a while, and joins a small band of new and old comrades on a trip to the Pacific Coast. There they search out a legendary hive of Zompires who are more than just wild, blood drinking creatures.
On a mission to save the last of humanity, April will use the antidote to save some from eternal damnation, but will her decision bring hope for the future or create an ever bigger, unforeseen devastation?
Chapter One
Narrow Path
SLOT CANYONS AND sand. All over the place. In my boots, sticking to my fingers and clinging to the sweat on my face. So I wasn’t a girly girl or anything, and thank goodness it wasn’t muddy at the moment from the torrential rains which had been pouring down the last few weeks unrelenting like the sky had to take a major bathroom break. I just wasn’t a fan of being dirty.
Stomp, stomp! Everyone turned around to see Elijah doing a funky dance, kicking up dirt, clouding up the air with flying sand. Great.
“What the hell?” I hissed, throwing him a nasty glare. “Not like my damn allergies aren’t bad enough already without you kicking that shit up!” I covered my face with my shirt, sending daggers in his direction to let him know how much he was on my shit list for doing that.
“Fucking snake!” He pulled his shirt down, kicking the corpse of a snake he’d just pulverized to the side, he cursed even more under his breath.
I heard a stifled giggle from Sarah, who followed close behind me as she attempted to choke it back with a faked cough. It was amusing, to say the least, to see a big guy like Elijah lose his cool over a snake. Let’s not take into account that we’re in the middle of a barren, sun blasted desert. I swear God meant this to be hell on earth. I would’ve joined her in a chuckle if I hadn’t been in such a foul mood from the constant barrage of dust in this pit of nothing. I used to work in a pet shop and snakes didn’t bother me as much as spiders did. Those made me shriek like a banshee and sent me sprinting faster than an Olympic gold medalist.
“Focus guys.” Christian’s agitation flashed across his face and everyone quieted down. If someone would’ve told me I’d be in the middle of the desert with nothing near humanity in site and stuck in the overbearing but gorgeous slot canyon with him leading a group of human hybrids alongside two vampire Hybrids, near sundown…let’s not forget that…to find another secret facility which supposedly housed experiments on everything you could think of, I’d call the bullshit. Yeah, it was bad enough it had been my stupid idea to come here for some answers about my mother’s suicide; the heat was sweltering and the lack of wind only made it worse.
Rye huffed behind me. Not a fan of Christian, whatsoever.
Who could blame him? Rye had a jealous streak that I tended to ignore, but it got downright annoying enough that I threw him a warning look. He threw me an innocent smile, one that made me smile back and roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all. We all didn’t want to be in this way, but finding the notorious Rick was my mission, no theirs. Still, I was relieved I didn’t have to do it alone. I was done with being solo, it’d been far too long stuck in a bunker alone with just my mother and an un-relatable brother for company. Human connections kept me from losing my mind.
Christian…being my supposed ‘blood mate’ didn’t make things any easier. He tried to kill me once, when he was the deranged and sick leader of an enemy hive. But, unbeknownst to me, he’d been cured and imprisoned alongside me in the city of Vida. Katrina had been the Hitler leader there and had hoped he’d munch on me for a little snack since he’d been starved for a while in the cell when I’d arrived. I had to give it to him, he had resisted it like a champ. I was thoroughly impressed. But, when we’d touched, it’d ignited a bond between us that was more than unwanted. It meant I was his one and only, and all the bullshit that went along with that. Damn vampire virus had more than one issue about it, and this had turned into a nuisance for all of us, especially when he was near me.
The bond created between us had turned us each into some sort of pheromone drug to each other and keeping away was the only thing that kept it at bay. Unfortunately, we both had to be on this mission, which sucked for every party involved.
Alright I admit it, it didn’t suck for me or Christian as much as it royally bummed out Rye, my vampire hybrid boyfriend. I still didn’t actually call him my boyfriend, but it was close enough. When the world has swirled down the toilet, you pretty much avoid thinking about any luxuries, including love..
Jeremy, my brother, had stayed behind at the hive, our headquarters underneath the Las Vegas McCarren International Airport. It was home for now, even though we’d been spending tons of time in the underground city of Vida, where the last of the unmutated humans lived.
I wasn’t sure yet, but Jeremy had been hinting that he wanted to move permanently to Vida. There were more human children his age there, so I couldn’t very well disagree. Still, the crowds made me nervous and jumpy. He’d already adapted to it like he’d been there the whole darn time. Me, I stuck out like a thorn embedded into someone’s thumb when I walked down the city’s streets. Yep, it was mighty painful.
If mom were here, she’d know what to do about Jeremy. Well, there’d be no decision to make, he’d be with her. No if, ands, or buts. I wasn’t maternal material, and I knew that, was totally cool with it. Each time I decapitated another vampire or dragged myself home with vampire guts and blood sticking to my skin, I really couldn’t picture myself as the vision of domestic.
“Keep your eyes sharp and weapons out. We’re entering the monitored area of Asylum Fortress.” Christian yelled back at everyone. “There’s traps, by the way, and they’re changed all the time to keep out intruders. I can’t tell you where they’ll be, so be careful.”
I pulled out my dual machetes, ready for action. I didn’t need to be told twice. This was what I lived for. I’d been stuck inside for a while, heading out only to clear out infested casinos or guard posts of invading Feral vampires, duly named Zompires by the hybrid vampires due to their lack of humanity and lust for blood and flesh. This particular mission was dangerous, only because Christian hadn’t returned to his hive’s home base in the Valley of Fire in several weeks.
They had probably assumed he was dead and gone. New leadership was probably in command now. Christian’s second in command had not been at the Stratosphere when Blaze’s hive, our hive, had blown it to hell. He’d lost a major part of his troops, hybrid and mutated zompires, but his second in command, Mercer, who from the sound of him, was as cold as a vampire should be. Christian had described him as absolutely emotionless, stiff and perfectly calculating. I wondered how someone like Christian, who had a warm heart under his hardened exterior, had picked someone like Mercer as his second.
There was a lot I didn’t know about the other hive of the City of Las Vegas.
“Hey,” Rye stepped up beside me, his long sword held in his hands and guns strapped to his waist. He wore all black with long sleeves and a cap, which Blaze and Christian also donned something similar. They looked paler than they usually did, even though I knew they had fed today. The sunblock fifty thousand or so they had smeared on made them look like painted aborigines. I couldn’t even see his grey eyes underneath the heavily tinted sunglasses propped on his face.
“Hey.” I wasn’t a big talker lately. Losing family can do that to someone.
“Listen, I’m still not sure you and the other humans should be coming along. It’s a hive full of vampires and I don’t think humans are part of this one.” He suggested softly. His voice was harsh, just above a whisper. I didn’t bother looking at him, fearing I would just snap at his unsolicited advice.
“Sarah and Elijah are here. I wouldn’t let them go without me.” I muttered. He was so overprotective of me, it got downright annoying. Sucking in a breath, I tamed my inner beast and threw him a soft smile. “Plus, you’re here too. I wouldn’t let you go without me either.”
Rye’s face brightened, as if I’d told him I loved him. It was nice to see him smiling rather than frowning, which from my constant moping about lately surely had him doing that a lot. I had good reasons to be sad, I’d just lost my mother. Dying in an explosion I believed she caused herself, I’d been devastated and it hadn’t left me much room for happy thoughts. She’d been so together, tough and resilient. That is…until Christian’s hive had stolen her and my brother and experimented on them. It had left her broken, in body and in mind. So irreparable that I’d been left to care for my brother most of the time before her death.
She’d feared she’d turn into a vampire, the one thing she could not tolerate. She’d had symptoms yes, but I had assumed she’d become a Hybrid vampire, not a Feral. Well, the explosion she’d rigged while I’d been trapped in Vida had made sure she wouldn’t become either of those. I’d been too late, and it had left us, Jeremy and me, utterly alone.
I swallowed the bad taste the memories left in my mouth. Keeping my eyes focused on our surroundings, I felt the sun disappear below the mountains where the slot canyon began. The tall orange and smooth rock curved as it sent us around several corners, narrowing into walkways too small to fit more than one person at a time and threatening to swallow us in, bit by fleshy bit.
This was an unusual place for a fortress, but at the end of times, who would visit this popular tourist attraction now? It was a perfect funnel to pick off enemies one at a time. It made me nervous as we rounded the constant turns and nooks that littered this area. Flicking my eyes up toward the towering walls around us, I was sure sooner or later, a perched Feral hiding in darkness or Hybrid would drop in from above and slaughter us all.
Pessimistic was my middle name lately.
Copyright October 2013 Alexia Purdy
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Katandra —> http://freedomink365ceo.wordpress.com/
Taylor Fulcher—> http://stuckinthegrey.wordpress.com/
Marla Crews—> http://www.marlacrewswebdesign.com/blog/
Skye Knizley—> http://skyeknizley.wordpress.com/
Mellie Miller—> http://melliemiller.com/
Alexia Purdy—> http://alexiaepurdy.blogspot.com/
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