Immortal Creatures Read online

  Book One

  Edition 1: 2019

  Copyright © 2019 JN Moon

  Edited by Samantha at Proofreading by the Page Facebook

  Cover art by Atlantis Book Design

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Blood Oath.

  Dark Magic.

  Let me haunt you.

  Bewitched.

  Witches and Vampires.

  Wendigo Psychosis.

  Kill Me.

  Bleed for Me.

  Redemption.

  Seeress.

  Hexed.

  Author Notes and Snippet of Immortal Secrets Below....

  Immortal Secrets. Book 2 Sample... | Immortal Secrets.

  Ghouls and Graveyards.

  About the Author.

  Dedication

  To Iha, Thea, Cleo and Molly XXX

  Thank You.

  Have you got my Free book Grimoire: An Always Dark Angel Novel

  Facebook: Author JN Moon

  Blood Oath.

  The blade was lodged in the beast’s skin. Eloise grunted fiercely as she tugged at the knife and dragged it out, sinew and flesh poured forth. Looking down at her body splattered in blood, she puffed and glanced cautiously around. God knows how nobody had seen her, this stretch of woodland was tiny, sitting on the outskirts of a high-rise estate in a rougher part of the city.

  The banshee writhed and moaned, its voice strangled in pain and shock. Blood trickled from its mouth as it choked and gargled on its own blood, laying in the dirty undergrowth. Then it burst into a cloud of crimson soot and smattered the sparse foliage with red and silver flecks of dust that gleamed like glitter under the dappled light of the afternoon sun.

  Her eyes darted around, she hoped she could get back to her car unseen. She usually didn’t hunt during the day, but then she hadn’t come here to kill. And she hadn’t been pursuing the banshee, in fact, she was stalking something else.

  Just two months ago her life was normal. She’d been a paramedic and, with her partner, had been called to this wood after a resident from the estate had come here for some reason. When they saw him, her gut told her to hang back. She didn’t because the victim had a gaping wound on his arm and as her partner, Damian, had treated the man, triage ready for admission, the patient had bitten her.

  Patients often did crazy things, shock is hard to control. But from that very first bite her mind buzzed as if drunk and her legs shook.

  It was always a risk, junkies with their list of diseases, and avoiding contamination was part of the training but she’d been checked, had blood work done and no infection had been found.

  But days later, the dreams had come, waking her up every night. Dreams of being chased, being eaten by something so macabre her mind had problems processing it.

  The shrink said it was shock, but Eloise had dealt with far worse accidents. That was bullshit.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw things she’d never seen before, strange things like people, animals and, wherever she went, flickering lights. The dreams got worse and became so vivid she felt like she was running through the city, trying not to lose her footing, panting, sweating, her heart thundering against her chest.

  Something had changed, like an impending storm. She felt a presence close to her since the bite and she quickly became sleep deprived. She was a quick study of the occult, researching ghosts, demons and more. She didn’t want to believe it, but the only other explanation was she was losing her mind. If that were true there would have been other signs, going crazy rarely happened overnight.

  The patient's statement was garbled nonsense, talking of a monster, blood and being stalked, but still she looked for it, for something, for answers.

  Until she could take no more. Then she came back, during the day and on her own, but armed with weapons she’d read could help. Thank God for the internet, even if she wasn’t really sure they would work.

  “Fuck, you’re becoming one hell of a hunter! A banshee!” Jason grinned as he appeared without a sound from the wood.

  “I thought you didn’t come out in the day? I assumed you’d be in your lair, lying in your coffin?” Eloise questioned, surprised to see him.

  “As a rule, I wouldn’t be out in the sun but I had a premonition about you, you know, same old...I see I didn’t need to come, you’re doing just fine!”

  “Yeah, but we both know I wasn’t looking for a banshee! That thing is still out here somewhere, still preying on people. Anyway, monsters are easy, people aren’t. I’ve been bitten, puked on, attacked, kicked and that was just the patients and onlookers. At least with these beasts you know where they are, no stabbing you in the back.” Biting her lip to hold in her anger, she thought about what had changed her from a tough paramedic to a monster killer; the attack on her partner Damien. Although he was still alive, he was currently housed in the safety of a mental health unit, after being found by Jason. Damian was about to be eaten alive, his ribs smashed in and black and blue from a brutal attack.

  After that, revenge became her only cause, as well as taking her mind off the other craziness happening around her.

  “You should never work when you’ve booked a day off, you know,” she muttered to Jason. That’s how this begun. The day she was bitten she was covering for someone else.

  Jason walked towards her, making no sound and grinning from ear to ear. Softly he replied, “I know, but then you’d have never met me.” He put his hand on his chest and splayed his fingers in a theatrical gesture, bowing his head and offered with a smirk, “I would regret that!”

  Rarely had he come across mortals like Eloise, especially women. Her bravery had touched something in him that had been dead for maybe a hundred years. Loyalty. You couldn’t buy it.

  Mostly he’d kept to himself for the longest time, only mingling with his own kind occasionally. When he’d first encountered Eloise, she’d almost killed him, he’d become complacent around mortals. But then he was hunting this thing, too, so his mind had been fixated on it.

  Her appearance fascinated him, her look was harsh and dark. Short black hair, with her long fringe bangs that hid her eyes, black kohl makeup, black jeans and leather jacket. He wasn’t sure if he like her dyed hair and makeup, but he was attracted to her. He knew in his dead heart that she was meeting her fate, no one ordinarily went from a normal person to a hunter so fast and he knew that what happened to her had changed her. She hadn’t told him, but he knew, instinct, even for the dead, is a powerful force. That bite, he could smell it, he knew the patient she’d treated wasn’t human, though he hadn’t told her because she had enough to deal with.

  “Jason, are you going to help, or just stand there judging me by your archaic standards?” Eloise joked.

  She liked Jason, too much really, but wouldn’t show it for so many reasons. Impressed by his ability to adapt, not knowing how old he truly was, but sometimes he’d let down his guard and a few things had slipped out. She guessed what he was but didn’t ask. He wasn’t human, that was for sure, though he looked it. Maybe a demon, or a vampire, or a werewolf- but werewolves are usually big, long-haired muscle men, right? she thought to herself. Frowning at the thought of werewolves, she glanced at Jason. His tousled hair kissed his shoulders, small hazel eyes shining bright when he smiled. He wasn’t a muscular man, not very tall and dressed in jeans and a hoodie. Handsome in an unconventional way, but he was charismatic. She guessed that was due to having a lot of time to learn that shit. Still, he had her back and together they would find this beast that ruined her partner and killed Jason’s friend.

  “How come you’re here during the day?” Jason frowned. “I mean, it’s not likely to be out during the day.”

&nbs
p; “I’d heard there was another attack, so I came straight over. When I got here there were a few police, but the boy was relatively unscathed. I’m not even sure if it’s related, maybe just a local psycho that wanted in on the action. I didn’t sense anything inhuman, but I came in anyway after they all left. There was a pile of leaves and debris, out towards the railway line, that was where I found the banshee sleeping!” The words spilled from her mouth.

  Jason nodded and looked around. “Well, I think the creature is probably following the railway tracks and sticking to the tree line. From there it can go straight into the city and hide back out here after it attacks.”

  “Good thinking, but there’s miles of track, so we need to find a way to draw it out.” As soon as she said it, she realised that she’d probably make the best bait. Gulping she added, “Ok, maybe that’s me, but you’re going to have to have my back and I want to be one hundred percent sure we can kill this thing.”

  “Absolutely, but the track’s gone cold for a few nights except for this incident today, so we’ll have to investigate. Wendigos are notoriously hard to kill and I’d like to know how it got here,” Jason added as he searched the area, sniffing the leaves while looking for scratches and markings on the nearby trees.

  Scratching his head, he asked, “What the hell was a banshee doing here anyway? I mean, they tend to hang out in cemeteries, not bits of woodlands on the edge of housing estates.” He tilted his head in a questioning manner. He’s pretty cute when he’s confused, Eloise thought, though she didn’t display it.

  He caught a whiff of her blood-soaked t-shirt and started walking towards her. He looked her in the eye and said, “And the other thing that puzzles me is, how you have become so proficient at this so quickly. You don’t even look fazed. I know there’s more to it, but what I don’t know is why you don’t trust me.” He shrugged at her blank expression. She smiled and replied, “Jason, I trust you to a point. You’ve had my back, but I don’t know what you are.” Looking around she added, “Can you help me get out of here unseen?”

  “Of course. Follow me,” he said and held out his arm, indicating the way.

  He had a knack of being unobserved. There were quite a few people about, mostly kids hanging around and she didn’t have a change of clothes. Zipping her leather jacket up, he got her to her car and she got in without being spotted.

  “I’ll see you later?” she asked.

  “Sure, text me before you leave. I’m going home to catch up on some research. If we knew how the thing got here it might help us find it.”

  At home Eloise took off her t-shirt, chucked it in the washing machine and took a long shower. She knew why Jason kept asking how she was able to kill with such ease, but the truth was, it wasn’t easy.

  It kept her mind from replaying the nightmares, from seeing the weird stuff that was happening around her and it was making her tough, whether she liked it or not.

  It’s not easy when you come home and find a dead person sitting in your living room, talking to you as if that’s the most normal thing in the world and maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if it was a dead relative but so far it was people Eloise didn’t know asking her macabre questions like, how long until you join us? Or, what’s it like to be eaten alive? Forcing herself to clench up so she didn’t shudder, she knew the only way out of this was to get out there and kill that thing, which by the way, how did it get here? Wendigos originated in the USA, so why is it in the UK?

  After grabbing a drink, she switched on the laptop to research shipping forecasts that came into Bristol from the USA. None directly, it’s possible this thing travelled over and stowed away, remaining hidden until the ship rerouted here or just left at Tilbury in Essex. If it got off there, then I should find something of its travels here, I doubt it just went hungry until it got to Bristol, she thought to herself.

  Looking out of the window, suburbia looked peaceful enough. Pulling herself up to go into the kitchen to cook dinner, realising now she was starving. She hadn’t expected to wipe out a banshee earlier. She’d never done that before and despite Jason’s confidence that she’s a natural killer, it had been either its life or hers. Hell, she didn’t even know what banshees do regularly...

  Ease washed over her for the first time in ages. Home, no dead people, no flickering lights, though all the lights were off, there was no strangeness. Melancholy tingled through her when she thought of a few weeks back, her life was hectic, a paramedic led a crazy life with long shifts, angry patients and an even angrier public. In a way dealing with monsters was easier. You knew where you stood with them, unlike the public. It hadn’t taken long for her delusions of making a difference to be quashed by a never-ending brawl of irate people. They do stupid things, paramedics pick up the pieces and then they get the blame, go figure! As for the wages, the only reason she was able to buy this tiny place squeezed into an overcrowded suburban nightmare was because her folks left her some money.

  She got an early release and resigned after the attack, and right now was in the process of selling her house.

  Fuck pretending normal is safe, it isn’t and I’m not sure what I’m going to do next but it’s not sitting around and waiting here like a target, she thought. Maybe it was the wakeup call she needed, and even though she didn’t know Jason well, she felt like she had a true calling when they hunted together, finding the beasts that lurked in the shadows and preyed on the innocent.

  Scouring back through the internet she came across a few scattered reports of attacks but the information was sketchy.

  A banging on the front door made Eloise nearly jump out her skin. Looking around she spotted her dagger, picked it up and held it behind her back. She cautiously approached her door and looked through the spy hole. She was surprised to see Jason standing on the other side. How did he know where she lived, unless he’d followed her? A prickle of cold sweat ran down the back of her neck. Knowing he was the closest thing she had to a friend in this dark world she’d entered, she put down the dagger and reluctantly opened the door. Not human...

  “I got a lead, it couldn’t wait! After researching I saw it came in from the port, obviously, but I’d heard about another attack a few miles from the wood. Word is, this thing is praying particularly on...immortals.” Shaking his head, he added, “Our blood is more potent maybe?”

  “Or maybe it’s exacting revenge!” she added.

  Jason, wide eyed, murmured, “A Wendigo, hell bent on revenge. I’ve never heard of that!”

  “But you’ve never heard of one in the UK either. My guess is that he or she was probably originally from here, why else would it go to the trouble of travelling all the way here, by ship?”

  He rolled his lips, deep in thought, “I guess it takes four or five weeks. Did you find any news on shipping incidents?”

  “Nope, but I have read just about everything on Wendigos and they don’t eat all the time. They often store their victims alive, kind of harvesting them and can go months without eating.”

  Eloise watched Jason as he scanned the room, wondering what his place was like. Dusty, dark, gothic? Probably high tech most likely. He might dress casually but he oozed wealth, always dressing immaculate.

  “But this one is attacking both human and immortals, and whatever it is you don’t want to say, I don’t think it’s mindless,” she mumbled. “We need to find out if people, or whatever, have gone missing.”

  Groaning at that thought, he replied, “You’re right, it could have a lair somewhere...ugh, grisly...bodies.”

  Eloise frowned. “Really, coming from you?” she replied, tilting her head questioningly.

  “I know, I know, you wonder what I am and I haven’t been forthcoming with that, but...” he took a deep breath. Her heart pounded fast against her chest and she, clenched her sweaty hands, bracing herself for the unveiling of his secret.

  He continued, “Look, I’m a vampire alright. I don’t like dead things, it’s a vamp thing. Actually, anything dead kind of repulses us!
” Shrugging his shoulders, he stared too long into her tired human eyes. She had dark circles under them and they were blood shot. He wondered why he saw past that. Knowing himself so well, he’d had a long time for self-reflection. He was usually more superficial but there was something else there. Was it sadness? No, he knew what it was; passion. Deeply hidden but there it was. She watched, not breaking his stare as his lips curved slightly. His pearlescent skin, high cheekbones and lips thin and slightly too long for his face.

  Trembling slightly and hearing her heart race, an intimate moment, he took a breath before his arousal was found out. They had a job to do and she was human. That meant volatile, fragile and short-lived. He knew better.

  “Do you...kill people then?” Eloise mumbled.

  He stared out of the window, rolling his lips. He seemed to do that when thinking of an answer. So, she pre-empted him. “I’ll take that as a yes then!” she sighed.

  “I do, sometimes, but, in my defence, only evil humans, only the ones society is better off without. I don’t often kill,” he replied as he splayed his hands before him. “Usually I just drink what I need. I knew you’d be uncomfortable about it, that’s why I was reluctant to talk about it.”

  Her voice pitched in a defensive manner as she said, “No, no really, it’s none of my business. You made no secret that you aren’t human, what you do is your business.” Her stomach and her heart crumbled at the thought, like her fantasy was now betrayed by reality. “I actually thought you might be a werewolf I guess they exist?”

  He flashed her a smile. What she didn’t know was that he could sense her feelings, that’s why he hadn’t said anything. Like last night, when he’d fed on a willing woman who was so aroused by him that he’d almost, accidentally, screwed her. He would have, before Eloise. It was weird, this new-found morality she had over him. But he couldn’t go through with it, didn’t want to touch the woman. He wanted Eloise, and he would, whether it helped or not, remain faithful to her, even though she probably wouldn’t believe him.