Revelations (Blood Bound Book 1) Read online

  REVELATIONS

  Blood Bound, Book One

  L.L. Wright

  This is a work of fiction. Names, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. All characters and dialogue are the product of the author's imagination and should be interpreted as fiction.

  Published in the United States by L.L. Wright.

  Copyright © 2020 L.L. Wright

  All rights reserved.

  For those at war with their own demons,

  you are stronger than you think.

  There was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought beside his angels and found defeat. No longer were they welcome in heaven. The dragon, also called the Devil, and Satan, was cast out, and his angels were cast out with him.

  (Revelations 12:7-9)

  Contents

  1 Leo

  2 Emmeline

  3 Emmeline

  4 Emmeline

  5 Leo

  6 Emmeline

  7 Leo

  8 Leo

  9 Emmeline

  10 Emmeline

  11 Leo

  12 Emmeline

  13 Leo

  14 Emmeline

  15 Leo

  16 Emmeline

  17 Emmeline

  18 Emmeline

  19 Leo

  20 Emmeline

  21 Leo

  22 Emmeline

  23 Leo

  24 Emmeline

  25 Emmeline

  26 Leo

  27 Emmeline

  28 Leo

  29 Emmeline

  30 Leo

  31 Emmeline

  32 Leo

  33 Emmeline

  34 Leo

  35 Emmeline

  36 Leo

  37 Emmeline

  38 Leo

  39 Emmeline

  40 Leo

  41 Emmeline

  42 Leo

  43 Emmeline

  Acknowledgements

  About The Author

  1

  Leo

  Sunlight streamed through the gap between the curtains. It gradually inched its way across the floor, toward the king-size bed. Leo growled, burying his head under a pillow when the light finally reached him. He tossed and turned for several minutes before he got up and walked toward the windows, tugging the curtains shut without a single glance at the outside world. He lay back down and pulled the covers over his bare chest, relaxing into the warm sheets. He sighed and closed his eyes.

  Buzz, buzz, buzz. Leo's eyes shot open as his phone vibrated along the top of the wooden bedside table, you have got to be kidding me. He picked up the phone and swiped the screen.

  "What do you want?" he grumbled into the phone.

  "You sound cheery," Collin replied.

  "I was patrolling the sewers until three a.m. And then I spent another hour disinfecting myself. I'm not in the mood to chitchat. What.do.you.want?"

  "I don't even want to know what you did to get that assignment," Collin chuckled. "Anyway, I ran a bunch of tests on the water sample your team brought back and you were right, there was venom in it. A lot of it."

  "Ugh," Leo groaned into his pillow. "I hate when I'm right about this stuff."

  "That's not the worst part." Collin sighed into the phone. "My software is showing trace amounts of malachite in this sample too, that’s a half dozen contaminated samples in one county."

  “Any chance that could be a coincidence?”

  “Maybe if the samples came from Russia or Mexico, but last time I checked malachite isn’t native to Connecticut.”

  Leo threw the covers back and climbed out of bed. He walked back to the windows and pulled the curtains open, inviting the sun to fill the room with warmth.

  “You know what that means,” he said, pulling on a pair of dark jeans and a hunter green henley.

  “You’re going to follow protocol and send in a small undercover team to assess the situation,” Collin asked, halfheartedly.

  “Of course not,” Leo said. He pulled the door shut behind him and walked toward the elevator, stepping in and pushing the button for the basement. “If we’re dealing with malachite, I need to be on top of this myself.” He strode down the short hallway that led to the building’s underground storage and parking garage as well as The Faction’s science facility. Through the wide glass window he could see Collin seated at his computer, phone wedged between his ear and shoulder, one hand on his keyboard, the other holding what appeared to be a burrito.

  “Or, you could follow protocol and send in a team,” Collin shrugged, oblivious to his friend’s presence.

  Leo ended the call and slid the phone into his back pocket as he leaned against the metal door frame. He cleared his throat and continued the conversation.

  “Come on. It’ll only take a week, two tops, and we both know you could use some time away from this lab. You’re paler than that weird guy in IT, the gangly one with the red hair. Steve, Stan, Stue...”

  “His name is Albert, and that pale IT guy keeps all of our tech up and running better than Verizon. He literally never leaves this building. As far as your rule-bending mission goes, fieldwork is your thing. I’m not drawn to the hunt the way you are,” Collin said, swiveling his chair away from his multi-monitor computer set-up and taking a bite from his burrito. “Besides, I let my sigil fade away months ago,” he added, pulling his v-neck down to show his bare chest. “I’d be useless to you unless you’re just worried you’ll miss me while you’re away.”

  “You know The Faction has a soft spot for us. They’d rebrand you on a moment’s notice if you asked.”

  Collin took a deep breath and set the burrito on his desk. “What if I don’t want to? What if I’m perfectly content right here?” he asked.

  “Then I guess I’ll leave you to it,” Leo said, nodding his head as he turned to leave. “But, there would be football,” he added, looking back over his shoulder. Collin’s eyes were bright and it was clear that Leo had played the right card. Collin has had a bizarre obsession with the sport since it was invented. I knew that would be enough to grab his attention. “From what I hear the West Creek warriors are the team to beat, and tryouts are next week.”

  Collin rubbed his palm over his mouth several times. Then he let out a groan and reached for his phone, tapping away at the screen with his thumbs.

  “I take it you’ve changed your mind,” Leo asked. A smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth and he raised his eyebrows mischievously.

  “We’ll see if Chamille agrees to replace my sigil. She said last time was the last time,” he explained, running a hand through his shaggy hair and leaning back in his chair.

  “She’s been saying that for years. She doesn’t mean it.”

  Collin shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. A moment later his phone chimed and then buzzed at the edge of the desk. He leaned over to read the message and Leo eyed his buddy expectantly, waiting for him to relay the news.

  “Well?”

  “She said she’ll do it. But,” Collin held his fingers up to form quotes in this air before continuing. “This is the absolute last time. Angry face emoji, black hole emoji, devil emoji.”

  Leo snorted out a laugh. “Did she just threaten to send you to hell,” he asked, laughter jumbling his words.

  “I believe she did,” Collin said with a smirk.

  2

  Emmeline

  Emmeline Clark stood in her bedroom staring into the floor-length mirror mounted on the wall. She took a step towards the mirror, reaching out to touch
the memories wedged into the frame. The weathered wood was littered with movie ticket stubs, amusement park bracelets, and photo-booth polaroids from years of Friday nights and summer days. Not this summer, Emmie sighed as she thought about the dark months she had spent mostly alone. She had taken a part-time job at "Dips," the ice cream parlor in the next town over to keep herself busy and pass the time while her best friend Lisa had spent the summer touring the west coast with her parents. Aside from volunteering once a week and working a few evenings, the only outings she had entertained were the ones her mother had forced. I’ve basically turned into a middle-aged hermit, she told herself thinking back to the days and nights she spent reading, knitting and binge-watching Golden Girls. The problem, Emmie realized, was that Lisa had been her only friend for as long as she could remember. They sat together on the bus on the first day of kindergarten, they ate lunch together every day in elementary school and they shared the same homeroom every year after. Emmie had grown so accustomed to spending her afternoons, weekends and school breaks with Lisa that without her she felt completely lost. Lisa had texted all the time, but it seemed so distant compared to the summers that they spent together at the local pool, and riding their bikes along the trails at the West Creek Park. And as she brushed her hair and slipped on her new jeans and tan flats Emmie couldn't help but worry that everything was about to change. Who am I kidding? Everything has already changed. She turned around to look at the space where her wardrobe used to be. All that was left now was the charred proof of how out of control her powers had become. No matter how much she tried to push them away and pretend they were nothing more than an unwanted imperfection, something easy to ignore like a mole or an odd-shaped birthmark, she could always feel them lurking below the surface, waiting for her to let her guard down and lose control. Emmie turned her attention back to the mirror and the happy memories of better days. She shoved her supernatural problems to the bottom of her priority list, where they belong. Today was the first day of high school, and as far as Emmie was concerned it was the perfect time for a fresh start.

  "Emmie! Your breakfast is on the table, I'm leaving for work," her mother shouted up the stairs, interrupting her train of thought.

  "Thanks, mom," she replied.

  "Lock the door behind you, and don't forget your key," her mother reminded. Emmie heard her mother’s heels clicking on the hardwood floor as she headed towards the door. "And have a good day," she added, before slamming the heavy wooden door behind her.

  Melody Clark was a legal secretary for the largest law firm in Hartford. She had worked for the same law firm since before Emmie was born, and had climbed her way up to the position of secretarial supervisor. When she wasn't at her office in Hartford, she was on her iPad or blackberry coordinating, scheduling, and drafting motions from home.

  Emmie put in her new diamond studs, a birthday present from just a week ago. She still couldn't believe her mother had given her such a lavish present. It was a tradition in the Clark house to celebrate birthdays and holidays modestly.

  "You only turn 15 once you know," her mother had said to justify the gift. "And every young woman should have a pair of diamond earrings," she added with a smile.

  Emmie checked her makeup in the mirror one more time. So plain. She bit her bottom lip and reached into her makeup bag, pulling out her dark brown mascara. She applied two coats to each eye and ran her fingers through her wavy auburn hair. Maybe I should have straightened it, she thought, huffing with uncertainty.

  Emmie stared into her own emerald eyes, freshly framed with brown liner and mascara. Her eyes scanned lower and she assessed the green knit sweater, dark blue jeans and Cream tieks she had spent weeks deciding on before throwing her messenger bag over her shoulder. Today is the day, she told herself as she headed down the stairs. Starting today, everything counts. There’s no room for slip-ups or mistakes. Everything has to be perfect.

  For as long as Emmie could remember she and her mother had been preparing for her future, and high school was a big part of the plan. By the time she was 8 they had already begun talking about colleges and by the age of 10 she had logged close to 100 hours of volunteer work.

  “Community service looks good on college applications, Emmie,” her mother had explained the morning she drove her to the local library where she would spend the day raking leaves and planting pansies with the West Creek beautification committee, who it turned out were all over the age of 60. Emmie knew why her mother pushed so hard to make sure she got into a good college. She had always known the truth behind her mother's laser-like focus on her future plans. As a single mom, Melody Clark had done it all, rarely cutting corners or making compromises. She worked close to 70 hours a week and still made sure the house was clean and tidy, and even though she wasn’t home a lot she was always there when she was needed. As a little girl, Emmie had sworn it was her mother's superpower.

  "How do you always know when I need you," Emmie had asked her mother after she appeared in the nurse's office door one afternoon when she had fallen from the jungle gym at recess.

  "It's called mother's intuition," she told her as they walked out of the school on their way to the doctor's office. "That, and your teacher called me," she said with a smile.

  "Well I think you have superpowers," Emmie said in a matter of fact tone.

  "Oh Emmie, we've talked about this. Things like that don't exist. They're just fairytales people tell children to distract them from the real world," her mother explained.

  Emmie smiled, recalling the memory of a day spent in the waiting room of several offices before being sent home with her wrist in a cast. It was just a normal day, and I was just a little girl in a pink cast, she thought as her smile faded. She stopped in the kitchen to grab the breakfast her mother had laid out; a granola bar and a bottle of sparkling water. Most parents can at least make toast or frozen waffles. She rolled her eyes at how consumed by work her mother could be during a big case.

  She nibbled her granola bar and checked her cell phone while she walked toward the bus stop.

  Lisa: Meet you at the usual place? (smiley face emoji)

  Emmie groaned, realizing that she hadn’t heard her phone while she was getting ready this morning.

  Emmie: Of course.

  She typed back quickly, then tucked the phone into her back pocket. Deep breaths, calm thoughts, Emmie, she told herself, repeating the words in her mind as she walked slowly down the sidewalk. Something else that she had carried with her since those normal days had faded to nothing more than a memory was her anxiety. A condition that seemed to worsen with each passing year. Her mother had suggested various herbs and crystals over the years, amongst other mystical solutions that were rumored to repair damaged magic. But the idea of fixing magic with more magic gave Emmie the chills and she refused adamantly. She decided to cope with the symptoms that plagued her in the ‘normal human way,’ minus the therapist, obviously. I'm a witch that gets overwhelmed by my own powers is the type of conversation starter that ends in a padded cell, she told herself. As her course load and volunteer work became more demanding of her time and attention she had begun second-guessing that decision, but after several magical meltdowns resulting in small fires and a lot of broken glass, she finally found a solution of her own. One that required no magic, and no outside help. It had been a few years since Emmie discovered that the secret to keeping her anxiety at bay was staying calm, focused, and relatively magic free, a fact that did not please her mother whose own powers had weakened almost disappearing over the years, in the least. Since then she had nearly perfected her method. Nearly, she repeated the word in her mind, reflecting on the few times she had lost control of her thoughts and emotions completely, sending her into a fit of panicked short breaths and thoughts so dark they brought her to her knees in tears. Thankfully, those ‘events,’ as she and her mother referred to them, had happened in private. But things are much better now, she told herself, I have this all under control. Deep breaths, calm thoug
hts, she repeated the mantra in her mind once more as she rounded the corner onto Hickory Lane. Emmie felt her breath catch in her throat when she spotted Lisa at the bus stop, deep in conversation with a petite brunette whom Emmie didn't recognize. New people always make me nervous, she thought, puffing out a deep breath, and chewing her bottom lip. They ask questions and they want to get to know you, but I can't really do that, and I hate lying so keeping everyone at arm's length is easier, everyone except Lisa, of course. Lisa was the only person aside from her mother who knew the real Emmie, the teenage witch who struggled to cope with and control her own magic, and at times, her debilitating insecurities.

  "Emmie!" Lisa squealed, running towards her. "It's so good to see you!" She smiled, crushing her in a huge hug. "How has everything been, how are you," she added in a whisper, pausing on the sidewalk.

  "Everything is good. I'm totally fine," Emmie said, forcing a smile and taking a deep breath. Everything is good. I'm totally fine, she repeated to herself, willing the words to become reality as they walked arm in arm toward the girl standing at the bus stop. Lisa pointed toward her with a big smile and she noticed an anxious chill creep through her body.

  "Emmie, this is Jenny, she moved into the house across the street over the summer. She's from Canada, isn't that cool," Lisa rambled enthusiastically.

  "Yeah, that's really cool," Emmie said swallowing the lump in her throat while offering Jenny a half-hearted smile. She took a moment to eye the girl up, drawing a comparison between her sleek clothes and the looks she had seen in the stacks of magazines her mother picked up from the grocery store every Saturday on her way home from the office. From her shiny flat ironed hair to the lilac silk blouse tucked into a high waisted leather mini skirt and paired with black tights and shiny doc martens, this girl was the picture of vogue fashion. Emmie combed her fingers through her hair and looked down at her own clothes, chewing her lip uncomfortably, plain, from head to toe, she told herself.