Surface Below: Dark Secrets (The Surface Below Book 1)
Read Surface Below: Dark Secrets (The Surface Below Book 1) Online
Authors: Leeah Taylor
The Surface Below: Dark Secrets
Leeah Taylor
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201
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Leeah Taylor. All rights reserved.
Contents
Dedication
I never set out to be a writer. To be a creator of worlds. Breathing life into my characters. It just happened. My mind just came to life one day. Like the start of a movie on repeat. Begging to be brought to life.
However, this story, this world, these characters would not be possible on my own. Few people played a part in making it possible.
To my husband. A man I’m proud to call mine. A man that any woman would be happy to claim. Thank you for your immense patience with me. For understanding my mind and how it works. For putting up with the endless hours of writing. For the dozens and dozens and dozens of nights you went to bed alone. Thank you for your support for pushing me as often as you did. Thank you for your unsolicited feedback. For stopping and reading this every time I asked you to. There just isn’t enough blank space on a page for the amount of thank you’s I have for you. Just know that I do and I love you.
To Jessica. Where to even begin. Meeting you has been far greater than a blessing. What started out as two strangers exchanging their writing turned into a rare friendship. A friendship I think most people strive to attain. But few ever scratch the surface. To meet someone that gets you and vice versa is empowering. It’s also very dangerous, ha ha. We’ve laughed…well we’ve just laughed. This story would not be what it is without you. Your insight, feedback and criticism brought the best out in me and my work. A simple thank you just doesn’t seem to be enough. But it’s a start. I look forward to many, many years of writing together, laughing together and one day, yes, world domination. Ha ha!!
William stood outside a bar, trying to decide whether to go in or not. More and more people crammed inside, knocking into him, laughing and carrying on. Biting at the inside of his lips, he watched on. He wanted what they had. Shoving his hands in his pockets, as if it would keep him from going inside, he leaned against the back end of his truck.
Night after night he came, watching and wondering what it would be like if things were different. In his world and this one. It wasn’t whether or not he wanted to go in, but whether he should. He knew he would succumb to the Beast buried deep inside him. He could already feel it coming to life. Even out here in the parking lot he could smell the mingling aromas from inside the bar.
It made the back of his throat burn and tingle and his heart pound hard in his chest. A fog had already settled around his head as he took in the air around him. He was losing an already lost battle. Swallowing hard, feeling sweat forming on the back of his neck and around his face.
It felt like a curse to be what he was and bound to laws he didn’t follow. A life of solitude wasn’t his choice, but he was forced to live it. Each day of his existence.
Pushing his fingers through his hair, William watched the people through the window. They laughed, smiled and absorbed that energy around them. He didn’t realize it but the thought of being like them, even for a night, had a corner of his lip pulling up. Just as quickly he looked down at the ground and shook his head.
The Beast was growling from his depths demanding he go inside. It needed to feed and take in the energy that this environment could offer it. “Screw it.” He pushed off and walked the short distance. His hand closed over the brass handle of the door.
Inside he began to question the decision as waves of emotions flooded through him. Anticipation, excitement, happiness, even anger hit him like a slap in the face. His chest tightened up and his breathing hitched. It was like that every time he put himself in this type of atmosphere. And he couldn’t stop himself from doing it. The bar provided him with everything he needed to function.
The brunette at the table next to him; anxiety and tension poured from her. He knew that she didn’t like the atmosphere. But there she sat. Her fingers fondling the stem of her wine glass.
She’s waiting for someone.
The man laughing with his friends had an underlying mask of resentment. William assumed he was at the lower end of his social pool. The man dressed casually, shoes were scuffed and worn. His friends drank mixed drinks while he had a beer in his hand.
Emotions and blood were the two things William were after. Energy wasn’t going to be a problem here. It was already fueling him and with the passing of people it began to dissipate to a more bearable level, allowing him to breathe easy again.
He made his way to a table in the far corner of the bar. It gave him a good view of the open bar with its high tops and stools, tightly packed into the center of the sports bar. There was a wide range of working classes in the bar. College kids, tourists, locals, fishermen. Here they were equals. The young Barbie girl wannabes flirted with the middle-aged tourists, fishermen had deep conversations with businessmen. Something about sharing a couple of beers just evened the playing field. It gave him the smallest sliver of humanity.
He closed his eyes and his heightened senses took over. Voices stuck out around him. They went on unknowing that someone was listening. It made the lull over his body begin to tingle as his ears went even further, more intimate, to the gentle thrumming of their heart beats. His own pulse beat throughout his body as the sound grew with intensity. It was like music dancing in his ears. A symphony of life. Finding the one beat that offset the rest, his eyes came to life. Searching the bar he found hersitting at the bar. He watched her for a few moments. The men around her undressing her without her knowledge. She smiled and flirted with a light heart. But it became obvious to him that she was alone.
He inhaled and the sweet aroma of her blood drove him crazy. A thrill coursed through him, a knot forming in his stomach. The burning and scratching in the back of his throat raged. William watched her as he walked through the crowded room. The room fell away and his focus was on only her. He had locked on to her now. Her long blonde hair cascaded down her back and he could appreciate her slender build. She wouldn’t be much of a fighter. The smell of her was so sweet, yet he could sense the liquor tainting her blood. He didn’t mind, it would make it easier and he wouldn’t have to work as hard to get her to leave with him.
“Beer please.” He signaled the bartender, pretending he didn’t notice her.
Leaning against the bar, he gave her a quick glimpse. He couldn’t help but feel some emotional connection to her. There was remorse mostly for what he was about to do to her. If he was honest with himself, his ability to control the situation was gone the moment he had stepped inside. Something else already had its control over him. And it was an addiction. The Beast.
The girl gave him a sideways glance, evaluating him. She raised an eye to his lean but muscular build. His dark grey tee hung loosely around his waist but was tauter around the arms. Only slightly though and she seemed to appreciate that. He knew she was taking him in, deciding if she was going to make the first move.
A smile formed when she got up and moved over to the stool next to him. This was his favorite part. He had been the bait and now he had hooked her. What was to follow would fill one part of the need he had. The Beast buried deep within his core forced its way into his mind and compelled his morality away. He surrendered to it and his eyes flared with a smoldering green. She leaned in with very little space between them. Her hair tickled his neck. He looked up from his beer and greeted her dark blue eyes and giddy smile.
“Hi, I’m Janelle.” She flipped her hair away from her face, and batted her fake eyelashes. She extended her hand and he took it.
“William.” A sexy smile flashed across his face, teeth bared. He had been perfecting that smile for years. “Can I buy you a drink?”
She smiled and accepted.
He spent the evening entertaining her. Laughing where appropriate, buying her more drinks. He had perfected every aspect of this over the years. Making sure to play into whatever role the girl needed him to.
William played along through the hours even though he was struggling to keep the rabid Beast inside of him caged. His heart beat rapidly in his chest and resonated through his body. Catching the scent of her body made his eyes flare again. She wouldn’t notice though, already well past any recollection of anything that would happen tonight. Her blood seemed to bubble and boil just under the surface of her skin no matter where his eyes landed on her.
Last call was announced. William could already feel the fog building in his head. His body temperature rising and pulsing everywhere. He needed to seize the moment.
“You wanna get out of here?” he suggested, but he already knew the answer. She couldn’t keep her hands off of him. They fondled up and down his arms, through his brown and blonde hair and in between his legs. Again she batted her eyes and smiled crookedly.
“What did you have in mind?” She giggled and slurred, leaning into him.
Yep right where I want you.
The thought made him cringe though. He didn’t want to do it, not fully. The addiction he wanted to fulfill but not like this; he would rather have a willing participant. Someone willing to feed his Beast and accept him for what he was.
He encouraged her up from the stool and led her stumbling out into the night. Even in October the air was thick with an unforgiving heat. The parking lot was almost empty, save for a couple of cars on the other side of the parking lot, behind them. His truck was just hidden within the shadows of the poorly lit lot.
Opening the door and hoisting her up to the passenger seat, he was overcome with excitement. Things kicked into overdrive. His hands moved over her body, under her sheer top. Something about the feel of a woman and how it had him on edge. But it didn’t arouse him. Not sexually at least. It was the life that he could feel beating against his palms that had him aroused. Nuzzling into her neck, he smelled that sweet aroma and kissed up the side of it to her lips. He crushed his against hers with urgency.
William’s hand grazed her neck and he pulled back to give her one last look before he took all of her. The rhythmic pulse beneath it made the inner Beast rear its ugly head. His eyes flared green with flecks of black. Long, sharp fangs protruded from his gums and they glistened.
He just barely grazed her skin.
And then he felt the hard yank at the nape of his neck. Falling backwards from the height of his truck, he hit the ground and then his head. And everything went black.
William jolted up from the bed. Beads of sweat ran down his face and dripped onto the drenched black sheets. He rubbed at his temple. The room was dark and too hot. His chest heaved as he adjusted. He was in his bed, in his apartment but had no memory to how he had gotten there. William tried to remember what had happened. But an aching pulse behind his eyes worsened. When his nose caught a familiar scent in the air, though, he knew how he’d gotten home. Markus, his brother.
Should’ve known
.
The question was how much damage had been done. He cringed at the thought of what he was capable of. Throwing back the covers, he got up from his bed but sat back down. His hand gripping to the black sheets as a wave of dizziness and nausea hit him. He took in deep breaths to try and fight off the growing sickness in his stomach. Burying his head in his hands, the smallest sliver of his memory flashed in his mind.
A girl.
Her long, soft blonde hair pushed off to one side, leaving her neck exposed. A rhythmic pulse beat beneath her skin. He pushed himself to remember, the memory flooded back to him. Squeezing his eyes shut, a salty mixture filled his nostrils. Her dark blue eyes were wide and scared as she looked up at him. His fangs exposed when he felt the hard jerk from a strong hand.
Then everything went black and his fist met the soft bed. “Shit.”
Shaking his head, he attempted to get up again, this time finding a balance. He stood there for a moment before crossing his bedroom, and heading for the door. The bitter aroma of coffee hit him hard when he opened the door.
He entered the kitchen, finding his brother sitting at the counter reading a paper.
“Morning,” he mumbled, shuffling across the tile floor to sit down across from him.
There wasn’t very much that would convince anyone that the two were brothers. William was athletic. His arms muscular and abs toned. Bleach blonde streaked through his natural brown.
Markus was slender, but lacked the same athletic build. And he had blue eyes and his brown hair was a bit longer.
Their personalities were just as different. William was quiet and kept to himself. He loved books and was known to do some writing occasionally. His partying lifestyle was mostly just for show to attain what he needed. Otherwise he kept to himself.
Markus was more laid back than his brother. Enjoy a good football game and a beer or two. He had a good sense of humor and enjoyed making people smile.
No, nothing about these two men was the same. For twins, that was an oddity.
“Oh, good. You’re alive.” He set the paper down and grabbed for the brown mug in front of him.
“How bad?”
“Not as bad as you look. But close. I almost didn’t make it this time.” Markus reached into a duffle bag and retrieved two vials from it. One filled with an orange liquid and the other a dark crimson. “Here, orange for the hangover and the red to balance you out.”
He popped the lids off and handed the vials to him. William took the red one without hesitation, although it did nothing to satiate the Beast’s thirst. It was the orange one he cringed at before finally gulping it down. It was bitter and salty. He grabbed at his brother’s coffee mug and chugged the remainder, and grimaced at the temperature. Markus was almost amused by him and shook his head.
“You’re stupid, you know that?”
“What happened?” He held to his head tightly. The Beast inside him gave a hushed growl at the introduction of Hybrid, retreating even further into the confines of his depths.
Just as humans had their addictions: alcohol, drugs and sex. Vampires had only one addiction, blood. But Hybrid replaced that need. A mixture of animal blood, trace amounts of human blood and some natural additives. It was made to keep vampires’ hunger satiated, and kept them from becoming addicted to it.
Human blood could drive a vampire to insanity. Making it impossible to control the already untamed Beast inside them. Few could control their intake and continue to function regularly. But there were some. William had been going out for years: drinking, picking up girls, seducing them, sleeping with them and then drinking from them. He tried to offset it by taking daily doses of the Hybrid but it was becoming less effective to do so.
“What happened?” Markus threw his hands up, annoyed by his brother’s ignorance. “The usual happened. You went out on the prowl, had too much to drink and almost lost control. Lucky for you Miranda saw it before it happened. As always. Although she encouraged me to let you fix it yourself for once.”
Of course Miranda saw it. Markus’ girlfriend but even more their best friend. From diapers the three had been together. She was always the one to keep them from getting into trouble. She was, out of the three of them, the most powerful Conjurer. With the ability to produce items from nothing, open portals and dissolve items just as easily. More importantly though, she held a unique ability to see things before they happened. And that ability kept William from fully succumbing to the hungry Beast.
“The girl?”
“She’s fine. It will be nothing more than a bad dream. But William, you have to stop. Your “ability” to control it is tapering. You should have seen yourself last night. I watched for a while. Brother, you’re letting this thing takeover.” Markus insisted. “And you’re going to get caught. I’m just not sure which is worse. Getting caught by the Bottom, where I can’t help you or the Surface, where I’m inclined not to.”
The Bottom, their world. It was made up of the four nations; Vampire, Beast, Magi and Conjurer. Though William didn’t understand how the Conjurer Dimension could be included. It existed on its own plane and not actually in the Bottom. But still it was included. The Bottom had existed for hundreds and hundreds of years beneath the earth without any concern of discovery. A physical world anchored within the Surface world, Earth. It was made up with its own laws and hierarchy. Laws that William broke regularly.
“Yeah, I know.”
William rested his head in his palms. The hangover was already dissipating.
“Do you? Because one of these days you’re going to get picked up and I won’t be there to save you. You don’t need to give Viktor a reason to come after you. There’s already bad blood there.”
Markus slid from the stool and threw the vials away. Turning to look at his brother, he shook his head.
“Look William, why don’t you come to the Dimension with me? Mom and Miranda miss you and Craeden is worried sick about you.”
William was already shaking his head in protest. The last place he wanted to be was in the Dimension. He didn’t even want to entertain what he had to do to get there. The unpleasant physical affects and furthermore it was just another made-up world. It didn’t really exist and that bothered him. Here on the Surface it was real. The earth, the trees, the air. Raymont, Georgia was a real place. Even the Bottom World was a real anchored place. Hundreds and hundreds of miles beneath them was the best-kept secret in history.
“The answer is no. I don’t want to see mom. And you are here so much of the time I’m surprised Miranda isn’t with you now. And tell Craeden to stop going gray over me…he isn’t my father.”
Markus came back to sit next to him. He looked tired and worn down from partying and heavy blood dosing. No matter how many times he was there to stop William, he knew there were many more when he wasn’t there. What scared Markus the most was knowing William could lose control if he kept drinking it. Turn into something from a nightmare.
“Come on William, how long are you going to stay mad at mom?”
The bad blood between him and their mother ran deep. William hadn’t seen his mother in years, nor had he been to the Dimension in even longer. He could no longer entertain her lies about his father.
William pushed away from the counter and crossed the room. “When she gives up Merrick then I’ll come home.”
Markus gave his brother a long sad look and a heavy sigh. Shaking his head, he picked up his bag and headed for the door. So many times he tried to get William to look past the situation with their father. Their mother couldn’t change it, nor was she lying about it. Although Markus questioned it himself. He only wanted to bring his family back together.
“How many times does she have to tell you that Merrick was set up? Hmm?”
William didn’t say anything. Instead he leaned into the frame of the window. The town beneath them was coming to life. People heading out to start their day. Cars were backed up at the intersection. Businesses were just beginning to flip their closed signs to open.
“Fine, you’re stocked up on doses. Do yourself a favor and use them. I’ll come by in a couple of days. Maybe we can have a few beers and watch the game like normal brothers.”
“Maybe,” William muttered, still watching the world go by, his arms crossed.
Markus took a last look at his brother and then left.
“In another life, Markus.” He sighed.
He knew his brother meant well. There was a time when William was close with his family. Markus and he were even closer than that. But as William grew older he started to resent the absence of his father, Merrick. He had been accused of murder and treason before William and Markus were born. And that anger inside of him dwelled and festered, creating the dire thirst he had for human blood. It was the only thing that kept the Beast at bay and his emotions in check. And so he broke away from his family, from his brother and returned to the Surface to live in solitude.
William headed for the bathroom and turned on the hot water in the shower. The room filled with thick, hot steam. Wiping the fog away, he looked into the mirror and stared at himself. He tried again to replay the night back into his mind but it just wasn't coming in clear. It was already locked away in his mind. He slammed his fist down on the bathroom sink. A clipper hit the floor. He bent down and picked it up. Looking back up into the mirror and then at the clipper, again he plugged it into the wall.
Time for a change.
Chunks of blond and brown hair filled the sink as the buzzing of the clipper filled the small space. Setting it down on the counter he stared at himself. His bright green eyes glared back at him. Anger was the only thing there. He rubbed his bare head. It almost made him look more like his brother.
The shower was helpful for whatever lingered from his hangover. Stepping out, he wrapped a towel around his waist and returned to the kitchen. He went through the motions of preparing a fresh pot of coffee. When he pulled open the drawer on the end, the glass clinked together. He pulled a vial from it, the contents a thick, dark crimson fluid, and emptied it into a new mug. The Beast stirred some but it drifted off again, unimpressed with the aroma Hybrid gave off. It barely put out the raging wildfire that burned in his chest that reminded him of what he was.
He went back to the window and looked out; silently begging whatever force was out there to give him the same boring, normal life as the rest. He was what he was and the rules he was bound by left him lonely and oppressed. He couldn’t surround himself with humans but he didn’t want to be around his own kind. So he chose to be alone. If choice was an option.
William needed more though. He needed to be amongst humans, he was drawn to them. Fascinated by their habits, emotions and energy. And when he had graduated he had made the decision to go to college and stay on the Surface. His mother and uncle had protested the notion, for good reason, but those reasons were not enough for him not to go.
And there his needs were met. He could feed on the energy around him, absorb the human emotions that he thirsted for. And he could spend time with women. He couldn’t touch a woman though; not that it stopped him. William just wasn’t satisfied being with a vampire. Female vampires were competitive, hard to please creatures. A human, though, had so many emotions. He welcomed the passion rolling off them in waves, and the affection, he could appreciate it. It was the closest thing he had to being human.
Defeated, he went back and poured coffee into the mug. The crimson mixed with the blackness of the coffee. The Hybrid would sweeten it to perfection. It was the only way William cared to drink the blood replacement.
Crossing to the other side of the room, he went over to the large desk in the corner. Unopened letters from his mother sat stacked on the edge of the desk, begging to be read. He was sure each one was the same: she begged him to listen, be rational, and to come home. They would fall on deaf ears because no matter what she said, he continued to believe the worst about his father. He wasn’t sure how far the letters went back, but they had started sometime after college.
Pushing some papers off to the side, he settled into the black leather office chair. He set his coffee cup in its familiar spot on the wood, a dark ring stained beneath it from many cups before.
He lifted up the screen on the laptop and it came to life. A picture from a different time looked back at him. It was of Markus, Miranda and him. Blues skies and white sand surrounding them. They all had big smiles that touched their eyes. In that singular picture were so many happy memories. He pushed it out of his head though and quickly clicked the browser.
He scrolled through his emails, but there was nothing of interest to him. Mostly junk and bills.