Darkfell Vampire Clan Boxset, page 1
Copyright L.A. McGinnis 2023
All rights reserved
Editor: Chris Hall: The Editing Hall
Cover Design: Janus Designs
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or distributed in any printed or electronic form or by any means, without express permission from the author or publisher. Please do not participate or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
Please contact the author for any use in a review.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, including businesses, companies, events or locales is purely coincidental.
ISBN-13: 978-1-970112-56-6
Published in the United States of America by Fools Journey Press, 2023
Please visit my website at www.lamcginnis.com
CONTENTS
NIGHT MARKED
L.A. McGinnis
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
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
SHADOW BOUND
L.A. McGinnis
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
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Epilogue
LOST KINGDOM
L.A. McGinnis
Prologue
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
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Epilogue
IRON QUEEN
L.A. McGinnis
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
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Epilogue
BLOOD CHOSEN BONUS NOVELLA
L.A. McGinnis
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
Also by L.A. McGinnis
If standing up for yourself means
burning bridges, I have matches.
We ride at dawn.
- Seraphina Marvelle
1
SERAPHINA
Ten minutes ago, my life at Tulane U had been nearly perfect.
But right now, ten minutes seemed like ten years.
One second, I’d been walking home from a late class and the next… I saw a strange man watching me from the sidewalk of a darkened art gallery. We were the only two people out in this weather, and despite my best intentions, our eyes met as I passed him.
There was something wrong about him.
His face, dead white. His eyes glowed red.
How is that even possible? My brain stuttered while ice trickled down my spine.
My brain might be on slow-mo, but my feet were already moving as I took off down Royal Street. Sprinting for my apartment, the same never-ending litany looped in my head.
Am I fast enough? Is he faster? Keep going, Seraphina, stop freaking out.
I’d run from danger before, but never had it been this close. Never had I felt this threatened, like a mad dog staring down a shotgun barrel.
A quick glance, and he’d vanished from the sidewalk. I looked wildly around and caught a blur out of the corner of my eye.
No, check that, he’s moving too.
My pounding footsteps echoed against the empty storefronts, closed up because this was the off-season, and there’s no sense in staying open if the tourists are gone. His footsteps were nearly silent, but they’re there. And he was closing on me.
I pushed myself harder, thighs burning. Being chased must be like a heart attack. You know what’s happening, but you can’t stop it.
You only hope you survive.
By now I was soaked, and water poured off my hair into my eyes, cutting off my vision. I veered left, slammed into the side of a parked car, then kept going.
A final burst of adrenaline rose, then fizzled, and my legs went weak and rubbery, instead of strong and reliable like I needed them to be.
Another panicked glance sent my heart pounding. I was too slow—he was right on my heels, but I was almost there. Home was less than a block away; I saw the lights of my apartment building through the trees.
Then he appeared right in front of me, blocking my way while my brain and my feet tripped over themselves.
<
I skidded to a stop, my tennis shoes sliding on the wet pavement, then fell face first, the skin on my palms tearing as my hands met the concrete. I rolled onto my back as his soft, mocking laughter echoed around me.
I hadn’t imagined the red, glowing eyes, nor his death mask of a face. He grabbed a handful of hair and yanked me to my feet, handling me like he’d done this before, as if snatching girls off the streets was his job.
He re-firmed his grip on my hair, then spoke in a language I didn’t recognize. I tried to break his hold, straining toward the safety of my apartment, but his grip was like iron, and my heavy backpack threw off my balance.
Mom taught me to use whatever tools I had as weapons.
I didn’t know why he was attacking me, but I knew what I had to do. “Get off me,” I warned. Using the backpack as a counterweight, I twisted my shoulders and spun into him, trying to loosen his grip. The impact caused him to stumble, but I still wasn’t free.
If I didn’t get away from him now, I never would. I jabbed my elbow into his chest, and my entire arm screamed. It was like hitting a steel wall—he must be wearing a Kevlar vest because no one was that solid. Again with the laughter, and fury replaced the fear.
I was just the right height to slam my knee deep into his groin.
Air exploded out of his mouth when my knee sunk in deep, his hand slipping from my hair, leaving just a few strands hanging from between his fingers, which were now clutching his balls.
I always thought I’d be the princess who saves herself. But then my attacker rose up, straightened his coat, as if I hadn’t just ruptured his testicles.
“Stay away from me…” The warning died in my throat with a whimper.
He didn’t hide his fangs when he snarled like some kind of animal. I didn’t hesitate, sprinting away as fast as I could. But the lights of my apartment disappeared from view as he caught me around the waist, our combined momentum propelling us through the flimsy wooden fence into my backyard.
That apartment was my last view of the human world, just before he bashed my face into my very own sidewalk.
Today, there would be no heroes in my story.
2
LUTHOR
Hold it together, Luthor. This will all be over by morning.
I kept my gaze fixed on the cell door while I balanced on my good foot, drawing slow, agonizing breaths, my chest muscles protesting every one of them. Heavy chains hanging from the ceiling drew my arms above my head, my shoulders pulled so taut they were almost popping out of their sockets.
But I barely noticed the pain.
I was too focused on what’s coming.
In fact, the entire dungeon held its breath—iron and rock, guard and prisoner alike—because down here, the King had many tortures. Some, you healed from. Some you didn’t.
Right now—the worst was moments away.
I closed my eyes, sensing the rough edges of the stones beneath my feet, the clammy coolness seeping from the walls, the faint shiver of magic guarding this ancient dungeon, and the heavy scent of blood hanging in the air.
As if on cue, scuffling boots echoed through corridor outside my cell, underscored by faint sobbing. I twisted against my restraints, feeling the iron shackles cut through the brand-new flesh, still healing from today’s punishment.
The crying grew louder, the guards’ taunting crueler as they marched the prisoners straight past my cell. No one spared me a glance, and why should they? After this long, I was as much a fixture in these dungeons as the walls themselves.
I stayed quiet when the line of bedraggled girls passed by, innocent victims of Reaping Night.
They might deprive me of the moon; I hadn’t seen a clock in a century, but there were other ways to mark time here in the dark.
From the coolness in the walls, I knew it was December.
This was the Winter Reaping.
I cursed the King’s cruelty, the slaughter of innocents, condemning Viktor’s soul to the darkest reaches of hell. Not it would save any of them.
The prisoners’ eyes darted through the dungeons on their way past, a string of confused, frightened humans filing past my cell on the way to their own. I closed my ears to their begging, their pointless pleas for mercy, offers of obscene amounts of money in exchange for escape.
I didn’t have the heart to tell them there was none.
Cursing, one guard limped past, kicked open the door to the compartment beside mine, and dumped a body on the floor with a curse. I sniffed the air and smelled bruising on the guard as he passed by. Had this girl fought back?
Good. I hoped she hurt him.
A second later, the prisoner’s scent hit my nose.
Or should I say invaded my every sense?
Her blood was rich, so sweet my fangs punched out of my gums painfully fast.
Dear fucking God, just one small inhalation of her blood—because it was definitely a her—and I devolved into a shaking, starving monster, my craving so strong my good leg went out from beneath me, yanking my left shoulder from its socket.
I knew what I smelled, knew to my bones who was in the cell beside me.
Ever so slowly, I turned my suspended body until I faced the wall dividing us, staring through an open sliver between the blocks that had once been filled with mortar.
The female lay on her side, a disorganized mass of limbs where he’d dropped her. A sheaf of tangled black hair slipped over her face, but I didn’t need to see it to know exactly who she was.
