Warrior Rising Sample Chapters
Chapter One
Bane
Anger balled in my gut. It rose up and spewed from my lips.
"No!" I growled. My voice shot through the night like lightning through the
sky.
And this was all I could do. Stew in this pathetic emotion humans call anger,
as I perched on a high branch. The fact that I was angry at all only made me
angrier. It should not have bothered me that Luna’s life was about to spin out
of control. It should not have bothered me that Aradia, Messiah of the witches,
was here in Sleepy Hallow with my brother, Rune. It should not have bothered me
that Rune’s host, Sean Hylander, was on his way here, and that The Coven was
gathering to determine Luna’s fate.
"I am a demon! I am the first-born immortal angelic son of Lucifer! I am the
prince of The Prince of the Powers of Air!" I ground out the words through
clenched teeth.
How I ever came to care for the thirteenth daughter of the Lanchester
bloodline was beyond me. It was hinder-some and arcane. Ludicrous, even, that I,
son of Satan, felt anything other than hate and rage.
But I did care. And I did feel more than hate and rage.
I felt love.
My wings unfurled, their primaries stabbing into the night air like daggers.
I sprang to the sky, fueled by the intensity of these pejorative emotions.
The pernicious state My Lady Moon was about to be in angered me even more
than did these silly emotions. I needed to find relief, no matter how temporary
it would be.
And I knew exactly where I could find it.
With heavy, hard strokes I streaked the sky with my stealthy form. My longing
to go straight to Luna was nearly impossible to deny. But she weakened me. Now,
especially now, I had to stay away from her. Rune was a powerful being. Even
through the protective barrier of my mind, he was still capable of slipping into
Luna’s thoughts. I had to stay focused on her. With an unfaltering focus,
nothing, not even my father, would have the power to penetrate the protective
barrier I was capable of erecting around My Moon’s mind.
Instead of following my instinctual pull to My Lady Moon’s window, I passed
her by and headed straight for the town that slept at the bottom of the
mountain.
The need to satiate the fire that was burning inside of me, the hunger, the
ancient, ever-present obsession for pain, had overtaken me.
Now someone needed to die an excruciatingly painful death.
As I swept over the tree tops, eyes on the little dots of light that were
coming from the street lamps in Sleepy Hallow, I thought of Isis Blackhawk. It
had been too long since I had found relief, too long since I had ripped a body
to shreds with my bare fingers.
An ambrosial taste of delight salivated on my tongue with the memory of Isis’
blood, seasoned heavily with the scrumptious fear I had easily induced her
with.
Fear was important. Fear was the drug that fed my addicted soul. It was a
crucial element, when taking the life of a human.
"As if I have to remember," I grumbled to myself. The wind licked the words
from my lips.
But I did have to remember, for My Lady Moon made me forget, at times, what I
was.
"No, I shall never forget. And she shan’t neither!"
But it was fear for my brother and his host, Sean Hylander, that My Lady Moon
possessed. She feared them more so than she feared me. And this was
unacceptable.
"No! She shall fear only me!" I roared.
But she loved me. She should have felt no fear for me.
"Oh, but she should. And she will!"
A heartless beast, I was! Who was I to think I knew anything about love?
I curved my wings stiff and firm into my sides. My eyes locked on to the girl
in the park. Rosetta Randal. I did not have to see her to know that it was her.
Rosetta sat here every Friday night, waiting for her secret lover. Tonight,
though, her secret lover would not find her here.
Tonight, Rosetta Randal would feed my hungry soul!
She did not see me coming. I landed like a shadow in front of the park bench,
where she was sitting. Of course, I could have killed her long before she saw me
coming, but that lack of fear would have ruined the taste of her blood. I needed
a whole lot more than Rosetta’s initial shock of my appearance to satiate my
hunger. Hell knew I needed a whole lot more than a hundred Rosetta Randals could
have offered.
Surprise, laced with growing horror, filled Rosetta’s eyes the instant she
saw me. And it only made me hungrier than I already was. Before she could
scream, I swooped her up into my arm and crushed her against me. One of her
flimsy ribs broke with a cracking sound.
With a swooned Rosetta Randal dangling from my arm, quickly, impatiently, I
took to the sky and flew back into the direction from which I came
****
Chapter Two
Luna
I'm pretty sure I didn’t sleep. It didn’t feel like I did, anyway. I just
couldn’t turn my stupid brain off. It kept playing and replaying the events from
the night before. It couldn’t even play them in the proper order. And it seemed
the longer the night dragged on, the more scrambled my mind became. But no
matter what was reeling through my thoughts, there was one thing that always
stayed heavy on my mind. No, make that two things.
One: I had been rendered utterly helpless by the drug Devine had given me,
the drug that doped me up and stole the fight from my body. I hated the feeling
of not being able to protect Izzy. I sacrificed myself for her. And I would’ve
done it again, even if Bane wouldn’t show up to save me. Izzy’s god had plans
for her. I, on the other hand, firmly denied Izzy’s god. But I was deeply
bothered by the fact that I was utterly helpless. Growing up with my demon
father, I had spent too many times in utter helplessness. After Addy had taken
me away from him, I was confident that I would never allow anyone to have that
sort of power over me again, the sort of power that would render me utterly
helpless. Little did I realize that this was out of my control. I really had no
say in the matter of who or what had power over me. And I kept finding myself
helpless.
Two: I was rendering someone helpless. And this sucked. Like, royally!
Bane told me that he had to stay away from me, that being near me weakened him.
He could not protect my mind from his brothers if he is weak. Out of all the
events that had transpired the other night, Bane telling me that he had to stay
away from me was the worst thing that had happened.
While I was lying, dying in Bane’s arms, he had magically transfused his
blood into me. What did this mean, now that I had the blood of Lucifer’s oldest
immortal son coursing through my veins?
Was I still a Lanchester?
Was I now an immortal?
I almost laughed. Half of my life I had spent pondering and conjuring ways
that I could kill myself, just so that I could escape the demons that infested
the skin that I wore. It was funny, in a very non-humorous sort of way, to think
that I could now be immortal. That would’ve just be my luck, though, having no
escape from my self.
But, since The Coven of Hallows was on their way to Sleepy Hallow to figure
out what would be the best way to kill me, I had to put my suicidal tendencies
on hold for a little while longer. Sure I wanted to die and all, but I was not
going to be murdered by anyone but my self. The end. That was all there was to
it.
As I tossed and turned in my warm bed, the early morning sun began to peek
through my window, but darkness draped my soul. I had always known that
something was seriously wrong in my head, but lying there, thinking about how I
had just learned that Dammon was actually Bane and Sean was actually Rune, and
The Coven was going to want me to have a child because I was the last
Lanchester, how I was in love with one of Lucifer’s four angelic sons and how
Bane’s brothers were trying to attack me from the inside, only confirmed that I
was mentally sick, because all I cared about was the fact that I couldn’t see
Bane.
Because I crippled him.
Similar to how it was dangerous for The Coven that I was the last of the
Lanchesters, it would’ve been dangerous for me if Bane where to have been absent
in my life. Especially now that I had learned that he exists in my real world. I
had grown to become dependant upon his presence within me. He was my sanity in
my insane world, my safe harbor, my soul’s breath of life.
Bane was my everything. How could’ve I possibly forced myself to face
a life without him in it? I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
I rolled out of bed, feeling like a zombie. I wandered down the stairs and to
the kitchen. I had no desire to continue on without Bane in my life. Nothing
seemed important to me. Not even a cup of coffee. Bane was all I longed for.
I found myself wandering out onto the porch. The sun caressed the mountain
peak with such affection that I hated it. I envied the mountain because of my
own craving for caresses. Snow Melt Lake twinkled like someone had tossed
diamond dust across her surface, and I envied her too. She was so cleansed and
passive, so free-flowing and spirited. And no matter the weather, she was still
these things. She could not be altered to the point to where she was no longer
Snow Melt.
Unlike me. I was altered against my will by the entities that shared my
flesh.
I dropped my chin. Deep despair settled in my heart. I could not bear another
moment without Bane. I would stand there, just like this, forever if I had to,
until I was in his arms once again.
But then I heard the scream.
I turned quickly, looking off into the woods behind my house. Even though I
knew the shrill cry of agony had come from that direction, for a split second I
was convinced that it had come from inside of me, where my own agony was
screaming to be heard. I thought of them guys with them dolls who spoke but did
not move their lips, the ventriloquists who can throw their voices around. I
thought I had thrown my scream to the trees, where it could fall to the forest
floor and rot into mulch with all the other debris. Maybe then my agony could
turn into something beautiful. Like food for the earth.
Another scream came from the woods behind my house, and I knew it was not
mine.
I darted off the deck, ran around the side of the house and stopped there, to
take in the woods with all my senses. I could see nothing out of the ordinary,
just trees and foliage and dead grass and pine cones and whatnot. A gentle
breeze rustled the leaves of the Aspens, lifting my hair away from the back of
my knees. A woodpecker thumped relentlessly against a hallowed-out tree. The
woods seemed very peaceful and surreal, but I was certain that some kind of
horror awaited me there.
With all of my senses acutely tuned in to my surroundings, I rushed into the
woods, heading in the direction of that ghost of a scream.
****
Bane
Anger balled in my gut. It rose up and spewed from my lips.
"No!" I growled. My voice shot through the night like lightning through the
sky.
And this was all I could do. Stew in this pathetic emotion humans call anger,
as I perched on a high branch. The fact that I was angry at all only made me
angrier. It should not have bothered me that Luna’s life was about to spin out
of control. It should not have bothered me that Aradia, Messiah of the witches,
was here in Sleepy Hallow with my brother, Rune. It should not have bothered me
that Rune’s host, Sean Hylander, was on his way here, and that The Coven was
gathering to determine Luna’s fate.
"I am a demon! I am the first-born immortal angelic son of Lucifer! I am the
prince of The Prince of the Powers of Air!" I ground out the words through
clenched teeth.
How I ever came to care for the thirteenth daughter of the Lanchester
bloodline was beyond me. It was hinder-some and arcane. Ludicrous, even, that I,
son of Satan, felt anything other than hate and rage.
But I did care. And I did feel more than hate and rage.
I felt love.
My wings unfurled, their primaries stabbing into the night air like daggers.
I sprang to the sky, fueled by the intensity of these pejorative emotions.
The pernicious state My Lady Moon was about to be in angered me even more
than did these silly emotions. I needed to find relief, no matter how temporary
it would be.
And I knew exactly where I could find it.
With heavy, hard strokes I streaked the sky with my stealthy form. My longing
to go straight to Luna was nearly impossible to deny. But she weakened me. Now,
especially now, I had to stay away from her. Rune was a powerful being. Even
through the protective barrier of my mind, he was still capable of slipping into
Luna’s thoughts. I had to stay focused on her. With an unfaltering focus,
nothing, not even my father, would have the power to penetrate the protective
barrier I was capable of erecting around My Moon’s mind.
Instead of following my instinctual pull to My Lady Moon’s window, I passed
her by and headed straight for the town that slept at the bottom of the
mountain.
The need to satiate the fire that was burning inside of me, the hunger, the
ancient, ever-present obsession for pain, had overtaken me.
Now someone needed to die an excruciatingly painful death.
As I swept over the tree tops, eyes on the little dots of light that were
coming from the street lamps in Sleepy Hallow, I thought of Isis Blackhawk. It
had been too long since I had found relief, too long since I had ripped a body
to shreds with my bare fingers.
An ambrosial taste of delight salivated on my tongue with the memory of Isis’
blood, seasoned heavily with the scrumptious fear I had easily induced her
with.
Fear was important. Fear was the drug that fed my addicted soul. It was a
crucial element, when taking the life of a human.
"As if I have to remember," I grumbled to myself. The wind licked the words
from my lips.
But I did have to remember, for My Lady Moon made me forget, at times, what I
was.
"No, I shall never forget. And she shan’t neither!"
But it was fear for my brother and his host, Sean Hylander, that My Lady Moon
possessed. She feared them more so than she feared me. And this was
unacceptable.
"No! She shall fear only me!" I roared.
But she loved me. She should have felt no fear for me.
"Oh, but she should. And she will!"
A heartless beast, I was! Who was I to think I knew anything about love?
I curved my wings stiff and firm into my sides. My eyes locked on to the girl
in the park. Rosetta Randal. I did not have to see her to know that it was her.
Rosetta sat here every Friday night, waiting for her secret lover. Tonight,
though, her secret lover would not find her here.
Tonight, Rosetta Randal would feed my hungry soul!
She did not see me coming. I landed like a shadow in front of the park bench,
where she was sitting. Of course, I could have killed her long before she saw me
coming, but that lack of fear would have ruined the taste of her blood. I needed
a whole lot more than Rosetta’s initial shock of my appearance to satiate my
hunger. Hell knew I needed a whole lot more than a hundred Rosetta Randals could
have offered.
Surprise, laced with growing horror, filled Rosetta’s eyes the instant she
saw me. And it only made me hungrier than I already was. Before she could
scream, I swooped her up into my arm and crushed her against me. One of her
flimsy ribs broke with a cracking sound.
With a swooned Rosetta Randal dangling from my arm, quickly, impatiently, I
took to the sky and flew back into the direction from which I came
****
Chapter Two
Luna
I'm pretty sure I didn’t sleep. It didn’t feel like I did, anyway. I just
couldn’t turn my stupid brain off. It kept playing and replaying the events from
the night before. It couldn’t even play them in the proper order. And it seemed
the longer the night dragged on, the more scrambled my mind became. But no
matter what was reeling through my thoughts, there was one thing that always
stayed heavy on my mind. No, make that two things.
One: I had been rendered utterly helpless by the drug Devine had given me,
the drug that doped me up and stole the fight from my body. I hated the feeling
of not being able to protect Izzy. I sacrificed myself for her. And I would’ve
done it again, even if Bane wouldn’t show up to save me. Izzy’s god had plans
for her. I, on the other hand, firmly denied Izzy’s god. But I was deeply
bothered by the fact that I was utterly helpless. Growing up with my demon
father, I had spent too many times in utter helplessness. After Addy had taken
me away from him, I was confident that I would never allow anyone to have that
sort of power over me again, the sort of power that would render me utterly
helpless. Little did I realize that this was out of my control. I really had no
say in the matter of who or what had power over me. And I kept finding myself
helpless.
Two: I was rendering someone helpless. And this sucked. Like, royally!
Bane told me that he had to stay away from me, that being near me weakened him.
He could not protect my mind from his brothers if he is weak. Out of all the
events that had transpired the other night, Bane telling me that he had to stay
away from me was the worst thing that had happened.
While I was lying, dying in Bane’s arms, he had magically transfused his
blood into me. What did this mean, now that I had the blood of Lucifer’s oldest
immortal son coursing through my veins?
Was I still a Lanchester?
Was I now an immortal?
I almost laughed. Half of my life I had spent pondering and conjuring ways
that I could kill myself, just so that I could escape the demons that infested
the skin that I wore. It was funny, in a very non-humorous sort of way, to think
that I could now be immortal. That would’ve just be my luck, though, having no
escape from my self.
But, since The Coven of Hallows was on their way to Sleepy Hallow to figure
out what would be the best way to kill me, I had to put my suicidal tendencies
on hold for a little while longer. Sure I wanted to die and all, but I was not
going to be murdered by anyone but my self. The end. That was all there was to
it.
As I tossed and turned in my warm bed, the early morning sun began to peek
through my window, but darkness draped my soul. I had always known that
something was seriously wrong in my head, but lying there, thinking about how I
had just learned that Dammon was actually Bane and Sean was actually Rune, and
The Coven was going to want me to have a child because I was the last
Lanchester, how I was in love with one of Lucifer’s four angelic sons and how
Bane’s brothers were trying to attack me from the inside, only confirmed that I
was mentally sick, because all I cared about was the fact that I couldn’t see
Bane.
Because I crippled him.
Similar to how it was dangerous for The Coven that I was the last of the
Lanchesters, it would’ve been dangerous for me if Bane where to have been absent
in my life. Especially now that I had learned that he exists in my real world. I
had grown to become dependant upon his presence within me. He was my sanity in
my insane world, my safe harbor, my soul’s breath of life.
Bane was my everything. How could’ve I possibly forced myself to face
a life without him in it? I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
I rolled out of bed, feeling like a zombie. I wandered down the stairs and to
the kitchen. I had no desire to continue on without Bane in my life. Nothing
seemed important to me. Not even a cup of coffee. Bane was all I longed for.
I found myself wandering out onto the porch. The sun caressed the mountain
peak with such affection that I hated it. I envied the mountain because of my
own craving for caresses. Snow Melt Lake twinkled like someone had tossed
diamond dust across her surface, and I envied her too. She was so cleansed and
passive, so free-flowing and spirited. And no matter the weather, she was still
these things. She could not be altered to the point to where she was no longer
Snow Melt.
Unlike me. I was altered against my will by the entities that shared my
flesh.
I dropped my chin. Deep despair settled in my heart. I could not bear another
moment without Bane. I would stand there, just like this, forever if I had to,
until I was in his arms once again.
But then I heard the scream.
I turned quickly, looking off into the woods behind my house. Even though I
knew the shrill cry of agony had come from that direction, for a split second I
was convinced that it had come from inside of me, where my own agony was
screaming to be heard. I thought of them guys with them dolls who spoke but did
not move their lips, the ventriloquists who can throw their voices around. I
thought I had thrown my scream to the trees, where it could fall to the forest
floor and rot into mulch with all the other debris. Maybe then my agony could
turn into something beautiful. Like food for the earth.
Another scream came from the woods behind my house, and I knew it was not
mine.
I darted off the deck, ran around the side of the house and stopped there, to
take in the woods with all my senses. I could see nothing out of the ordinary,
just trees and foliage and dead grass and pine cones and whatnot. A gentle
breeze rustled the leaves of the Aspens, lifting my hair away from the back of
my knees. A woodpecker thumped relentlessly against a hallowed-out tree. The
woods seemed very peaceful and surreal, but I was certain that some kind of
horror awaited me there.
With all of my senses acutely tuned in to my surroundings, I rushed into the
woods, heading in the direction of that ghost of a scream.
****