A Spark of Vengeance Read online

  Spark of Vengeance

  The King of Imdalind, Book One

  Rebecca Ethington

  Imdalid Press

  Text Copyright ©2018 by Rebecca Ethington

  The Imdalind Series, characters, names, and related indicia are trademarks and © of Rebecca Ethington.

  The Imdalind Series Publishing rights © Rebecca Ethington

  All Rights Reserved.

  * * *

  Published by Market Street Books LLC

  * * *

  No Part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For Information regarding permission, write to:

  Rebecca Ethington – permissions@ Rebecca Ethington.com

  * * *

  Ebook ISBN - 978-0-9964632-9-4

  Printed in USA

  This Edition, November 2016

  Created with Vellum

  Because You Can Do Anything You Set Your Dreams To

  Contents

  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

  Other Books by Rebecca Ethington

  About the Author

  New Release Newsletter Sign-Up

  Prologue

  The Ukrainian Army

  Mission X, Somewhere in Poland

  * * *

  The plan was simple. Excavate an ancient tunnel system that zigzagged through Europe and blow the alien's barrier from the outside.

  My team and I had found the tunnel years ago when a mission in Poland had sent us underground. Desperate to escape before our cover was fully blown, we took shelter in the mountains, hoping that trees and caves would be our savior before we could be extracted.

  What we had found instead was ultimately more valuable.

  An ancient man-made tunnel that weaved through mountains, burrowed under cities, and who knows what else. We traveled through the intricately carved paths for days, carefully documenting the ornate creations that lined the walls, doing our best to mark each turn and fork we crossed lest we get lost, but the further we traveled the more the caves became a labyrinth swallowing us and our hope into the darkness.

  We had expected to die in those caves, lost in an underground trove forever. Instead, we found a door.

  The surface was carved in stone and iron in a scene full of animals and people who all stood together underneath a sky of stars and explosions; fireworks perhaps. It was beautiful, and I ran my fingers over it in awe, desperate to see what treasures a door the beautiful concealed.

  But it was sealed shut.

  No matter what we did, we could not open it. The massive thing would not budge.

  Eventually, we left the door, sucked back into the maze of dark caverns as we tried to find a way out.

  We crawled out of the cave a month later, reported what we had seen and everything was filed away in the military archives to be forgotten.

  That was until several years later when an explosion erupted inside the city of Prague and the entire metropolis was swallowed by a large red dome.

  The massive thing was like a canker. It’s scarlet walls stretched to the sky, sealing away the city under an opaque barrier that looked as though a massive sun was rising from within the earth. Within weeks every government had rallied together to conquer this foreign invasion, every method of attack used to destroy and banish the aliens.

  Nothing worked.

  After months of foolishly fighting this stationary enemy, it was determined that the dome, while impenetrable from the top, extended far underground.

  It was clear what needed to happen.

  A powerful explosion, directly against the barrier, preferably underground where the attack couldn’t be monitored.

  Although whoever had created the barrier had not attacked us, despite the dozens of bombs that were dropped on the daily, attacking the wall so brutally and out in the open was not a risk any government was willing to take. Lucky for them, I knew exactly where to go.

  It was this mission that had brought me back to this cave.

  After wandering for days, we had finally found it. The same bright red barrier that covered the city stretched over the rough hewn tunnel from wall to wall and ceiling to floor. It was just waiting for us. The beautiful red shimmered in the dim light, like a troublesome zit, just waiting to be eradicated.

  We were ready to do just that. I could already hear my soldiers begin to retrieve the bombs.

  “Klotz!”

  As much as I wanted to jump at the loud voice behind me, I stood still, arms folded over my chest as I stared at the wall of red. The glistening surface sparkled as I stood before it, as if it knew I was here.

  As if it knew what we were here for. I stared at it, wanting to touch it, wanting to destroy it, and knowing that somewhere beyond it that same door was waiting for me.

  This time I would be able to step through it.

  “Klotz!” The yell came again as the heavy fall of feet ran up behind; Commander Ramdoir and a few of his men rushing up to surround me.

  “Sir,” I acknowledged his presence with a snap of my heels and a quick salute, but I still did not remove my eyes from the glistening surface.

  I couldn’t look away.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” The awe was clear in his voice.

  I wanted to agree, but I couldn’t. As much as the beauty called to me, as much as it enticed me, there was something else I wanted all the more.

  “Are you referring to the surface, or to whatever it is hiding?” I finally looked away from the deep red wall to look at the man beside me, his tall frame trimmed perfectly in the deep blue uniform of Ukraine.

  Commander Ramdoir had trained me from the moment I had been recruited from my local police in Kiev. I was his pet project so to say, and while I was sure he had interests in me beyond training me as his replacement, I was not interested in entertaining them.

  I had a career I wanted to build. My goal was to take over his position as the head of the Security Service, not take over as his wife.

  “You are the only woman I know who sees beyond the surface,” he whispered, obviously wanting to keep his voice low enough that the equally mesmerized soldiers couldn’t hear.

  The way he spoke drove nails into my spine.

  “And you are the only Ukrainian I know who cannot take no for an answer.” I did not hide my disgust and he did not notice it. He laughed and stepped closer, his voice reducing to a low hum.

  “Don’t play coy, Nastya.”

  “Don’t be…”

  Any retort I had, left as the barrier we stood beside vanished with a pop. A rush of hot air pressed through the cavern at its disappearance, the sound of what I was sure was a scream weaved through the tepid wind. I lost my balance at the pressure, feet stumbling as the air rushed over us in a wave.

  “What in the world?” I asked in a panic, stepping toward where the barrier had been a moment before, hand extended in expectation of an impact.

  Nothing came.

  “It’s gone,” I whispered to myself as the Commanders shouts began to echo over the dark stone.

  “Get back to the surface, see if it is indeed gone,” he boomed, my foc
us still narrowed into the dark in complete shock. “You! Build a team and get into the city if it is! You, and you, get into those caves.”

  Sounds washed over me as everyone jumped into action. Orders, cocked guns, the heavy thunder of footsteps. The sound of a prepared war rippled behind me as the sound of death began to echo before.

  The sound was like that of stone and wood, grinding together. Smashing together. Screaming at the impact.

  The distorted noise sent a shiver through me, the sound growing… growing…

  “Silence,” I yelled to the soldiers, holding a shaking hand up as all sound stopped.

  All but the ripple of teeth, of stone, of screams. The feral yells thundered down the cave toward us like a pack of animals, they penetrated the dark as a million nightmares were awakened.

  I could feel their fear against my back as they heard it too, my own fear nearly crippling me as together we saw what was making the noise.

  At first, I thought they were bats, but everything about that was wrong. The way they flew through the air, the way they screamed, the way they looked at us with filthy sphinx-like faces.

  They weren’t bats, and whatever had popped the barrier, had released them.

  They had sent hell right toward us.

  “Run!” I yelled, but the command was too late.

  The swarm of flying monsters engulfed me, their claws ripping against clothes and flesh as they screamed, as their teeth sunk into the skin on my lower back.

  I felt the teeth, felt the acid that followed, the acid that burned and roared and sent me to the ground in a tangle of pain and screams.

  Everything was on fire. Everything burned as the heat raced through my veins, pressing against skin and skull as though it was going to explode.

  As though I was going to explode.

  As it changed me.

  Chapter One

  3 Years Later

  Genoa, Italy - Rescue Area Západ

  Ryland LaRue-Krul

  * * *

  The water that had pooled in the street from last night’s storm splashed over my pant leg as I ran. I could feel the cold drip through my jeans and down into my sneaker, but I ignored it. I continued forward, running through the cobbled streets toward the sound of screams, toward the spark of vile magic that was flitting between buildings as my father’s monsters chased down the few humans that were left in this part of Genoa.

  Most humans had left the city the moment they were able. It wasn’t safe to be this far into the city, into any city. The country was safer. You could see them coming.

  A scream sounded again and my earpiece crackled to life, the Bluetooth that connected my brother and I buzzing with static as his gruff voice sounded over the line.

  “That sounded like a bite to me,” Thom said, his foot smashing into a large puddle with such force that water sprayed further up my leg. I cringed at the cold, the icy jets furthering my discomfort.

  I nodded once, even though he couldn't see me, and I, him.

  “Yeah,” I amended.

  I knew Thom was there, I could feel his magic, hear the sound of his shoes as they hit against water and stone, but he was as cloaked as I was. Our magic was keeping us hidden from mortal and magic alike. We were nothing more than shadows and phantom splashes as we ran down the ancient alley.

  Lamplight that flickered through grungy windows and over the damp cobbles began to extinguish as the screams sounded again. The few mortals who still lived in this part of Genoa dampened the little sparks of hope from their windows, scared the light would give them away.

  Scared the creatures would find them.

  The few flickering lights that remained gave the winding pathway an eerie glow, the deep blue shadows looking like a bruise against a once vibrant street in the middle of the city. The already dark stone buildings were hung with layers of yellow and grey, the dim ribbons of lamplight washed with the light of the moon as it peaked out from behind silver lined clouds.

  Eerie was not the word for it.

  It was a scene from a million vampire movies, a million video games. Here, however, it was real. It was life.

  My back tensed as another scream ripped through the night, the sound causing more lights to vanish. The world grew darker and I expected a vampire to burst from the shadows.

  “That makes two of them,” I responded, turning from his phantom and back to the street, “How many Vilỳ do you suppose there are?”

  “Not so many we can’t kick some ass,” I heard the laugh in Thom’s voice but I couldn’t force mine to join him.

  It had been three years since the world had shifted into this war on magic, a war started by my father when he unleashed millions of poisoned Vilỳ onto the world. I hadn’t gotten used to the daily rescue missions, used to a world that would sooner kill me than understand me.

  Of course, the majority of the globe was more apt to label me an alien than the Prince I had been raised to be.

  That hadn’t stopped them from splattering my picture on every news broadcast in the world, however.

  Wanted. 1 Million Reward.

  The first time I had seen the picture had been a slap. I should have been honored that they wanted me so badly, but it was the broken, crazed boy in the picture that had shocked me most.

  My father had created more demons than the ones that flew around the earth ripping the crap out of humans, he had created them inside of me. I was fighting both.

  Luckily, when my father had died so had much of the monster he had let fester inside of me.

  “Ryland!” Thom snapped in my ear, his voice a gruff belt against my back. I stood up straighter, running faster as I pushed the memory of my ‘old west’ reward poster from my mind.

  “I’m here, Thom.” My voice was hard, but more in my own disappointment in having lost focus on what we were doing.

  “Good,” Thom said, his tone making the glare he was throwing my way obvious. “Then stay with me. I’m going to soar high and arrive from the north, you stay on this path and hopefully we can kill a few more of these monsters today.”

  “Perfect,” I responded, picking up my pace just as I felt a rush of wind by my side.

  The powerful torrent of his magic tugged at the shaggy curls that hung over my ears. My dark hair swayed as Thom’s magic picked him up, mine moving me faster.

  The white-hot heat of my power rampaged through my veins as the screams came again, followed closely by the sound of ripping flesh. I was closer than I thought.

  “One corner,” I hissed to my brother, falling into the code we had built in the millions of other rescue missions that we had conducted.

  “One roof,” he returned, giving his distance as I had. “Do you have a count?”

  I slowed to a walk, careful to maneuver around the last few puddles as I stepped into the intersection of alley and street and turned to the carnage-ridden scene before me.

  I would be concerned that the little monsters could see through my shield, but there was only one person who could do that, and she was sequestered in a makeshift hospital more than three hundred miles away.

  The Vilỳs’ looked like deformed terriers.

  Their deep brown skin flaked and peeled away from them as they hovered between the bodies that lay strewn over the street. Their twisted wings fluttered awkwardly in an attempt to keep them airborne as they flitted through the remains of their feast.

  Crumpled bodies were curled in doorways, hands still stretched toward what they had hoped would be an escape. They lay twisted over garden boxes, bright red drops of blood discoloring the white tulips that had begun to bloom a few weeks before. Limbs were tangled, wide vacant eyes staring into the dark for a savior that would come too late. And, through it all, were the winged monsters that ripped at their flesh.

  Gnawed.

  Chomped.

  Destroyed.

  My stomach twisted, my heart constricted, and I felt my magic rush through me in a wave of anger. As much as I wanted to turn away in
horror, I wanted more to destroy the little mutts and make them pay.

  I pushed the need away, although I let my magic boil.

  “Seven, maybe eight,” I said after a quick count, careful to keep my voice low, lest the little beasts hear me over the sound of their meal.

  They may not be able to see me, but they could hear me. Luckily, not one lifted their head.

  “How many survivors?” His voice was as dejected as I felt; he must be above me.

  I looked from body to body, desperate to see even one sign of life, but I couldn’t even find where the screams had come from. It was only tangles of lost life sent adrift in the dark.

  “Unknown.” I hated the answer the moment I gave it, although both he and I knew that didn’t mean they were all dead. We had found survivors in worse.

  It didn’t make our job any easier.

  Thom sighed in my ear piece, the sound blending with the devouring of flesh and bone in an awkward orchestra that brought my blood into a deeper boil, my magic nearly begging me to step in and kill them all. One explosion is all it would take. My fingers were already sparking. I was ready to release the wave until the soft muffled sob of a woman somewhere in that mess turned my blood to ice.

  “One,” Thom said, he had heard it too.

  “Unplug in five,” I responded, already lifting my hand to my earpiece as I crouched down, my other hand stretching over a puddle that lay just below me.

  “Four,” Thom returned, his suddenly labored voice making it clear he was moving into position.