Rachel Clancy has been through a lot. With a mission to fight vampires, while losing two boyfriends—one to a vampire and one because of his daddy issues—she is in charge of a secret revolution that could change Genesis, her home, forever. Her confidence is shot, her hands are shaking, and she hasn’t felt a real emotion, except for anger, in a long time.
But Rachel should never be counted out. She sees things others can’t, even if her ideas are considered downright traitorous. The life destined for Rachel is to lead in the world, filled with vampires and werewolves instead of romance and flowers—always forced to fight to stay alive and vanquish any threat to her friends and family. But no matter how many times she’s won, the evil that has stalked her never forgets her name….
Life is a continuous battle that never ends….
For December, the weather remained pretty mild. Or so I was told. I’d only ever experienced one other December above ground. In Genesis, December had felt like every other month in an underground habitat—dry at a steady sixty-eight degrees. Mild or not, I huddled into my jacket, wondering if the cold bothered me or if my subconscious wanted me to burrow deeper so no one could find me.
“You ready?” Micah Lyons looked up across from me, a knowing glint in his eyes. He loved this, making things explode. I had liked the rush of it in the beginning, too. The first couple of times we’d lit a match and stood back to watch the world shatter had been the most fun I’d had in years.
Now, however, the destruction and noise gave me a headache. We no longer watched things from a distance, but learned what it really meant to run for our lives from a lethal threat other than from a monster. We had to get away from the area before the blast destroyed us as well as our target. The idiots who didn’t know better expected, even revered, dying in the pursuit of a vampire. Dying in a blast we created ourselves didn’t hold as much clout for them. I really didn’t care about any of it. Well, not very much.
Micah still waited for my answer. “I guess.”
He raised a dark eyebrow, looking so much like his older brother, Chad, it made my heart pang. Before Chad had died and been made a vampire, he had been my boyfriend. Then I’d staked him right through the heart. He’d have done the same for me, I think. Most of the time, however, I tried really hard to never, ever remember anything having to do with Chad at all. I wonder if when I killed him, I ended part of my own life as well. The part of me worth knowing.
“You guess?”
I nodded. Had he suddenly become hard of hearing? Had the explosions deafened him? I dug my hands into the dirt in front of me. The ground temperature felt cold but at least it didn’t have snow on it. For that, I could muster up gratitude. I hated the white stuff. We lost as many people to pneumonia as we did to vampires. Only I couldn’t slaughter disease with a wooden stake.
Micah called the little hole we’d dug ourselves a trench. His vocabulary shifted according to whatever era he explored in books, and recently he’d been reading about old wars. Trenches were supposed to somehow keep us safe from falling debris. I had my doubts about the sturdiness of his make-shift version. Running definitely made more sense.
Once again, Micah waited for my response; this time with his eyes narrowed as he regarded me.
“Yep.”
“I’m sorry, Rachel.” Micah’s eyes flared in a way that reminded me of his father’s gaze. “Would you rather be somewhere else? Are the training exercises you set up suddenly boring you?”
“No, of course not.” My cheeks heated up at his words, as I’m sure he intended. “I said I was ready. Do I have to do a happy dance about it?”
“It’s like your mind is someplace else. If you act this way tomorrow, you could get us all killed.”
I’d never wanted to deck Micah Lyons more in my life. “I’m well aware of the ramifications of my actions.” Now I sounded like our former teacher, Keith. Ramifications. The word even felt funny coming out of my mouth. “I get that I’m in charge of this. Now light the stupid thing and run like hell.”
If I’d been feeling sort of eh earlier, I no longer did. Anger surged through my veins, making me stronger and sharper, which might have been exactly what he wanted.
He nodded, taking his gaze from my face to stare at the fuse in front of him. “Ready. One. Two. Three. Go.”
