Chains of Frost: The Bellum Sisters 1 (3 page)

This.

The earth gave one last, hard
shudder. Her sisters, who had tried to pull her with them, collapsed in a hard
heap on either side of her. Chloe didn’t cast them a glance; she stared at the
blanket that now dipped down as if it was spread over a crater and not a flat
spread of grass.

“What in the…”

A deep, inhuman growl came out
from beneath the blanket. The sound spread goose bumps across her arms and shot
fear down her spine.

Run, her mind screamed at her.
Run!
I can’t. Not yet.

She had to see. She had to know.

A thick, gray arm reached out
from under the blanket, knocking the candles and sage over. It gripped the
blanket with a hand the size of a giant’s, then disappeared with it back down
into the earth.

Wide-eyed and shaking, Chloe came
to a stand. She tried to process what she was seeing but it was...impossible.
There was no other explanation for it. An enormous hole was where their blanket
had been, and whatever was roaring with such bone chilling screams, came from
there. A pit. It had made a pit. Or had it come from a pit?

She stood on her toes and tried
to look in closer. All she saw was pitch black nothingness. A massive void.

“What was that?” Lily asked in a
panicked voice. She bounced from foot to foot looking eager to get the hell out
of Hades.

Chloe opened her mouth to say
something, when that same arm shot out of the pit. It swung hard and landed in
the grass with a thump. It was gray, the color of dead flesh, and had lumps
pushing under the skin like rocks and marbles were stuffed in there. The arm
was much too big. This thing had to be the size of a giant.
Impossible.

The arm tightened its hand in the
grass, grabbing hold, and then another, similar arm came out, reaching and
grasping. Then the arms were moving, pulling it up.

Chloe and her sisters watched
with mouths hanging open as a great beast lumbered out of the black hole. A horrible
stench suddenly found her and Chloe gasped, tears coming to her eyes as the raw
scents of decayed flesh and blood tore through her senses.

She blinked quickly to get rid of
the tears and covered her nose with her hand to block as much of the smell as
she could.

“That is…”

“Disgusting,” Willow supplied
with a gag.

The thing was over ten feet tall.
Its arms hung too long, down near its knees, and its head looked like a scary
Halloween mask. The eyes were slits that when it blinked, blinked far too many
times with too many eyelids opening and closing at odd intervals. Its nose consisted
of two holes on a mound in the middle of its huge face, and its mouth was too
big even for how big the creature was. It looked like it was made to eat sharks
for a living. The thing had more teeth than a piranha and just as sharp
looking.

The monster opened its mouth and
let out an ear-screeching bellow. Chloe and her sisters screamed and covered
their ears, backing away from the horrible sound that threatened to burst their
eardrums.

It took a step toward them. The
girls stumbled three steps back.

It roared again, the sound
leaving them gasping with pain throbbing in their ears.

Then the monster did something
Chloe never, ever would have expected in that moment. It lifted a big arm with
slow purpose. How she knew it was coming toward her and not her sisters who
were huddled so closely around her, she didn’t know, but her gut told her the
thing was focused on her.

Chloe watched with her heart in
her throat as its great big arm straightened toward her. Slowly, one single
finger extended until it pointed straight at her.

“
Kllllllloooooowwwweeeeee.
”
The deep voice seemed to come from the belly of the earth itself. Chloe felt
icy liquid fill her veins. A small part of her brain mocked her; so this was
what it felt like to be frozen with fear.

Her sisters grabbed her arms and
started yanking her back. She let them, because she was fairly certain she
couldn’t move a pinky on her own in that moment. It took her body a minute to
catch up, but when it did they all sprinted back to the rental parked in the
lot.

Chloe cast a quick look behind
her and saw the monster had taken a step closer to her. She grabbed the door
handle and whipped it open. They all got into the car with astonishing speed
and peeled out of the lot with the smell of burnt rubber and smoke.

Long after they were away from
the cemetery, Chloe still had her face plastered to the back window staring
into the night.

“Is nobody going to say anything?”
screeched Willow. She didn’t even give them a chance to speak. “Fine, then I
will. What the hell was that?”

Chloe shook her head in disbelief
and said the first thing that came to her mind. “Oh, my God. What if we just
started the zombie apocalypse? That thing is going to go around biting people
and infecting them with some virus and the population of the whole world is
going to be left to a mall filled with ten shot-gunned armed people, and it’s
all going to be our fault.”

Lily snickered from the driver’s
seat. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous. How is that being
ridiculous? Considering what we just saw, I would say that’s an intelligent
idea right now. Lily, I blame your stupid spell.”

Willow snorted in agreement.

 “Do you guys want to know what
my guess is?” Lily’s words were so quiet, so strong that Willow and Chloe
quieted.

“What?” Chloe had that stupid
feeling back in her gut. At least now she knew it wasn’t anxiety or stress. No,
she just had some sort of giant monster thing after her.

“We just summoned something.
Maybe it’s from the dead, but that thing should look…human if that was so. This
thing was built more like…a demon.”

Chloe gasped and spun around to point
her finger at Lily. “You did not make me summon a demon. It said
my
name.
It’s probably going to haunt me or kill me in my sleep or something.”

Lily only shrugged. “I doubt
that. Well okay, I can’t be sure but I’ll find out, I promise. I’d never let
anything like that happen to you, Chloe.”

Chloe softened. That was true.
Besides, if anyone had supernatural hookups, it was Lily.

“One thing I do know though,”
Lily was saying. “It said your name and has the blanket we sat on. That means
it probably has your scent and will be coming for you. I know that’s not what
you want to hear, but it’s something we have to prepare for.”

“Shit,” Willow said.

“Agreed.” Chloe was in deep. She
knew it and her gut really knew it.

“No offense, but it’s technically
the 31th right now.” Chloe grimaced at Willow’s observation. It was 2:00 a.m.
Officially, right now she and Willow were 29 years old. They were now owned by
two strange men.

Feeling miserable, she turned to
stare at her sister. As fraternal twins, they looked nothing alike and were
even further apart in personalities. While Willow had blonde hair streaked with
brown tones, Chloe had the much plainer version of her hair—a flat dull brown.
The only good thing she liked about it was its length that she’d managed to
keep to her waist for years.

This year was going to be the
worst birthday ever. Worse than the year she’d come home expecting to find a
surprise birthday party, but instead got an empty house, and even more terrible
than the time she got dumped by her incubus boyfriend, Derek, at her 19th
birthday party. Bastard deserved the cake she threw in his face. And the can of
soda she’d sprayed on him afterward.

This birthday was going to top
them all. Today she summoned a zombie demon and was supposed to be given to
Tyrian en Kulev, the most famous demon slayer in the world. Her sister, Willow,
was supposed to be protected by some Alpha he-man. Then, in another ten months,
her little sister, Lily, would be next.

And now she had to figure out how
to get rid of the deadly, stinky excess baggage that most likely wanted her—and
not for a tea party. Life sure knew how to kick a person when they were down.

Chloe felt a thread of bitterness
creep in, but she stomped it out. No time for tears or thinking about Papa or
how crappy her situation was looking; she needed to be strong for her sisters.
Right now, they needed answers.

“Lily, I want you to call your
friends tomorrow and ask them what they make of this. If that doesn’t work, try
to have one your magic dreams. Maybe that can help us. I think it’s safe to say
that the spell didn’t work and if Papa’s will is correct, then Willow and I will
be in for a hell of a day come morning.”

“I won’t just let some man take
me,” Willow said between clenched teeth.

Lily parked the car at the hostel
they were staying at. Chloe looked over at her sister. There was so much in her
she wished she had—like guts, athleticism, and strength.

“If you don’t want him, then you
don’t have to have him.”

Willow exhaled a genuine sigh.
“I’m glad you said that, because I’m outta here. Like, now. Tonight. I’m not
giving the Alpha shapeshifter a chance to track me. He’s a beast and probably
has a nose that puts hellhounds to shame. So, if it’s all right with you guys,
I’m going to pack some supplies and get out.”

The thought of her twin, her
sister, leaving had her automatically protesting the idea. “But where will you
go? You need supplies. It’s dangerous out there, Willow. Besides, we’re in
Europe, not exactly our backyard.”

Willow grinned that cocky,
taunting grin that said she could win any fight, any challenge, any time. And
Chloe was sure she could.

“I’ll get the necessities from a
store, buy a satellite phone, call you both with the number, and then I’m out
of here. On foot, by plane, by car, whatever. He’s not fetching me like some
piece of meat. Whatever happens, we have to stay in contact. Everyone keep
their phones on and charged at all times. Chloe, call me the second you see the
vamp. You’re both welcome to come with me, you know.”

Chloe and Lily both laughed,
which got them a hard glare from Willow. “Oh come on, sis. We’d just cramp your
style. You’re much too…active for Lily and me. Call me, pack a knife, and be
safe. I’ll let you know if the vampire finds me. I’m not gonna go back home
yet. I need time to think. Especially time to figure out a plan to ditch the
vampire.” Chloe turned to Lily. “If, and I mean if, Willow and I are both taken,
will you be okay?”

Lily smiled big with a
mischievous glint in her eye. “I think you both will be fine. No need to worry
about me, I have a year until this happens. You both have a matter of hours.”

That thought somehow scared her
more than that monster did.

Chapter Three

Tyrian’s team had been gone for
five hours too long. The commander of the Atal Warriors did not need to check
the time to know that his team should be back by now. Just how bad things had
gone, he didn’t know.

Unlike some commanders, he did
not require constant communication from his men. Most of the time, their jobs
required complete and utter silence. He’d seen good, strong warriors die
because a cell phone rang in his pocket. Technology had many uses; some of
those endangered his men. It was careless. It was unacceptable.

Tyrian counted on his men to be
the best and that meant without supervision. After all, they were not children,
but the best warriors with an even greater job. And he was not a babysitter.

Yet even knowing all that and
having created those rules himself, Tyrian for once wished he knew what the
hell was taking them so long.

He sent three men from his
personal guard—some of the few he trusted not to cut off his head when he
turned around. Rayn, Draven, and Henry. Together they were a lethal tornado
capable of executing the strongest of enemies. What made them so unique even
among his legion of warriors were their other special abilities.

Born not of two vampires, but of
vampire and those they fight against—the demons—they alone had a tremendous
advantage over their foes. This only made the fact that their mission had gone
on for five hours longer than necessary incredibly…irritating.

Again, Tyrian found his eyes
looking down at the sheet of paper in his hands. Frank Bellum was not a man one
easily forgot, especially when you owed that man a long-due debt. His eyes
narrowed on a choice set of words:
My eldest daughter, Chloe Ann Bellum
.
Was the old man senile before he met his great death?

Frank had died honorably, albeit
unexpectedly. Though in Tyrian’s long life that was how most life ended—brief
and swift. A hot glide of steel into flesh in one moment and then in the next
blink, your life was gone. He’d seen it too many times to remember each face,
each death. They all rolled together in his mind like one dark pit of black
souls.

A hard bang sounded at the door.
“Enter.”

The sight of Rayn was not a
relief, but some feeling close to it. Tyrian had learned long ago that feeling
led to expectations, hopes, pain. His life was that of a warrior. He had zero
need in his life for erstwhile pain and useless emotions that clouded a
warrior’s mind.