Rise of the Fallen Read online

  All the King's Men

  Book 1

  Rise of the Fallen

  AKM Rise of the Fallen

  Published by Phoenix Press

  Copyright 2012 by Donya Lynne

  For sales information please contact Donya Lynne

  on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AuthorDonyaLynne,

  or at [email protected]

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or author. Requests for permission to copy part of this work for use in an educational environment may be directed to the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. References to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons or locales, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Art: Reese Dante www.reesedante.com

  Photo was used with permission from model, Andrei Andrei.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  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

  About The Author

  Connect With Donya Lynne Online

  Dedication

  For my mom.

  I wish she could have lived long enough

  to see my writing career happen.

  Acknowledgements

  My special thanks to model and web designer, Andrei Andrei, for allowing me to use his picture on the cover of this book. Words cannot express my gratitude. I can't imagine anyone else portraying Micah so perfectly. You didn't have to help me, but you did, and for that, you have my humble thanks. For those interested in seeing more of Andrei Andrei's work and portfolio, his website is www.andreiandrei.com, and if you would like to follow Andrei Andrei on his blog, look him up at www.versatiletv.blogspot.com.

  This book would not have been possible without the contributions of so many. A special thank you goes to Em. If your character hadn't broken up with my character, Micah would never have been created. Your support has been undying, even through the hard times. Thank you to Laura (aka "Sam") for being there from the beginning. Thank you both for "riding the wave" with me while I found myself again and brought this story to life. And thank you to Toni and Victoria, my two newest beta readers. Your contributions are invaluable. I can't express that enough. Without you all, Rise of the Fallen wouldn't be the story it turned into.

  Thank you to my husband, who has given up a lot of time with me and has cooked a lot of dinners without my assistance as I chased my dream. To him I say, I hope to make it up to you one day by giving you my first big check to pay off the student loans. I love you, honey.

  Lastly, to every single one of my fans on Facebook, thank you for helping make my vision of Micah jump to the page. There are too many of you to list, but you all know who you are, and Micah would like me to let you know he bows in gratitude to each and every one of you.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Glass shattered as the heavy vase flew across the room and smashed against the wall.

  "You can do better than that. Come on, hit me!" Micah goaded the hefty man, wishing like hell the asshole would strike him for God's sake. So far, all it felt like the guy was doing was tapping him with his itsy-bitsy fists. Well, not so itsy-bitsy, but they sure felt like it for all the good they were doing.

  "Mother fucker!" The brute charged him again. "This is my house!"

  Yes, it was his house. And that was his mangled wife and kid cowering in the corner, bruised and broken. Their blood had splattered the walls even before Micah had shown up.

  "Well, by all means, defend it, asshole."

  When Micah had heard the beating from two blocks away, he had been out looking for a fight. This jackass had sounded like he would be able to give him what he needed: Pain. But all he was getting was a lot of lip service and pansy-assed sissy taps against his chest, even though it looked like the wife-beater was giving it all he had.

  Another useless punch landed against Micah's stomach.

  "You hit like a girl." He laughed. Micah actually laughed at the guy. What a disappointment this asswipe was turning out to be.

  "Oh, yeah, well how does this feel?" The man grabbed his leather belt from the floor and cracked it like a whip against Micah's arm.

  Micah's pulse quickened at the snap of leather on his skin, and his eyes twinkled with need. "Now you're talking." He lumbered forward, all menace, provoking the man. "Come on! Hit me!"

  The belt swung through the air, and the woman ducked and covered her son's head. A satisfying crack rang out as the leather connected with Micah's torso.

  Aaaaahhhh, sweet sting of pain. That's more like it, but still not enough.

  "Is that all you've got!" Micah stalked the man as he swung again and again, striking him with the belt until Micah grabbed the guy's arm in mid-air. "You're useless."

  "Oh yeah?" the man said through nicotine-stained teeth. Sweat beaded his oily forehead. Oh yeah seemed to be his primary vocabulary.

  A knife appeared in the man's other hand, and even though the idea was tempting to let the guy stab him, Micah had had enough. He wasn't getting what he needed here. With an easy swat, he knocked the knife away then snagged the belt from the man's grip. Locking one hand around the asshole's throat, he picked him up and slammed him against the wall hard enough to make a picture fall from its fastening and crash to the floor.

  "You're not worth my time." Micah grabbed the man's balls and twisted, making him scream like the cupcake he was before casually tossing him aside. The guy landed on the floor and rolled over, clutching his family jewels.

  Sirens rang out in the distance and Micah had half a mind to stay. Maybe the cops could give him the beating he needed. It sure was tempting, but then he glanced at the woman and child huddled in the corner and momentarily remembered what he was. He needed to clean shit up and get out of there. The woman and boy cringed as he strode toward them and knelt down.

  He gripped the woman's mind into compulsion. "You will pack your bags tonight and take the boy with you and never look back. You are beautiful, strong, and confident and will go to the woman's shelter and never regret your decision to leave this man." Micah pointed to the dick holding his crotch and rolling around on the floor. He wished there was more he could do for them, but he had his own problems. "When I leave, you won't remember I was here."

  Micah stood up and turned for the door.

  The little boy hazarded a terrified glance at him. "Who are you?"

  Micah turned around and leveled his navy blue eyes on the young human. "Nobody. I'm nobody."

  He wiped the boy's memory so he wouldn't remember Micah, then he wiped the man's and slipped out the back door and into the shadows as police cars screeched to a halt in front of the house. He was gone before they even stepped out of their cars.

  Thirty minutes later, Micah was perched like a gargoyle on the banister of his eighteenth floor balcony. He was
naked and his skin gleamed against the lights of Chicago. The cold January wind blew his shoulder-length, black hair over his narrowed, soulless eyes. The fight had failed to give him what he needed to control the ache in his chest, which now expanded and played peek-a-boo with the suicidal thoughts plaguing his mind.

  This was how it felt to lose a mate: Like falling off a cliff into a bottomless pit. But when was losing a mate ever easy for a male vampire? He felt empty, like a surgeon had cut him open, pulled out a couple of vital organs then sewn him back up with acid. Something was missing and it left a raw scratch on the inside of his skin.

  The fight with the wife-beater was supposed to have taken the edge off his suffering, but he felt more in need of a beating now than before. He was getting worse, and at an accelerated rate.

  At this point, dying would be a gift. And maybe he would die. All it would take was one slip of his foot, and if that happened, Micah wouldn't try to save himself by dematerializing back to his balcony. A fall from this high could cause enough damage to kill him, and if it didn't, the broken bones wouldn't heal in time for him to escape the sun when it rose in a couple hours. That would finish him. He wasn't a day walker like Traceon or that new guy, Severin. The sun would fry his ass into dust.

  Hooray for the sun.

  What had started this decline into darkness? Oh, that's right. Jackson. Jack had broken up with him. How long had it been since Jackson had left? A month? No, it had only been a week ago, hadn't it? Shit, only a week. It felt like longer. He had fallen far in only a short time.

  The past week had been a waking nightmare. For the first two days after Jackson left, Micah had lived on the marble floor of his bathroom, curled in a shivering ball when he wasn't hunched over the commode. The vomiting had lasted a day then became dry heaves and gagging on the second day. Food? No thanks.

  He had finally overcome the last of the sickening ache on the third day, but that had opened the door for a dark, dangerous hunger that grew deadlier by the hour: A hunger for pain that had deepened in the days since and sent him in search of a beating every night. But tonight was the first time a fight had left him still in need, and not because his opponent had been weak, but because Micah's need had worsened. Probably because Micah had lost a mate before and the pain was compounded from losing another.

  During the Middle Ages, he had lost a wife, Katarina. He had barely survived Katarina's death, but doing so had come at a heavy price: He had never fully regained his will to live and had turned into one hell of a nasty SOB who people instinctively knew not to mess with. Losing her had changed him and thrust his mind into a world of isolation and rebellion. And now he had lost Jackson. If he had thought losing Katarina had been rough, losing his second mate was even rougher, because it opened up all the old wounds again so they could seep right along with the new ones and compound his pain into an agony that would kill most mortals.

  Jackson had come along nine months ago, right after Easter. Jackson was a male, but that hadn't mattered to Micah. For the first time since losing Katarina, his heart had stirred, and within a month, he had mated to him. Not a full mating, but a bond to Jackson had formed nonetheless. With Jack, Micah had smiled again. Jack had given him hope and happiness for the first time in centuries.

  Now it was clear that Jackson had never mated to Micah. Not even a little.

  Which brought Micah back to being perched on the banister, overlooking the city like a sentry.

  Closing his eyes now, he moaned from the cold wind's bite, a kind of pain in and of itself. He wallowed in the hollow place that had once been his soul, the darkness creeping and spreading like a parasite to eat him from the inside out as the brittle cold clawed his skin.

  With his arms stretched vertically between his bent knees, he gripped the corner of the banister and closed his eyes, his toes curled over the railing. His senses engaged and stretched out, and he felt everything dark and nasty that seeped in the streets below. He inhaled, savoring its acrid odor.

  When he opened his eyes again, his pupils smoldered with malevolence, and he swept his gaze from side-to-side as if searching for something. He felt eyes on him but couldn't find the source. Or maybe it was just his imagination. Nothing was making sense. He teetered on the banister as he glanced down the side of the building as if a legion of giant spiders was crawling up the side, coming for him. Nothing. No one. He was alone. So why did he feel another's gaze?

  * * *

  From the shadows below, the guardian kept his pale eyes fixed on the eighteenth floor balcony, watching the naked vampire sway in the cold wind. Micah had to be freezing up there, or maybe he didn't even notice. It was clear even from here that Micah wasn't fully present in his own body. He hadn't been since Jackson had left a week ago, and it only seemed to be getting worse. This wouldn't do. The guardian refused to lose Micah. He had come too far and searched too long for him.

  Fuck! The toothpick in the guardian's mouth snapped as he clenched his jaw and watched Micah lean forward precariously. Fast as a rifle shot, he reached his hand into the air and blasted Micah with a gentle push of energy that mimicked a strong breeze. The guardian's mind eased as Micah seemed to come back into himself long enough to climb off the railing and put his naked feet back on safe ground.

  The guardian breathed a deep sigh of relief, deciding to stick around for the rest of the night to make sure Micah didn't pull anymore near-nose-dives or worse. Pulling up his collar and securing his skullcap, he stepped back into the darkened entrance of a nearby business, fully shrouded in shadows, his special powers engaged. With closed eyes, he stretched out his senses to keep tabs on the damaged vampire up on the eighteenth floor. He cringed at the pain he felt coming from Micah, but at least it wasn't death. Not yet, anyway. And hopefully never.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The next night, Samantha Garrett shoved her feet in her tennis shoes and whipped the laces into double-knots before bounding to the kitchen. That was one good thing about a studio apartment, it didn't take long to get from A to B. Two or three good size steps and she could be anywhere. So, see, her studio really was an asset. Yeah, and if she kept telling herself that she might stop hating the tightly cramped place.

  Her eyes darted to the clock. It was almost eight o'clock. Shit. She wished she could get a different job – one where she could actually sleep at night and not grind a pole – but dancing at the Black Garter paid well and she was able to negotiate being paid in cash, and that was crucial so she didn't leave a trail Steve, her ex, could follow.

  She threw together a mid-shift snack and tossed it in her bag then grabbed a grapefruit from the bamboo bowl on the counter. The citrusy smell that burst into the air as she cut it in half reminded her of her childhood. Mom had always had grapefruits in the house. She even ordered them from the fruit club so that a large box arrived once a month to fill the kitchen with their tangy aroma for days.

  Damn. There went the tears.

  It was her mom's birthday today. And she couldn't even call her.

  She missed her mom and dad, but didn't visit or even call for fear Steve would find out or track her down. Her ex had enough money and connections that he probably had her parents' phones tapped and their house monitored, even though it had been a year since she had left him. But she knew Steve, and he wouldn't rest until he found her. It had been hard enough just getting away to begin with. Until she could buy a new identity and some protection, she was stuck here.

  Hence, the dancing job that kept her up nights. She had thought her dancing days were behind her. When she had been eighteen and at the tail end of her rebellious years, she had spent eight months dancing at the local titty bar, as her dad had called it with a certain amount of disdain. The money had been good, though, and she had enjoyed it at first, but the way the men had looked at her began to creep her out.

  Then 9/11 happened and she felt compelled to serve her country since she wasn't really cut out for anything else, and the dancing had proven to be less glamorous than s
he thought. So she quit the titty bar and joined the Army to be a medic. She figured the Army could give her a fresh start, and since her new goal was to be a nurse, becoming an Army medic was a win-win.

  Six months later, she met Steve, a handsome surgical resident. With dark hair and a body built by the gods, she thought she had found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Steve immediately asked her to marry him, and what girl wouldn't want to marry a handsome surgeon? So they ran off to Vegas and shocked everyone by getting married before she left for the Middle East.

  She laughed now, because now she knew what a mistake marrying Steve had been. Turned out her pot of gold was only fool's gold, and she was the fool who fell for the lie. Her marriage to Steve ended up being a nightmare.

  As soon as her eight-year commitment to Uncle Sam was over and she could make a clean break from Steve, she packed a duffel, grabbed a wad of cash, and ran away after Steve had left for a twenty-four-hour shift at the hospital.

  By the time he found out she was gone, she had a good head start, and he hadn't caught up to her, yet. Mostly because she was careful and didn't leave a trail. Hence, the reason getting paid in cash was so important.

  She had never looked back, even though she was always looking over her shoulder. Freedom without being free was what she called it. But at least she wasn't being beaten, anymore.

  Thank God she had never had children, or else she would have been stuck with Steve for God only knew how long. She rubbed her hand over the place on her abdomen where she still had a reminder of his abuse. Thankfully, it was small and didn't detract from her striptease act. If anything, the tiny blemish gave her character and made her appear more human and not like some fake Barbie. There were enough of those at the club.

  Fake was something she wasn't. This bod was one hundred percent all-natural and homegrown tomboy, with one catch. She could work a stripper pole like few women could. It was one reason why she headlined and had her own dressing room at the Black Garter and made more money than the other girls.