Welcome to the Underworld (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) Read online

  Welcome to the Underworld

  Sera Lightbourne lived a pretty lonely life. Growing up in the care of people who made her think there was something wrong with her, Sera tried to ignore her sixth sense and get on with life. All that changed when a vampire tried to kill her.

  Werewolf Leo Ryan just wanted to keep his head down and do his job. His assignment was to find a nephilim and bring her in...although things don't exactly go to plan.

  Being on the wrong end of a pissed off pack and the guardian of a clueless nephilim, Leo only has one option. He has to take the girl to Henri Bernard, his vampire lover of nine years, knowing that the only way to keep Sera safe is for Henri to bond with her.

  Everything is about to change and none of them can guess how it will turn out, but actions taken in the heat of the moment will shape their lives forever.

  Genre: Fantasy, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter

  Length: 50,586 words

  WELCOME TO THE

  UNDERWORLD

  Jane Wallace-Knight

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  WELCOME TO THE UNDERWORLD

  Copyright © 2017 by Jane Wallace-Knight

  ISBN: 978-1-64010-573-7

  First Publication: August 2017

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2017 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book or print book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at

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  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Jane Wallace-Knight lives in the East of England in a small town on the coast, in a house by the sea. She finds that walking along the beach with her dogs each morning is the best time to let her imagination run wild and give her the inspiration needed to write for the day.

  For all titles by Jane Wallace-Knight, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/jane-wallace-knight

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Landmarks

  Cover

  WELCOME TO THE

  UNDERWORLD

  JANE WALLACE-KNIGHT

  Copyright © 2017

  Chapter One

  Lightning crackled in the night sky, and the accompanying thunder soon echoed through the air. Sera Lightbourne loved thunderstorms, she even liked the rain, but not when she had to walk home at night without an umbrella. It was summer, so at least she wouldn’t get too cold.

  The Train Station Café where she worked was dead tonight, which wasn’t at all surprising for a random Wednesday. There was one man there still eating though, so Sera couldn’t close until he finished, it was the management’s policy. Still, she was starting to get a little pissed off. The guy had been there for over an hour, eating so slowly that Sera had started to wonder if he was doing it on purpose. She wiped over the same table for the third time and tucked a strand of her long golden hair behind her ear.

  “I wanna go home,” Andy whined from beside her.

  Andy was sort of her work friend, though that was putting it loosely. Andy made numerous flirtatious jokes per day and constantly commented on her clothing, but at least he was occasionally funny so she let it slide.

  “I’ve got exams in two days,” he said as he leaned on the table she had just cleaned. She noted the palm prints he left behind with annoyance. “I should be at home studying.”

  Sera actually took pity on him. Just because her own life didn’t seem to be going anywhere didn’t mean that she was bitter about it.

  With no parents and no wish for a lifetime of crippling debt, Sera had opted not to go to college, despite getting good grades in school. The care home she had been in at the time she turned eighteen had told her she could stay until after she graduated but then she was on her own. Now she was nearly twenty-three and living in a flat so small she could barely fit a bed in it.

  “Why don’t you go,” Sera said. “There’s no reason why we both need to stay here.”

  Andy looked over at the man still nursing his burger. “Are you sure?”

  She knew why he was asking. She was a woman, alone with a male customer, and it was night. It was kind of him to be concerned for her safety, but she had grown up in foster care. She knew how to handle herself.

  “I’m sure,” she told him. “Go home and study. I’m sure he’ll be done soon and I can catch the late bus.”

  "You are the best,” Andy said before kissing her on the cheek. She just about stopped herself from grimacing, managing to turn it into a smile instead.

  Andy went into the back and came out with his jacket on and his car keys in hand.

  “I owe you one,” Andy said as he lingered by the counter. “Maybe I could buy you dinner when we both have a night off.”

  Sera froze, unsure how to respond to that. She wasn’t interested in Andy but she didn’t want to alienate him either. He was one of the few people she got along with. A part of her wished she had just made up a boyfriend when she had started working there, it would have been an easy out.

  “There’s no need for that, really,” she said with a wave of her hand. She quickly looked down at the watch on her wrist. “Oh look, you should get going. Lots of studying to do.”

  She saw the hope in his eyes die and felt a pang of guilt, but it wasn’t like she had ever led him on.

  “Right, well, I’ll see you tomorrow night,” Andy said before turning and leaving the café.

  Sera wiped the table for a fourth time and waited for the sound of the door closing. Everything else had already been shut down and cleaned so all Sera would have to do, once the customer finally left, was wipe down his table.

  Then she could finally go home for the night and get some sleep before her shift at the grocery store in the morning. She glanced down at her watch again and saw that it was close to midnight.

  Seriously? she thou
ght to herself. Who takes that long to eat a burger?

  Finally, having had enough, Sera started walking over to the table to tell the man that they were closing, in hopes of hurrying him along. When she got close, however, she felt as though something wasn’t quite right.

  Her whole life Sera had been different, it was why she had never stayed in one place for very long as a kid. She couldn’t exactly explain it but she had always had good instincts about people. She got vibes from them, and as a kid she hadn’t known to keep them to herself.

  The first foster parent she had connected with was when she was five. The woman was kind and she doted on Sera like the daughter she had always longed for. She hadn’t liked it, however, when Sera sat awake in the middle of the night talking to herself about the fact the woman was in love with someone who wasn’t her husband.

  It had led to arguments and Sera just knew that she had given them the creeps. Needless to say, she ended up back at the care home not long after that.

  She had been labeled a problem child early on, and a child psychologist had spouted off a number of behavioral issues that had gone in a file somewhere.

  The truth was that Sera didn’t know what was really wrong with her, but she had learnt to trust her instincts, they had kept her safe this far.

  She walked closer to the customer and studied him carefully. Although the food on the man’s plate had clearly been touched, the amount of food didn’t seem to have diminished at all. The burger and fries had been torn into small pieces and moved around the plate but nothing more.

  Alarm bells started going off in Sera’s head. Alarm bells that blared danger.

  The customer lifted his face and looked straight at Sera, his mouth stretching out into a wide grin. He had dark hair and pale skin, and two sharp prominent pointy teeth.

  Wait, what?

  “Alone at last, I thought he’d never leave,” the man practically purred in a sultry voice. He stood up from the table, making Sera back away, and unfurled his large frame.

  “Uh, okay, listen, buddy,” Sera said as she put her hands up in front of her. “I’m flattered but you’re coming off as a little creepy, and I’m not into goths.”

  The man in front of her grinned even harder. “Do you know how good you smell?”

  Sera winced as she backed away right into the table behind her. “I’m pretty sure I smell like burger fat.”

  “I picked up your scent from across the street and had to have you.”

  “Yeah, still creepy.”

  The man crowded in closer to Sera and she quickly dodged out of the way and over to the door. “Look, if you don’t leave I’m gonna call the police.”

  Her heart rate doubled as she scrambled to get out of the way.

  Before she even finished her sentence, the man had somehow moved all the way over to Sera in what felt like the blink of an eye. There was no way a human could move that fast

  “Oh, my God!” she shouted. Her entire body was shaking. As he crowded her, her eyes once again zeroed in on the man’s grinning mouth, more specifically, his fangs. “You’re a vampire.”

  Even as she said it she realised how ridiculous she sounded. She also couldn’t believe how easily she had jumped to that conclusion.

  “And you’re a nephilim,” the man purred as he pushed Sera up against the glass door behind her. “I’ve heard your blood tastes like heaven itself.”

  There was no way out of it. Sera might like to think she was tough, but this man, or whatever the hell he was, was nearly twice her size. There was no way she was going to be able to fight this freak off. She closed her eyes and braced herself for what was about to happen to her, but before the teeth found her neck the glass behind her shattered, blowing inward as though a bomb had gone off outside.

  The vampire flew backward with the blast, but Sera was somehow left standing. What was even more incredible was that there was no glass in her back. The man had shards of glass sticking out of him, which he began pulling out with little effort.

  Now’s the time to run, her inner voice said.

  Sera quickly turned and ran out of the café, the glass crunching under her feet as she went. She sprinted all the way to the end of the road before she realised that she didn’t have her keys or phone on her, she had left them in her coat back inside. The rain was plentiful, and already her The Train Station Café T-shirt was clinging to her.

  “Fuck!” she shouted. She quickly looked around, wondering where the hell she was going to go.

  “Fuck,” she swore again. She looked up and down the road, hoping to see someone who could help, but she was completely alone.

  Nothing new there, she thought bitterly.

  There was a loud crashing sound behind her and she turned to see the man—vampire—whatever, bloody and looking seriously pissed off as he walked out of the café looking like some sort of Terminator.

  Sera was a good two miles from her crappy, little flat, and the nearest police station was equally as far. Not that the police would know what to do with a vampire anyway. Sera may not have been strong, but she had always been fast, it came with being the scrawny girl in the care home. She had seen how fast the vampire could move inside the café so she knew that she couldn’t outrun him, but perhaps she could run and get out of sight and hide.

  No, the voice in her head said again. That won’t work, he can smell you, remember.

  “Shit,” Sera cried again. The vampire was walking toward her at a creepily slow pace, still pulling shards of glass out of himself as if it was nothing. His black hair was plastered to his pale face from blood and rain. He was grinning at Sera as though he enjoyed the act of chasing down his food.

  Before Sera could think of her next move, a car came out of nowhere, its engine roaring and its tires screeching as it barreled head on into the vampire, sending the thing flying through the air. Sera watched, open mouthed as the passenger door was opened and a man stuck his head out.

  “Get in!” the stranger shouted at her angrily in a strong Irish accent.

  Sera looked between the shouty stranger in the car and the heap of vampire that was already starting to move in the road. It was kind of a no-brainer, despite the old adage of not getting into cars with strangers.

  “Shit,” Sera swore again before running to the waiting car. She slid into the passenger seat and before she could close the door, the car was backing up only to speed forward again. It hit the vampire just as he got back up on his feet.

  This time the vampire flew up in the air and landed with a thunk on top of the car before he rolled off. Sera craned her neck to look out the rear window and saw the vampire rolling like a ragdoll. The car took off through the streets like a race car, twisting and turning, maneuvering in a way Sera had never seen before.

  “Seatbelt,” the man in the driver’s seat shouted at her. Sera scrambled to do as she was told, her eyes firmly on the man beside her. He was tall and broad, even more so than the vampire. His skin was tanned, and his hair was as black as a raven’s wing. His eyes were the most unusual eyes Sera had ever seen. They were such a pale blue that they looked almost silver.

  “Who are you? Are you some kind of vampire hunter?” Sera asked. The stranger might not seem like the friendliest of people but Sera’s instincts were telling her that she was safe, for now at least.

  The stranger turned his head and gave him an unimpressed look. “Sure, luv, just call me Buffy.”

  Feeling a little annoyed that this stranger was mocking her after what had just happened to her, Sera glared at him. “Will you slow down? You’re going to kill someone. The vampire’s dead…I can’t believe I just said that.”

  She had said the V word out loud. A nervous bubble of laughter escaped her.

  “If you think that vamp is dead then you’re more stupid than I thought,” the man said gruffly as he turned another sharp corner. They were nearing the edge of town, going toward the motorway.

  “What’s your problem? I didn’t ask for any of this
,” Sera shouted.

  “Oh really?” the man countered. “Going around not even trying to cover your scent, you were basically asking for it.”

  “Hey,” Sera shouted back. “That’s victim blaming…and what do you mean? The vampire said something about how I smell.”

  He had also called her something. In her terror, Sera had forgotten about it. What was the word he had used?

  “He called me something. Something like…nepotism,” Sera mused out loud.

  The man beside her gave her a look that was so full of disbelief that it was almost comical.

  “You’re serious?” the man asked as he turned onto the motorway. Sera was starting to worry about just where this stranger was taking her. “You really don’t know what you are?”

  Sera started to feel a little car sick so she turned back to face the front and took several deep breaths. The shock of what she had just lived through probably wasn’t helping.

  “No. I’m not anything. I’m human.”

  The man had the nerve to laugh at her. “You’re not human, at least, not entirely. You’re a nephilim. How do you not know that?”

  Sera frowned as she rolled the word around in her head. “What’s that?”

  “You’ve never heard of a nephilim?” the man asked incredulously. His annoyance at her was starting to piss her off. “The word comes from the Christian Bible. Other religions have different names for what you are. I’m surprised you’ve never heard of them.”

  “Trust me, God wasn’t in the place where I grew up,” Sera said as she turned to look out the passenger window. She had never been abused, never been beaten, and for that, she knew she didn’t have any right to complain about her upbringing. She had just been ignored and labeled a freak. Ignored to the point where she would sometimes mess up her chores just so they would punish her and show her some attention. It had been so noisy in the children’s home that when she finally got her own place, a grungy little flat in town, she kept the radio on while she slept to drown out the silence.