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  Rise of Midnight

  Sara Freites

  Copyright © 2019 Sara Freites

  Rise of Midnight : Book 1

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book 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 express written permission of the publisher. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Printed in the United States of America.

  Illustrations by: Delacey-James Foster - www.laceyjamesillustration.weebly.com

  Edited by: Amanda Braswell - [email protected]

  Written by, illustration designs/concepts by: Sara Freites - S.A.F.ire_Art on Instagram

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  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

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Rise of Daybreak

  About the Author:

  Sara Freites

  Index

  Thank you

  Prologue

  Finding Autumn

  Chicago, IL

  - Eden -

  An ice-cold wind blew across the city, a redundant reminder of the lingering season. With spring’s arrival a little over a month away, this night held strong to a wintery sting. I missed fall, missed seeing the orange and yellow leaves scattered along the black asphalt, but the weather was the last thing on my mind.

  At this hour, most slept soundly in the warmth of their homes. But not me. The sun had set hours ago when I returned from my journey back and forth across the rooftops of Chicago. My body ached, but that didn’t dull my excitement.

  I will never forget this day. Friday, February 17th. After all this time, the legend of our leader Lady Latresma’s return held true! Ever since I was a little girl, I’d heard the stories. But after so many years had passed without any sign of her, the vampires had brushed off Lady Latresma’s promise to return, and so had I. We’d practically forgotten about her.

  But now, she had reappeared to help us fight the one who’d long ago taken her life—the demon, Arlos. He’d taken many other lives, as well, but more than that, his existence threatened this entire plane of existence.

  I landed hard on the roof. My father Thade waited there in the shadows.

  “It’s confirmed,” I said. “I just received word. She’s been spotted right here in the city.”

  I’d already seen the reincarnation for myself a week ago to the day, but I could never tell my father that. The circumstances would anger him. He’d understand but would never condone my associating with the humans outside of feeding.

  My father stood motionless like a faded mahogany statue. He remained that way with his back to me, his long cream-colored dreadlocks tousled by the breeze. He took one last drag on his cigarette. I rested on the balcony railing alongside him. With our elbows propped heavily, we overlooked the darkened city. A cloud of wispy smoke escaped his nose and mouth. With that, he flicked the last of his cigarette away. From it, tiny embers erupted, and they arced toward the streets below.

  “Is that so, Eden?” my father asked. “I hardly believed those old tales about Latresma until tonight.”

  - Thade -

  My eyes clung to the distant horizon, the city. There, the taller buildings seemingly held up the night sky. I smiled. Our suspicions had been correct. Still, I couldn’t believe what my daughter Eden had just told me—the reincarnation was real. And living in our city.

  I looked to my daughter and watched chill bumps dimple her skin. I didn’t need the air that filled my lungs, even so, I inhaled its crispness, and it cooled my face while turning the ends of Eden’s hair up like the feathers of a dark drifting bird.

  “Trust me. It’s her,” Eden pressed. “Her name is Autumn Hayes. The clan members described seeing her blood-aura. That’s proof enough for us all. She’s finally here!”

  I took in the city once more, ecstatic at first as my daughter spoke. Yet my mind raced with doubt. As a member of a dying race and the leader of the only vampire clan in the states, I couldn’t afford to get my hopes up. Or let my guard down. The entire clan depended on me to tread softly. Especially now.

  “What’s wrong?” Eden asked. Her eyes studied the wrinkles I felt etching into my forehead. “We thought we’d have to face Arlos alone, but now, we have her.”

  “And still no sign of the daggers,” I replied halfheartedly with the lasting taste of my cigarette fading as I spoke. “How will we have a fighting chance against the demon when all we have is a human girl on our side?”

  “Remember, she is the reincarnation of Lady Latresma,” Eden persisted. “She’s all we need. As for the daggers, we’ll keep searching.”

  She stared at the nearly invisible skyline, then moved her slender frame against the roof’s rusted railing. I could sense her disappointment in my prolonged silence. I chuckled. I adored Eden, the way she always found light in the dark. She reminded me so much of her mother. Although her mother was a vampire, Eden seemed remarkably human to me. I was human while her mother and I were together, so if I hadn’t known for myself that Eden was a half-vampire, a “haviden” as they had been named so long ago, I never would’ve guessed she was anything but human.

  “If those of our clan have seen the girl in the city, then I’m almost positive Arlos knows of her existence, as well,” I pointed out. “And that’s a problem. We need to bring her in, keep her safe until we find Arlos and the two daggers.”

  I peeked at my wristwatch. 9:30 PM. We had nearly ten hours before the sun rose again…ten hours to scour the city.

  “I’ll call Terry, Harper, and Garrett, have them gather a team,” I said. “We have enough time to search every nook and cranny of the city for this girl tonight. We shouldn’t miss her with that aura of hers.”

  “I’ve already talked to Garrett. He’s got some of our men tracking her now,” Eden replied.

  “Good,” I huffed. “We must move fast. If that demon gets his hands on her before we do, both the human race and ours will suffer the consequences.”

  - Arlos -

  London, England

  At last, the anxiety of my impatience had risen inside me. How difficult was it to find a human girl with a glowing red aura? I’d lived on this earth for far too long to feel so perplexed by something as minuscule as a human. My son, Soul, whom I’d sent across the sea in search of this girl, called earlier in the night. He had claims of her presence in a city called Chicago, the US, halfway across the planet. Still, I wouldn’t believe this until I saw her for myself.

  Three decades ago, she’d fallen at my feet with the life draining from her body. She’d warned me of her return, but I never believed Latresma would come for retribution. Why she’d chosen the human form to do so, I didn’t understand. It was absurd to me. She knew the humans posed no threat to me. The vampires years ago may have admired their leader for her w
ise assessments and levelheadedness, but I knew Latresma was naive.

  Yet I had some use for her, this little human—if she was who we believed. As Lady Latresma’s reincarnation, I wondered if the girl possessed a small remnant of the Lady’s abilities, abilities that could aid me—the Lost Craft. If so, with my help and with the use of the daggers, she would make for a new beginning. After all, it was not of my will that I was summoned to this dimension. I came from a place where I lived amongst thousands of my own kind. There, we’d each shared our own domain in which to reign. But here, I had nothing and everything at once. This entire planet rested in the palm of my hand. As for the rest of its inhabitants, I didn’t care for them. They disgusted me with the way they went about their petty, self-centered lives. The humans were nothing but a waste, something I could easily wipe out, easily replace with a race far more omnipotent.

  “Arlos, sir.”

  I stood alone in the feeding chambers of my estate, pondering on the ways I could bring my journey to a close when my thoughts were interrupted. Five of my diligent creations, the havidens, entered the room. While they appeared to be human, they were much more than that. One among them spoke again.

  “I have wonderful news. Shane and the group you sent to Chicago are bringing in the reincarnation as we speak.”

  My mood shifted instantly. I couldn’t wait to meet her, to lay my doubts about her existence to rest. Soul had accomplished an amazing feat in locating the human so quickly. However, my eagerness soon faded.

  “Shane requested that you allow him the rest of the evening before he transports her here,” the haviden continued. “He wants to take her into hiding for a few hours. He suspects the vampires of that city have also picked up on her presence. He wants to lay low and be sure they aren’t on his trail but promised to have her here by tomorrow evening.”

  I wavered. This wasn’t the first time I’d felt the aggravation of the vampires’ existence. If that fool Shane had done anything to snag the attention of the vampires, I would personally rip his incompetent head from his body. I imagined myself doing just that as the havidens waited for my reply. While blood spurted from Shane’s headless neck in my mind’s eye, I found myself set at ease. It calmed me, helped clear my thoughts to speak. I had to be reminded—the havidens were not what I was. How could I expect them to perfectly execute my requests?

  “Advise him not to wait," I answered, my clenched fists relaxing. "With the threat of lurking vampires, I don’t feel it is safe for him to wait around. It would only give them more time to close in on him. That race is more of a hindrance than he realizes.”

  “Yes, sir,” the haviden replied with a nod. “I’ll let him know.”

  I watched the havidens’ eyes wander about, searching the room behind me. I knew what they were after. Earlier in the day, I’d brought back a human to bleed. Presently, he hung upside down at the back of the room, his puncture wounds gradually bleeding out. He dangled there practically dead, just inches above a strategically placed bucket. Behind the hanging man, a heap of previously drained humans lay in the corner of the windowless chamber, their blood now stored in the freezer upstairs for later consumption. I needed to freeze these bodies, as well…before the smell drove the havidens into a frenzy.

  I did this every so often to keep my creations thriving. I didn’t mind the mess nor the time it took. I had my motives. My creations had to trust me fully before I could take complete control over them. It wouldn’t be long now.

  “Hungry?” I asked them. “Go on.”

  Each pair of flickering eyes found their way to mine. I nodded. They moved in one by one while the human moaned.

  “Oh, come now. Don’t be timid on my account,” I urged the havidens.

  Their eyes widened. It was as if they’d starved for days. They lunged at the human, uprooted him from the ceiling and devoured his flesh in moments. I turned away to let them feed in peace. The human’s cries for help resonated off the chamber walls. This set a grin on my face. I became pleased with the havidens’ contentment with the blood and meat of this human. They would need their strength soon.

  As for me, I hungered for something else…

  - Autumn -

  Chicago, IL

  “Get her secured, please,” said a woman.

  I’ll never know what she looked like. I couldn’t see her, but the sound of her voice and the gleaming of her eyes in the shadows told me she waited there along the wall. Too exhausted to struggle anymore, I turned my head, unintentionally peering through an open door. I should have looked away immediately. Just past the doorframe, an overhead light brought another bloody scene into view. At least eight people stood in that room, each ripping out the throat or bowels of another. I threw up while the men around me tried pulling me to a room of my own. One of the men even stopped to hold back my hair as I gasped for air.

  “Humans,” he sneered.

  Another scoffed. Two others laughed.

  “Shane said he’d be here within the hour,” said a voice from another unseen person. “Just throw her in there for now. He’ll deal with her.”

  “Whatever you say,” Eric replied.

  He shoved me into the dimly lit concrete room. I tripped over my shoes and fell on a tangled blanket. A light clang resounded in the room as something small and metal bounced atop the floor.

  “You might need that,” said one of the men to me.

  Another in the group burst into a mad laugh. There, I found my pocketknife gleaming in the dim light where it came to rest in the corner of the room. The door slammed shut. I heard it being locked from the outside. I sat dazed in the middle of the small room while tears streamed down my face. My body quivered uncontrollably. I dashed for the metal door and banged on it in a panic.

  When my screaming pleas went ignored, I collapsed on the faded blue blanket. I gathered my knees in and wept into my arms. I couldn’t grasp what was happening and told myself this wasn’t real. It was a nightmare. It had to be. But if this was a dream, it was like no other I’d ever had.

  There was nothing exceptional about the dreams I had. My lack of subconscious creativity was probably due to my uneventful lifestyle. I'd never dreamt of being able to fly or breathe underwater. Instead, my dreams were built around monotonous concepts. Hell, my nightmares weren’t even scary, just things that would happen to me on any given day—running late for school, getting in a fight with my sister or losing my car in a vast parking lot. That was as scary as my nightmares ever got.

  But this? This was something else.

  My name is Autumn Hayes, and until this exact point in my life, there was nothing exceptional about me, either. I was a junior at Westland High School in Chicago, Illinois, where I grew up. I lived with my three siblings and my parents. We had a dog named Bandit. When I really tried, I kept an A-minus average in school, my favorite color was mint green and my best friend’s name was Gemma. The only things that kept me worrying were figuring out what to wear to school the next day, wondering when my friends and I would hang out again, and being on time for cheer practice after school. That’s all there was to say about me.

  But not anymore.

  As I sat alone in that darkened room, listening to people being slaughtered just outside the door, countless thoughts raced through my mind.

  And then, it hit me.

  The realization that I might have known something like this would happen to me made me even more sick to my stomach. Everything had led up to this—all the strange and horrible things that happened in the past week leading right up to my abduction. Everything had a connection.

  And it all started with that dream.

  Chapter 1

  Awaken

  Thirteen nights earlier: February 4th

  It was the most vivid and unusual dream I’d ever had—as if someone had planted it in my head like a seed, and its roots grew, overtaking my entire subconscious. In it, I floated weightlessly above a familiar city. My city—Chicago. Cars zipped back and forth silently
on the narrow streets far below. The lights of the buildings created a yellow halo over the city. No one seemed aware of me, but I could feel a presence.

  Hovering helplessly, I rose even further. I broke through a thick layer of cold rainclouds stretching across the horizon like a ghostly blanket. I shivered. A chilled mist clung to my skin. The city disappeared from sight under the haze, and my ascent halted with my legs dangling just above the wavy ocean the color of lead—the surface of the gathering storm clouds. Finding myself completely naked, I reeled. Despite that no one was within miles of me, I instinctively brought my arms and legs in to cover myself. The fog swirled around me with my quick movement. I allowed my eyes to roam the city below, the starry sky.

  A woman’s gentle voice took me by surprise. What she said confused me even more than my surroundings.

  “C’est ton temps,” she whispered.

  A breeze blew and intensified until an angry hurricane blustered around me. The clouds lightened to a perfect powdery white, billowing just below as the sky brightened. Night turned to day right before my eyes. At the peak of the storm, my hair whipped about my shoulders, stinging my skin. Despite the rumbling wind, I heard that motherly voice again. This time, the voice whispered in my ear in English. Her possibly French accent sounded full, sultry even.

  “Wake up, Autumn,” the voice said my name deliberately.

  The sun rose from the clouds below, its magnitude an explosion against the sky. I shielded my face. My right eye wasn’t quite covered, and it burned so terribly it woke me from the dream.

  My eyes snapped open. I broke out in chill bumps and a cold sweat. Not sure whether I was still dreaming or not, I sat up in bed. The burning sensation in my eye morphed into an out of control itch. Irritated, I rubbed my eyelid, and this caused it to tingle. I spotted my alarm clock. It was 12:01 AM. Too tired to understand my weird dream, I lay back down and rolled over, dozing off again.