Guild of Shadows Boxset Read online

  Darkfire © Copyright 2018 Skyler Andra

  Wildfire © Copyright 2019 Skyler Andra

  Crossfire © Copyright 2019 Skyler Andra

  Hearthfire © Copyright 2018 Skyler Andra

  Hellfire © Copyright 2020 Skyler Andra

  Cover art by Jacqueline Sweet

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher/author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely 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 prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Created with Vellum

  Guild of Shadows Books 1 to 4

  Skyler Andra

  Guild Universe

  Welcome to my Guild Universe.

  Guild of Shadows series (Academy)

  Darkfire

  Wildfire

  Crossfire

  Hearthfire

  Hellfire

  Guild of Guardians - (Paranormal Prison)

  Witch Hunt

  Life’s a Witch

  Hindsight’s a Witch - coming 2020

  Guild of Sorcerers Universe

  Dark Fae Legacies series

  Poisoned Legacies (an Evil Queen retelling) novella available in the Once Upon a Fairy Tale Night collection

  Darkfire - Book 1

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 1

  Luna

  “How about one last drink before you leave, Luna?” a familiar husky voice called to me as I crossed my front lawn.

  My stomach fluttered and I ground to a halt. I’d crushed on my neighbor for the last nine months.

  No. Don’t turn around. Don’t fall for Cole’s gorgeous eyes. Liquid amber and gold blended together. If I looked at him, I wouldn’t want to leave tonight.

  But my feet had a mind of their own, turning to face him.

  Cole shut the hood of his car and wiped himself with a rag, removing an oil stain from his muscled and tanned forearm. He worked for the local mechanic and always came home smeared in grease. Many a time I imagined drawing shapes across his skin with the black goo. Today I wanted to press him against the side door and kiss him.

  A few times he’d serviced my parents’ cars for them, and that’s how we’d gotten to know each other. Then we hung out while he rebuilt the engine of his beat-up old Chevy. At first, I had no clue about mechanical tools, and whenever he asked me to pass him one, he’d laugh his ass off when I gave him a screwdriver instead of a wrench. By now I’d memorized every single instrument.

  I caught my reflection in his passenger window. Leather jacket looking fine. Tight jeans that hugged my curves. Wait… oh gawd. Wind had blow my hair everywhere on the walk home. Quickly, I smoothed it back into place, pushed my drooped glasses up my nose, and smiled up at him.

  “Hey, Cole,” I answered.

  “How was your last shift?” he asked, putting his wrench in his toolbox. “Did Camilla actually lift a finger?”

  He knew me so well. I laughed. “Nope.”

  I absentmindedly scratched my cheeks as I admired his arms, easing the itch of my psoriasis. My mouth dried thinking about touching the spot on Cole’s arm where he’d wiped. It didn’t help that he wore a tank top to show off the perfection of his body. Tapered chest and waist. Muscled arms that suggested her worked out. I wondered what it’d be like having those arms wrapped around my stomach, pressing my back to his ribbed stomach.

  His husky laugh did things to my insides, turning them upside down and around and around. “Thinking about my muscles again?”

  Heat swept across my cheeks. Of course the answer was yes.

  “What? They’re great muscles.” He flexed to demonstrate and my swelter meter surged.

  “Don’t be an ass.” I hit him in the arm, prompting that husky laugh that stoked flames inside me.

  A gust flicked his wavy hair into his eyes, and he ran a hand through it, brushing it away. I rubbed my ears, my gaze trailing his every move, then along his white tank top, along his collarbone, his broad shoulders. He reminded me of Sam from the Supernatural TV show. Strong jaw and chin with a bump in the middle. Almond-shaped eyes with prominent brows. High cheekbones smeared with a little pink. A smile to die for with long, white teeth. The only differences compared to the actor were his different—colored eyes and his shorter hair—and he wasn’t as insanely tall.

  “All packed for tonight?” He placed his toolbox on a shelf just inside his garage, then pulled the roller door closed.

  Tonight. I swallowed the wedge that formed in my throat. Too many memories here, and I didn’t want to stick around any longer reliving the pain. A brand new adventure, rooming with a good friend in Sterling City, called to me. I’d enrolled in an ancient history degree program, majoring in the occult, which I hoped would shed some answers on the last fifteen years.

  A dark wisp streaked across the hood of Cole’s Chevy. My jaw opened and I blinked. Four additional lines stretched across the windscreen as if a monster’s claws scraped along it.

  Not again.

  My heartbeat scaled up five hundred notches. I bumped into the brick wall dividing Cole’s garage and mine. It did this to taunt me every few days or so, showing itself in dark blemishes on the wall, emitting a horrid, shrieking laugh in my head that sounded like thousands of souls screaming. The demon enjoyed hunting me. Despite the wisps of darkness vanishing, my throat tightened as if the bastard had seized me.

  On my way to the bus terminal, I’d visit my parents’ graves and say my last goodbyes. On holy ground I’d trap the beast that had taken my parents, make it pay, render the fucker incapable of harming me or anyone else ever again. My throat felt like it was on fire at the prospect of what was ahead of me.

  Just two more hours and I’d leave this freaky shit behind for good. Then I could settle down in one city for once, rather than constantly moving states all the time, trying to escape the demon and whatever else my parents feared. Not that they told me much. Secretive was the word of the day for them.

  “You all right?” Cole found my arms and rubbed them, dragging me out of my thoughts.

  “Umm,” I said, massaging my earlobes between my fingers to calm myself. “Sure. Just tired. I’ve still got to pack.”

  “Let me help you,” he said, moving toward me. “Give me five to have a shower, and I’ll bring over beer for goodbye drinks.”

  That sounded great. I could use a drink to take the edge off my
nerves.

  Having Cole there would make me feel one hundred and ten percent safer.

  “Okay. Let yourself in.” I better freshen up too, take a shower, change my clothes and pack before I left. Yeah. I wasn’t very organized. Call me a last-minute planner for everything—cramming for exams, last-minute group battles on Destiny, the online game I played, or showing up to a movie five minutes late.

  Cole smiled, rubbed my arm one last time and departed.

  ***

  “The beers aren’t cold.” Cole twisted the lid off the bottle and handed me one. A Corona. His favorite. I was more of a whiskey-and-coke kind of girl, but I’d take whatever I could get for now to calm my frayed nerves.

  “Thanks.” I accepted the neck of the bottle, the bottom of my hand brushing his, leaving me tingling and wanting to do it again.

  Cole smiled as I hugged my legs to my chest, and threw back the beer, swallowing three gulps. Gawd, this shit made me want to throw up.

  He sat beside me on the sofa, making it bounce a little. He stretched out his long, fit legs, resting them on my coffee table. Talk about smelling amazing, of soap and linen detergent. Comforting, like home. He’d cleaned the oil and grease from his fingernails. Damn, I’d still shift heaven and hell to hold his hand.

  I picked at the label of my beer. What was I going to do without him? My parents’ deaths had hit me hard. I’d only had Cole to turn to, and he’d lent his ear without asking for anything in return. I was really going to miss him. He was not going to be so easy to forget.

  “Looking forward to starting college?” He tossed back his head and lifted the bottle to his lips.

  I watched, mesmerized by the bob of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed. My fingers itched to trace the angles of his neck.

  He nudged me. “Luna. You’re a million miles away tonight.”

  “Huh?”

  Concern crammed behind his eyes. “Is it your parents? The house? The memories?”

  Hell yes. My chest tightened at the reminder of what had happened in this very room six months earlier. Things I’d not spoken of to Cole out of fear he might think me crazy. All he knew was that a large and vicious animal had attacked us. I’d repeated the same story to the cops. Like they would have believed a blood demon had appeared in our living room, grabbing my mother, growling out demands that she turn over the gift that did not belong to them. What the fuck did that even mean? Over and over I asked myself if I’d had hallucinated the whole thing. But when I had to identify my parents’ bodies all torn to pieces, I’d known I wasn’t crazy.

  Thinking about the dark fucker prompted murky lines to crawl along the wall behind Cole.

  Crap. A tremble rattled through me and I pulled my shirt tight across my chest. When the fucker had taken my parents, I’d been able to beat it back. Sent it to god-knows-where for a few months, but six weeks ago it had returned. That was why I’d decided to leave town. This time I wasn’t sure I’d be so lucky if it attacked again.

  Cole stiffened, a vein in his neck bulging, pumping his blood faster. He turned to his side, his grip on his bottle tightening. I wondered if he had sensed the demon too. Maybe I should get rid of him in case anything happened. I already carried the weight of my parents’ deaths with me. Adding his life to my burden was more than I could bear.

  “Don’t want to talk about it.” I swallowed more beer, wanting to forget the freaky creature tormenting me. Forget I was going to destroy it tonight. Forget I was leaving Cole behind.

  “Luna…I’m here if you need to…” he said, clearly not taking the hint.

  “Listen, I’d better get ready.” I put my foot on the ground, leaning forward to leave the beer on the coffee table. Didn’t want to go down that road.

  Nor did I want to give the creepy demon a thrill from antagonizing me. It delighted in my attention, my fear, my panic, as if fueled by it. No more. I was starving the fucker until it gave up. Then tonight, oh sweet tonight, it was goodbye demon. Right on cue, the darkness streaking my walls vanished. Thank god.

  Cole grabbed hold of my wrist. “I’m coming with you.”

  Energy swirled in the center of my chest. His hand on me felt right, like it belonged there, and I didn’t want him to let go.

  “To help me pack?” I asked and he nodded. Okay then.

  Inside my bedroom, I traced the metal of my double bed, the folds of the pattern. Tomorrow the estate sale organizers would come and get it all and sell it and give me the proceeds minus their fees. Then I won’t have anything to remind me of the horrible night where everything I loved had been stolen from me. All that would remain of my parents was the picture I’d take with me, the amulet my mom had made for me, and the money left to me in their will. Enough to buy my own house and fund myself through college. Heart heavy, I snatched my backpack from my closet and tossed it on the bed. I’d much rather my family was alive than have the money.

  My mattress springs squeaked as Cole sat on it. He’d never been in my room. But something about him being in here felt familiar. “Assassin’s Creed, huh?” He pointed to the poster behind my bed’s headboard.

  Hands down, that was my favorite game of all time. I’d tried teaching Cole to play, but video games weren’t really his thing. He preferred being outside, fixing things, anything, so long as he was tinkering.

  I opened my drawers and removed a pair of black, skintight jeans, folding them up and tossing them in my bag.

  “I always imagined your walls being covered with posters of Lust’n Rieber,” he joked.

  Gross. I threw a T-shirt at him. “Help me fold, will you?”

  He ran his thumb over the material before wrapping it into a neat package and putting it in my bag.

  “When will you ever finish that car of yours?” I stuffed a pair of skinny jeans in the bag.

  “A few months,” he said, folding another shirt.

  “Then what project will you tackle next?”

  “Actually…I’m starting a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Sterling City. I applied a month ago and got in.”

  No way! That was where I was going. “Finally putting all that gadget building to good use, huh?”

  Cole had a model train set on his kitchen table that he’d built from scratch. His apartment was filled with other little contraptions for all sorts of purposes—getting him beers from the fridge, making his bed, even doing the dishes! He was so nifty with his hands and incredibly creative with his inventions. I didn’t doubt he’d get accepted into the course.

  “Yep,” he said.

  Wow. I never would have picked Cole for the college type. He’d never seemed the studious type. Not once had I seen him read a book or spotted one in his apartment. He seemed to make things from scratch.

  “Don’t forget your jacket,” he said. “The black leather one.”

  Of all my jackets, that was my favorite. Funny how he remembered details like that…like I remembered his prized sweater and olive hoodie with brown strings that fitted tight to his chest and complemented his tanned skin…the one I wanted to take off him every time I saw him.

  Get a grip, you horn bag!

  I took my jacket off the hanger, stroking the leather, inhaling its scent. It made me think of Cole’s scent—oil, metallic, earthy. I was going to miss him like crazy. I squeezed my clothing to my chest.

  “What about your black jeans?” he said. “The ones that hug your ass.”

  Had he been checking me out? From the waist down, I was curvy, and my butt jutted out like juicy peaches. I didn’t think he’d ever find my backside attractive…even though a few guys I’d dated said they loved my ass in tight pants. Pity about my small handful for boobs…if only they matched my butt.

  “Hey,” he said, grabbing my wrist. “Save some room for your shoes.”

  “What?” I checked my bag and found I’d stuffed it full of socks.

  That wasn’t my only problem. I had to pack my underwear. But how was I going to do that in front of Cole?

>   Oh, gawd. Oh, gawd. Oh, gawd! That’d teach me for not buying a couple G-strings or some lace numbers. Didn’t need them when I didn’t have many boyfriends to show.

  He went to my closet and rummaged around my shoes.

  Fast as a scuttling beetle, I snuck some underwear into the side compartment in my bag. I almost yelped when he came up behind me.

  “These ones,” Cole said, standing so close, my back prickled, wishing he’d press against me. Damn he smelled so good, like beer, and for once I didn’t hate the smell. “Perfect for kicking any college a-hole in the balls.”

  I chuckled at that, but was a little confused. Honestly, I didn’t know how much longer I could take this without kissing him. It was ridiculously hard to concentrate with him this near to me. The smell of his spicy cologne made my mind spin with lust. My hands curled with the desire to reach out and touch his arms and see if they were as hard as I’d always imagined. Seemed like as a good a time as any to lay one on him and let him know how I felt about him. I stepped forward suddenly emboldened to do just that. We were so close, I felt his warmth, his breath on me.

  “What are you doing?” He receded, deflating me in a matter of four words.

  My heart slammed with frustration against my ribcage. Yep. I was stuck in the friend zone territory, and nothing would ever elevate me out of it.

  His hands found the sides of my arms, the pressure light, as if he didn’t want to break me. “Luna,” he whispered, his voice enticing me to look up at him, but I couldn’t. “I can’t.”

  I pulled away, picked up my jacket, and threw it on. “Goodbye, Cole.” I shut the door behind me, determined never to come back.