Ichor Rising

By L.A. Kennedy

Book Six of the "Iverland Marks, A Demon Hunter Novel" Series.

Iverland Marks is called in when the police hit a dead end and the bodies are still piling up. What looks to be a demon problem to the locals, turns into a nightmare for Iverland and two of her territories most powerful shifters.

Iverland knows the problem has nothing to do with Demons. Demons weren’t as big of a problem as people thought they were. It was hard for people to wrap their heads around the fact that sometimes, most times, it was a run of the mill human being. It was hard to swallow. Thinking their fellow man slaughtered the neighborhood without any help from a demon, but that they were just that evil on their own. They didn’t need that extra push.

Iverland faces off against evil, while trying to stay alive in a territory that’s gunning for her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L.A. Kennedy
• Release date: Jun 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311721211

L.A. Kennedy

L.A. Kennedy is the author of two hit series that mix mystery, horror, romance, fantasy, and intrigue. Her Iverland Marks: A Demon Hunter (A Demon Hunter) novels started with MACABRE, where Iverland Marks continues to battle with her demons, while being sucked even deeper into the world of monsters and mayhem. Kennedy's THE DIVISIONS series features Temperance Millicent, the Nosferatu Princess, with four titles now available.L.A. Kennedy is a Canadian born writer, living in the ever-growing city of Vancouver, Canada. Here, she spends her days getting lost in the beauty of reading and writing. L.A. Kennedy mainly writes fictional books. And can be found researching myth, folklore, and everything in between.L.A. Kennedy's other published work includes two completed series titled "A Sinful Series" and "The Skin Trilogy".

Book preview

ICHOR RISING

By L.A. Kennedy

Iverland Marks, Demon Hunter

Macabre

Wraith

Bloody Vindicta

Demon Games

Marquis de Mort

Ichor Rising

COMING SOON: Danza Del Diablo

The Divisions Series

The Divisions

Division Two: The Nosferatu

Division Three: The Lycans

A Divisions Triad

COMING SOON: Division Four ~ The Magicks

The Skin Trilogy:

Skin Deep

Skin Trade

Skin Game

A Sinful Series:

Sloth

Lust

Wrath

Pride

Envy

Greed

Gluttony

All in one: A Sinful Series Collection

ICHOR RISING

A Demon Hunter Novel

L.A. Kennedy

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously. Any resemblance to action persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2015 L.A. Kennedy

All rights reserved.

This one is for the peculiar people, the poets, the oddballs, the writers, the artists, the world creators, the music makers, the shakers, the outsiders, and daydreamers. This one is for those still getting back up, and those finally standing.

And a special dedication to my fellow Equalists.

For those who are a feminist and a maninist, an equality-for-all-ist. Not because of a penis or a vagina, age, or sex. Equal for all. Regardless of ethnicity, orientation, gender – inside and out, race, creed, religion, or beliefs. We value all, from the cradle to the grave, and every moment in between.

Let’s vow to never become the monsters that we are trying to protect ourselves from.

- Rudy Francisco

Prologue

The stars were falling all around me as I laid sprawled on my back, the rocks under me digging into my bones. The little twinkling lights drizzled from the clouds, falling with such noticeable a grace, that it removed any thoughts of the harsh ground under me.

It was almost magical, the way they fell, without fear of hitting the ground. I had never had the luxury of being so unafraid of landing. There was almost a jealousy in me, of the stars. It reminded me of the ballet, how the dancers were sure of their elegant beauty, so sure of someone catching them before smashing into the earth.

The thin, white clouds opened up to give them passage to the ground, where they most certainly would burn out and die. Like so many exquisite things before them.

I blinked as the stars touched my cheeks, burning me with their arrival, inviting me into their painful landing. With each star burning out, I’d suffer with them. There was something beautiful in their death, something very human, a certainty that I envied. Every soul faces death, and every life comes to a crashing halt at some point. It did not matter if you were human, or monster, tree, or sky, death comes for everyone and everything, eventually. Some have managed to cheat death, but there was always a cost, one you’d usually regret paying.

I stared up into the sky, relearning how to breathe as each star took their last. My chest felt crushed, heavy and tight. There was no room for air, no room for life. I’d burn out with the stars. I was calmed in that thought, painless and beautiful would be my way. I had thought a thousand times, I’d go in terror, with regret and pain, fighting until the bitter end.

Tonight, there was no pain and no regrets. I suppose I never thought it could be any different, given the paths I take, knowing full well the potential outcome. Tonight would be different, and I was thankful to my bones.

Get up, Iverland. A whisper filled my right ear, barely loud enough to hear. You need to get up. Now.

A man leaned over me, blocking my view of the stars. A man I had never seen before, and as beautiful as the falling stars. His dark black hair was pulled back from his kind and calm face. I could get lost in those blue eyes forever, their kindness wrapped around me.

Get up, you need to get up. He whispered, with lips unmoving. His eyes lifted from mine, glancing around at the falling stars. He stepped back, forcing my head to turn to find him again.

Ivy! A scream finally broke through my deaf numbness.

I rolled my head to the side to see flames. No beautiful stars fell above me anymore. Ash and burning debris rained down from the clouds of smoke. The beauty was swiftly replaced with the memory of an explosion, the memory of being thrown into the air and crashing to the earth like a wounded bat out of hell. I almost regretted that loss of a beautiful delusion, felt sadness in the realization of the screaming and blood and horror that replaced my falling stars. I felt robbed, my painless escape torn from me. I wished I hadn’t rolled my head to the side. I’d still be locked in my world of a painless exit.

I sipped the air, pulling in as much as I could, clearing the beauty from my mind and opening myself up to the terror I had felt the moment my feet first left the ground. I rolled onto my side, groaning with pains I just now realized I had. Finally grasping the dread I was filled with, I breathed. My body was a mix of numbness and excruciating pain, as if my brain couldn’t decide if it had had enough or if it could endure more. I knew though, I could endure so much more. Unfortunately, I knew this all too well.

I pulled myself to my hands and knees, tilting to one side and grabbing at the ground to keep myself from going over. My body felt like it had been through a chipper, and slammed back together on the other side, into broken pieces. The world had slowed to a crawl, barely ticking by. It felt like I had all the time in the world, but knew I didn’t.

I lifted my head, shaking it slowly. My ears ringing with a piercing scream, a high pitched warning that my ear drums had suffered just as much as my body had. My eyes struggled to focus, burning from the smoke in the air and too close for comfort impact of a blast. I coughed, spitting out blood and debris. Each breath felt like small knives sinking into my bones and muscles. I knew my ribs were broken in several places, making me work for every ounce of air and every millimeter of movement.

I lifted my pounding and screaming head, knowing I had to move quicker than I was. I could now see the carnage. Bodies littered the ground like the falling stars, but there was no beauty in this. There was no wonderment. The beauty was gone, only raw ugliness left behind. Trees and rocks, covered in blood and bodies. The whispering man was gone. The only men near me were twisted and dead.

I used a small stump and pulled myself standing, on weak and watery legs. The moment I was up and standing, the world clicked back and sped up. People screamed, wood burned and cracked, guns fired, the wind blew the leaves of the still standing trees.

Ivy! Another scream from behind me grabbed my attention. Get down!

I turned and dropped to my knees as a bullet grazed my left arm. I moved into a belly crawl and pulled my beaten body over the rocks and burning debris. I could feel the wetness of the blood soaked ground, feel the pain and suffering beneath my broken body. I knew I’d remember this moment, remember crawling through death and pain. I’d never forget how the ground felt under me. I’d never forget having to climb over death, in order to survive.

I knew the moment I got off the plane, I shouldn’t have come here. I knew the moment I answered my phone that night, I shouldn’t have agreed to come here. This was bigger than I was, bigger than I’d ever be. I knew I’d probably die here, along with everyone else. Not even the monster inside of me thought it would go home. You know you’re in deep shit when your inner psycho thinks it’s going to die.

CHAPTER ONE

My cell phone brought me out of a good dream, which was rare for me. The good dream, not the phone waking me up. That part was normal in my little chunk of the world. The dream wasn’t anything spectacular, nothing all that noteworthy. I only liked it because I wasn’t being tormented or running for my life. The only parts I really remembered were of me eating toast with peanut butter, while a mouse sat on my knee eating the crust. See, nothing spectacular.

My first instinct was to ignore the earsplitting squawk of my cellphone. It was