Last Chance (Kingdom Chronicles Book 8)

Book summary

Officer Brandon Green's life is turned upside down when his love vanishes, leaving him despondent and under suspicion. While sidelined from duty, a chance encounter with a vampire leads Brandon and his partner Phil on a perilous quest into an unknown underworld. Their mission: to rescue Brandon's lost love before it's too late.

Excerpt from Last Chance (Kingdom Chronicles Book 8)

The snow fell, melting against the warm window as it did. The natural beauty of the land, covered in white. The trees sparkling in the sun.

It was all beautiful. He stared out the window, a cup of steaming coffee in his hand. He could only think of one thing, the same repeating thought over and over.

Her. Jean. The woman who was never supposed to exist for someone like him, but somehow did. The universe had put them together like a cheesy romantic movie. Two lost souls destined to be together through impossible circumstances, only to end up like this. It was cruel, even for the gods if they had anything to do with it.

How long had it been? A month. Two months. Time moves to a crawl when the person you love is missing.

No. Not missing. Stolen. Corrupted. Taken.

All those words burned in his mind, and he was tempted to throw the coffee mug through the window out of pure frustration. Being so helpless about the whole situation was a special kind of torment that came in waves. He could feel another wave of grief coming on. A cold and sick feeling that couldn’t be stopped. Endless questions, what-ifs, no one to scream at or blame but himself.

He should have done better. That’s all there was to it, but what better might have looked like, he didn’t know. More grief, more pain.

He imagined the shattering glass, the sound it would make. The instant regret and mess he’d have to clean up after, not to mention the expense. It wasn’t worth it. That didn’t make it any less tempting.

“Damn it,” he said, not knowing what else to say. Then he sat down on a wooden chair in the kitchen. Everything was miserable, everything had her face on it, her scent, her memories.

He swore sometimes he could smell her favorite perfume, if only for a few painful moments. A cosmic joke from the universe. A trick of the mind, he wasn’t sure.

Lost in his thoughts every day since she ran away, of her own free will, it appeared. She wasn’t the same in the days leading up to it, so many things gone wrong. Mind drifting off again, it took effort to stop that thought cycle from starting up again. Another sip of coffee.

It was the same routine every day. Think about her when he got up. Wonder if she got enough to eat today, if she was alright. Pray to whatever God he hoped cared enough to listen to get her to come back or to help him find her, pray for the dreams to stop. Try not to fall apart, sleep. Repeat.

Then, sharp static filled the air and brought him back to the present. He shook his head and picked up the communicator that was on the table.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Boss wants us to come in early today, you up for it?” the voice on the other side asked. The man looked at his coffee, still steaming. He didn’t have much will to drink it anyway. Taking care of himself was a chore these days, everything was so much harder to do. It was like being sick, but worse somehow.

“Sure, how far out are you?” he asked, trying to sound somewhat happy. It wasn’t convincing.

“Ten minutes,” the voice replied. “I’ll be waiting,” the man replied and set the communicator down.

Ten minutes was five more than he needed to get ready for work. Work was a blessing now, staying in this house was turning into an emotional torture chamber, but finding the energy to do anything else was its own nightmare.

He thought about dumping the coffee down the drain but decided against it. Then he moved to the fridge and set the cup inside.

“Be back for you later,” he said, not knowing why. Then he grabbed his badge and put it on his shirt. Then he slapped his left hand against it. His clothes transformed into his police uniform. He walked to the sink, turned the water on, and splashed his face with water to make it try and look like he got more than five hours of sleep the night before. Or any night since that day.

Turned the water off. It was getting harder to hide as time moved on.

He checked his weapon, a black gun, standard police issue, in perfect condition. “Why is it the only things I can keep in my life are the things that kill?” he asked no one, then holstered the weapon. He took a deep breath and walked to the front door.

That first blast of cold air helped wake him up a little more. It wasn’t that cold out, some light snow. It wasn’t very long before he could see the car coming down the road. “Early as usual.”

The cruiser pulled up, came to a stop. The brakes made a slight squeak in the cold. He opened the door.

“How you doing today?” his partner asked as he got in. “Same as I do every day. I’m still alive, Phil,” he said.

“I know, you know what I mean, since Jean got, well, left,” the man narrowed his eyes. He wanted to hit his partner, why would he bring that up? The last thing he wanted to talk about, her. He resisted.

“I don’t know. Taking it one day at a time,” he replied. “Brandon, you need to let her go. The department has a pro on the case, she’ll help take care of it. It’s time to move on,” Phil said and put the car into gear.

“Move on?” Brandon asked. “She was everything to me, then. Like someone flipped a switch, she got into that chill weed. Someone offered it to her, and she was a different person. Someone did something to her. That’s not the person I knew,” Brandon replied, looking out the window.

“Sometimes we never know who people are until they show us. How many times, Brandon. How many times have we been on a suicide case and the parents say the same thing. ‘He was so happy, we never saw this coming, they weren’t this kind of person.’ How many times?” Phil asked.

The point was brutal, to the point, honest too. “I know, but for two whole years she was, her. There were no signs of this. Nothing. I’m not your typical parent. I’m trained to look for deception, lies, tricks. She was as honest as she could be. Now, I don’t know,” he trailed off.

Hope was a hell of a thing. It could drive a man insane. Brandon’s brain constantly raced trying to make sense of the sudden change. Sickness, magic, chemical, manipulation. It could have been anything. He knew that wasn’t her.

“I know, but we don’t even know where she’s at, she disappeared. Some of the guys think you killed her,” Phil said.

Brandon wanted to hit the dash but resisted. “I couldn’t,” he replied. “I’d never,” he finished. “I know man, I know, but the others, well, they aren’t so convinced.”

Brandon could only stare out the window. “I know.” He couldn’t talk about this anymore. “Why did the boss want us early?” Brandon asked. “I don’t know. Special assignment, I imagine,” Phil replied.

“Special, I hope it’s not some event. I don’t want to represent Gipick’s finest anymore at some box store grand opening, again,” he said and sighed.

“Oh, stop complaining, it’s easy money and like a vacation. Just stand there. Smile, look good. Wave a little bit. Mingle with the crowd. Get paid,” Phil replied. “Yes, that’s all true. Not what I signed up for, but easy, I guess,” he said.

“Man, you’d complain if gold was floating around, free for the taking,” Phil replied.

“Yeah, do you not realize how annoying that’d be? Driving along and all of a sudden, a random gold brick smashes into your windshield or something? Not exactly a fan of that idea,” Brandon replied.

“You really know how to take the fun out of everything, don’t you?” Phil asked. “These days, I can’t help it. It’s like my heart and soul were smashed into dust. Scattered to the wind,” Brandon replied.

“I’m getting a new partner, that does it. No fun has to be a good reason to ditch your partner for good,” Phil said, shaking his head.

“You’d put me and my misery on someone else? Am I finally getting you to lose it a little?” Brandon asked with a slight smile. “There’s the guy I know, you prick,” Phil said, with a slight laugh.

Brandon, for a brief moment, hadn’t been thinking about his situation. He was grateful for that. Peace was rare.

Phil made a left turn, and the police station came into view. It was a humble building. No statues or grand displays of any kind. Just a brick building with a simple blue sign to the right of the door. “Home sweet home,” Phil said as he pulled up to the building and parked the car.

“Well, let’s see what adventure awaits us next,” Phil said, took the keys out, then got out of the car. Brandon did the same.