Beast Caller Read online

  Beast Caller

  Witch Queen Book 1

  Brea Alepoú

  ©Copyrighted 2019 Brea Alepoú

  This is a work of fiction and is for mature audiences only. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. No part if the publication may be reproduced in, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, including electronically or mechanical, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  Edited: Kiki Clark Betweenthelines.com

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Proofreading: Sheridan Brettle & Toni Tooke

  Interior Formatting: Mystic Lily Creations

  Warnings and Triggers

  This book contains graphic deaths, violence and sex scenes. This work is for age's 18+. It is a work of fiction and any names, places, or dates are purely of the author’s imagination.

  Contents

  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

  Untitled

  About the Author

  Also by Brea Alepoú

  Chapter One

  Melony

  Melony ordered the chili-spiced latte at her favorite coffee shop. She was waiting on Denelle, her best friend. They had set up a coffee double date with Chris, Denelle’s current boyfriend, and his best friend. Melony wasn’t really interested, but Denelle had convinced her that it was in her best interest not to stay single any longer.

  She had tried relationship after relationship, and they all failed. Either she was too boring or not giving enough. She was tired of hearing what she lacked, so she had stopped dating. That was a year ago, and Denelle… Bless her, but the woman had too many relationships. As soon as one relationship ended, Denelle was in another one. She never gave herself time to get over the last; she just moved on to the next.

  “Melony. Earth to Melony.” Denelle was waving her arms in the air, crazy like.

  Melony smiled at her best friend. She was quirky and jumped from guy to guy, but she was always there, no matter what.

  “Spice latte,” the barista called out.

  Melony turned around and grabbed the drink. It warmed her hands, and it felt good. She took the first sip and sighed. The barista had made it perfectly, just enough spice in the latte that it had a little kick to it. She walked back to the tip jar and added another two dollars to it. It wasn’t much, but she was on a college student budget, so she had to be reasonable where she spent her money. She enjoyed another few sips before making her way over to the small table that Denelle had claimed.

  Denelle had dyed her hair again, and it was a bright, bubblegum pink. She sat next to Chris, who fit the perfect picture of an American football player. He was big from head to toe, with blue eyes, blond hair, and teeth that were artificially whitened. Melony had only met him once at a party. and the guy had had nothing else to talk about besides football. Needless to say, Melony had faked that she’d forgotten about a term paper and dipped out of there.

  Across from them was a guy with brown hair and their school jersey on. Melony was regretting this decision already. She had no patience to pretend to like football. She liked sports, but she wasn’t obsessed with them. She sighed, unable to hide her lack of enthusiasm. Denelle gave her a side eye, reminding her to be nice. Melony made eye contact with her. Of course she would be polite, but she so didn’t want to sit there for an hour and listen to football again.

  Denelle stood and moved closer to her. “This here is the amazing Melony Thomas, my best friend in the whole wide world. Melony, this is Wesley Collins.”

  Melony wanted to gawk. The Wesley Collins? Now she had to be nice. Wesley Collins’s father owned the college she was currently attending. She knew there were rules against kicking students out for no other reason than they thought your son wasn’t worth their time, but she didn’t want to chance it.

  Melony sat down next to him and stuck out her hand. He shook it, but she could tell he didn’t have any interest in her either. Chris started to talk about something that had happened at practice, which Melony had no real interest in. Instead, her eyes wandered out the window to people watch.

  “Melony,” Denelle called her.

  Melony turned. “Hmm?”

  Wesley shook his head, but he had a smile on his face. Melony was so lost in watching an old woman with her grandkid that she hadn’t noticed the conversation had changed.

  “We were talking about Professor McGrouger and the stupid long papers he assigns,” Denelle said.

  Melony nodded. “They are super long. You both take Professor McGrouger’s class?”

  Chris shook his head, but Wesley nodded. “I do. It was supposed to be an easy A, but he has us writing more papers about what we think life is about and why plants are important than actually teaching us. I swear, the man just wants us to write the whole time instead of teaching us himself.”

  Melony laughed. “That's true. He literally comes into class, asks how everyone is doing on their papers, gives a ten minute lecture, and then gives the remaining time to write. I have written a total of six papers in his class, and it's only week five.” She hated that class and everything to do with it.

  Wesley laughed with her, and Denelle sent her look that clearly said See? You two have chemistry. Make it work. But Melony felt nothing for the guy. Zilch. Nada. She sighed internally. She would get through the remaining time of the date.

  Glancing at her phone, she wanted to bang her head against the table. It had only been seven minutes. She was going to have a talk with Denelle later. She couldn’t do these blind double dates anymore. She didn’t have any interest, and whenever she thought about the idea of a relationship, she literally wanted to puke.

  She looked back out the window to see if she could find the grandma with her grandchild again. They were at least interesting. But when she looked, they were gone. She sighed; of course they were.

  She started to turn away from the window when there was a flash. Turning back, she tried to find where the flash had come from. She squinted and… There! Again a huge flash happened.

  “Did you guys see that?”

  “See what?” Wesley said.

  “Outside. There was a huge a flash of light. There it goes again.”

  They all looked out the window.

  “I don’t see anything,” Chris said.

  “There!” Melony pointed where the flash happened again. It wasn’t in the same spot, but it was close.

  “Maybe you’ve been staying up too late writing papers. Lack of sleep can cause delusions. Coach says sleep is just as important as eating,” Chris said.

  Melony knew what she was seeing. She turned to look at Denelle, waiting for her best friend to tell her she wasn’t seeing things.

  “Mel, I don’t see anything. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Melony looked back out the window and the flash happened
again. She turned to Denelle, pointing out the window. “Come on, Denelle, you have to be able to see it. It's like a huge flash.”

  Denelle looked out the window again and concentrated, her big brown eyes focusing on the window and looking for what Melony could clearly see, but she couldn’t.

  “Denelle, you can’t be seriously looking. There's nothing there. Your friend is just lacking sleep.”

  Melony wanted to punch Chris. His brain was probably too small to notice shit. She wasn’t crazy; she could clearly see it. She turned to look again, and there, it was a bunch of flashes back to back.

  “Ouch.”

  Melony turned around. Chris was rubbing his arm, and an angry Denelle stood next to him, her hand balled into a fist.

  “I don’t give a damn how good you are in bed, you will never insult my best friend. We are through. Get your shit out of my room and never come back. I have no time for someone that is rude.”

  Melony was shocked, and others in the coffee shop were watching them.

  “Whatever, you’re crazy. There ain't shit out there. You and your freak of a friend aren't good enough for us anyway. Come on, Wesley,” Chris said as he stood.

  “Says the big guy who loves to snuggle with a special bear at night,” Denelle said.

  The people around them started to snicker, and Chris leveled a glare at her. “Whatever, I only went out with you because everyone said you were easy. News flash: you’re super easy.” They left the coffee shop.

  Melony looked to Denelle, wanting to comfort her friend, but instead, Denelle turned a focused look on her. “Now, show me what you’re seeing, because I'm obviously missing it.”

  Melony wanted to hug her best friend, but she had no time.

  “Let's go outside. Maybe I can see it then,” Denelle suggested.

  Melony nodded and they hurried outside, most of the other customers paying them no mind as they left. When they made it outside, Melony looked for the flash, but she couldn’t see anything. She hadn’t been seeing things. She was sure she had seen a huge flash right where they were standing.

  Denelle looked at the spot she pointed, but Melony could tell she didn’t see anything. Melony couldn’t see anything anymore either. Maybe the flashes had been from lack of sleep. But she was pretty sure she had been getting at least five hours a night and that should be sufficient. Or maybe there was something in the latte she drank that was making her hallucinate.

  “Let’s get closer,” Denelle said.

  “Okay.” She sounded defeated to her own ears.

  “Mel, don’t get down. Look, I don’t believe you’re crazy. There has to be some reasonable explanation why you saw those flashes. So let's check them out.”

  Melony smiled. She loved her best friend. She was the best support anyone could ask for. “Okay, come on.”

  Melony led the way. When they made it to the spot the flashes had gone off, Melony looked frantically at Denelle who was right next to her, looking just as hard. She knew what she’d seen, but damn, it was nowhere to be seen. Just as she was about to give up—tired of looking like a crazy person—she felt someone brush up against her. She turned to apologize, but there was no one there.

  She turned back to Denelle to say that they needed to go home, because she was obviously going crazy, when the flash happened again. It was larger than any of the other ones she’d seen. It blinded her, and she reached for Denelle. She felt her friend’s hand in hers as Melony closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were no longer on the street in front of the coffee shop. At least, that was what she thought.

  “What the fuck?” Denelle said.

  Melony looked around them. There were bodies all over the place, as well as fire and snow. Some over the bodies were burned to a crisp and some frozen. Melony turned in a circle, and there was the coffee shop and the little boutique that was next to it. They were still on the street, but now it was littered with bodies. There was a clashing sound. She turned to look and there were people fighting.

  “Okay, I'm not crazy, right? You see the people fighting with what looks like fire in one hand and a sword in another right? And these are dead bodies?” Denelle’s voice shook.

  Melony did see it, and she was just as confused by it as Denelle was. “Yeah, I think,” she admitted.

  “Okay, good. If I need to pass out, would now be a bad time?”

  Melony looked over and saw the paleness of her face. She didn’t look so good.

  “How the fuck did humans enter the circle?” a woman said. She was beautiful, with big green eyes, high cheekbones, silver hair, and long legs. She was deadly looking with a long sword in her hand.

  Melony was attracted to her. She’d never really been interested in anyone before. She had dated guys because that's what all the girls around her did, but what if she’d been looking at the wrong gender this whole time? She had no attraction to Denelle, but the woman in front of her was stunning. There was almost a glow about her. She was that pretty.

  “Get down,” the beautiful woman shouted.

  Melony moved, pulling Denelle down with her. Right above them—where their heads had been a second ago—a fire ball flew. That had been a close one. The girl looked at them for a second before she vanished. One second, she was there, and the next she wasn’t.

  “There was some chick with armor on here a second ago, right?” Denelle asked.

  “Yeah, I saw her too,” Melony said.

  “This is insane. I’m really trying not to think about how we’re inches away from a dead body and how much it stinks.” Denelle was taking huge breaths, obviously panicking.

  Melony realized she was doing the opposite. She didn’t feel panicked at the situation. She felt strangely okay with everything around her, and that should have freaked her out, but analyzing herself wasn’t going to get them out of the situation. Maybe there was a way out. It was obvious they were somewhere else that had the exact same coffee shop name and the exact boutique, because there hadn’t been bodies when they first ventured out of the coffee shop. Plus, cops would be out arresting people and cleaning it all up. But there were no cops, and there were flying fireballs.

  She felt Denelle get closer to her, screaming and starting to punch. Melony looked over to what Denelle was screaming about. There, on the ground, crawled half of a body with fangs. The skin of the creature was ashen, its eyes glowing piss-colored yellow. It hissed at them and started to crawl faster toward them. Melony looked around for something to fend off the creature.

  She looked around frantically as Denelle screamed. She saw the hilt of a sword. She went for it. Without thinking, she kicked a dead body out of the way and held the sword out in front of her. She’d never held a sword a day in her life, but she did do t-ball when she was six. She held the sword like a baseball bat and waited for the fanged monster to get closer to her. It moved as if it didn’t see the sword in her hands, and she swung with all her strength. The head went flying. Blood didn’t spew like Melony thought it would. Instead, a now headless creature’s body kept moving.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  She started to slice down on the body, repeatedly and nonstop. There were chunks flying, and the thick, black blood splattered on her as she continued to chop the creature into little pieces. She swung the sword down one more time before calling it. She wiped her brow

  “Fucking hell, Melony,” Denelle said. Her eyes were big and shock was clearly setting in.

  “I wasn’t going to let it suck your blood,” she said.

  Denelle laughed; she was definitely in shock. “Thank you for saving me against a vampire, I think, even though they aren’t supposed to be real, but you just killed one. Fuck, you just chopped it into a bunch of little pieces. How the fuck was it even moving without a head? Why aren’t you freaking out? This is insane! There are fireballs, dead bodies, swords, and bloody vampires!”

  Melony bent over and hugged her friend. “It’s okay, Denelle. We’ll get out of this. I promise.�
�

  Denelle relaxed a little against Melony. “Okay, Mel, if you say so. But, um, when we do get out of here, we’re going to have a talk about why you're not freaking out about being covered in vampire guts.”

  Melony pulled back and looked down. Sure enough, her brand-new shirt was covered in the black blood.

  “Damn and I just got this shirt. I took the tag off this morning. You think this will stain or I can get it out?”

  Denelle laughed at her, but Melony was serious. She had really liked the shirt, and it hadn’t been cheap either. She had saved up her tutoring money and bought it.

  “Leave it to you to focus on your shirt instead of the craziness happening around us.”

  Melony shrugged. She had no explanation for why she wasn’t freaking out. She just wasn’t.

  “Oh, you’re both still alive,” said the beautiful woman from before.

  Melony picked the sword up, but she didn’t think the woman would attack them. She felt different than the vampire/monster/creature… thing that had tried to attack them.

  “Yeah. Where are we?” Melony asked.

  “Doesn’t matter. You’ll forget this place soon enough. Stay low and out of si—” She vanished and two fireballs landed where she’d been standing.

  “This is fucking crazy. How are we going to protect ourselves against fire?” Denelle asked.

  That was a good question. As far as Melony knew, you couldn’t exactly cut fire with a sword. She shrugged and screamed when the woman flashed in front of her. There was more dirt and black blood covering her.