WHEN EVIL RISES

Prologue

 

She was finally dead. The snowflakes fell like little white feathers from the night sky, capping the mountain tops. She sat beside her window, framed in burgundy and black damask drapery. The new queen stared at the descending crystals, a serene smile fanned across her lips. She drew the glass from the evening tray toward her mouth, swallowing the warm red liquid.

She would hunger no more. Never have to run and hide. Her protection would lay within the boundaries of the vast forest to insure her safety. The full moon illuminated the starry night sky. Silver wisps over midnight blue clouds floated freely like flowing cotton.

Just beyond the tree-lined entrance of the castle, she heard the heavy, frightened rustle of a large animal in the underbrush and the roaring sounds of the hideous, evil laughter from the seven little hounds of hell while they continued their chase.

"Run my little children," she whispered against the glass before turning away.

Snow White lifted the Queen's arm from the floor once more, opening the bite marks on it and filling her glass with the final drops of blood that stopped her bitter heart from beating for all eternity. "Well stepmother, if you loved me more than yourself, this never would have happened. But surely, more's the pity... because you did deserve this."

 

Laughing at the unsuspecting, frightened expression on the former Queens face, she allowed the lukewarm and now lifeless arm to fall to the floor with a thud, leaving her in the very same stiffened position she did when she nearly drained her. After filling her glass again, she lifted it high in a toast toward the corpse. "Now who is the fairest of them all, Mother?" She glanced up to where the magic mirror should have been and frowned bitterly. "You treated me like an animal and that's what I have become. And now...just look at you... so natural lying there. I have your throne and there is nothing you can do to prevent it." Baring her white incisors, she walked around the corpse, and paused.

Snow could smell the scent of the woodsman as he neared the castle walls. "Come to me my love...my mate...my master, "she whispered, running the glass across her breast. If evil had a face, it would be his. When she opened the window on the side of the castle peak that peered across the lands, he was already there, perched on the wall, heavy with breath and the scent of fresh blood attached to his dark fur.

"I heard you a mile away, M'lady," the woodsman replied in a harsh whisper, while he soaked in the scent of this fierce woman before him. Lord Hayden wrapped his arms around her small waist, forcefully, roughly, sliding his tongue inside her cold and wanton mouth. "Bitch," he growled.

Desire filled her to the very core, more intense than it did before. He lowered her to the floor, next to the newly-chilled body.

Hayden felt her fingers weave through the fur on his back and growled as he began to contort into his human form, biting down into the flesh of her bare shoulder. As Snow hissed, she pushed him off. He bounced back on all fours baring his pearl white fangs.

"Take her beyond the castle walls into the woods. The animals will feast upon her decayed flesh. But first kiss me again," she commanded.

He obliged, and released her.

"This castle belongs to me now and things will be run MY way." She placed a final kiss on her stepmother's cheek. "Farewell, you wretched woman...rot in your hell."

Chapter One

 

"Cut off the infidel's hand." "No, Majesty, please! I will tell you everything! Mercy! I beg thee! I did not steal the food from the table."

"Chain him back up, and no food for a week," Snow commanded. Had she been pure and just, her castle would have been run differently. But she was half Lycan-half vampire now.

A monster, to do as she pleased.

The pungent scent of dry blood, fear, and sweat, permeated throughout the damp air within the lowest bowels of the dungeons. Tortured screams of the damned souls wallowed beyond the castle walls, as if in warning to those who dared enter the protected grounds of their own free will. Fire and brimstone heavily filled the air like that of a dragon's breath, and the flames licked at the slaves' half naked bodies and felt akin to the cracks of a heavy whip tearing the sensitive flesh.

She walked through the dungeons seeking out her unfortunate victims, and one by one the girls began to disappear.

Snow told the families their daughters would be well taken care of. They would be taught the proper manners required to become a lady. Each day Lord Hayden brought them in. Snow White inspected them from head to toe, always with a serene smile. At first the girls trusted her, still unsuspecting she was a vampire, until the day she actually became vicious.

The choice was made. The poor servant girl was released from her chains and brought into the castle. She would serve her mistress before she met her untimely fate.

Now, surrounded by her maids later that night-those tending to her necessities for her bath, the lucky ones-a young servant girl accidentally tugged too tightly on Snow White's long, obsidian locks. Roughly, she grabbed the girl by her hair, twisting hard, her strength making it difficult for the girl to stand or tear herself away, as tears rolled down her face and fear filled her belly.

The queen brought her close to her face, and forced her to her knees. She took great pleasure in torture. She bent, biting into her soft flesh. The girl screamed and made an attempt to flee, but Snow held firm. Then she let go and watched the blood drip down the girl's skin.

She licked her lips. "In the future you will all remember that it is I who offer pain or mercy. Anyone who defies me will suffer my wrath. Do this to me again, child, and you will find yourself strung up naked, held by your ankles in the torture chamber with a bed beneath you filled with knives." Snow hissed through her vampire teeth, and for the very first time, as the girls cowered back, they finally realized what they had suspected all along...this was a house of horror.

"Bring me my towels and dry my body, NOW!"

One stepped forward and the queen grabbed her face in one hand, turning it from side to side. The girl shivered. "Don't worry," the Queen snapped, "It's not your time yet."

The girls were missing at least one hundred of their friends and knew the queen had killed them and now bathed in their blood. The towels absorbed the blood from the queen's body. The servant girl tried desperately to finish as quickly as possible, holding in the bile threatening to spew forth, wanting nothing more than to escape the wrath of this evil queen.

Snow White's back was turned when she felt a second warm towel gently wrapped around her. Without warning, strong furry hands, changing back to human, roughly bent her over the tub. But before she could demand anything her hands tightly secured behind her. Snow knew who it was. As strong as she was, she could not match the strength of the animal behind her.

A deep, guttural, baritone growl filled the air. She felt the woodsman widen her thighs with his heavily muscled ones as he shoved into her.

With a wave of one large hand, he dismissed the shocked and frightened girls. Never had they witnessed something this savage as they cowered in the corner, huddled together, in a lame attempt to protect one another. As if they could. They ran from the bath seeking a safe place within the castle walls, safe from death, knowing one day they would be next.

"Time for punishment, you wicked bitch. It's times like this I think I should have left you a virgin, human, just so I could torture you over and over again." Lord Hayden's thrust was violent. He bit her shoulder and held her still.

Snow felt the raw power of the man behind her but still she would not yield. To do so would admit defeat, and she would be damned if she would ever give any werewolf full power over her.