Hybrid Theory (Noc City Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  Hybrid Theory

  Noc City - Book Three

  Penn Cassidy

  Contents

  About Hybrid Theory

  Disclaimer

  Blood Moon Recap

  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

  Thank you!!!

  Ps!

  Where to stalk me!

  Copyright © 2021 by Penn Cassidy

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, June 7th 2021

  Editing: Meghan Leigh Daigle - Bookish Dreams Editing

  Formatting: Inked Imagination Services

  Created with Vellum

  About Hybrid Theory

  I'm changing…

  From the inside out, I'm changing and I can't stop it. Who I was, who I thought I could be… It's all gone now. A single moment was all it took to shatter everything I thought I knew about myself. A single moment was all it took to make me the most wanted woman in the world.

  Disclaimer

  If you’ve made it this far in the series, then I probably don’t have to tell you this, but I will anyway. This book is not for the faint of heart, and touches on some dark subject matter that could be triggering for some readers. If you don’t like your men mean and morally grey, and your sex bloody and a little dangerous, then perhaps this isn’t the book for you. But if you’re into that shit, then hop on board because this is going to be a wild fucking ride!

  Blood Moon Recap

  August

  We hit the ground hard, rubble raining down around us. If I had to guess, I’d say we fell about three stories. We landed in the middle of what looked like a long series of hallways, lit up with flashing red emergency lights that made the dust almost impossible to see through.

  The fall didn’t hurt me, but I hadn’t been expecting it. Looking around, I searched for any sign of Serenity. She’d been ripped from my grasp, and I couldn’t smell her through the smoke and dust. We shouldn’t have come here. The building was getting ready to fall the rest of the way down, and if we didn’t find our way back out soon, we’d end up buried underneath several tons of concrete, marble, and steel. We were strong, but we weren’t invincible.

  A purple light glowed through the dust, so I shoved a slab of concrete off of my torso and got to my feet, heading towards its light. It was Bastian, he’d probably used his magic to pad his fall. Unlike us, he was still as physically fragile as a human. I found him shaking off plaster, stripping off his suit jacket and wiping it off his face. There was a purple glow hovering around him, and it was starting to dim now that we were on our feet.

  A scream tore through the silence. A female scream, high-pitched and in pain. My heart sank to my stomach as Bastian's eyes met mine, terror clear as day. We took off at a dead sprint, dodging more debris, hanging wires, and steel beams. She screamed again, quieter this time, tapering off into a pained whimper.

  “Serenity!” I yelled, voice echoing off of the halls. “Serenity, where are you?! Answer me!”

  I had no idea how we got seperated in that fall, but it was nothing but chaos. Desperation nearly tore me apart as I searched for my mate. I’d never felt anything like it, this all-consuming insanity. The only thing that kept going through my head was the image of her covered in blood, dying under a pile of rubble.

  I was frantic, and so was Bastian. He screamed her name over and over again, knocking things out of his way with sharp blasts of magic. I knew he had to be tiring himself out, but there was clearly nothing stopping him from getting to her.

  “Over here!” Merrick called out. I followed his voice off to the left, where the hallway split off into a series of rooms.

  When we stepped in, I cursed under my breath at what I saw. My stomach was in knots, and I felt like I wanted to puke. Twisted metal littered the room, red lights flickering off of a slew of dead bodies. Some were twisted up in the metal, others were burned beyond recognition.

  The room was larger than I’d thought, spanning about seventy feet in length, and lining the walls on either side with a small pathway in between…were cages. Heavy, steel cages, some of them broken in the blast and twisted up together, poking out every which way and even impaling some of the bodies that were strewn about the room.

  It smelled like rotten and cooked flesh, and I watched as Bastian bent at the waist and vomited off to the side. I didn’t blame him. The air was thick with pungent death.

  “Merrick!” I called out.

  “Over here!” Through the flashing red lights, I saw a dark form step out into the narrow pathway. “Get over here!”

  Clapping Bastian on the back, I gave him a look as if to ask if he was good. The warlock simply nodded, wiping his mouth and standing back up. He nodded for me to go ahead.

  We made our way towards Merrick in time to see Atlas and Faust standing there as well, eyes locked on a figure huddled on the floor next to a couple of still intact cells. Her white hair was in a disarray, and her whole body seemed to be covered in white powdered marble.

  “Serenity…?” I said in a near whisper. “Baby, what are you doing?” Creeping forward, I watched as Merrick held a hand up to stop me from going to her. I frowned at him, but he looked away, nodding at her crouched form.

  As I got closer, I realized something was very, very wrong. Her hands were wrapped around the bars of the cell, and she was crying. I could hear her sniffling, little hiccuping sobs spilling from her lips, and it cracked open my chest and splintered me from the inside out. Even Faust was watching her with the strangest expression, and I couldn’t tell if it was pity, guilt, or sadness, but it was something different.

  “Is this place what I think it is?” Bastian asked, looking around at the cages and medical equipment bolted to the walls.

  Merrick and Atlas both nodded. “We’ve already checked the remains, but there’s no sign of Estelle, Loxley, or Beatrix. Most of these are witches, but there are a couple of dhampirs too.” I looked around at the bodies. All of them were female.

  There was a woman in the cage Serenity was sobbing into. She was lying on her side, blood seeping from a serious head wound. I could smell it filling the air thickly, and I knew that she wasn’t going to make it very long. The woman had bright white hair, and she looked young, maybe in her mid-forties. I immediately recognized her face. Elodie Harker.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Serenity cried out against the bars. “Mom, please, tell me what to do…”

  I could hear Elodie’s breathing through the sickening silence, and the slowing beat of her heart. It was rapidly giving out. She had minutes at the most. There was a gash in her head, and her body was covered in bruises, cuts, and what looked like track marks. My stomach soured, and I wondered how long she’d been kept in here.

  The news had reported her presence in the building, alleging she’d been here on business, meeting with officials from out of town. I was quickly realizing that it was all just a big cover-up, one that was clearly meant to both dispose of Elodie and garner a fresh wave of supporters to join Harker in his plan to bring down the darklings. An attack like this was exactly the push he needed to tip the city over that final edge.

  “There’s a cell…” Elodie finally choked out. Her voice was grating and scratchy like sandpaper. When she spoke, I could hear her heart flutter. “There’s a cell. You need to know…” She fell into a coughing fit.

  I searched the room, trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about.

  “Open the… Please…”

  “Mom, we need to get you out of here,” Serenity cried out.

  “I’m not going to make it, baby. I’m so sorry, but you have to l…” She coughed some more, blood gurgling from her mouth and dripping onto the floor.

  “Mom!” Serenity shook the bars of the cell frantically, and I wanted so badly to go to her. “Mom, what’s going on, why are you in here?”

  “Over here!” Atlas called out from the other end of the room. I looked up and saw him standing at the far wall. I hadn’t even realized he’d moved at all. Faust joined him, but I didn’t want to move. I couldn’t leave Serenity here to watch her mother die so painfully right in front of her.

  “I’m sorry I never told you…” Elodie said.

  “Tell me what?” Serenity was frantic, sticking her arm through the bars and brushing her mother’s hair out of her bloody face. “Tell me what?” she repeated.

  There was a loud thud and a crash, then the sound of bending metal, and I looked over and saw Faust, Merrick, and Atlas ripping a thick steel door off its hinges before it crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.

 
“Holy fuck…” I heard Merrick hiss as all three vampires backed away from a dark room with wide, uncomprehending eyes. “Is that…”

  Serenity’s head whipped in their direction, and I watched as she suddenly inhaled deeply. Her shoulders stiffened, and it was like she’d briefly turned to stone.

  “Go…” her mother croaked out. “Please…”

  Getting to her feet, Serenity stumbled, using twisted and gnarled cages to help her along. She made it to the darkened room, and the vampires stood back, letting her pass. There was a strange look in each of their eyes, a mixture of shock, pity, and awe. I didn’t understand. But the moment she peered into the darkness, the scream that fell from her lips had chills skating up my spine.

  “Sean!” she screamed. “Oh god, Sean!”

  Sean? There’s no way… There’s no fucking way…

  Disappearing into the darkness, I heard her sobs, and I wanted to go to her, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave Elodie as she gasped for breath. It didn’t feel right. Nobody should have to die like that—alone and in agony.

  The building shook again, and more concrete rained down overhead. We needed to move, but before I could call out to Serenity, the far wall was blasted inwards, throwing Merrick and Atlas towards me. Faust dove, hitting another wall and crashing into medical equipment.

  Through the smoke, I could see shadows moving, stepping into the room. It was still hard to see, but I could make out the shapes of people spilling into the room. Humans, from the smell of them. When the smoke cleared, I could see that there were twelve of them. Some wore dark suits and ties with guns in their hands, while a few of the others wore fatigues, holding long metal objects that looked like something a dog catcher would use to capture a stray.

  I ran for Serenity. The vampires were back on their feet in seconds, and they were headed straight towards the men. Gunfire erupted, echoing off of the metal cages. As I ran towards the dark room, I spotted a head of white hair. Serenity was facing backwards, pulling something out of the darkness. She had her hands hooked under a man’s arms, dragging him out of the cell. The man had the same shock of pale hair as Serenity, confirming the fact that this was indeed Sean Harker in the fucking flesh.

  “Give him to me!” I shouted, rushing to my mate and scooping Sean right off the floor and out of her arms. “I’ve got him.”

  Shit… He weighed nearly nothing, and he was completely naked and nearly skin and bones. His familiar face was gaunt, and there were dark circles under his eyes. Track marks dotted his arms and neck.

  Serenity dropped to her knees, and a sudden scream tore from her lips. The scream was so loud and so piercing that it had everyone in the room coming to a brief halt, but it didn’t last long before more gunshots pierced the air, a few whizzing right past my head.

  I’d never heard a scream like hers before. It was agony, plain and simple. I wanted to reach for her, but I held Sean in my arms and knew he might very well break if I let him go now. She screamed again, elbows on the floor. Her nails lengthened, scratching and digging into the concrete.

  “It hurts!” she cried out. “August!” Her guttural wailing tore something inside of me, and for the first time in nearly a thousand years, I felt helpless. I was frozen, useless.

  A loud shot rang out, and then another scream tore through the room, though it wasn’t hers. A softer one, female. I looked up at the same time as Serenity to see more blood spilling from Elodie's cell.

  Serenity shot to her feet, breathing hard and eyes ablaze with rage. Bloody tears dripped down her cheeks, and her fangs bit into her lower lip, drawing blood. But there was something…off about her eyes. They were utterly black, shining like two orbs of the purest midnight…but there, right in the center, was a ring of the brightest, shining yellow.

  “Baby…” I breathed, voice shaking against the need to drop Sean and sweep my mate into my arms. I wanted to run with her and leave this place. I wanted to run all the way out of this city and hide her away, so nobody could make her scream like that ever again.

  Before I could do any of that, she shot past me in a blur, moving too fast for me to see. But I heard the screams that followed. The screams of men. The thuds of heavy bodies hitting the floor. The cracking of bone and the tearing of flesh. One after another fell to their deaths, eyes unseeing, necks twisted or heads ripped clean from their spines.

  I stood there gaping at the scene, still unsure of exactly what I was witnessing. Bastian stood in front of Elodie’s cell, casting a purple shield over her, but I knew it wasn’t strong enough to last, and Elodie had already been shot. I headed that way with Sean in my arms, barely able to take my eyes off my mate, who ripped into the human men like they were nothing but ants.

  It wasn’t long before the gunshots stopped completely and the screams died down. The building was still rumbling, telling me we had minutes left. The foundation was ready to disintegrate, and we were already pushing our luck.

  Merrick, Faust, and Atlas rushed to Serenity, who had fallen to her knees. Her face, hair, and hands were covered in blood, and her whole body was shaking. She knelt in the center of a pile of broken bodies. She’d torn them to pieces. She’d done it with her own bare hands.

  I met Atlas’ eyes for a brief moment, and they were haunted. Something was wrong.

  Serenity screamed again, curling in on herself, and Bastian let the shield around Elodie drop before racing to my mate and dropping to his knees next to her. He laid his palms on her, a glowing light emanating from them, but nothing happened. I watched as the others closed in, Merrick running his fingers through his hair, frantically pulling on the strands as curses fell from his lips.

  “What’s wrong with her?!” Faust shouted. “Why is she screaming?!” He was pacing, back and forth, back and forth. His eyes were wild, and his hands were balled into fists.

  Serenity let out a sound that was halfway between a sob and a moan. It curdled my stomach. I rushed to Elodie’s cell and laid Sean out on the floor. My legs were ready to give out, and it was as if I could physically feel Serenity’s pain and anguish. I rushed to her, dropping to my knees next to Bastian.

  “Can you dull the pain?” I asked him. His hands were still glowing, roving over her shaking body, but nothing he did seemed like it was working.

  “I…I can’t,” he panted, meeting my eyes with desperation in his. “It’s not working. I don’t know what’s happening to her.”

  “Well someone needs to do something!” Faust shouted. “Can't you see she’s in agony?! Fuck!” He dropped down too, taking Serenity’s shoulders in his hands, but flinched back a second later, eyes going wide. “She’s burning up…”

  “I'm so sorry…” came a choked whisper from behind us.

  We all looked to Elodie, bleeding out on the floor of the cell. She was so close to death, it would only be a matter of seconds before she was gone. I could hear her pulse fading. It fluttered, but it was barely more than that.

  “Elodie, what’s happening to her?” I growled out. “What did they do to her?” I just knew Ryan Harker and that freak doctor had something to do with what was happening to her.

  Serenity screamed again, and the horrifying sound of cracking bone filled the room. I felt my heart thud painfully in my chest.

  “I thought I was doing the right thing… He told me it was the right thing,” Elodie whispered, begging us to understand. “Tell her I’m sorry, and I never meant to hurt her…”

  “Elodie,” I warned, my voice growing sharp.

  Her blue eyes flooded with tears as she gazed at her daughter writhing on the floor. Her face was filled with so much pain and regret in her last moments.