Crown of Darkness (Divisa Huntress Book 1) Read online

  Crown of Darkness

  Divisa Huntress Book One

  J. L. Weil

  Dark Magick Publishing, LLC

  Published by J. L. Weil

  Copyright 2020 by J. L. Weil

  http://www.jlweil.com

  All rights reserved.

  First Edition 2020

  Edited by Alliyson Ma and Stephany Wallace

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Also by J. L. Weil

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Read more by J. L. Weil

  About the Author

  Also by J. L. Weil

  DIVISA HUNTRESS

  (New Adult Paranormal Romance)

  Crown of Darkness

  DRAGON DESCENDANTS SERIES

  (Upper Teen Reverse Harem Fantasy)

  Stealing Tranquility

  Absorbing Poison

  Taming Fire

  Thawing Frost

  THE DIVISA SERIES

  (Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Losing Emma: A Divisa novella

  Saving Angel

  Hunting Angel

  Breaking Emma: A Divisa novella

  Chasing Angel

  Loving Angel

  Redeeming Angel

  LUMINESCENCE TRILOGY

  (Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Luminescence

  Amethyst Tears

  Moondust

  Darkmist – A Luminescence novella

  RAVEN SERIES

  (Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)

  White Raven

  Black Crow

  Soul Symmetry

  BEAUTY NEVER DIES CHRONICLES

  (Teen Dystopian Romance)

  Slumber

  Entangled

  Forsaken

  NINE TAILS SERIES

  (Teen Paranormal Romance)

  First Shift

  Storm Shift

  Flame Shift

  Time Shift

  Void Shift

  Spirit Shift

  HAVENWOOD FALLS HIGH

  (Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Falling Deep

  Ascending Darkness

  SINGLE NOVELS

  Starbound

  (Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Casting Dreams

  (New Adult Paranormal Romance)

  Ancient Tides

  (New Adult Paranormal Romance)

  For an updated list of my books, please visit my website: www.jlweil.com

  Join my VIP email list and I’ll personally send you an email reminder as soon as my next book is out! Click here to sign up: www.jlweil.com

  For everyone who fell in love with Chase and Angel and has continued to show their love! Thank you so much! I hope Lexi and Ashor find a place in your heart as well.

  Prologue

  People told me I was born of darkness—of evil.

  If humans knew what I truly was, they would hunt me down and slaughter me like a lamb. They’d call me an abomination, a threat. And maybe they had a right to be scared. If they only knew what I was capable of … the demon that lived within me.

  I’d been labeled before, called names for not fitting in. Freak. Weirdo. Slut. Most didn’t come close to describing me, but that didn’t take the sting out of the loneliness. So I stopped caring about things like popularity and fitting in. I went through the motions of living, of pretending I was okay when inside I was crippled by my ostracism.

  Without my family, I would have given over completely to the darkness I hated about myself. This stain on my soul prevented me from ever being normal, and I used to crave a mundane life so desperately.

  But I no longer cared about finding love or blissful happiness.

  Screw love. Screw happily ever after.

  I wanted revenge.

  1

  I’d been hunting in these woods for most of my life, always with the same purpose.

  Various shades of gold, cranberry, and pumpkin leaves drooped from the heavy rain that had fallen earlier in the day. Dampness clung to the air, perfuming the woods with sweet pine and wet earth.

  It hadn’t been my intention to hunt tonight, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity when it presented itself. The hunt sang in my blood; I couldn‘t ignore it. Not anymore.

  Once I might have been able to evade what stirred within me. Once I might have kept driving down the road lined with towering trees. But that was before they took everything from me. Before they took the boy who meant everything to me.

  I monitored the tree line of the clearing, seeing through the coverage of night with ease—a trait inherited from my demon mother. The other girls at college thought they had family problems.

  Please.

  Those girls didn’t have shit on me.

  Try being half-demon in a mortal world where no one can know who you truly are, or about the darkness that lives inside you, or how you have to spend every day fighting against it. Try going to school and having everyone fear you but not understand why they do. The list of crap I had to deal with on the daily went on and on.

  Cry me a river.

  A crisp gust of wind blew in, shaking the leaves from their branches. Autumn had come blazing into Spring Valley with purpose.

  To make my life hell.

  The chill in the air didn’t bother me nearly as much as the dampness. Demon blood allowed me to withstand the cold longer than humans—another of the many traits my demon mother had passed on to me. I lifted my stiletto out of the muddy earth and cursed. I really needed to keep a pair of boots in my trunk, and I contemplated taking off my shoes. Tracking a demon in heels wasn’t efficient, but I’d make do. This bastard was mine.

  After the day I’d had, I deserved the rush, the exhilaration, and the tiny piece of sweet retribution each kill offered.

  I brushed at a drop of water that had plopped onto my nose from the overhanging branches and steadied my breathing to nearly silent. In the clearing, I saw no signs of the demon, but he was close.

  And I was closing in.

  Excitement tingled over my spine, but I stamped it down, forcing myself to focus on my surroundings. The last thing I needed was the demon to get the jump on me. He was as much hunting me as I was him. Hellish prick.

  I despised them all.

  Leaves crunched under my foot as I unstrapped my dagger, easing away from the tree. For centuries, demons had invaded the mortal world, doing all kinds of nefarious deeds—from murder, to torture, and seduction. That’s how my brother Travis and I were conceived. Our father was enticed by a creature with the body of a beautiful woman. Some demons could shape shift, others possessed, using the human as a host and ultimately killing th
em. My mother was a sultry succubus. After she had given birth, she dumped us on our father’s doorstep and disappeared. He had been foolish enough to fall under her spell not once, but twice—not that I blamed him. Humans were weak when it came to the flesh.

  My family seemed to be cursed when it came to being seduced by demons. My cousin, Chase, was also a half-demon, a Divisa as we were called, but he was complicated. Everything about Chase Winters was complicated … and intense.

  He married my best friend, and they were stupidly in love. I was so happy for them both; I really was, but it was hard to not also envy the connection they shared. It went beyond just love. They were bound together by an otherworldly force, linking their hearts, their souls, and their bodies.

  I didn’t need love.

  In fact, I’d sworn off all matters of the heart. I didn’t need or want the complication, but occasionally when the mood struck, it would be nice to have someone to get freaky between the sheets with.

  Frat boys fit my criteria. They had a dick. They didn’t have any expectations other than to get laid. And that suited me just fine. No entanglement of emotions. No chance of getting hurt.

  If Chase or Travis ever found out about the little extra credit I was doing at college, they would have a shit-fit. Then they would storm my college campus and beat the ever-loving-crap out of every guy who looked in my direction. I was twenty-two years old for god’s sake. They made it impossible to have a healthy sex life.

  But why shouldn’t I?

  They both had sex on the regular with the ladies in their life. What was the big deal about mine? And I didn’t want to hear that lame excuse about being their little sister or cousin. Seriously. I was more than capable of taking care of myself, and they both knew it.

  It was bad enough they tried to censor the one thing that made me feel alive. Hunting. The only person who really understood was Emma Deen, my brother’s girlfriend, who also happened to come from a long lineage of demon hunters.

  She was my girl. I had learned so much from her over the last two years, regardless that Travis and Chase didn’t approve of our friendship. Emma wasn’t the kind of girl who took orders from her boyfriend. Or from anyone really.

  It was fall break at Northern Illinois University, and I had decided to come home for the week. I’d been driving back from school when I spotted the a-hole in the trees. Those glowing red eyes were a dead giveaway and hard to miss in the dead of night.

  I’d have to keep my family waiting just a bit longer. A spark of impatience with my hunt went through me at the thought of seeing my family. However much I enjoyed living on campus, I missed my home. There was no place in the world like Spring Valley, Illinois.

  It was also the demon capital of the world now, thanks to my sister-in-law (long story).

  God, how I missed this. The sweet rush. The anticipation. The surge of adrenaline.

  I’d managed a few hunts at school over the last two years, but nothing like home. One would think a college campus would be the perfect breeding ground for demons. I blamed Chase and Angel for the lack of them at my university. No doubt they had put some sort of hellish ban on my school.

  My family would consider coming into the woods alone a risk, even for someone with my skill set. Still, I would rather be here hunting a demon than spending another Friday night at a fraternity party.

  Moving between the trees, I crouched down beside a cluster of bushes. After searching for a few minutes, I listened for any signs of movement. A breath of warm air expelled from my nose, and I shifted my weight, easing into a more comfortable position. Plop. Plip. Plop. Tiny splats of rain plunked to the ground, dripping from the leaves and branches.

  Where are you, you little bastard? You want to toy with me? Let’s play.

  And that’s when I saw it. His shadow.

  Withdrawing the dagger strapped to my thigh with precision and instinct, I kept my eyes locked on the demon.

  Gotcha.

  Less than forty paces away, the vile creature sniffed the air, searching for me. A gust of wind blew in through the woods, carrying my scent. The second he smelled it, a hiss vibrated from his black lips, revealing two rows of sharp teeth. His glossy skin was the color of tar, allowing him to blend almost seamlessly with the night. Moonlight leaked through the tree branches overhead, providing the only illumination as I stalked my prey with soundless stealth. My fingers clutched the slim dagger in my hand, and I squared my shoulders to face the demon in front of me. “Holy crap, you’re an ugly son of a bitch,” I said with a grin.

  He had height and strength as his advantage, looming over my five-foot-three frame, but I didn’t let the hindrance faze me. His foul breath wafted over my face, and I tried not to gag.

  I waved a hand in an attempt to rid the air of his stench. “Next time you plan to invade my world, do me a favor and eat a goddamn Tic Tac.”

  He wasn’t impressed with my advice. “Half-breed,” he growled.

  I took a step back and gave a slight curtsey. “At your service. So, how would you like to die tonight?” Some people liked to play with their food before they eat it. I liked to taunt my demons before I sent them packing back to Hell.

  The demon shot for me in a blur of shadows and glowing red eyes, his razor nails gleaming. Braced for the attack, I sidestepped the creature as he lunged, just barely avoiding the swipe of his claws.

  From the time I was born, I’d been hunted by demons and hunters. It was my way of life. I had to be prepared for something around the corner at any moment, knowing I had to fight to survive. Killing a demon, even a lower demon, wasn’t a simple task and often required a skilled hunter or more than one Divisa—my cousin Chase being the exception.

  With Emma’s help and training with Chase and Travis over the years, I’d honed my abilities, but even with my exceptional traits, I’d be a fool to take on a higher demon alone.

  Good thing this idiot was just a sad lower demon.

  Him, I could handle blindfolded … while wearing a pair of heels.

  I’d skip the blindfold tonight.

  I whirled back around to see those large crimson eyes flaming with hate. A low rumble reverberated deep in his chest as it rose and fell. When he came at me this time, I slammed the end of my shoe into his lower gut. Really low. Like just a few inches lower and he would have been on the ground like a little baby groaning about his prized demonhood.

  Did I mention the spikes of my heels were tipped with blades? One of Emma’s little contraptions.

  He was only stunned for a few moments, which left me little time for a countermove. I wiggled my foot, about to rip my shoe out of him, but then his hand curled around my ankle.

  Crap. My chest tightened.

  The demon struck, bringing his arm down on my leg. Crack. Blinding pain followed with swirling black stars behind my eyes. The pain was secondary to my desire to live and kill the creature who represented everything I resented about my life.

  His blow hadn’t been bone-crushing but precise and swift for a lower demon, meant not to disable me but to toy with me. I was taken aback by his calculation.

  Hobbling back a step or two, I stared down at a pair of seriously kickass Jimmy Choo’s with rage and disgust. “You broke my favorite pair of heels, asshole. Do you know how hard it is to find the perfect shade of red?”

  The demon snarled, drooling an acid-like substance onto the ground.

  I hated nothing more than ruining a pair of stellar heels. “Listen, you soul sucker, today is not the day to mess with me. So why don’t we cut to the chase and I’ll send you on your merry way back to Hell.”

  His response was to go for my neck. I guess playtime was over. Ducking just as the demon shot his hand for my throat, a whoosh of air blew my hair back. That had been close.

  Too close.

  Standing to my full height, I slashed my dagger across his abdomen. The demon shrilled, sending a flock of birds into the sky, losing his focus for all of a second. Flecks of inky blood splattered o
n my shoes.

  “Fuck me,” I swore. Now he’d really done it.

  “You little bitch,” the demon hissed. His dark blood reeked, polluting through the air. “I’ll have your condemned heart before this night endsss.”

  The beast had one thing right. My heart was damned.

  I angled my head to the side, a grin twisting my lips. “Is that a promise?”

  He lunged for me again but I brought up my dagger, plunging into his heart, cutting through skin, muscle, and bone. It wasn’t an easy task. Stabbing a demon required immense strength to pierce through their rubbery flesh. If they possessed a human though, it was easier. Black ink squirted from the wound in an awful gush and ran down my fingers.

  Gross.

  This part of the hunt was my least favorite. There was nothing worse than being covered in demon blood and guts.

  I ripped out my dagger and shoved his body to the ground. His blood stained the fallen leaves. The thud of him hitting the earth was the only sound among the too silent trees. “Too bad you didn’t bring any friends. I could have really used the practice.”

  Blank Vacant eyes stared back at me.

  Then he vaporized, his demon soul scorching the earth. A shudder vibrated through the woods—like a crack in the earth had opened up to take the creature back to where it belonged, which is deep in the depths of the earth’s crust to a world beyond this one.