Heaven in Hell: Episode One: A Post-Apocalyptic Paranormal Romance Series (The first episode in the Heaven in Hell Series) Read online

  Heaven in Hell: Episode One

  Dia Cole

  Contents

  Summary

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Books By Dia Cole

  Excerpt Heaven in Hell: Episode Two

  Summary

  Chapter 1

  Thank you

  Heaven in Hell: Episode One

  All rights reserved.

  Published by Black Diamond Press LLC.

  Copyright © 2017

  This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction, electronic sharing, or other unauthorized use of this book is prohibited without the express written permission of the publisher.

  Cover Art by Majeau Designs

  Edited by Anne-Marie Rutella

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978-1-946975-01-0

  Summary

  Live by his rules or die by them…

  In the wake of the zombie apocalypse, twenty-year-old Lee Walker is desperately trying to keep the last of her family alive. Salvation seems to come in the form of Dominic Rosario, a sexy army sergeant. Despite his questionable motives and brutal tactics, Lee can’t deny the scorching attraction burning between them. When a dangerous mission goes south, Lee must face her growing feelings for Dominic and a terrifying new creature that will hunt them to the grave.

  For the brothers...

  1

  The dead woman slammed into the café window. The glass rattled and the brightly colored tinsel hanging over the dusty wood blinds danced in the hazy afternoon light.

  It was yet another reminder that the zombie apocalypse had come two weeks before Christmas. Three months later, I was still battling the undead in a town forever festooned in the cheerful trappings of my least favorite holiday.

  The woman’s filmy white eyes rolled in her desiccated skull as she tottered back to the sidewalk in heels and a dazzling purple sequined dress. The creature, who I immediately dubbed Ms. Sparkle, lifted her head like a dog sniffing the air and then hurled her body against the glass a second time.

  I jolted at the sound of the impact.

  The Biter is going to break the glass.

  I tightened my fingers around my knife. There was no way the creature could see us crouched down near the cash register, but she could smell us.

  Next to me, my friend Reed tensed. Although nineteen, the same age as my younger sister, Eden, and only a year and a half younger than me, his long blond dreadlocks and scruffy beard made him looks years older. “We shouldn’t be here, Lee.”

  I nodded, wishing I could ease the lines of strain around his bright blue eyes. I’d do anything to keep both him and my sister safe.

  “This is a suicide mission,” he said in a low voice, nodding at the chilling view through the window.

  I leaned up far enough that I caught a glimpse of Heritage Square Plaza in the distance behind Ms. Sparkle. There the rotting remains of Saguaro Valley’s finest shuffled around the memorial fountain. The tattered army fatigues, hospital gowns, and Southern Arizona University sweatshirts fluttering against putrid flesh were evidence that the town’s former citizens had been an eclectic mix of retirees, college students, and military families. They almost looked like normal people, until you noticed their heads bent at odd angles as they lurched forward. Some dragged half-torn limbs in their wake.

  A chill worked its way down my spine. Although slow, Biters were dangerous in large groups and there were close to a hundred in that horde. “I’m sure Dominic has a good reason for bringing us here,” I said with more conviction than I felt.

  Reed gritted his teeth. “It’s probably just one of his stupid tests.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. The sergeant in charge of our ragtag group was obsessed with assessing our fighting skills. In addition to daily defensive training, he’d regularly wake us in the middle of the night for mock zombie invasion drills. It was tedious, but I’d play whatever games he wanted to keep Reed and my sister safe. I looked over to where Eden knelt by the display case filled with rotting pastries.

  She hadn’t so much as batted an eyelash for the past twenty minutes. Her strange mannequin impersonation was as unsettling as her new look. For some ridiculous reason, she’d recently bleached her brown hair a hideous shade of white-blonde that only served to emphasize her too-pale skin. She’d also been skipping rations to the degree that her pink Have You Hugged a Vegetarian Today T-shirt hung too loosely on her thin frame. And I’d bet my last pair of clean socks that the sunglasses she wore hid dark circles under her eyes.

  She shouldn’t be here.

  Bang.

  Ms. Sparkle hit the glass again.

  The sound will draw the others.

  The thought made my stomach churn.

  Where the hell is Dominic?

  I leaned up again so I could peer out the window and scan the street outside.

  No stubborn, infuriatingly handsome sergeant in sight.

  What if something happened to him?

  An invisible band tightened around my heart. I shook my head, rejecting the possibility. The man’s fighting skills were legendary.

  He’s fine. More than likely he’s watching to see how we’ll handle ourselves.

  The window rattled again, harder this time.

  Reed cursed and fumbled with his shotgun. The long sharp combat knife Dominic had secured to the tip of the barrel quivered dangerously in my direction.

  I quickly reached out and pushed the weapon away.

  “S-sorry,” Reed said with weak smile that didn’t dull the panic in his eyes.

  I ground my molars together in frustration.

  He doesn’t belong out here.

  He’d spent the past three months assigned to food prep at the safe house for good reason.

  Damn Dominic for insisting that he and Eden come today.

  Neither of them was in any condition to fight.

  Bang.

  The window cracked.

  Fear for Eden and Reed sluiced like ice water through my veins.

  I have to do something.

  I rubbed a sweaty palm against my jeans. “Reed, can you go check on Eden?”

  He gave me a jerky nod and crawled in her direction.

  Moving fast so he didn’t realize what was going on, I stood and crossed over to the door. Every step seemed heavier than the last. Going toe-to-toe with a Biter was never something I usually volunteered for, but I had to protect my family.

  The bells tied to the handle jingled as I opened the door. I stepped outside and the damp air enveloped me in a clammy embrace. I took a precious second to glance at the rain clouds gathering in the gray sky above.

  It never rained this much in the Valley where triple digit temperatures in the spring were more the norm. It was as if Mother Nature got the memo that the world had gone to hell and wanted to come to the party.

  Ms. Sparkle turned away from the front window and shambled in my direction. Back when she’d
had a heartbeat, she might’ve been an attractive young woman or an elderly bag lady. Her rotting skin made it impossible to know for sure. Her milky white eyes locked on me and she let out a loud moan.

  Please don’t let the other zombies hear.

  I froze, panicked at the thought of the horde turning in my direction. I tried to push away the anxiety and summon Dominic's training exercises. I settled into a fighting stance and raised my knife.

  She was three feet away.

  I waited until she was close enough that the perfume of death burned the back of my throat. Then, dodging her skeletal hands, I swung my knife at her head.

  Two feet of razor-sharp military-issued steel sliced through her cloudy eye in a stomach-turning squelch.

  She crumpled like a rag doll at my feet.

  I stared at the lifeless body, waiting to feel something. Horror. Sadness. But my reservoir of sympathy for these creatures was bone-dry.

  I bent down to retrieve my knife only to find it stuck in the Biter’s skull. I gave it a futile tug and heard a loud sound. Startled, I looked up to see Reed slap his hand against the café window and point to my right.

  Three men in tattered evening wear stumbled around the abandoned cars in the street and headed straight for me.

  My mouth dried.

  Crap. Where did these Biters come from?

  My heart pounded as I tried frantically to free my knife.

  As they shambled closer their blackened lips peeled back to reveal bloodstained chattering teeth. The sound was like bone on chalkboard and it sent an involuntary tremor through me.

  The guy in the white tux was almost on me. Panic was a noose around my throat. I gave up on my knife and fumbled for my gun. I aimed between his rolling pearlescent eyes. My finger was on the trigger when I remembered that the noise would draw the horde.

  Shit.

  The guy in the tux lunged.

  Instinct had me jumping back, barely avoiding gnashing teeth.

  “Eat dirt!” shouted a man behind me.

  Months of training conditioned me to drop to the ground.

  I didn’t hear the knives flying through the air, but the guy in the tux and his friends collapsed one by one with Dominic’s blades embedded in the centers of their foreheads.

  His knife skills are unreal.

  I slowly picked myself up, my back stiffening at the sound of Dominic’s combat boots stomping down the weed-choked sidewalk.

  “What the hell was that? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

  Inwardly cringing at the censure in his tone, I bent down to retrieve my knife from Ms. Sparkle’s head. This time a hard tug pulled it free.

  “Remember the third rule of survival.” His deep voice rumbled like thunder.

  He was close enough that I could smell the cinnamon gum on his breath and the spicy cologne he used to mask himself from the Biters. His scent did crazy things to my insides. I fought hard to keep my suddenly haywire hormones from clouding my mind. “Don’t get bitten?” I said, refusing to turn around. I stayed kneeling as I wiped my blade clean and tucked it back into my thigh sheath.

  His massive shadow fell over me. “No. That’s a given. Rule number three is be aware of your surroundings at all times. Something you just failed to do.”

  Dominic and his damn rules.

  I finally turned and craned my neck up at the six-and-a-half-foot wall of muscle dressed in army fatigues and enough weapons to arm a small country. His sculpted cheekbones, chiseled jaw, and bronze complexion made him a direct threat to my vow of abstinence. Too bad he was also a domineering pain in the ass. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”

  “And what were you going to do about them?” He pointed at the guy in the tux and his pals.

  My stomach curdled.

  The truth was if Dominic hadn’t shown up, I didn’t know what I would’ve done.

  “They would’ve surrounded you.” Dominic’s large warm fingers curled around my wrist. He unceremoniously hauled me to my feet.

  I stumbled and crashed into him. The feel of his hard muscles sent frissons of heat pulsing through me.

  He thrust me away and took two steps back.

  I sighed, too used to the way he avoided all contact with me to be offended. “I would’ve figured something out.”

  His neck muscles bunched up like they did when he was warming up for a fight or a lecture. “If you don’t start paying attention, you’ll end up like them.” He jabbed his finger in the direction of the horde congregating around the memorial fountain.

  I sucked in a shallow breath. Needing to divert his anger, I asked the question that had been on my mind since we got to the café. “Why are there so many of them here?”

  He nodded south, where plumes of black smoke melded with the storm clouds in the distance. “The gangs are lighting fires to drive them north.”

  I shivered and not because of the dampness in the air. We’d heard stories of how gangs roved the streets looking for female survivors. I’d choose taking on a horde versus being captured.

  Some things are worse than death.

  Of course, if they kept moving the Biters north, we’d join the ranks of the dead in no time.

  “We need to move the safe house,” I said for the tenth time today. Every day there were more and more Biters around the school where we’d been staying.

  His full lips pressed into a line. “It’s not your call.”

  “It’s getting too dangerous to—”

  “My orders are to keep you and the others on the list at the school until we’re evacuated.”

  My eyes narrowed at his mention of the mysterious list he’d been given by his superiors. He and his squad had been ordered to locate and rescue everyone on it. “About that list, why is my name on it?”

  The majority of our survivor group included the family members of soldiers from the nearby military base. It made sense for the army to try to bring their loved ones to safety. But Eden and I didn’t have any such connections, and the only member of the military we were related to was long dead.

  May he rot in hell.

  Dominic ignored my question. “We’re not moving the safe house and that’s final.”

  I huffed. “No one’s coming to save us.” There’d been no contact from the base since we’d gotten to the school. The evacuation date had come and gone. Yet, Dominic insisted on waiting for help that likely would never arrive.

  The hard line of his jaw told me I might as well be arguing with a brick wall.

  My attention slid back to the café.

  I won’t let his stubbornness kill what is left of my family.

  The digital watch strapped to Dominic’s wrist buzzed. He looked down and frowned.

  Darcy and her scouting party must be late checking in. Darcy was never late for anything…

  He pushed me in the direction of the café. “Get inside.”

  Dominic’s high-handed tactics were getting as old and raggedy as my jeans. It was infantile, but I stuck my tongue out at him while he marched over to the guy in the tux.

  It was impossible not to notice how the well-defined muscles of his shoulders went taut against his short-sleeve black T-shirt as he retrieved his knives.

  The abandoned cars in the street, the boarded-up store windows, and the crimson stains on the sidewalk all faded away.

  Damn. The man’s fine.

  He looked up and caught me gawking. The corner of his mouth twitched.

  No way would I let him think I was mentally undressing him. I pretended to shudder and scrunched my face up in disgust. “You’ve got brains on your vest.” I motioned to one of the front pockets of the black tactical vest he never seemed to take off.

  “Oh.” His smirk faded, and he flicked the zombie goo away. “Inside. Now.”

  “After you, oh mighty leader,” I said, with a mock bow giving my hormones a silent bitch slap. They could go back into stasis where I’d forced them to live my whole life.

  He glared at me until I gav
e up and walked ahead. I could feel his gaze on my back as we walked to the café. I had to forcibly stop myself from swaying seductively from side to side.

  He’s the last guy I should be encouraging.

  I frowned. Not that he’s shown one iota of interest.

  Since he first kicked down our front door, bloody knife in hand, and demanded that Eden and I evacuate with his squad, he’d done nothing but bark orders. Other than the mandatory daily training sessions, he avoided the very sight of me.

  That’s fine. I need a man like Biters need their taxes done.

  With that thought, I stalked into the café vowing to forget about the handsome sergeant once and for all.

  2

  As we walked through the door, Reed rushed over to my side. “You shouldn’t have gone out there.” He started to hug me, but then dropped his arms.

  Cursing the weird new tension between us, I pulled him into an embrace. His scent of clove and patchouli was familiar and comforting.

  “Give me a break.” Dominic snorted. “Next you’ll start singing ‘Kumbaya’.”

  Reed and I broke apart.

  The sergeant glared at Reed. “Do something useful for once, Hippie. Keep watch.” Then he marched to the back of the café.

  “I really hate that guy,” Reed said under his breath.

  I nodded in Eden’s direction. “How is she?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said with a troubled look.

  For a heartbeat we watched her stare at her reflection in the display case.

  Something’s not right with her.

  Unease swept through me. I walked over to her and put a hand on her forehead. Her skin felt cold.

  Odd.

  “Are you feeling sick?” I whispered, hoping that Dominic wouldn’t hear.

  Luckily, it looked like he was busy trying to hail Darcy on the radio.

  Reed followed me over and thankfully blocked any view Dominic would have of Eden with his lanky body.